Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Scarlett saw her Pa driving the buggy down the lane with the Baptist minister beside him. She thought, 'I wonder who is going to get more use out of the buggy Will and Careen or Pa?'

Rhett soon joined Scarlett. He said, "Are Will and Careen going to get married by a minister?"

"Yes, the priest wouldn't marry them because Will wasn't Catholic. They will remarry when Will has converted to Catholicism."

"That's nice. Do you want a church wedding?"

Scarlett linked her arm in Rhett's and said, "No, we are married that is all that matters. Let's go get dressed."

A smiling Rhett followed Scarlett up the stairs. He always liked watching Scarlett get dressed. Not as much as watching her undress but it was still an enjoyable event.

The wedding was lovely and there was a good turnout of guests. Both Rhett and Scarlett agreed it was probably more for the food than their feelings towards Will and Careen. Although Will and Careen were well-liked in the county.

At the reception, Scarlett saw Rhett with a group of men, and they were talking about the war. She heard someone say, "If only Bobby Lee had won at Gettysburg." She hurried over to the group. As she walked to the group, she knew they were talking about the war and how the South could have won the war if only. When Rhett saw her walking towards the group, he excused himself and joined her. When he joined her, he loudly said, "Do you need my help with something?"

"Yes, I do, Dear. Come with me."

"Thank you for rescuing me. I was about to say something I shouldn't say."

"I know you always have the least amount of control when stupid people are rehashing the war."

"I'm glad you know."

Rhett and Scarlett walked behind the barn, and each had a swig of Pa's hooch. Then another. Rhett had a third. Finally, when Rhett thought he had himself under control they joined the rest of the guest.

Frank and Suellen were on the evening train back to Atlanta. Suellen had taken two boxes of their mother's possessions with her. Basically, anything that Careen didn't want. She had left nothing for Scarlett. Scarlett had not been surprised.

Suellen had managed to shock both Careen and Scarlett by asking Mammy to return to Atlanta with her to deliver her baby. Suellen had not told either of her sisters what she was doing the first they knew that Mammy was going to Atlanta with Suellen was when they saw her sitting in the buggy.

Scarlett said, "Mammy, what is going on?"

Mammy said to Scarlett and Careen, "Miss Suellen needs me to help deliver her baby and help her take care of it after it is born."

Careen said, "I need you too."

"Not like Miss Suellen does. Miss Suellen doesn't have anyone. Dilcey and Prissy will still be here to help you."

Until the buggy left the plantation, Careen and Scarlett avoided looking at Suellen. They just didn't want to see that smirk.

Once the buggy was far enough down the lane that Careen knew Suellen couldn't hear her, she said, "And to think I defended her."

Which made Scarlett laugh.

Careen and Scarlett had watched the buggy until it went around the bend. They still couldn't believe that Mammy had gone to live with Suellen in Atlanta. After Mammy, Frank, Suellen, and Gerald were out of sight, Careen said, "Do you feel like Suellen has finally gotten the better of us?"

"I sure do. I also feel like there isn't anything we can do about it."

"No, she has taken custody of Mammy."

"We can't fight it until we have children."

"No, we can't and if Suellen manages to keep Mammy happy, she will have won the final battle."

"I sure didn't see that coming."

"No, she snuck that one in on us. What's more we can't fight Mammy's decision to go with Suellen because neither one of us has a child."

"Neither one of us is even with child."

"Damn."

"I agree. Damn."

Scarlett took Careen's hand and said, "Enough about Suellen. Baby, Mother told me relations were something I had to endure to do my duty and to have children. Relations are not something to endure but a celebration. It should be something you look forward to not something you dread. They are just a physical expression of a person's love for another person. I know you don't love Will yet, but he does love you. He isn't a gentleman therefore he doesn't have expectations of the way a lady is supposed to behave. This is the one time you need to embrace your O'Hara side and enjoy yourself as much as you can. I do. If you have any questions, I will be here for the next couple of days to answer them for you. And remember, I will be returning in a month. Don't be ashamed to ask me anything. It really can be a lot of fun."

Rhett and Scarlett stayed a couple of more days then, they too returned to Atlanta. They had stayed to get Careen through that initial discomfort of everyone knowing that the bridal couple had relations the night before.

Three days later as Rhett was getting in the buggy, Rhett said, "Come on, Scarlett."

Scarlett hugged Careen and her sister hugged her back. Scarlett had whispered, "Any questions?"

"No, Will explained everything he was going to do before he did it. I was as red as a tomato but at least I knew what to expect."

"That is good. It is good you can talk about it. That is important."

"I didn't say I could talk about it. I said Will can talk about it."

The sisters laughed. Rhett again said, "Come on, Scarlett. We are going to miss our train."

"If we do there is another one in an hour."

"I don't want to sit around the Jonesboro train station for an hour."

"Yes, it is much better to sit around the hotel room."

"Exactly. Come on!"

"Bye, Careen."

"Bye Scarlett."

With Mammy's arrival into their home, she started muttering about how some rooms behind a store just weren't a proper place to raise a child. Or she would mutter about how it just wasn't fitting for a lady and a gentleman to be living behind a store. A store! Lordy! Lordy! Miss Ellen was surely rolling over in her grave.

Frank couldn't take all that nagging by Mammy, and he started building Suellen a house.

Mammy had done just what Suellen had wanted her to do. Get Frank to build her a house. Suellen had not wanted to nag Frank into building her a home. She wanted to continue to pretend to be the sweet and docile wife that Frank thought she was.

Suellen was happy with her life. No, Frank wasn't exactly handsome. No, Frank wasn't exactly young. No, Frank didn't exactly have a good body. No, Frank wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. No what Frank had was that he thought the sun and the moon rose and set on Suellen.

Frank tried his best to make Suellen happy. It was the first time in her entire life that someone had tried to make her happy. She had gotten to decorate the house herself. Whenever she would ask Frank a question about the décor, Frank would say, "Whatever you want." And he really meant it. Frank being a hard worker was nice also

The fact that Suellen could manipulate Frank into doing whatever she wanted him to do was nice also. During their first week of marriage Frank had said, "I'm so glad you are alright with living behind the store. If you hadn't been we might have had to postpone our wedding which I didn't want to do. After Scarlett told me that Will and Tony were wanting to court you, I couldn't let one of them steal you away from me."

Suellen didn't know what Frank was talking about exactly, but she knew what her response needed to be, she said, "I wish Scarlett hadn't told you about that. I am so embarrassed."

"I'm so glad she did. There is no need to be embarrassed. I know that you have always had men swarming around you like flies to a honey pot."

"Yes, I have."

Slowly but surely over the following days, Suellen had gotten the entire story out of Frank. She supposed she should be grateful that Scarlett was able to trick Frank into quickly marrying her, but it was hard for her to be grateful to Scarlett for anything.

Suellen was so immensely proud of having managed to get Mammy to come live with her and Frank. It was the first time she had been able to best both Scarlett and Careen. Scarlett had usually got everything first. Careen had usually gotten to keep something longer because she was the baby. This time Suellen had gotten Mammy first and if she kept Mammy happy, she would get to keep Mammy forever.

Before the baby was born, Suellen and Frank were in their new house. Suellen had invited Scarlett and Rhett to supper after the couple had moved into the house. Scarlett knew Suellen had only invited her to show off her new home. Scarlett had only accepted because she wanted to see the inside of the house. Scarlett thought the décor quite nice but judging by Rhett's whispered comments he certainly did not.

Yes, if Scarlett and Rhett ever owned a house there would be a lot of negotiating on the décor. She knew now while Rhett did not have stodgy Charleston taste he did not have modern taste. She had … what was that word she learned recently.. yes, avant garde taste.

When the Butlers left the Kennedy's home Scarlett said, "They are really happy together."

"I'm pleased."

"Me too. I am glad that Suellen is finally happy although her husband is not as wonderful, rich, and handsome as mine."

"Of course, he isn't. You were the belle of five counties after all. I went by the toy store today and bought us another ship model to put together."

"We haven't finished putting the Mayflower together."

"I know but we are almost finished so I wanted to go ahead and get our next model so we wouldn't have to wait."

"Which ship did you get?"

"Actually, I couldn't decide which one to buy so I bought two of them. The USS Constitution, it is nicknamed Old Ironsides. It is the longest serving warship in American history."

Scarlett interrupted Rhett or he would go on and on about the USS Constitution and she would never find out the name of the other ship. Rhett had not been kidding when he had said she would have to listen to him go on about every little thing about the ships. She really didn't mind because he got an excitement about him like a small child. In those moments he was no longer the jaded man he normally was. She said, "And the name of the other ship?"

"The HMS Victory. It was Lord Nelson's flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar."

"I have no idea what you are talking about. Who is Lord Nelson? What is a flagship? And what was the Battle of Trafalgar?"

Rhett said, "In Naval terms the flagship is the ship that carries the commanding admiral."

"If the commanding admiral moves to another ship is that now the flagship?"

"Yes. The Battle of Trafalgar was one of the most historic sea battles in English history." Rhett happily spent the rest of the carriage ride telling Scarlett all about Lord Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar. It made him so happy that he and Scarlett had this mutual hobby although Rhett had quickly insisted that he do all the gluing of the parts. Scarlett just didn't do it right.

Scarlett had easily relinquished the task of gluing the parts together. It was easier. No matter how hard she tried Rhett always found fault with the way she had glued the parts together. In truth, she had never understood what she had done wrong. She had decided that it simply was that gluing the parts together was Rhett's favorite part of building the models, so he wanted to always do it.