"Have you heard?" India Wilkes asked Mrs. Elsing. "The Butlers are visiting."

"The Butlers?" the old woman grimaced. "Haven't heard from them in years…"

"Yes, they've come to see the grandbaby, Ella and Beau's child."

"Took them long enough. Oh my…have you told the other ladies?"

"Well, Mrs. Meade is ill. And Mrs. Merriweather is helping old Dr. Meade care for her. He isn't doing so well himself, you know."

"Yes, yes…of course."

"But Ashley says they were travelling when the baby was born. They are just now returning to the states."

"Oh my…well, Ella certainly turned out better than that mother of hers…"

"Yes, for Beau's sake, I am glad. I just can't imagine Scarlett O'Hara as his mother-in-law."

"Well, dear, perhaps she has changed…"

"Perhaps…"

Scarlett and Rhett, along with their children, Chance and Melanie, had arrived on the late afternoon train from Charleston. Those who saw them, who remembered the Butlers, were surprised by their appearance, Captain Butler, still standing proud with an air of smugness about him, his hair almost all grey now, but a quiet strength and cat-like quality in his movements. The scars that had seemed so horrible when he last was in Atlanta had faded, although the right side of his face was still devastated. No one was surprised to see that Scarlett was still beautiful, even if in a more matronly fashion. In her forties, she still possessed a tiny waist and her face was still youthful. Young Chance Butler was a handsome boy, nearing manhood. He carried himself in the same sure fashion as his father with a slight smirk. Melanie was growing into real beauty with a mix of her parent's good looks and attitude. But it was her smile that caught everyone's attention. Her smile lit the air that surrounded her. They climbed into a carriage and departed the station, leaving curious onlookers in their wake.

Ella greeted her parents gleefully. Although she and Beau had visited them several times, this was their first trip to her home in Atlanta. Their home on Peachtree was smaller than the mansion that Rhett had built for Scarlett so many years ago, but larger than Aunt Pitty Pat's that Beau had grown up in.

Ashley had turned over the running of the mills to Beau, who was proving to be an able businessman. Ashley was still a partner and stopped in occasionally, but left most of the decisions to his son while he pursued other interests, including the Widow Milton, a recent addition to Atlanta society. Ella showed her family in and brought the baby to the drawing room for them to see. Scarlett held her first grandchild, a boy, and marveled at the event. "He's beautiful, Ella."

Rhett studied his stepdaughter who had become like his own over the years. She was beaming; truly happy married to young Wilkes. He was satisfied with her choice. Beau was proving to be a good provider and living more in this world than his father ever had. And then he turned his attention to Scarlett, who also was beaming. He had feared that news of grandparenthood would somehow upset her, she had fought the aging process with the same determination that she had fought for everything else in her life, regretting every new wrinkle but still boasting of a tiny waist. He smiled as he watched her cooing to her grandson.

"We had such a difficult time with the name," Ella said excitedly. "But finally we decided on John Gerald, after our two grandfathers. Even though we don't remember them, never knew them…we've heard so many stories that they seem …real to us and we wanted to remember them in some way. I mean, I know it seems kind of strange, that maybe we should have named him Beau Jr.. or maybe like Ashley Frank…or even Rhett," she babbled as she looked at Rhett, "but John Gerald just seemed …right."

Rhett smiled at her and dipped his head in an understanding nod. Scarlett looked up at her daughter. "They both would be so proud," she told her daughter. "And both would have loved him so much."

Chance looked bored, lounging in a chair in the corner, watching the passers-by on the street through the window. Melanie sat quietly next to her mother, eyeing the baby curiously. He looked alien to her, fair with almost white hair, blue eyes, and very pale skin; not at all like the coloring that she and Chance shared, dark hair and dark eyes, although her mother had been careful not to let her get too much sun and consequently, Chance was swarthy while she was fair skinned. But it made sense to her that the baby would look so different. Ella had soft brown hair and light coloring and Beau was blonde, like his father and blue eyed. Of course, they would produce a fair looking child.

They heard the front door and Ella sprung from her chair, rushing to greet her husband in the hallway. "Look who is here," she giggled as she pulled him into the drawing room. Beau smiled and greeted everyone and then moved to Scarlett, looking to his Aunt for her approval. "He's beautiful Beau. And your grandfather John would be so proud that the baby has his name."

Beau beamed with happiness, his sparkle reminding her of his mother, Melanie. She laid her hand on Beau's arm and looked into his eyes. "You're mother is smiling down from above. She would be so excited about this."

Beau smiled again and thanked her. "I wish she were here to see him."

Stepping up, Rhett pulled a cigar from his coat pocket and handed it to Beau. "Congratulations, my boy. He's a fine one…I know that you are proud," he concluded as he glanced across at Chance.

"How long are you planning to stay, Mother?" Ella asked quietly.

"Two days. And then we'll move to Tara for a week or so. I want to see Wade since we are so close. Has he seen his nephew yet?"

"Yes," Ella beamed. "He was here last Saturday. He made a fuss and then caught the train back. Said he needed to get back. He and Uncle Will are starting the planting. He said they opened twenty new acres and have hired another hand."

"Well, his letters sound happy. I just wish he would meet someone…"

"Oh, I don't want to spoil the surprise but…well, I think he has news for you."

"He does?" Scarlett smiled.

"Yes," Ella answered. "But that's all I am going to say on the subject. "Oh Father," Ella looked over in Rhett's direction. His dark eyes focused on her, his mouth settling into a patient smile. She had decided to call him Father soon after Chance was born and he had taken the role seriously, guiding her as she grew into womanhood, as a father should and chasing away unsuitable young men when the circumstances dictated. They had become close and it warmed him whenever she called him Father. "Robert was here last week also. He looks so much like I remember you when I was little, it is startling. He had all the old biddy's tongues wagging because they couldn't figure out who he is."

"Really," Rhett smirked. "And where is he off to now?" Rhett's oldest child, his son with Belle Watling, had grown up to follow his father's example, becoming something of a rogue and when conditions in New Orleans had become uncomfortable, he'd begun travelling.

His acceptance of Rhett as his father had been surprisingly easy. The young man had suspected it all along and wished for it. They managed to keep the truth of his mother's occupation from him and it had been buried, along with Belle a few years earlier. Robert was out West, gambling his way across the country when his mother died and so did not make it to Atlanta for her funeral. Rhett had slipped in, somewhat incognito, to say his last good-bye and slipped out, with no one the wiser. The family was visiting Tara at the time, so the trip was an easy one.

Ella giggled at Rhett's question, the escapades of her stepbrother a continual source of amusement to her. "He said he was heading for Virginia. There is a filly there that has his interest and her father has a horse he wants to buy." Rhett grinned and Chance laughed, understanding the play on words. Even Scarlett was amused, thinking how much that sounded like something Rhett might have said.

Their visit with Ella and her family was too short in Scarlett's view, but her house wasn't large enough to accommodate them all for very long and Ella insisted they stay with her instead of securing rooms at the hotel. Ashley came to dinner their second night there and Scarlett felt satisfied as he and Rhett actually conversed amicably after dinner. That night in bed, Scarlett teased him about fraternizing with the enemy. Rhett chuckled and responded, "My dear, I hardly believe that you would throw me over for the wooden headed Mr. Wilkes these days. Stooped shoulders, thinning hair and a pasty, colorless face are hardly your style."

Scarlett looked at him devilishly. "Why Rhett, you've described my second husband to a tee…"

Rhett smirked back. "You are mine and you know it, so stop this nonsense." He then proceeded to show her how very much he possessed her as his hands and lips began to take what was his. Scarlett giggled. Rhett stopped his assault, raised his head and looked at her quizzically. "That's not the response I was hoping for," he growled merrily.

"Really Rhett, we are grandparents now…and to do it…here, in the room next to our grandson…" Rhett flashed the grin that had first caught her attention so many years ago at Twelve Oaks. "With a little luck, perhaps we can give him an uncle to play with…"

"Oh Rhett, you are so incorrigible…it just wouldn't be proper."

"Since when have you worried about proper?" he laughed.

Scarlett straightened her curls around her neck and settled into her most prim pose. "Since I became a grandmother," she said, her eyes dancing. Rhett pulled her down and nuzzled into her neck. "We'll just see about that," he declared as his lips began their onslaught.

Down the hall, in their room, Beau groaned as he looked at his wife. She smiled at him with a questioning look. "They are doing it again," he mumbled.

Ella chuckled. "Now you know what I had to put up with all the time I was growing up." Beau rolled his eyes and sighed. "I know how we can ignore it though," his wife informed him.

He looked at her through grey eyes and asked, "how?"

"By following their example, of course," Ella said as she sided up to him. A grin spread over his face as he responded.

"Well, I declare…" huffed Mrs. Elsing. "They didn't stay long enough for us to make a call."

"Yes, Ashley said they left on the train this morning. They are going to Tara for a week and then off again on another trip," assed India Wilkes.

"How inconsiderate!" Mrs. Merriweather proclaimed.

"Well, I'm sure they will be back now that Ella has a child," said Mrs. Elsing. "And then we will see what the years have done to Scarlett."

As their carriage pulled up the drive to Tara, Scarlett reflected on how so many things had changed and how so much was the same. Will had worked to restore the house to its former glory and now the fields that surrounded it were cultivated. Will had done an excellent job of bring Tara back to life and now Wade was living there, preparing to take his place as Master. Wade loved Tara as much as her father had and had been excited when she finally agreed to let him leave her to stand on his own at Tara. Suellen's brood had all grown now too, all girls and all but the last one married.

Tara housed another family as well. Careen and Peter had returned after he finished his time in the Army. He'd hung out his shingle and served as the only doctor for miles around, with Careen always at his side as nurse. Careen had turned out the most like their mother, Ellen. Scarlett knew that those who remembered Ellen saw some of the same ladylike qualities in her youngest daughter. Peter had confessed the truth of her first baby shortly before he was born. He'd also declared that in his mind it was his child and she was never to think of it any other way. Scarlett hadn't believed that Careen could love the man any more, but when she shared the story, it was obvious that he would have her heart forever. By the time they returned to Tara, she'd given him two more sons. A daughter was born a year after their return. With Will's help, they'd built a smaller house on the property, closer to the road, for their family.

Only the adults knew the truth of their oldest son's conception and Peter had insisted that the baby be named Peter, Jr. Their second son, born a few months ahead of Melanie, was named Paul James after Peter's friend that had encouraged him to "marry the girl and to hell with the Army." The third son was named William Rhett after the two men that had so easily welcomed a Yankee into the family and, as the couple later learned, taken revenge on the man that had hurt Careen. The baby girl was named Katy Sue, for her two aunts.

After the Gilberts had left on their honeymoon, Captain James had met Elisa Pickering from the other side of Jonesboro, courted her and married her. He had been sent West, to Ft. Sill in the Indian territory, where he retired as a Colonel. They returned to Clayton County, bought a small place down the road from Tara and were constant visitors in the Gilbert home. Elisa gave him one son, Richard Paul, who was born a week after Melanie.

Consequently, young Peter, Paul, Billy Rhett, and Richard could always be found together, creating mischief of one kind or another in their part of Clayton County. Chance Butler fit in with the hellions perfectly. The neighbors simply shook their heads in disbelief at each new adventure the boys conjured up.

Rhett watched the boys one afternoon from the porch and pondered his daughter's future. Peter, Paul, and Billy Rhett would be faced one day with choosing between their cousin and their friend Richard, because the boy was already showing an obvious attraction to Melanie. He was awkward and uneasy, as boys his age tended to be with girls, but Rhett recognized the glimmer in his eye when Melanie was around. He shared his observation with Scarlett one evening and she laughed at him. "Oh Rhett, they are too young…"

Rhett smiled at her, acknowledged their youth, and then added. "But how old were you when you first fell in love?"

Scarlett looked at him thoughtfully. "Love…or infatuation? Because I fell for Ashley at about Melanie's age. But I was much later before I began to understand love."

Rhett's features softened as he soaked up her words. "Yes, my pet. But you so see my point, don't you?"

"Well, in any case, we'll be gone in another few days. By the next time we visit, he'll have found some other pretty face to moon over."

"Perhaps," Rhett said skeptically.

Wade's news had come as a surprise to Scarlett. He had fallen in love with one of Tony Fontaine's girls and was courting her. Scarlett watched his face as he talked about her, how much they had in common, and how many dreams they shared for the future. Consequently, when he asked her blessing for him to propose, she gave it, happy that he'd found a county girl that would be content to live with him at Tara. He brought Celeste to meet her the next day and Scarlett took to the girl immediately. The family gathered again the following June for the wedding.

Rhett's prediction about Richard and Melanie came true and by the time the family gathered for their wedding five years later, Ella had another child. Wade had one and another on the way. Chance remained independent, breaking the hearts of young ladies in Charleston, Atlanta, and Clayton County. Robert Butler attended the wedding, a new wife on his arm who reminded Rhett of Scarlett when they were first married.

Rhett and Scarlett stood on the front porch of Tara as the newlyweds drove away, watching the gathering of family and friends. Scarlett's eyes were especially focused on her grandchildren. She thought of how far she had come from that day she'd sat on the porch with the Tarleton twins, anticipating the Wilkes Bar-B-Que and fussing about the talk of war. Her eyes landed on Ashley for a moment and smiled as she remembered her youthful crush on him, because that's all it had been really. Somehow, in all her stubbornness and misconceptions she'd tried to make it something else. But her true love stood next to her, his arm wrapped around her protectively and she silently thanked God that they had figured things out in time.

And her eyes brushed across Peter Gilbert and Paul James, the two Yankees that were a part of her family now. Two men that proved that under it all, the war had really been between brothers, the worst kind of war of all. And she looked around the place, remembering Ma and Pa…and Mammy. She wondered what they must be thinking now as they looked down from heaven. Although it retained some of its old grandeur, Tara was a part of the New South now, the negroes were free, working because they wanted a stake in the future as well. The crops were diverse, putting life back into the soil instead of constantly robbing the soil, as planting only cotton had done. Gone were the lazy, quiet days as a community was beginning to build up in the neighborhood, complete with the bustle and energy of new life. For her grandchildren, the tales of the old days would have no real meaning, beyond being family history. They wouldn't understand the charm that those days held, for they were born of the New South and would be its future. As she looked up at Rhett she realized they were the past, born of the Old South and when they and their generation went, that world would truly be gone forever. And yet, so many things would remain the same. Tara would still be home to the O'Hara clan. They would continue to draw strength from the red clay…what was it Pa said, the land is the only thing that matters…the only thing that lasts.

Rhett looked down at Scarlett and saw a single tear sitting in her eye. "What are you thinking, My Dear?"

She looked at him thoughtfully. "I am thinking of how grateful I am for you and for Tara. I've loved you both will all that I am and you've given me strength…and loved me back. And how our children and grandchildren will continue to draw strength from this land and the future we've made possible for them."

He pulled her closer and they stood together, watching the future unfold, content with all that they saw.

Gwtwgwtwgwtwgwtwgwtw

Okay, so that's the end folks. Hope you enjoyed it. I could have kept this one going on and on but little plot bunnies are multiplying in my brain. Besides, I have a challenge to write, lol. Please leave one last round of reviews. It'll fuel the process for my next endeavor. Thanks to all who read and especially all who left reviews. Couldn't have done it without ya.