Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Melanie is going to be OOC. The story is mystical and otherworldly. At least in the beginning.

Chapter One

Rhett woke up after a night of drinking too much which wasn't unusual except this time, he was in the master bedroom. Scarlett was lying next to him. She was cuddled up next to him. It felt so good to have her pressed up against him. After two years of being apart, Scarlett lying next to him was heavenly.

The events from the night before rushed into his brain. That murderer Archie telling him about Scarlett getting caught with Ashley Wilkes's arm around her. Him telling Scarlett that if it weren't for Bonnie, he would let her be shunned by all the good people of Atlanta. Him making her attend the party. Miss Melly receiving her at the party and making all the other people receive her. Mr. Wilkes looking guilty. All the matrons giving Rhett looks of pity. Him drinking way too much at the party. Him going to Belle's and continuing to drink too much. Him going home because he couldn't stand all the looks of pity that every man was giving him. He had somehow gotten himself home. He didn't remember that at all. Him quietly drinking in the dining room until Scarlett snuck down the stairs to get herself a glass of brandy. She must have been cursing herself for letting her brandy bottle run dry. Him confronting her. Scarlett's defense of that stuffed shirt. Scarlett looking at him like he was less than a man. Scarlett looking at him like he was something she wanted to scrape off her shoe. But it had been the head toss that had done him in. The head toss that had made him want to turn her every which way but loose.

The questions racing through his brain were – What did he say last night in the dining room? Did he tell her of his feelings. What had he done? He remembered carrying her up the stairs. He now remembered what they had done last night and how wonderful it had been. What he couldn't remember was what he had said. He had to go to the water closet right now. He would get dressed. He had to get away. He would escape to Belle's like he always did.

Once Rhett was finished in the water closet, he returned to the master bedroom to find his clothes. When he returned to the bedroom there was a man sitting in his favorite chair. The chair in the sitting area of their bedroom. The man looked vaguely familiar. He reminded Rhett of his father. He looked so extremely sick. He looked like a skeleton he was so thin.

The man said, "This was always my favorite chair. I used to love to watch Scarlett brushing out her hair especially when she would give me those shy smiles," Wistfully the man said, "I never understood what those smiles were all about. I know now because I now know all. She was trying to tell me she wanted to be intimate with me."

"Is that what that smile is about?"

"Yes," The man stared at Scarlett's vanity table. Finally, he said, "She gave me so many clues but because she didn't out and out tell me she loved me I missed them all," With a bitter laugh, he said, "She didn't tell me the way I wanted her to tell me, so I ignored all the other clues. I who thought I was so God damn smart in reality was the stupidest man God had ever created. I had happiness in my hands, but I threw it away by crying for the moon."

Rhett said, "Who are you?"

"You don't know? You haven't figured it out? You think you are so insightful, so smart, but you aren't. In fact, at times you are pretty stupid. Oh, don't get all offended. You offend people all the time, but you can't tolerate people offending you. Probably since your father disowned you nobody has spoken the truth to you. Certainly not that illiterate whore you have spent all your time with since you ejected yourself from the master bedroom."

"I didn't eject myself from the master bedroom she kicked me out."

"No, she said, 'I don't want to have any more children.' You are the one that moved it to separate bedrooms with your comment of her denying you your marital rights. I will never understand why you didn't just call her bluff and say, 'We don't have to have any more children but that doesn't mean we will stop having relations."

"She just said that in some misguided attempt to be loyal to Ashley Wilkes."

"Yes, Mr. Wilkes, said something at the mill that day to draw Scarlett back into his orbit because he was truly afraid, she was getting over her crush on him. He couldn't allow you to take her away from him. He hates you because you are the only man who has ever threatened his control over Scarlett. He needed her to continue carrying him and rescuing him. But Wilkes words weren't the motivating factor. An inch in her waist was the motivating factor. A God damn inch! What you didn't know is that our vain Scarlett had gained an inch in her waist from carrying Bonnie. She felt she was as fat as Mammy. That was why she didn't want to have any more children. It had nothing to do with Ashley Wilkes or you for that matter. You don't know this but after a woman has a baby her emotions are all over the place even our stone-cold Scarlett. She was already feeling abandon by you because we had abandoned her. We gave Bonnie all our time and attention and practically ignored our wife except maybe to make a few unkind comments. Then she was feeling extremely fat. Then she went out to her mills and Mr. Wilkes made her feel beautiful and loved again. I wonder why she ran back into his arms. That was sarcasm."

"How could I have known all that?"

"You couldn't have known all that, but you did know how you were treating her. Also, the day she told you she didn't want any more children and you had that big fight. After you left the room, she cried her eyes out like she had truly lost her best friend which she had. That was the last time you treated her with any kindness."

"I didn't know."

"Of course, you didn't. She definitely wasn't going to show you any vulnerability. Back to that bitch Belle. She is just a paid liar. She knows to keep you by her side she has to lie to you. She has to make sure that you are unhappy with your relationship with Scarlett. Scarlett the only woman that she thinks is threatening her relationship with you. Belle believes that your relationship is a lot better than it really is. She thinks that once you get over your obsession with Scarlett you and her will become a couple. I don't know how Belle thinks Bonnie is going to fit into your relationship. Not that you truly ever had any feelings for the bitch," With a laugh the man said, "She was just an illiterate whore that you used first to slack your sexual needs, then to make money for you and finally to brutally hurt the woman you loved. That bitch Belle knew how strong your feelings were for Scarlett from the beginning. Belle tried to cause trouble between you and Scarlett within three months of the Hospital Bazaar. The minute she heard you waxing on about the pretty Mrs. Hamilton."

"What are you talking about?"

The stranger told Rhett about the handkerchief incident. He finished by saying, "You can be excuse for missing that clue because Scarlett never told you. Despite all her good breeding she continued letting you call on her when she knew you were a man who had an intimate relationship with a whore. Of course, you never appreciated all her proper breeding because that breeding was just in the way of what you wanted. The fair Scarlett. By the way how could you shame the woman you claim to love by living with an over the hill whore. You could at least have been fucking a pretty, young whore."

"Again, I say, who are you?"

"You haven't figured it out," The man laughed a mocking laugh, and Rhett suddenly knew who the man was but that was impossible. The man smiled and said, "Your future self. I can tell you right now. Our future isn't pretty. We run away to Belle's, we come back and insult the woman we claim to love, we run away with her daughter, when we come back, we insult her again by asking her who the father of her child is, we cause her to fall down the stairs, she loses our baby and almost dies herself. We thought she didn't call for us and we jumped to the conclusion she would never care about us. How God damn stupid could we be?! She was fighting for her life! She was in and out of consciousness. For the record she did call for us, but Melanie Wilkes didn't go get you because it wouldn't be proper for you to be in your dying wife's sick room. But the truth is that Miss Melly didn't go get you because she knew how much her husband needed Scarlett to carry him. Miss Melly sure didn't want you two to be happily married for if Scarlett wised up to what a bunch of leeches the Hamiltons and the Wilkeses were Scarlett would stop carrying them," At Rhett's shocked face, his older self said, "Shocking to know that Miss Melly was using our sweet Scarlett just like everyone else. I have no idea why we weren't demanding to be in the room with Scarlett. When did we ever care about what was proper? We believed she was dying. Why weren't we in the room begging her to forgive us. Why weren't we confessing our love? Because we were so God damn stupid. Now do you understand why I said we were the stupidest man God had ever created. After she had recovered from falling down the stairs instead of offering love and comfort we retreated behind a wall of indifference. When she had only been one month out of her death bed, we let her go down to Tara with just Wade, Ella, and Prissy. We didn't even let her take Mammy with her because we selfishly wanted Mammy to stay here to take care of Bonnie while we went out and whored it up. During the next two years we rebuffed any attempt she made to reach out to us. One night in the hallway she asked us where we had been going at night? Another clue we missed. She said that if we had given her half the tenderness that we had given our daughter our life would be so much better? I don't know what I thought she meant by that, but I rejected her and hurried down the hall because Bonnie had called for me. Being the overindulgent father that I was I didn't make my daughter wait while I finished talking to the woman I supposedly loved. We were such an idiot. After two years of living in a vast desert of emotion we cause the death of our precious daughter, we fell into the bottle, and three months later Miss Melly dies. At that point, our beloved Scarlett finally grows up and realizes she doesn't love Wilkes and loves us. Do we rejoice that she has finally seen the light? No, instead we reject her love and walk out on her."

"You are lying. That can't be what happens to me. To me and Scarlett."

"We end up dying in the mansion. In that bed right over there. We die from cancer, but it was the syphilis that weakened our body and made us susceptible to developing the disease. We also had cirrhosis of the liver. We had never taken care of ourselves. We ignored and discounted her concerns for our health as none of her business."

"Syphilis?! No! That can't be true."

"You know it is true. You have been denying it to yourself for months."