Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

As I was reading on the internet for euphemisms for intercourse, I saw rumpy pumpy and it made me laugh. It is British slang for intercourse from the late 1960's. It makes me smile every time I read the words.

MizCindy - Yes, the site has definitely gone wonky.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

After three fun filled weeks, Rhett and Scarlett were on the train back to Atlanta. It was a twenty-four-hour trip. Scarlett had brought presents for the children, the servants, and Will and Careen. Rhett teased, "No presents for the Wilkeses."

"I bought them a box of chocolates."

"One box?"

"That is all they deserve."

Rhett laughed and said, "All right, my love. They are your relatives."

"No, they are my in-laws."

"True."

"Did you buy your aunts anything?"

"A box of chocolates."

"One?"

"One. I don't owe them anything either."

"What did we get everyone?"

"Mammy the red taffeta fabric, Prissy several yards of fabric and lace, Wade, Ella, and Cassie clothes and toys, Careen a hairbrush, hair pins, and fabric, and I bought Will The Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

"Isn't that a little young for him?"

"Yes and no. The subject matter is young for him, but the material is at his reading level. He can read it with his son one day."

"He doesn't have a son."

"He will."

"I suppose you may be right."

"We will just have to wait and see."

"Indeed."

"What did you buy your mother and sister?"

Rhett smiled and said, "A box of chocolates."

"One?"

"I don't know. I may buy them two when I get to the general store."

"We can get the candy from The Emporium."

"I will have to take you down there to check the books so I might as well."

Scarlett smiled a questioning smile and said, "Take me down there?"

"I am going to take you down there, so you don't spend all day down there. It is our honeymoon after all."

"All right, just this once."

"Just this once."

"Are you going to introduce me to your mother and sister this time?"

"Yes, on our way out of the South. I didn't introduce you last time because she wouldn't come to visit me. I didn't want to visit her with all the conflict between us."

"I agree. How long will we stay with her?"

"It will be a whistle stop."

"What do you mean, Sweetheart?"

"Do you know what a whistle stop campaign is?"

"No."

"It is when a politician campaigns from a railroad car. He stops at a town, makes a speech, then goes on to the next town." Scarlett looked at Rhett with confusion on her face. He said, "We are going to spend one or two nights in Charleston then get back on the train and head to Boston."

"Don't you want to visit with your mother longer?"

"Not really. Her first allegiance is to Charleston. She only receives me because I pay all the bills."

"Has that been the way it has always been?"

"Yes."

"That is sad."

"Yes, but it is a consequence of my actions. So sad or not it is the way things are. After Bonnie died, I went to stay with her. After six months, she asked me to move out. That is when I move to New York."

"You could have come back to me."

"Not yet. I was still too proud and arrogant. Just think, Scarlett, if we are this proud and arrogant now, we must have been extremely proud and arrogant the last timeline. Remember that first year I was trying to convince both you and me that I didn't care about you anymore."

"You convinced me."

"Sorry for the pain, Baby."

Scarlett smiled at Rhett with understanding on her face.

An hour later the couple had dinner and after that in the afternoon, they both read their books.

Rhett said, "I can't get passed the fact you are a book reader now."

"Patrick was a reader therefore in the evening there was nothing to do but read a book." Rhett smiled. Scarlett added, "Honey, we have to find a way to save Patrick's son's life."

"All right. Tell me everything you know. He was three years old when it happened. He and his mother, Alice, were at the park. He was chasing a ball, and he ran out in front of a trolley. The horses trampled him. There was nothing anyone could do. The boy was dead before the trolley driver had even gotten the vehicle stopped."

"Where was the nursemaid?"

"He didn't have a nursemaid. Alice took care of him. She was talking to some other women. She looked away. The next things she knew her son had been killed.

"When did it happen?"

"September fifteenth."

"What year?"

"I don't know. All I know is that he was three."

"That isn't much to go on."

"I know. Alice died four years before we got married. We got married in seventy-five, so she died in January of seventy-one. Rhett, you have to help me."

"I will. Do you know where Mr. Green was living at the time?"

"Yes, they live at 1701 W. Newton St."

"Where is our home going to be?"

"1601 Follen St. It is on the corner. Follen and St. Botolph."

"All right. I will contact the Pinkerton Agency. I will have them find out everything they can about Patrick Green. Do you know his middle name?"

"Craven"

"Date of birth?"

"April fifth of forty."

"All right. This is enough for them to get started."

"Thank you, Rhett."

"You're welcome, Baby."

"We will save Noah's life."

"Why are you helping me?"

"You asked me.." When Scarlett started to interrupt him, Rhett went on. He said, "I know what it is like to lose a child and a wife. I don't want my fellow human being having to suffer that pain."

"And if Alice and Patrick are happy, I won't feel guilty about him being alone."

"See, how well I know you now. Come let's go test out the other bed."

"It is the middle of the afternoon."

"Indeed, it is. The better to see you."

Scarlett just smiled and said, "I want to get on top."

"I think I may have created a monster."

"Silly."

Rhett and Scarlett arrived in Atlanta at a little after seven the next morning. They took a cab to the National Hotel. They stop for Rhett to send a telegram to the Pinkerton Agency with instructions and contact information. As they got into another cab, he said, "We have the ball rolling. I asked them to find out Noah's date of birth."

"How are they going to get the information out of Patrick and Alice?"

"They have their ways. Also, you would be surprised how much information people will freely give to a stranger. For example, I am sure Miss PittyPat has told anyone who would listen everything about you and the Wilkeses."

At first Scarlett looked horrified then she frowned and said, "Yes, she would be a great source of information on just about anyone."

"True."

When Rhett and Scarlett got to the hotel, they got a three-bedroom suite. Admittedly they only needed one bedroom for the night, but tomorrow night the children and Prissy would be with them. It was easier not to have to move.

The couple went to the Busy Bee for dinner. After their entrées had been served, Rhett said, "I have a couple of business deals working that I need to finish up, but we should be able to move to Boston by the middle of August."

"That should be perfect. You can get Wade enrolled in a good school. That will be your responsibility to find a good school for Wade."

"Gladly. I will talk to my friends and business contacts in the city."

"Good. We can buy my brownstone. That will give me six months to decorate it before Bonnie arrives."

"I am going to give my opinion on the decorating of our home this time."

"All right because that is what it is going to be a home not a showcase."

"Do you want to start another business?"

"Maybe. We will see."

"You could start and run a philanthropic foundation."

"Translate."

Rhett smiled and said, "Charity organization. I have an idea."

"Tell me."

After Rhett did, Scarlett said, "I like that idea."

After a few more minutes of quiet eating, Rhett said, "Are you going to sell your store?"

"Sort of. I am going to let Hugh buy it and make payments."

"Last time you gave it to him, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"How did he thank you."

Scarlett dimpled and said, "He told his mother and sister to speak to me and to never say anything unkind about me ever again."

"How do you know that?"

"Aunt PittyPat told me on one of her visits. I plan to sell it to him this time. He can afford to buy it. After all, they still have Tommy's income."

"True. What if he misses a payment?"

"Then I will repossess it and sell it to someone else."

"You have such a tender heart."

"Almost as tender as yours. How do you plan to weather the panic of seventy-three?"

"Stay out of banks and railroads for sure." Scarlett laughed and Rhett continued, "Just about the same way I did last time except this time I will be able to leave my money in long term investments because I will not have to make a settlement payment."

"That's true."

"That shocked me that you accepted my offer. I never thought you would. I know how much you didn't want to be divorced."

"Although I still didn't want to be divorced, I knew there was no life for me here in Atlanta. More importantly, I knew there was no life for my children in the South. Therefore, I wanted that half a million-dollar settlement and what I could get from selling the mansion. Not because I was greedy, but because I would need all the money I could get to live on for the rest of my life. I had absolutely no intention of marrying again."

The waiter served their entrees, which gave Rhett a moment to process what she had said. He thought he knew why she had married Patrick, but he wanted to be sure. He said, "Why did you?"

"Patrick made me feel safe."

Rhett smiled as he thought of Clarence making him figure out what Scarlett valued most in her life. He said, "I will do everything I can to make you feel safe."

"Safe like before the war."

"No, I can't give you that kind of security because you know there are dangers out there. Only a child can have that feeling of security."

Rhett had been afraid the reference to being a child would anger Scarlett. She smiled and said, "That was the feeling of security I was searching for after the war. That is not completely true. I wanted to be the child I was before I married Charlie and bad things started happening to me." With a chagrin smile, she added, "I was such a child, I thought Wade was another bad thing that had happened to me. Instead of continually calling me a child, you should have explained what you meant."

"I should have tried, but I don't think you would have truly listened."

"With a grin Scarlett said, "No, I wouldn't because I was too much of a child."

Rhett laughed. He said, "And I was too much of an ignoramus. That is a stupid, rude, ignorant asshole."

Scarlett tried not to giggle because of Rhett's language then she just burst out laughing. She said, "Apt description. By the time I had married Patrick, I had grown up enough to realize that I could never have that feeling of security again, but with Patrick I got awfully close."

Rhett knew in that moment what he had to do for Scarlett to love him completely. He had to make her feel safe. He had to make her trust him completely.

Scarlett said, "This is going to hurt you, but me divorcing you made everyone feel a lot safer. Nobody thought you were going to breeze in, make our lives miserable, and breeze out."

"I deserve to hear that comment because that is exactly what I did. Even when we were living in the same house. Of course, I was making myself miserable also."

Scarlett gave Rhett a sad smile and said, "In Boston we were included especially the children. Nobody cared that I had run a sawmill after the war. Nobody cared that I had spent time with Scallawags and Republicans. Nobody cared that I had married the infamous Rhett Butler."

"Bostonians will care, but it won't be in a negative way."

"True."

"Finished?" With Scarlett's nod of her head, Rhett said, "Let me take care of the check then we can go upstairs."

Scarlett smiled and said, "Relations are so much more fun when I forget about being a lady and when I actually want to get with child."

Rhett laughed and stood up. He spotted their waiter and walked over to him. Scarlett smiled. That was Rhett. He was ready to go therefore, he wasn't going to wait on the waiter.