Author's Note: This is the love story of Rhett and Scarlett. It also includes several other characters as well as their storylines. This story will be submitted in several parts and is based off the movie and book "Gone with the Wind", yet the "history" has been changed somewhat to suit the purposes of this story. This story begins after Scarlett's fall down the staircase. In this story, I will try to fix the tragedies that befell Rhett and Scarlett. This will be a much happier version. Hope you enjoy!

Also, I'd like to note that I do not own "Gone with the Wind" or the characters and I will NOT be receiving any payment whatsoever for writing this story. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.

This story was written in honor of my friend Ana's birthday. There will be at least four chapters... maybe more so please stay tuned!

Chapter One - Scarlett's Nightmare

She was lost in a thick fog - in an all-consuming mist. She was searching frantically. She was always searching, lost in the dream, the one that had haunted her ever since she could remember. This time she knew. She KNEW who she was looking for... it was Rhett, the man she loved! She couldn't find Rhett. He was walking away from her... so far away... and every time she got closer, he would disappear, farther from her reach. And she had to find him. She needed him!

"Ohhhh please, Rhett! Come back!" she called out, not knowing she was calling out to him aloud from the recesses of her sleep.

She had taken a tumble down the stairs, a disastrous fall. She had been lying in her bed for hours now, just barely hanging on. And through it all, she had been caught up in The Dream, the one she had been having almost all her life... except now, it was different - and she knew. She knew it was Rhett that she had needed all along. He was the one she had been searching for in all those haunting nightmares.

"Scarlett, I am here," she heard a voice say. "Wake up."

She opened groggy emerald eyes. She looked into the face of Rhett, the man she loved. "Rhett, I dreamed you went away. You were gone for three months... and you took Bonnie with you... and I didn't know how to reach you. I didn't know when you'd be coming back. It was all a painful and most terrible dream..."

"No, Scarlett," he said as he knelt at her bedside, gently brushing the tendrils of dark hair away from her forehead.

"I am afraid it is true. It's all true..." he said sadly. "I did leave you... and I took Bonnie with me. I am so sorry. I regret it now... and I regret..."

His voice broke. "I regret what happened when I came back."

Then suddenly she remembered. Frantically she recalled that fateful day of her accident. "We argued... and you said... you said..."

"I regret what I said. If I could take those words back, I would. I'm so sorry."

A frown furrowed her brow. She had told him the news. She'd been so happy. They were going to have another baby... and that child would be their new beginning, because finally, after so many years, she had discovered that she loved him - HIM - Rhett Butler, not Ashley, the fantasy lover of her youth. She loved Rhett and she had been so happy that he'd came back to her... and he had brought Bonnie back, too, their precious little girl.

"You said, 'Don't worry, maybe you'll have an accident,'" she recalled. "And I did. I fell down the stairs..."

Tears gathered in her eyes. They spilled over as she remembered his cruel words. She had tried to lash out at him, but when he moved aside, she had fallen. She had fallen endlessly down dozens of steps until she hit the bottom and blessedly in a haze of pain, she had gone unconscious.

"Ohhh no!" she cried out, reaching under the covers to press her trembling hands against her middle. "The baby! Did I... did I lose the baby?"

"No, darling, no..." Rhett said, his voice tender and reassuring as he did his best to comfort her. "You didn't. Dr. Meade said you broke a couple of ribs when you fell down the stairs. You're going to be very sore for awhile. You'll have to rest and stay in bed, but the baby held on. He's strong... He's strong just like his mother. Our son is a survivor."

"Are you sure, Rhett? Really?" she asked as worry for the baby made the tears rush steadily down her cheeks. How she hadwanted that baby! It was the first baby she had ever wanted... not Wade, not Ella, and not even Bonnie, but this baby, she had wanted THIS baby with all her heart and soul.

"I wouldn't lie to you, now... would I?" he asked in a teasing voice, brushing a kiss against her lips. He wiped away her tears with his fingertips. He was looking at her with sparkling eyes, just as he had looked at her on the night their baby was conceived- that magical night when she realized just how much she needed him... and that she loved him.

"I know I said awful things when I found out I was carrying Bonnie, but I regret them all now... so much... and this baby, he or she is special."

"Why is this baby special?" he asked as he moved in closer, wrapping her into the safety of his arms, careful of her sore and painful ribs.

"Because of this baby... because of that night, I realized how much I loved you, Rhett. YOU! Not Ashley. I love you. It's always been YOU..."

He looked entranced but also skeptical. "You've decided you love me now? Really, Scarlett?" he asked, a slight chuckle in his deep voice.

"I had that dream just now... I dreamed such awful things... terrible and- and horrible things. I dreamed the baby was gone- I'd lost the baby. And we had lost Bonnie, too. There was so much darkness and mourning," she said as she choked on a sob. "You were leaving me, Rhett. You were leaving... I begged you not to, but you left me. You took off into the fog. The mist carried you away. You were so far away!"

"It was just a dream, Scarlett. I am here. And I am not going anywhere," he said softly. "Bonnie and I are back to stay."

"You won't take her from me again?"

"I should have never taken you from you in the first place. She missed you so much. She had nightmares, too. She's so much like you. She was missing you... every single moment."

"Ohhh I missed her too, and you, too, Rhett. I missed the both of you. Ella and Wade were heartbroken as well. Only the thought of the new baby kept me going... that... and hoping you'd come back."

"I couldn't stay away another moment. You infuriate me. You make my blood boil... but I love you, Scarlett O'Hara Butler."

She reached up and kissed his lips despite the pain it cost her. Then she fell back against the pillows, totally exhausted. After she had gone into a peaceful sleep, Melanie entered the room. She walked up quietly and put her arm around Rhett. He hadn't left Scarlett's side, not since the unfortunate accident.

"Did Scarlett awaken?" Melanie asked with tenderness.

"Yes, she did... And she's going to be alright. Everything will be alright," Rhett said, letting out a heavy sigh. They had almost lost their child ... and he had came so close to losing Scarlett, too.

"Thank Heaven," Melanie said with relief. "She's blessed, you know, to have you. I know you love her so."

Rhett looked at the beautiful, raven-haired woman lying upon the bed. She was pale but she was not fragile. Scarlett had a strength beyond that of any woman he had ever known. In her, he had met his match.

"I do love her. And from now on, I will be doing everything in my power to see that she knows it, too. I should never have taken Bonnie from her and gone to London. I should have stayed..."

"Captain Butler, you had no way of knowing..."

"I shouldn't have listened to idle gossip. I should have had more faith in my wife."

Their eyes met as they had both been affected by that gossip, yet Melanie never believed. She had stood by Scarlett as she always had. Scarlett had saved her and her little Beau. Scarlett was like a sister to her. They were bonded for life.

"Let them talk. We know the truth," Melanie said. "They'll never know what we know."

Rhett held his tongue. For years, his beloved wife Scarlett HAD lusted after Melanie's husband Ashley. She had wanted him, but now her obsession with Ashley was finally over. She was happy with Rhett and their little family - Wade, Ella, and their precious little Bonnie. And very soon, they'd have another child... a much wanted little boy or girl, although Rhett had a feeling that this time, they'd be having a son. What a rascal he'd surely be, just like his father.

Just then Wade and Ella, his stepchildren, peeked into the room. "Uncle Rhett, is Mother alright?" asked Wade in concern.

"When can we see her?" asked Ella in her sweet little childish voice.

"Your mother needs her rest," Rhett told the children. "You can see her when she's feeling a little stronger."

Lovingly, Melanie ushered Scarlett's two oldest children from the room. Wade and Ella had been been born of Scarlett's first two marriages. Wade was Melanie's own little nephew. Her brother Charles had been killed in the war before he had the chance to meet his son. Ella had came two years later. Her father, too, had died, leaving Scarlett twice a widow. It was then that Rhett had swept her off her feet. Impulsively, she had agreed to marry him. Before Rhett and his sensuous kiss, she had known nothing of love and romance. On their wedding night, he had shown her how it was to truly love... and to share intense passion.

Ella was a beautiful little girl, with unruly gold curls and great-big emerald eyes - Scarlett's eyes. Rhett loved those children as if they were his own. He'd become like a father to them. As Melanie took the children to the nursery to join their little sister, she promised them that everything would be alright.

"Mother won't die?" Ella asked with worry.

Melanie soothed the little girl as she tucked her into bed next to her sister. "Of course not, my darling. She's going to be just fine... and in a few months, you'll have a new little brother or sister."

"Brother," Wade spoke up. He'd had enough little sisters.

Mammy came into the nursery, telling the children to shush. "You is going to wake up Miss Bonnie,' she warned. "That chile needs her sleep."

The children immediately closed their eyes, ever mindful of Mammy's stern commands. She ruled the roost in the Butler household. They always behaved their Mammy like perfect little angels. She had cared for Scarlett since the minute she had been born, just as she had cared for Scarlett's dear mother, Miss Ellen.

After Mammy and Melanie left the nursery, they spoke quietly in the hallway. "Is Miss Scarlett goin to be alright?" Mamie asked in concern. "Doc Meade say she done broke two ribs."

"She's going to be just fine, Mammy," Melanie said giving the rotund black woman an extra loving hug. "She just needs rest... and then she'll be right as rain... and so will the baby."

"Baby? Is Miss Scarlett goin to be havin another chile?"

Melanie smiled, practically beaming with happiness. "Yes, she is. I have a feeling the nursery is going to fill up quite fast, now that Captain Butler is home."

"Land sakes!" Mammy gasped, shaking her head from side to side. "I thought she might be carryin another, crying so much... and not eatin liken she should, but I's thought it was Captain Butler being gone. She was missin him. Him and that little Miss Bonnie."

In Scarlett's bedroom, she was sleeping with Rhett by her side as he gazed at her with love. There were no more bad dreams. She seemed content as he thought he saw a hint of a smile appear upon her ruby lips. He was glad that he had came home. This was where he belonged - with Scarlett. He hoped that from this day forward, she'd only have sweet dreams and that the tragedies that plagued her nightmares would never come to pass.

Stay tuned for Chapter Two - Bonnie's Fall