Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to update, I had a couple of family problems and then I tried to post this up quickly, but I soon found out that I need to put my ideas on paper with a pen before I even trying to type anything up.

Thank you so much for the lovely reviews, you are all really fantastic, it makes me feel guilty for not updating fast enough.

And yes, I do have trouble writing Rhett, I just don't relate to him at all, and I think that my attempt at getting into his mind in the last chapter contributed to making it worse than the previous one.

Well Rhett isn't in this one so hopefully, it will be better.

R&R please.

Having grown up with for only sibling her brother, Charles and for sole female companion her delightfully dizzy aunt PittyPat, Melanie Wilkes thought of Scarlett as her sister, and she would stand by her no matter what happened.

Melanie was so blinded by her love for the plantation belle that she couldn't see her many flaws, and whenever she did see them, she would always find excuses for her friend.

She was totally devoted to the woman who had risked her own safety to save her and her son's life, who had worked harder than any field hand to ensure they had enough to eat and who had expected nothing in return.

Melanie thought Scarlett was driven by the same forces as herself: honour, love for her family and kindness.

Ever since they had been girls, she had openly admired Scarlett O'Hara, much to her cousins India and Honey's dismay. Melanie stood in awe before the spirit that inhabited the other girl as she chased the boys and climbed up trees, and thought that if she was that way, it was because God had gifted her with twice more life than any other person.

If Melanie had been the kind of person to display envy, she would have been jealous of Scarlett, just like all the other girls had been and still were, but there wasn't a jealous bone in her body. True she had allowed herself one moment in which she sank into sin just after Bonnie Blue Butler's birth, during which she had wished the little girl where her own, but she had discarded those thoughts as soon as they had entered her mind.

Melanie Hamilton Wilkes was the kindest person in Atlanta and all the rest of the old guard respected her and her opinion, and would have probably followed her, if she had seen fit to jump off a cliff.

Melanie was unable to see the flaws in those she loved unconditionally. Ashley Wilkes and Scarlett Butler were one of the lucky few who entered into that category.

Ashley Wilkes was the love of Melanie's life. As far back as she could remember she had always known that she would marry him, and as the years had gone by she had built a strong bond of love for the man who became her husband and the father of her son. She could no longer picture her life without him.

Scarlett was the girl and woman she would have liked to have been, beautiful, too charming for her own good, driven by a huge will which prevented her from being afraid of going to whatever extreme was necessary to obtain what she wanted or needed.

Scarlett, born O'Hara, half Irish, half French, but brought up to be the perfect Southern Belle, who had been married three times, was the kind of person who would be remembered long after her death even if it was only in legend, Melanie chuckled to herself as she finished a row of knitting comfortably seated in her front room.

She was interrupted in her thoughts by the servant who had discretely entered the parlour to announce the arrival of a caller.

"Miss Melanie, Miss Scarlett is at the door, she's here to see you," she said.

"Well don't leave her outside, show her in, thank you," Melanie smiled.

How funny, she thought, when you speak of the devil …

As soon as Scarlett had entered the room, Melanie cast her knitting onto a nearby table and went to greet her friend with a hug and a kiss.

"Scarlett, darling, I was just thinking about you. You look absolutely lovely today, is that a new dress? Green is really your colour, if you were only allowed to wear one colour for the rest of your lifetime; you should pick green, and that shade of it."

"Yes Melly, it's a new dress. Bonnie picked it and brought it back for me from her trip with Rhett," Scarlett confessed.

"Little Bonnie is back? And Captain Butler as well?"

Scarlett merely nodded her answer.

"Oh darling, you must be so happy! I know just how much you have missed both of them," Melanie said.

Scarlett sighed, "Yes I missed my little Bonnie Blue very much."

"And Captain Butler too darling," Melanie said with a knowing glance.

Scarlett chose to ignore this last comment and sat herself down on the settee next to Melanie.

"I just came over here to tell you," Scarlett began. "That I will not be going to the mills or the store for a while, so you can make plans to occupy your mornings with other things."

"But why darling?" Melanie protested. "I know how much you love the mills and the store and enjoy going there everyday and you know that I don't mind going with you …"

"Yes, Melly, you're very kind, and I'm very grateful, it's just that I can't go to the mills anymore because," she inhaled deeply, "I'm going to have a baby."

Both women turned a light shade of pink.

"Oh, Scarlett dear, that's wonderful news," Melanie said genuinely. "I'm so happy for you! Captain Butler must be overjoyed, he loves children so much."

Scarlett sunk deeper into the cushions of the settee and turned her eyes away from Melanie's.

"Scarlett, I know we shouldn't talk about such things, it isn't proper, but you're the only one with who I would dare speak like this and you know how much I love babies, what do you think you will have this time? A boy or a girl?"

"How should I know Melly? It's not as if the baby has sent me a telegram to tell me," Scarlett snapped, but her growing curiosity forced her to continue. "I never knew with Wade, Ella or Bonnie, do women usually know what they're going to have before the baby comes? Did you know Melly?"

"I don't know about other ladies Scarlett, I wouldn't dare to ask them. But when it was Beau, I just knew at the bottom of my heart and soul that he would be a boy. I was sure that I would give Ashley a son, even if it was the last thing I did."

Scarlett was immediately filled with a pang of jealousy, which took control over her mind and body. She should have been the one to give Ashley a son, or rather sons, yes; she would have most certainly given Ashley Wilkes a handful of strong sturdy boys.

Driven by the ulterior motive of her visit, which was to obtain mothering advice from Melanie, she quickly let go of her sinful thoughts and forced herself to shed a tear and start crying, "Melly, I'm such an awful horrible mother. I don't deserve to have children. I don't even know if I'm having a baby boy or a baby girl."

Melanie quickly put her arm around her friend's shoulders, she felt guilty about bringing this on, "Don't be silly darling. There's no harm in not knowing, and besides you are a good mother."

"Melly, even you know what you just said is total nonsense," she let out a strangled cry. "Wade is terrified of me, I can see it in his eyes, I have no patience to deal with Ella, she's too dizzy for my liking and Bonnie, my precious Bonnie, prefers her father."

"Oh, dear, I'm so sorry for having upset you so much, I didn't mean …"

"It's not your fault, Melly," Scarlett cut in. "It's all my own doing, I was never there, always absent during their baby years, they grew up without me."

"But, you were busy making sure they had a roof over their heads and food on the table, without you most of us would have perished after the war."

"Still Melly, I would give all my past achievements up, if I could become half the mother you are," Scarlett hiccupped looking at Melanie with teary eyes.

"But I have only one child to tend to darling, you have three," Melanie reasoned.

"Don't be modest Melanie, I've seen you take care of my three in addition to your Beau and you did a better job at it than I would with only one of the children. You are the best mother I know."

"Well Scarlett, you could always learn …" Melanie suggested.

"How?" Scarlett asked dramatically. "Mother always said that you didn't need to learn how to be a good mother. It was the most natural thing for a woman; we were put on earth to be mothers."

"Where there's a will, there's a way, darling. And I for one know that you have the strongest willpower in the South, and that you are the best at everything you take on," Melanie stated before adding, "And I will help you."

"Oh really Melly? You would do that for me? You are far too kind. I do not deserve a friend like you," Scarlett said, grabbing the other woman's hands into her own.

"You are my sister Scarlett. You saved my life and my son's and took care of me and I will never forget that and I will be eternally grateful. And anyway, what else would you and I do with all those free mornings, now that we are not going to spend them at the mill or the store anymore."

Melanie smiled at Scarlett, who immediately stopped weeping and returned the smile.

Scarlett's heart swelled with satisfaction: she had obtained exactly what she had come for, her plan was going perfectly.