Scarlett closed the door to her oldest daughter's bedroom and walked down to the living room where Rhett was talking to Wade and Ella. It had taken a while to calm Cat down but she was now sleeping peacefully on Ella's bed. Rhett looked up when Scarlett entered the room. His dark eyes were clouded over and it seemed like he wasn't really there at all. She went and sat down next to him, snuggling up against him. He put an arm around her shoulders and looked down at her.

"Is Cat still upset?" he asked.

"She's taking a nap. You know—she never cries." Scarlett said. She glanced over at her children and saw a look pass between them. "So how have you two been?" she asked them.

"Pretty good" Wade said. Ella remained silent.

"Has Suellen been treating you all right?" Asked Scarlett. Ella looked down and licked her lips. "Darling, you can tell me if she hasn't been." Scarlett said gently.

"Sometimes she's mean to Ella." Wade spoke for his sister. Scarlett got up and walked over to the settee where Ella was sitting. She sat down next to her and wrapped her arms around her daughter.

"I'm sorry, honey." She whispered. "I'll never let her be mean to you again, I promise. Okay?" Ella nodded and Scarlett placed a kiss onto her forehead. "That's my girl. Can you do me a big favor, darling? I need to talk to Rhett for a minute, can you and Wade find something to do?"

"Yeah." Ella said, cheering up at the signs of affection from her mother.

"Thanks, baby." Scarlett said with a thin smile. As soon as Wade and Ella had left the room her mood turned, however. "Damn her." She hissed. "She must still be mad at me about Frank. But to take it out on my daughter! I have half a mind to kill her, except my mother wouldn't be to happy about that, she did always hate to see us fight." With a futile gesture Scarlett pounded her fist into a throw pillow next to her, muttering threats against her sister.

"Scarlett!" she looked up and saw that Rhett was looming over her.

"What?" she asked as she rubbed a hand over her forehead, feeling suddenly dizzy. She vaguely wondered how long Rhett had been standing there.

"Don't get yourself all worked up over it. There's nothing you can do about it now. You have to admit, darling, your sister has every right to be mad at you."

"Why—" Scarlett gaped. "Are you taking her side?"

"No, I would never do that, Scarlett."

"I guess you're right." Scarlett sighed. Her eyes misted over as she looked up at Rhett. "It just has been a rough day, you know?" She brushed away the tears that were now spilling out. Rhett pulled her up of the settee and enveloped her in his arms.

"I know." He murmured.

"Do you ever think it will stop hurting, talking about her I mean?" Scarlett asked softly.

"No, I don't. But in some ways that's a good thing, I think. Perhaps over more time it won't hurt as much, but it will never stop hurting. It's a way of remembering her, of keeping her always in our hearts. But we've both separately let her go; we can't let the loss consume us. I've already done that once, I'm not going back."

"She would be happy for us, don't you think?" Scarlett said, a wistful smile appearing on her lips.

"Yeah, she would be." Rhett said before he kissed the crown of Scarlett's head. After a moment Scarlett looked up and gave him a quick kiss.

"Come on, I'll give you the royal tour of Tara."

"Oh the royal tour, when did I become royalty?"

"Don't get all high and mighty, darling, you're just my jester."

"Your wit doth cut me like a blade, my love!" Rhett smiled, making Scarlett laugh. "Seriously, though, I've always wanted to see your Tara. Maybe it will give me some little clue about what you were like as a child."

"Well, Rhett, you knew me as a child."

"Did I?"

"Yes" Scarlett nodded. "You were married to me when I was a child, I didn't grow up until I went away." She looked down for a moment before taking a deep breath and grabbing Rhett's hand. "So as you can see this is the living room." She said, gesturing to the room they were in. "This is where we had our nightly prayers."

"Were you religious back then?"

"Not especially. I wanted to be, because Mother was and I wanted to be like her in every way." Scarlett led him into the hallway and opened the door to her mother's office. "This was always my favorite room in the whole house." She said, noticing that there was still the slightest scent of lemon verbena hanging in the air.

"Your father's office?" Rhett asked.

"No, my mother's." Scarlett walked over to the desk and ran her hand over the dulled wood. "Suellen and I used to come to her with all of our petty little disagreements when we were kids." She laughed. "Of course she would never say one or the other of us was right, we had to both be equal in her eyes. So I would run to Pa and he would always take my side. I was always a Daddy's Girl, Pa and I got along much more then he did with Suellen and Carreen. I think in some ways I was the son he had never had—well that had never lived at least." Scarlett looked around the office once more before she exited with Rhett by her side.

After she had shown him the rest of the rooms on the lower level and the stable she headed upstairs.

"This was where I shot a Yankee." She said when they were on the stairs, causing Rhett to laugh.

"My wife the little murderess! Did I ever tell you how proud I was of you for that?"

"No, you didn't."

"Well I am." Rhett said, he bent down and gave her a light kiss. Scarlett went up the rest of the stairs and entered her room. "Aah, don't tell me. This was your room." Rhett guessed.

"How very perceptive of you, yes this was my room."

"So this was where you played, where you dreamed of what you would do when you grew up. What did you want to be then, what did you dream of?"

Scarlett bit her lip and looked away from Rhett.

"You won't like it if I tell you what I dreamed about then, Rhett." She said.

"You mean—"

"Ashley? Yes. I wanted nothing more then to be the mistress of Twelve Oaks." Rhett's face darkened slightly and Scarlett went to him, throwing her arms around him. "But that was then, darling, that's not what I dream about now."

"What do you dream about now?" Rhett asked, instinctively caressing her back.

"Growing old with you." Scarlett said as she laid her head down on his shoulder and looked up into his eyes. "You're the only man in my dreams now, Rhett." She added silkily. Rhett bent down and kissed her hard and deep, his arms pulling her even closer to him. They stood in this embrace for long moments, each reveling in the feeling, before a knock came on the door.

"Damn." Rhett growled as they broke apart, both gasping for breath.

"Who is it?" Scarlett directed to the closed door.

"It's Wade." A voice came from the other side. The door opened and he came in. Wade blushed as he took in the sight of his mother leaning against Rhett.

"I—I thought you were alone." He said, looking at Rhett with an almost jealous look. "I'm sorry I'll just go." He turned and started out the door.

"No, Wade you don't have to go." Scarlett said, detaching herself from Rhett and smoothing out her hair. "Was there something you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh—um, Dilcey told me to tell you that it's supper time."

"Thanks, honey, we'll be there in a minute." Wade nodded awkwardly and left.

"Remind me to start locking doors." Rhett said with a laugh.

"I'm sorry, darling." Scarlett cooed, she stood on her tiptoes and bestowed a short kiss on him. "You know how much I enjoy your kisses, Rhett, but we really should be going down to supper. They'll wonder what's keeping us, you know."

"Fine" Rhett sighed with mock resignation. "We can't have them wondering, now can we?"