Hamilton
Gone.
The kids that Alexander told a bedtime story to less than twenty-four hours earlier were gone. Their parents were all waiting on the other side of the door, frantically trying to figure out what to do. Everyone wanted to call the cops, as far as Alex heard through the door, but Andre was adamant about not getting the authorities involved.
From his space in the bathroom, Ham could make out bits and pieces of the argument. He could put together which people wanted him out of the bathroom and into the conversation since he probably knew where the children were, but Peggy, Thomas, and Andre all agreed that he needed to think it out on his own for a second, which he was more than grateful.
After a few minutes of arguing, it died down and someone knocked on the door.
"Alex, can I come in?" Thomas asked quietly.
To his own surprise, Hamilton immediately said, "No."
"We need to talk to you."
"No."
"What about Peggy? I can send her in--"
"Andre." Again, Alexander was surprised by his own words. "I'm only going to talk to Andre."
"What?! Why--" Thomas stopped suddenly, groaned, and walked away. A few seconds later came another knock at the door.
Alex went and unlocked the door, cracking it open slightly. The stressed group of parents in the living looked hopefully at Andre and Hamilton, so he opened the door fully, closing and locking it when John was inside.
"Why are you only going to talk to me?" John asked nervously. "Thomas already wants to kill me."
"You know where they went," Ham said. "We both do, this isn't random and you and I both know it."
"We can't know for sure--"
"So it's not a coincidence that the kids closest to us go missing after both of us get away from there? And if you didn't think that's where they went then why won't you call the cops?"
Andre was quiet for a second. He sighed and nodded knowingly.
"Alright, fine. So I do think that King had something to do with this, and calling the cops is only going freak him out which means he'd kill the kids and run." He stopped for a second like he didn't know if he should say anything else. "This really is a conversation that you need to have with all of them as well."
Hamilton didn't exactly want to face the parents of the children that he indirectly probably got kidnapped, but Andre had a point. Everyone would definitely want to know where their kids were, especially Burr.
He made his way over to the door and hesitated before opening it, letting John leave first then following him out. When he got into the main room, everyone stood up. Alex was almost disappointed to see Charles Lee standing next to Burr since the plan was to explain the basis of why he thought King would take them and why it was important to leave the officials as far away as possible.
"Andre's right," Alex started. "You can't call the cops."
"Why not?" Thomas asked, probably not trusting anyone else to say anything.
"The cops are the only people that can find them, Alex," Peggy agreed.
"If what I think is right, which I'm fairly certain it is, calling the cops. . . will only make things worse."
"Worse how?" Hercules asked, sounding more desperate than Hamilton even thought possible.
Andre stepped in. "We think we know who has them, but calling the cops would only piss him off even more than he already is."
The room's collective mood seemed to drop. Eliza turned around and ran a hand over her face, Lafayette almost collapsed and Hercules stood next to him for support, Burr and Lee looked ready to kill Alexander.
"Nobody asked you," Thomas spat, turning to Hamilton.
"He's still right."
"Oh great, you've gone completely insane." Thomas sat back down and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"How do you know so much about this?" Lee asked in an accusing tone. "How do we know you didn't have something to do with this?"
"Hey, come on--" Peggy started.
"No, does anyone know what happened in the six years he was gone? Doesn't it seem suspicious that two people involved with that came back within the same few months?" Charles glared at Alex, who returned the favor. "How do we know you didn't get out on some deal?"
"If it'll make you feel better, I can go through everything that happened while I was there," Hamilton growled.
Everyone stared at him expectantly and the realization that everyone had doubts about him hit him like a brick. Even Eliza seemed to have a small thought that he had something to do with it, the only people that seemed hesitant to let Alex go through with telling the whole story were Peggy and Thomas.
It was worth it to prove that he was innocent, though. He went through everything from the beginning without skipping over anything. If looks could kill, by the time he got to Samuel's situation, Hamilton would have been dead a million times over with the glares he was getting from Lee.
The scar on his side was the selling point. He proved that it wasn't makeup by scrubbing it with water so everyone seemed to believe he was innocent enough and he vouched for Andre being alright, which Thomas scoffed at.
"Fine," Lee muttered after Alexander was done. "So you're innocent. What do you suppose we do if we can't call the cops?"
Before anyone could answer, the landline started ringing. Hamilton couldn't think of any time he'd seen Eliza move so fast to answer a phone. She muttered a few things before handing the phone to Alex.
"Tell her we left," the Schuyler whispered.
Confused, Alexander nodded and took the phone. "Hello?"
"Are you alone?"
"Yes, who is this?"
It was quiet for a second.
Then it was quiet for a minute.
Then there was a dial tone.
Ham looked at the phone and back to the group. Everyone was staring at him like they'd seen a ghost and he didn't think his look was any different. The entire group jumped when Andre's phone rang. he handled it like a hot potato, tossing it Alex and wiping his hands on his pants.
"No, you weren't. Now leave the room."
Alex didn't want to know how she knew that he wasn't alone, but he did what he told. Before leaving, he saw Thomas get up to follow him but someone stopped him. He went outside and she immediately started talking again, which meant she didn't hear the back door open and slam shut.
"We'll let one go every time you do what we say. Deal?"
Without hesitation, Alexander agreed.
"Good. We let one of the boys walk through the woods. If he's any good at listening, he should be arriving--"
Alex stopped listening when he heard Lafayette shouting in French, which told him that the woman held up to her end of the deal.
"Now," she hummed. "King wants you back. Andre too, but he wants that a surprise. Get him to get you here tonight, he knows where to go, and we'll let the girl go."
Again, he agreed with no hesitation.
"Great. You get her back when you get here. Come with no one else other than Andre." She was quiet again. "Alexander?"
"I'm still here, what?"
"Good luck."
With that, she hung up.
Alex went back inside where Lafayette and Hercules were viciously checking over their dazed son, both crying tears of probably relief and fear. Thomas asked what the phone call was about and Alexander waved it off, promising to tell him later, which he had no intentions of doing. It took at least an hour to get everyone to go home and various promises that he had a plan and was going to get their kids back. Lee and Burr didn't leave without at least three death threats each.
Before Charles had a chance to walk out of the house, Hamilton pulled him to the side.
"Hey," Alexander muttered, grabbing the other's arm to stop him. "I just wanted to say that Sam didn't die in vain. I'll make him proud, and I'm going to save the kids."
Charles's glare hardened as he snatched his arm away. "Like hell, you will. He didn't die for you, asshole, he died because of you, there's a difference."
Then he stormed out, catching up with Burr and leaving Alex to wallow in the accusation. Thomas came up to him and decided that it was time to go home for the night.
"Yeah," Ham muttered. "Yeah, I just need to talk to Andre first."
Thomas nodded after a second. "I'll wait in the car."
Alex went and explained what he needed from John. He told him to pick him up at a time that he knew Thomas would be sleeping.
"Are you sure, Alexander?" he asked. "This is. . . Really big. You, uhm, might not make it out this time."
"Pip and Theo are good kids and they don't deserve whatever King's doing. I deserve it more than they do, so yeah. I'm sure."
"What are you going to tell Thomas if he wakes up?"
Alexander shrugged. He felt sort of bad for lying about all this to Thomas when all he'd done is try his best, but he needed to get the kids back. There was no getting out of that.
Andre agreed solemnly and shooed Alexander away so Thomas didn't get suspicious. And so began the long night of Jefferson trying to figure out what was happening. Alexander told him the basics, that he needed to do what they wanted to get the kids back. Just three things, that's it. Neither of them thought it sounded that bad.
In the middle of the night, Hamilton didn't even try to sleep. He looked down at Thomas, who had his arm loosely resting on Alexander's waist, snoring away in a peaceful sleep.
Alex didn't want to leave that. He wanted to lay back down and hide until everything just disappeared but that wasn't going to get the kids back and that wasn't going to make anything go away. He needed to solve it himself, so he needed to do what they wanted. He didn't even need to survive, he just needed them to be out.
That's it.
He saw headlights pull up and blink twice, letting him know that it was time to potentially go off and die. Carefully, Alexander lifted Thomas's arm and got out of the bed, replacing his body shape with a pillow. Thomas sleepily muttered something and, despite not even understanding what he said, Alex smiled sadly.
He avoided the floorboards that were known squeakers as he walked outside. He got into the car without a word and the rest of the ride went like that.
The drive there was shorter than Alexander remembered. Then again, he was running away from it so time might have had a slight distortion. When they arrived, John hid the car and they got out, leaving the doors open so as to avoid making more noise than they really had to.
Hamilton walked the halls slowly. He barely recognized it but his mind was telling him to just run. To leave and to never come back, but his heart knew that Philip and Theodosia were there. Alex thought of the kids dealing with what he had to, he imagined that instead of King stabbing him, it was Pip that felt the blade and Theo who had to help him. He shivered and kept going.
"Hey, Andre," Ham whispered, keeping his eyes focused ahead.
"What?"
"You know King more than I do. . . Would he, you know, s-stab Pip?"
"Well he's never stabbed anyone before, so I'd say no."
"What do you mean? He stabbed me while I was here." His hand drifted to the scar, pulling his finger along the line from pure memory.
"No, he didn't."
The footsteps echoing behind Ham stopped, making him slowly turn around. John continued. "See, there's this funny thing about memories. They are so easily manipulated."
Alex took an uneasy step back as Andre came forward.
"There are so many things that I only wish you remembered about me." John shrugged and yanked Alexander forward by his shirt collar. "Let's make some new ones, hm?"