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AN:

Aww guys I am so glad you're finding Rhett to be a dick, ass, pathetic, sad…Totally what I was going for. Rhett and Scarlett from the scene in the dining room to the scene on the stairs are just so extreme, absurd and ridiculous and it is totally awful because Scarlett had JUST started to have all those realizations about not feeling passion for Ashley anymore.

Also let's not be too mad at Rhett for pulling Scarlett off the landing after she went to hit him. Rhett is NOT okay with Scarlett doing things that may kill her, which is why they have Bonnie.

Also to anyone regretting their vote, 2 was totally more lighthearted with a bossy, stubborn, backboned and fun Scarlett. :-P

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Part Two

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Rhett did not see Scarlett again until one the following afternoon. She had obviously not expected to see him at the dinner table. She ate her midday meal unfashionably early. Rhett was not entirely sure Scarlett could go more than four hours without eating, unless she was drinking or asleep. It always reminded him of how she had suffered during those long years at Tara and wonder how all that they had still couldn't undo that damage.

The girls weren't with her, he hadn't expected them to be. Scarlett seldomly took weekday dinners with the children without guests. He had seen her sit with them for tea or supper, light meals that didn't force her to parent the children for hours.

"Are the children in the nursery?" He questioned from the doorway.

She looked startled and her eyes flickered slightly to the servant, likely thinking about how all of Atlanta would know that he hadn't greeted his wife. "They are over at the Wilkes. Melly was delighted to see Bonnie."

"Of course, Mrs. Wilkes was, she is a wonderful aunt," his words were veiled, implying Scarlett's own poor mothering in comparison to her sister in law.

"Will you be joining me Rhett?" Scarlett looked at the place setting on the opposite side of the table.

"I believe I will," he moved to sit. A servant moved to serve him. "I can hardly believe Mrs. Wilkes didn't issue you an invitation to share the meal with them."

"I spent the morning with the children. Melly saw I was tired and offered to take the children for the afternoon."

"I imagine she has been babying you a great deal," Rhett commented.

"I only told her about the baby this morning, seemed as if that was something a husband should know before a friend. Although I imagine Melly realized I was with child before I did. She has certainly been attentive."

"How long did it take you this time?"

"Obviously not as long as it did with Bonnie," she remarked with some humor. Just a hint of pleasantness.

No, she had been halfway gone with Bonnie before Dr. Meade told her. She had been burning the candle at both ends. The house, the parties. Even Rhett hadn't given that slightly thickening waistline a second thought with how much his wife had been partaking of food and drink. He had liked the idea of his wife's body growing lusher from their life, their life of comfort, where she could be happy and secure that he would always take care of her. "So how long?"

"5 weeks," she felt as if she was admitting a great truth to him. She had known their baby was growing within her for nearly months now. She had known and let it continue to grow.

Rhett smiled, "Scarlett, I'm astonished by your sense of observation this time around."

"I did realize within a regular time frame with the first two. Our first year of marriage was rather hectic, I certainly hadn't expected to get with child practically on our honeymoon," her eyes began to glower.

"Miraculous surprise," he lifted his glass towards her, "just like this new baby."

"Quite," she gave him an empty smile and lifted her glass as well.

"This new cook continues to be one of your best hires," Rhett said remarking on the meal.

"They could be in a restaurant in New Orleans," she agreed.

"Indeed."

"Did you and Bonnie end up travelling there before your mother's?"

"We did, for 3 days."

"And nights I assume as well," her smile was chilling. Well aware of the damage Rhett did to their child by his late nights.

"Quite so."

"How is your ward?"

"Thankfully, unremarkable. No risk of another child entering our house aside from the one you are carrying."

She gave him a cold smile.

They passed the large meal with little else aside from comments about the meal itself and events Rhett had missed in Atlanta.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

He watched Scarlett's body as he had been doing so for days. There wasn't quite a swell of her abdomen, but a thickening. A thickening made visible because he was well aware she was wearing her corset without the stays. His vain wife was having supper with Ashley Wilkes without being cinched to the point she could barely take breath.

This supported his belief that she had gone from his bed to weakling's bed. It did things to a man to see their child being grown within a woman. The swell of her stomach, the swell of her breasts, the glow that seemed to emanate from every inch of her skin. The swell of her stomach now would not be a detriment to her vanity, but a source of her power. Oh yes, it did things to a man indeed.

Rhett suspected he'd go from Scarlett's birthing bed to slaughtering Ashley Wilkes within an hour. He could imagine being presented with a fair-haired child with pale eyes and being told it was a throw back to the older generations.

Damn her for doing this to him. To their family. Didn't that woman have any respect for herself?

He drank far more than he should have during the evening meal, he'd done his best to truly not leave Bonnie not more than a drop or two, but he was a little worried that she would toddle when she got off of his lap.

Thanks for reading!