Nashville Moving On

**Short one-shot based on spoilers for upcoming episodes (character deaths, Liam/Scarlett, etc.). Also, ever since I saw Megan and Teddy together I keep thinking they're totally going to have an affair. From the looks of things this is probably not where the writers are going, but I thought I'd throw in a little Deyna. **

##

Rayna pulled her SUV up to the side of the bridge parking it along the grass. After the fight she'd just had with Luke over her label, and the one she'd had with Liam over Scarlett she just needed some time to herself to think. She headed towards the picnic table, but when she arrived she saw that someone else was already sitting there. Ten feet away and from behind she could tell who it was in a split second. She paused for a moment then walked up to the table positioning herself next to him in her normal spot. "What are you doing here?" Rayna asked.

Deacon turned to look at her, tears streaming down his face. It caused Rayna pain in a familiar way she'd been trying to fight for most of her life. "Lamenting a broken heart," he replied with a look so sad it almost took her breath away. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know, contemplating the terrible taste I have in men." Deacon raised an eyebrow in response. "No offense," Rayna replied. "I didn't mean you." He laughed a little for the first time all day. "None taken. I know what hell I put you through, you don't have to apologize for that."

"So what happened?" Rayna asked trying to steer the subject away from her man problems.

"Megan and I broke up."

"Oh Deacon, I'm so sorry." She tentatively placed her hand on his knee in an effort to console him. Sometimes old patterns were easy to slip back into.

"She's been cheating on me. I came home early from my gig in Virginia and I walked in on her in bed with someone else."

Rayna was shocked. She'd always thought that Deacon would be the one to end that relationship like he did with all his other relationships that weren't with her. Plus she'd seen how possessive Megan was with him, never letting them have a full conversation without her interrupting. A woman cheating on someone as wonderful as Deacon when he wasn't drinking seemed impossible. "Are you kidding me? I can't imagine anyone wanting to cheat on you. Do you know the guy who she was with?"

Deacon turned to her pausing for a second as if he was contemplating not saying anything, then went ahead anyway. "You're going to love this. It's with god damn fucking Teddy."

Deacon watched Rayna's face as it reacted with just as much surprise as he'd felt when he found the two together the night before. Rayna wasn't sure what to say. She knew her ex had been going through a lot since Peggy's death, but trying to steal Deacon's woman…again, well that seemed like it was too low even for him. "Well," she said when she finally came down from the shock. "I guess this just reinforces that I really do have bad taste in men. I'm so sorry Deacon I can't believe he'd do that to you. Actually, that's not true, I could totally see Teddy doing that to you, but I thought you and Megan had something."

"So did I, I really don't understand. As far as Teddy goes, I just don't understand why that guy hates me so much. What did I ever do to him?"

Rayna picked a twig out of Deacon's hair that had fallen from the tree above. "Come on babe, you know why he hates you. It's the same reason you hate him. Me. It's all my fault." Rayna got a pained look on her face. "I should have known better back then. I should have never married someone when I was in love with someone else. It's just caused everyone so much grief for so long. I can't imagine what it was like for Teddy all those years knowing that his wife was in love with another man."

"Ray, it's not all your fault. If I could have stayed sober back then none of us would be in this position right now. I drove you to do what you did. To marry Teddy."

"I guess both of us made mistakes, but those are in the past Deacon. A wise man once told me that we should concentrate on right here and right now. I think that's a pretty good philosophy to live by."

Deacon laughed a little recognizing his words from the night in the limo. Just for a second he let his mind wander back to that moment when she confessed how much she loved him, when she practically devoured him with her lips, how they'd rolled up the window between them and the driver so they could make love undisturbed by prying eyes as the streets of Nashville flew by. Deacon shook his head trying to get the image out of his head. He knew he had to change the subject or this was going to go someplace neither of them were prepared for tonight. "So what happened to you? I thought you and Luke were going strong?"

"We are, but he keeps trying to insinuate himself in my life in places where I don't want him. Like into my label. He keeps trying to bail me out financially. I'm not a child. I don't need anyone to come to my rescue. And then there's Liam."

"Liam? I thought you guys were long over with?"

"We are, it's not that. It's…" Rayna trailed off not sure how Deacon would react to the news she was going to lay on him. "You're not going to like this."

"Like what?"

"He's been fooling around with Scarlett."

Now it was time for Deacon to be shocked and angry "Are you kidding me? He's supposed to be producing her album, not getting her into his bed. I thought he was slimy when you were with him, now it seals it." Deacon reached in his pocket to pull out his phone.

"Who are you calling?"

"Scarlett. She and I need to have a talk about _her_ taste in men." Rayna reached for the phone grabbing it out of Deacon's hands. "That isn't going to do anyone any good. You know if you tell her she can't see him it's just going to want to make her see him more."

Deacon grunted and stopped trying to grab the phone back out of Rayna's hands. "Plus, I fired him, so if it's just a work romance it'll stop pretty quickly."

"You're damn right you fired him, hitting on my niece." Deacon grumbled. Once he calmed down he picked up a stone and threw it at the water in front of them skipping it against the ripples of the river. They sat in silence for a long time. Suddenly tears started to stream down Deacon's face and Rayna could tell that the temporary reprieve from his heartbreak was over with. She reached over and grabbed his left hand in hers, as he tried to wipe away the tears with his right. "It's just…I thought for the first time in so long, maybe ever, that I was going to be able to have a family. Someone to come home to at night, kids running into my arms telling me they missed me, that they were waiting for me to get home. It just seemed so real, like it might actually happen this time."

Rayna gave Deacon's hand a squeeze. "You have a family Deacon. You have Maddie… and you have me."

Deacon squeezed Rayna's hand back and looked down at her. Tears still slowly rolling out of his eyes. "Thanks Ray. You know I love Maddie more than anything in the world, but it's not the same thing. I don't live with you and Maddie. I'm not there when she gets and A on her science project, I'm not making pancakes on Saturday mornings…I'm not making love to you at night."

His last words hung heavy in the air, and all of a sudden both of them felt the shift in the mood. Rayna's mouth went dry and she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from Deacon's. They inched closer together as if a magnet was slowly drawing them towards each other along a thin line. Suddenly Deacon reached for Rayna's face pulling it towards him and kissing her more passionately than she'd ever remembered. Her hand went up into his hair and all thoughts of broken hearts and meddling men disappeared as there seemed to be nothing else on the Earth other than the two of them. Lips grabbed desperately at each other as hands touched places that each knew would drive the other crazy.

After a minute of this frenzy Deacon pulled back slightly resting his forehead against Rayna's. "I want to Ray, but I'm scared." Rayna shook her head in agreement. She understood what he meant. The thought of the two of them together, taking another shot at whatever they were was scary to her too.

"It's just…this thing with Megan just happened. I'm still in that headspace. I mean, don't get me wrong, nothing in this world would feel as good as spending the night wrapped up in your arms, but I'm fragile right now, and I don't think I could take another broken heart. Especially when it comes to you.

Rayna pulled his hand up to her mouth kissing it tenderly. "I don't want to hurt you Deacon. I don't want to hurt us. Whatever us is these days. I don't know where we're heading, but wherever it is I want to be there for you, the way you were there for me when my father died."

"I thought you didn't want me there when Lamar died?"

"I know I said I didn't, but in reality it really meant a lot to me that you were there for me and Maddie. That you wouldn't let me push you away no matter what. It's nice to know there's someone in this world that I can always rely on. That's always been you Deacon. I may have forgotten that for a time, but deep down, I've always known that no matter what you always have my back like no one else in my life does."

Deacon leaned over kissing her on the forehead. "Come on, let's get out of here." Deacon stood up pulling Rayna to her feet and walking her back to her SUV. "Where's your truck?" she asked. Deacon cocked his head east. "A little down the road. I parked up by the old farm and walked down here. "Come on, hop in," she said opening the passenger side door. "Why don't we go pick Maddie and Daphne up at school. We can have ice cream sundaes and root beer. Enough to cheer anyone up."

"That sounds great Ray." Deacon hopped up into the car being conscious of the fact that this was the first time she was driving him since the accident. He turned to her and smiled as she turned the key and pulled out onto the road. They weren't sure where they were going, but they knew that they were going there together.


End file.

Nashville, Hurt-Comfort, Romance