Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.

Chapter Thirty-Three

After Scarlett had told Rhett that she was with child again she had assigned him the task of finding a doctor that would give her chloroform. If he couldn't find one, they were moving back to London until the baby was born. Rhett was able to find a doctor in New York that would give chloroform to women in labor, so they were able to stay.

Scarlett had wanted to stay in New York, but she wasn't doing without the miracle gas. She and Rhett were settled there. They were happy there. There was always something fun and exciting to do in the city. They had lots of friends and acquaintances. They had a mansion which was the same size or smaller than all of their neighbors. They had bought an already built home and the selection of the home had been the first argument between the couple. Scarlett had been right the decorating of their home had been a long series of arguments between the couple but when they were finally finished it was a home they were both proud of. The part of the house that the public saw was a little bit more avant garde than Rhett was happy with but the part of the house that the family occupied was toned down quite a bit.

Scarlett had let Rhett decorate the nursery all by himself. He had some strong opinions on what was right for his child. Scarlett was surprised that Rhett had not fired either Eliza or Abby in the first three months of Lizbeth's life. Probably because they had been willing to travel with them to New York. Of course, Abby had been let go when Lizbeth was weaned from the breast but on a lark, Scarlett had tracked Abby down and as fate would have it, Abby was about to become unemployed again. She agreed to come back to work for the Butlers. Scarlett was relieved because Abby knew what a persnickety man Rhett Butler was in regard to his children, but the Butlers paid better than anyone else, so it was a great job, nonetheless.

On March seventeenth of seventy-one, Alexander Gerald Butler was born. Once Rhett knew that Scarlett was alright, he took his son from the doctor's assistant. He said, "I guess you and Alex will share a birthday."

"That makes me happy. Our little leprechaun."

"Does that make you my little leprechaun?"

"No, I am Pa's little leprechaun.

"Look, Scarlett, Alex has the Butler blue eyes also."

"O'Hara blue eyes."

Rhett smiled and said, "Let me get someone to get your meal." As he was walking out of the room, Scarlett thought, 'Silly baby crazy man.'

Once Scarlett had finished her meal, she went straight to sleep. Rhett walked down the hall to the nursery to show Lizbeth her brother. Rhett was a tiny bit disappointed that it wasn't another girl and a little bit rueful that Alex was going to become head of the Butler family one day. Rhett guessed he better finally start taking care of himself so he would be there to guide both Alex and Lizbeth.

Lizbeth at age two and a half was unimpressed with her little brother. She had thought the baby would have been bigger. She could tell that Daddy was incredibly happy, so she was happy. She was not worried she knew she would always be Daddy's favorite. When Daddy wouldn't let her hold the baby, she turned back to her toys. She was building a tower with her blocks. It did please Lizbeth when Daddy had sat down with her, but it pleased her even more when Abby had come and taken the baby away.

Two years later, Rhett and Scarlett were celebrating their eight-year wedding anniversary in a New York restaurant. They talked about Lizbeth, and they talked about Alex. They talked about when they were going to go visit their families. They finally decided they would go after July fourth. Nobody celebrated the holiday in the South and the couple enjoyed celebrating the holiday. They got dessert to go so they could eat it in their bedroom.

A week later, Scarlett received the telegram she had been dreading receiving most of her adult life. Pa had died jumping his horse.

After Scarlett read the telegram, she went and found Rhett. He had been in the nursery. With one look at Scarlett, Rhett knew it was going to be a bad day. She handed the paper to Rhett. She couldn't speak. After reading the telegram, he led her to the family parlor. He poured both of them a brandy.

Rhett handed Scarlett her brandy. Scarlett put the glass down on the side table next to her. She was already crying too much to drink anything. He drank his brandy down then sat down next to Scarlett on the divan. He put his arm around her and held her as she cried. Rhett was crying also. He was going to miss Gerald O'Hara. He was the closest thing Rhett had ever had in his life to a loving, kind father.

Rhett handed Scarlett her handkerchief and got out his own. When she was cried out, she said, "He loved to jump his horse. He always did. Mother used to say, 'Mr. O'Hara, jumping your horse is going to be the death of you," Scarlett sadly looked at Rhett and said, "I guess it was, but I wouldn't want him to have died any other way. He died doing what he loved to do."

"Yes, he did. He would not have wanted to die in a bed with all his loved ones crying over him. He would have preferred to go out in a blaze of glory."

"Just like you."

"Just like me. Are you going to be alright, Baby?"

"Yes, just a little sad for a while knowing he is no longer in the world."

"The funeral is in three days, so we need to get busy. You go get our trunks packed and I will make the travel arrangements. Hopefully, I will be able to get a private car."

"Alright, Dear."

Rhett and Scarlett stood up and went about performing their tasks. They were both people of action so having something to do was the best thing for them.

Rhett had luckily gotten them a private car. Two days later they were at Tara. The Butlers spent the night at Tara. The funeral was the next morning. Frank and Suellen came down on the train that morning. It was a nice day and there was a good turnout. Frank gave the eulogy. Everyone spoke kindly of Gerald O'Hara.

After everyone had left from the funeral reception, Scarlett called everyone into the parlor. She had Rhett read Gerald O'Hara's last will and testament.

Scarlett had already known that Pa was going to leave Tara to Careen and Will so when the will was read, she was not surprised, nor was Suellen so Pa must have told her also. Scarlett was glad Pa had told Suellen. She would have been so hurt if he hadn't. Not that she would have wanted Tara, but she would not have wanted to not have been informed.

Scarlett wanted to laugh out loud when it was announced that Pa had left Suellen the picture of Solange Robillard, and her sister smirked at her. Scarlett had told Pa to give it to Suellen for Rhett had already told Scarlett that if she inherited the painting, he was going to take it out and burn it.

Suellen cornered Scarlett after the reading of the will. Suellen had said, "How could you name your son Gerald also. It just isn't right for the cousins to have the same first name."

"Sue, when Gerry was born two years ago, I wrote you telling you about the birth of my son and what I was going to name him. You are acting like this is the first you are finding out about my son's name."

Scarlett had written her sister when Alex was born, but Scarlett suspected that Suellen didn't read her letters. Probably because all Scarlett's letters were a brag fest on how wonderful Scarlett's life was. They were the same kind of letters that Scarlett wrote to Melanie because she knew Melanie would share everything she wrote with Ashley. Ashley would have to listen because he couldn't say anything about his true feelings for Scarlett.

"It just isn't right."

"Besides, Sue, they are not going to spend enough time together for it to matter. You know we rarely spend any time together. You know Rhett and I live in New York while enjoying the best of everything."

All Suellen could think to say was, "It just isn't right."

"Sue, Careen named Paddy after Pa also. His name is Gerald Patrick"

"But she calls him Paddy."

Scarlett smiled and said as she walked away, "Suellen, I know you named your son Gerald just so I couldn't. I wasn't going to let you stop me from naming my son after my father," A laughing Scarlett walked off.

Scarlett and Rhett called their son Alex but during the short amount of time Suellen was around both Scarlett and Rhett had called the boy Gerry just to annoy her. Careen and Will had looked at Scarlett a little strange when she had called her son Gerry, but they had quickly figured out what she was doing - Annoying Suellen. They were alright with that for Suellen was still an irritating person to be around especially with her bragging on how great and wonderful her life was in Atlanta.

In truth Alex, who was only two, probably didn't realize his parents were calling him the wrong name because he didn't pay any attention when someone called him Gerry. After all, it wasn't his name.

Suellen had brought Mammy with her to the funeral for two reasons. Mammy had wanted to say goodbye to Mr. Gerald, the man that had treated her Miss Ellen like a queen, and Suellen now had four children and she couldn't handle them all by herself.

As Scarlett and Careen watched the Kennedys leaving the plantation, Scarlett said to Careen, "It looks like Suellen has Mammy for the rest of Mammy's life."

"Yeah. I tried to get her to stay with me and she said she didn't want to live in the country."

"I tried to get her to stay with me and she said my husband was as charming as a snake oil salesman."

Both women laughed. Scarlett said, "I'm happy with our nursemaid, Eliza, but she is just my employee."

"I'm happy with our nursemaid also. Lulu is a real peach but like you just said she is just my employee.

"Rhett said that Mammy knows that Suellen needs her much more than you or I."

"She probably always has."

"She and Frank seem very happy."

"Ellen, Gerry, Ralph, and Solange all look like Suellen."

"But fortunately, act just like Frank."

The sisters both laughed.

Careen and Scarlett would be gratified to know that Mammy stayed with Suellen because the child did need her so much more than the other sisters. It wasn't bad living in the Kennedy household. Miss Suellen was happy with her life and Mr. Frank did treat his wife like a queen which made Miss Suellen so much easier to live with. Furthermore, Miss Suellen was at the store most of the day. After Mammy had put the children to bed for the night, she could escape to her room. The last reason Mammy wanted to live with Miss Suellen is that Miss Suellen didn't know the disgraceful way Miss Ellen had behaved. To Miss Suellen, her mother was still the perfect lady. To Mammy it was embarrassing Miss Careen and Miss Scarlett knowing how badly their mother had behaved.

The Butlers spent two weeks at Tara. That was all Rhett could stand. Although he did notice that his children had enjoyed their time at the plantation.

Since the family was already in the South, they decided to go ahead and travel to Charleston instead of returning to New York. It just made sense. They were so close.

As the Butlers were leaving Scarlett said to Careen, "If you need anything, just let me know. Tara has to remain solvent."

"Tara and we are doing fine financially. Better than most. Probably because we never had to borrow money to buy cotton seed or pay for food thanks to Rhett's generosity."

"He can be a wonderful man when he wants to be, but he can also be a donkey's behind when he wants to be."

"I will gladly take your word for it. I don't think I want to see Rhett when he is being a donkey's behind."

The sisters would have been surprised to learn that Rhett and Will had a similar conversation the day before behind the barn. They were toasting their father-in-law with his moonshine. Rhett said, "About every six months I would send Gerry a check for a hundred dollars. I will continue doing that. It is just enough to keep Tara solvent. Scarlett would die if we lost Tara now."

"I will accept your money for the next couple of years, but I am going to move us to share cropping. I think our expenses will be less after we make the move."

"Let me know when to stop sending the check. The women don't need to know anything about this."

"Definitely."

The men smiled and took another swig from the jug of moonshine.

When the family got to the Atlanta depot, they got off the train. Rhett arranged a private car. When he found out that the train to Charleston would not be leaving for another three hours, he took the family to eat at BoccaLupe even Eliza.

Rhett said, "I know we can get better Italian food in New York, but the food is still good enough and we do have to eat."

After the family was seated Scarlett with a twinkle in her eye said, "Do you remember the first time you took me here?"

With a smile, Rhett said, "Of course, I do I'm not senile," Rhett turned to his children and said, "The first time I took your mother here was right after we had gotten married."

Rhett went on to tell his children all about the event.