Looking for a Mind at Work (Incomplete/Discontinued)

The Chapter Where He Decides To Stay

*Sorry for not updating lately! It's been like more than a week or something oh my. Also I'm sorry that the story's been going kinda slow recently but it'll get more interesting I promise!

Eliza grabbed her shopping bags and started heading home. It hadn't even been ten minutes before she felt exhausted.
         
I really hope one day we can afford a car. Eliza groaned inwardly. As she waited for the traffic lights to change, she looked down at her belly.
         
She was a little over five months into her pregnancy and her stomach was noticeably swollen now. Every time she stood in front of a mirror, she was shocked at how much it had grown. Fortunetly, she hadn't felt any pain yet.
        
Just terrible, chronic exhaustion.
         
"Hello miss." A man's voice said.
         
Eliza turned to see a burly man standing next to her. She didn't pay much attention to his features but noticed that he had a weird, crooked smile. A smile she had learned since a child not to trust.
         
"Hello.." she replied awkwardly.
         
"I see you're holding quite some weight there." He said.
         
"Well, I am five months pregnant." Eliza said sharply, but immediately regretted it. Her tiredness must be getting to her.
         
"Actually I was talking about your shopping bags."
         
"Oh..." she felt embarrassment spread on her cheeks. "Well yes I guess I do have a lot of bags too."
         
"Would you like help with those?" He asked, his eerie expression not changing. "I could take them to your house if you want."
         
"Uh... no thank you. I'll be just fine." She glanced at the traffic lights. She was really anxious for them to turn red.
         
"Then I could just escort you. A fragile woman like you needs a man to make sure you're safe."
         
"I'm not fragile." She said through gritted teeth. "And I don't need your help. You're only just a stranger after all."
         
"I don't have to be."

There was a long, tense silence and when the lights flashed red, Eliza half walked, half ran across the street, fighting the urge to see if the man was following her. Once she turned the corner she checked, and to her great relief, he was gone.
         
But as she walked home, Eliza felt something she'd never felt before.
         
She felt vulnerable.

Once she got home, Eliza plopped on the couch without even setting down her bags. She was just so tired. Not just physically, but mentally too. She was tired of being alone. She was tired of having to work all day just to pay off her medical bills. And most of all:
        
She was tired of not being with Alexander.
        
Then suddenly, as if the heavens heard her pled, the doorbell rang. She got up, opened the door, to find a package and some letters. With some difficulty, she heaved everything inside and looked at her mail.
        
The package contained an outdoor table Eliza had ordered online. Most of the letters were unimportant except for one. She gasped as she read the label. It was from General Washington.
        
She ripped open the letter and read it.

         Dear Mrs. Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton,

I hope you are well and having a wonderful day. Thank you for sending that letter and I apologize for not responding quickly. To be frank, I hesitated to respond to you because I didn't want to disappoint you, but now that some time has passed, your request is granted. Your husband has been released and will be on his way back home by the time you read this letter.

Sincerely,
General Washington

A big weight lifted off of Eliza's shoulders. The letter she wrote to the General seemed to be so long ago and she worried that it got lost. It had been on the back of her mind ever since and now she was satisfied.
        
Then almost immediately, that weight was replaced with anxiety. She realized once Alex got home, which couldn't be too long from now, she would have to tell him that she was with child.

What is he going to say? I'm sure he'll already be fuming that he got released. To come home and find out that I'm pregnant!

She decided to do her daily exercises that she was required to do to get her mind off of her nerves. She could only hope that Alex's arrival would go smoothly.

~~~

The very next day at 9 pm, Alex came home.

Eliza heard the door lock being turned and a small jingle of keys. She stood up to greet her husband.

He looked the same as he did when he left: His hair was tied up and he was still wearing his uniform, which was now very dirty. His dark tired eyes had deep bags underneath and Eliza wondered when was the last time he had slept.

Alex barely seemed to notice her. He gave her a curt nod and immediately walked into their bedroom, not even noticing that she was pregnant. She watched him close the door and he didn't come back out.

Eliza couldn't say she didn't expect this. She knew he was very angry and trying not to show it. She sighed out loud.

I guess I'll have to tell him in the morning...

After doing a few more chores around the house, she quietly went into the bedroom and slipped into the bed next to Alex. Judging by his snores, he was fast asleep. And soon, Eliza fell asleep as well.

After what seemed like two seconds, she was woken up by her phone. She pressed the snooze button and laid there in her bed. She looked next to her and found that Alex was already up, and judging by his side being relatively cold, he must've been for a while.

She forced herself to get up, dressed in her work clothes, and walked out to find Alex eating a fresh plate of eggs. Well, he wasn't really eating, more like staring at his eggs as if he were having a deep conversation with them.

After grabbing a plate and sitting next to Alex at the table, did he finally notice her.

"Good morning." Alex said, a little glum.

"Good morning." Eliza said back. She cleared her throat and added, "I've missed having you around to cook for me. I always burn my eggs."

This put a small smile on his face, the first she'd seen ever since he returned home.

"Look Eliza, I'm really sorry about yesterday." He started. "I was having a really rough time overseas and that idiot Lee-" he said that name with a bitter tone. "-wasn't making it any easier. Then I got released and now I'm here-!"

"And now you're here with me." Eliza interrupted.

Alex stopped complaining about his problems and said, "Oh. Well, how are you doing? Still have the same job I see."

Eliza sighed. "It's quite a struggle but I'm sure it'll be worth it for the three of us."

"Three of us?" He said, perplexed. "What do you mean?"

Now's the time... Eliza thought.

She stood up from her chair and Alex's eyes widened.

He walked over to her and asked simply. "How long have you known?"

Eliza was stunned that he picked it up so quickly. But then again, she already had had to replace all of her clothes with her mother's, who wore clothes two sizes bigger than Eliza.

"A month or so..." Was all she said.

"Eliza, you should've told me!"

"I wrote to the General a month ago-" She admitted.

"No..." Alex said, his mouth agape.

"I begged him to send you home!" Eliza felt her voice get strained.

"You should've told me." Alex repeated. "I wouldn't have been so reckless out there if I'd known!"

"That's why I'm not sorry." Eliza told him. "I knew you'd fight until the war was done-"

"-The war's not done." He interrupted.

"But you deserve a chance to meet your son." Eliza felt her emotions clogging up her throat, making it hard to speak. "Look around at how lucky you are to be alive right now!"

Alex's eyes got sad and his voice was thick as he said, "Will you relish being a poor man's wife, unable to provide for your life?"

"I relish being your wife..." she put her hand on his cheek, trying to comfort him. "Look at where you are... look at where you started. The fact that you're alive is a miracle! To stay alive, that would be enough. If this child shares a fraction of your smile or a fragment of your mind..."

She gestured to the window and said childishly, "look out world! And that would be enough!"

"I don't pretend to know.." she continued, "the challenges you're facing. The worlds you keep erasing and creating in your mind. But I'm not afraid, I know who I married. So long as you come home at the end of the day... that would be enough."

She grabbed Alex's hands and squeezed them gently. "We don't need a legacy... we don't need money. If I could grant you peace at mind, if you could let me inside your heart! Oh, let me be a part of the narrative in the story they will write someday! Let this moment be the first chapter... where you decide to stay and I could be enough!"

She looked deeply into his eyes and Alex smiled at her with such love, she felt warmth spread through her fingers as they locked with his.

"And we could be enough... that would be enough..."

The Hamiltons, standing in their kitchen holding hands and tears streaming down both of their faces, have never felt this much love pouring out of them until this very moment.

Alex took Eliza's hand and kissed it.
"I'm going to be a father."