Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Thirty-Four

The couple got up the next day around eight-thirty. They had breakfast in the hotel dining room then drove out to Rhett's family home. As they pulled up into the circular drive, Scarlett gasped. She said, "It is so beautiful. Who has kept up with the maintenance?"

"Mr. Mobbs, my attorney. I think it is beautiful, too. This is the first time I have been back since I left in oh four. It has a separate guest cottage, and a three-car garage. It has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. I remember sitting on the back porch just watching the boats go up and down the Beresford Creek. My mother used the guest cottage as her studio. She believed she was an artist."

"Was she any good?"

With a smile, Rhett said, "No."

"Did you have a boat?"

"The family did. It was a power boat."

"Is it still back there."

"No, I sold it as soon as I could. I couldn't sell anything for a year until Mr. Mobbs filed a lawsuit against the Charleston Police. They either had to charge me or let me have access to my property. I sold everything, but the house."

"Let's get out and go inside."

"Alright." Rhett held his key ring. He looked at it and selected a key. Scarlett thought that was so sad. He had been holding on to that memory all this time. As he put the key in the lock, he said, "The windows are hurricane-rated. My father never put-up fences because we lived in a gated community. I kept it all this time hoping they would need forensic information from the house to convict someone."

"Honey, they aren't looking for anyone else. Despite what the facts say, they are convinced you are the killer."

"I miss them. Especially Jeffy and Madison. Once he got into high school, he hated being called Jeffy and had started introducing himself as Jeff. Of course, the family and close friends continued to call him Jeffy. I always expected we would grow old together. I know you aren't going to believe this, but Madison was smarter than I was."

"And your brother?"

"He wasn't as smart as Madison or me, but he wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination. I think his IQ was one forty-five."

"And yours?"

"One sixty, but I think Madison's was one seventy-five."

"Wow, she was smart."

Rhett grinned. He said, "My parents made us interact with other children and other young adults. We did it because we had to, but we never got comfortable with other people."

"You can be very charming when you try."

"Thanks, Sweetheart."

Rhett didn't believe Scarlett, but it made him feel good that she said it. In truth, when Rhett was relaxed and secure, he was charming, funny, playful, loving, and extremely caring. She thought he was very funny.

Scarlett would have been disappointed to know that most of the time she thought Rhett was joking, he hadn't been. Nonetheless, she had been laughing and he never wanted her to stop laughing so he didn't correct her. He would later reflect on what he had said to figure out what she had thought was funny. Most of the time it was when she thought he was being facetious, but he had been serious.

Scarlett said, "I miss my parents, but not my sister. She is still alive and living in Atlanta. I guess she is happy. I get Christmas cards and she usually updates me about her life."

"Do you update her on your life?"

Scarlett smiled and said, "Sort of. I usually reply with still single, still working for the FBI, and still happy."

"But you aren't single."

"I'm not married so that makes me single."

Offhandedly Rhett said, "We could get married."

With a smile Scarlett said, "Is that your way of asking me to marry you?"

"Yes."

"You are going to have to do much better than that."

Rhett grinned. He said, "I guess you want me to actually say the words."

"Yes, I do. In a very romantic way."

"This is what you get. Scarlett, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

With someone else she might have played with them and said, 'No.' but Rhett would have taken her seriously. It wasn't that Rhett couldn't take a joke. It was that Rhett didn't understand it was a joke. She said, "Yes, I will."

Rhett and Scarlett held hands as they walked around the house. They went upstairs. He said, "I never cleaned anything out." He showed her his room. He touched a couple of the items. One being a model ship of the USS Constitution. She said, "What are the other ships?"

"The Mayflower, the Arizona, and the Victory. The Victory was Lord Nelson's flagship…."

"Not now, Honey. I promise I will let you tell me later."

"Alright."

"I know it seems dorky to build model ships, but I enjoyed it."

"You know what I think - while you are building the models, your brain is resting."

"Resting? A brain is always awake and processing information."

"Yes, Dear, but there is highly technical information and then there is 'put tab A into slot B."

"I would like to put my tab A into your slot B."

Scarlett giggled. Rhett's jokes always made her laugh. She said, "I enjoy that too. Let me give you a better example. When you and your brain are at work it is like a person running the mile. The person gives it all they've got. When you are working on your models, it is like a person taking a leisurely walk in the park."

"I get it. My brain is resting."

"Do you want to take them with you?"

"No, they are part of the past."

Scarlett smiled. She said, "I will get you some more to build when we get home. I think it will be good for you."

"Alright. I won't argue with you."

"Tell me about The Victory."

"It was Lord Nelson's flagship."

"Lord Nelson?"

"Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest naval commanders in history. His victory on October twenty-first of eighteen oh five at the Battle of Trafalgar led to British naval supremacy over the next century and beyond."

Rhett went on to tell her about the Battle of Trafalgar. Lord Nelson defeated the French and the Spanish Navies during the Napoleonic Wars.

Scarlett said, "He stopped Napoleon from invading Britain."

"All by himself."

"Wow!"

"Yes, have you ever been sailing?"

"No."

"We will have to take a cruise sometime. I like sailing."

"Alright, Dear."

Admittedly it had been Rhett's idea to be gone for a week, but that was only because he knew he had to take care of his family home. He had wanted to see it one more time. It would be near impossible to get him to leave his lab again for an extended period. Actually, as she thought about it, she could probably get him out of his lab for a week at a time.

As Rhett and Scarlett walked down the stairs, he said, "I'm ready. Tell me what you remember from the report."

Scarlett sighed and said, "I don't remember the details, but I will tell you what I remember. Someone came in the backdoor and shot your dog."

"Why would I shoot my dog? It was the family dog. He would not have been barking at me."

"Let me go on." Scarlett paused. She then said, "Are you sure you want to hear this?"

"I have wanted to know for over twenty years."

"The police believe there were two perpetrators. One went towards the kitchen where your dad was making popcorn. He was shot as he was taking the bag out of the microwave. There was popcorn all over the floor. I remembered that because I thought it was so normal which made it sad."

"Dad loved his popcorn. He would wait until everyone else went upstairs. Then he would fix himself a bag of popcorn just so, he didn't have to share it." Rhett smiled and added, "Mind you we had a Sam's size box of popcorn packages."

Scarlett smiled sadly at Rhett. He said, "Go on."

"He.. I only use the word 'he' for simplification. He went to your parents' bedroom with his accomplice. He killed your mother, she was getting ready for bed, your sister, it was something to do with her phone I don't remember, and your brother, who was doing something on his computer. I'm sorry I don't remember what. I wasn't reading it to remember it or to interrogate anyone. I was reading it to get my overall impression of the crime. I know it was quick. Your family never knew what was going on. Your mother and sister were not raped. Nobody was brutalized. They were all killed with one shot to the center of the forehead."

"So, someone who knew how to shoot."

"Yes, someone like me, not you. I still need to teach you how to shoot."

"Yeah."

Scarlett smiled. She knew she was never getting Rhett to the shooting range. He didn't want to learn to shoot and that was all there was to it. Rhett was not out and out oppositional. He would agree to do something, but never get around to it. It was alright. She could shoot. She could protect him. Although, he did wield a pretty mean fire extinguisher. She smiled again.

Scarlett said, "They were in and out within ten minutes. Fifteen at most. As I said it was quick. This was not the work of an eighteen-year-old kid and his friend. This had a higher level of maturity to it. Like someone in his forties or even fifties. I also know this wasn't a stranger. There weren't enough items stolen for it to be a stranger. Your parents' jewelry was basically untouched. Who would benefit if you were convicted of your family's murders?"

"Let me think about it." After a few minutes, Rhett said, "I guess my mother's brother, my Uncle Bruce. He was a loser. He always had one quick rich scheme after another. He was forty-five years old. He was mad that his mother had left her money to me and my siblings instead of to him and my mother."

"Did he have children?"

"Not legitimate ones."

"Was he married?"

"He had been married four times and every time he got a divorce, he came out even broker."

"Why did your grandmother leave her money to you and your siblings? Why not to her own children?"

"She didn't want my Uncle Bruce to get his hands on her money. She was sure he would run through it like water."

"Why not give it all to your mother?"

Rhett smiled sadly and said, "My mother was so tender hearted she would have given Uncle Bruce half of her inheritance."

"Especially because she didn't need it."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Rhett, your Uncle Bruce killed your family and hoped you would get blamed and convicted for it."

Rhett stared at Scarlett for a long time. He said, "I just thought of something I had forgotten all about with everything that followed. I was supposed to come home for my mother's birthday. She was born January thirty-first. I didn't come home because it was a long drive, six hours both ways. It wasn't even a special birthday like her fortieth. I was eighteen years old, and I thought there would be lots more birthdays." With a chagrin smile, he added, "I had managed to get a date with Destiny… I can't remember her last name."

"Was she allegedly easy?"

Rhett smiled and said, "Yes, but not for me."

"I just remember something. There was cut cake on the counter and used plates in the sink." Rhett stared at Scarlett. He watched her as she was trying to remember something. She stared at him and said, "There were six plates in the sink. Your uncle and his accomplice celebrated your mother's birthday with her. Then left. They drove down the street and then came back. They entered through the back door which your uncle made sure was unlocked. They then killed everyone. It was perfect. If someone saw his car. He had a reason for having been in the neighborhood. He had a reason for being parked in the driveway.

"He got through security because the guards had been told to expect him."

"Nobody knew when your uncle and his friend had left the house or that they had left and returned. Nobody knew exactly when your family was killed. Time of death is not down to the minute."

"It is a window."

"If you had come home, you would have been murdered also. Your uncle probably was cursing you for not coming home at first then rejoicing because he had a scapegoat for his crimes. Then probably cursing you again when you didn't even get arrested for the murders. Although because of the detective's tunnel vision he got away with murder."

"The detective must have looked at him for no other reason that he was in the house. He interviewed him. That was who told the police that my fight with my father was worse than it was."

"And that you were scared of being disowned."

"Our dog, Pepper, hated Uncle Bruce."

"Oh damn. They were killed for nothing more than a bunch of money."

"It was a lot of money. Over five million dollars."

"How much are you worth now?"

"Close to five and a half million dollars. I make good money at the Jeffersonian, but I also live a pampered life. I haven't exactly been saving for the future. Yet, we could live on that quite comfortably if for some reason I got fired from the Jeffersonian and you got fired from the FBI."

"Good to know."

Rhett and Scarlett looked at each other and he smiled. He said, "I would give all my inheritance up to have my family back."

Scarlett smiled back at him sadly. She knew what he was feeling. She would give almost anything to have her parents back again.