Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Twenty-Five

Rhett started to hurl out a bunch of ugly, cruel, sarcastic comments but he stopped himself. He turned and saw everyone staring at him. He got a hold of himself and stomped off through the hedges. He grabbed his bottle and went to the parlor where the sofa was. He poured himself a drink and another.

Rhett then stood up and put the bottle back up. It was the whiskey that had gotten him in trouble before. As he thought about Scarlett's words, he knew why she had gotten frosty with him again. When she pulled up in front of the house, she had remembered pulling up in front of the little squat house when she had come over to help plan Miss Melly's funeral. She had remembered his walking out the door after she had professed her love. Furthermore, he had told her he not only no longer loved her, but he didn't give a damn about anything.

Rhett didn't know what to do. If he was going to get back in her good graces he was finally going to have to behave like an adult. He would apologize for yelling at her. That would be the first time he apologized to Scarlett for anything he had done to her. In fact, he would go right over there and do it right now before he lost his nerve or talked himself out of apologizing. If he could find her again in that crowd. It had made him so mad to see her humbling herself in front of those hypocrites. She was so much better than those people. For her to be serving them when they should be serving her.

As Rhett went through the hedges, he had an awareness. His default action when hurt was to attack the other person in order to not let the other person know he had been hurt. Which was alright when the person had intended to hurt him but if the person's words or actions were innocent then he, by verbally assaulting them, had just made the situation worse. He would think about that more later. Right now, he had to find Scarlett.

Rhett started looking for Scarlett at the serving bowl. She wasn't there. Everyone was giving him a wide berth, but he didn't care. Once they were back together again, he would take her away from all these people. He finally saw her. She was talking to Mrs. Meade. He approached the ladies. He heard Mrs. Meade say, "Dear you did the right thing by divorcing that man. Once you marry your lawyer then nobody needs to ever know you were ever married to him."

"Although, Mrs. Meade, I did not want to remain married to him because of our history, I also don't want to forget that I was married to him. He was my Bonnie's father and therefore he will always have a special place in my heart."

"I know, Scarlett, it is so hard when a couple loses a child. Arthur and I lost a baby girl who was in between Darcy and Phil. We chose to cling together. Then when we lost Darcy, we again chose to cling together. When we lost Phil, we had to cling together because we were all we had."

"Dr. Meade said for me to give him another child and I tried but he wasn't interested."

"No, he was already lost in the bottle."

"Yes, he was."

Scarlett felt shame in that moment because while she had sat at the dining room table watching Rhett completely fall apart, she had been wondering if Ashley still loved her.

Mrs. Meade said, "You and Captain Butler chose to go your own ways."

"No, Mrs. Meade, that is not what I chose. That is what Rhett chose. I waited a year hoping he would come back to me. Although he did return from time to time he did not want to work on our marriage. He did not want to make our marriage work. Unfortunately, the only thing that brought him back was my filing for divorce but by that time I knew there was nothing to save from my marriage."

"Oh Dear, I am so sorry this is happening to you. You have already lived through so much heartache."

"Yes, I have but they say God doesn't give you any more than you can handle. I just wish God didn't have so much faith in me." Then Scarlett made her snide comment. She said, "If it wasn't for the community's support, I wouldn't have made it."

The missive was not lost on Mrs. Meade. but she deserved it. She like everyone else had abandoned this young woman when they had welcomed her husband into their homes. The worst blackguard of them all. Cora said, "Oh Dear. You did the right thing."

"Let me go check on my guests."

As Scarlett walked away from Mrs. Meade, Rhett joined her. She looked at him then looked away. He said, "Give me one minute of your time."

Scarlett stopped and looked at Rhett. She waited but no words came forth from Rhett. Finally, he said, "Give me a minute to get the words out. I haven't done this in a long time. The last time was when my mammy made me do it. I didn't mean it then, but I do mean it now." Rhett took a deep breath and said, "I am sorry for yelling at you. That was unacceptable behavior. You are absolutely right. I have no say over your life. I lost that because of my hubris, my arrogance, my pride, and my actions."

"Yes, you did. Why is it alright for you to humble yourself to get Bonnie received but it is not alright for me to humble myself to get Wade, Beau, and Ella received?"

"I should never have humbled myself to get Bonnie received."

"You also shouldn't have pushed your wife further into the dirt to get yourself received. The dirt that I was in because I married you."

"True but I didn't push you further into the dirt. The dragons pushed you further into the dirt."

"And you let them. Just as you let them believe that it was me that invited Governor Bullock into our home when it was you that told me to put him on the guest list."

"Yes, I did."

"I was so jealous of her. She had your heart and your love just because she was breathing, and you couldn't even give me simple common courtesy."

"I was so jealous and mad that you preferred Wilkes to me that I couldn't think straight. I said and did a lot of stupid things."

"Yes, you did. I suppose I said and did stupid things also. Not the least being not paying any attention to you."

Rhett gave her a little half smile, but he didn't agree. It was the first time she had admitted any fault in their relationship. He said, "Except when I made you mad."

"Rhett just let me go."

"I can't let you go. If I could have, I would have let you go years ago. I know I have treated you badly but especially the months after Bonnie died. In my narcissism I thought you would be sitting there waiting for me to return. You always had before."

"The truth is during the war I was just waiting for it to be over. Do you know that in my naivety I thought everything would be the same after the war was over? It wasn't until we escaped from Atlanta, and I got to Tara that I began to realize nothing would ever be the same again."

"There are so many things I need to atone for. Rough and Ready is one of them. Let me say I am sorry for abandoning you. I did because I felt guilty about not defending the South."

"It is amazing that I forgave you for that."

"You always forgave me for all my awful deeds. I never appreciated that. I never appreciated the wonderful things you did because I was so focused on you preferring Wilkes to me."

"Neither one of us appreciated the other one. Ashley said that was our problem. We both thought that the other one should be grateful we married them instead of the truth that we both should have been grateful the other one married us."

"For once I agree with Mr. Wilkes."

Rhett and Scarlett stared at each other with sad expressions on their faces. He said, "Don't give up on me. I am trying to become a better human being. At least, remain my friend. We were friends once, maybe we can be again."

"Rhett, from what you told me the night Melly died, we were never friends. You always wanted something more from me than I was giving you." Scarlett paused. She stared at Rhett. Finally, she said, "That is probably the crux of our problem. You wanted something from me that I didn't know you wanted. You wanted me to love you. You wanted me to want your child. You wanted me to want you physically. Yet, you never voiced those desires. I was just supposed to guess what you wanted. The most obtuse woman in the world." With a half smile, she said, "I was so worried about you when you were gone those two days. If you had given me time, I would have welcomed you back and let you know how worried I had been about you. Sadly, that was what you wanted. For me to welcome you back from Belle's like you were the long, lost hero but you immediately told me that you left my bed to go to another woman's bed. What woman in her right mind would welcome her husband home after he said all that. I know you want me back, but do you want me back because I left you or because I am the only woman you will ever love. Good night, Rhett."

"No, wait. I have loved you since I saw you on that stairwell at Twelve Oaks. I will always love you."

"And?"

"And yes, I want you back because you are my one true love."

"Good night, Rhett. I will see you tomorrow."

"No wait. I have one more thing to say. I am sorry I ever left you. From Rough and Ready to taking Wade to New Orleans to taking Bonnie to Charleston to the day Miss Melly died."

"Rhett, that was just your physical body you took away. You took some of yourself away in New Orleans. You took the rest away when Bonnie was born. I was no longer important as long as you had your daughter. You leaving the master bedroom was just you removing your physical body. You sure jumped fast on that chance to go back to being with your whores."

"That is not true but if you felt that way it doesn't matter if that was my intent or not. I will never leave you again. I will never be intimate with another woman ever again even if you never take me back. I have sold all my business interest that would require I be away from Atlanta overnight.

"Good night."

With that Scarlett scurried away. Rhett let her go.

Rhett walked home through the hedges. As he did, he realized he had never eaten dinner. Not even the one Mrs. Child made for him. He went to the kitchen and there was his supper on the table the servants used. The table was built into the structure. It was where he had eaten all his meals at since they had moved into the house. He sat down and ate his supper. It was rosemary chicken with mashed potatoes and spinach. He wasn't overly fond of spinach, but he would eat it. He, of course, had told Mrs. Child to serve it with the chicken.

His meal probably would have been better if he had eaten it when it was hot but nonetheless it was good. It wasn't as good as the pinto beans and ham would have been. Especially if he could have gotten Scarlett to join him. He finished everything on his plate. He needed to counter act the alcohol he was going to drink tonight.

When Rhett was finished with his supper, he piled up his plate and silverware. He took them to the sink. He was going to have to start treating everyone a lot better. He was going to have to be considerate of other people's feelings.

Rhett got his whiskey bottle. Tonight, he was not drinking to forget about Bonnie, he was drinking to forget all the mistakes he had made in his relationship with Scarlett. Not the least yelling at her in public. That would be all over Atlanta tomorrow. Damn it! He had shamed her once again.