Disclaimer – Nashville is not mine.

Authors note – Okay, so I have never written for Nashville before, but I love it!

This is set after 1x11 which I watched last night. It is AU, and purely fluff and for fun, also I have not seen past 1x11 yet, so if you have any criticism please don't include any future reference. Anyhow, please enjoy.

["I'm trying not to love you, Can't you just let me be? So long, my luckless romance, My back is turned on you, I should have known you'd bring me heartache, Almost lovers always do" – Almost Lover by A fine frenzy]

Never, Never Forgot

Rayna Jaymes had had a lot of surprises during her career. And when it came to Deacon she had experienced even more than she cared to remember. But this had to be one of the worst surprises of them all, and surprise surprise it involved Deacon Claybourne all over again.

He was going on tour with Juliette Barnes.

The blonde pop princess; who claimed to be a country singer but in fact didn't have a clue what it was that made country music.

How was it, that out of every single tour he could be going on, it had to be hers?

Was he really that desperate?

Rayna sat there, glaring daggers into the whining blonde's head. When she had announced just why Deacon was sharing the plane with them, she had been wearing a smirk that made Rayna know all too well just what it was that her intentions were. And that she would not hesitate to rub it in the older woman's face given even the remotest opportunity.

The country queen sat there and realised that she had absolutely no right to be jealous. After all she was a married woman with two children. However she also knew that her heart had not been complete for the last twelve years, and that the cause of that void was sat not twenty meters away from her. That the cause of her sleepless nights and guilty dreams was sat there, aviator sunglasses on his nose and looking out of the window in an incredibly good looking way, as they cruised at the high altitude.

Bucky (her long term manager and friend), placed a concerning hand on her knee as he read the pain evident in her facial expression. "Y'okay?" He questioned her. Bucky had been the one who was there when Rayna had first started out, the one who had seen her relationship grow with deacon. Who had watched as their performances became filled with winks and smiles that allowed everyone to be aware of the fact that both were firmly off of the market. Yet he had also been there when things got hard, when the starry eyed couple became tired and scarred and Deacon's drinking got out of control. He'd seen how Rayna had fallen apart each time she had put him in rehab, and it was he who had been there the night after she'd put him in for the last time. He'd been the one to take away the bottle of whiskey when she was nearly passed out, and had been the one who'd removed the sleeping pills from her hands that twelve years later she could not remember holding. Seeing her now was like looking back in time, and not to the Rayna at the beginning of the relationship either.

She leant forward so she could speak without the others on the plane hearing her. "I don't think I can do this Buck, not again."

"Then talk to him." Her manager said. And for once Rayna listened to him without even a hint of argument. She stared at Deacon until she caught his eye and discretely nodded towards the back of the plane. Deacon nodded, removed the glasses and interrupted Juliette who was telling him about all the things she wanted them to do whilst they were on tour together. Things he remembered doing with Rayna all those years ago, and things he wished he was still doing with Rayna and not instead being told he was doing with Julliette.

"I'll be right back darlin'." He said with a smile before standing up from the cream leather seat and following the red head out towards the back of the plane. The only place they managed to find where they would not be disturbed was the bathroom. This was considerably larger than a commercial plane's bathroom, was more than a little cramped. And so the couple had very little room to move about. "Ya wantin' to redeem your 'mile high club' membership, Ray?" He asked with a wink as he tried to lighten the mood. However his attempt was failed, as this country singer was not the same woman she had been fifteen years ago. She was no longer under his spell with the same degree of adoration she had been back them, however whilst she may pretend to be, she was not immune to his charm either.

"What the hell are you up to?" She hissed. The sort of hiss you do when you are trying to whisper but simply want to shout.

"I don't get ya darlin'?"

"Out of all the tours ya could have done, outta every band on the planet you could have chosen, it had to be Juliette Barnes!?" She was not sure whether she was asking him a question or stating a point, but then again Rayna was not entirely sure that it mattered. "You couldn't have picked me, or one of the new country bands, hell half of the best singers who ever lived are off back on tour, why her Deacon?"

"Well ya don't need a guitarist now d'ya? And anyhow, why shouldn't I go with Juliette?"

"I fired Liam!" she shot back, realising how distant they had become over the past years.

"Well there is a turn of events, what happened lovers' tiff?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh come on sweetheart, everyone saw you two on stage, it was all the proof of an affair anyone needed."

"We were not sleeping together Deacon!"

"Then why d'ya fire him if it wasn't because ya were sleeping with him?"

"He screwed me over! But that is not the point. Why her?"

"Because you lost faith in me Ray! And whilst you two may hate the guts of one another, I can see in her what I used to see in you when you first started out. You're not as different as ya both like t'think." She had barely listened to the second part of his speech. All she had heart was the first six words, those six words that every single argument they had boiled back down to.

"Why does everything always come back to this? I never lost faith in you Deacon! Never."

"Then why the hell didn't ya wait?!"

"For the same reason I said back then. Because I could not carry on any longer! I couldn't do another night of being worried sick because I knew that one night I would get a call from Bucky sayin' you had turned up dead in a ditch somewhere. Couldn't cope with the thoughts of the fact that you could be out screwing some girl and in the morning I wouldn't have a clue, and neither would you. I didn't know that fifth time in rehab would work! Hell I didn't know if every time you passed out on my floor if you would even wake up! I always loved you Deacon, why the hell else would I have stayed as long as I did. . . as long as I have."

"So is this you getting back at me Ray? Ya fire me to try an' give me a taste of my own medicine? Is that what this it?"

"I fired you because if I got rid of you then I kept Teddy, if I kept you then I lost Teddy. My heart was screaming to keep you deacon, but I listened to my head, because my little girls need their daddy." She looked at him and began to reposition herself so she was near the door, she placed her hand on the cold metal handle and prepared to leave. "I thought that we were strong enough to last Deacon, even as just friends, but if it's any consolation to your hurt pride, then I lost you both."

He stood there, watching her go. Watching as she stormed out of the room with her hair bouncing in natural curls as she went. He watched after her, hoping it would do some good. But knowing all along that it wouldn't. He'd looked at her life through rose tinted sunglasses, up until recently thinking she had had it all easy and perfectly trimmed. Thinking everything had been perfect. Seeing her now, hearing her say once more all the things she had done, and admitting – near enough – that her marriage was over. Now he realised just how much she had fought to get the smile to stay on her face, and all the time people were trying to turn it upside down.

Rayna sat back down and took a deep breath, refusing to cry in front of Deacon or Juliette Barnes of all the people in the world. So she turned to Bucky and smiled, as though there was nothing wrong. "We really do need that private plane." She said, attempting to mask her upset, yet whilst on anyone else it would work, he had known her too long and seen her at her lowest more often than anyone else to be fooled. So instead he just smiled warmly.

"Y'okay?" He asked for the second time that morning and she nodded, unconvincingly but enough to make him know it was time to drop the subject.

"Can ya pass me my bag?" She asked him, indicating to the leather bag that sat near his feel. He complied, and passed it over to her. Rayna dug around in her bag for a few moments whilst Deacon walked past her and back to his seat, whilst she tried to ignore the looks and raised eyebrows that were being directed towards her from Juliette and Glenn. Once she had found her ear phones and sunglasses she passed her bag back to Bucky who placed it on the floor whilst she placed the white earphones in her ears and selected her song. Then, in a way much like deacon was doing she placed on her big sunglasses so that if a tear was to begin to fall, she could catch it before anyone saw.

After that the plan was silent. Juliette was attempting to talk to deacon whilst all he did was grumble and gaze across at Rayna through the tinted glass. He looked at the expression of sadness on her face and realised how long it was since they had spoke civilly about anything and not argued. It was only yesterday that they had argued about the near same thing. He'd heard the same crack in her voice that morning as he had today. The crack that made him know he had pushed too far and yet never made him stop.

He caught Bucky glaring at him.

Deacon was well aware of the fact that whilst he was in rehab something had happened to make Bucky become 'not his biggest fan' so to speak. And whilst they still got on, the other man held back a lot more than he had once upon a time. However neither Rayna nor her manager had ever let on as to what that event had actually been.

Juliette almost wanted to have a paddy like little children do when they want to be noticed, if it worked for them why wouldn't it work for her? She turned to her manager Glenn and hissed at him in the same way Rayna had done to Deacon earlier. "Will you please do something? She is acting like a diva for a reason god only knows why. And he looks like he had been slapped across the face! Now this is my plane so do something!" she demanded. Her manager, Glenn, had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at the ever spouting demands of Juliette Barnes. Although he knew she had talent, he sometimes looked at Bucky and Rayna and envied the other man. Although Rayna Jaymes was a massive star and often demanded only the best, at least she was polite and reasonable with her demands.

He was just about to ask what it was exactly he was expected to do when Deacon stood up. He was acting on impulse and knew that this plan could either go the way he intended and wanted it to, or it could back fire and end up with him being slapped across the face and them never talking again. "I'll deal with her." He said and began to walk over.

"Why couldn't you!" she hissed to her manager before turning around to watch, what she hoped would be, an argument between the two former lovers.

Rayna was so submerged in her own world, eyes closed and music with memories flowing though her that she had not noticed Deacon. So when he carefully removed the sunglasses from her face she had nearly jumped out of her cowgirl boots and hit the ceiling. The red head glared at him and angrily pulled her earphones out. "What the hell d'ya think that ya doin'?" she asked him, her voice a little louder than was necessary for the small pace and close proximity.

She was still sat down, so he grabbed her waist and pulled her up so that she was then standing. Rayna was slightly shorter than him without the killer heals that she wore on stage. She looked up at him, anger fuelling her and not at all impressed by the show he was putting on in front of her biggest rival. However all he said in answer to her question was: "Something I should have done twelve years ago." Juliette had turned to Glenn with a confused look, so she missed the moment at which Deacon's lips went crashing down onto Rayna's. When she turned back all she saw was the two having a make out session in the middle of her plane. Deacon's hands were around her waist why hers ran through his hair and their lips were firmly locked together. The blonde's jaw literally dropped as she saw the scene in front of her.

Deacon was surprised and glad that his plan had worked and that he was currently kissing Rayna Jaymes and not being slapped around the face. Rayna was surprised, but this time in a good way. Bucky however, well he was currently undecided as to whether this would turn out to be a good thing or not. However he knew that this kiss was not going to be a one off and he would never be able to tell these two stone headed people it may not work out, so he stood up and went to sit on the chairs near Glenn on the other side of the plane.

The pair pulled apart when air was needed and both wore smiles on their faces which undeniably showed that Deacon's plan had worked. The anger in Rayna's eyes had turned to pure bliss, and although neither had said so, both knew that this would be the start of something new, or maybe it was something old. However both knew it would not end in the same way that it had ended the last time they had been in a relationship.

Deacon turned to Juliette, his arms still around Rayna and hers still around his neck. "Sorry Juliette, but I quit." The blonde was once more jaw dropped and watched as Deacon turned back to Rayna smiling.

"Welcome to the Rayna Jaymes tour." She said with a beaming smile.

"It's good to be back." He responded before letting hi s lips touch hers again and kissing her passionately.

Neither of them saw the exchange as Juliette turned to her manager and said: "Do something! I am not losing him!"

Glenn looked at Bucky who shrugged, more than slightly amused by the goings on. "Sorry but he never signed a contract. He's free to go." Said Glenn.

Juliette wanted to scream as she fell back into her seat and groaned. Meanwhile Rayna and Deacon sat down on the couch at the other end laughing. She turned to him and smiled. "I never lost faith in you, I just couldn't carry on as we were."

"I know darlin'. We'll make it work this time."

Rayna smiled because she knew what he was saying was true. Thing were different now, they were older and she had the girls to look out for. But for that moment she decided to act like the old Rayna, the fun loving and free spirited girl, so looked up at him and because she knew Juliette was watching, she kissed him again, and just to run the younger girls nose in it she moved her hand to his ass and squeezed it, holding in a laugh. Even with the girls, a divorce that was yet to even be filed for and a tour with country music's biggest diva, she was sure that they would get through it. Because even though it had been hard, they never, never forgot the love they had both felt for one another. And that urged them both on.

So, what do you think for a first Nashville fic?
Please review and let me know if it was alright
_Fashiongirl97