This chapter turned out to be way longer than I anticipated, but there was a lot to get through. It's particularly dialogue heavy, but I tried to give it as much story telling as I could. Not sure if this is the last chapter or not. I didn't want this story to be a long thing but I'm feeling like there might be something else that needs to be said. We shall see. Thanks again for the reviews, everyone! It means a lot. :)

Sixty four damn days.

Rayna inhaled sharply as she pulled her vehicle to curb in front of Deacon's house, bemoaning privately the amount of time that had passed since their unexpected rendezvous at the lake house.

She'd tried texting, calling, and even physically cornering him but none of it was any use—he had dug his heels in deep. She sighed, honking the horn to alert Maddie of her presence. It would've been easy enough for her to just go inside and get her, and in days past she used such an opportunity to her advantage, but her task was becoming exhausting. Time after time, it seemed, she would attempt to peel away his reluctance layer by layer, and time after time he would pile 50 more on top of what was already there.

So 64 days in she found herself sitting in the car, resorting to horn honking and text messaging to arrange exchanges for her daughter.

This fucking sucks.

She fully anticipated to get back on track at some point; to finally get to the core of his headspace and be able to enact a strategy that would actually allow them to hash out everything they needed to hash out and get him to own up to the feelings she knew he still felt. Until that time, though, she banned herself to the outside.

She beat the horn again, laying on it just a bit harder. Patience was certainly not a virtue she came by easily.

Rolling her eyes, she turned off the engine and let herself out of the Escalade. As much as she wanted time with him to pave way for whatever path they were going to build, she was at her limit for the day and it wasn't even 2 PM—label hiccups, residual press issues for her ill-timed wedding cancellation, and Daphne had ran her ragged at the mall well before noon. The only way she could've handled any brooding bit of Deacon Claybourne was if he got over himself and got under her.

She opened the screen door, knocking softly as she did.

"Yoo hoo. Hey guys," she stepped into the empty living room. "Maddie?"

Confused, she approached the muddled chattering coming from the kitchen. She stopped in her tracks at the sight of her daughter, visibly shaken, sitting beside her father at the table. She held a glass of ice water in her hands, while he pressed a sopping wet towel to his alarmingly pale forehead. His breathing was labored and his hands were shaky.

Rayna tossed her bag onto the ground.

"What's going on?"

She kneeled to Deacon's level, placing her hand on his clammy neck.

"I think he's having a—"

Deacon rolled his eyes, not daring to let her finish.

"I'm fine."

Rayna ignored him, looking to her daughter.

"Did you call an ambulance?"

Maddie shook her head.

"He wouldn't let me. Just made me give him some water and help him sit."

Deacon rolled his eyes again, wiping his forehead one last time and tossing the towel onto the table.

"I told you I'm fine. I just need a minute."

He chuckled nervously, almost seeming embarrassed.

Rayna sighed and looked around the kitchen, only half convinced of his pleas that he was alright. She was blindsided by the scene in front of her: Deacon was clearly not well and Maddie looked to be on the verge of tears. She hadn't imagined in a million that this was what she'd walk into and damn it, she still had absolutely no earthly clue what was happening.

She pursed her lips, looking back and forth between the two of them before she stood and began to pace the kitchen floor.

"Maddie, can you take your stuff out to the car please?"

It may have sounded like a question, but Rayna's voice was commanding as she drew her eyes to a variety of pill bottles lined conspicuously next to the sink, but hidden behind the dish soap. She counted four.

She quickly cut her gaze to Deacon, who shifted his eyes to his feet as Maddie scoffed.

"I'm not ready to leave yet."

Rayna propped herself against the counter, struggling to stand against the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She gritted her teeth.

"I didn't say we were leaving. Just go outside please. Go for a walk. Call a friend."

Maddie shook her head violently and her voice rose to a pitch beyond what anyone would consider normal.

"I wanna stay!"

Rayna spun around; her eyes saying that she was mere seconds away from unleashing the hounds of hell if she didn't get answers yesterday, which was all but impossible with Maddie in the room. She opened her mouth to shout, stopping short when Deacon shot her a pleading glance.

His color was returning and his breathing was balancing out, she noticed.

He focused on his daughter, grinning reassuringly.

"Go on and let me talk to your mama for a minute, sweetie. I'm okay."

Maddie scowled at her mother, a look she had become accustomed to giving and Rayna become even more accustomed to receiving. It pained her to have her daughter on the verge of utter hatred for her, but she was seeing so vividly the mistakes she had made and was trying to rectify them and that was the best she or anyone else could do. Maddie would have to come around on her own terms, as she usually did.

Watching sluggishly as Maddie grabbed her phone and stepped outside, Rayna waited until she saw her step into the yard before clumsily grabbing one of the pill bottles and holding it up.

"What the hell's going on?"

Deacon smirked as he turned his chair to face her.

"Guess I'm just not as in shape as I used to be."

Rayna rolled her eyes.

"Deacon, come on now. What are these pills?"

He eyed the bottle as carefully as he could from where he was seated, taking notice of the bottle size and what little color he could see through the opaque container.

"In your hand would be my beta blockers."

"For what?"

He exhaled before smirking again, letting the moment and her question and everything that had just transpired sink in. He had been dreading this moment more than he had dreaded anything else. He felt no better than if he had been standing in the middle of a train tunnel with nowhere to turn and a locomotive barreling at him.

All because you just had to sprint up to the attic, you bastard.

He burned his weary eyes into hers which were so fraught with concern and confusion; so full of questions and dread at the same time.

"You caught me. You want all the big fancy doctor words?"

She slammed the pills down onto the counter.

"Cut the shit."

He nodded in acquiescence, speaking matter-of-factly and without the slightest tinge of emotion as the words rolled off his tongue.

"Alcohol related dilated cardiomyopathy."

Rayna's eyebrows lifted; a hazy fear settling over her.

"What is that? What does that mean?"

"It means I have a lotta trouble breathing. I don't sleep very good, but I'm tired all the time. Taking two steps at a time does this to me."

Deacon stood slowly and walked over to the counter where she laid the pills, reaching past her to gather the other bottles. A beat passed as they both adjusted to being in each other's space; both trying to resist the innate urge to pull the other one close and cling for dear life.

Shaking off the thought, Deacon grabbed the pills and went to the opposite counter, turning his back to her as he pulled one from each bottle.

Rayna suddenly felt her mouth go completely dry as she continued to speak through her haze.

"What are they doing for you?"

"They got me on all these pills. I think they were hoping they might work a little better and buy me some more time than they have."

He took a swig of water as he swallowed his medication, refusing to turn around and see her swallow the pill he'd just fed her. It wasn't his intention to be so cold in his delivery, but it's the only way the revelations could trickle out without him completely breaking down and he refused to break down in front of her. He couldn't bring himself to consider the idea that she would have to pick him up and dust him off—it was his job to do that for her.

"Buy you time?"

Rayna choked the words out, her mouth feeling more like it was stuffed with a cotton ball with each passing second. Without even realizing, she placed her hands against the counter to steady herself.

Deacon sighed and squeezed his eyes shut hard—here goes nothing.

"They said with the damage that's already done I'll be a miracle if I make it a year without a transplant." He opened his eyes and turned slowly, exhaling the pain away as if he'd just taken the worst shot of his life. "I guess my drinkin's finally caught up with me, huh?"

His words eviscerated her.

She tried to turn inward, but nothing happened. She was frozen; completely incapable of forming any kind of rational thought or movement. There was absolutely no way on the planet he or God were serious. A world without Deacon Claybourne was a world without anything, as far as she was concerned. They fought together in the trenches, fought each other in the trenches, and for what? For one to always be pining after the other or for one to just die?

She let out a breath and cocked her eyebrow, looking at him as if he had just asked her the dumbest question one could muster; she almost looked as if she wanted to laugh. She refused to believe that this was it—she couldn't just not have him anymore.

"No."

"Ray—"

She began to pace again, wildly throwing her hands up in protest.

"No, no, no. No. We're gonna get a second opinion, we're gonna get you the best doctors, we're gonna—"

Deacon grabbed her hands, silencing her.

"I've already got the best doctors, Ray. I've seen the reports. It is what it is."

She nodded softly and licked her lips, the weight of his revelations finally starting to hammer down on her.

"How long have you known?"

"Since the end of Luke's tour."

She darted her eyes up to him, a flash of fury running through them.

"December? You've known since December?" She tugged her hands away from his as he shook his head slowly, guilt coursing its way through his body. "You didn't think we needed to know?"

"I'm sorry, Ray."

"What about Maddie? You're her father Deacon!"

Her voice was a hoarse, biting whisper. Tears sprang to her eyes and she found it becoming more and more futile to try and control herself.

"I know I'm her father, Rayna. That's what makes this so goddamn hard."

She glared at him, though it didn't a rocket scientist to figure out that she was really glaring past him. It'd be easy enough to blame him, but what good what that do anyone? All of her anger and pain and goddamn stress needed to be channeled into saving him at this point, since it sounded to her like he had no intention of saving himself; like he had actually accepted this rubbish.

"Are you on a list?"

He nodded.

"They tell me I am. Can't imagine they'll give a good heart to a drunk, though."

She rolled her eyes, trying ever so delicately to not smack him hard across the face with every self-pity quip he threw in.

"Did they say that?"

"No. I'm just guessing."

She chuckled bitterly and leaned against the counter, resting her head in her hands. She wanted silence—or at least a minute to hear herself think and to process—but all she could hear was the sound of their daughter's sweet voice, muffled by the window as she talked on the phone.

A lump formed in Rayna's throat and she bolted her head up. The weight had finally completely dropped, and no longer was she petrified for herself, or even for him.

"This will break her." She whispered the words, a single tear sliding down her face. She'd wanted to spare Maddie all of the pain that came with Deacon, and she had done that for so long. Now, it seemed they were back at square one. "We have to tell her."

He leaned himself up against the counter next to her, sighing shakily as he watched Maddie through the window.

"I've been trying to figure how to do that. Every time I think I've got it, I don't anymore."

Rayna stared at the tears he was forming, her own heart breaking at the obvious work he was doing to keep them at bay. She gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I wish you would've told me, anyway. I would've helped you figure it out." She took his hands in hers and nudged his face up, forcing him to look her in the eye. "I'm your partner, Deacon. I've always been your partner."

He nodded, finally letting the dam break as he cried for the first time since sitting in that stale hospital room nearly 70 days ago. She pulled him close to her, allowing her own solid tears.

"I'm scared, Ray."

She buried her face in his chest, taking in his strength, his scent, and everything she possibly could. She wasn't ready to lose him, and she wasn't even sure she was going to—but she was damn sure going to live like she was.

"Me too, babe. Me too."