"I swear, it's easier to get into a plane," Tandy quipped as she stepped into Rayna's hospital room holding a large vase of light purple dahlias.

"For the record, I still think it's ridiculous."

It was Bucky who, two days ago, had suggested they hire private security to keep watch in front of Rayna's door after a zealous fan had managed to bypass hospital security and had almost made it to her room. Rayna wasn't thrilled about the idea but Tandy had – without surprise – sided with Bucky. Majority ruled.

Tandy settled the vase on the room's table and rearranged it before she removed her coat, dragged a chair towards Rayna's bed and plopped herself down.

Her sister motioned to the bouquet with a smile. "You thought I didn't have enough of those?"

Tandy glanced around. Roses, daisies, peonies, orchids. It was worse than Rayna's dressing room before a show. Her curiosity piqued, she stood up and started rummaging through the cards attached to the flowers when one in particular grabbed her attention.

"I see you'll do anything for flowers, love," she read aloud.

"Liam McGuinnis," Rayna explained, amused despite herself. How very Liam of him.

Tandy sighed and what came next sounded more reproachful than she had intended. "You should have taken that plane to St. Lucia."

Even in light of the recent turn of events, Rayna was certain that showing up on Deacon's doorstep instead of driving to the airport that night was the only choice she was meant to make. But she wouldn't have expected her sister to understand.

"Tandy?"

"Yeah?"

"How is he doing?"

There was little doubt as to whom she was referring to.

"He's home, you're in a hospital bed. That's all there is to know."

"I need to see him."

"Rayna–"

"I need to see him."

How many times had Tandy heard these exact same words from Rayna before. She knew it was a lost battle to argue with her, but she made it her sisterly duty to try anyway.

"He's the reason you're here."

"He's not. I was the one driving."

"You wouldn't have been in this car if he hadn't been too drunk to drive."

"And I wouldn't have been in this car if I hadn't chased him to the parking. And maybe he wouldn't have been drunk in the first place if I had told him about Maddie sooner and he hadn't found out like that. And maybe he would never have started to drink altogether if he hadn't had such a shitty childhood. This is pointless."

She had learned a long time ago it was best not to play torturous what if games when it came to her relationship with Deacon.

"The only truth is," she added, "it was an accident."

She was sitting in a wheelchair on the hospital's terrace, enjoying the sun and the view of Nashville's skyline for the first time since the accident, when she saw him. She watched him cast an apprehensive look around the terrace. When his eyes found hers, she waved briefly. For a second, he freezed and she wondered if he was going to change his mind, turn around without a word and it was another one of those things they would pretend never happened.

But he walked her way.

"A nurse told me you were here."

"Remy and I needed some sunlight," Rayna said with a little smile, her finger pointed at a man in a dark suit seated at a table some distance behind them. The man aknowledged Deacon's presence with a nod. "Bucky's idea, don't ask," she added.

"Sounds like a good idea to me."

They stared at each other, neither of them seemingly knowing how to start this conversation.

"I wasn't sure you would come."

"I didn't think you would want to see me."

After she had woken up from surgery, she had learned he had made it with bad bruises and muscle strains but no major injury. It was only later she had heard from Scarlett about the altercation with Teddy and his leaving the hospital once he was sure she was going to be alright.

"Can we talk?"

He didn't answer, he hauled a chair next to her wheelchair and sat down. They could have danced around the issue for a while but she knew what she wanted to tell him, what she needed to tell him.

"It wasn't your fault."

He closed his eyes. He rubbed his face with a trembling hand, exhaled a deep, slow breath he felt he had held since the accident.

"It wasn't your fault," she said again and he fought back tears.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"I know."

He leaned his head forwards, rested his forearms on his thighs, his fingers laced. Without thinking, she ran a hand through his hair.

"Deacon." A pause. "Since the accident, have you—"

"No," he interrupted. He had also renounced taking any pain medication. The first few days had been hell but he didn't want her to know that.

"We have a choice here." Her voice was calm and collected. "We can pretend it was a sign or some crap like that and decide we have to go our separate ways again. It will hold for a few weeks, a few months maybe but I know – I know – it won't last. I don't want that. For the first time, there's nothing standing between us anymore and even if I have no idea what it looks like at the moment, I want us to try. Really try." She gave him a moment to absorb her words. "Do you?"

He didn't need to think about it. "I do."

Rayna had been back home for almost three weeks when Deacon got the call: Maddie wanted to see him. They hadn't seen each other since that day on the hospital's terrace – she didn't leave home for much else than physical therapy and he wasn't going to visit at her house, not with Tandy around – but they had been speaking on the phone. It had started with occasional calls which had evolved into daily late-night conversations where they talked about Rayna's recovery, about Deacon's sobriety, about them.

About Maddie.

They had agreed they would wait for Maddie to decide when she would be ready. Deacon knew his venture into fatherhood had begun in the worst of ways, the very same way that had prevented him to be a father 14 years ago. Maddie had been asking Rayna all kinds of questions these last few days. She had dug up old articles about them online, some of which Rayna would have preferred had stayed buried.

When Deacon picked up his phone, Rayna finally said those seven words she had imagined telling him for years.

"Your daughter wants to talk to you."

TBC