Where Do We Go From Here?

by Saber Girl Leia

1/14/06

Sum: The conversation the morning after Ashley's birthday goes differently, and consequently, so does the rest of Scarlett's story.

Disclaimer: Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind, David O. Selznick and so many wonderful actors and crew made the movie. I read the book and saw the movie and wrote this, and that is all.

A few lines of dialogue in the very beginning of this is taken from the movie script. (Found online... hopefully dependable...)

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"I'd like to extend my apologies for my conduct of last night..."

Scarlett, hearing his voice again, felt like she was coming up from deep in the water, swimming back to reality... His voice... But what had he said!

"Oh, but Rhett..."

"I was very drunk and quite swept off my feet by your charms."

His voice was all wrong. He was supposed to hold her, kiss her! What had happened? What had she done wrong? Last night...

"Oh, don't Rhett. We both..." Scarlett blushed the color of her namesake. She patted the spot beside her. "Do come back to bed."

Rhett looked disgusted. She sounds... like a whore, he thought. And it is because of me she sounds that way. But then again, asked if the whores or the ladies I have known were sillier, I might very well answer the ladies.

He thought of the day and night before, of all aspects of it. "If I came back to bed you would only pretend I was that Ashley Wilkes!" he spat out the name like a poison, "I am not a fool, Scarlett!"

Scarlett, sat forward, upset and yearning to explain herself, but when she began he cut her off. "Scarlett, I've been thinking things over and I really believe it'd be better for both of us, if we admitted we made a mistake and got a divorce."

"Rhett, no!"

"It makes my head spin to think of how quickly you'd divorce me if Ashley were free."

"Please, let me explain!"

"I'll explain for you, Scarlett! You're a leech, a siren! I showed you something you had never known last night, and you think because of that you should stay with me and it will profit you!" His voice turned hard and seemed to form a solid wall between them. "You're a businesswoman, Scarlett. Not a wife."

How dare he? "You supported my mills! You supported me!"

"Yes, I poured my money into your ventures, and you stabbed me in the back! Half my money went straight to Mr. Ashley Wilkes, gentleman, whom you claim to love. You shrink at nothing, Sca-"

"I don't love him!"

Silence sprang up in the footsteps of her yell, and Scarlett hoped desperately that the sound had not traveled beyond her room, that the Mammy had not heard, that Bonnie had not heard... Scarlett stared at her husband, her eyes roving over his face, trying to read in it his reaction.

"You certainly did well at giving the appearance of it!" he finally spat out.

"I..." it was painful for Scarlett to admit defeat. It had been all her life. Finally, "I was wrong." She hung her head, her face red as the rouge she wasn't wearing. "I thought I loved him, but I never truly did. I realized that... yesterday."

Rhett sounded disgusted. "If what happened last night is all that love is to you, I could've found you some nice saloon to work in long ago." He had stopped yelling, but the acid in his voice now was worse. "Bonnie's the only good thing that's ever come of you."

"I didn't mean last night, you varmint! At the mill-"

He cut her off. "Oh! Did you finally realize your precious Ashley couldn't run a mill? Or did her deny you to his sisters? Was his embrace not good enough?"

I hate you sometimes, Scarlett thought, how dare you. "We spoke and I realized," as she spoke her words increased in both speech and volume so that he could not cut her off, "that he is completely different from me and though I shall always care for him as a brother, there is nothing more!" Without noticing it Scarlett had risen to her knees on the bed as she yelled, so that she was now right in Rhett's face.

He backed away. "Good, then. I shan't have to worry about you while Bonnie and I are in Europe."

"What?" Scarlett was genuinely shocked almost to the point of falling. "You can't leave me here, and you can't take my child out of this house!"

"I can and will, pet. You've never been a good mother to her-"

"It's you who takes her away from me!"

"Say I took you to England." Rhett's tone had changed again, and Scarlett could not place it. It sounded dangerous, but almost guarded. "What would happen to your mills then? Would Mr. Ashley and Mr. Gallegher really run them right?"

"They have before. During our honeymoon."

He did not reply, not with words.

"Let's do that again, Rhett. It was so fun and we both need to get away from Atlanta for a while-"

"Why should I take you anywhere? You choose to ruin your own reputation, that's fine. But our daughter's? Your other children had no chance because of you. You think I'm going to let you do that to Bonnie?"

She looked him in the eyes and spoke through gritted teeth. "You told me to hell with my reputation and I'd like life better without it."

"And was it true?" Rhett lit a cigar from his suit pocket and raised an eyebrow.

She didn't answer. "You think you're going to take Bonnie out of here without me, you'd better remember I fought off the Yankees and ran a farm and business. I won't back down and let you take her."

"Should we ask her?"

"Why- you-" Scarlett spluttered. Throwing her mussed nightgown straight, she stood up and faced him. "What you think gives you the right to do this, I swear I shall never know. How would you like it if I brought Melly into this? Do you want her to tell you how to treat your family?"

"Don't you dare bother Miss Melly with our petty quarrels." He grabbed her chin painfully. "You've always known who I am and how I act; you knew what you were getting into."

Scarlett made one last desperate attempt. She slipped almost effortlessly back into her role of belle. Her manner went from confrontational to coquettish in an instant. She patted the side of the bed and flashed a little smile. "Oh! We are so silly, Rhett! Do come back to bed, please."

He hated how she drew him in as she did all men. And yet was this not just one part of the woman Rhett had fallen in love with? Her chameleon's skill of playing a lady as she conquered armies.

Her lack of shame afterwards.

Rhett looked at her face for a long time. The false smile she turned on every person she had ever wanted anything of... but eyes that just might mean something more.

Unless he had imagined it.

He released her jaw sharply. "Not now, my dear, it's nearly ten. Call Mammy to help you dress." And he suddenly leaned forward and kissed her. Scarlett tried to continue it, to lure him back, but in vain. With a small shake of his head, Rhett continued, "I shall come back to bed tonight. But pack now, because we leave for Europe tomorrow, and we must not be late."

He turned on his heel and left. Scarlett shivered. Rhett could be devious and dangerous, too.

to be continued...

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Please review! I LOVE constructive criticism. Any comments, questions, notes, suggestions, hate mail, love notes, messages in secret code... seriously, I'll read and respond to it all. And you will be in my book of cool people. :D I'd love a better title suggestion.