The Birth of “Bonnie Blue” Butler

"C'mon, Scarlett. It can't be that difficult. I've seen you drive horses until they're ready to fall. Surely having a baby can't be that much more work."

"Good grief, Rhett!" She glared at him across the room, still hardly able to believe that he had the nerve to insist on being in the birthing room. It was just like the varmint! "If it's so easy, YOU can have the baby next time!"

Rhett chuckled, biting down on his ever-present cigar. He badly wanted to light it, but he couldn't do that here, not with the baby on the way. And he didn't want to risk leaving just as the baby was being born. "There, there, now. I don't suppose it will be too much longer now."

"Easy for you to say! It's already been twelve hours and the whole while, you've been in that chair!" She growled as another labor pain hit, causing her to shriek like something out of a nightmare. Biting down on the birthing rag, she wondered once again just why she'd agreed to marry this man. 'Oh, right,' she thought as the pain finally subsided, 'the money.'

Dr. Meade took another peek under the blanket and told Scarlett to be ready to push the next time a pain hit. She rewarded him with a fierce look. "As if you could stop me! I'm ready to push NOW!"

"Not yet, Scarlett! Just wait for the next pain."

"Fiddle-dee-dee!"

Rhett anxiously stood up and stroked his coal-colored mustache. "I'm sure the pain will hit soon enough, Scarlett. Now do as the good doctor says and wait."

"One more word out of you and YOU'll be the one in pain!" Her famous green eyes filled with tears and she gnashed her teeth, but she breathed in the way the doctor had taught her, so as to not have the baby at the wrong time.

Minutes past and then the next pain hit, a pain worse than anything Scarlett had ever know in her life, which was quite considerable, considering all the pains the former belle had experienced up to this point. She yelled, "You can leave right now, Rhett Butler, and I don't care if you ever come back! You're the reason I'm in this pain!" And with that, she began to push, push, push, push, push, and then the baby was out. With a yelp of relief, Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler fell back on her pillow.

After a moment, Dr. Meade announced the baby's gender. "She's a beautiful baby girl!"

"Wonderful!" Rhett answered. He rushed over to check out his new daughter, then, satisfied that all was well, he looked over at the mother. "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it, dear?"

"Oh, fiddle-dee-dee!"

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#Margaret Mitchell  #GoneWithTheWind  #ScarlettAndRhett