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

Note: I feel the need to comment to those for whom Rhett/Scarlett is endgame. I have one completed story and one active story running along those lines, after all. This is a different story with a different situation as the central plot point. I feel bad to break the two of them up, but then I read the last chapter of the novel and I figure the odds were pretty even, so this explores a different scenario.

Rhett walked into the office and just stared at the woman he'd once called wife. Her hair was pulled back neatly, but not severely. Her face had filled in a little. She reminded him of right after they'd first married. There was life in her face, and her body, what he could see of it behind the desk, was pleasingly filled out, not so skinny as she'd got after the miscarriage and Bonnie's death. She was thirty-five if he recalled correctly, and the years had been extremely kind to her. He was aware that they'd been less kind to him.

"Are those my boys?" He pointed his hat out the door.

She refused to be pulled into a shouting match first thing, if his presence was going to fill the room like it always had in Atlanta days. "Good afternoon, Captain Butler," she said, sounding to herself just as she had at the bazaar where they formally met. She held her hand out over the desk as if to shake.

He picked up her hand and kissed it. "My dear Mrs…" He was hung there, surprised and disturbed that the exchange they'd used so many times in the past was irrevocably changed. He shook his head, not wanting to get off the topic. "Scarlett, you never told me about my children."

She stretched her back a little and waved at the chair to his side. "Have a seat, Rhett." As he did, she said, "You never asked."

She glanced down at the register in front of her. There was a mistake in the third column. She made a mark to remember it when she got the chance. She looked back up. He was observing her with that blank stare that always made her fidget and say too much. "What made you extort my address out of me in order for me to give my son his birthright, and what brought you one thousand miles from your presumably lovely home and presumably lovely wife to come to a place where your freshly pressed linen suit didn't last fifteen minutes without getting crumpled and dusty?"

"Your son has the money now, doesn't he? I put my half into an account for you to spend on the children."

"Uncle Henry wrote me. It was most generous of you. Thank you."

So much for the first exchange of battle. They were quiet for a minute. He realized they were off the topic again.

"Why have you been hiding, Scarlett? Was it the twins?"

"Do you really have to ask? How could I possibly stay in Atlanta, divorced and pregnant at the same time?"

"When were those boys born?"

"You no doubt have figured out the answer. They will be five next week, making their birth April 16 of 1875, nine months after our fifth wedding anniversary, or the date of our divorce, depending upon which occasion you prefer to note on that night."

"The date of our divorce is August 18. That's when the judge signed it."

"If you're going to argue with me about everything, you can go right back out that door and straight to Halifax." She had developed her own penetrating stare in the last five years.

"So it would be nine months after our fifth wedding anniversary or eight months after our divorce, depending upon which date has more meaning for you. You won, Rhett. You got to have me as your mistress for one night, and I got the passel of brats. I never would have believed it, that night we discussed it during the siege, but I have to admit, I got by far the best of that deal."

"We were still legally married when we conceived them and they're mine, and don't tell me that night wasn't the best of our marriage."

"The best night of our marriage was the last?" Scarlett felt herself tear up and shook her head, determined not to let him have that. "You let me believe that you had changed your mind, but it was all a lie, wasn't it? In your mind we were already divorced by the time you took me upstairs. In your mind, I was nothing more than one of many bodies in the many beds around the world. I was no more than one of those women you frequent in places like Belle Watling's house. How many pregnant prostitutes have you left behind you?"

"There are methods to reduce the chance…" He couldn't explain it now. He returned to the twins. "They're sure to be hellions."

"They're spirited at times, I will admit, but nothing Ewan can't handle. I got the best of that deal, too," she said quietly.

"They do appear to be fine boys, It's to your… and Mr. McLure's credit. You're married?"

"I don't just go randomly using men's names for my own, Rhett."

"No, you just go randomly marrying men."

He expected to see her puff up and lay into him but instead watched her take a deep breath and say nothing. He spoke again before she did. "Do the boys know I'm their father? Do they know you took them and hid them from me?"

"No," she said, "I don't think so, and I was hiding them from the busybodies and old peahens who would have gossiped and treated them as worthless. I was hiding them for their sake and for the sake of your reputation, because you were so eager to marry that other woman that you must have been madly in love.

"Now that they've met you, they'll figure it out when they get old enough to understand that sort of thing. For now, you're some sort of kin to the family. When I realized your arrival was unavoidable, I had to give them all a little information about you. You're someone I was close to in Atlanta."

He leered at her. "I should say we got pretty close the night we made those boys." He should have realized that her practical mind would have quickly realized what his marriage and her pregnancy would do to every single person in their combined worlds. He sat back in the chair. "What's their last name?"

"McLure, just like their parents and their brother."

"Brother?"

"Aiden is two years old."

Rhett looked out the window. Scarlett definitely won this round. She hadn't just got married, she was happily married.

Kate felt almost guilty at the defeated slump to his shoulders. "You're upset that I have children with my husband? You've been married longer than I have. Surely you have children," She averred.

"No," said Rhett quietly. "There will be no children from my marriage. Those two boys will be my heirs. You shouldn't have kept them from me, but I'll do right by them." That much he'd decided in the hour since he'd met them.

"Rhett, why are you here?"

"I've been looking for you since right after it all happened. I wanted to explain. I was hoping that somehow we could find an arrangement."

"An… arrangement, Rhett?"

He nodded. "I don't share a bed with my wife. I never have." There, it was out.

She was always quick with math and now was no exception. "Why couldn't you just stick with Belle Watling? She would move to Charleston in a heartbeat for you."

"She was never more than an illiterate whore."

"Whereas you constantly told me how stupid I was and that I was little better than a whore? I don't see a difference in how you claim to view us." Kate let that one draw out before observing, "She loves you and doesn't want anything from you that you're not willing to give, at least from what you say." She smiled softly. "Ewan does see a difference between me and other women."

"Scarlett, you are different, and you know I wanted you like I've never wanted any other woman. It's still true, and that night..."

"That night shouldn't have happened. You knew that before it started, and I knew it the minute it ended. Then you got married and I could never understand why you let it happen, why you spent that last night with me."

"I still love you, Scarlett. Do you still love me?"

"I'm married now, Rhett, and I love my husband, and it's Kate now."

"You once professed deathless love to me."

"You dismissed it pretty quickly, but I meant every word," she said sadly. "Ewan is… different. He's a better man. I do love him, so very much, and what is between us is clean and precious. My love for you is torture, always wishing you would stop being mean long enough to... You used it that last night, and you betrayed it from the moment you stepped through the door until you left."

She wasn't wrong, but Rhett was offended. "Surely it wasn't all bad."

"No, dinner was delicious and that champagne was lovely. It's a shame I lost it when I realized it was just to set me up. I know you went to a great deal of work on all of it, to get me into a frame of mind, and then with the brandy to twist me so far around I would do anything you asked."

"What about…"

"The eight hours we spent in your bedroom after you forced my signature? It was heaven, Rhett, but did they tell you what happened the next morning?"

He blanched. "I heard you scream as I left."

"I don't remember it that clearly," she said absently, looking out the window. The twins were playing in the yard, now. Ewan had no doubt had told them to do their pre-dinner chores and they were dragging it out. "I was told that I screamed and cried until I lost my voice. They had to sedate me."

"Scarlett, I—"

"Are you going to apologize? Was it all some sort of a mistake?"

He shook his head no. "The divorce had to be done, but you never should have kept your pregnancy from me."

She sighed and threw her hands in the air, then let them fall back to the desk. "Well and good, Rhett. I received the paper work from the courts and the declaration of nullity from the Church on the same day my aunts oh-so-helpfully sent me the notice of your beautiful society wedding. By the way, Aunt Pauline thought the gravy could have used a dash of ginger. She asked me to mention it so you could tell your cooks."

He raised an eyebrow at the absurdity that never stopped amazing him when it came to his mother's dear friends Pauline and Eulalie. Did they honestly think Scarlett would be on such terms with his household that the exchange of kitchen hints would be likely? Was Scarlett still supporting them financially? She was, but she'd let Henry Hamilton make all the arrangements, including the exchange of letters. He'd long since checked on that.

"There could only be one reason to rush your wedding, but there wasn't, was there? You were already married by the time I knew I was pregnant… if you cared at all, why didn't you ask before moving on? Why did you so quickly marry that other woman?"

He looked out the window. She started again, quieter. "I nearly broke down again, but I had just realized I was pregnant and I had to hold myself together for the sake of the child… children as it turned out. I had to swallow my feelings and figure out what to do… in weeks."

"I'm surprised you didn't go to Mamie Bart and end it."

"Do you realize that if I had truly planned to do that with Bonnie, the last thing I would have done is tell you first? Do you really think I'm so stupid?"

Something in the pit of his stomach gave way. "Then why?"

"I didn't want the baby, but I wanted you to… and you almost said, but then… You just made a joke about how expensive I was."

He closed his eyes. Once again, he discovered a moment where it had all been in his grasp if he'd only taken a single step in a different direction.

Every part of him ached to go to her and put his head in her lap and tell her the whole thing, but it wasn't the right time, and he couldn't let her win this time. "Our whole marriage was a betrayal, Scarlett. You thought of Ashley Wilkes the entire time you were in my bed."

"That isn't exactly true, Rhett. I thought about Ashley much less often than you think. I couldn't possibly whenever you kissed me. You ran to Belle Watling the first minute we ever had a fight."

"You see that divorce was probably the best option."

"So why did you come looking for me? The first letter came from Henry a month after I got to Houston. It had barely ended, Rhett. You barely had time for a honeymoon. He told me you'd tried to contact me, but that as far as anyone knew you were happily married. I didn't see the point."

He couldn't explain that now. There was too much between them, and while he desperately wanted to talk to her, he couldn't admit everything like this. She was clearly still angry with him, and he knew how towering her rage could be. His own rage, at her and at his current situation, was simmering nicely as well.

"Why have you come, Rhett? Surely not to sit in a hot office and argue with me."

He was defeated. "Is there any way I can come back tomorrow and perhaps spend the day with Ella? I'd like to get to know the twins, too."

"You were always good with the children." She smiled kindly. "Ella's in Houston at school, for all the good it's doing her. She'll be home this weekend. I know the twins would like to know more about you. They're very excited to meet an actual sea captain."

"You told them about that?"

"I may have mentioned that the man coming to visit, who looks so much like them, was a Confederate blockade runner."

"So I can come back tomorrow?"

"I would assume that Ewan has already asked Olivia to get the spare room ready for you and is only waiting until you come out and write a note to wherever you left your luggage to send for it. Try to leave Olivia alone, Rhett. She's beautiful, but she's a newlywed."

"There's only one woman I hoped to romance on this trip, Scarlett."

She shook her head and stood up. "I'm Kate, now, and I'm not the prettiest trick in shoe leather these days."

He looked at her in shock. "You're pregnant!"

She put her hand to her very large belly. "Yes. I know I can't interest you much today." She looked down and smiled. She looked up to see his face and got quite uncertain. "Rhett?"

He swallowed hard, fighting to keep his emotions down. It was one thing to know she had a son with the man who was out there somewhere, but to see her heavy with child, glowing with life and what her relationship to the man must be, was something else entirely. As he had when it was Frank and Ella, he would close his eyes and imagine it was him and his child. "My very dear Mrs. Butler, to tell you the truth, if you were to give me the slightest hint of interest, I would have you on that desk in the next minute."

She blushed bright red and gently said, "It's Kate McLure, now, and I'm not married to you anymore." She went to the door and opened it. "Come along Captain. It's time for dinner, and you'll want to wash up first."

They went into the parlor, and Ewan raised his eyebrows at Kate, who smiled and stood within his arm. Rhett could see the way his hand curved protectively on the side of her her rounded stomach. Rhett's own stomach soured as his hands clenched. It was Frank Kennedy all over again, except instead of Scarlett tilting out of Frank's embrace and looking disgusted, this Kate tilted toward McLure. She looked up at her husband and smiled. Then her eyes got wide and she grabbed the man's free hand and placed it over a spot on her tummy. The child was moving, and its parents made an all too intimate tableau of delight.

Rhett turned and saw the twins. "Where does one go to wash his hands in this house?"

Rhett found himself studying Scarlett as dinner progressed. The most interesting thing so far was the twins' names. Jerry and Bud were short for Gerald and Langston, Scarlett's father and his own. He wondered if she had assumed that some day he would meet the twins after all. The hardest part for him was the way Scarlett would glance at himself, bite her lip uncertainly, then look at the other end of the table and receive a look of assurance from her husband that made her glow. He almost left the table over it. Why couldn't he have ever had that effect on her?

Kate, meanwhile, was having a difficult time eating properly. There was a lot of extra pressure on her stomach, making it harder to begin with, but the way Rhett stared at her worried her. Scarlett and he might have had this sort of family if only. If she hadn't told him there would be no more children, if she had kept Ashley at arms' length on his birthday, if she had told Rhett how she felt that night, if she'd told him she wanted the baby, if she hadn't tried to attack him and ended up falling down the stairs, if they'd only made some sort of accommodation afterwards, if he hadn't rejected her when she finally apologized, if he hadn't divorced her through trickery. Why had he divorced her and remarried? Round and round her thoughts went, but when she looked at Ewan holding their son and remembered the baby within her, Kate emerged and reminded her that she'd done very well out of the horror of her old life.

After dinner, she encouraged Rhett to tell some of his stories to the twins. Wade and Ella always loved his stories. Ewan sat next to her and picked up her hand. Every so often Kate heard him gasp or chuckle along with Rhett's narrative. He was quite the storyteller. The evening grew old and at some point she realized Rhett was sitting next to her and patting her hand.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked.

"McLure and Olivia just took the children upstairs," he answered. "Scarlett, why didn't you contact me when you knew you were pregnant?"

She sighed. "You told me, the night Melly died, that you didn't want any more children with me. I saw you shudder. You were physically revolted by the idea, and I wanted my baby to be wanted. And I realized just days before I heard the news of your marriage. I assumed you were rushing it because your wife was in a fix. Surely you wouldn't want a bastard child added to your brand new marriage that everyone thought was to avoid a bastard child. And, worst of all—"she looked away from him—"I couldn't risk that you would take my baby away from me."

He tipped her face back toward himself. "Scarlett, you know I would never do that."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Like you would never take Bonnie away?" She shook her head. "Whatever I did, I needed to move fast. So I came to Texas, and Tony Fontaine helped me find this place."

He nodded thoughtfully. "You're not wrong. I did bring Bonnie back, but I see how it must have looked to you. Still, if you ever call my sons bastards again, Scarlett, I'll have to call you out. Their mother is not that kind of woman."

She smiled grimly. "I would never call them that, Rhett, but that is how they would look to your gracious and dignified Charleston. How would your wife see them?"

He nodded again, determining there on the spot that Caroline would never be in the same state as his sons while there was breath in his own body. "I suppose you are right. I don't suppose you can show me to my bedroom?" He held out his hand to help her stand up.

She showed him up the stairs and explained about the various facilities he might need and left him at his bedroom door. "It's not as grand as our house in Atlanta, but I think it's quite homey and comfortable," she said.

He kissed her hand. "I'm sure I'll be fine, Scarlett. Unless you'd care to join me?"

She rolled her eyes. "My name is Kate, Captain Butler, and I have a husband."

A/N: We get our title this week from a song written by Johnny Burke and Bob Haggart. I'm most familiar with the Linda Ronstadt/Nelson Riddle Orchestra version, but there are others. It's a haunting song about two former lovers running into each other after being apart, and at least one of them still loves the other.

Thanks so much to the readers and reviewers, including Romabeachgirl1981, gumper, Guest 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &5 , beautifulliar326, gabyhyatt, COCO B, Truckee Gal, Asline Nicole, PrincessAlica, annaPanag, samandfreddie, gogomohamad229, and Jguest.