Rayna stands outside in the hallway next to the doorway of his hospital room, taking another sip of the worst coffee she's ever had in her life, and checking her messages on her phone.

She needs a minute to breathe a little.

Deacon's last two days in the hospital has been a wake-up call of epic proportions. This is really happening, she thinks again now. Even hearing him say it that day on the bridge, it still didn't feel real.

He's better now. They have adjusted his medication, and give him something in an IV that brings him back to life a little, and Rayna can tell he's starting to feel better because he's grouchy and ornery and ready to go home. It is a stark comparison to when she brought him in and he was so weak, he could hardly stand.

Scarlett appears hurrying down the hallway then, and Rayna is relieved to see his niece's face.

"Rayna, I'm so sorry it took me so long to get your messages," she says apologetically. "I was out of town. How is he?"

"So glad to see you," Rayna says as she hugs her tight. "He's…well…not too happy right now. With anyone. We're waiting for the doctor to come back in. They said it was just a virus, but his immune system is pretty low right now. Antibiotics seem to be doing the trick."

Scarlett glances at the open door to Deacon's room. "You had the test, right?" She says in a quieter voice.

"Yes," Rayna says. "Didn't hear anything yet."

"I did," Scarlett says, looking disappointed. "They called yesterday, I'm not a match. My bloodtype is wrong."

"They'll find one," Rayna says, trying to sound optimistic. "They have to."

"Well," Scarlett says with a sigh, gesturing towards the door. "Might as well get this over with. "

"Go on in, you can tell him I'll be back in a minute."

Rayna leans against the wall and listens ruefully as she hears Scarlett say to Deacon, "I'd hug you but you look like you might bite."

She tries not to dwell on the fact that Scarlett is not a match, but a little piece of hope slides away. She'd been so sure that since Scarlett was a blood relative, she'd be his best chance, and the reality of "what it" suddenly overwhelms her and she realizes the hand holding her cup of bitter coffee is shaking.

Breathe, she tells herself silently. Just breathe. They'll find someone.

She struggles to regain her composure enough to walk back into the room, when she hears a voice that makes her blood run cold.

"Mom? What are you doing here?"

Rayna looks up into the questioning, unassuming face of their fourteen year old, who has no idea that her world is about to be turned upside down. Again.

Rayna quickly swipes at her eyes and pastes a smile on her face to hide the inward panic. She is not ready for this. Not now, here. "Hi, honey," she says, reaching out to give Maddie a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm visiting a friend that had surgery," Maddie says warily. "Dad dropped me off, he's coming back in an hour. I was looking for the giftshop and I got lost."

"Oh, that sounds nice," Rayna said with all the false cheerfulness she can muster, slipping an arm around Maddie's shoulders and steering her away from the open door as quickly as she can without looking obvious. "Why don't I help you find it? Let's take a-."

But they are interrupted by the sound of Deacon's pissed off baritone voice echoing out through the open door. "I ain't staying in here another night. So either you can take this stuff out of my arm and let me go home, or I'm doing it myself!"

Maddie's eyes widen, and she looks at her mother accusingly and pushes past her into the room.

###############################

Deacon is caught completely offguard when he's in the middle of a hot-tempered argument with Scarlett and his doctor, and Maddie abruptly appears into the doorway, Rayna on her heels.

Rayna shoots him a helpless look. I'm sorry.

Maddie is stunned to see him as the one in the hospital bed, and he watches with a sinking heart as she takes in the medical equipment, the doctor, and him.

The doctor shoots Rayna a sympathetic look. "I'll give you some time, and come back later."

"Thank you," Rayna says as she leaves.

"What happened?" Maddie asks, her young face etched with worry and her eyes only on her dad. "Can I hug you, is it okay?"

"Course you can," Deacon says, holding out an arm, trying hard to swallow around the lump growing in his throat as Maddie hugs him fiercely. He locks eyes with Rayna over Maddie's shoulder, and they read each other's thoughts. Rayna's expression is pained, and he can see she's holding back tears as they silently agree.

We need to tell her.

Scarlett watches the whole scene, and her heart breaks for the three of them, how terribly, horribly unfair this is. She wants so badly to be a match.

"I'm gonna go," she says quietly to Deacon. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Thanks," he manages, Maddie still hugging him.

Rayna reaches out before she goes and puts a hand on her arm. "I'll call you later?"

"I'd appreciate that."

Rayna closes the door behind Scarlett, and then turns back to where Maddie waits expectantly, impatiently pacing. She is worried, her glance shooting back and forth between the two of her parents.

"What is going on?" she demands, her voice raising a notch. "Why is in Dad here? And why didn't anyone tell me?"

Rayna sits on the edge of the hospital bed, and pulls Maddie down next to her.

Deacon reaches for one of her hands, and Rayna reaches for the other.

"There's something we need to tell you," he says, clearing his throat. "I'm sick, Maddie. That's why I'm here."

Maddie's face still looks confused. "Like the flu or a virus something? When are they sending you home?"

"I hope today," he says, "but Maddie, it's not….the flu," Deacon says as he searches for the right words, and they stick in his throat like he swallowed sandpaper.

Rayna can see how he's struggling, and she reaches for his hand and squeezes it hard. "Honey," she says softly. "Deacon has cancer in his liver."

They can both see how the realization of the words hit Maddie like a ton of bricks. She is old enough to know way too much about what that word means. And she is old enough to know people die from it every day.

She is old enough to be scared of what the word means.

"But you're going to get better, right?" Maddie whispers. "It's the kind that gets better?"

"Your dad needs a liver transplant," Rayna says, forcing every word, trying to sound positive and knowing she needs to be strong for both of them. "And we're going to do everything we can to get him one."

"What happens if you don't get one?"

The expression on Deacon's face is enough of an answer, and Maddie's pretty face crumples. "What? No…how can that be? That's not fair!"

Deacon's face crumbles as well, and Rayna feels the tears slide down her own face.

It isn't fair. Not one bit.

"C'mere," he says in a choked up voice, and pulls them both again him and hugs em as tight as he can. "Everything's gonna be fine. You got each other to hold onto. And Daphne. No matter what, okay? No matter what. "

Rayna's heart hurts. She never wants to let either of them go.

After a little while, Maddie's sobs subside to sniffles, and she pulls away from the two of them, gets up off of the bed and walks to the window, staring out at the skyline.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions," Rayna says, her own eyes red and puffy as she walks over and smooths Maddie's hair. "And we'll do our best to answer them. It's okay to be scared, or worried, or cry about it."

"I don't. I don't want to know any of it. I don't want to know it, or hear it, cuz it's not true and I don't believe it," Maddie says in a flat voice. "And it's total crap that neither of you told me." She's trying to stay mad, but a batch fresh tears overflows, and she turns and runs out of the room.

"Maddie, wait!" Deacon watches, frustrated that he is attached to all this medical junk and can't get out of that damn bed to go after her, but Rayna does.

##########################

Maddie has a head start and she's much faster, and by the time Rayna gets into the hallway, their daughter has disappeared from sight.

Feeling defeated, she pulls her cell phone from her back pocket and dials Teddy's number.

"Are you picking Maddie up? From visiting her friend here at the hospital?"

"Yeah I'm waiting downstairs and she hasn't shown up yet," Teddy says, puzzled. "Is everything alright?"

"No," Rayna said quietly. "It's not. Can you come up for a few minutes? I'm on the third floor. I ran into Maddie, and she's very upset. We need to talk."

"You're at the hospital? Rayna, what on earth is going on?"

"Please, Teddy. Just meet me in the third floor lobby, and I'll explain."

##############################

Rayna is waiting, pacing when Teddy gets off the elevator with his phone in his hand, looking stressed and annoyed. "What the hell is going on? I keep calling Maddie and she isn't answering her phone."

Her hands are shaking again, and she doesn't know if it's nerves or just too much caffeine. She's had enough of that coffee in the last two days to keep her awake for a straight week.

"Something happened," she says carefully. She doesn't know what Deacon will think of her telling Teddy, but it seems like the right thing to do. They have the same daughter. And right now, that daughter was going to need all three of them more than ever.

Teddy's brow furrows in confusion. "Rayna, I'm not getting it here. Is Maddie okay?"

"It's not Maddie," she says quietly. "It's Deacon. Deacon's sick, Teddy. He's been here for the last two days, and of all the days Maddie decided to visit her friend…well, she found out and she's pretty upset. She ran off and I can't find her," she sinks into a vinyl covered chair, and rubs her temples with fingers tips.

The surprise on Teddy's face is obvious. "Sorry to hear that."

Am I supposed to ask, he wonders. Over the last few months, things have become much more amicable between him and Deacon Claybourne. They're probably never going to be buddies, but it is much easier to be civil and get along, especially for Maddie's sake, with the constant going back and forth between three different houses.

It has taken Teddy a long time for him to accept that Deacon is going to stay a part of Maddie's life, but now he will readily admit his daughter is lucky enough to have two dads that love her like crazy, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Maddie is the best parts of both of them.

It also helps that there is a bit of unspoken agreement between him and Deacon that neither one of them has ever thought Rayna should be marrying Luke Wheeler. Teddy had been secretly relieved when she called it off. Everything about it seemed wrong to him. He might not be married to Rayna anymore, but he knows her well enough to know that Wheeler's exhorbitant, in-the-spotlight lifestyle isn't her.

Teddy also knows her well enough to know where her heart is. Deacon has always had her, even when she was married to him, even when she was too stubborn to admit it. No guy, not him, or Liam McGuiness, or even Luke, was ever going to be to Rayna what Deacon was. He thought Luke Wheeler was a fool for not seeing that right from the beginning.

So he asks. Because he cares about Rayna, and because Maddie loves her other dad. Because it seems like the right thing to do. "What happened? Is he alright?"

"He's not alright," Rayna says quietly, staring at the cup in her hands. "He's got cancer, Teddy. He needs a liver transplant. Maddie found out by accident today, that's why she's so upset."

Teddy sinks onto a chair next to her, shocked. "Rayna, I'm so sorry to hear that. Is there….anything I can do?"

She shakes her head, giving him a sad smile. "All we can do right now is hope they find a match for a living donor transplant, either from a friend or relative, or they put him on the national list."

"They can do that? How does that work?"

"It's a lot of testing and waiting, and then if the person makes it through all that, they can donate a piece of their liver," Rayna says. "It's a lot of medical terms I really can't make sense of yet, but I'm trying."

She looks overwhelmed, Teddy thinks. Exhausted. He wonders how long they've known. The girls had been so happy when they came home from being at the cabin after Christmas.

I think Mom and Deacon are going to get back together, Maddie had confided in him hesitantly.

He hadn't been much surprised to hear it.

"I just wanted to let you know, because of Maddie and all," Rayna continues. "We might be needing some extra time with the girls. I just…" her voice breaks up a little. "I want Maddie to get to spend as much time with him as possible. Just in case. And don't mention anything to Daphne until I can talk to her."

"Of course," Teddy says, his mind still trying to wrap his head around what she was saying, and how upset Maddie must be. "Whatever you need."

"A miracle," Rayna says wearily. "We need a miracle."

"So….you were tested?" Teddy asks carefully. His own father may have been a well-loved previous mayor of Nashville, but Richard Conrad also been a closet drunk, and they'd all watched him waste away, too stubborn to ever admit he had a problem, until he had died of liver failure when Teddy was 17. It had been one of the most painful things he had ever witnessed, and it would stick with him always.

"I was," Rayna nods. "Scarlett also, but she wasn't a match. Anyone can be tested. I'm ready to put out a billboard and have the whole damn town volunteer to best tested, but Deacon would have a fit. He's so damn stubborn. Dr. Abbott suggested a few treatment options, but so far I can't get him to agree to anything."

The phone in Teddy's hand buzzes, and he looks down at it. "That's Maddie," he says. "I better go find her."

"Yes, and I should get back," Rayna says with a sigh as she stands up. "I'll pick the girls up tomorrow afternoon? Let me know how Maddie is later. I'd like to come with you, but I feel like right now I should give her some space. She's very angry with us."

"Sounds fine," Teddy says. "I'll take care of her. Just worry about being here. Again, Rayna. I'm so sorry to hear."

"Thanks."

Rayna walks off back down the hallway, and Teddy watches her go, the information she's given him racing through his mind, thinking of watching his own father waste away in a hospital bed. He'd be damned if he is going to let Maddie go through that without at least knowing he'd tried to help.

Maddie shoots him a text. I'm in the gift shop. Where are you?

Be right there.

As he waits in the elevator, he scrolls to the internet search engine on his phone, looking for a directory for the hepatology department at Vanderbilt hospital. In a moment, he has what he needs, and with just slight hesitation, he takes a deep breath and hits the call number.

"Can you connect me with Dr. Abbott's office, please? I need to make an appointment."

##################################

When Rayna gets back to Deacon's room, he has already been unhooked from the machines, gotten dressed, and is sitting on the edge of the bed pulling on his boots while the doctor rattles off a list of instructions that she can tell he's not really listening to.

"Now I'm letting you go against medical advice," Dr. Abbott says sternly. "You could have used another night of antibiotics, but I'm sending you home with a prescription. You need to go home and take it easy. I don't want to see you back in here in two days because you didn't listen."

"I'll make sure of it," Rayna says, accepting the stack of papers from her hand. "Thank you so much, Doctor."

"Do you want a nurse to bring a wheelchair?"

Deacon stands up with a scowl on his face, then stalks past both of them and out of the hospital room.

Rayna sighs exasperatedly.

"Well I guess he's walking out on his own," the doctor says dryly. "Good luck, Rayna. I know this is hard, but don't give up on him."

Rayna gives her a shaky smile. "I'm 26 years too late for giving up on him now."

#########################################

Rayna intends to drive Deacon back to her house and hold him hostage there as long as possible, but he clearly has other ideas.

"Just drive me back to my place," he says after they've left the hospital lot behind and turned onto the parkway.

"What?" Rayna stares at him. "I mean, I thought….."

He stares out the window, and she can see as hard as he's still trying to push her away, it's not because he wants to, it's because he feels like he has to. She is damn determined not to let that happen.

Despite what he said, she sails right by the turn for his house, and sneaks a peek at him, staring broodingly out the window.

"This ain't the way to my house, Ray."

"I know," she says calmly. "It's the way to mine."

"Then pull over, and I'll walk."

"I'm not pulling over. And you can't walk. You just got out of the hospital, Deacon, and it's 40 degrees out. You don't even have a coat."

"Alright," he says stubbornly. "Fine."

She's at the stop sign, and damn that man if he doesn't just open the truck door and get out and start walking.

"What the hell-." Stunned, Rayna pulls over to the side of the road, throws the truck into park, and gets out.

And then she realizes where they're standing, their surroundings, and she knows he does at the same time.

They both stand there staring up at the street markers that read Granny White Pk and Battlefield Dr, and Rayna wonders if this is a sign somehow. Maybe now would be a good time to pray for a miracle. They'd gotten a miracle once already at this intersection. They'd both lived.

"You ever think about what happened here?" he says quietly.

"Sometimes," she admits. "But we survived, Deacon. And we're gonna survive this."

Deacon walks away from her and slumps on the park bench with his face in his hands, running his fingers through his hair, and after a minute she sits down next to him, putting a tentative hand on his knee.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, Ray," he says tiredly. "I know I've been a jackass the last two days, and I'm sorry."

"You know," she says softly. "It doesn't make you weak to let anyone help you, babe. It just makes you human."

But it feels that way to him. She can see it in his face. Deacon has never wanted to be a person who depends on anyone else. For anything. And he is damned determined not to do it now.

"It killed me, seeing Maddie cry today," he says in a low voice. "I wish she didn't have to watch me go through any of this. Both of you."

"I know. Me too. Teddy called before. He says she's pretty upset. They'll be home tomorrow. And I guess we'll have to tell Daphne," she says quietly.

His face looks pained. "She's okay, though? Maddie? "

"Not really," Rayna sighed. "He says she's locked in her room and won't come out."

"I hate that she found out this way."

"Well you need to take better care of yourself, like that doctor told you. It'll make it easier on her if she knows you're trying. And if we're honest with her."

"You're right," he says. "I know you're right."

"Did you think any more about what I said? About coming to stay with us…for awhile? Until you get better?"

For awhile, she thinks. But that could be interpreted as a few different ways. Until he gets better. Or until….well she couldn't think about the alternative right now. Forever, she thinks. Forever would be good, too.

He still doesn't look too enthused. "I know you, Ray. And you hovering over me telling me what to eat and when to take my medicine is probably going to drive us both crazy. Scarlett doing it is bad enough."

Rayna rolls her eyes, but she can't help smiling, because she knows he's probably right. "Is that the only thing you're concerned about?"

He looks up at that street sign again. They'd gotten a second chance here. Maybe asking for a third one is pushing it, he wonders.

"I've been thinking about it a lot lately. f I don't…make it through all this," he says, squinting up at the cloudy gray winter sky, unable to look her in the eye. "I don't want you to feel like you can't find someone else, you know? Or find someone new. Preferably not Luke, though. Or anyone remotely like him."

He is trying to make light of it, and Rayna sure as hell is not laughing.

She stares at him, stunned. "What? Is that a joke? That better be a joke, Deacon Claybourne."

"Ray, I just…"

"I love you," Rayna says softly. "And only you. And whatever happens….this…it'll never be this with anyone else."

"I just don't want you to be alone," he says, closing his eyes and leaning his forehead against hers. "You got a lot of livin to do yet."

It might have been the most painful and unselfish thing any person had ever said to her, and she knows how hard it is for him to say it. It breaks her heart into a thousand pieces all over again.

A lone tear escapes down her cheek. "I'm not gonna be alone, Deacon. Because you're going to beat this. We are. And if we don't…I don't want anyone else."

A deep sigh racks his shoulders.

"You might change your mind."

"I won't."

It's cold, and he doesn't have a coat, but Rayna slips her arms around his neck and hugs him close, and he isn't cold in the least as she kisses him fervently, trying to make all those doubts go away.

"Come home with me, Deacon," she murmurs.

Despite everything, he smiles against her mouth. "You're pretty damn convincing."

"I sure as hell am, and don't you forget it. Think about it," she says cajoling, her voice quiet next to his ear. "Every night, babe. Every morning."

"Nothing changes. No hovering."

She gives him an innocent look. "Absolutely."

"Okay then," he says reluctantly. "If that's really what you want."

"It's really what I want," Rayna stands up then, pulls him back towards where she parked the truck, and this time Deacon doesn't resist, his fingers tangled in hers. Everything about him has always been tangled up in Rayna.

He finds himself glancing at the street sign one more time. Just one more chance, he thinks. One more and I swear we'll get it right this time.

"Come on, Deacon." Rayna says softly, as though like always she is reading his thoughts. She's good at that. She knows him, better than anyone ever has. "Let's go home."