Sorry for the long gap in between stories, I am still planning on writing a full-length GWTW fanfiction, but uni is taking up way too much of my time at the moment so that might have to be put on hold for a little while yet. In the meantime, here's a three-parter that came into my head and refused to leave until I sat down and wrote it. It's pretty different from 'Waking Up' and I'm not too sure if it comes across on paper as well as it did in my mind, but I thought I'd share it with you anyway and would appreciate any comments you have on it.

The story takes place fourteen years after Melanie died when, by my (rough) calculations, Scarlett is 42 and Rhett is 59. Hope you enjoy!

(also a quick thanks to areadergirl for giving me the nudge I needed to keep going!)

Scarlett was sitting at her desk going over the books with a methodical and practiced air one sunny morning in late June when she felt a shadow fall across the doorway. Looking up, she gasped as her eyes drank in the image of a man she had feared she would never see again. He was dressed impeccably as always, his suit pristine and tailored and his shoes polished until they shone almost as brightly as his smile. He tipped his panama hat to her in greeting, as if they were nothing more than two distant acquaintances who had happened to run into each other. Perhaps, after everything, that was all they were now, but the rush of blood in Scarlett's ears reminded her that it hadn't always been this way. Once, many lifetimes ago, this man had been everything.

'My dear, dear Mrs. O'Hara!' he said in a drawl so deep, sensual and achingly familiar that it made her entire body erupt in goose-pimples.

He appeared so at ease in tone and body language that Scarlett was almost fooled into thinking that it had been mere moments since they had last set eyes on each other rather than nine long years. Though his arrival was completely unexpected, Scarlett found that she was not at all shocked to see him standing in front of her. In fact it felt natural, normal even, as if she had been waiting for him all this time without quite realizing it. Even as her head told her to keep her distance and remain on the defensive, her eyes locked onto his bottomless, black ones and she felt the flimsy walls she had built around her heart since the day Melly died being torn down by the sheer power of his gaze.

He looked so different, and yet exactly the same. His hair was grey where it had once been black, his tanned face was etched with lines and his commanding frame had diminished over the years, his shoulders hunching over slightly so that he had lost a couple of inches off his once impressive height. Yet, while his body may have weakened, his presence was as strong as ever. Life burned just as intensely out of his dark eyes and, Scarlett thought wryly, he was still as capable of making an impression when he entered a room as he had been back in his prime.

'Rhett.'

The word rose up from deep inside her and slipped from her lips unbidden, before she had a chance to stop it. She exhaled his name as she would air, as if she had been holding her breath since the moment he first left and could only release it now that he was back. His name was a plea, a greeting, an endearment and a reprimand all in one and Rhett stiffened as it floated through the air to his ears, the atmosphere in the room becoming heavy and fraught.

Blushing slightly at having given herself away so easily, Scarlett sat up in her seat and, straightening her spine like a matador would when the bull first enters the ring, prepared herself for battle.

'What are you doing here?' she asked primly, as if Rhett were merely a business associate and not the man who had infuriated and captivated her for over a decade, who had promised her everything only to leave her with nothing one dark and misty night.

'Ella turns twenty-one this year. I felt it was my duty to come,' he said curtly, his earlier joviality disappearing as he strove to echo her formal tone.

Scarlett's heart sank at the answer, hurt by the knowledge that his sudden reappearance was not motivated by a desire to see her, but rather by her daughter. It was foolish of her to have thought otherwise. Why would he come all this way now when he had not sent her so much as a telegram since their divorce was finalised? Though he had washed his hands of Scarlett that day, Rhett had continued to write to Ella - a fact Scarlett knew only too well, having felt her heart break a little each time she received a letter from the man she still loved only to discover the envelope was addressed to someone else. Yet, the traitorous part of her heart which still belonged to Rhett had flooded with hope when she had seen him standing before her, believing that he had returned for her at long last.

Struggling to mask the disappointment that tore through her, Scarlett focused on the present and frowned as she took in the implication of his words more fully.

'Did you tell her you were coming?'

'I did. Surely she must have told you to expect me?'

'You'd have thought so, wouldn't you?' Scarlett said bitterly, unable to hide her anger at Ella for keeping Rhett's visit a secret. Her daughter knew how she still felt about Rhett, everybody did, and yet apparently Ella had not felt that it was worth mentioning that he was coming to see her. Scarlett knew Ella could be scatter-brained at the best of times, but surely something as monumental as this wouldn't have slipped even her haphazard mind?

'Are you certain you have the right day, Rhett?'

'Actually we had arranged to meet tomorrow, but I finished up in Atlanta earlier than I had anticipated so thought I'd head down today and surprise her.'

'Oh, that explains it,' Scarlett said, pleased to have solved the mystery. 'She probably intended to tell me that you were coming when she got back tomorrow morning. You see, Rhett, I'm afraid your journey's been in vain as Ella's not here at the moment. In fact no one is, they've all gone to visit Jam… that is they've all gone away for the weekend,' she stuttered awkwardly, a blush darkening her alabaster skin.

Thankfully Rhett seemed not to have noticed her slip, or if he did he chose not to comment on it. Either way Scarlett was grateful. There were some things that Rhett was better off not knowing, not when they'd already caused each another enough pain for one lifetime.

She had expected him to look crestfallen at her announcement and was shocked and slightly bemused when instead his face split into a wide grin. Wondering if Rhett's hearing had deteriorated with age and he hadn't understood her properly, Scarlett opened her mouth to repeat herself when he surprised her further by moving across the room towards her desk, his tread, though significantly heavier than before, still every bit as predatory as it had always been.

'What luck,' he said softly as he lowered himself into the chair across the table from her, his black eyes twinkling with a potent mixture of mischief and nostalgia, 'to find you alone!'

Scarlett bristled as his words evoked memories of an earlier, happier time, a time when they had been so much more to each other than they were now, a time she had tried so hard to make herself forget. She knew he was only teasing her as he had always loved to do, but once again it seemed to her a cruel joke, one which ripped open old wounds and mocked her for still bleeding when he himself had long since learnt to stem the flow.

In that moment she remembered why it was that she had finally caved in and granted him his precious divorce after years of stubbornly holding out. It was not because her feelings for him had waned over time like they had for Ashley, but because she had finally realized that no matter how hard she fought he would never truly allow himself to love her again. Scarlett had always despised weakness and being unable to break down his iron will had left her feeling exactly that. Over time she had even stopped looking forward to his annual visits, for while he may have been near her physically, mentally he was as distant as if thousands of miles still separated them.

While she had initially thought she was trapping Rhett by refusing to grant him his divorce, eventually Scarlett came to realise that she was the one who was slowly suffocating under the weight of their prolonged sham of a marriage. Rhett had always done exactly as he pleased, single or not, Belle Watling was nothing if not a constant remainder of that, whilst she was imprisoned by her status as a married woman, unable to move on from her life with Rhett even though their relationship had been dead for years in everyone's eyes but the law's.

Giving him up had been the hardest thing she had ever had to do and yet she knew that it had been for the best, finally bringing about an end to the miserable half-life she has been leading ever since he'd walked out on her. With nothing to tie her to Atlanta anymore and unable to stand the old cat's sneering for a second longer, Scarlett had gathered her things, her children and her servants together and bid a bittersweet goodbye to the house that had taken so very much from her over the years.

Whilst the rest of her life may have been in chaos, her destination had been the only thing she was entirely certain of. In all her life, Scarlett had only ever really belonged in one place, had only ever really been able to call one building her true home: Tara. Within its white walls surrounded by miles of red, rolling hills she planned to grow strong again. To recover from all the hardships that life had thrust upon her slim shoulders since the day she had first left it as a young, bored widow and rise up greater and prouder than ever before.

Looking down at the bulging book on her desk, Scarlett smiled at the knowledge that she wasn't the only one who had come to retain her former glory over the last few years. Tara and her had prospered together, drawing strength from each other as they carved out a new life for themselves in a world that had changed beyond all recognition. The plantation was now back to its best, making even more of a profit than it had done before the war thanks to a winning combination of her visionary business ideas and Will's ability to put them into practice.

'You know you're still a pretty person, Scarlett,' Rhett mused, his eyes alight with some unknown emotion as he watched her reminisce. 'And I'm glad to see you smiling again. There was a time when I worried you'd forgotten how.'

Scarlett passed over the darker implications of his comment and instead heard only the compliment, pleased that even after all this time Rhett still found her attractive. She had done her best to maintain her looks over the years, following Mammy's beauty tips as if they were her own personal Bible helping to save her from the Hell that was old age.

Of course, she wasn't what she had been, her skin was less tight and firm now, and a few wrinkles were beginning to form round her lips and forehead. Her once glossy locks had lost some of their bounce and thickness and her waist was larger than she cared to either notice or admit. Yet, all in all she was rather pleased when she looked in the mirror these days, finding the woman staring back to be elegant and dignified, with more than a passing resemblance to her beloved Ellen. Most importantly, her startling green eyes had survived the ravages of time and were as arresting as ever, promising that no matter how old she might get, hers would never be a face that would blend unnoticed into a crowd.

'Thank you, Rhett,' she replied in as demure a voice as she was capable of. 'You don't look so bad yourself, I suppose, although I miss your black hair. That awful grey stuff makes you look like an old man.'

Rhett threw back his head and laughed loudly at her comment and Scarlett felt her skin fizzle at the much missed sound.

'I see your looks aren't the only thing about you that hasn't changed, Scarlett. You are still as blunt as ever! I agree with you about my hair, though,' he said ruefully, reaching up and stroking his fingers through his mane with a mournful expression which Scarlett knew was only half-mocking. 'I've always been rather vain about my appearance, nowhere near as bad as you of course, but still I'm not ashamed to admit the day I found my first grey hair I wept a little inside. Indeed, the only thing that managed to comfort me was the thought that at least I wasn't going bald. It takes a certain sort of man to carry off baldness, Scarlett, and I fear that I am not one of those lucky few.'

Scarlett found herself laughing harder than she had done in some time, not so much at the idea of a bald Rhett - although the image was highly amusing - but at the absurdity of the situation she now found herself in. If someone had told her when she got out of bed this morning that she would soon be sitting in her office talking to her ex-husband about the state of his hair of all things she would have told them to hush up and stop spouting such nonsense. And yet here they were, after years of separation and with so much pain and repressed emotion still existing between them, sitting idly round talking about inconsequential things as if they were an old married couple with all the time in the world.

As so often happened when it came to their relationship though, Scarlett's joy was short lived. The image of herself and Rhett as an elderly, married couple cut through Scarlett's laughter and made her stomach clench in pain. She had always feared ageing, convinced that life was not worth living once all the best things like beaus and balls and beauty were behind you, but now she almost wished that she could grow old with Rhett. Somehow she felt that she would not fear the passing of time so keenly if only he were there to share it with her.

'Who's that?' Rhett asked, breaking Scarlett's reverie and pulling her back into the present.

'Who's who?' Scarlett asked worriedly. she twisted around in her seat to look out of the window, afraid of what, or rather who, she might find staring back at her through the glass. Her terror subsided when she realised there was no one there, only the familiar wide expanse of lawn and sky. She frowned as she heard Rhett chuckle behind her.

'Not out there, up there,' Rhett said amusedly, pointing to the wall behind Scarlett's desk. A wall which was almost entirely taken up by the large, gilded portrait of her grandmother.

Scarlett smiled as she gazed upon the woman she had never met and yet had always secretly admired, a woman she had come to resemble in temperament far more closely than she had Ellen. 'That's my Grandmother Robillard, my mother's mother.'

'Ah,' Rhett said, his eyes sparkling with recognition. 'The one who married three times and had duels fought over her, yes?'

'How on earth do you remember that, Rhett? I hardly even recall mentioning her to you!' Scarlett exclaimed, stunned by his impressive knowledge of her family tree.

'You'd be surprised how much I remember when it comes to you, Scarlett,' he said simply, his eyes burning with some silent emotion that made it hard for her to look him in the face without blushing. She felt startled by his admission, pained by the thought that he had once cared enough about her to memorize such inconsequential details. He must have loved her so very much back then, more perhaps than any man had ever loved a woman, and she had been such a damned, blind fool to let such happiness pass her by.

'For example,' Rhett continued, his intense expression having morphed into one of sly amusement. 'I also remember you telling me that she wore terribly low-cut dresses, but I must confess that I can see nothing so shocking in what she is wearing in that picture. Lord knows I've seen you in far more scandalous ensembles, many a time!'

'Yes, I'm sure you have,' Scarlett replied tartly. She could feel her temper, normally kept under a tight rein these days, rising rapidly when exposed to his expert baiting once more. 'And I'm also sure that you bought most of them for me, Rhett Butler, so don't you go acting all high and mighty!'

'Calm your ruffled feathers,' he said placating, a small, satisfied smile playing out at the corner of his lips as if he was pleased to find that he still had the power to make her mad. 'I meant no offense by it. Besides, I'd have thought you would be pleased by the comparison, after all didn't you always say you wanted to be like your grandmother?'

'I don't remember,' Scarlett muttered petulantly, coming down from her sudden peak of rage and finding unwilling to give into him so easily. She had the uncomfortable feeling that, in allowing herself to become angry, she'd unwittingly walked straight into the trap he had expertly lain for her, letting him know she was still as affected by his taunting as she had been when they were married. Why Rhett sought such confirmation she did not know, but she was cross with herself for giving it to him.

Rhett's smile grew in response to her stubborn behaviour, but he wisely chose not to comment on it, instead saying, 'Well then, you should be pleased by how your life has turned out.'

'How so?' she asked.

'You married three times as well, didn't you?' he replied, his gaze suddenly growing pointed.

Scarlett stiffened slightly at his words. She turned quickly away from him, trying to think of a way to bring the conversation back to safer ground.

'And while I never went as far as to fight an actual duel for you,' Rhett continued, oblivious to her change of mood. 'I did come frightfully close to shooting Ashley Wilkes on numerous occasions.'

Ashley. She had wondered how long it would be until his name came up in conversation. It was a miracle Rhett had managed to go this long without mentioning him.

'Speaking of our mutual friend,' he continued in what he no doubt intended to be a casual voice, 'have you seen much of the esteemed gentleman lately?'

'Not lately, no,' she replied cautiously, before deciding it was safer to tell the whole truth. Rhett always knew when she was keeping things from him and she was only fulfilling her promise to Melly by looking out for Ashley anyway. 'He and Beau will be coming here for a visit in a couple of weeks. They always come to stay twice a year: once in the summer and once for Christmas. Beau's training to be a lawyer, he and Wade hope to take over Uncle Henry's practice one day if he ever gets around to retiring. I swear, Rhett, that man will outlive us all; he's as hardy now as he was the very first day I met him!'

Rhett's face, which had hardened at the knowledge that she was still in touch with Ashley, softened slightly at her last remark and he replied jovially, 'Don't I know it. I stopped by to see him yesterday afternoon and do you know that old beggar refused to see me! He even had the gall to get his secretary to tell me that he was out of the office when I could damn well see his shadow through the glass in his door!'

Scarlett grinned indulgently at her uncle's obstinate behaviour. 'You know he never did forgive you for divorcing me, Rhett.'

'No, I don't suppose he did. I can't say I blame him,' he said, lowering his voice until it was barely above a whisper and Scarlett had to strain to hear it. 'Lord knows I'll never forgive myself for it either.'

'What did you say?' Scarlett asked, feeling as though she'd been flayed wide open. He didn't mean that. He couldn't. Could he?

Rhett, perhaps fearing that he had said too much, suddenly leapt up from his chair with the speed and virility of a much younger man. Frightened that he was going to run away like he always did when things got tough, Scarlett sprang up from her own chair and reached across the desk that separated them to clutch his arm in a tight grip.

'Please don't go yet, Rhett,' she pleaded, allowing her eyes to fill with all the love and regret that she had been trying so hard to hide from him throughout their conversation. 'Give me just a little bit longer.'

Rhett seemed to shrink from her touch as if it burned him. His face was cautious when he glanced at her, his emotions safely locked away behind the mask of indifference that Scarlett realised she knew better than she did his actual face. The revelation cut her deeply, but she knew it was true. Rhett had spent so much of their marriage hiding that she had only gotten glimpses of the man he was underneath. Scarlett was too old to abide such games now. It was time to strip away the costume and feast her eyes upon the naked flesh.

They stood for a few moments in silence, staring at each other warily, neither sure whether to back away or move closer still, unable to decide in that moment which option would cause them the least amount of pain in the long run.

Finally, just as Scarlett had begun to lose all hope, Rhett sighed heavily and closed his eyes. When he reopened them a few moments later all former traces of uncertainty and strain had disappeared. He met her gaze openly and unashamedly. Scarlett shivered, sensing that his instinctive desire to run had been suppressed.

Before her very eyes his mask dissolved and he smiled her favourite crooked smile, the corner of his mouth curving down as his black eyes danced playfully in their sockets. He suddenly looked twenty years younger and Scarlett remembered why this man had made so many women's hearts flutter.

'I suppose it would be ungracious of me to leave so quickly,' he said. 'After all, this is my first ever visit to the infamous white elephant of Clayton County. It would be a crying shame to take my leave of you without first getting a tour.'

Scarlett grinned at his words, her heart beating faster at the thought of showing Rhett around Tara. They were the two things she had loved most in this world and it was only right that they should finally get to meet each other.

'Give me a moment to get my shawl, Rhett, and I'll be right with you,' she said before hurrying out of the room and up the stairs. She only just managed to stop herself from running, gripped by the fear that if she left him alone for too long then the spell would break and he would disappear out of her life as quickly and devastatingly as he had just re-entered it.