AN: I have now read or listened to waaay too much of this book (do not ask the last time my tv actually turned on since this has now over taken my free time and my time when I should be doing other things). Fictional characters should not be breaking my heart and stressing me out this much (and repeatedly causing me to junk large chunks of what I have written). I think this section is free from extreme book influence, so it is a much lighter read. Seriously though, how do I go into a book and shake characters?

Thanks for reading! And powering through all the changes in writing style when the book overtakes my normal style. Your reviews have been amazing!

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Part Five

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

There was a flurry of activity in their room when Rhett arrived home on Tuesday. Not at all like the flurry of activity that had greeted him the day before and had led up to the room. Yesterday, Scarlett had greeted him in his study and out of nowhere in the middle of a conversation that he now couldn't recall she had said, "Kiss me." In their world, in their prim and proper and suffocating world, in the middle of the day his wife had ordered him to kiss her. He was never one to refuse a lady's requests so he had. He hadn't swept her upstairs in his arms like he wanted. No, they walked at a respectable pace and proceeded to remain hidden, ignoring dinner likely set for them downstairs. Rhett tore himself away when it was time to collect Bonnie and Ella for their daily walk and had a tray sent up to his wife.

The flurry currently taking place in their room involved three maids carrying a multitude of his wife's gowns.

Scarlett looked at him in annoyance, "They know."

He paused, he had a very sure feeling that this would not be the time to toy with his wife, but the urge was there. "Who and what my dear?"

Then in a moment filled with her fiery temper, she sent the help scattering out of the room.

"All of those busybodies you insisted we go to church with, they know about the baby."

Rhett didn't doubt that, while Scarlett's corsets masked the effect of their growing child, not the same could be said for the swell of her chest.

"So?"

"We have had three invitations to dinner, three so they can put me on display and examine my growing girth."

Rhett bit back a laugh.

"This is not funny Rhett Butler, you're not the one they want on display."

"Now Scarlett," Rhett said sweeping in and taking his wife into his arms, oh he did love that he could once more do that, "where is that girl I know that loves all eyes on her."

"It is quite different when they are looking at you because you're…" Scarlett shook her head and tore away from him, "At the rate I'm expanding nothing will fit in a month. Even with the seams let out."

"So we'll have new dresses made," he casually disregarded her worry and went to light a cigar, but inwardly he raged, it was happening again.

"I don't want to do this."

His heart clenched.

"I am sick and tired of being put on display and talked about."

He…he paused.

"Every year that passes, they just get worse. If I didn't have Melly," Scarlett shook her head.

"So we'll turn down the invitations," his heart pounded with relief.

"Then the talk gets worse, that we're hiding something. You were gone for THREE months Rhett." Scarlett sighed and sat down, "There are days I wish I never came to Atlanta."

"But then my dear, you wouldn't have all this," he waved his hands around the majesty of her room.

She paused and smiled at him, as if suddenly seeing him for the first time since his entering the room. She stood, walked over to him and lifted up on her toes, kissed the corner of his mouth and smirked before walking away.

She knew.

She knew he would have always found her and made her his.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

"I've instructed the governesses to accompany the girls to dinner, twice a week," Scarlett told Rhett as they walked towards the dining room.

"The girls should come downstairs to eat every day," Rhett countered his wife. He had seen enough of the world to know that the rich had given up everything that actually made their lives full. They had children to hand them off to strangers. Children eating in the nursery, parents taking late suppers…The entire lot of it was preposterous, he wouldn't have his daughter raised to think he was disinterested in her.

"They will hardly learn how to behave with you countermanding every instruction."

"They are children," he again countered.

"They are young ladies, who will hopefully grow to be ladies."

He was about to fight his wife, then paused, "You will no longer take a late supper."

A late supper, meaning one with no children present.

"You are suggesting that we take every evening meal with the children?" Scarlett questioned.

"I am Mrs. Butler."

"Fine," she gave a nearly unperceivable shrug to her shoulders, "I don't fit into my gowns anyway." She paused by the doorway and spoke softly before they entered the room, the governesses both desperately focused on keeping their charges at the table, "Rhett Butler, you just want me in bed earlier."

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Rhett Butler did want his wife in bed earlier. He was a savage, a brute, every name she had ever called him. Her dress was scandalous tonight, the dress commissioned well before her pregnancy, oh Prissy had done a fine job at letting out the seams, but the neckline. Every single man in the room struggled to keep his gaze upright.

She was wearing red and she was calling them all out to talk about her. She would not shrink and hide from their malicious gossip, but fan it on. She was currently holding her own in a discussion regarding current economic affairs, although Rhett supposed she did have an unfair advantage because at least two of the gentlemen were struggling to hold their train of thought.

"Isn't she just glorious," Melly stepped alongside him.

"That she is," seeing the perfectly unblemished reason why he loved her, it was her in this moment. Strong despite being afraid, and that mind of hers, it made many men quiver in fear.

"I'm glad you're home Captain Butler, she wasn't the same without you," she patted his arm before going to talk to the wives.

o~o~o

She fell asleep with her head on his shoulder during the short ride home. Rhett didn't hesitate to carry her out of the carriage and into the house himself, he nodded away her maid as she came to help her mistress undress. He woke Scarlett with gentle words before lowering her to her feet. Undid her dress and corset himself. Placed a soft kiss on her lips before she slid into bed. He checked on the children and readied himself for bed and as he slid in and tucked Scarlett alongside him. He felt a sense of complacency slide over him, contentment and then fear, for he knew how this always ended.

But as she whispered his name and nuzzled in even closer, as if even their skin was too much between them. He gave himself over to the moment and simple contentment. To a moment when he was hers and she was his. There was nothing before them and nothing after them.

Thanks for reading!