I have no connection with any part of the Nashville Television series.

This is a pure figment of my imagination as there is very little information available concerning this situation. It is pretty much being created as I go. Basically, have a new idea, write something about it. There is no plan so I have no idea how long or how many chapters it will be. The only guideline is: when I exhaust my ideas then I will write an ending. I will make an excuse right at this point if the writing becomes verbose or vague. I do not have an editor and I am hopeless at the job. Fiction is an unfamiliar medium. I'm just doing this for a little fun.

The Reconciliation of Avery and Juliette.

Managing the Issues.

Chapter 1.

Juliette's anxieties concerned him but no more than his own. It had been four weeks since the breakup of their relationship over her infidelity with Jeff Fordham. That confrontation was tragic. She burst into his apartment at six in the morning demanding he give her an opinion or indication of a decision. She was distraught, he could see that, but her lack of consideration for his situation made him angry. It was ridiculous of her to think he could have formed any feasible idea after only a few hours. He had asked her for time to think but he needed weeks not hours. He interpreted her demands as extraordinarily selfish. She was only thinking of her own circumstances, no thought for his.

He was still too inebriated to make any sense of anything. He started drinking as soon as he got home in the early hours and now here she is, making demands and all he can think of is his head might explode due to this huge hangover induced headache. Worse still he had no restraint at all over his temper, not that he was a modicum of self control at the best of times.

She was holding him, begging forgiveness, pulling his head down to hers, kissing him, tears streaking her face. He was crying as well. He briefly returned her kiss and held her hands that were behind his neck. He lowered his head to her shoulder but for only a second because then the pain returned. The agony that ripped his heart, the heavy ache in his stomach and the clouded fog in his brain. He needed to hit back, let her feel what she made him feel. He drew her hands from behind his neck and let the anger speak through the tears, "Juliette, I need much more time to sort this out. I don't want to sound mean but right at this moment I can't stand the sight of you. You should leave." She was stunned, rooted to the spot, unable to speak, frozen. "Alright then," he said, "I'll leave." He picked up his satchel and jacket and walked out the door.

A few days later he thought about having hurt her through his anger. The remark of not being able to stand the sight of her was unnecessarily cruel. It also wasn't true. She had her pains she was struggling with as well. The truth is she is probably hurting just as much as he is, in fact, she is probably hurting more. She has a huge guilt issue to overcome. At least he doesn't have that. She doesn't need him to add to her grief no matter how much pain is being felt by both of them.

He opened his cell phone and sent her a text. "Hi Juliette, I'm sorry I told you I could not stand the sight of you. That is not true and I wish to apologize. I was angry at the time and I spoke without thought and through self pity. Please forgive my cruel remark. Avery."

Not five minutes later his phone chimed with a return text. "Dear Avery, I realized later that you spoke because of anger and hurt. I caused that and I deserved that remark. But I accept your apology and please know I forgive you as well. Would you please give me permission to text you maybe a couple of times a week? I miss you and a little contact would help me. I promise to not put any pressure on you but wait for your decision about us. Love Juliette."

He sent a return text, "Yes, limited contact would be OK." He kept it brief, he was not sure how he would respond to her so better to exercise a little restraint.

Here it was four weeks later and he had not overcome one iota of his feelings towards her. He had tried new associations with other women but that was hopeless. All he did was compare his new acquaintance to Juliette and they always came up well short. She had that spark, the fire, the spontaneity, the passion, her huge talent, how they just fitted her so well and how she just fitted him so well. None of these other women came close.

He gave up on that idea and tried a bottle. That didn't work either, besides it affected his Highway65 job. It was very unfair to the company for the main executive to be drunk half the time. His most frequent point of contact was in the bar up the street from the office. Rayna often sent him home, at least she understood. He could not write. He could not work in the studio. He had a run in with the police and it was only Rayna and Teddy's testimonies about his character that got him off with community service. This entire situation was sending everything about him to shit.

He needed help. Deacon told him whenever it got bad enough where he could find an ear. Well, he sure needed something so maybe some solid advice might do the trick.

"Hi Deacon," he said when Deacon opened his front door. "Got a bit of time? You volunteered the sponsor role and now I need one."

"Sure thing pal. Come in."

"Now," Deacon opened, "where do you want to start?"

"I can't get over Juliette. She did something terrible and I don't know what to do. I can't handle this and it's driving me crazy."

"Well," Deacon said, "I know what she did. She got stupidly drunk and screwed Jeff Fordham."

"How do know that?"

"She's been here as well. It seems I'm a mine of romantic and relationship advice. Maybe I should get a newspaper column. Mind you she was even worse than you are and she told me what happened."

"Well, you can see my dilemma. I'm pretty much screwed."

"Perhaps it can be solved but you have to understand a few things before that can happen. I can speak from personal experience here. I've had a relationship that I had been screwing up for thirteen years. I think I may have just solved it, but hell, thirteen years? I think we can make your trip a bit easier than that."

You and Rayna huh? You getting it worked out finally?"

"Yep, there are some things we're working on but it's all positive so far."

"So the first thing you need to recognize is the cause of your problem and that's simple," Deacon said. "The kind of love you two have will take a long time to die if ever. If you breakup permanently that decision could haunt you both for years, maybe even life. Just think of that, life! That's more than you get for murder. The fact is the problem isn't Juliette having sex with Fordham. That was just the end result. There are other relationship issues that caused this. In fact there are quiet a few of them. You two need to sort these out because they stem from personalities and personal experiences and until these are resolved you two will always be volatile. The fact is, for as long as you are both together you need to accept that crises of various types will occur from time to time. They are unavoidable. This has only been the first one. Your relationship needs to be so stable that you can both overcome any issue. If you don't then you will be doomed to suffer these kinds of situations for a long time.

"Well this is going to be too difficult for me. I can't handle emotional issues. I've got no idea what to do."

"Funny you say that," Deacon said. "Juliette said exactly the same thing. That day she came here she said she wanted to talk to you about what happened when you broke up. She said you told her to go but when she didn't move you walked out. Don't you see? That just makes the issue twice as bad. If you had talked about it you both might have made some headway. But you walked out so it all goes belly up and here you are four weeks later still in the same crap. That's what I mean, issues like that. They need to be sorted out and you have lots of them between you both."

Avery suddenly became aware Juliette may not be the only one with guilt issues, he may have them as well. He just didn't realize

"Yeah, well, how do I solve it? I've never been able to handle confrontations like that my whole life."

"Good God Barkley! For someone as smart as you are I've never met anyone as stupid. Since you have been at Highway65 you have turned that into a highly successful company. How? By solving problems and I'll bet a lot of those were emotional confrontations as well. Apart from music, problem solving is what you are really good at. Just look at these issues like any other problem and solve them, one at a time."

Avery went home and spent the main part of the evening thinking about his discussion with Deacon. He could see the sense of Deacon's approach. Maybe he could design this like a managerial problem and attack it on that basis. That seemed very clinical but it was the method he understood best and he had found successful with past problems. He was going to need a lot of contact with Juliette and he wondered how she would take to this approach. Maybe he could take it a step further between them. They could list all their issues, pros and cons, and discuss the solutions one at a time. A focused approach, that would work best for him, exactly the same as a company problem.

Just then his cell phone chimed: an incoming text. It was from Juliette. "Dear Avery, I am coming home to Nashville tomorrow and I need to see you urgently. Can we meet at eleven in the morning? I repeat it is very urgent. We can meet at your place or mine. Please let me know when you reply. Love Juliette.

He replied, "Dear Juliette, Ok at your place. See you at eleven. Love Avery." He always felt a twinge of satisfaction when he read her texts. Always, Dear Avery, and closed with Love. He could do that for her as well. She had spent the last few weeks in Los Angeles making a movie about Patsy Cline. What would cause her to come home in the middle of that?

Well, he found out the next day. She opened the door and they gave each other a polite hug. They sat on her couch. He was at one end and she sat next to him but just out of contact.

"I'm sorry I haven't told you this earlier but there have been reasons. Firstly I needed to be absolutely certain. Secondly I have been tied up in Los Angeles and you need to hear this first hand. It is that important."

You are starting to worry me Juliette, are you alright? Is there something wrong with you?"

"No Avery, nothing even remotely close to being wrong. In fact for me it couldn't be more right. Avery, I'm pregnant. In March next year you're going to be a father."

Avery said nothing for over a minute, transfixed in shock. He just stared at the enormous smile on her face.

"Avery, please say something," Juliette pleaded.

"Me?" He shifted his gaze to the floor. "God Damn. Me?"

He kept up the muttering, "God Damn, a father, me?" Repeating the phrase, sounding in disbelief.

The emotions caught up with him, this was going to put him in overload. He needed to get out. He stood and took four paces towards the door. Juliette called to him, "Avery please stay. Please say something."

His conversation with Deacon from the day before suddenly registered. Here it was. His first test to grow up and cope instead of running. He returned to the couch where he took hold of Juliette's hands. "When, how did this happen?"

"Juliette gave a short laugh, "Well the how is pretty obvious. When you make love as often as we did something is bound to happen. The doctor said the medication she gave me for all that home wrecker and god stress business acted up with the pill. I am certain I conceived the night I got back from Howie V. You know that's when we made love all night. It was our happiest time and exactly when we should make a baby.

"God Damn," Avery swore again. "Hmm, I can accept this idea. Yeah, I can be a daddy. In fact now that I have thought about it I'm getting all sorts of ideas. First off our baby will be a great musician and singer. They won't be able to avoid that, it'll be born into them. We have so much to work out now. What are you doing for the rest of the day? Hmm. Maybe the rest of the year, we have a lot to do."

Juliette smiled quietly to herself. Avery's developing enthusiasm was the reward she was hoping for at this point. But she knew, there was no sense deluding herself. There was a huge chasm between Avery being a father and them being a family.

"I've got all the time in the world. Someone at the movie saw me with morning sickness and reported me. I will be off the movie from today. I expect the press will be releasing the story anytime now."