Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

This is the final chapter then the epilogue.

Chapter Fifty-Four

When Rhett returned with the towels he said, "One of the maids will bring the hot water in a minute."

Mammy handed the baby over to Rhett and said, "She has some lungs on her. Go walk around with her before she wakes everyone in the house."

Rhett took the child and said, "Come here, …..Precious."

Rhett looked at Scarlett with his eyebrow cocked and she said, "No, we aren't calling her Precious."

"Alright."

Five minutes later, the baby was quiet. Fifteen minutes later, Mammy had the room cleaned up. Scarlett said, "I guess we don't need Ina May or Melly."

"I didn't send for either one of them. It is four o'clock in the morning. They can hear the news over breakfast. Names?"

"Alexandria Clydette."

Rhett smiled and said, "Perfect."

Ina May and Melly came over the next day. Ina May to check Scarlett out and Melly to see the baby. Both mother and child were doing fine. Rhett paid Ina May her full fee. He wanted her to be willing to come back if he ever got his wife with child again.

That spring Rhett rode around New York with Alexi in front of him and his five munchkins behind him. Genie, Gerry, Beau, Wade and, of course, Claude. They had finally found something that Claude didn't know how to do. Ride a horse. He soon learned and got rather good at it.

Rhett had bought everyone a horse and they had finally had to hire a stable master. They still didn't have a buggy. There was really no place to leave it at the shop.

Over the supper table, Ashley listened to Rhett talk excitedly about his children and realized that Genie was not going to die because although he loved his children to the moon and back, he would not tolerate little brats. Also, Scarlett was involved with her children not with him. She would never let Rhett put her children in danger.

On New Year's Eve of seventy-two Ashley made love to his wife one last time until it was New Year's Eve again. Ashley remained true to his promise. He and Melly didn't have relations once in seventy-three. Instead, he took the time to interview midwives in the area. He wrote a book about the dos and don'ts of delivering a baby. It was published in early seventy-four. In his book was what every midwife had told him was the most important thing a person could do. Wash their hands before they came in contact with the patient. All the midwives said it was to get all the dirt and other irrelevant items off their hands. Ashley wasn't a doctor, and he didn't know why he thought this, but he thought, 'I bet there is more to it than just removing dirt and other stuff.' He added that in the book also. In the book he had stressed how important it was to wash one's hands.

The book was published under a pseudonym. The name he used was Grandma Erma Bombeck. It was called A Practical Approach to Having a Child. Before the book was sent to the publisher, Ashley had Melly read the book to Ina May. Melly had recorded Ida May's comments and corrections. Ashley dedicated the book to Ina May and all the midwives who save lives every day. He also had Melly give Ina May twenty-five dollars for her help with editing the book. The book was first published in February of seventy-four and by the end of the year the book had been published three more times. The publisher didn't think it was going to be that great a success, so he gave Ashley two hundred dollars for the rights and a royalty of fifteen percent. It had sold over eight thousand copies. The books cost fifty cents apiece, so Ashley had made an extra six hundred dollars. With Melly's blessing all that money had gone into the bank to be used for Beau's and George's education.

In seventy-three Melly had wondered why she and Ashley weren't having relations, but she was fine with never having them again. After all, she had three children already and they were a lot of work. Besides, having relations was just one more chore.

When June of seventy-three came and went and Genie was still very much alive, Ashley felt better about Melanie's future. Although September came and went Ashley didn't feel that Melly was out of danger yet.

On New Year's Eve of seventy-three, Ashley and Melanie resumed their marital relations much to Melanie's disappointment.

At the end of seventy-four, Ashley marveled at how wonderful his life was because he had stopped being a coward and started forging a future for himself. A lot like Scarlett. He made the world fit him not the other way around.

One night after supper in the fall of seventy-four at the Wilkeses, Rhett and Ashley were enjoying a glass of whiskey.

Rhett said, "Scarlett and I are going to buy a farm in northern New York state."

"I thought you hated the country.

"I do but she really wants this, so we are going to look at the ones that are for sale."

Rhett had a small smile on his face. Scarlett had promised to have another child if he bought her a farm. She had also made him promise she could build a mansion on the farm. That didn't mean he was going to live in the country. He was kind of in a hurry, though. If he was going to have any more children, he wanted them born before he was fifty.

Ashley said, "Are you going to farm it?"

"No, I hope to work a deal with the current owner where he farms the land and lives on the land to take care of it and protect it."

"I hope it works out for you and your…. Tenant, I guess would be the right word."

"Me too. Have you ever heard from your sisters since one of them asked to live with you? What was her name?"

"India. I have heard about my sisters from Melly's Aunt PittyPat. Honey has six children and seems to be happy according to Aunt PittyPat but who really knows? PittyPat always was a birdbrain." Rhett laughed. Ashely had gone on, "India was engaged to Frank Kennedy when she met a man at the bookstore. They got involved in a conversation about a particular book. The man, Steven Cavalier, asked her to go get tea and discuss the book further. She did. He asked if he could call on her. At first, she said no because he was a Yankee. Stephen said you aren't going to let me call on you because of an accident of birth. It is not my fault I was born in the North. I moved down here as quickly as I could. She had said I am engaged to another man. He said but you aren't married yet. Give us a try. We can sneak around so your fiancé never needs to know. They did sneak around for about three months when Steven asked her to marry him instead of Frank. She accepted. Steven was a much better catch than Frank. Steven was attractive, a lawyer, and well-read. According to India, Frank wouldn't even know how to open a book except his ledgers. They have been married for about a year."

Rhett burst out laughing. He said, "According to India?"

"Yes, now that she married a Yankee my desertion of the Confederacy has been forgiven. We are corresponding."

"Of course, I have no idea how handsome Steven Cavalier is, but it wouldn't take much for him to be more attractive than Frank Kennedy. That was one ugly man."

"I'm sure the years have not been kind. I assume your aunt is still living."

India would be hurt to know that the reason Steven had asked to call on her was not only was she easy for him to talk to but because she was past her first bloom and was not a beauty, she had not made him nervous or uncomfortable. In fact, from the beginning Steven had been extremely comfortable around India. That was why he asked her to marry him.

Steven would be hurt to know that the only reason India had agreed to meet with him was that she and Frank had been engaged for over a year and Frank still refused to set the date. Of course, the fact that Steven was handsome had not gone unnoticed by India. She had accepted his marriage proposal because he had wanted to go to the courthouse that very day. She was happy to ride the ensuing scandal out because she was finally a married woman.

"PittyPat is Melly's aunt from the other side but yes, she is still living. Uncle Henry, died about a year ago. I send Aunt PittyPat a check every month for twenty-five dollars for her to live on. She has no one else to get money from. Melly couldn't bear her aunt starving so I had to give Aunt PittyPat something. The woman did raise her and Charlie. We were afraid she would take it upon herself to move up here, especially since Uncle Henry was dead. We both didn't want her to move up here and live with us. Talk about a nightmare. Despite me sending her money, she is in debt up to her eyeballs. When she passes, they will have to sell the house to cover her debts."

"Are you going to cover the remaining debts?"

"No, I have no reputation to maintain. I am the shameful man that abandoned the Confederacy. The merchants should never have lent her the money. It is not my fault they are bad businessmen."

Rhett laughed. And finally said, "Thank goodness you are quite a popular writer. That is the only way you can support two households."

"Yes, thank goodness. Do you know that I still make about twenty-five dollars a year on royalties from War and Peace."

"Wow!"

"My new book Practical Approach to Having a Child has gone into its third publishing. The editor didn't think it would be that popular, so he gave me fifteen percent in royalties so he could give me a lower out and out purchase price. That is one gamble that paid off.

"Scarlett has read that book. In truth, I have read that book. I thought it was written by Grandma Erma Bombeck."

"You are looking at Grandma Erma Bombeck. Nobody would have taken a book by a man, a lay man at that, about birthing a child seriously. So, I made up a pseudonym. None of the information in the book was from my personal experience. I interviewed at least twenty-five midwives. Then I condensed their ideas down to a practical format. I am going to write a revised version which will include some new material. Not a lot but enough that it will be worth buying again."

The men both laughed and finished their whiskey. They then joined the women in the parlor.

Later that night Rhett told Scarlett about the entire story of India. She laughed and laughed. Finally, she said, "I'm glad she was able to get married. It must have made her feel wonderful to have two men interested in her. I wonder what happened to Frank Kennedy."

"He will continue being an old maid. Like so many others in the South, he will continue looking back and moan and groan about how awful things are now."

"I am so happy Suellen married Benjamin and was not still waiting on Mr. Kennedy to marry her."

"From what you say she and Benjamin are quite the happy couple."

"Not as happy as you and me, though."

"Nobody else could be."

Once Ashley had stopped doing what other people had told him was the right thing to do, he began to build a better future for him and his family. Once he had chosen to do what he thought was right for him not what other people thought was right for him he began to have a happy life. He, at times, missed his old life but only when he put on his rose-colored glasses. There was so much ugliness in that world that only a blind, sheltered privileged man would think their former life had a perfection to it like a Grecian urn. He hoped Melly and he would live to see all their children settled but he had already gotten so much more than he had before he would not complain if he died tomorrow.