Falling Through Time: Basking in Candlelight

Six

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Warnings: Cursing, slight mentions of dying

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Eliza and Angelica took Phillip upstate to visit his grandfather. Hamilton was alone. Well, that was better than being in the company of Jefferson. A week had passed since he had last seen him, things were looking up. That is until the previously mentioned southern man burst through Hamilton's office door yelling.

"Hamilton!"

"Holy shit! Jefferson? Fuck! Don't do that! What do you want?"

Jefferson grinned, "Sorry, did I disturb your nap?"

Hamilton scoffed, "My nap? You're the one that doesn't show up until two."

Jefferson waved the comment off as if Hamilton didn't know what he was talking about. "Have you heard what's happening in France?"

"France? Since when is that my area? You're the one who was getting high with them."

Jefferson continued, Hamilton's words rolling off like water on a duck. "You are friends with Lafayette, are you not?"

"Yeah-wait, how'd you know?"

"Well if you actually wrote him now and then, you'd know that he and I are best friends ever since I went to France. But that's beside the point. France is on the precipice of revolution! Lafayette is ecstatic! He dreams of turning France into a Republic just like America. He took the American dream home and shared it with the commoners of France."

Hamilton had stopped paying attention to his words halfway through, so he muttered a response when he stopped talking, "Great, good for him."

"I was actually in France when it first began. You could see it building up. The pressure, the oppression. It was getting ready to blow. Lafayette seems to think he has it under control."

At one point during his rambling, Hamilton closed his eyes, his quill stopped scratching, he sat there and just listened, captivated by Jefferson's voice. No words were actually registering, but that voice...the thick caramelized southern drawl that just floated over him, drawing him in and-

"Hamilton?"

"Hmm? What? Oh, yeah, that sounds great. Is that all?"

"Were you falling asleep, Hamilton?" he asked.

"What? No! Of course not."

"Your eyes were closed and you were slowly sinking into your desk. When was the last time you slept? Real sleep? Got into bed and slept for a couple hours?"

"Ummm, I don't know..."

"Jesus, Hamilton, you can't run a country with no sleep! Not only are you going to kill yourself, you're going to run it right into the ground!"

"Well if you hadn't fought my plan at every turn, I'd have more time for sleep! And since when do you care if I die?"

Jefferson threw his hands in the air, "Of course I care! Who wouldn't care? Everyone cares. Oh, wait- scratch that. Burr probably doesn't give a shit about anybody."

"You're probably right there."

We stood there in silence for a minute. We both started talking at once.

"Well, I should get back to work-"

"Well, you should probably write Laf-"

"Right," Jefferson said awkwardly, rubbing his neck. "I should go." He turned on his heel, the door closing softly behind him. That's new. A door always slammed when the two of them were in the same room for more than two seconds.

***

Jefferson was actually concerned about Hamilton's lack of sleep. Sure, it was hard to get sleep when there was a lot of work to be done, Jefferson knew this, but Hamilton should at least try to get enough to be able to function properly. Jefferson didn't trust him with the nation as it was let alone delirious from sleep deprivation.

Just as Jefferson was packing up his stuff around 4 AM to head home, Hamilton busted through his door. Again.

"Jefferson!"

"Holy shit! Hamilton! Do you have any idea how late it is?" Jefferson nearly jumped out of his skin. "Is this going to become a regular thing? Because if it is, I'm going to install trip wires or something."

"Of course, I know what time it is. I normally try and watch it closely so I know when to go home to Eliza but Eliza isn't home for me to go home to so now I'm-"

Jefferson clamped a hand over his mouth, "Dear God, Hamilton, it's too late for this. You're rambling."

Hamilton tore Jefferson's hand away, "I have to discuss something with you and it can't wait-" And he then face planted. Luckily, Jefferson was standing right in front of him from trying to shut him up, so Hamilton ended up face planting into Jefferson's shoulder. His arms automatically circled around Hamilton, preventing him from falling.

"Hamilton?" No response. "Hamilton, are you okay?" What the hell? He just busted down Jefferson's door and collapsed. Jefferson stood there, holding the small man in shock for a moment. "You haven't slept for a long time, have you?" he finally asked, looking down at the unconscious man. "Now what am I supposed to do with you? I can't take you to your house, there's no one there to make sure you're okay. I can't leave you here...Fuck."

There was only one option left open.

Prayers of thanks were uttered to God upon seeing Hamilton brought his carriage to work today, Jefferson wasn't looking forward to the long walk carrying him, and flopped him down in the carriage seat before taking up the reins. "Hamilton, you're in for quite the surprise tomorrow morning."

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