Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Scarlett had a small celebration for Melly at Rosie's. Much to Rhett's unhappiness, she had invited a lot of people from the Jeffersonian. Miguel, Emily, Jack, Dan, and Marvin. Beau attended also. Scarlett had invited some of Melly's friends that she had made while living with Ashley. Melly wasn't close to any of them, but they had been nice to her during her time in DC. It was a chance for everyone to say goodbye. They would no longer be part of each other's lives. Melly was moving on.

After the party was over, Rhett said, "If those people start frequenting Rosie's we will have to go somewhere else."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to have to socialize with those people."

"You don't want to socialize with anyone. Besides, Rosie needs the business."

As it turned out, Melly and Miguel were the only ones to return to Rosie's on a regular basis and that was only when they were with Scarlett and Rhett, respectively. For everyone else, it was a nice little diner, but it wasn't anything special. Of course, that might have been because they weren't one of Rosie's chosen ones. Very few people got the Rosie's special treatment where she chose their food for them. Scarlett probably wouldn't have gotten it if Rosie hadn't seen how important the woman was to Rhett and the man hadn't asked her to select Scarlett's food for her the first time the women met. Scarlett was appreciative of the special treatment. As time went by Rosie saw how much Scarlett needed to be pampered and spoiled. The woman was always busy taking care of everyone else, but nobody took care of her, least of all Rhett. Rosie would smile to herself when she saw Scarlett pampering Rhett and he didn't even realize it. Yet, Rosie knew he felt it. Rosie also knew that Rhett thought he was pampering Scarlett, and he was. At least, as much as he could.

Miguel did not get it because he had scoffed at her when she had tried to treat him special. With Rosie people only got one chance. Melly didn't get it because Scarlett was already taking care of her. Beau didn't get it, but he got other things, like pie on the house or cake or ice cream because he was obviously a boy going through a tough time in his life.

How much Rhett and Scarlett socialized with other people was a bone of contention between them. Rhett did not like to socialize with other people. He liked Melly and Beau therefore they were allowed to come to the condo twice a week, but no more. He liked Miguel so the man was allowed to come to the condo once a week although Miguel chose to socialize with Rhett at work where Rhett could leave when he was tired of interacting with a human. Rhett hated TV and only allowed Scarlett to watch TV for an hour a day. Sometimes Scarlett would save up her time and watch several hours in one night. She also recorded all her shows and would binge watch them when Rhett was working late or on the weekends.

In exchange for all of Scarlett's considerations, Rhett had to attend parties or social gatherings with her. Usually, she met her friends at a restaurant. That was the easiest for Rhett to handle because it was for a set amount of time. Although he got extremely annoyed with slow service and had crossed several restaurants off the list of ones he would dine at.

Parties were the worst for Rhett. He had never been good at making small talk with strangers. Scarlett often found him alone reading scientific journals on his cellular phone. He had even started bringing his iPad with him when they attended a social gathering. Scarlett never said a word about it. Why bother? She knew he was going to bring it no matter what she said. It also kept him entertained while she was having a good time talking to the other party guest.

The couple always had an agreement about how long they would stay at the party. The longest Scarlett had ever gotten him to agree to was an hour. Although, she often pushed it to an hour and fifteen minutes. On rare occasions she would push it to an hour and a half. In the end the extra fifteen minutes was rarely worth it for she had to listen to him lecture her on her reneging on their agreement all the way home.

Scarlett never defended herself in these moments. She would just say, "I was having fun and lost track of the time." Which was mostly true.

Scarlett never worried about Rhett staying mad at her. She would give him a blow job (but not to completion) and then he was happy again.

Scarlett often thought, 'Men are such fools in regard to sex, but I'm glad they are. It makes them easier to manipulate.'

Amy had let Ashley move back in with her, but only as friends. She was extremely mad after she had found out that Ashley had been cheating on her with Scarlett. To make matters worse, Ashley expected Amy to take care of him like Melly always had. Amy certainly wasn't going to pamper him. Amy expected Ashley to do his fair share of household chores and was annoyed she had to keep telling him to do his half of the chores.

At the moment, Ashley was being very solicitous towards Amy because he needed her to support him. He didn't make very much money working for the Innocence Project and a lot of that went to child support. Right now, he was paying spousal support, but that would end a year after the divorce was final. Things weren't any better financially for Amy and she had to put up with Ashley all the time. The bloom had definitely fallen off the rose for her.

Rhett continued to help Scarlett with her cases, but only when a skeleton was involved. Otherwise, he really wasn't that interested. She was not offended. She knew he was a man who very muchly had tunnel vision. He was only interested in a select few things. She was simply happy; she was one of the things he was interested in.

Rhett was very trusting of Scarlett's movements. He knew that she did not have a nine to five job. When she was following a lead, she had to go where the lead led her. She was usually good about letting him know she would not be home for supper, or she would be out all night, but occasionally she got busy and forgot to call. He was annoyed, but he tried to understand that she just hadn't thought about him until it was too late. He probably would not have been so understanding if the same thing had not happened to him several times.

Fortunately for Rhett, Emily usually reminded him to call Scarlett and let her know he would be late. He was always appreciative of his assistant's help. The same man a year ago would have been annoyed that Emily had dared to stick her nose into his personal life. Of course, a year ago he really hadn't had a personal life. Now he was always glad she did. When she did, he stopped what he was doing and called Scarlett right then.

Emily did it because Dr. Butler was so much easier to work with now that he had a happy romantic relationship. Therefore, she would do her part to keep his relationship with Scarlett a happy one. As of yet, as far as Emily knew Dr. Butler and Scarlett had never had a serious argument and she wanted to keep it that way.

Melanie liked her job at the Jeffersonian. She was also well paid. She had already gotten a raise. Melly's supervisor loved her. Melly took her work very seriously and acted like her job was the most important job in the entire institute. She was a hard worker and didn't spend all her time socializing with other employees. For once being an introvert was paying off for Melly.

It was Melly's responsibility to keep all the paperwork straight. She had commented to Scarlett one time, "In this day of electronic transfer, it is amazing how many hard copies the Institute has."

"I'm glad you like the job."

"I do. It covers all my expenses. I am able to put all of Ashley's child support payments in my savings account. His spousal support payments go towards Ms. Goodman's bill. So, I am debt free. I am planning to stay that way. I learned from my father's experience."

"I often wonder – what was David thinking?"

"Who knows? In the fall, I am going to start taking on-line classes to become a librarian."

"How exciting."

"You know I have always wanted to be a Librarian."

"I remember

"I'm going to get some student loans and grants. One of the grants is for homemakers returning to the workforce."

"Perfect for you."

"It will probably be two years before I get my master's in library science, but what else do I have to do."

"Date Marvin Smith."

Melly blushed. She then said, "I like Marvin. I could probably fall in love with him. Admittedly, we are dating but I want some time to figure out myself before I get married again. I went from being Ashley's girlfriend to Ashley's wife to Beau's mother. I never took the time to figure out who Melanie Wilkes was. Of course, he may not want to marry me.

"Take your time. You have the rest of your life."

Melly blushed again and said, "He is good in bed. Much better than Ashley."

Scarlett smiled and said, "Before our first night together, I told Rhett if he wasn't any good in bed it would be the end of our romantic relationship."

With tongue in cheek, Melly said, "Was he?"

Scarlett smiled a big smile and said, "He certainly was."

A couple of weeks later, Scarlett came home with her briefcase. She tossed it on the coffee table and got herself a glass of wine. She never marked the wine bottle, but she did make a mental note of where the liquid was when she put it back in the refrigerator. She didn't think that Rhett was going to start drinking again, but she was too much of a cynic to take things on trust.

Rhett had called her earlier and told her he was going to be working late. She knew Rhett and his tunnel vision very well by now. She knew that when he was absorbed by his work, he never gave anyone or anything else a thought. In truth, the only things going through his head at that time was what he was working on. She knew it was Emily's influence that made Rhett remember to call her when he was going to be working late. She would have to get Emily a wonderful Christmas present this year and give it in Rhett's name, of course. She wondered what would be appropriate for Rhett to give his assistant. It couldn't be too personal, but it also couldn't be too generic. She was thinking of giving her a gift certificate to On the Run. That way she could buy herself some new walking shoes.

Rhett had mentioned a couple of times that Emily liked to walk during her lunch hour. Of course, he had followed that up with saying, "I wish she wouldn't because she sometimes smells when she gets back."

Scarlett replied, "Is it bad?"

"No, it is just a faint smell of body odor."

Scarlett had laughed and said, "Count yourself lucky. The last man I was on a stakeout with didn't believe in bathing or a proper diet. He was either farting or belching the entire time which I could smell over the constant body odor."

Rhett had smiled and said, "I guess I shouldn't complain."

"Please, don't. I like Emily."

"I guess I do to because I have never told anyone, but you."

Scarlett thought, 'Of course, you haven't told anyone, but me. That would require you having a conversation with another person that you don't have to have a conversation with. He probably hasn't even told Miguel because when he is talking to his friend, he isn't thinking about anyone but himself and maybe occasionally Miguel.'

Scarlett said down in front of the TV. She would work on her new case either later tonight or tomorrow night depending on when Rhett got home. She was going to watch some TV and enjoy her supper. She had gotten a whopper with cheese and fries from Burger King. She never ate fast food when Rhett was around because he went on and on about how bad the food that they served at fast food restaurants was. His favorite saying was, 'The ground beef is so sub-par, you wouldn't even feed it to your dog.'

Scarlett always responded, 'We don't have a dog.'

Rhett would ignore her and just go on with his rant."

Scarlett enjoyed fast food. It was a secret pleasure for her. She smiled. With all of her other relationships she had never been so accommodating. It had always been her way or the highway. With Rhett she was doing things to make him happy, and he didn't even know she was doing them.