Author's Note: The point of this exercise was to write a story full of fluff. So if you are not a fan of fluffiness, please don't read it.
"No," she cried, the sound muffled by the pillow that her face was buried in. "No, no. No, Rhett. Don't leave me. Please don't leave me."
"Shhh...., Scarlett. In God's name are you trying to wake the dead?" A Voice pierced through her sleepy haze.
She whimpered even as the sleep faded and her eyes opened. It was startling to see her husband before her. "Rhett!" She sighed contentedly, "I missed you so."
"Not as much as your daughter missed you. I had to bring her back. She wanted her mother." He brushed a tangled strand of hair away from his wife's face. It seemed such a long time since he had been in this room, other than that last night....
"Bonnie," she sighed sleepily. "I'm so glad that she is home." She rubbed her eyes and squinted into the darkness. "Where is she? Oh, I can't wait to see her. Has she grown? What new things is she saying now?" Scarlett quizzed still a little drowsy, but obviously pleased to have her youngest child home.
"Well you have certainly changed your tune. I'm glad to see you taking an interest in your child." Rhett added.
Scarlett glared at him and she made to rapidly escape from the bed, but was impeded by the blinding white light that always joined her dizziness, and she reached out for the edge of the bed. But what her hand came in contact with was not the bed, but something warm and firm. And then Rhett reached out his hand to steady her.
"Is something the matter, my pet. Has my presence so bothered you...."
"No..." she quickly interrupted, realizing that her husband had no idea of what she had been dealing with since he had hurriedly left with her youngest child in tow.
She turned her bright eyes to look into his dark ones, and he was mystified at the expression that they held. If she was staring at someone else, then perhaps it might make sense, but no, no his own wife could not intend to be looking at him this way. "Well, what is it?" He finally asked.
"I was having the most horrible nightmare. Everyone died or left me, and I nearly died. Oh Rhett it was terrible!"
He watched her cautiously, trying to decide if she was serious, but there was nothing in her expression that contrasted with her words. "It was only a nightmare. I'm here aren't I? But what caused you to nearly faint?" He asked with concern. He had left her in a rather questionable situation, and he wanted to know how she had fared.
For a moment she stared at him quizzically as if she were debating some great truth until finally a light dawned in her eyes. "Oh, you don't know. But how could you know? Of course you don't"
"What is it that I don't know?" He quizzed. She was so charming when she wasn't trying to be, with her hair in wild tangles and sleep tite in her eyes.
"I'm having a baby?" She said with a smile. "We're having a baby. And I know that I said that I didn't want to be pregnant, but I can't explain it, but I am so happy about this. I really want this baby."
Rhett took Scarlett's small soft hands into his own and gently kissed them. "I take it the night before I left."
She nodded, uncertainty and doubt playing across her features. "I wasn't sure that you would come back. I missed you."
"I can never stay away from you for long, my darling." He replied softly.
"Rhett, did you mean what you said that night? You said that you loved me. And I thought, I thought that it was the truth and then you left so abruptly. I imagine that there are some people that say things when they are intimate that they don't mean..." she blushed.
There were somethings that never changed, and her almost puritanical modesty was no exception. "I never told you. I was afraid to, and perhaps this is a mistake, but my God, Scarlett. I love you. I don't know why you haven't seen it in all of the ways that I have tried to show you." He confessed.
She stared at him, her eyes sparkling, not with cunning and malice, but with an emotion that she could not quite name. She peered up at him through her sooty lashes, and then he bent towards her and placed a gentle kiss upon her waiting lips. "I love you, Scarlett. It seems as if I've always loved you, but I was afraid to let you know."
"Why are you telling me now then?" she asked.
"The look in your eyes, there is something different about you. If I hadn't come when you were having a nightmare that I was leaving you, perhaps then I wouldn't have had the will to do this. But there was real anguish in your voice, and I know that you care about me more than I think that you realize just yet. You always were blind to everything that wasn't numbers and figures. I can't imagine that you know your feelings anymore now than you ever have. Sometimes I wonder if you really love Ashley or if you just don't know how to let go." Rhett told her.
She looked at him oddly, a puzzled expression on her face. "What do you mean?"
"Do you really love him? I know that you think you do, I know that you have clung to this idolized version of him, but I don't think that he can make you feel the things that I do." He replied convincingly.
"I need to think about it, Rhett. I don't know what I feel...." she looked down at her hands... "but I did miss you terribly while you were gone. I'm happy to see you."
"Really?" He chuckled. "I could tell by you screaming my name. I think that you love me. I realize that you don't know it yet, but we were happy together once. You felt safe and content, you would have been fine if Ashley hadn't tried to sway you."
"How did you know?" She asked surprised.
"You are far too easy to read, my pet. And he is far too selfish. He wants both you and Melanie. He wants more than he deserves." Rhett said in a flat voice.
"I did regret kicking you out, you know. I missed you." She confessed.
"Then, it's been a while, but I think we should have a test. I think you should kiss me." He taunted.
"Fine." She grinned coquettishly. She had been considered quite the kisser amongst her beaus before the war. Surely Rhett had felt the things that his kisses had stirred within her. He wanted this kiss. She could be the one in control.
But that thought was extinguished once her lips were inflamed by his. All thoughts were gone at the feel of his breath invading her mouth and mixing with hers. She clung to him, needy and desperate, until the moment was shattered by the sound of a small voice calling "Mama, Mama! Mama!" The voice did not stop, and finally Scarlett pulled away from Rhett's hot body turning in the direction of the voice calling for her.
She opened the door and took the child into her arms, burying her face in the mass of dark curls. "Oh my Bonnie, how I missed you, my darling baby." She snuggled the child's sturdy body close to her.
"Not a baby!" squealed the child. "Mama! Mama!" She cooed as she patted Scarlett's cheeks, which were suddenly damp with a torrent of tears. "Mama cry?" Bonnie asked.
Scarlett laughed at the serious expression on the little girl's face. "Mama's just so happy to see you." She said as she dropped a kiss on the soft curls. "Mama, missed you."
"Down." Bonnie ordered, and Scarlett reluctantly set the child down, because she was near to losing her grasp as the child squirmed.
Scarlett watched as the child toddled from the room now crying "Wade! Sissie!" as she went.
"I'm sorry." Rhett's voice came from behind her. "I was wrong to take her away. She cried for you so often that finally I couldn't stay away any longer."
"Is she the only reason that you came back then?" The hurt came through in Scarlett's voice.
"No. I would have come back no matter what. Perhaps I am a glutton for punishment, but I love you and I can't see to stay away."
"Maybe I don't love you. But I do know that I don't want to be without you. And.... and... and..."
"And what?" He quizzed. "And you love me. Just say it Scarlett. I was brave enough to say it, and now its your turn. Just say it." He said as he turned her to face him and then took her hand in his once again. But he turned it over and placed slow hot kisses where her pulse was racing a steady rhythm.
Her eyes clouded as she watched him. "I do. I think I do, anyway." She said trying to pull her hand away from him. "But will we ever really be right? Will we be any better than we were?"
"We've done something that we never did before, we spoke our feelings. And I hope that we can build upon that. We have a future, and we love each other. And we have Bonnie and Wade and Ella and this baby. We have everything that we need to have a happy life." He said as he pulled her closer and kissed her again. "Who said we can't live happily ever after? I say that destiny is ours for the taking."
Scarlett smiled and kissed him. "I think you might be right, and what's the harm in trying."
The End