Voting: So in case anyone is curious why the actual voting spot failed to work for all but two people. It's the mobile v. desktop view on this website. Only works in desktop mode (when there is no "M" at the start of the url), so we all got to learn from that voting mess. Lol. I created a point system and an excel spreadsheet to calculate the votes. 3's crushed it, which makes total sense because it was the only one I didn't have anything written for. :-P

Ashley: Um did I remember to state that, yea Ashley is a weak man, he doesn't bother to hide that. His wife and Scarlett were strong (different types of strong, but still strong), he was pulled with them.

AN: Part Twenty Eight was the end of the main story. They both reached where they needed to get, Scarlett had actually done a huge chunk of that in the novel, she just needed Rhett to allow it to flourish. With the loss of the baby Rhett finally sees that it wasn't his money, it wasn't the good time he could provide, it wasn't his strength, it was him. Scarlett loves him, she needs him just as he needs her. It isn't a want, but a need.

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Epilogue

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Nineteen year old Wade Hampton Hamilton got the telegram in the morning just as he was heading out to classes. It was wet and cold, the snow had melted, but the ground remained soaked and in spots, slippery. Boston was cold, wet and dirty just as his mother had said it would be.

The telegraph had been simple, "It's a girl. Your mother is fine." Wade didn't need to see who sent it, he knew it was his Uncle Rhett based on the direct inclusion of his mother, there was no 'mother and baby are healthy or doing well.' Uncle Rhett knew what mattered.

Still though Wade packed his bag before he left his dorm and went to the dean explaining that he needed to return to Georgia because of a family emergency. He expounded on the declaration that his mother had just given birth and he was worried about her, he also explained that his stepfather was nearing 60 and there were now 6 little ones in the house. He promised to return as soon as they were all safely settled and had himself on a train before noon. It took him a day to obtain a bed, but an aching back and stiff neck was better than waiting on a train.

He was bleary eyed and stiff when he crossed the threshold to the Peachtree house, handing off his luggage to a member of the household staff he didn't recognize and whose name he failed to retain even as the man spoke it. His stepfather quickly coming down the hall with a little bundle wrapped in a yellow blanket, tucked in one arm, "Wade my boy, you've come home to meet your little sister," he gave his stepson a one-armed hug. Then stepped away and tilted the little girl up, "Her name is Melanie Alice, your sisters have already taken to calling her Allie."

Before Wade realized the baby was transferred into his weary arms, he looked down at the baby staring up at him, it looked just as bleary eyed as him looking up at him with pale eyes.

"Your mother's convinced her eyes will be dark, although not as dark as Teddy's."

"Where is Mother?"

"You know your mother, can't stay still to save her life. She took the boys to Kennedy's, left me home minding the baby."

She had JUST had a baby.

"Mister Rhett?" one of the staff came up to him a few words passed between them before his stepfather looked at him.

"Something's come up that needs my attention," he nodded, "I'll be back in a minute. You didn't drop out to come home, right?"

"No sir."

"Good good. I'll be back in a minute. Mind the baby."

Wade stood in the foyer for another moment looking around, expecting a nanny or maybe Prissy to come relieve him of the baby, but no one came. So he shuffled off to the front parlor to await being relieved of her.

After awhile he heard the front door open and he stood and headed off in its direction.

His two sisters came in giggling, they stopped as they saw him.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Bonnie questioned.

"What she means is welcome home Wade and why aren't you in school?" Ella said coming forth with the grace of a woman, which Wade knew was just a facade. There was nothing mature about his sisters aside a facade. Ella greeted him with a kiss and Bonnie followed suit.

"Why are you home?" Bonnie repeated.

"Mother had a baby?" he lifted it up slightly to remind them of its presence in his arms.

"Cute, isn't she?" Bonnie smiled.

"We named her Alice from Alice in Wonderland," Ella continued.

"Aren't you a little old for those books?" Wade was almost grumbling.

"You're never too old for Alice," Bonnie looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Wade is never going to go on adventures alone, we went with him on his Grand Tour," Ella pointed out.

"I didn't ask for you-" It hadn't been his grand tour that was for after college, not before. Not that he would ever get to go now, not with the new baby.

"We need to go pick out our dresses for tonight," Bonnie said grabbing Ella's hand and spinning her towards the stairs.

"What's tonight?" Wade questioned.

"The DeVaughns invited Ella and I over for an early supper because of the baby," Bonnie's eyes practically sparkled. "Elijah arrived home last month and Ella is nearly old enough to marry," Bonnie sighed and looked as if she were about to twirl. "Ella DeVaughn."

"Bonnie," Ella blushed.

"Elijah is nearly 23," Wade spat out in horror over what his youngest…middle sister was suggesting.

"Daddy is nearly 17 years older than Mother and everyone knows that if it weren't for you and Ella, they should have been married when she was 16."

"No one-" Wade shook his head.

"Please," Bonnie shook her head cutting him off, "Daddy's always been your favorite male even more than Uncle Ashley."

"Ella could marry Beau," Wade muttered.

"Eww," Bonnie said rolling her eyes.

"Manners Bonnie," Ella corrected her sister.

"We love Beaugard Wilkes, but no one in this family is marrying him," Bonnie suddenly looked down at the baby in Wade's arms, "perhaps Allie."

Wade pulled the baby in closer to him and took a step away from his sister.

"We need to find dresses," Bonnie said once more, now pulling her sister's hand.

"Maybe the mauve," Ella mused aloud as her sister pulled her the stairs.

"Definitely not the mauve," Bonnie shook her head, "a soft green, perhaps the one with the lace collar?"

"What about the-" Wade was calling out, but as his sisters reached the top of the stairs, "baby" he muttered.

He sighed and walked over to the stairs. He sat on them, facing the doorway, willing his mother to come through or Uncle Rhett to return from wherever he had gone. At least whoever had taken his luggage when he arrived.

Minutes passed, long minutes, but the door eventually opened. The two dark haired boys practically tumbled in, his mother's "Boys," in a gentle reprimand behind them.

"Hi Wade," they chimed in unison, but Patrick added, "Did you bring us anything?"

They both quickly looked disappointed by his no, a set of dark brown eyes and vibrant blue went from sparkling to flat.

His mother entered the house behind them, wearing a blue with black polka dots dress, trimmed with black lace, the basque high waisted coat coat nearly completely hiding the fact that she just had a baby. What had been her last baby held her hand, Baldwin or as they all tended to call him, Win. The boy had done just that, he won simply by existing, having been born in 1877. His mother had sold the mills learning she was pregnant with him just before the market for lumber dropped out. Everyone, especially the DeVaughn's thought of Win as a good luck charm, the luck of the Irish when he had been born with his mother's green eyes, he was everyone's four leaf clover.

"Wade, sweetheart," his mother said as she released Win's hand and dropping packages by the door greeting Wade with a kiss on his cheek. "You met your sister, isn't she darling?" his mother stroked the baby's cheek, but didn't take her.

"How are you?"

"Oh I'm fine darling. Estelle practically had to tie me to the bed to keep me there the whole day. Boys go wash up for dinner. Where is Manny?"

Wade looked at her in confusion, "The servant that took my luggage?"

"Hi Wade," Win suddenly whispered, Wade had a soft spot for Win. He was so young in a house full of activity and chaos, Win often reminded him of himself. Overlooked and half-forgotten, he was entirely too quiet to be a Butler.

"Hi Win, I missed you."

"Missed you too."

Their mother was practically oblivious to their conversation, "Oh he must be putting it away," she shook her head, "there's a wedding, we've lost half the staff for the weekend. I don't know what your father was thinking."

Wade wanted to point out that his Uncle Rhett wasn't his father and his father was Charles Hamilton, but he had done that once at eleven or maybe even ten and his stepfather had looked like a kicked puppy. Somehow at the end of the talk that his stepfather begun to make Wade feel better about being proud of being the son of Charles Hamilton and never wanting to take his place. Well Wade was pretty sure he had said something along the lines of being his Uncle Rhett's boy. His Uncle Rhett had done everything a father would and often times more than most fathers, so he never corrected his mother after that, despite the times he wanted to, like today.

"I need to see about dinner, I'm famished, I will not be pleasant if it's delayed because of this wedding. I mean did they all need to go?"

"Whose getting married?"

"Pork and Dilcey's boy, marrying a girl from Bedford. I swear your fath-Where is he?" she suddenly questioned, "and why were you sitting on the stairs with the baby?"

"Tess, came and got him, he said he needed to handle something."

"My guess is a disaster with dinner," she shook her head in annoyance, "the baby's cradle is in the family parlor," she nodded at him before turning on her heel towards the kitchen, beginning to undo her bonnet as she walked down the hall. "Win, stay with me."

Wade sighed once more standing in the foyer with the baby and headed off in the direction of the parlor. He recognized the cradle as being one of Bonnie's, there were an awful lot of cradles in their house at this point. He wondered if he burned them all his parents would get the point or likely though, it would make his mother happy to spend more money.

He bent down to place her in the mahogany cradle when she began to cry. He pulled her back up, she stopped. He lowered her down, she cried. He tried this three times when he gave up and sat in an armchair.

He heard shoes moving too quickly down the main staircase, he wanted to leap up and yell at them to slow down, but when he did that the baby started to cry again.

Those shoes moved in his direction, "Do you know where Mother is?" Ella asked

"The kitchen, don't you want to take the baby?" he yelled out before they could disappear.

"No," Bonnie gave him a look, "we're doing important things Wade."

There were several more long minutes that passed before his stepfather stood in the doorway, "Still getting to know your new little sister?"

"I shouldn't have any more little sisters, I'm practically the age my father was when he married Mother and Mother most certainly shouldn't be having any more new babies."

"Now Wade, your mother's only 35."

"Nearly 36 and you're 53."

"I still have several more months until I am 53," Rhett pointed out.

"Rhett, if you're talking about your birthday, you may not get a party this year with all this disruption you've caused-" Scarlett paused and looked at her oldest son, "Why are you still holding the baby?" She shook her head and approached him.

"She kept crying every time I tried to put her down."

"Oh I swear, you and your father. Babies cry. It's what they do. You put them down so they learn to stop crying without you." She took the baby from him.

"Uncle Rhett smelled like cigar smoke," Wade suddenly announced to his mother.

Scarlett turned and gave her husband a look, having curtailed that habit several years ago after encountering a doctor that had described the autopsied lungs of smoker's with nasty coughs that had wasted away before his eyes. Their blackened lungs riddled with tumors. His stepfather practically lived a vice-free life at this point, the man barely even played cards and certainly never drank to the point Wade recalled from his youth.

"The boy thinks I'm too old and infirmed to still be having children that I'm going to leave him with a passel of sisters to take care of. He even said you're too old."

"Mother and Daddy are obviously not that old, it's how we got a new little sister," Bonnie said walking into the room with Win following after her.

Rhett bit back a laugh.

"Eugenia Victoria that is not how a young lady speaks," Scarlett scolded her daughter "and Rhett stop encouraging her."

"What's going on?" Ella said approaching her sister.

"Wade wants Mother and Daddy to stop making babies," Bonnie informed her sister.

"Really?" Ella questioned and took the baby from Scarlett's arms, "I like her, she's like a doll. I can't wait until she's bigger and has more clothing and hair." Out of nowhere, Ella turned, "Mother, you know you have to stop having babies when I get married right?"

"I will do my best Ella," Scarlett nodded.

"When do you think that will be Ella? You're almost 16 right?"

"I turned 15, four months ago," Ella shook her head at her brother.

"That's old enough Mother isn't it, you were only 16."

"Wade," his mother said with a hand on his arm, "I think you're overtired. Come sit down to dinner, you'll feel better when you've eaten and slept."

The girls sniggered behind him.

"Mother," he whined.

"Girls stop it. Your brother is going to be as old as your father was when he marries after having grown up with you two."

"I'm never getting married," he informed his mother.

"You're your father's boy, you'll fail just as miserably as he did with that promise."

Rhett let out a barking laugh.

Wade heard the little feet quickly taking the steps, "STAIRS!" He yelled out before his parents could.

"Exactly your father's boy," his mother said patting his arm.

Thank you guys so much for going on this journey with me. Your reviews meant the absolute world to me. I hope you enjoyed this story.