Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: This is the final chapter but there are three epilogs.
I cannot thank y'all enough for all the wonderful reviews I have received. Judging from the kind words everyone has shared this will be a favorite for y'all also. One reviewer mentioned that we have been on this journey for over three months and I was stunned to realize that it had been that long. As a couple of people have said this has become a fan book instead of a fan fic.
I want to take a moment to thank each and everyone of you for making this odyssey with me. When I started writing fanfics a year and a half ago, I was lucky to get a story with five thousand words. This story has over 230,000 words. (God's nightgown!) I doubt if I will ever write anything this long again but I won't say never. You know what they say: Never say never.
To all my wonderful, delightful readers who have asked. Yes, I am working on another story as I am finishing this one up. Actually, two or three of them. That is how I beat writer's block. When I don't know where I want to go with a story, I just work on another story.
Enough of me blathering on. Let's finish the story.
Chapter Ninety-Five
Rhett had left most of his fortune to their son Alex. Rhett left forty percent to his youngest son and fifteen percent to each of his other children which included Beau. Rhett had considered Beau one of his sons ever since he and Wade had gotten into that fight at Watkinson. Nobody was going to be hurting for money. When he died, Rhett was worth 1.5 million dollars. Alex managed everyone's money for them. He sent out quarterly dividend checks but if they needed more, he would write them a check.
Rhett had left forty percent of his money to Alex with the instructions to take care of his mother and buy her anything her greedy little heart wanted. Alex could tell by the way his father had said it, it had been a loving statement not a condemnation.
Alex and Clara had continued to live with Scarlett even after their son was born. They had thought they could not have children. They had tried for many years but they had a son nine-months after his father passed away. The child was born on November 16th 1899 which had been Alex's father's birthday. They named him Rhett Rogers Butler. Of all of Scarlett's grandchildren Rhett was her favorite. Her children thought it was because he so resembled his grandfather. What they didn't know was that when Scarlett looked into her grandson's eyes, she knew her Rhett had been reborn. She also knew she was going to be reborn. She didn't know how but she knew they would be together again. She wondered if it was because of the vows they were always making that death would not separate them. She did a little bit more studying on reincarnation but she didn't understand it except the basic principle; people die and their soul is reborn into another body. She never told anyone about the dream she had that night Rhett had died. She had dream that a ghost like Rhett had drifted up through the ceiling. He had called her name and said, "I love you. I have to go. They are calling me."
She really didn't know what had happen. They had gotten a second chance and they would be together again in their next life. They would just have to find each other. Her only question was, "Is Melly going to be reborn also?"
After Rhett's death Scarlett's wants and needs were few. She talked about redecorating their home now that Rhett couldn't stop her from doing what she wanted to do but she never did. She never cleaned out his side of the closet or any of his things. To all appearances Rhett could walk back through the door any minute and that was the way Scarlett wanted it. She knew he was gone but she didn't want him gone from her life.
She did find a present with her name on it amidst his belongings. It had a locket with their picture inside. The first picture they had ever taken together. Scarlett laughed at her vain husband. Of course, the picture he would want her to remember him by was him in his prime. Inside his watch was a picture of her that had been taken right after they had gotten married too. It was a picture that had been taken when they had been in Paris with Careen, Wade and Mammy. She had never known he carried her picture in his watch all those years. She didn't know how she knew but she knew that he had carried her picture in his watch during their first timeline also. It made her smile.
At night when she couldn't sleep, she would tell herself his stories. He had told them so many times that she knew them all by heart now. Except the one about a handsome knight named Rhett, she couldn't tell that one when she tried it always made her cry. When she couldn't sleep, she would get up and record their story from when they had met that day at the Wilkes barbeque. She was able to record most of her life. All those horrible years through the war, the starvation, her marriage to Frank and her first marriage to Rhett but she couldn't write about what had happened after Melanie had died in their first timeline. She couldn't write about how they had been given a second chance. It was too precious to risk anyone else knowing about it. She was really afraid that if someone else ever found out about it they would be returned to their lives in the first timeline. She thought about destroying her writings but she couldn't bring herself to burn her journals. She had worked so hard on them.
She had wanted to write about the good times Rhett and her had in their marriage in the first timeline. All the times they had gone dancing. All those Scallawag parties they had attended when they had returned home and she had been just a little bit tipsy. All the times she had wanted Rhett to just start kissing her and force his way back into her bed. All the Christmases they had celebrated with the children. All the birthday parties they had given. All the moments that either one of them could have changed the course of their lives with just a smile or a kiss. She had not been able to record those moments because it hurt too bad.
She knew she didn't understand how they had been given a second chance. She knew Rhett hadn't either. She was just so very grateful to whoever or whatever had given them that second chance. She missed Rhett but she knew he had been reborn. He would just have to find her. She would smile because she knew her Rhett would find her.
She had taken up gardening to pass the time. She did needlepoint. She read books. She made herself read The Odyssey because it had been Rhett's favorite book. She couldn't finish it. For a few moments she wondered what it said about her husband that The Odyssey had been his favorite book. She wished she could ask Melly about it then she decided to think about it tomorrow. Scarlett was still not a deep thinker.
She went to educational entertainment like traveling lecturers. She took Prissy with her. She even talked about it afterwards with Prissy. She went to plays and concerts with Prissy. Prissy was also a widow. Prissy's daughter and son lived nearby. Rachel had become a teacher and Thomas a doctor. Prissy had found a school that would teach her children. Rachel and Thomas had just needed money for the tuition and for the books. Rhett had paid for everything. He did have a soft spot for children. Rachel and Thomas were in constant contact with their mother. Prissy's children did have a good life because she had given up everything to move to the North.
She and Prissy even went to Europe. They had a great deal of fun. Just two widows living and loving life. They had not done any of the things that Rhett had always made Scarlett do. They just had fun.
About five years after Rhett had died, Alex heard from the administrator of the trust that Rosemary Butler had passed away. The administrator, a Charleston attorney, had arranged for her to be buried with her parents. Robert had died around the same time Rhett had. The attorney had notified them of his passing and that Robert's children were doing fine. After discussing it with his mother, Alex had the attorney disperse the rest of the trust fund money to Robert's children. Scarlett knew it would have been what Rhett would have wanted.
She knew she would see Rhett again and she hoped Melly too. She really hoped she didn't see Ashley again. He had caused enough trouble in their first life time. She remembered reading all those books on reincarnation. She hadn't really understood them and Rhett had done his best to explain them to her but he really didn't know either.
Scarlett kept up a regular correspondence with Careen. Careen was a widow now and their oldest son was running Tara. Scarlett still had a lot of friends in Hartford. They were all mostly widows now.
She still held the annual picnic to benefit the Asylum for the Deaf but she really just did it so all those wonderful children could have fun and see all their friends. When she had the picnic, all of her sons and sons-in-law would strong arm the rich men into giving to the Asylum. Scarlett was always proud that the five of them couldn't do as well as her Rhett could do all by himself.
The Asylum built a fountain and named it the Rhett Butler Fountain. During the ceremony of the opening of the fountain she could almost hear Rhett whispering in her ear, "A fountain? All I got was a fountain? They should have at least named a building after me." It was all she could do not to giggle in the middle of the ceremony. At the same ceremony she had been heralded and praised as a great lady for continuing Mr. Butler's good works. It had made her smile. Yes, she was finally a great lady.
She would sit on her back porch and talk to Rhett and Melly. Her children would sometimes hear her say, "I know what you are going to say." It would make them smile. She probably did know what they were going to say. They had been together since their mother was sixteen.
She would tell her grandchildren stories about hers and Grandpapa's life in Atlanta. She always told such grand tales. She would talk about how Grandpapa had been a blockade runner and how he had been such a patriot for the Confederacy. She would tell of her having run a saw mill. She would describe the mansion that Grandpapa had built for her.
Wade who had been alive during these years knew she was making most of it up and definitely about the mansion and the sawmill. Usually there was always a grain of truth in all her stories but not the ones about the mansion or her owning a sawmill. He also knew that Papa had not been a great patriot for the Confederacy. Wade never said anything. Papa had been a great man and if his Mama wanted to embellish the truth, he was alright with that.
Scarlett talked about returning to Atlanta and going to Tara one more time but every time she did Prissy would say, "Miss Scarlett, it is easier not to return."
Scarlett would smile sadly and say, "Yes, it is. I guess I just sometimes want to go back to the life we had before the war."
Prissy would smile a naughty smile and say, "I certainly don't want to return to that life."
Scarlett would always laugh and say, "No, I guess you don't."
After Prissy died in nineteen oh seven all the fire left Scarlett. Prissy had been her last connection to her youth and her life in the South. To her life of a bygone past. To a life that no longer existed if it really ever had.
Later in nineteen oh seven Scarlett died also. It was almost eight years after Rhett. Her heart just quit beating one night. She was only sixty-one at the time. She had told her children and her grandchildren often that she loved them and that she had no regrets from her life. Her children and grandchildren grieved for their loss but they knew she was happier on the other side with Papa.