When Alexander woke up, the first thing that he registered was the couch he was lying on and the dull ache in his head. What had happened?
He had been up all night but passed out, his alarm hadn't woken him up, so he'd been running to his next class… then everything went black. Whenever he tried to think, his head felt like a rock was banging around inside of it.
Slowly, Alexander opened his eyes to see… his dorm room. Nothing looked out of order, but his anxiety was on high alert. Maybe it was that everything looked a little too neat.
All of sudden, his stomach gurgled. Right. Food should be a top priority. Alexander swung his legs over the side of the couch and stood up.
"Ow!" He fell to the floor with a loud thump. His ankle hurt so bad.
Quick as a whip, Lafayette and Eliza ran over to Alexander.
"Are you okay!?" They screeched in unison, worry apparent in their eyes. Alexander grimaced, but he didn't question why Eliza was there. He knew that nothing would keep her away from someone she cared about.
"Just my ankle." He whimpered. She sighed in relief.
Lafayette laughed nervously. "Oh yeah. I think you sprained it when you fell. Speaking of which," The french man's gaze hardened. "What happened?"
Alexander weighed his options. He could tell them the truth, but then they would both be worried about someone attacking him. It would be better to keep them from panic. "I think I just passed out for exhaustion. I didn't get any sleep the night before."
Judging from the look on both Eliza's and Lafayette's faces, they didn't buy his excuse at all. Eliza opened her mouth, presumably to pry, but a knock on the door cut her off.
"Oh." Lafayette said, slowly and deliberately. "That must be our guests." Eliza nodded, but Alexander furrowed his eyebrows. What guests? Neither of them really had any friends. Maybe Eliza had invited some people over? He didn't be surprised if she knew a lot of people, she was so good at socializing compared to him.
As Lafayette walked to the door, Eliza helped Alexander back into the couch. She handled him so carefully, like she had been in a situation not unlike this one.
The door creaked open, and in came barreling a line of people. They all looked incredibly different, and so on the surface it seemed that they had nothing in common. He recognized Herry, as he had been hanging out with Lafayette a lot, but that was it. Everyone filed in awkwardly, glancing at Alexander every so often, but looking away after a moment. His face probably looked pretty beat up.
For what felt like forever (But was probably just a minute or two), everyone sat in silence. Eliza was squeezing Alexander's hand over and over again, like she was nervous. A wave of protectiveness came over him. He didn't like seeing her forced into situations that she'd feel nervous. Heck, he didn't like not knowing what this situation even was!
One of the girls, who had long curly, dark hair and dark skin, finally spoke up. "I guess I'll take charge, then. We all know why we're here, don't we?"
Alexander almost butt in, but Eliza beat him to it. "Alex doesn't know. He doesn't…" She seemed to be searching for the right words. "He's not like us." What? None of that sentence made any sense. What were Eliza and Lafayette hiding from him?
"So, who wants to start?" The room sat in awkward silence. No one wanted to 'start', whatever that meant, and Alexander didn't want to try and bring the attention to himself. He wanted to see how this would pan out.
One of the other girls spoke up this time. "Well, I can. My name is Margaret Scott, but my friends call me peggy. I…" She looked like she wanted to play with her dark brown hair, but it was tied tightly in a ponytail. The first woman offered Peggy a small, encouraging smile. "I used to be Margarita Schuyler V-Van Renessaeler."
Alexander almost yelled… something, but his voice wasn't working. Besides, another girl started talking. "I'm Martha Carter, and I used to be Martha Jefferson. As in Thomas Jefferson's wife, not his daughter."
Martha poked the girl next to her, who was twisting her own braid anxiously. "Oh! I'm currently Audrey Nielson, but I was Adrienne de Lafayette."
All of a sudden Lafayette jumped up. "I was the Marquis de Lafayette!" Then, as if more information was needed: "Your husband!"
Everyone was silent for just long enough for Alexander to realize what had just been said. His heart almost stopped and he found himself breathing erratically. Lafayette is-s… His brain couldn't seem to wrap itself around the idea. It was just too improbable! Clouds threatened to come over his sunsets, but the last glimmer of intelligence broke through it. The rest of the people in the room were reincarnations, too. They had to be! Alexander needed to know who before the darkness returned. He willed the darkness to retreat.
Subconsciously, Alexander clutched Eliza's hand in his own. She squeezed his hand, almost like she understood the panic racing through his mind. Maybe she did.
"I'm Harry Mason, the reincarnation of Hercules Mulligan." Well, there was no surprise there in terms of who Harry was. Seriously, who had named all of these people?
"Angelica Skylar," Alexander's heart stopped. She's here…? "Reincarnation of Angelica Church, as in the sister of Eliza Hamilton and this girl." Angelica put her arm around Peggy's shoulder, both girls grinning.
Eliza almost pulled her hand out of his, but she thankfully did not. Alexander might've cried if she did. "I'm Elizabeth Small, your sister! Eliza Hamilton!"
Immediately, the three girls jumped up out of their seats and somehow tackled each other to the ground. Under normal circumstances, the scene would be heartwarming. But Alexander found himself unable to register it.
The clouds covering his vision turned to darkness.
The pain in Alexander's head increased, and fainted into the couch cushions.
------
Aaron laughed as James ran around their dorm room. Thomas exchanged a look with Aaron, amusement apparent in both of their faces. It was rare to see James be actually worried about something, considering the man tended to act calm and collected constantly.
The last time Aaron had seen this sort of thing from James was back in their first lives. Specifically, when he had the pleasure of introducing James to Dolley. The man had what was now referred to as a crush on her. It was insanely adorable and insanely hilarious.
Funny how the universe just couldn't seem to separate the Madisons.
Just an hour earlier, James had finally invited his girlfriend to their dorm. It took Thomas and Aaron exactly 2 minutes to figure out that it was the reincarnation of Dolley Madison.
All three men were reincarnates, and all three knew who the others were. It was no surprise that knowledge of that would bring them closer.
When they had first figured out their reincarnation situation, things had been...hard. The combined weight of the guilt that they harbored was enough to sink the titanic. Yet, they had been able to work on moving past that. Not completely, of course. James still seemed to shrink whenever Hamilton was brought up. Thomas outright refused to talk about anything he did in his past life, specifically when it came to slavery or Sally Hemings. Aaron was actually the most adjusted to everything out of the three. He missed Theodosia, just as Thomas missed Martha, but the one thing that stayed in his mind was the duel.
Nope, nope, nope. Today was not the day to dwell on that. Not when Dolley Payne Madison was about to waltz right back into their lives.
All of a sudden, Thomas put an arm around Aaron's shoulder. "We're definitely teasing him about this afterwards, right?" It was whispered, just so that James didn't hear. He was pacing across the room now.
Aaron let out a quiet giggle. "Absolutely."
"Do you think she'll-"
The doorbell rang, stopping their quiet conversation in their tracks. James, too, paused in his pacing, With a quick anxious look at the other two men, he turned and pulled open the door.
Dolley already seemed to be exactly the same. From her appearance to the way she held herself. Her black hair was pulled up into the same bun it always was, her skin was pale, and she held herself the same: Confident, warm, and open. Even her eyes had the same spirit, although they were older.
Against Aaron's will, a smile came to his face. Dolley clearly remembered her past! Back in their first life, they had been good friends. Maybe they could continue that friendship.
As he saw Thomas find his own excitement, Aaron felt some sort of hope. Maybe this miraculous meeting of reincarnates could mean something. Like the universe was pushing them together. Whatever was happening, Aaron was unnaturally excited.
Im so sorry for taking so long to update, and i'm sorry for updating it with this terrible chapter.