Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The couple was married at the courthouse a week after their return from Charleston. They had only been waiting for the engagement ring to be resized. They could not agree on wedding bands. It didn't matter if they wore rings or not. They were still married, and everyone knew it.
At first only Melly and Beau had been invited then for some strange reason Rhett invited Emily, Jack, and Dr. Goodman to the wedding. He didn't invite Marvin Smith or Karen Gibson. He didn't know the man and he didn't like Karen. Scarlett knew that Rhett didn't like Karen because she had taken Miguel's place. He did FaceTime Miguel, though. Scarlett wasn't close enough to any of her fellow agents to invite them to her wedding.
The couple later had a reception and invited everyone they knew. It was at Rosie's. Rhett had talked Rosie into closing the diner for the night to outside customers. Then Rhett had coaxed Rosie and her children into joining into the merriment. Rhett actually was happy to stay for the entire celebration.
Rhett knew he was different from anyone else, but his family had always treated him just like everyone else. He had been enrolled in Little League, Soccer, and basketball. He had sat on the bench, but his parents hadn't cared. They had wanted him to be forced to interact with other children. He had been forced to go to church every Sunday whether he wanted to or not. He had gone to Summer Camp. He had gone to a few youth church retreats. He had hated every minute of it, but now he wouldn't trade the experience for anything. He had been able to interact with people fairly well until Bonnie's death, then he had stopped trying to fit in with the rest of the world. That is until Scarlett had burst into his life and demanded that he start living again.
For a wedding present Scarlett gave Rhett five model ships to build. Rhett looked at the presents all stacked up on the coffee table. They were wrapped in wedding paper. He stared at the gifts, and he said, "I am supposed to give you wedding presents?"
"Some couples do, and some couples don't."
"I didn't get you anything."
"That is alright. Go ahead and open your presents."
Scarlett was really excited about Rhett opening his presents and seeing what she had given him.
Rhett and Scarlett had been sitting in the living room, when he stood up, she thought he was going to open the presents, but instead he said, "I will be right back."
Rhett went to the closest mall and walked around for about thirty minutes. He didn't see anything that he thought was right for Scarlett. He left the mall and went to Melly's house. He would have called but he didn't know her number. When she admitted him into the house, he said, "I need your help. I didn't know I was supposed to give Scarlett a wedding present. She has given me five. I have no idea what to buy her. I want it to be perfect."
Melly said, "Beau, put your shoes on. We are going shopping with…"
Rhett said, "Uncle Rhett."
Beau smiled. He finally knew what to call the man.
An hour later, Rhett returned to his home with five presents. He, Melly, and Beau had stopped at the Dollar Tree, and she had shown the males how to wrap presents quick and easy. Just put them in a gift bag with tissue paper on top. Rhett thanked Melly and dropped her and her son off at her home.
Melly smiled as she watched Rhett drive away. She thought, 'He is so good to Scarlett. He cares so much that he does the right thing for her.'
When Rhett returned two hours later, Scarlett was sitting in the living room watching TV. She was not worried about where he had gone. It was more of his idiosyncrasies. When he laid his presents on the coffee table, she knew where he had gone. He said, "The whole arrangement of gift giving is strange to me. I went and got Melly to help me. I hope you don't mind. I don't know when a gift is appropriate. Or how much to spend. Or what to do if they haven't given me a gift. Or what is wrong with giving gift cards. Or…"
"I will handle our gift giving, Sweetheart. Now you open your presents first."
Rhett did open his presents and he was excited about each and everyone. For the next month he was busy putting his models together. He had even taken over the spare bedroom so he could leave his models out. Something Rhett never did. He never left anything out. He always put everything up every time. He wanted her to do the same, but she refused. What was the point of putting something up when she was going to use it the very next day?
Scarlett's presents were a blouse, a new pair of jeans, a leather sports jacket, a necklace, and a gun holster. After she opened the holster, Rhett said, "Did you know it is illegal to own a gun in DC?"
"For a private citizen – yes. I'm glad. I would not want you to buy me a gun."
"Why?"
Scarlett smiled and said, "You know nothing about guns except maybe which end to point."
Rhett smiled and said, "True. You point the end with the hole in it at the bad guy, right?"
Scarlett laughed. She knew he knew which end to point at the bad guy, but probably not much more.
When it was the anniversary of Melly's divorce, Scarlett took her out to dinner. They had left Beau with Rhett. He had bought a model car. The man and the boy spent the entire night putting the model together. When Beau went home, he took the car with him.
Beau missed his father and didn't understand why his parents had to divorce. Neither his mother nor his father would give him a satisfactory answer. All they would say was that they couldn't get along anymore. When he had asked Aunt Scarlett about it, she had said the same thing. They couldn't get along.
During Beau and Rhett's evening together, Beau had asked, "Do you know why my parents got a divorce?"
Even Rhett knew he couldn't tell the boy the truth, yet he didn't know what to say. Scarlett always handled these awkward social interactions. But the boy was looking at him waiting for an answer. He finally said, "This is going to be hard for you to understand. As people age their goals in life change based on their experiences. When I was a young boy, I wanted to play professional baseball."
"Were you any good?"
"No, I was horrible. I sat on the bench every season, but that is not my point. At ten that was what I wanted to be."
"I want to be an astronaut."
"That is a good goal. When I was eighteen, I knew I wanted to be a forensic anthropologist. That has never changed. Your father wants to help people who have been wrongfully convicted. It takes a lot of sacrifice because the pay isn't any good. Your mother stopped wanting to make that sacrifice. That doesn't make her a bad person. In fact, part of her desire to make more money was because she wanted to give you a better life. Your father wants you to have a good life too, but his desire to help people is greater. It doesn't make him a bad person, in fact, a lot of people would admire him for putting his noble quest above everyone and everything. It is the difference between being a father and being a mother. To a woman, her child always comes first. To a man the greater good prevails. At least, what he believes is the greater good. I know I'm not making much sense now. When you get older you will understand better. One thing I know is that your parents both love you very much. It is just now they have different goals."
"Thank you, Uncle Rhett. That actually makes sense to me. They now have different goals."
Scarlett and Melly went to eat at the Founding Fathers. They were celebrating Melly's one year of freedom. They talked about a lot of things. Melly talked about Marvin and his children. Scarlett talked about Rhett. They both talked about their work. After both ladies had a couple of glasses of wine, Scarlett said, "I should never have agreed to have sex with Ashley."
"I should never have suggested it."
"It always bothered me after the fact."
"It always bothered me when I knew he was going to meet you, but he was so much easier to live with after his visits that I just pushed my uncomfortable feelings down."
"What were we thinking?"
"I don't think we were thinking."
Scarlett laughed. She said, "I would never do that again."
Cheekily Melly said, "Of course not, I'm pretty sure Rhett would object to that."
Scarlett laughed and said, "At times he can be so obtuse, but I'm pretty sure he would notice that."
Both the ladies laughed. There were times each one had been uncomfortable in the other's presence, but they each pushed it down. They had made a bad decision and now they had to live with the consequences. Nonetheless, their friendship was more important than any uncomfortable feelings.
Three days later, as Rhett and Scarlett were at home in the evening, she got a phone call from Melly. Melly was upset. Beau had related what Rhett had told him. Melly was more upset than Beau about her son being told he was not as important as his father's work. Scarlett listened while Melly ranted at her. In the end Scarlett knew the reason Melly was so upset was that it was true. Ashley cared more for his clients than his son, but to be fair he cared more for his clients than anything else. At the end of the conversation, Scarlett said, "Rhett shouldn't have told him that, but you must admit it is true. I would have wished he had been older when he learned that truth, but we can't deny it is the truth."
Melly agreed and hung up the phone. Scarlett went in search of her nincompoop of a husband. She found him in their spare bedroom putting a model together. She said, "Did you tell Beau that Ashley's work was more important than him?"
"No."
"What did you say?"
"He asked me why his parents got a divorce. I could tell he was really struggling with wanting to know why."
"How could you tell that?"
"He wanted answers enough to ask me."
"Good point. Go on. What did you say?"
"I knew I couldn't tell him the real reason."
"Very astute of you."
Rhett missed the sarcasm in Scarlett's statement and said, "Thank you."
"You aren't off the hook yet. Go on."
"I simply said that his parents had different goals. His father's goal of saving wrongly convicted people was more important to him than anything else."
"That is where Beau got the idea that Ashley's work was more important than him."
"Well, it is."
Scarlett took a deep breath. She could not yell at Rhett or tell him he was an idiot for telling Beau that. If she did, he would shut down on her. She said, "You shouldn't have told him that."
"Why? It is the truth."
Scarlett sighed again. She said in a tight voice, "Yes, it is, but we don't always have to tell the truth."
"I don't lie."
"You don't have to tell everything you know."
"I don't think I did anything wrong. He wanted answers and I gave him answers."
"Rhett, he is only eight years old."
"He is old enough to handle the truth. It will be easier for him to accept the changes in his world. Scarlett, he has been struggling with this for a year. You, Melly, and probably Ashley have been giving him what you think of as kind lies, but you all are not allowing him to move forward from his parents' divorce."
"I disagree. Don't do it again."
"I will do it again because I don't think I did anything wrong. Wait! Let me explain my point of view. I will use an example from your past. You told me that when the EMT told you that Wade was dead.."
Scarlett interrupted Rhett to hiss, "Don't you dare use Wade's death to justify your actions."
Rhett went on like Scarlett hadn't spoken. He said, "You said, 'He was kind in his bluntness.' You said, 'Once you accepted that Wade was dead you could start to accept that your world would never be the same.' That is all I did for Beau. I let him accept that his world would never be the same."
Scarlett didn't speak. She turned and left the room. She came back in thirty minutes and said, "I'm going out."
"It's late. Where are you going?"
"To the grocery store to get some wine."
"You shouldn't drink when…."
"Don't you dare lecture me on drinking."
Rhett didn't say another word. He heard Scarlett come back in thirty minutes, but she didn't come to their spare bedroom. Around ten, he took a shower and went to bed. He hoped she would come to bed soon. He hoped she wasn't going to be mad at him for very long. He still didn't think he did anything wrong.
Rhett laid in the bed and tossed and turned until Scarlett finally came to bed at eleven-thirty. She was stumbling around. When he could tell she was trying to change clothes without turning on the light, he said, "I'm awake."
Still without speaking, Scarlett turned on the bathroom light. She changed clothes, brushed her teeth, flossed, turned out the light and got in the bed. She laid close to him but without touching. When Rhett put his hand on her back, she didn't try to shake him off or move away. Rhett moved closer to her while still not touching her except for his hand on her back. She softly said, "I tried to forget Wade had ever existed."
"It doesn't work that way."
"I know."
Scarlett scooted closer to Rhett until they were touching. He was finally able to go to sleep. She had not problem sleeping because of all the wine she had drunk.