Chapter 2 || 2003

He had no idea what they were doing performing a show weeks after Rayna just had a baby. Hell he had a trouble wrapping his mind around her being a mom to Maddie, let alone to two girls. It felt like yesterday still that he had gotten out of rehab and she was not only married to Teddy Conrad but she was holding the other mans baby. Now they were a family of four and he felt more and more pathetic every day he missed her.

Deacon was working sitting on the stage scribbling on a piece of paper random song lyrics as he mindlessly strummed the guitar. "Deacon." He heard as a greeting as he looked up to see Rayna walking across the stage, Daphne in her arms. The tiny baby looked even smaller against her mom but damn did she look good holding her.

"Hi." He said simply as he pushed his things to the side and stood up. What he wasn't expecting was for her to unexpectedly hold a baby out to him. "uh." He murmured not sure what she wanted to do.

"Will you take her for like five minutes please? I need to run through this set list with Josh personally, since apparently you two can't get along." He shrugged at the comment about the immature pianist who still couldn't do her songs or their songs justice after however long he'd been in the band. "Please? Just a second until Teddy gets here." He internally rolled his eyes but still nodded as he carefully took the baby in his arms.

When was the last time he had held a baby? He couldn't tell you.

Looking down at the little girl it was like on cue she started to cry. "Come on now." He said softly as he bounced awkwardly with her in his arms before moving her to lay against his chest and shoulder. Walking around in a circle he nervously looked around for Rayna having no idea where she had ran off to. It was almost like a joke to him. Holding her beautiful daughter, another reminder of everything he had lost yet another reason to stay sober so he didn't miss out on anymore of his life.

Carefully he sat down in a chair off stage rubbing the little one's back as she finally calmed down. It had been like two minutes and he was exhausted already. Just like that he respected her that much more.

He didn't know how long he sat there at some point becoming completely relaxed by the soft breathing up the newborn. Lost in his thoughts, it was a familiar giggle that brought him out of it. In her hands was a developing Polaroid that made him roll his eyes.

And that was the very first photo taken of Deacon and Daphne.

Thank you SO much for all the nice reviews. I'm having a lot of fun with my cute word vomit and have a few prompts I'll be writing over the next few days!