Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Forty-Seven

After Emily had left, Rhett had to find another assistant. He hated having to look through all the resumes, but he hated interviewing all those candidates even more. One night over supper at coincidently La Mademoiselle, the French restaurant he was supposed to have dinner with Belle at, he was complaining about his lot in life. Scarlett said, "What is the process?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do you get the candidates?"

"I don't know."

"Is there someone else prescreening these people?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Sweetie, you have an entire department that is supposed to do this for you."

"I want to select my assistant."

"Of course, you do. I would to. That is not what I am talking about. Tomorrow go down to Human Resources and tell them what you want."

"Like what?"

"Like they have to have at least a three-point nine GPA."

"Good."

"Do you care what school they went to?"

"No."

"Do you care if they have experience in the field?"

"I would rather they didn't. I don't want to have an assistant that I have to correct bad habits."

"Is it important that they get along well with others?"

"Not others, but they have to get along with me."

Scarlett smiled. She said, "Go see someone at human resources and tell them what you want. Make them do all the work. Make them reduce it down to ten candidates and have Hodgins and Karen interview them with you."

"Why?"

"Because Hodgins and Karen are going to have to work with the person as closely as you do."

"Alright."

"And when all is said and done," Scarlett smiled at Rhett and said, "Hire Jacob Smith."

"What?"

"Hire Jacob Smith from UT. You know he is a man of integrity. A man who has a stiff inner core. A man who is willing to risk everything for what he thinks is right. He is super smart. He has a three point nine five grade point average."

Rhett stared at Scarlett and finally said, "What if he isn't the best candidate for the job?"

Scarlett smiled. She said, "He may not be the best candidate for the job, but he is pretty damn close. You are going to drive yourself crazy looking for the perfect candidate. How did you get Emily?"

"Something about her resume popped out at me. Did you know that her father is the Dean at the University of Minnesota?"

"Where is the University of Minnesota?"

"Minnesota."

Scarlett laughed. With anyone else she would have been sure the person was trying to be a smart aleck, but with Rhett she knew he had just answered the question he thought she had asked. It was moments like this was why she never let him go to the Meet and Greets alone. If the person didn't know Rhett took everything literally, they would think he was being rude or sarcastic. They would be rude to him, and he would never know why. Just as in those circumstances, she smiled and said, "What city, Sweetie?"

Rhett would do the same thing he was doing right now. He would tell which city. He said, "The Twin Cities – Minneapolis and St. Paul. They are called the twin cities because they are basically one unit."

Before Rhett could continue on Scarlett said, "Is that were Emily went to school?"

"No, she went to Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. It is an extremely good school for forensic anthropology. It is in the top ten."

"Can you swear she was the best candidate for the job?"

"I thought so."

"But you didn't know for sure. Sometimes, Sweetheart, you just have to take a leap of faith like Jacob did. He did the right thing trusting that other people would do the right thing. How horrible if he had done the right thing and been punished for it. If the dean hadn't believed him…."

"If Belle hadn't been so blatant in her actions…."

"Because she thought she was bullet proof…."

"Because she had tenure.

"True. I will see if he is one of the candidates that applied."

"Great."

The next day, Rhett had Juanita from human resources show him how to cull all the applicants. There were two criteria he put in. One the candidate had to have a three point nine five GPA, and the candidate had to be from a school that was in the top ten for forensic anthropology. Jacob Smith was the only candidate that popped up.

Rhett had Juanita call him and set up an interview for a week away. It was Tuesday at ten. The Jeffersonian would put him up in a hotel room near the institute. Jacob interviewed with Rhett, Hodgins, and Karen. Afterwards they all like the man. Rhett had Juanita make him an offer. He accepted the offer. He would start work in a month.

After Rhett told Scarlett all this, she said, "Once Jacob and his wife get here, we will have to take them to supper."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Mr. Smith and I will have a professional relationship. No socializing."

"Alright, Dear."

"Besides he is going to be a busy man. He is going to be finishing up his master's degree long distance."

"Alright."

Emily did call Miguel. She had his car after all. He offered to help her find an apartment and get situated. He offered to let her stay at his apartment with him until she got a place of her own. He said, "I will let you have the bedroom. I will sleep on the couch. I would never force myself on a woman, but the bedroom door has a lock." Emily really couldn't afford to stay at a hotel until she found a place to live so she accepted his offer.

Emily found an apartment with Miguel's help. If the apartment was just down the street from Miguel that was just a coincidence. By this time Miguel had bought another car, so he offered to sell his old car to Emily. She accepted. She had already figured out that she would need a car in LA.

Miguel took Emily grocery shopping and everything else. Allegedly to help her get settled. She soon found out there was a kind, caring sensitive man under all that bravado. She and Miguel formed a relationship. She offered him a job as a forensic artist, and he took the job, only part-time. He went back to work for an institute because he missed the aspect of doing good with his art. Also, he remembered what Dr. Goodman had said to him once, 'Miguel's job was to restore the victim's humanity by giving them back their face. He was the giver of compassion for his institute's team.

Miguel was a semi-famous artist now. He no longer worked in set design or anything to do with Hollywood. Rhett still called him about every two weeks just to keep in touch. Miguel never called Rhett because he knew that Rhett would only want to talk to him when he was willing to talk to him. Ironically enough the happier Rhett got the more he called Miguel.

Rhett did read the diary. After reading the diary he agreed to watch the movie with Scarlett. He had decided it would be quicker and easier than reading the book. After watching the movie, he wasn't sure it had been quicker because Scarlett had been continually pausing the movie to tell him how the movie was different from the book. He stuck with it because he didn't want to read the book, and he knew that Scarlett was going to be talking about Vivian and Clark for the next six months if not longer. In these circumstances he just knew he was giving more than she was which actually made him proud.

About three months later Philip Marlowe sent Scarlett a report and Rhett a bill. The bill was for a hundred dollars. Rhett was happy with the amount. He hoped Mr. Marlowe had given Scarlett some answers.

After Scarlett read the report on the Gable daughters, she shared it with Rhett. She said, "Ella died in twenty-six. She was married to Jimmy Mitchell who was Margaret Mitchell's cousin. Mr. Marlowe thought that was an interesting detail. That is how she got the desk. Ella died suddenly of a heart attack. She was sixty. Yet she had outlived the rest of her siblings. Everyone got an equal share of Clark's estate even Wade. The girls let their husbands manage their money."

"They had no say about that. A husband had legal control of a woman's money."

"It appears the husbands hadn't done bad at managing the money. By nineteen twenty-six they were all dead."

"That is kind of amazing that all Clark and Vivian's children died so young.

"Yeah. Liz and Emma died in oh five. That would have made them twenty-one and twenty-seven respectively. Alexi died in oh seven from childbirth. The baby died too. She would have been thirty-three. Kathleen died from an unknown disease in oh eight making her twenty-nine. Minnie died in nineteen ten from injuries from a carriage accident when she was thirty-one. She was the last except Ella."

Scarlett started to fold the paper up and put it in the envelope. Rhett said, "And Wade?"

Scarlett gave Rhett a sad smile, "He died from measles. Just like his father. He was forty at the time. He had a wife and five children."

"What has you so troubled? It is a sign of the times. Most people had twelve children and only half made it to adult hood. When I was researching arsenic poisoning, I read of a couple who lost all four of their children within a month."

"Who poisoned the children?"

"Their parents, but not the way you would think. At that time arsenic was used in wallpaper to create a bright green color."

"What happened to the couple? Where they arrested for poisoning their children?"

"No, people especially children died so often from unknown causes at that time that it wasn't even investigated."

"Did the parents die of arsenic poisoning?"

"No, the concentration wasn't strong enough to kill them. It just made them sick. Which furthered the belief that the children had died from an unknown disease."

"That is sad."

"What is sad was a child's life expectancy was not that great therefore like I said the parents didn't really expect any of their children to reach adulthood. Of those who reached adulthood only half of those made it to their fortieth birthday. That was the way Vivian and Clark got. They probably often wondered who was going to die next.

"Was there documentation of babies dying from unknown causes during their first year of life?"

"I don't know. I will research it."

Scarlett could have told Rhett not to bother, but he liked researching things so she would let him do it. "Reading Vivian's diary made me get to know her and him. They were such strong, dynamic people. They had struggled through so much separately and together and then for their children to die like that is kind of sad."

"We can't control other people's fates. In truth, we can't even control our fates."

"It was so sad when she wrote about how Clark couldn't achieve an erection. I could feel her pain at his discomfort and embarrassment."

"That is a terrible time for all men."

"Let's not talk about it."

"No, let's definitely not. That is something I don't ever want to talk about even when it happens."

Scarlett got up and said, "Okay, Honey. I'm going to take a shower and read a book."

"Alright."

When Scarlett got to the door, she said, "I don't want to spend the night in their family mansion."

"Alright, then we won't."

Scarlett left the room. Rhett decided that she thought Vivian and Clark's children would have wildly romantic lives also. Or at least special lives. Instead, their children had ordinary lives. Although the daughters probably loved their husbands, it wasn't the over-the-top love that Clark and Vivian had.