It took Scarlett a week to regain enough strength to sit up for more than fifteen minute and regain most of her normal voice. She hated the fact that her recovery was taking so long, but she relished in the fact that it gave her quality time with Rhett. It was a few days after Scarlett woke up that she heard Rhett say the words she had been longing to hear.
Rhett was helping Scarlett eat her lunch when it just slipped out. "God, I love you Scarlett."
Scarlett head snapped quickly towards Rhett, "What did you just say?"
"You heard me. I said I love you." Rhett had chuckled at Scarlett's shocked reaction.
Scarlett was too shocked and confused to reply. She just sat there staring at Rhett trying to gather her thoughts. She couldn't believe that Rhett had just blurted out the words she would have done anything to hear.
"How…When did you decide this?" Scarlett just couldn't believe this was happening.
Rhett didn't know how to act with her reaction. He had expected her to return his feelings. "Scarlett I have always loved you, since that first day at Twelve Oaks. When I was away I tried to forget you, to stop loving you. I thought maybe I had succeeded but I saw you here at the party and all my efforts were void. Then you got sick and I thought I was going to loose you. I realized that life is too short to let my stupid pride get in the way of us being happy. I am sorry for being so stupid Scarlett. I love you and want to be with you, if that is what you want."
By now Scarlett was crying. She was so happy that Rhett had finally come around. "Oh of course that is what I want. I love you so much Rhett Bulter.
Scarlett reached over to pull Rhett towards her. As their embrace tightened Scarlett felt something warm and wet on her lap. She pulled away from Rhett and looked down, the soup she had been eating had spilled all over her and the bed.
"Damn it! I'm sorry Scarlett, I completely forgot about it." Rhett was upset that he would do something so careless.
Scarlett laughed as she saw Rhett face full of anger over such a silly thing. "Rhett calm down, it's all right."
Hearing Scarlett light hearted voice, Rhett saw the humor in the situation. "Come on you need to get out of those wet things." Rhett pulled the covers away from Scarlett and started helping her from the bed. "Do you think you can stand here until I get you a clean night gown?"
"No, not really. How about I sit in that chair?" Scarlett pointed to the chair at the vanity.
"All right." Rhett was glad that Scarlett wasn't trying to be strong. He helped her to the chair and disappeared into the dressing room.
While Rhett was getting the night gown, Scarlett turned herself to the mirror and almost fainted at the sight she saw. "Oh my lord!" Scarlett nearly yelled and traced her face with her hand. She hadn't yet seen herself and couldn't believe how bad she looked.
When Rhett heard her words, he quickly came back to the room. "What? What is it? Is something wrong?"
"No, it's just that I look so horrible. How could you look at me like this and confess your love? How can you even look at me?" Scarlett had a hard time even looking at herself. Even during the war she had never looked this bad.
Rhett walked over to Scarlett and kissed her lightly on the head. "It's not that bad Scarlett. You may not believe this but you look a lot better now than you did about a week ago. Besides I love you, not the way you look."
"Are you saying that you don't care at all what I look like?" Scarlett smiled at Rhett through the mirror.
Rhett knew that Scarlett was teasing him and decided to play along, "Not at all, as long as you are always beautiful and thin."
"Oh darn, just when I was thinking about getting fat and ugly."
Rhett put his arms around Scarlett, hugging her from behind, "I am sorry to disappoint you my dear. Do worry too much about it though, you have all ways been beautiful in my eyes."
"Ha, even now?" Scarlett laughed. Before Rhett could come back with another witty remark, Scarlett's laughter turned into an awful coughing spell. Rhett held her to him as she painfully hacked away.
"Are you all right?" Rhett asked as the coughing lightened. Scarlett nodded her head. "I should get you back in bed." With that Rhett returned to his previous task of changing Scarlett and cleaning up the bed.
Scarlett was exhausted by the time Rhett finally helped her back into the bed. Rhett realized how fragile Scarlett still was. She had only been out of bed for less than twenty minutes and she was completely worn out. He vowed to himself that he wouldn't be so clumsy again and that he would make sure that Scarlett didn't do anything that she wasn't ready for again.
As the days and then weeks passed Scarlett slowly grew stronger, thriving off of her new found relationship with Rhett. Scarlett had realized that if Rhett hadn't of been there with her that she probably wouldn't have had the strength to pull through. With all their alone time Rhett and Scarlett had all the time they need to talk about where they would go from there. They even relived some of their haunting past memories and found a common ground to stand on. They recognized that in the past their prides had gotten the best of them and put them both at cross purposes. They were finally able to put the past behind them and look to the future.
"Well Scarlett I must say you are recovering quit well and considering the state you were in I'd even say quickly." Dr. Williams was amazed at how strong this woman really was.
"Thank you, Mark. I am finally starting to feel like my old self again and I owe most of that to you. I never actually got the chance to properly thank you." Scarlett had come to truly admire this man.
Dr. Williams put his hand up as to stop Scarlett from continuing, "There is no need for that. Besides I can't take all the credit. You have a wonderful husband who was here with you the entire time. Without him I don't believe my efforts would have been very successful."
As Dr. Williams said this Scarlett's gazed had turned towards Rhett, who looked back at her with a prideful smile. "Oh Mark don't brag on him too much, you'll give him a bigger head than he already has."
"That hurts my dear. You wound the man who has been credited for saving your life. How ungrateful you are." Rhett had a devilish grin on his face.
"Oh darling, how rude of me. I suppose I should be saying that I owe you my life." Scarlett was enjoying this playful teasing.
"Yes you should." Rhett said this with such seriousness that both Scarlett and Dr. Williams thought he was being serious, but they realized he wasn't when he could no longer with hold his smile.
Scarlett frowned at Rhett, "That wasn't nice." Without waiting for a reply she continued, "Mark when do you think it will be all right for me to travel?"
Mark was somewhat saddened at this question. He had grown close to the Butlers over these passed few weeks and hated to see them go. "I'm not sure yet, maybe another week or so."
Rhett had caught the change in Dr. Williams' expression. "Don't worry Mark we will come back for a visit and maybe some day you could come visit us?"
"That sounds great." Dr. Williams was fairly happier after hearing that. "Well I better be leaving now. I have a couple of other patients to check up on."
"Mark, you will come by for dinner tomorrow, won't you?" Scarlett enjoyed the company of Dr. Williams very much.
Dr. Williams knew he couldn't resist such an offer, "Of course I will Scarlett."
With that Dr. Williams left, leaving Rhett and Scarlett alone. Scarlett had been sitting in a large chair by the window. Rhett walked over to her and took one of her arms pulling her to her feet. Once Scarlett was standing Rhett took her place in the chair and pulled Scarlett down onto his lap. They shared a long passionate kiss, and then sat there for a while in silence.
Scarlett was the first to talk, "I am going to miss Mark when we leave."
"Yes he is a good man. I believe I am going to miss him as well. I have never been one to make too many close male friends in my life, but I can honestly say Mark is a good friend." Rhett said with a bit sadness in his voice.
"Promise me that we will come back here to see him often." Scarlett gave Rhett a look he couldn't say no to even if he wanted to.
"Of course, my pet." Rhett gave Scarlett a quick peck on the cheek and then asked, "Where exactly are we going to be coming from when we visit?"
Scarlett was confused, "What are you talking about Rhett?"
"I mean where are we going to be staying? We haven't exactly talked about that yet." Rhett wasn't sure if he should bring this up now but he couldn't wait any longer.
Scarlett thought on the subject before she answered, "I don't know Rhett. I haven't truly thought about it. I guess I just assumed we would go back to Atlanta."
Rhett cringed as she said the name of the town he had grown to hate. He hadn't been back to Atlanta since the night he left Scarlett and didn't know if he could ever return there to live. "Scarlett isn't there any other place you would want to live? I know that you like Atlanta, but I… it holds so many memories, bad memories. Maybe we could start some place new."
"Rhett I will miss Atlanta, but I don't care where we live as long as I am with you." Scarlett laid her head on Rhett's shoulder and took his hand in hers.
"Well then if we are going to start anew it should be somewhere neither of us has lived. So that rules out Atlanta and Charleston. Do you having any place in mind?" Rhett was hoping Scarlett would think the same thing he was.
Scarlett was quiet for a moment and then smile as if the light bulb in her brain went off, "Rhett what about here Savannah? This is the perfect place. It's not too far from Charleston or Tara really and we have friends here. It's also where we found each other again. What do you think?"
Rhett smiled down at her, he knew she would think of it. "I think you read my mind Scarlett. I would love to stay here."
"Oh Rhett I just know we will love it here. The children will be happy too, I'm sure. They both love Andrew and Sarah and they will be very happy to be so close to Beau. It's going to be wonderful." Scarlett was overjoyed at the prospect of staring her new life with Rhett in Savannah.
The next day when Dr. Williams came over for dinner Rhett and Scarlett told him of their plans of staying in Savannah permanently. He was ecstatic. He was so glad that his two new friends would be around as a stable fixture. Two weeks later Dr. Williams had given Scarlett the all clear for travel, so Rhett and Scarlett went to Charleston to collect the children and take them back to Savannah. They did however decide to stay in Charleston a few weeks so Scarlett could get to know Eleanor and Rosemary better.
Rhett wanted to prove to his mother and sister that his marriage was now what it should be and that he was happy. Eleanor accepted Scarlett with open arms, but Rosemary was more evasive. She remembered all too well that pain and sorrow that filled her brother when he had first come back to Charleston. She remembered how he cursed Scarlett and told her about all the thing s she had done to hurt him. She was reluctant to believe that Scarlett wouldn't do those same things again. It wasn't until a conversation with Rhett that she began to open up to Scarlett and accept her.
Rhett and Rosemary had been left alone in the library while the others were outside enjoying the beautiful day. Rhett had asked Rosemary to stay behind.
"Rosie what is it going to take for you to believe that I am happy with Scarlett?" Rhett's eyes were sad and questioning.
"Rhett I want to believe it really I do, but after all the things she has done to you. How do you know she won't do it again?" Rosemary cast her eyes away from her brother.
Rhett moved closer to Rosemary, pulling her by the chin to look at him. "It's different now, she's different and I'm different. We love each other and have worked through our problems. We are happy now."
Rosemary searched Rhett's eyes and found a sparkle that hadn't been there before the party. She knew that was the proof of his happiness. "I'm sorry for being so skeptical Rhett. It's just that you're my big brother and I hate to see you hurting."
"I know sweet heart. But you have to trust me on this." Rhett hugged Rosemary, "Now what do you say we go join the others?"
"Sounds wonderful." Rosemary slid her arm through Rhett and they walked to the yard together.