Hamilton One Shots

Compassion

Requested by: atotalfandommess

Angelica couldn't remember any day before the one her nephew died. She had barely received any word of the duel, before his blood and agonizing screams began to fill her house. Her dear sister sobbed on the boy's chest most of the day. The last of those fourteen hours he took his final breaths, leaving his mother to only wail loudly over his body.

It wasn't long after the boy's death that she learned of what really happened. Angelica found out that it had been the boy's father that convinced him to go and duel. To throw away the opportunity at life. She had screamed and cried, thrashing her arms at her brother in law.

"How could you?! Only nineteen and you're telling someone of his age to duel?" Angelica remembered not being to even face him as she spat nonsense. He attempted to reach out and touch her hand, but she flinched away.

"Alexander, don't."

Trembling, she walked away from him just like that. It became infrequent he showed up to dinner or let alone to kiss his children goodnight. Angelica tended to her weakened sister and her every wish. If her husband had been there, they could have mourned together as parents. But that wasn't an option.

The first month was miserable. Angelica practically lived in her sister's house, taking care of the children, looking after her broken hearted sister, and mostly trying to get the thought of her dead nephew out of her head.

After time passed, Eliza became more concerned for her husband and his mental health. She worried the death had affected him more greatly than her. Every time she tried to speak with him, Angelica would force them in separate directions. "Are you really forgiving him that easily," she'd hiss.

Eliza silently forgave her husband after a few months. She had thought things over and realized that there had been no preventing the event, and she shouldn't blame him so harshly. Even while she missed her child dearly, she didn't want to lose her beloved husband either.

But she knew her sister hadn't forgiven him and wouldn't for a very long time.

One rare evening, where it was just Eliza and Alexander, she tried to ask him how he felt about the situation. "She can be cold about certain things. You know how she made you swear you'd be true to me and-"

Alexander looked up from his papers. Dark circles ringed his eyes and his glasses were slightly tilted on his nose. "And yet I failed even that, Eliza. It's useless to beg forgiveness from her." He turned his attention back to the piles of papers on his lap.

Only a few days later, as Angelica sat with her sister on the elegant sofa, the need to say something came to Eliza. She opened her mouth and forced the words out. "Won't you forgive him? For me?"

Not responding, the older woman pretended to be occupied. Eliza went to repeat the phrase, when her sister snapped, "I won't! How is that so impossible to comprehend? I don't understand how you are able to accept him back and just-"

"I love him!" Eliza realized how young she suddenly sounded. Just as much as her tone grew younger with each of those three words, her heart broke at the sound.

Angelica crossed her arms. "I'm aware of that, dear. But must you be so blind and use his love as a curtain to hide yourself from the fact that he sent your son to his death?!" She noticed the panicked expression on her sister's face and reached out to comfort her.

But she received nothing of the sort. Eliza rose from her spot. "You know nothing of me!" She stormed out of the living room, only to melt into sobs upstairs where she was alone. She knew her sister could hear her from downstairs, because within a minute she was at her side, shushing her.

Those struggles were the ones to open up Angelica's eyes and heart more. She wasn't going to forgive Alexander. Not forgiving him, not forgiving him, not ever forgiving him. The reason she pried herself from the sheets of her bed to head out early every morning was for her sister.

She couldn't look at her brother in law the same way, knowing he had been the one to cause so much distress among the family.

There were nights it was just the two sisters, holding onto each other, listening to the sound of a scratching quill in the other room. There were days Eliza refused to get up. And there were many days where Angelica wondered how they even ended up in such a miserable life.

"Please forgive him. I have, why can't you do the same?" Eliza stood in the doorway of the guest room, watching her sister intently. She only received a soft groan in return.

"How can I? After all he's done to you? He has an affair and leaves you broken in pieces. And now this, your own child, is dead. I don't know what to do anymore."

It was at that moment that it seemed Angelica was even more tired and broken than her sister. Eliza took a few steps forward, facing only the back of her sister's head. She turned her head to the doorway to where her husband stood. He nodded, his eyes boring into hers.

"Angelica," she whispered, sitting beside her, rubbing her hands up and down her back. Her eyes welled up as she did so. "Please. This is all I ask of you. You've been so kind to me and I only want you to do one final thing and-"

Sighing, Angelica rose to her feet. She froze in her tracks, realizing Alexander had been watching the entire time. His eyes were filled with tears, but a determined look shined through. Deep inside he prayed she'd forgive him. It had been the one thing keeping him up at night, knowing he failed Angelica.

"I forgive you. Your son is gone and there's no replacing that emptiness, but I'm here for my sister." Angelica's eyes brightened up. "And I'll do anything that will heal her broken soul, as well as yours."

So overcome with emotions, Alexander wrapped his arms around his sister in law, practically sobbing into her chest. "Bless your heart," he whispered into her ear.

Flooded with her own forgiveness, Angelica held him tightly against her. It had been so long since she had such a good feeling inside her. And she truly didn't want to let it go.

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A/N: Thank you atotalfandommess for the request! I really enjoyed writing this, so I hoped it turned out well to your liking!