Second Chance

A/n: This is my second GWTW fanfic. It is inspired by the various – Scarlett goes back in time due to some supernatural intervention and it had me thinking why just Scarlett why not Rhett too. Proof read By LawdyMissScarlett

Summary: Set after Chapter 63 GWTW, both Rhett and Scarlett find themselves in the past after parting ways. Will they get back to each other or will they be happier with someone else.

Prologue

"Scarlett, I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken — and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived. Perhaps, if I were younger —" he sighed. "But I'm too old to believe in such sentimentalities as clean slates and starting all over. I'm too old to shoulder the burden of constant lies that go with living in polite disillusionment. I couldn't live with you and lie to you and I certainly couldn't lie to myself. I can't even lie to you now. I wish I could care what you do or where you go, but I can't."

"My dear, I don't give a damn."

The words reverberated even as he sat on the train to Charleston. He was tired – all these years of fun and frolic had taken its toll on his body. Even now he was thinking of his wife, but she didn't plague him – he was simply wondering whether Scarlet was his punishment for all his sins.

He had woken up early in the morning to avoid her but was surprised to find her up and about. She hadn't said much – simply left to see Miss Melly's family, comfort them and arrange for her funeral. After that she would go to Tara. She had asked him if he would stay for the funeral, he had not replied.

Scarlett was a lot like him – but for all their similarities – she never ran away from troubles always faced them head on – so unlike him.

And while he was sure there is no hell – or at least it's in this world and not after death. He felt as if he was running away from hell. He regretted nothing of course but perhaps if things had turned out differently …

Rhett wakes up to realise that he was no longer aboard the train but inside a carriage, he quickly puts a hand inside his pocket to take out a gun – but there isn't any there. Rhett is afraid, his face the emotionless mask he is so used to wearing.

A negro is driving him – which makes him wonder, who could he be. He killed a darky who was uppity to a lady. The driver, could he be his brother?

Even as conspiracy theories swirled in his head the driver spoke, "Yo' poh Paa upset, Mastah Rhett. He is gwin' to be scoldin' yo'."

"Moe is that you," Rhett was shocked, his mask cracked, Moe had died a few years after the war – just like his father, and yet now they were both alive. Was he in hell!

"Now Mastah Rhett don't yo' be jestin with yo'r poh ol' Mo'," said Moe softly, "yo' jestin' be getting yo' in trouble with yo'r Paa, just like in the West Poin'."

Rhett was quiet; this was just like when he actually got expelled. So this is how he would be tortured now. The past would prick him till he'd regret it.

Finding him uncharacteristically quiet Moe said, "Now yo' be good Mastah Rhett. Yo'r poh Maa been askin' yo' to stay shut when yo'r Paa's a-gonna ragin'."

"I'll make peace with him alright," said Rhett, thinking of how he had fought last time. He regretted it a bit now, perhaps if only he had not mocked father so much – maybe things would be different.

He was also thinking of his last talk with Scarlett. Snatches of conversation came back to him:

"Perhaps to Charleston to try to make peace with my people."

"I'm forty-five — the age when a man begins to value some of the things he's thrown away so lightly in youth, the clannishness of families, honor and security, roots that go deep, the calm dignity life can have when it's lived by gentle folks, the genial grace of days that are gone. When I lived those days I didn't realize the slow charm of them."

He also remembered how he threw everything away, last time. First getting expelled, then fighting with his father, and finally not marrying that girl …

Maybe this time I will marry her, though Rhett, how bad would it be! He had survived Scarlett, with this though in mind he looked forward to getting back home.

"I will act the part of a repentant man, so convincing that everyone will think of me as a gentleman. And I will even marry the stupid wretch – how it would shock Ross! His face the ever impenetrable mask – Rhett was ready to face his father and the whole of gentle Charleston.

As he stepped down from his carriage, like the consummate actor life had made him. Rhett contemplated for a bit. This wasn't hell, or some kind of purgatory. Life was offering him a second chance and he'd be damned if he wouldn't take it.

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