Title: Then Say It
Rating: PG
Fandom: Gone with the Wind. Scarlett O'Hara/Rhett Butler
Movie/quote: "Do you love her?" - "I don't know how I feel. I'm grateful I can feel anything... I know I'm obsessed with her." - "Then say it. You keep telling me that you're obsessed, you're infatuated. Say that you're in love with her." - "I'm in love with her." From Network
Summary: He had quickly discovered that the favorite pastime of soldiers was speaking of the ones they left behind. He wished he really had one to speak of for the first time in his life.
Disclaimer: Stephen Mitchell Fund owns GWTW and I do not.
Author's Notes (optional): This is my first of ten fan fictions in the 10_quotes challenge on livejournal. Read and review, por favor?

He hadn't been in the army long before he realized that it was not storming off and shooting a few Yankees to try to change the fate of the cause that had been lost from the start. It didn't take long to trust the people he had known for only days with his life. It didn't take long to figure out that patriotism had little to do with it now, and they all just wanted to be home with their wives and children and sweethearts – if they were still alive and well after all of this.

He had quickly discovered that the favorite pastime of soldiers was speaking of the ones they left behing. He wished he really had one to speak of for the first time in his life.

He had always been a rather private person in that he did not go bragging of his expulsion. It had just travelled very quickly and he did nothing to stop it. He wasn't one to bear his heart to anyone, especially her. But they got him to talk somehow.

"I'd like to know what my daughter looks like 'fore I die," the homespun-clad man beside him was saying as the five of them laid on their backs and looked up at the stars.

"Wonder if she really did wait for me, ya know? She coulda found someone else."

"I'm sure she's waitin' for you."

"What about you, Butler? You got a girl?"

He left a small silence fall before speaking. "Not exactly." If her slap had meant anything, it told him she was by no means his. Not yet, he told himself, though Ashley Wilkes was still in her head and that would stand between them until she saw some sense.

One of them laughed. "Captain Rhett Butler can't get a girl?" he teased lightly. Nothing like that could be taken seriously now. They were too busy saving each other's hides to be angry with one another. They had already talked about this, as well, they had heard little about the one Butler was after, though.

"The problem, gentlemen, is that she seems to think someone else already has her."

"Do you love her?" another accused suddenly.

Something made him speak honestly to the soldier he had only known for a short time. He wasn't Scarlett, and that made it much easier to talk to him. "I don't know what I feel. I'm grateful I can feel anything…" That might have been a slight lie. It would be much easier to go back to whores with the same satisfaction as before. Now it was rather disappointing since none of them were Mrs. Hamilton. "I know I'm obsessed with her."

"Then say it. You keep telling me that you're obsessed, you're infatuated. Say that you're in love with her." The one next to him spoke, having heard about this girl before. They could all tell from the honesty in his voice that this wasn't one that could be forgotten with a brothel.

Rhett paused, considering Scarlett O'Hara and everything that came with her. "I'm in love with her."