Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of Margaret Mitchell, her heirs, and their assigns.

Rhett took Scarlett to the artist's studio several days later. The artist put a locket on a chain and a pocket watch on a piece of velvet for them to examine. Rhett picked up the pocket watch and opened the front. He smiled at what he saw and showed the portrait inside to his wife.

Scarlett was amazed at how pretty the woman in the watch looked, with magnolia-white skin, soft pink tones in her cheeks, and a light of animation in her green eyes. "Do I really look like that?"

"You look like that when we speak sometimes," he answered. "It's the reason men fall dead in love at your feet. I'll be the envy of anyone who sees this." The back of the watch had a small compartment in it. The artist's assistant handed Rhett some small scissors. "Do you mind?" he asked with a grin.

Scarlett let down some of her hair and he came close to her, holding the scissors. "'This Lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame,'" he murmured. But it's Scarlett's name that would be inscribed in the stars, he thought. "It's perfect," he told the artist as he closed Scarlett's hair into the compartment.

They changed their attention to the locket next. In the first compartment contained a miniature of him. "Oh, Rhett! It's so like you!" she looked up at him delight on her face. Is there a way for me to have some of your hair, too?"

Rhett showed her that there was a compartment in the back of the locket and handed her the scissors. Scarlett looked all over his head, trying to find the perfect curl and found what she wanted near the nape of his neck. It was long enough and curled enough to go around her finger. Soon it was snapped into the locket. Rhett fastened the chain around her neck and kissed her forehead and then fastened the pocket watch to his fob. He paid the artist in gold and they were soon back out on the street.

"Do we have time to go to the hotel now, or shall I await better things later?" he asked with a smile.

"I don't suppose we could have both?" she asked.

Rhett's smile intensified. "I told you that we matched each other," he said. "I'm yours to command, Mrs. Butler."

"You like to call me that," she observed.

"It means you're mine," he said.

Rhett lived for the afternoons and nights when Scarlett could be with him in his rooms. She was exhausted from the work at the hospital and then the work at Pittypat's house to care for Melanie and make sure there was enough food for everyone to eat. Rhett made sure she got baths, and a little more to eat as well as sleep. He would watch her sleep, jealous of her time but unwilling to keep her awake when she was so tired and worried about everything.

One afternoon he did wake her, so she could eat a quick tea before he took her back to the Hamilton house. "I don't know why you bother with the hospital," he observed. "You hate to deal with the filth and sickness as much as I do."

"I do it because it makes Melly happy," she said listlessly.

"Does it make you happy?"

"Not particularly. It makes Mother happy to know I'm doing my part, too."

"Why does Melly want you to do it?"

"She wishes she could do it. She always hopes there's someone doing the same for Ashley."

"Aha... so since Melanie Wilkes can't tend her own husband who's probably dead, you have to work in the hospital."

"Don't say Ashley's probably dead!"

"Would it matter if he was? Would it make a difference between you and I?"

Scarlett didn't know how to answer. "I don't know."

"Guess, just for the sake of guessing. If he walked into this room, what difference would it make to you and me?" Rhett felt the need to push this point. Was there any hope that he could become, not what Ashley was to her, but rather the man she loved in all the ways she was capable of loving a man?

Scarlett looked from the rumpled bed to Rhett and then to the table between them. She pictured Ashley looking disappointed in her, and she remembered the way Rhett's breath sounded in her ear just as he tumbled her into that wild feeling. The thought of Rhett's hands stroking her body, teaching her things she didn't even know about herself, and the way he held her so gently after it was all done. How could she compare it to the weak passion Ashley showed, only after she kissed him first? When Rhett kissed her, she didn't know Ashley existed.

"Well..." she said, looking into Rhett's face as honestly as she knew how, "I'd rather he not come in until I get a chance to put on more than my shimmy, and I think we might want him to leave before we do more of..." she glanced at the bed... "that."

Rhett roared with laughter. "So practical, again!" He stood and picked her up off her chair, taking her back to the bedroom.

"Why did you want my shoulders in the miniature?" she asked.

"Because they're perfect," he said, "and kissable." He leaned over and did just that. "And your collar bones are exquisite." He pushed her shimmy out of the way and traced them with his lips.

For just a moment, she wondered how many shoulders he'd kissed, and how young and foolish she must seem to him. "Have you kissed so many shoulders? Am I so very young?"

"I don't mind your inexperience, Scarlett, and I love your honesty, when you don't try to hide what you're really thinking." He stepped close to her and reached under the hem of her chemise. He found the buttons of her pantalets and they were soon on the floor. "We'll learn how to please each other for many years to come, I hope." His hands kept moving up even as his mouth came down to capture hers.

Scarlett was thinking of those years as the madness started to come upon her. He was backing up, drawing her along with him. Then he was sitting on the bed. The kiss broke and he was looking at her with a challenge in his eyes.

"What?"

"Sit on my lap, my love."

"What?"

He pulled her up to the bed and then tugged on first one knee and then the other until she realized where she was sitting. "Rhett?"

He guided her hips up and then back down, glorying in the look that came to her eyes at the difference between what they'd done before and were doing now.

"It's the same, but not the same," she said.

"Is it painful or uncomfortable?"

She shook her head. "Not in the least."

Scarlett gasped as her chemise was suddenly pushed up over her head and cast aside to float...somewhere. "Scarlett," Rhett groaned. She felt herself doing... something... as his hands and lips worked their endless magic on her. "Oh, yes, love," he hissed. He put his hands along her waist and guided her hips up... and then back down. Her breasts were close to his mouth, and he nipped and kissed as they moved together. He fell backwards and pulled her with him, never stopping the rhythm. Then she was whimpering as she felt that delicious something give way while he was encouraging her and groaning out his own pleasure.

She wasn't sure how much later it was when they were lying quietly together. Scarlett had slid to Rhett's side. Her head was on his shoulder and she was tracing circles in his chest hair. His fingers were running along her scalp, pulling strands of her hair across his neck.

"Do we really need to tell them?" she asked.

"I think we should soon," he answered.

"It's just so nice this way, and they'll just ruin it."

He leaned his head up. "They can't ruin this."

Half an hour later, they were getting dressed and finishing the small meal they'd interrupted, and they still discussed whether to tell anyone they were married.

"I hate having to call you 'Mrs. Hamilton.'"

"They won't let it alone if they find out."

"They're going to find out eventually."

"Of course, but Melly agrees it's better if we wait a little. Mrs. Meade will be so angry with us, and if anything happens to Melly or the baby after I've spent all of this time here, I will be furious."

The baby.

He looked at her and thought about the possibility. One of the reasons he'd married her was the potential for children. It was possible, now. If they parted now, he might leave her in the midst of a war with child.

She saw his face. "What is it?"

He smiled. "I need to get all of my paperwork in order." He'd have to re-write his will. There must be at least one lawyer still in town. And, despite what Scarlett wanted, if there was a baby, the sooner the old guard knew about the marriage, the better.

As it turned out, they didn't need to say anything. A few days later, Mrs. Meade sussed something out and was waiting for them on the porch when they got to the house.

"Where have you been?"

Scarlett shrank into Rhett's side. "We've... we've..."

Rhett realized she would never manage to say what needed to be said, and it was clearly out now. "Mrs. Butler and I have been spending some time together in anticipation of our imminent parting.

"Mrs. Hamilton, you mean?"

"No, I refer to Mrs. Butler, Mrs. Meade." He pulled one of the several copies he'd had made of their marriage certificate and handed it to the woman. "Scarlett and I have been married since early in the month."

Mrs. Meade looked over the paper and handed it back. She looked at Scarlett and said, "You stupid, foolish girl! Why would you do such a thing!"

"I-" Now was the time to say that she loved him, if only to shut the woman up. She looked at Rhett, who was looking at her with something in his eyes. Why couldn't she say it?"

"Mrs. Meade, please! Can't you see they love each other madly?"

Melly was half way down the stairs, and she was told not to come down for any reason! Scarlett was suddenly mobilized. "Melly, you mustn't!"

"I'm sorry, Scarlett, but you can't let her scold you like that. Anyone with eyes can see that he adores you and that you love him body and soul. Go on, tell her."

Scarlett closed her eyes and thought of what Rhett had been doing to her body less than an hour before. "I do love him. Body and..." She nodded. She felt a little disloyal to Ashley, but he didn't want her body and Rhett did. Oh, how Rhett did!

Rhett chuckled to himself. He could guess what the sudden flush from Scarlett's hairline to neckline meant.

Mrs. Meade puffed up like a bullfrog. She could guess, too. "I don't know how you allow such goings on, Melanie Hamilton."

"Wilkes," said Scarlett timidly. She had her arm around Melanie and was trying to guide help her turn around to go back upstairs.

Mrs. Meade turned in their direction with narrowed eyes. "Melanie Wilkes. To allow Ellen Robillard's daughter to marry a man who's not-"

"Mrs. Meade?" broke in Scarlett anxiously.

"Don't interrupt me. To allow Ellen-"

"Mrs. Meade, look at Melly. Is it her time?"

Everyone looked at Melanie, half way up the stairs, clutching the rail with one hand and her belly with the other.

Mrs. Meade was intent upon properly dealing with this Butler marriage, but babies had greater priority. "Good Lord. Ease her to a sitting position, Scarlett. Mr. Butler, if you would go to the hospital and find out if Doctor Meade can spare the time for us, I would appreciate it. Prissy, you go over and get Betsy. Tell her to bring the baby bag. Her pain seems to be easing. Scarlett, help me get her upstairs."

Several hours later, Scarlett returned to the porch to find Rhett sitting on a rocker. He pulled her onto his lap and slid his hand around her middle.

"Rhett!"

"Hush, no one will comment now. Except for the Meades, the houses here are empty for a quarter mile in every direction. Did I hear correctly that it's a boy?"

"Beau," she answered. "She's so happy, and Doctor Meade says Mrs. Meade can take her to Macon where all their cousins live, now."

"You're determined to go to Tara?

"I need my mother... and it sounds like they could use my help."

"You realize you'll have to get through Sherman's army."

The look on her face told him everything. He pulled her head under his chin. "All right, my darling. Somehow we'll get you there. Sherman is no match for you."

A/N: For the record, this story was never intended to be more than a one-shot, and the chapters come to me catch as catch can. It will probably never really be complete, but it will be slow going. The Exes story has been pretty dark to write the last couple of days, and this story cheers me up, so here I am.

I'm changing Beau's birthday from the first of September to the third week of August for several reasons, primarily that everyone now has time to think about what they're doing. As an odd thought: The only birthdays MM gives us definitively are Ashley's birthday and Beau's. Go figure.

Thanks to readers and reviewers, including gabyhyatt, gumper, Truckee Gal, abbygale94, kanga85, abbygale94, and Chippy70.