Disclaimer- I do not own Gone With the Wind or any characters found in the book. They are the property of the Margaret Mitchell Estate.

I do however, own the plotline and all original characters.

But if you want to sue me, I'd be glad to give you everything I have-it's just BILLS!

This disclaimer applies to all chapters.

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Scarlett stepped off the train, her lovely eyes searching the depot for Will. The late September sun caressed the lily white skin just as the gentle breeze rustled the stiff black skirt.

"Scarlett!" the sound drew her gaze to a tall, sandy haired man, with pale blue eyes, a peg leg, and a piece of straw between his teeth.

"Will! I am so glad to lay eyes on you." She cried, as he came toward her. She awkwardly threw her arms around him in a a gesture so foreign to Katie Scarlett O' Hara that anyone who'd known her would have been shocked.

"I sure was sorry to hear 'bout Miz Melly, Scarlett. "

The bright smile slipped from Scarlett's lips. 'Yes,' she reminded herself, 'Melly is dead and Rhett has left me. I can't pretend anymore that it isn't so.'

"When I was talkin' bout it with Sue, Ella heard us. I'm sorry 'bout it, as I thought you should be the one to tell 'em, but it can't be helped now." Will informed her, leading the way towards the carriage Scarlett hired for Tara.

"Don't worry about it, Will. It doesn't matter." She was secretly elated that the burden of telling the children that their beloved Aunt Melly was dead had been lifted from her slender shoulders. She wouldn't be able to bear the heartbreak on their faces. As it stood, she was still the one that had to tell them that their Uncle Rhett was gone forever, too. He didn't even have the excuse of death, damn him! He could go on and do it to hurt her, but what about Wade Hampton and Ella? He always ran on and on about how much he loved them, and how bad a parent, she –the one who risked everything for them- was.

Scarlett was jerked out of her reminiscing at the touch of Will's hand to her elbow, helping her into the carriage. As the coachman headed for Tara, Will apologized once more.

"We were sorry not to make it to Atlanta for Miz Melly's funeral. But with Sue being in her condition and all we-"

Scarlett tuned him out. Yes, it was true. Two days ago, Melly, her Melly, her dearest and only friend, her sister was laid into the red clay that so many of her loved ones had died fighting for. She remembered how the rain had poured into the tiny grave, even as they lowered the tiny coffin. She felt the warm torrents of tears sliding down her cheeks, not caring that the fat old cats of Atlanta society were staring and whispering towards her. After that, though, nothing was remembered. Tessa, her maid had said she had fainted as soon as the first lump of clay was thrown over the dreadful box that held Melly. Scarlett wondered briefly who would have bothered to catch her. Who ever it was, shouldn't have. She should have been left there, lying in the cold Georgia rain until she froze to death. She could have died right there, where a large part of her heart was buried. Right under that little head stone that read, "Eugenie Victoria 'Bonnie Blue' Butler", and that awfully tiny marble slab dedicated to her unborn child, the one that read only, "Baby Butler- Never known, Forever Mourned."

Something Will had said brought Scarlett back to the horrid present.

"I'm sorry, Will, my mind was wandering, what was it you were asking me?" Scarlett asked.

Will looked at her, his blue eyes overflowing with curiousity. "I asked you if Captain Butler would be following you to Tara soon."

The walls of the carriage began to fall in towards her. She couldn't hold it in anymore! The tears came and were slow to stop. "Oh, Will. Rhett…he- he- he left me. He said he ran out of love for me, he said oh, Will he asked for a divorce! A divorce!"

Her brother in law put a lean arm around her shoulders. When the tears ebbed, he prodded her a bit. "When?" he asked gently.

"The day Melly di- The day Melly left." Scarlett sobbed into his shoulder, unable to say the word 'died.'

"I'm sorry, Scarlett. Don't b'lieve I know how any man, gentleman or not, could do that to a woman at such a time."

"I deserved it! I was so terrible to him. I was, Will, oh you cannot know how awful I was!"

'Yes, I could." Will replied, very quietly. "It seems Wade has heard very much that has been said b'tween you 'n Captain Butler."

Scarlett groaned. "Then you do know, and it's far worse that you do! What must you think of me?"

"Well, from Wade told me, it seems you said some mighty mean things, but that husband of your'n deserved 'em from the things he said to you. Wade said he was starting to wish that Captain Butler had never married you. He was so mean to ya."

"Oh! He mustn't. He mustn't hate Rhett! I- I deserved every word he threw at me."

Will removed the straw fom between his jaws. "Well, I don't reckon you did, Scarlett. Ain't no man alive who has the right to treat a woman the way you was treated. Now I ain't makin' excuses for you, neither. But you ain't half so bad as all them damn uppity folks would have everyone believe. If any of them had had the gumption to do what you done, They would've."

Scarlett's heart swelled with affection for this man. He seemed to really and truly understand her. To understand that everything she did was for love of her Family, for love of Tara.

The Carriage turned down the drive toward her home, and she began to fix her appearance. The freshly white washed bricks stood proudly on the hill, new shutters were at every window and the yard was just as green and lush as before the war. She saw the white fields of cotton, and reached for Will's hand as tears stung her eyes. "Thank you, Will. For letting me fix up Tara. Now, now you see what it once was!"

"I could hardly send them men you done sent here back to Atlanta. It was mighty sly of ya to do us that way, too."

Scarlett dimpled. She had hired some folks to work the fields at Tara and sent them off without so much as telling Will and Sue. "I'll bet Sue was glad to get it, though wasn't she? I would have loved to see her face when she realized she was going to have a carriage, and a gardener, and a coachman and a butler and two more maids."

Even as the words left her mouth, she caught sight of her sister, belly swollen to the point of disbelief. "My God, Will Benteen! Don't tell me Sue is expecting again!"

Will nodded, abandoning the opportunity to scold Scarlett for not listening to him earlier. The carriage rolled to a stop and Scarlett lept out. No sooner had her tiny foot touched the ground than did Suellen start whining.

"I wish you would've given us more notice, Scarlett. We're cramped enough as it is in here without shifting around to make room for you. You've got that big fancy house in Atlanta, what do you need to come here for? It's bad enough that you send your children here without even asking, but you too? You'd think you could have sent us some money to build on to the house, too. What good is fresh paint, and new shutters when we're bursting at the seams of this house anyway?"

Scarlett glared. "You hush! This is just as much my home as it yours. More if you count my blood sweat and tears that are in this land. If you want to have more room, then go take your brood out to the slave cabins. Maybe all of you can fit into a few of them!"

Suellen gasped and turned away from her sister. Scarlett heard tiny feet running towards her. Wade and Ella came speeding onto the porch, followed closely by their five little cousins. She knelt to the floor. "Come give Mother a hug, children." Ella quickly scampered into Scarlett's embrace, while Wade looked at his mother strangely. 'Great balls of Fire!' thought Scarlett. 'He looks positively afraid of me!' She begrudgingly admitted that he had a bit of a reason to, but really! It wasn't as if she never hugged her older two children. Well, maybe that wasn't very true. Most signs of affection were reserved for Bonnie, with Wade and Ella getting only the leftovers. 'Well, Bonnie is gone now. I'll do for them what I wanted to do for her.' She silently resolved.

Her five nieces assaulted her as soon as Ella stepped away. A chorus of, "Auntie Scarlett!'s" went up, and there were little girls surrounding her, demanding to know what she brought them to play with.

"Yes, Molly, I am glad to see you. No, there are no dolls this time, Mary. I'm sorry Cynthia, but Auntie's store was plum out of cinnamon sticks. I'm glad you like Ella's pretty clothes, Janie, of course you can have them when she is too big." Then to the youngest, who at 2 years old didn't know Scarlett. "Hello, Lizzy. I am your very own Auntie Scarlett. Yes, Ella and Wade's mother, and your own mama's sister."

Scarlett finally stood. Mammy greeted her with out stretched arms. "Miz Scarlett, honey chile. I sho did Miz my lamb. You come on in here and tell ole' Mammy 'bout everything that troublin' ya."

The children were all sent away, with Scarlett promising Wade and Ella that they would have a picnic tomorrow to chat and then she would tell them everything they wanted to know.

"….And then he just left Mammy. He didn't care. He doesn't love me anymore. And now… Now I don't know what I shall do!" Scarlett cried into mammy's apron.

The big dark hand rubbed her lambs back. "Miz Scarlett, why you let Mist' Rhett do you that way? You know he'll be comin' back, he aluss do. But I done tole ya and tole ya that it ain't no way fo' a gempmum to treat a lady, no Maam. I say you goes over dar to Charleston South Cahlina and you show him that you is his wife in the eyes of Gawd Ahmighty and the State of Gawgia and every right thinking man or woman that ever knowd it!"

"Oh, Mammy, but how can I do that? Rhett hates me! He never wants to see me again. He said he'd come back enough to keep gossip down, but- but he'd rather a divorce."

"Honey, I knowed you since I slapped that fus' pair of diapers on yo' bottom. I know you ain't aimin ter let Mist' Rhett leave without saying good bye to dem chillens is ya? And wut, you think ole' Mammy ginna let him leave wifout sayin' so long to her? No'm I ain't aimin ter let dat happen. You'se gwine tell Mist' Rhett that I been pesterin' you fo a long time ter let me go see Miss Pauline and Miss Eulalie. . . And ain't it Gawds own trufe? It high time you go see 'em and I sho would like to they faces agin befo' I pass."

Scarlett's mouth dropped open. "Oh, mammy don't talk like that. .. You . . . You can't die. Not ever."

Mammy stroked Scarletts black curls. "Miz Scarlett, everyone's got ter die some day. Ole' mammy be nearly 80 years ole' and I been sick fo' so long, Miz Scarlett. I'll be goin' soon. "

"Sick? Mammy. . . Mammy why didn't you tell me you were sick?

I need to get you to a doctor!"

The old woman laughed. "Miz Scarlett, ain't no doctah in Gawgia who'd treat me. 'Sides I'm past helpin'. Don't you worry none about it. I'll be back wif Miss Ellen and yo' Pa, and I'll tek care of Miz Bonnie, and Miz Melly and that baby of yourn. Ole Mammy be happier when she gone. 'Sides it sho do mek a good 'scuse fo ya ter go to Mist' Rhett, don't it?"

Late that night, Scarlett was still mulling over Mammy's words. Never in her life had she imagined Mammy to be sick. Never had she considered the possibility that Mammy would ever die. But she seemed content with it. How could anyone want to die? How could Mammy want to leave her, the children?