Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.

Prologue Part One

It was December of sixty-five. The war had been over for over six months. The people of the South were creating their new reality. They were finding out that it was nothing like their old world. They were finding it was a harsh cruel world. The people who had been members of the gentry before the war were having a hard time adjusting to their new bleak existence.

Rhett Butler stepped off the train from Charleston at the Atlanta depot. He had visited with his mother for a couple of hours for a couple of days. He had given her some money to support his family.

Rhett took himself to the National Hotel. He got himself a suite. He went to see Belle at The Painted Lady. He had picked up his share of the profits. They talked about everything that had happened in the last year and a half.

Rhett told her about going to Europe after his service in the Confederate army. What he had seen and done in Paris. Belle was not impressed. She had heard it all before. Rhett said, "What is the latest gossip about the matrons?"

Belle talked about Mrs. Merriwether starting a bakery, the Bonners taking in boarders although they called them long-term guests, and that with Fanny's marriage to Tommy Welburn things should look up for the Elsings.

Rhett got up and said, "I will probably be back this evening. I have to go make a call on Miss Hamilton."

"Alright."

As Belle watched Rhett walk out of the establishment, she knew once he heard the news, he would not be back that night or if he did, he would not be good company. She guessed she could have given Rhett the bad news, but she just hadn't wanted to see his face when he knew his world was over. She had also thought it was kindest of her to let him receive that news in as much privacy as possible. She couldn't imagine Rhett crying but his reaction at the least would be extremely emotional. That was why she had answered his question literally about the matrons. She had not wanted to be the one to tell him.

Rhett walked jauntily up the steps to Hamilton House. If Rhett had known the news he was going to receive once he was inside the home, he would have treasured his last minutes of happiness. Unfortunately, he was blissfully unaware of the disaster that was about to befall his life. In truth, the disaster had already befallen his life he was just unaware of it.

Rhett did not know that the only reason he was admitted into Hamilton House was that Sarah Jane Hamilton was a lonely woman. She was even lonelier now than she had been eighteen months ago. Once Rhett and PittyPat were seated in the parlor, Rhett said, "How is your niece, Melanie, doing?"

With a stricken face, PittyPat said, "I guess you don't know."

Rhett felt a cold fear invade his heart and he said, "Know what?"

"Melanie is dead."

"When? How?"

"I don't know why or how but Scarlett somehow got a wagon and a horse. She was fleeing Atlanta the night before Sherman took over. August thirty-first, I think."

"Yes, that was the day before Sherman captured the city."

"Yes, nobody knows why Scarlett left Atlanta, but it appears she was trying to get herself, Melanie, the boys, and Prissy to safety by driving them to Tara."

"Go on."

"It was just as well. A lot of people died when Sherman took over the city so they would have died anyway."

"They? Anyway?"

"Yes, it appears that they ran into some Yankees while they were on one of those back roads to Tara. It was just past Rough and Ready. Maybe just a mile or two outside the town. They were on a short cut. The authorities believe a couple of deserters attack them. They believe the deserters took everything of any value including the horse. There was nothing of any value in the wagon but Melanie and the boys' bodies. Scarlett and Prissy were found on the ground. They each had a bullet in their heads."

"They are all dead?"

"Yes, Melanie, Scarlett, Prissy, and those two sweet little boys."

PittyPat was crying now. Rhett was crying now. The tears had sprung into his eyes without warning. He could no more have stopped himself from crying than he could have stopped PittyPat from crying.

Finally, Sarah Jane sobbed out, "Why did she try something foolhardy like that?"

Rhett could not answer. He was crying too hard. It was all his fault. What had he been thinking? How damn stupid could any man be? He had left a woman in a war zone with a sick woman, a nitwit, a two-year-old, and a newborn in a rickety wagon with a nag for a horse. He had left her for honor. Honor! Damn his soul to hell.

There were two spirits sitting on a cloud. One spirit said, "Scarlett, we have to relieve his guilt."

The other spirit replied, "Not yet, Melanie, we have to see how much guilt he is really feeling. This might be a case of him feeling bad in the moment then finding a way to justify it to himself that he really wasn't responsible or that it wouldn't have mattered if he was there. Even if he had been there everyone would have died anyway including him."

"Scarlett, how can you be so cynical after everything we have been blessed with."

"Because I can now see Rhett's soul. It is a pretty dark place."

"Yes, it is but there is still some light. We can't let the light go out."

"Remember we are only supposed to help people who we think can truly be saved. That is why we haven't helped Ashley yet. We both know he can't help himself. We aren't supposed to waste our magical power."

"I know."

"That is why we helped Frank Kennedy by showing him all those goods on the road into Atlanta because he would help himself."

"I know. Captain Butler is just hurting so bad."

"Yes, he is."

"If we get to come back, we will help Ashley."

"But not coddle him. Rhett is hurting right now because he feels responsible but what will he feel tomorrow or the next day? Or three weeks from now? Is he going to find a way to justify how our deaths weren't his fault? You read Rhett's history also. You know as well as I do that is what he has done all his life. Justify his actions. He won't accept the consequences of his actions. You know as well as I do that, he never thinks about others only what is best for him.

"I know. I know. He …."

"No, we will watch him for a couple of months and see how he behaves."

"Alright. I know the reason we were teamed up was because of your hardness and my softness."

Scarlett turned and looked at Melanie and said, "We always were a great team. I'm sorry I didn't realize it sooner. Love you."

"We both know you were too immature to realize the true worth of a person then."

"And we both know Ashley was manipulating me."

"Yes, he was."

"Now that I have read Ashley's history, I know his main problem is his inability to make up his mind on what he wants or what the best thing to do is. Since he can't make up his mind, he never acts. He will wait and see if someone else will make the decision for him. And dumb bunnies that we were we kept stepping up and doing what he should have been doing.

The spirits both laughed.

Rhett finally got control of himself. He said, "Where are the bodies buried?"

"By the time they found them. There wasn't much left of them. They were buried right there without a coffin. They buried Melanie and Beau together, Scarlett and Wade together, and Prissy, by herself."

"Why didn't they take them to Tara?"

"They didn't know who they were at first. The bodies were in unbelievably bad shape. They had been out there at least for a week. It was the smell that let the people know there were dead bodies out there. They buried the bodies then investigated who the women might be."

"How do they know they are Scarlett and Miss Melly?"

"They found a letter in Scarlett's reticule from her Pa. The authorities didn't investigate Scarlett and the others' deaths until the war was over. They decided they needed to let someone know the women and children were dead. They wrote a letter informing me of their deaths since my address was on the envelope. The authorities already knew that everyone at Tara was dead. Henry went down to Rough and Ready and got all the information. We would like to bring the bodies back to Atlanta but we just don't have the money.

"Oh"

"They are assuming the other bodies are Melly and the boys."

"Of course."

PittyPat said, "Ashley is beside himself with grief. For him to have survived the war and the prisoner of war camp to come home to his wife and child being dead. He goes to work every day because we need the money."

"Of course. What about Scarlett's parents?"

PittyPat looked away from Rhett and said, "They are all dead now also."

"What?"

"Ashley found out from Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy found them when they were looking for food for the troops. All the bodies, but one, were already buried. Mr. Kennedy didn't know the man's name, but he knew the man had been one of the O'Hara's slaves. The authorities assumed they died of starvation."

"So, everyone is dead?"

PittyPat nodded her head and she said, "That is some comfort to me that Scarlett, Melly, Prissy, and those little boys didn't have to starve to death."

"No, Miss PittyPat if Scarlett had made it to Tara, she would have found a way to survive. Her and all her relatives."

"Maybe," PittyPat said more to herself, "I have nothing left. I gave up my life to raise Charlie and Melanie. Now both my children are dead, and both my grandchildren are dead. I have nothing left."

"Miss PittyPat, is there any way I could find the graves?"

"I have no idea where they are. Just somewhere between Rough and Ready and Tara."

"I too have nothing left. I loved Scarlett. I had hope to make her my wife. Now I have no future. Excuse me, I'm sorry to be rude but I must leave. I cannot talk about this anymore."

PittyPat stood up as Rhett stood up. She said, "Let me show you out."

After Rhett was on the street, he didn't know what to do with himself. For the last three years, he had been trying to seduce Scarlett into his bed with extraordinarily little success. He knew now that he hadn't wanted her for one night, or one year, or a thousand years. He had wanted eternity with her. He now hoped there was life after death for that was the only way he was going to ever be with her again. He would have to get right with the Lord if he was ever going to get into heaven.

Rhett went to the National Hotel. He stopped by the desk clerk and asked him to send up a bottle of whiskey. He would get himself drunk tonight. Tomorrow morning was soon enough to decide what he was going to do with the rest of his life. The rest of his bleak and empty life. It had taken him thirty-three years to find a woman he could love and now she was gone. Gone because of his stupid, selfish actions.

After Rhett had taken a couple of drinks, he realized that everyone knew that Scarlett and Miss Melly were dead. He momentarily wondered why Belle hadn't told him. She had let him leave the saloon ignorant. How could she be so cruel? Rhett stopped his thoughts. No, she had not been cruel. She had been kind. She had let him have a few more minutes of blissful ignorance and she had let him receive that devastating news in relative privacy. He would not have been able to handle hearing that his world was over in a saloon filled with other men. He would have been so embarrassed to have cried in front of those other men. Here in his room, he could cry to his heart's content.

Melanie said, "Scarlett, he is hurting so badly. Ashley is hurting so badly. We have to relieve their pain.

Scarlett said, "Not yet. I have to know he is truly devastated by my death and not just overwhelmed with guilt for having abandoned us to go and fight in a lost cause. Melanie, you know him fighting for the Confederacy would never have made a difference in the war. He left us in a war zone to make himself feel better. He didn't care about what might happen to us. Just what action did he need to take to make himself feel better. Talk about selfish. If he had stayed with us those two deserters would never have gotten the better of him."

"I know. I know."

"That one deserter distracted me while the other jumped on the wagon. Before I could get my gun out, they had overpowered me."

"I know. I know."

"We are just lucky that they didn't assault us."

"I know. I know."