A/N: This chapter ventures into M territory, so yet again reader beware!

To address a question recently presented by RamonaKingsley23, there are far too many fun story lines I want to explore so I don't plan on this ending anytime soon, unless the reviews start to become more negative than positive :D

Thank you again for all the kind reviews!

Chapter 25: The Bane of His Existence

Ashley Wilkes had been the bane of Rhett's existence since the moment he met Scarlett. It was always Ashley who Scarlett went to when in distress, when she needed reassurances, and when she needed to feel loved. Rhett had wanted to be all of those things for Scarlett, but had never been permitted the privilege because Ashley had always been in the way. Never had Rhett hated someone as much as he hated Ashley Wilkes and now he was going to have to face the varmint in person. Thoughts such as these began to clog his mind on the morning train ride into Atlanta and amplified his hatred for the man, which Rhett had not thought possible until now.

To this day it surprised him that he had not killed Ashley. He had killed men before with far less provocation than possessing the heart of the one woman he had ever loved. On the night of the botched raid on shanty town, he had even come close to doing the deed. Ashley's back was to him in the dark just before the Yankees swarmed the place and it gave him the perfect excuse for his death, "the Yankees killed him." The only thing that kept him from pulling his trigger was the devastation it would cause to Miss Melly and Beau. Not to mention that Scarlett would never get over him if he had died so abruptly; her heart would go down with him and that would mean he had no chance of winning it. To keep hope alive, he spared him.

Years after the Yankee storming of the KKK on Decatur Road, Rhett had yet again started to seriously consider murdering him one night when Scarlett came home late from the mills in her first trimester of pregnancy with Bonnie. Rain was pouring out of the skies like the second coming and Rhett had forbidden Scarlett from going to the lumber mills that day for fear of her catching a cold. Scarlett, never one to listen to Rhett's orders, went anyway and came home soaking wet and looking guilty as sin when Rhett confronted her for leaving to see Ashley while carelessly putting their child at risk. A massive fight broke out between the two and they did not speak to each other the rest of the evening. They didn't even do their usual routine of reading the newspaper together before falling asleep.

Waking up in the morning, Rhett was baffled that Scarlett was still fast asleep since she was usually up before him or woke once he started to move around the room. He attributed her sleepiness to her pregnancy and went about his usual business in his office until it was nearly mid-day with no sign of Scarlett. Rhett started to contemplate checking on her when a bloodcurdling scream emanated from upstairs. Panic washed over him and he ran up the stairs two at a time to get to her. Bursting through the door, he was faced with one of the most disturbing sights in his life.

Scarlett was thrashing about on the bed screaming at the top of her lungs, all the while she was attempting to scratch some invisible force above her. By now Rhett was accustomed to her nightmares, but what was playing out before him was far worse than anything he had seen before. Without regard for their previous fight, he ran to the bed and jumped on top of her to shake her conscious. He had to shake her and yell her name several times before she snapped out of whatever trance had overcome her.

As she stilled, he saw that she had been sweating profusely and tears were streaming down her pale face. The sight of genuine tears on her overwhelmed him so much that he was nearly pushed to tears himself. Not once had he seen her cry and he didn't really know how to process it when it happened. Rhett was able to drown the urge before Scarlett opened her emerald green eyes, which reflected intense fear and then relief.

"Rhett," she cried frantically reaching for him. He lifted her up to him and she buried her face into his neck as she wrapped her tiny arms around him in a viselike grip. Rhett could feel her trembling and it startled him. Whatever had invaded her nightmare was enough to shake her to her core. He would have given anything in that moment to be able to come to her in her dreams to defend her against such awful forces.

"Talk to me Scarlett. What happened? What did you see?" he asked hoping she would confide in him as he comforted her.

"Oh Rhett, I feel... I feel... I feel awful," was all she was able to utter weakly to him. Taking one of his arms from around her, he gently pushed her head back from his neck so it was in front of him. Putting his hand on her forehead, he was scared by how hot she was. She had developed a terrible fever during the night from her ill-advised trip to the mill to see Ashley. Anger flared up inside him, but her unabashed plea for him to hold her stifled its progress.

"You're burning up. Lay down and I'll get Mammy to come up here to cool you down while I go fetch Dr. Meade," Rhett said gently to her as he laid her head down gingerly on her pillow.

"No," she said while awkwardly moving her head right and left in what he assumed was further protest.

"No what?" he questioned as he tried to get off the bed to make his way to Dr. Meade.

"Don't leave me," she replied earnestly looking him right in the eyes.

To say Scarlett's request surprised him would be an understatement. She was so self-reliant and prideful that normally she wouldn't, but her fever must be impeding her decision making skills. Regardless of why she said it, it still touched him and he decided to fulfill her request.

"If you wish for me to stay, I will stay. Let me send Pork then," he suggested as he stood by the bed looking down at her. All she did was nod her head in favor of his suggestion before she fell back into sleep.

Dr. Meade's visit did nothing to quell Rhett's fears and had, if anything, made them worse. He informed him that Scarlett was running a dangerously high fever that if not taken care of, could potentially cause a miscarriage and send Scarlett's health spiraling downward. At hearing that Scarlett could miscarry, Rhett swore on his mother that if she did he would kill Ashley with his bare hands by tearing him limb from limb. He refused to lose his baby and her because of Ashley's foolishness so he concentrated his efforts on cooling her down the rest of the day.

Although the situation was grim, Scarlett's delirium (a side effect of the fever) provided endless entertainment. She would run on for minutes about the most ridiculous things from her childhood and Rhett could not resist how charming she was now that her guard was down. He laughed uninhibitedly and even encouraged her to tell more stories while she was conscious, knowing that she would most likely not remember the whole thing when she recovered. It gave him a sort of lease to be himself with her.

She had been asleep for about an hour when she awoke and turned her head up to Rhett, who was sitting beside her on the bed. He started to prepare himself for another episode of hilarity when her expression turned somber.

"Rhett, I think I'm going to die," she stated frankly.

"You're not going to die; you're far too stubborn to put up with that funny business," he replied humorously. If there was anyone in this world who could stand in front of death and scare it away, it was her.

"You don't know that! You're not God!" she said in an overly dramatic fashion, which made him laugh.

"I may not be God, but I'm the closest thing to him that you've got," he remarked knowing she would not appreciate the comparison.

"Fiddle-dee-dee! How you do run on!" she replied with irritation. A silence fell over them after that and he just sat there smiling at her as she looked at God knows what outside when she spoke up.

"Rhett, what would you do if I died?" she asked turning back to him curiously.

"I suppose I'd drink myself to death," Rhett replied before he could stop himself. It's not that his answer was a lie, far from it; it was the truth. He had thought on occasion about what he would do if she died and he never saw a good ending for himself. There was no way he would ever remarry, he could never love another as he loved Scarlett, nor did he see himself living long after she died. The only thing he could picture doing with absolute clarity would be attempting to drown his sorrow in alcohol over losing her and ultimately end up drinking too much one night and dying, which would most likely be welcomed by that point. Although he knew she would most likely not remember he said it, he still didn't feel comfortable knowing he had revealed such a deep, personal secret.

"You mustn't do that! You'll go to Hell!" she said adamantly.

"I have already done plenty of things in my life to get me a one way ticket to Hell, if there is one. My killing myself would probably be the least offensive thing out of the bunch," he replied lightly hoping to steer her into more entertaining topics of conversation.

"You can't go to Hell, Rhett," Scarlett said somberly but firmly.

"Why?" he asked with peaking curiosity.

"Because I'm going to Heaven," she stated as if the answer were apparent. Her confidence in her going to Heaven made Rhett chuckle. Scarlett could be denied flat out at the pearly gates and she would probably find a way to bully herself in.

"And?" he inquired urging her on.

"Well, if I go to Heaven and you go to Hell, I would never see you," Scarlett said simply as a drowsy look began to come over her face.

"Scarlett, why would you want to see me in the afterlife?" he asked with urgency knowing her drowsy look was often followed by sudden sleep. Never had he wanted to know the answer to a question more than now.

"Because you're my husband," she replied quietly as she turned on her side facing him. Sleep was fast approaching and he needed to pry the answer out of her quickly.

"Not good enough! Just because I'm your husband doesn't mean you'd want to see me. Tell me now Scarlett! Why would you want to see me in the afterlife?" he practically barked at her.

"Because I..." was all she was able to get out before sleep claimed her.

"Damn it!" he growled angrily. He could have sworn that she had almost said those three precious words he desperately wanted to hear. Even though she would have stated them in delirium, he didn't care. Rhett just wanted to hear what those words sounded like coming out of her mouth about him. In later years, he managed to convince himself that all she was actually going to say was "because I'm fond of you," her usual brush off comment about how she felt about him.

Rhett, now sitting quietly in his private train cabin, started to wonder if he had been wrong in brushing off her almost profession of love. He was now certain that Scarlett had loved him for years, but had been unable to admit it to herself because she still felt she loved only Ashley. What he would have done if she had confessed love to him then he did not know; he only knew he would have tried harder to make her see how she felt about him.

While the love Scarlett held for Ashley was always an irritant, there was a time when for Rhett that irritation turned into fear. Marrying Scarlett, he knew full-well that Ashley was the king of her heart, but that did not stop him one iota of a second from slipping a wedding ring on her finger. He felt an all-encompassing happiness marrying her and from the look she wore at the altar, she felt the same as well; most likely because she was picturing marrying his money, but the reason did not matter to him. The point was that they were now married and he could have her in any way possible, including intimately.

In initiating intimacy the first time, he knew he had to be delicate about the matter. While never directly addressed, he knew that she did not enjoy relations with her previous husbands and would likely treat it as a duty rather than a pleasure to be had. Intimacy would be drastically different with him compared to them since he knew how to pleasure a woman and not focus on just how he felt. Although he knew it would be him taking her to great new heights, a fear rumbled deep inside him that she would be picturing Ashley making love to her during the act and, God forbid, call out his name instead.

This fear combined with the desire to make their first time together special and significant for her, he held off on making a move until they had spent their first full day in New Orleans. When they finally made it back to the hotel room that night, both were slightly tired and had more than their fair share of champagne. Rhett insisted on helping Scarlett out of her dress and undergarments saying it was not necessary to awaken a hotel maid and surprisingly Scarlett agreed. He delighted in how she shivered under his touch as he helped her out, but he made no remark about it to her.

While she started to comb her hair, he made his way into the dressing room to get himself ready for bed. Taking the pieces of his suit off, he smiled to himself upon thinking of Scarlett's reaction to seeing how little he wore to bed. Judging from her reaction to seeing him in just bottoms, he was sure that old Frank and young Mr. Hamilton wore those ridiculous night dresses to bed. Her insistence that he wear more to bed was met with a threat to wear less if she continued the argument. Most likely sensing he was serious, which he was, she halted her protests but continued to glare. He laughed at her and before she could yell at him, he kissed her until he was sure she wouldn't once they parted.

Exiting the dressing room, he saw that she had already made her way to the bed to flip through one of her magazines. Walking to the bed, he knew that now was the time when he needed to quiet his fears about being intimate with Scarlett so he decided to gently approach her. He extricated the magazine out of her hands and kissed her before she could question him. She was kissing him back, but the ardor with which she normally kissed him was missing. It was obviously out of fear of knowing that kissing was not where it would stop and he started focusing on quieting her fears since he was sure the pursuit would quiet his own.

He picked her up and laid her back down on the bed flat with himself resting on top of her. As he kissed her, he slowly started to hitch her nightgown up her body. When it got to her mid chest, he quickly lifted himself and her to remove it. Her body was shaking beneath him and it concerned him since he didn't know if it was excitement or fear that was causing it. With hope in his heart that she was focused on him and not on thoughts of Ashley, he peeled his lips from hers and started trailing kisses down her neck and onto her chest. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly and he could feel her heart pounding underneath his lips. Encouraged, he started kissing farther down her midsection and had made it to just below her belly-button before she spoke.

"Rhett, what are you... what are you doing?" she stumbled out through heavy breathes.

"I'm kissing you darling," he replied humorously as he continued to kiss the area around her belly-button. He only halted when she laced her fingers in his hair and gently lifted his face so she could look at him.

"But why...why... why there?" she asked with eyes wide with fear.

"Because I can. Is it unpleasant?" Rhett asked mildly.

"Well, no," she replied tepidly.

"Do you want me to stop?" he asked without a trace of humor. While he desperately wanted to press on with his kisses, he didn't want to scare her away. Scarlett's face turned a vibrant shade of red in the candle light of the room and she blinked several times in quick succession before looking away to answer him.

"No," she said so quietly he had to strain to hear it. Rhett felt his spirits soar at her admitting in her own way she was enjoying what he was doing and he lightly smiled.

"Then lay back down," he replied kindly taking her hand from his hair and kissing it. She quickly obeyed and he started his kissing again. He trailed them down further until he was just above the spot where he was certain she had never been touched, nevertheless kissed. Taking in a deep breath to quiet his fears, he finally kissed her where he had always wanted to.

Scarlett's body immediately reacted. Her body buckled and she gasped, but she made no protests. Rhett continued to kiss and suck on her sensitive spot until he knew she was on the verge of ecstasy. This was the moment he knew he could find out who she was thinking about while he was making love to her. Terror coursed through him that it would be Ashley and if it was, he knew he would be lying if he said he wouldn't react in a potentially violent manner. He would make no move to harm her physically, but there was a strong possibility he would break every object in the room. Rhett did not know if his heart could handle the potential rejection, but he continued.

As her pleasure increased, his fear did as well. Knowing what it would take to send her over the edge, he made the made the final kiss and prepared himself for the worst. In her release, her body shook violently and in full glory without shame, she cried Rhett's name. Hearing his name cried and not Ashley's was like music to his ears and was all the motivation he needed to make passionate love to her for the rest of the night. Even though she didn't say plainly that she enjoyed the evening, he could tell that she did because she did not rebuff any of his advances and allowed him to introduce new avenues of intimacy without pulling away.

Rhett firmly believed that the only times Scarlett was focused on him with no thoughts for Ashley was when they were intimate. It was the reason he tried to make love to her every night because he thought that with constant relations, he could potentially drive thoughts of him out forever. Of course that was not the case, but it didn't dampen his attempts and just made him try harder. His attempts at this though were stopped when she kicked him out of their marital bed because of Ashley, the very man he was trying to drive away.

Yes, Ashley Wilkes had done irreparable damage to his life and he would never forgive him for that. And now here he was, pulling into Atlanta, willing to admit defeat but only for the purpose of banishing him out of his house as he had somehow convinced Scarlett to do with him in their bedroom all those years ago. They could have each other, but he would be damned if he allowed him to have her in his house, no matter how much he despised the place.

Now was the time for him to seek his revenge on Ashley for all the wrong he had done to him.