The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of Margaret Mitchell, her heirs, and their assigns.

Rhett held his breath during the ride from the train station in Atlanta to Peachtree Street. Pork slowed the horses as they turned into the drive, and Scarlett gasped.

"What happened to my house?" she asked Rhett.

"Our house," he whispered.

"It's—"

He waited while she looked, shifting her weight to see it around trees as they wound up the drive.

"It's—"

He nodded his head.

She started again. "Well, I have half a mind to go back to the train station. We didn't discuss this in the least, Rhett Butler."

"It just happened. I was looking at it, and then I was talking to the builder and the architect, who both had so many ideas."

Pork pulled the carriage up under the new porte cochere. They got out and walked into the house, where the servants were waiting to greet Mrs. Butler and meet the new member of the family.

Wade was waiting by the stairs. "Did you approve of this?" Scarlett asked him.

"It's good, Mother, and everyone in town is talking about it. They think it's much nicer than it used to be and Aunt Pitty thinks it's romantic that Uncle Rhett would rebuild the house for you while he waited for you to get better."

Scarlett made a tsking sound. "Oh, Pitty," she murmured. She turned and looked at Rhett, who was smiling at her like the cat who'd caught the mouse. "Of course you know it's better."

"I had to make the outside look as beautiful as you've made it look inside," he replied. "See how much more light gets into the house without those second floor verandas." He took the baby from her and offered her his arm to go upstairs.

"It is much nicer," she said, looking lovingly around the house. In some ways, it was one of her children, a product of their marriage.

They got to the second floor, and Rhett let her go ahead of him. She opened the bedroom door and stopped short. "What have you done?" she asked.

"It's the only room you never got to, and I am not going to decorate it without you."

"So you left it empty?"

Rhett stood beside her, looking at the walls with fresh primer on them. The only thing in the room at all were two portraits, the one of Psyche finding Cupid. She stood in front of the other. It was of Cupid and Psyche after the tests.

"They look happy."

"They finally are. They both worked on the tasks, and then Cupid arranged for her to become a goddess herself."

"And now they can be happy together?"

"Yes."

"Is his hand on her…"

"At least they're wearing clothes in this portrait. Most of the ones in Paris weren't so modest."

"I suppose, since it's for our bedroom." She looked around the empty room. "I suppose you're right, although we had some nice memories in this room."

"Horrible ones, too."

"Well and good, but where will we sleep?'

"I love your practical mind. Come with me, Mrs. Butler."

They went into the room that became his after Bonnie was born. He'd had minor changes done to this room, such as softer curtains and counterpane. The cradle Gerald had used was placed just as it had been in the other room, now for Melanie.

Scarlett walked over to the landscape Rhett had bought in Paris two years before. "This is lovely."

He looked at it, a passenger boat travelling up the Hudson River. "I used to miss the ocean when I was at West Point. I would stand just about where the artist must have stood when he painted this. It wasn't my river, but it was close enough."

"It reminds me of Saratoga."

"You probably went right past here when you went to Saratoga."

"It was pretty there, in its way. I wouldn't mind going again."

"If your plans go through, we're likely to be up north for much of next summer. We could include a week or two in Saratoga. It's not like Georgia, of course."

"Never like Georgia. You know that, Rhett."

She stepped over to the mantlepiece, where the cup was sitting on the repaired saucer.

"You had it fixed?"

"It took a while to find a craftsman who understood what I wanted done with it, but I showed him how the cup had been repaired, and he was able to match the gold and add it to the cement when he fixed the saucer."

"Did they tell you how I destroyed so many of your pretty things?"

"I blame myself."

Scarlett tilted her head down but tilted her eyes toward him. "I blamed you too, at the time, Rhett. I never touched the saucer, but it fell off the shelf when I was particularly violent. It fell on that chair and then dropped to the floor, where it broke into those two pieces. I felt like that must have been a sign, that we were too broken like you had said before."

"It didn't shatter, Scarlett, and now it's been fixed, just like the cup. I was wrong about mended things. They can be just as beautiful as things that were never broken. More so, because the unbroken things were probably never really used, but the things we mend are the things we love and care enough to keep."

They fell into something like their previous patterns, starting by going to the bank and store in the morning after breakfast, with Melanie accompanying her mother. Then they had dinner after Wade and Ella came home from school. Afterwards they spent time helping the older children with such schoolwork as they brought home and played on the floor with Gerald and Melanie, who was starting to notice her various toys spread out around her on the floor. Later in the evening there was supper, followed by some music. The children prepared for bed and were tucked in after that.

Before that schedule could be adopted, the first day home must be gotten through. Scarlett started by having Doctor Meade and young Doctor Dean, who was the nephew of the doctor who cared for Ashley on the horrible night when Frank was killed, come to visit at the same time. The two doctors looked Scarlett over completely, much to her embarrassment, and agreed with Doctor Owen's assessment that she suffered no permanent ill effects from her pregnancy. Doctor Dean added that any injuries that might have happened from her toxic condition would have appeared by this time and that while she should carefully consider any new symptoms she might notice, she was probably perfectly healthy now.

They also examined Melanie and declared that she was just what she should be considering her age. Doctor Dean did note the murmur in her heartbeat and said that he wanted to check it monthly and had the names of several doctors near the teaching universities in the north, who might be able to consult in a year's time.

Both doctors, when faced with Doctor Owens and Father Halloran's statements, agreed that Scarlett's mind was sound and that she posed no danger for herself or anyone else. There was no reason to pursue any action concerning her health. "It was not out of malice that I assembled that file," Doctor Meade told Rhett in the hallway. "If you had seen her in the train station as I did last March—my blood ran cold, Butler. Don't let it happen again."

Rhett nodded seriously. "I will devote my life to preventing it."

Scarlett prepared for battle in the afternoon. Uncle Henry was coming to discuss her various legal issues. He was shown into the study while Rhett and Father Halloran enjoyed a discussion on the merits of free will versus predestination. They had reached a comfortable level of quiet when Father Halloran finally leaned forward.

"And what have you decided about the state of your life?"

"I can't leave her, and I've convinced her that we need to stay together."

"How much 'convincing' did it take?"

The question made Rhett uncomfortable. "It wasn't like that. I had to show her that I really want to have her in my life, and to be in hers. There was no way to make up for everything or fix it all. We just have to commit to it. The rest of it will take all our lives."

"This is true. How goes your search for all the things you were looking for?"

Rhett looked at the priest and suddenly it occurred to him that Father Halloran knew all along how it would end.

"I had to find all of those things in Scarlett and myself, which you well knew, didn't you?"

"I had a sense it would work that way."

Rhett couldn't decide whether to be angry or simply accept it. Wouldn't it have been better if the priest had just told him that he needed to find the things he was looking for in himself? Would it have been better, given his need to butt his head against whatever was easy? As he thought about it, Scarlett's voice bellowed out from the study.

"God's NIGHTGOWN, Uncle Henry! Wade Hampton, where is your father's pistol?"

Rhett and Father Halloran looked at each other and stood at the same time. They didn't run back to the study, but they walked quickly. They didn't expect real bloodshed, but it didn't hurt to be safe.

Rhett got into the study first, and saw Scarlett standing behind the desk, her face a pale green color and her hands in tight fists. Henry, who had come into the house looking as though he was there to deal with a difficult child, was currently looking a bit disconcerted.

"What's happening?" asked Rhett.

"She's just being difficult," answered Henry. "She asked to see the list I compiled. Most are very respectable graduates of Harvard who had studied there around the time Charles did. A few come from West Point or Annapolis. They're financially situated such that they're not after the money, they come from respectable families, and they're quite successful in their business now."

Scarlett handed Rhett the list with a trembling hand. "Damned Yankees, every last one," she whispered.

"Why are we having this conversation?" asked Rhett. "I thought it didn't matter."

"But when it might have mattered… It shows what sort of plans they were making behind my back. Damned Yankees, Rhett."

He was reminded of the way her father had called him a damned Orangeman one late night so very long before.

"You know I couldn't put anyone from Charleston or Atlanta on the list," said Henry, soothingly.

Scarlett was not to be soothed. "It doesn't mean you have to put people from Pittsburgh and Chicago on the list!"

"Now Scarlett, be reasonable. Your reputation—"

"Reputation be damned! Why was it so important for you to marry me off, anyway?"

Rhett eased around the desk. He did not like Scarlett's color and as he got closer he saw that she was trembling.

"As bad as you are married to Butler, you were that much worse when you were a widow, always misbehaving. We wanted you to have a husband we could trust—"

"You honestly think you can trust a Yankee more than me!"

Wade showed up in the doorway of the study. Rhett caught his eye. "Could you get Doctor Dean to come back, please?"

Wade nodded and backed out of the room, clearly glad to not be involved.

"Now Scarlett," said Henry.

"Supposing I refused to marry any of them?"

"You would have married one of them, of that we are sure."

"How can you be sure?"

"Scarlett, be reasonable. You've been married three times. You would have married again."

Rhett had been moving closer to his wife, and now stood almost close enough to touch. If she fainted or collapsed, he could catch her easily. Perhaps his nearness would help her. He felt her take a deep breath, and her trembling eased slightly.

"I'm not getting divorced, you know. I'm staying with Rhett."

"That works just as well," said Uncle Henry affably.

Scarlett spluttered for a moment. "After all the advice you've been giving me since last winter?"

Henry smiled. "If you divorced and married a man who would settle down in town and manage your sizable settlement, which we all expected at the time, then Butler is out of our way. If Butler remains married to you, then his considerable wealth is still very much invested in Atlanta. Atlanta wins either way." He chuckled delightedly.

"Damn you, Uncle Henry!" Scarlett rubbed her head. "This was some sort of game to you? Uncle Henry, you're fired."

"You can't do that."

"Can't I?" She turned at looked at Rhett. He reflected that this interview had almost reached her limit.

He cleared his throat. "Perhaps it would be better to continue to use Henry's services for Wade's legacy. There's quite a bit established that would be difficult to redo. Perhaps we should leave Ella's legacy with him as well. It's just a few more years until they come into their money can make their own decisions. We will, however, be interviewing separate counsel for Scarlett's and our other children's business," said Rhett. His own legal matters had long since been under the watchful eye of another firm across town.

Scarlett nodded, clearly resigned to a compromise. Rhett saw Henry out of the house while Father Halloran sat with Scarlett in the study. When he returned, Rhett saw his wife sitting on the sofa, her head in her hands.

"I didn't think he'd back down from the divorce so easily. I didn't realize he was… was…"

"Hedging his bets," said Rhett quietly.

"What does that mean?"

"He made two bets such that one or the other would pay whatever the outcome. It can be an effective strategy."

"That doesn't seem fair."

"Not when your life is the basis of his bet, no."

Rhett sat next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "He won't be interfering in your life any more, at least."

"No."

Father Halloran cleared his throat. "Scarlett, Rhett, do I understand that you intend to continue your marriage, then?"

Scarlett nodded, and Rhett said, "Yes, that's what we plan. We understand the need to have a wedding in church."

"Plan is the correct word for it. Let me outline what we will need to do."

By the time Doctor Dean arrived with Wade, there was an outline for the new wedding and what would need to be done to prepare for it. Scarlett had stopped trembling by that time, but her color was still off and she was obviously developing quite a headache. She allowed Rhett to help her upstairs where Doctor Dean considered her symptoms and proscribed rest and changes to her diet for the next couple of days.

A/N: There have been one or two fics here where Scarlett has issues with hypertension. That slid right into everything I understand about her, especially the way she gets headaches in the book, so it seemed an obvious pregnancy complication, and now going forward in her life.

Thanks to the lovely readers and reviewers out there, including gabyhyatt, kanga85, Guest 1 & 2, Phantom710, Asline Nicole, abbygale94, Truckee Gal, Melody-Rose-20, Twilighternproud, Romabeachgirl1981, breakfastattiffanygs, , and COCO B.