Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Two

The older Rhett said, "Syphilis we caught while whoring it up with that bitch Belle. We actually trusted Belle. Why did we? No sane man would. But we truly weren't a sane man. We threw her away," Here the older Rhett extended his arm towards Scarlett sleeping in the bed. He paused as he watched her turn into the pillow Rhett had used. He turned back to younger Rhett and smiled sadly. He said, "Listen to me. When we were one step away from death's doorway we return to the mansion. When no one else would take us in, not our mother, not our sister, not even Belle. None of those women wanted to be burdened with caring for a man that was dying. We turned to Scarlett, and she took us in. Our selfish, self-centered, immature, obtuse Scarlett took us back. That was sarcasm in case you missed it. She still loved us despite everything we had done to hurt her. She nursed us through all those dark days of us dying. She never complained. She was always cheerful and optimistic about our future." The man stopped speaking and stared at Scarlett.

"What do you mean my mother, nor my sister nor Belle would take me in?"

"That is simple. Belle didn't take you in because she didn't need you. You had already sold her your half of the saloon and brothel. You had also ended your relationship with her rather brutally. Your mother and sister didn't take you in because if they had they would have been shunned by Charleston society."

"Did I threaten to cut off their support check?"

"Yes, and your mother said, 'Go ahead. I have been banking about half of your support check all these years. When that money runs out Robert will probably be able to support us. He is doing quite well for himself now."

"Did I?"

"No, you knew you were going to be dead in a matter of months and you still didn't want your mother or sister to starve."

The older Rhett smiled and said, "She really isn't that beautiful, but we sure thought she was. It is just as well that our baby died on the stairs because you gave the disease to Scarlett that wonderful night. The baby would have died from complications from syphilis anyway."

"We made a baby! I gave her syphilis. No! No! No!"

"You can deny it all you want but it is true," The older version of Rhett smiled and said, "We demanded so much from Scarlett and gave her nothing in return. Yet, we gave our daughter everything. We would never have humbled ourselves to be received for Scarlett, but we didn't think twice about humbling ourselves for Bonnie. I now know what an insult that was to our sweet Scarlett. In truth, we never appreciated that Scarlett threw away the last of her reputation to be married to us. We never appreciated Scarlett. Do you know that Mrs. Merriwether tried to talk our sweet Scarlett out of marrying us. Not only would she not rebuff us, but she actually defended us. I can't remember a time that we ever defended the love of our life," The man sighed and said, "We sold her down the river to get Bonnie received after everything she had done for us."

"She could be such a bitch."

The older Rhett smiled and said, "Of course, she could, and we loved it. We certainly didn't want a proper, ninny like Miss Melly. God how boring can it get. Yet we repeatedly threw Miss Melly up to Scarlett as the perfect woman. You haven't got there yet but we actually even compared that whore Belle to our wife and the whore came out better than our wife."

"No, no. I would never do that. I would never insult Scarlett that way."

"Why not we insulted her every other way. My Pet, indeed. Yet the fighter that was our wife never backed down. She would never voluntarily yield, and we wouldn't want her to. She didn't yield to us last night and we reveled in it. Yes, she is a bitch. Yet she is the only woman we really want. We want Scarlett O'Hara a bitch on wheels. Oh God do we."

Rhett smiled. He admired Miss Melly like one would admire the Madonna but no, he would never have wanted to be married to her. No, he would not want to live with Miss Melly. The only woman he had ever wanted to live with was Scarlett O'Hara. As he watched her sleep, he smiled when he thought, 'A bitch on wheels.'

Rhett looked at the other man. The other man was staring at Scarlett, and he had such a sad, regretful expression on his face. He said, "She was so loyal to everyone. It drove us insane because we wanted her to just be loyal to us. We wanted her to kick all those parasites to the curb, but she wouldn't. Yet another clue we missed was how loyal she was to us. How incredibly loyal she was to us. She kept seeing us even when Belle tried to break us up. She defended us to Mrs. Merriwether and what did we do when Mrs. Merriwether started talking bad about her. We let that virago do it. We let all those dragons take a bite out of her. In fact, we encouraged them to hurt our wife. Forget about the fact she was supposedly the love of our life. She was our wife, and we should have defended her. She was Bonnie's mother, and we should have defended her for that reason alone," The man smiled sadly and continued, "She married us. She trusted us enough to marry us. Yet, we once again were faithless to her. We did the worst thing we could do to her in New Orleans. No, not yell at her or call her a God damn bitch. We took away our friendship in New Orleans. We weren't just her best friend; we were her only friend. The only person who saw her exactly like she was and liked her anyway. No, who loved her anyway."

"Miss Melly is her friend."

"Now that I know all, I know without a doubt that Miss Melly is not Scarlett's friend. Miss Melly has always known about Scarlett's feelings for Mr. Wilkes. She has always used them to get what she wanted. During the war years most of the things that Miss Melly did to Scarlett were benign, like inviting Scarlett to spend time with them in Atlanta and encouraging Scarlett to stay for long periods of time. That was so she and Aunt PittyPat could get control of Wade. Imagine how happy Miss Melly was that Scarlett was quite happy to let Miss Melly raise her son. Miss Melly encouraged Scarlett to let you keep calling on her because you were some fun and excitement in Miss Melly's life also. After everyone in Atlanta stopped receiving you after your behavior at the Elsings' soiree, it was Miss Melly that insisted they keep receiving you. She did it because she knew Scarlett was enthralled by you and that you didn't have honorable intentions towards Scarlett. After all, Miss Melly knew you were a man that had an intimate relationship with a madame also. By keeping you in Scarlett's life, Melly ensured that Scarlett would continue having a crush on Mr. Wilkes. Your intentions were not honorable, so Scarlett never paid any attention to her feelings for you, but you were her favorite so no one else could make any headway with her. You were just her fun, aggravating, unreceived, friend. Your relationship was in limbo. She wouldn't marry you because you weren't received. You would never ask her to marry you because you wouldn't be able to stand the rejection if she said no. Therefore, there was no one available to make Scarlett forget about her feelings for Mr. Wilkes.

I won't go over each and every detail but Scarlett's crush on Wilkes meant she kept the Wilkeses in Atlanta. Scarlett's crush on Wilkes kept her carrying the man. Miss Melly has played into Scarlett's crush by singing Mr. Wilkes' praises all the time. Miss Melly never says anything unkind about Mr. Wilkes. For example, that he doesn't bring home enough money to cover the household expenses. Or that the last time Miss Melly had a new dress was almost a year ago."

"How can Scarlett not realize that Wilkes doesn't make enough money? She writes out his paycheck."

"You of all people know she doesn't see what she doesn't want to see. Miss Melly never complains about having to live with bitter India Wilkes. Or that Mr. Wilkes isn't strong enough to make his sister live with their Aunt PittyPat who actually needs someone to live with her. Miss Melly will stand by Scarlett in this crisis for two reasons. Most important she can't let anyone think Scarlett would do something like that for it would ruin her husband's reputation also and because if Scarlett goes down there would be no one to continue carrying Mr. Wilkes. Mr. Wilkes knows he needs Scarlett also. In fact, he told her so yesterday at the mill. He told her he didn't know where he would be if she hadn't carried him along. Scarlett defended him to himself because all Scarlett has in the entire world is her fantasy that she and Mr. Wilkes will be together some day."

"She has me and her children."

"She thinks you hate her. She thinks you think of her as a stupid immature person, a child, who you once wanted to have relations with but that you no longer care about. She doesn't really care about her children. She didn't want any of them therefore they are a cruel joke forced on her by fate and men."

"That is not how I feel about her at all."

"You better start making your actions meet your words if you have any chance of a happy future. By the way Mr. Wilkes started talking about the dead of Clayton County in that morose way he has. His talking about the dead caused Scarlett to start crying. That was why Mr. Wilkes' arm was around her. He was doing the gentlemanly thing to do. Offering comfort to a lady in distress.

No, we were the only person who truly saw Scarlett for who she was. Other women don't like her. Men just want to possess her. Besides, you don't need to worry about Mr. Wilkes and Scarlett's relationship. It is now just a relationship built on fantasies."

"What are you saying about Mr. Wilkes?"

"Mr. Wilkes sees Scarlett as the belle she was before the war. That is what Scarlett wants to be, so she is pleased with that. She knows she isn't but when she is around Mr. Wilkes, she can pretend that is what she is. That she never had to do all those awful things she had to do to survive. She sees him as the man he was before the war. It is what he wants to be, so it pleases him also. That he is not the loser that he knows he is."

"No, that can't be. She is always singing his praises."

"What exactly does she say about him? Mostly she repeats that he is a fine, honorable gentleman who is too good for this world. Vague praise at best. Does she ever say anything about what he has accomplished? No, because he hasn't accomplished anything. Yes, she says he is a fine gentleman because you are not, despite being received in Atlanta. She doesn't know that she does that to get a reaction out of you. That is the only time you show her any emotion. In truth, Mr. Wilkes is just the one that got away. The night Miss Melly died she made Scarlett promise her on her death bed that Scarlett would take care of Ashley and Beau. Miss Melly knew that Scarlett would honor that promise. She honors all of her promises. Thus, Miss Melly managed to tie Beau and Ashley around Scarlett's neck like an albatross. Scarlett just carried that burden even though the weight was almost enough to kill her. Yet, that night Scarlett finally heard the truth in Mr. Wilkes's words. Or maybe she saw the pain and despair in Mr. Wilkes' face. When she needed us the most to pick up the pieces of her shattered world, not only did we not pick up the pieces, but we inflicted another blow upon her by telling her we were leaving her."

"No, all this can't be true. My poor Scarlett. I would never give up on us."