Author's Note: Happy Birthday CaptScarlett. All right this is later than I intended on all accounts. This chapter is dedicated to you as a birthday present. You did help so much with the brainstorming for this one that you deserve some credit and something to read. So I hope that you enjoy this, and take this as a second Christmas gift from me to everyone, even if it isn't the most joyful chapter. This story isn't a joyful story at the moment. But I do have very specific and unique twists to this story, that I think people will find intriguing. Its crazy that this story is going on so long, of course that is completely my fault, since I did go 7 months between updates. I am such a slacker. Oh well, Merry Christmas to all!
Up From the Ashes Chapter 14
Over the next several days, she began to slowly recover. The hacking cough began to dissipate and without the fever natural color began to return to her face. Her appetite improved as well, which gave Rhett hope, for when Scarlett was eating he knew that she would be fine. Dr. Meade became more optimistic with each passing day. "I think she will pull through, amazing as it is. Take it as a warning, Butler. You won't be granted another reprieve." He warned in a cool voice.
Rhett seemed to take the blessing and the warning to heart, never straying far from her side. "Do you want to rebuild the house?" He asked as they spent the day together in their hotel room. She was propped up against a stack of pillows while he restlessly paced about the room.
She paused to consider before she responded, "Yes, but I want something different. The house, well, when I built the house, my only intent was to make everyone jealous. I didn't consider how depressing living in that house might be. Perhaps we can choose something together, of course that is on the assumption that you will be staying." Scarlett answered softly, her voice still foggy from her illness.
"You do know what they say about when you assume, don't you?" Rhett chuckled feeling like some of the gloom had finally passed over him.
Scarlett giggled softly, but the laughter soon turned back into a racking coughing that had her gasping for air as she clutched a pillow to her chest. He was immediately at her side, but there was nothing to do other than wait for it to pass. After the coughing spell was over Scarlett chided him, "I've told you that you can't make me laugh."
His brow was slightly furrowed in concern. "You must keep reminding me."
"I'm fine, Rhett. I just can't laugh. It hurts, but you didn't do anything wrong." She frowned for a minute, because something about him still didn't seem quite right. He wasn't quite himself, but she brushed aside the thought, merely enjoying the time that she was able to spend with him. He was lavishing attention on her like he had only done in the early days of their relationship before they were married and things had been completely ruined. She rather enjoyed it. It was like a having a beau again.
"But you are correct. I'm staying. I'm not leaving again." He dropped a kiss on her brow before rising to retrieve something from the desk. "Here is a catalog with some house designs that you might find interesting. It will help entertain you while you are forced to stay in bed."
She took the material from him and began leafing through it. "Would you be offended if I wanted my home to look something like Twelve Oaks did before the war?" She rushed on before he could answer, "It isn't about Ashley, I just always loved it there. Maybe it symbolizes all that we lost, a little bit of the old salvaged from the ruins...."
He stood quietly for a moment before responding, "I wouldn't mind a house like that as long as there are lots of windows and and not a lot of red plush velvet covering the windows, the floor, the walls, the furniture... I'm surprised that you didn't find a way to cover the ceiling in it."
"Don't be ridiculous. Gold leafing was more practical." She smiled up at him, her most brilliant charming smile, and she could see the change in his demeanor when she turned the full strength of her wiles upon him. "Then why don't you tell me what you like?" She asked.
"I was considering a home like you would find on the battery on Charleston, something elegant and tasteful without being overly ornate." Rhett looked wistful as he described the house.
It left Scarlett wondering, "Is that what you wanted me to have built the first time around?"
He nodded and grinned, "But you imagined so much more!"
"Is that your way of being nice and still making fun of my taste?" Scarlett returned with mild annoyance. But she decided to try and keep the fragile peace intact for the moment, "oh, it really doesn't matter now. Besides, I had grown tired of the way things looked. There were days when it only reminded me of blood and loss. I'm not too sad that the house is gone. I only wish that I could have saved more of Bonnie's things." Scarlett continued.
"You saved some of Bonnie's things?" He questioned hopefully.
"Don't you remember? You took them from me, right after the fire..." she prompted, but the look in his eyes showed no recollection of those events. "You don't remember any of it, still?" At this he shook his head, and she frowned but remained silent, deciding that now was not the time to address the issue.
"I must have blocked it out, or perhaps Belle was wrong and I had been drinking." Rhett offered in way of explanation.
She watched his face, knowing that he hadn't been drinking, that there was something else amiss besides alcohol. "I'm sure that must be it. You really need to stop drinking like a fish."
He grinned and agreed. "If you are feeling up to it, I could bring the children in and you could spend the evening with them. I need to get out of here for a while. I need to set some things in motion to get our new house built."
"I would like to spend some time with them." She paused, "Do you think that we could get another doll made for Ella? There was one that she was very particular too, and I know that it was lost in the fire. As rough as things have been, I think that it would be nice for her to have something that looked like her old doll."
"Of course. When have I ever tried to stop you from spending money? If let you build that horror of architecture, do you really think that I would complain about you buying a new doll for our daughter?"
She smiled at the fact that he has referred to Ella not as her daughter, but their daughter. Then she remembered that he had once again mocked her taste in a home. "You could have said something when I was building it. You didn't have to let me just have my way."
"And what has saying no to you ever accomplished? He asked with a raise of one eyebrow.
"Well as a child, that was the way to insure that I was going to do it. I hated to be told no." She recalled, knowing that as a child she had been much like Bonnie, but the thought of her lost child was still too great a loss for more than a cursory glance. Tomorrow had not yet come for her to be able to think about such a great loss.
"Have you ever considered that having someone tell you no was the reason that you dug in your heels so fiercely with your infatuation with Ashley?"
She was silent for a moment as she considered this possibility, "You might be on to something there. I can't say that that is the only reason, because he was also one of the only things left that survived the devastation of the war. He was something that I could think about that I had left. At times he was the only thing that I could think about without driving me over the edge, and I had to stay strong. My family needed me. There was no one else to carry the load."
He sat on the edge of the bed, watching her, his gaze burning into her, "I tried to carry that load for you. But you never could see it. I wanted to do something to rescue you."
She leaned forward brushing his chin with the tips of her fingers, "It doesn't matter, Rhett. Its over and I am going to be fine. We can rebuild our lives."
He leaned into her hand and smiled. "Life will be better than it was, won't it?" He asked seeming to need her assurances.
"We can change the things that we were doing wrong. Things will be better, they just have to be." She replied.
He leaned over and kissed her forehead and she began to hope that things were really beginning to change between them. He had given her hope for the future. She reclined back on the pillows and closed her eyes. She was still easily tired after such a lengthy illness, and her eyes were becoming heavy. It was so much easier to have Rhett around and being so kind. She had missed that side of him. Their marriage had changed him, or perhaps it was not their marriage, but her refusal of him. She knew that she must have hurt him, and she had regretted for years. But she relished the fact that now they were growing closer. The past seemed to finally be staying in the past.
He was not feeling the same reassurance. Instead, he was confused and slightly disoriented. "I just need to go to Belle's", he told himself, convinced that she could find a way to help make things right. He could not shake the fogginess that had settled on his brain. He could not quite remember when it was that the haze descended, but it clung to him like morning dew. He left Scarlett sleeping peacefully and headed out to Belle's.
Belle welcomed him warmly, obviously pleased to see him after the time he had spent away nursing Scarlett. "Rhett, aren't you a sight for sore eyes. Have you only now escaped from that pretty piece of work that you married?" as she quickly ushered him up the stairs to his room.
"She's getting better, finally. It really looked like she would die." He said as he sat upon his neatly made bed, his eyes staring out almost vacantly.
"How are you doing? You wasn't doing so well when you left here with her." Belle said rubbing his hand in a gesture of familiarity and warmth.
"I don't know, nothing is making sense. Things are missing. Nothing quite fits together." He said as he lowered his head to his hands.
"Maybe you just need to have a drink and think about things. A drink always used to settle you down when she got you all riled up." Belle consoled, "she never was good for you."
Rhett shook his head, "It isn't her. I am the problem. She has been nothing but nice, although bewildered by my actions. She almost died Belle, and then apparently, and no she isn't the only to tell me this, but apparently I started attacking her as soon as she was dragged from the fire, and yet she hasn't accused me of anything that I didn't deserve. Something is wrong with my head."
"Hush, darling. Let me take care of you. You have just been so busy taking care of her that you are worn out. I'll get you something to eat and a glass of single malt whiskey just the way that you like it. And you will be just dandy." She slipped out the door with the promise to return, and he sat staring out the window trying to make sense of his failing memory.