Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW

Author's Notes: Thank you for the reviews. 100 reviews! Thank you so very much.

FYI: People who have PTSD or deep melancholy are never cured. It just goes into remission.

The epilog is the next chapter.

Chapter Eighteen

On one of their trips to Tara Scarlett found out that Cathy Calvert and her husband were living in Philadelphia. They were doing quite well now and they had four children. Scarlett didn't ask if Cathy was happy or not. She was afraid the answer would be no.

In February of eighteen seventy-three Scarlett went to see Dr. Harrison and confirmed that she was pregnant. She was finally completely happy. She no longer felt broken. This pregnancy was already different than the others. She was not suffering from morning sickness. It was the absence of her flow for the second month that made her go see Dr. Harrison. When she told Rhett he said, "I told you Meade didn't know what he was talking about." They had switch to Dr. Harrison for all their medical needs. Rhett didn't trust Dr. Meade any more.

She waited until she was beginning to show before she would tell anyone else. She told Rhett, "I just want it to be our little secret for a while." He smiled at her and agreed.

When she told her sister-in-law Melly burst into tears. When Scarlett asked, "What is the matter?"

"I so want another child but Ashley will not even talk about it anymore. After your miscarriage he said that if losing a child could almost kill you then it would definitely kill me."

"It almost did kill me. If it weren't for you and the children I might not have chosen to go on."

Melly looked at Scarlett. Scarlett was crying too. Then they were hugging each other.

When Scarlett told Cora May her friend smiled at her and said, "I'm so very happy for you. Thank you for telling me alone. You will need to leave now so I can cry for myself but please don't grieve for me. Enjoy your good luck." Scarlett had left that day but she returned the next day with Ella. Scarlett told Cora May, "Spending the day with Ella will make you feel much better. I don't want you to be alone with your thoughts." When Cora May dropped Ella off that afternoon, she told Scarlett, "Ella is like a miracle cure. Thanks."

The next week Scarlett returned for her weekly visit and her friendship with Cora May was still intact. She did continue the weekly visits with Cora May minus the alcohol. Rhett had read in one of his periodicals that alcohol could be harmful to the baby so he was making her be a teetotaler. She was making him abstain to keep her company. When she told him, he was abstaining also he smiled and said, "It is the least I can do." It was the first time in many years that Rhett had gone that long without a drink. The couple never resumed drinking after the baby was born. They both felt so much better without consuming alcohol they decided to become teetotalers. They would have an occasional drink with other people but for the most part they had stopped drinking alcohol.

Rhett never introduced Bonnie to jumping. They both enjoyed riding and would take long rides together. Wade and Ella both knew how to ride but only wanted to ride a horse when they had to ride a horse. Sometime Scarlett would come along but only if Bonnie asked her to. Rhett had gotten better about telling Bonnie 'no' but he was still a lot more lenient than Scarlett or Mammy.

As Scarlett's pregnancy progressed, she remembered why she hated being pregnant. She was hot, uncomfortable and swollen. Rhett pampered her just like he did when she was pregnant with Bonnie but she enjoyed it so much more this time around. She wasn't as quarrelsome this time which Rhett considered a miracle. The day before she went into her confinement, she made Rhett take her to the bookstore and she bought every book she thought she might want to read in the next three months. Rhett brought her chocolates and ice cream all through out the summer. She complained that she was going to be so fat when she finally gave birth because of all the sweets he was buying her. Nonetheless she still accepted the little gifts and enjoyed them especially the ice cream. Wade would stop by the book store and buy her a new book every week. The girls would massage her feet which always tickled but Scarlett enjoyed the time with her daughters.

The Butlers' second daughter was born on September twenty-sixth of eighteen seventy-three. It didn't really matter who their doctor was. He wasn't there when the baby was born. In the middle of the night Scarlett woke Rhett up and told him, "The baby is coming now!

"I'll go get Mammy."

"We don't have time to wait for Mammy. Look and see if you see the baby's head. I feel like I need to push." Rhett just stood there.

Finally, Scarlett snapped, "I need you to look Rhett. Now!" Rhett did look and he did see the head of his child.

"Yes. I see the head."

"Then get ready to catch your child." Scarlett bore down and suddenly the head was out. Scarlett said, "Don't touch the baby yet." She bore down again and out came the rest of their child. It was a girl.

Scarlett said, "Gently put her on my stomach. You can go get Mammy now." Rhett put on his robe and ran out of the room. Scarlett put part of her blanket over the baby while she waited for Rhett to get back with Mammy.

In about ten minutes Rhett had Mammy by the arm and she was still in her nightgown. She had her wrapper in her hand but that was probably all Rhett let her get. Mammy muttered, "Some people have no respect for a person while she is sleeping. They won't even let a good, decent woman put her wrapper on." Scarlett looked at Rhett and smiled. He still looked pretty shaken.

"I've got it all under control now Mr. Rhett. You can send someone to call the doctor."

Rhett walked over and pulled the bell to bring a servant. He knelt by the bed and asked Scarlett, "Are you all right? That was too fast. Why didn't you tell me you were in labor?"

Scarlett caressed his head and said, "I didn't know I was in labor until the pain woke me. Then all I wanted to do was push." Rhett watched as Mammy did some things under Scarlett's nightgown that he was grateful he couldn't see. He had already seen too much. One of the servants finally came in response to the bell.

Rhett said, "Go get Dr. Harrison and tell him my wife has delivered our baby. He needs to come right away." Mammy tried to get Rhett to leave and he absolutely refused.

"This is kind of messy."

"I don't care. I'm not going anywhere. All my children are asleep except for her and her beautiful mother." And he stroked the baby's cheek.

"It isn't proper." Mammy muttered. She then took care of everything that needed to be taken care of down there.

"I will take the baby and get her cleaned up. Miss Scarlett can you get out of the bed so I can change the sheets." Rhett reached down and picked her up and carried her to a chair. He sat her on his lap and pressed her head to his chest.

Scarlett said, "You are going to get all nasty."

"I don't care. Sit still and let me love on you." They sat there and Mammy brought them their daughter. Scarlett held the child. Mammy got the bed cleaned up.

"I was so scared for you. If I had seen all of this when you gave birth to Bonnie, we would have been in perfect agreement about not having any more children."

Scarlett smiled at him and said, "Probably not. At that point in time we always had different goals."

"Now we have learned the art of compromise." She snuggled deeper into his embrace. When the bed was ready, he carried her back and helped her change her nightgown. She sent him away to clean himself up while Mammy took care of some other items. When he got back, he got into the bed beside her. She was still holding their daughter but she handed the child to him.

"What shall we call her?"

"Alexandria Melanie Butler."

"Another queen's name?"

"And one of the finest ladies in the south."

Rhett pulled Scarlett close to him and thanked the God he didn't believe in for the miracle of that day. Dr. Harrison showed up and check both mother and child. He stated they were both in good health and he would be back tomorrow or later today depending on how one looked at it.

The other children were excited that the baby had been born. Wade was disappointed it was a girl. Ella thought Alex looked like a little doll. Bonnie at four and a half was disappointed. She had thought her little sister would be bigger. Bonnie never seemed to mind sharing Rhett with her little sister but wasn't happy about sharing her Mother. It made Scarlett so very happy though she tried not to show it or encourage it. Scarlett couldn't figure out why but the reason was simple in a four-year-old's mind. Daddy always had time for her but Mother didn't.

Alexandria looked just like Rhett except for her blue eyes. At first her skin was the same color as her mother's but as she got out in the sun her skin became the same color as her father's. Mammy was always getting after the girls about staying out of the sun. She was quite beautiful. The contrast between her eye color and her swarthy skin was amazing. They had named her Alexandria Melanie but when her eyes turned green Rhett nicknamed her Jade. Scarlett muttered something about she wondered why she bothered to think up names at all. Scarlett was an involved mother from the beginning but Rhett was still Jade's favorite. Rhett was very indulgent with her too.

Two years later Scarlett was getting restless and short-tempered with nothing to do which actually thrilled Rhett. It meant that she was finally completely out of her melancholy. She was never meant to be only a wife and mother. She needed more than just being in investor. He knew she was driving the Tarletons crazy with her interfering. The Tarleton's Horse Farm was becoming a success in spite of all of Scarlett's interference. The Christmas after Jade turned two years old Rhett bought Scarlett a cotton gin. It made Scarlett very happy to run a business so he bought her one. This time he planned to work with her on running the gin. They ended up owning three cotton gins. Rhett liked it a lot because the gins only ran seasonally which left them plenty of time to travel. Travel they did. They went to Europe and all over the United States. Scarlett was a homebody and sometimes it was difficult to get her to agree to travel with him. Rhett would just tempt her with all the delicious foods there were to eat at where he wanted to travel to. He knew she was unquestionably a food lover.

Scarlett was a somber version of her sixteen-year-old self. To tell the truth she was a somber version of her twenty-six-year-old self. She was so much happier than she had been during that awful time after the miscarriage. After Scarlett finally dealt with all of her grief, that she was feeling in eighteen seventy-one it had left her scarred. There was a positive change after Dr. Dunn told her she wasn't barren but it wasn't until she became pregnant with Jade that she was consistently happy again.

Rhett and Scarlett had quarrels but they were nothing like the battles they had before her fall. Rhett would argue mainly because he loved to see her passion come to the surface but he usually gave her what she wanted because he did love her so very much. The fact that the victory never failed to work as an aphrodisiac on Scarlett help Rhett give in also. Rhett didn't try to set off her temper …. Very often.

Rhett told Scarlett he loved her all the time and he knew she loved him even if she didn't say it very often. If he told her he loved her she would say, "Me too." Every now and then she would randomly say she loved him and Rhett could never figure out what had prompted her to say it.

Rhett knew he had been cruel and mean to the woman he loved during the first years of their marriage. His hurt and jealousy had led him to do things he was now ashamed of having done. He would spend the rest of his life making up for the way he had treated her. Rhett knew he was a very lucky man. Not only had Scarlett come out of her deep melancholy but she had grown to love him. He knew she regretted all the pain she had caused him in their relationship and she was trying to make up for the hurt she had caused him.

Even after several years Rhett was still afraid of her returning to the melancholic state, she had been in during the summer and fall of eighteen seventy-one. Rhett was always alert to Scarlett showing signs of melancholy. When she did, he would make her talk about it. She knew how to deal with her sorrow now but he never wanted it to overwhelm her again. Rhett learned to let her talk even if they had talked about it before. She had a lot of sorrow in regard to their lost child, the things she had done to survive and her parents. Rhett let her talk about them as long as she wanted. He found himself talking about their lost child, his father, and the loss of his family. It seemed he had some sorrow of his own he needed to talk about.

Mammy passed away in the summer of eighteen seventy-nine. At first it appeared that Scarlett was taking the loss well but after two weeks Rhett knew she had bottled her grief again. It was still against her nature to show any weakness even though she knew she was safe and Rhett would not use it against her. Rhett just kept making her talk about Mammy and share her memories. Rhett made the entire family talk about Mammy. He was so grateful for Ella and Wade because they were quite willing to share their memories. Once people started sharing Scarlett was more comfortable with sharing her own.

Rhett knew that Cora May was helping Scarlett work through the loss of Mammy too. Rhett knew that between the two of them they would get Scarlett through it. Rhett begrudgingly admired Cora May because he did recognize that she helped Scarlett in ways he never could. In his most honest moments, he knew it was Cora May that had saved Scarlett and had saved their marriage. Of course, he would never tell her that.

Author's Notes: I have heard of women who don't know they are in labor until they feel the urge to push. I don't know how that is possible. Since I wanted Rhett to experience labor in a meaningful way, I had Scarlett not feel the pains until she felt the need to push and Rhett had to help her.