Special Thanks to tutu3791, Truckee Gal, newreader2022, lescarlett, Mistress, Badabum48568220, and Guest(s) for the reviews! I love seeing all of your minds work!

A/N: If you know the Scarlett timeline well, you'll see I took a teeeny artistic liberty with the timeline of the divorce/her going to Ireland, but that's the name of the fanfiction game, I guess.

Ch. 7- Rhett

Grumpily, Rhett threw clothes into his already too-full luggage. Though he'd told Sally he was only taking a short business trip, something inside of him knew he would not return for a long while-perhaps ever.

He'd only moved back to his family estate because Anne had loved it too, and now that was gone. He found no joy in owning a plantation and had previously only suffered the pleasantries of entertaining the Charlestonian families for her sake. His sister, Rosemary, also lately married, would be more than happy to have her husband oversee the home, and Rhett found that the idea of that arrangement suited him just fine.

In the days since Sally had dropped in and accidentally mentioned that Scarlett was indeed back in America- in Georgia, more specifically- Rhett had done a lot of reminiscing. And comparing.

Scarlett had been an almost instant infatuation. Having left Charleston behind, along with the women who made it their life's work to be proper ladies and never step a toe out of line, he'd been enchanted by the way Scarlett's fire showed beneath the facade of southern belle.

Even at their worst, he admired that she argued with him. She was stubborn and tenacious-strong in her own right, even without the power his wealth afforded her. She was also a child- or had been.

Even with the limited time he'd spent with her in Ireland, Rhett could tell she'd changed-matured. He wondered if she hadn't approached him first at the horse fair if he would have recognized her from across the green field.

She'd dressed expensively, as always, but it appeared that her tastes had changed too. Her neckline was higher, more acceptable than the lowcut gowns she'd favored previously. While the fabric was tailored and high quality, there were no added frills. Rather than standing out to an almost ridiculous degree, she looked as if she belonged, although she clearly showed her station.

She'd never been snide or cruel in the conversations over refreshments before the fox hunt at John Moreland's and after at the hotel she'd escaped to. She'd seemed aloof at the hotel and uncomfortable at his presence. Even when she'd asked him, with tears in her eyes, why he'd come, he felt no malice from her, just pain. As he watched her run away, he guiltily realized that his thoughts were not on his wife and unborn baby at home but on the idea that he might never see Scarlett again.

In contrast, Anne was wholesome and good from the moment he met her. The daughter of a neighboring plantation, his mother had started inviting her over to tea with her until, slowly, she was there almost every day. It wasn't lost on Rhett that his mother hoped there would be a connection between them.

After telling Scarlett she was no longer welcome in her home, Eleanor Butler did an excellent job at forgetting she ever existed. Her name was never mentioned directly, and she chided Rhett for bringing "that woman" up when he'd mentioned her once while at dinner in Anne's presence.

Rhett was charmed by Anne's apparent innocence, and she showed an immediate interest- though entirely proper- in him, which was a novelty. He found he didn't have to work for her interest or affection- not in the way he had to with Scarlett, at least. She smiled when he walked into the room, enjoyed walking and riding with him, and was ever kind and respectful to his mother and sister.

One evening, and at Eleanor's request, Anne had stayed the night. It was that same evening that Rhett had received two bits of information. The first came from Rosemary, who, being no great fan of Scarlett either, had taken an interest in the comings and goings of her and Ashley Wilkes. She reported that Ashley had moved to the north, though she wasn't sure where.

That information, on its own, mattered little to Rhett. However, when another piece of information came via a letter from his lawyer, his interest changed. Scarlett had sold their house on Peachtree Street. She'd also accrued her younger sister's share of Tara from the Catholic Church and had subsequently signed over both shares to her sister Suellen.

Rhett knew how much Scarlett cared for Tara. With both of those pieces in mind, he could only draw one conclusion. She'd finally got Ashley and no doubt the pair were moving away from the city that would surely judge them both for their actions. He was confident that nothing else could have pried Tara from her fingers.

That night, he drank. And drank. When he finally could no longer feel the pain of her betrayal, Rhett went to bed. He walked down the long corridor of doors, heading to his own bedroom, but paused when he heard a whimper from within one. On instinct, Rhett moved forward, opening the door and peering inside. Anne lay on the bed, tossing in the depth of a dream, and he felt himself pulled to her.

He reached out to her shoulder as he neared the bedside. He kneeled down, squeezing gently as he tried to wake her. "Anne. Wake up. You're dreaming."

Her eyes fluttered open, and she peered up at him with wide, brown eyes. Neither said anything for a moment. Rhett noticed his thumb casually caressing her shoulder, a gesture to comfort her. It pulled at the fabric, separating the loose ties that held the front of her night dress together, and God help him, he looked at the skin that it revealed.

Anne's breath quickened, and Rhett slowly met her gaze again. When she made no move to stop him, he glanced down at her lips and felt a stirring he hadn't felt since that last time with Scarlett months prior. Slowly, he moved down and pressed his lips against hers. The moment he did so, Rhett knew he was wrong, but when her arms lifted and wrapped around his neck, he stopped caring about anything other than feeling something other than the pain of the news he'd received.

It wasn't the sun that woke Rhett later that morning but his mother's startled gasp. Shocked awake, Rhett opened his eyes and immediately knew something was wrong. His arm was draped across Anne, who was also waking and hastily pulling at her covers in embarrassment. The memories of the previous night were foggy, but the evidence was clear to anyone with half a brain. Rhett Butler had just been found in the bed of an unmarried woman-and to his added chagrin, he was entirely without clothes.

The wedding was announced shortly after, and while the Rhett of the past would have refused to marry for propriety's sake only, he found he didn't want to argue the point. Anne, he found, was without fault. She was a decent woman who would be a willing wife. She also didn't deserve ruination, and some sick part of him hoped that by agreeing to marry her, he might atone for all the wrongs he'd committed in the past and finally be able to move on.

As Rhett closed his luggage, he realized that none of that mattered now, though. Any good he did by marrying Anne had been erased when he saw Scarlett again in Ireland. Months after his wedding, he'd heard Scarlett had left the country, but no one seemed to know specifics. He also heard that Ashley was living in New York, and then he realized it didn't matter-couldn't matter anymore.

So much had changed since that meeting; it hadn't even been a year prior. When Rhett heard Scarlett was back in the States, he knew he had to see her. He also knew she'd made it very clear she didn't want to see him again. It was lucky that he had business in Atlanta, anyway, so his motives for going could not be questioned. He wasn't prepared for his mother to ask him, nor was he prepared for Sally's smug reaction if he were to tell her his true reason for going. Through everything, she remained strangely loyal to Scarlett and never missed an opportunity to remind him that his haste choice to divorce her based on a rumor of her going to Ashley's hotel room- would haunt him forever.