Thanks for all the reviews. Here's the chapter a lot of you, as well as Rayna and Deacon have been waiting for

##

Three months, 4 days, and 8 hours. That was how much time had passed since Deacon had last made love to Rayna. Granted he was pretty sick for a good portion of that time so it wasn't at the forefront of his mind, but the last three weeks had been particularly rough. He had felt almost like himself physically, and mentally he was certainly back to tip top condition, which meant his thoughts were focused intensely on the woman that was sharing his bed every night.

When he had gone in for a check up two weeks ago the doctor had told him it was best to give his body a little more time to heal before engaging in sexual activity, but this morning he had been fully cleared. The girls were staying at Teddy's this week, and Rayna had a big meeting at Highway 65 at noon, but he had instructed Bucky to make sure the rest of her week was clear. Deacon drove home and practically ran up into their bedroom. He pulled out a suitcase threw a couple of pairs of pants and some shirts in it for him, and did the same for Rayna. He perused her make-up shelf before giving up and just grabbing her toothbrush and something that said daily moisturizer that had some SPF in it. "Whatever, she won't need anything where we're going, we probably won't even be getting out of bed."

Deacon looked down at his watch. It was 2:15 and he was sitting in the parking lot outside of the Highway 65 offices. Three months, 4 days, and 9 hours. Maybe they could have a quickie in the bathroom? No, too many bad memories associated with that bathroom, plus he wanted to take his time with her.

When he got upstairs he zeroed in on Rayna. She was still in the conference room chatting with some CD distribution execs. Rayna glanced up and spotted him giving him a quick wave. A minute later she excused herself for a moment and came out of the conference room. "Hey babe," she said kissing him softly. "What are you doing here? I thought you were working on a song today?"

"I was, but now I'm kidnapping you."

"What?" Rayna laughed. "Kidnapping? I'd love to babe, but I am knee deep in this negotiation."

"Seriously?" Rayna could see the disappointment on Deacon's face, something she never wanted to cause. "Bucky promised me this meeting would be wrapped by 2:00."

"You've been planning this with Bucky? Am I going to have to bring him up on conspiracy charges?"

"Well not if you can't come."

"Well, where are we going?"

Deacon shook his head. "Oh no, that's a surprise."

"I thought maybe I could meet you there later?"

"Nope, we're heading together and we won't be back until Sunday."

"Sunday? I can't be gone until Sunday. It's Thursday. I have so much to do."

"Nope, checked your schedule, it's all clear after this meeting. I made sure."

"That's a lot of planning for you. What's the occasion?"

"Well, let's just say I went to see the doctor this morning, and I'm all clear."

The look on Rayna's face suddenly went from perplexed to elated. "Oh! Crap. Let me see how quickly I can finish this up. Maybe another 45? Can you wait?"

"Baby I've been waiting three months, 4 days, and…" Deacon looked at his watch. "Nine and a half hours. I can wait a little more if I have to. "Or," Deacon wrapped an arm around Rayna's waist, "You could take a 15 minute break and we could visit that utility closet around the corner."

Deacon could see that Rayna was seriously thinking about that for a minute then she looked back at the conference room and sighed. "No, I have to finish this, plus, I want to take my time with you."

Deacon smiled. "That's what I thought too."

Rayna gave him another quick kiss and ran her hand down his chest. "I'll be as fast as I can, I promise."

Deacon watched as Rayna headed back into the conference room. He knew he was probably to blame for her not quite getting the deal she wanted, but an hour and 15 minutes later Rayna was waving goodbye to the execs and jumping into Deacon's pick-up truck.

"Let's go home so I can pack a bag."

"Already packed one," Deacon said as he headed out onto the real Highway 65.

Rayna raised an eyebrow. "You packed a bag for me? What did you pack, underwear?"

"Actually, I may have forgotten that, but I don't think you'll be needing it."

"Is that a promise?"

Deacon looked over at her giving her a wink. Rayna snuggled up against Deacon planting kisses on his neck and running her hand over his chest and legs. "Ray, that feels amazing, but you're going to make me crash the car."

"Oops, sorry babe." Rayna leaned back towards her seat. "I couldn't help myself."

An hour later Rayna looked up from her phone. "We heading to the cabin?"

"Guess it's not really a secret at this point. Should be there in thirty."

"You know the last time we made love at the cabin was when we conceived Maddie?"

Deacon got quite. "You know I don't remember that."

Rayna reached over putting her hand on Deacon's. "I'm sorry babe. You might not, but I do, and I can tell you, it was pretty wonderful. We were on the bare skin rug in front of the fire. You'd just asked me to marry you, I was so happy. It felt so amazing to be close to you."

Deacon squeezed Rayna's hand. "You know I'd give anything to remember anything from that night, right?"

"Hey, that was a long time ago, and because of that night we have our beautiful daughter, that's all the memento you need. And you and I did get married, and you remember that, and I promise you, we'll make some pretty amazing memories up there this week."

Rayna finally saw Deacon's smile return as he turned to look at her. "Yeah, we will."

##

A half-hour later Rayna and Deacon were pulling up to the cabin. Deacon grabbed her hand tugging her towards the front door. "We forgot our bags." Rayna said as she followed Deacon across the wooden planks of the porch.

"We'll get 'em later." Before she knew what happened he had the door open and her top was on the floor. He had her pants off before they hit the kitchen. He backed her up against the counter hard so she could feel him press into her. "Mmm," she hummed. Rayna reached for Deacon's belt buckle as his teeth and tongue made a path down her neck to her breasts and his fingers dipped into her swirling in a clockwise motion. "Damn, babe I'm going to cum right here and we're barely naked."

"First of many times this weekend I hope." Deacon leaned down taking her mouth with his sucking on her full lips until he could feel the vibrations from her moans reverberate through his own body.

"Oh god, not yet. Take me to the bedroom." Rayna panted.

Deacon walked her back towards the bedroom laying her down on the bed. He stood above her unbuttoning his shirt. As he dropped it on the floor Rayna sat up tenderly tracing Deacon's scar with her index finger. "Does it hurt?" she asked.

"No, just feels a little weird."

Rayna followed the path of her finger with her tongue starting higher at the base of his chest and ending right above his navel. When she continued below the end point she sent shivers through Deacon's body. "Oh baby, I've missed this so much." He ran his fingers through her hair and brought her mouth to his kissing her deeply as they both lay back on the bed, the weight of Deacon's healthy body hovering above her. "You feel so good," she whispered into his ear before dipping her tongue inside making him quiver and stiffen even more than he had been. As he pressed inside of her all thoughts of the long illness disappeared and were replaced with the shear joy of making it through this tough time and coming out stronger on the other end. Both relished in how amazing it felt to be close again. Rayna pulled him to her as tears dripped down her face. "What's wrong baby?" Deacon asked.

Rayna shook her head as she looked into his eyes. "I was so scared I was going to lose you."

Deacon ran his thumb from Rayna's eye down her cheek brushing her tears away. "But you didn't. I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere…I promise."

"I love you, so much Deacon."

"I love you too Ray." Deacon continued rocking into Rayna bringing her to her first orgasm of the week, but certainly not her last.

"Three months, four weeks, and 12 and a half hours," Deacon said at he rolled over taking Rayna with him.

"Hopefully the longest we'll every have to go for the rest of our lives."

"Now that's a promise."

##

By Saturday Rayna was laying on the bare skin rug in one of Deacon's t-shirts listening to Lucinda Williams while Deacon cooked bacon and pancakes on the range. "Breakfast's ready," Deacon said as he placed the plates on the coffee table. Rayna grabbed a peace of bacon with one hand and started nibbling on it as she grabbed Deacon pulling him towards her with the other. "Come join me."

"You know if I join you on the rug the food is going to be cold by the time we get to it."

"Uh huh. I like my pancakes cold, but I like my man hot." Rayna pulled down Deacon's sweatpants as he fell to his knees besides her.

"You know you're going to land me back in the hospital at this rate."

"I think it'll be worth it," Rayna said as she rolled on top of Deacon.

Afterwards they lay wrapped up in blankets on the rug holding each other and feeding one another pieces of pancake.

"This is amazing Ray, but I do admit I kind of miss the girls."

"Yeah, me too. We'll see them tomorrow night."

"They're growing up so fast, I feel like before we know it they'll be out of the house."

"Tell me about it. Feels like just yesterday they were in diapers, now Maddie's getting her license and Daph is going to her first school dance."

"You know that option we were talking about before? Maybe we should put it back on the table."

"You mean another baby?"

"Yeah, I think it might be nice to have another little one around the house."

"Rayna lay back on the rug looking up at the ceiling. "Are you sure Deacon? Babies aren't all cute smiles and tiny socks. They're late nights without sleep, poopy diapers, and crying so hard you wanna tear your hair out. "

"I know what a baby is Ray. It's just I've never gotten the chance to do it, and I kind of always wanted to."

Rayna looked at the man she loved more than anything in the world. All she wanted to do was make him happy. She ran her hand over his face stroking his stubble. "Okay, I'll stop my birth control. We'll see how things go."

"Great!" Deacon pulled Rayna into his arms holding her tight. "I can't wait until you start getting fat."

Rayna swatted him. "I would not get fat. Just pleasantly swollen."

Deacon laughed. "No, seriously. I can't imagine anything more wonderful than knowing that our child is growing inside of you." Deacon ran his hands over Rayna stomach. "You are so beautiful, and you're only going to be more beautiful then."

"Did you think I was beautiful when I was pregnant with Maddie?"

"I thought you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, and that's when I thought you were carrying Teddy's baby."

"Well, you may have thought that, but I knew she was yours. I loved having your baby grow inside of me. I really did." Rayna leaned over kissing Deacon's face tenderly. "Despite the fact we weren't together at the time, there was no better feeling in my life."

"Yeah?" Deacon asked running his hand through Rayna's hair.

"Uh huh. Hey babe?"

"Yeah Ray?"

"Let's start trying right now."

Deacon smiled down at her. "Coming right up."