Falling Through Time: Basking in Firelight: Book 2

The Dust of New Foundations

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Warnings: None

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Jefferson couldn't sleep. He tried with every bit of willpower he had but he just couldn't do it. He sat up and rubbed his face and looked around at the darkness of his tent. He could see everything in there thanks to his unnaturally good night vision. It was like the universe knew he was to spend all his nights wandering around.

He got up and stepped outside. The moon was bright and the stars were beautiful. Jefferson sighed. His soul felt so heavy. The images of him dying flashed through his mind again.

He'd been doing so much better too. He hadn't slipped time periods ever since he left Monticello and was starting to feel good about himself, but he could feel it lingering right on the edge, ready to pounce as soon as he let his guard down. He had to constantly run through the timeline of his life to keep it straight. Relive every moment that tore him apart inside constantly. His parents' deaths, all his children's deaths, his wife's death, the war, his death. Then all over again, his parents' deaths, his wife's death, his only child's death, the war, prison, all the blood on his hands. If history was repeating itself, did that mean he was going to die again? Was he going to throw away his life for Hamilton's again? Could he do that knowing exactly what it felt like?

Yes. Yes, he could. He'd do every day if he had to. Hamilton was his life.

But did Hamilton need Jefferson just as much? He had Laurens again.

Jefferson shook his head, don't think of these things, he already had enough on his mind. He walked down the path that led through camp. He could hear people breathing all around him sleeping peacefully. And coughing.

Coughing? That could only be one person, but what was he doing up in the middle of the night? Jefferson followed the sound of what anyone else would think was someone dying. Finally, he rounded a corner and came across who'd he'd been looking for. He was hunched over a table, scribbling something down by the light of a lantern.

"James, what're you doing up this late?" Jefferson asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied.

"Couldn't sleep?" Jefferson guessed.

"That's usually how it goes."

Jefferson walked over to him to see what he was working on. "What's this?" Jefferson asked.

Madison picked it up and handed it to him to read. "It's a rough outline of a possible government for after the wars over. We're going to need some sort of ruling body or this'll turn into the French Revolution in the blink of an eye."

"Don't let Lafayette hear you say that," Jefferson said offhandedly, scanning the pages Madison handed him.

"Why not?"

"Just don't, trust me." Jefferson handed Madison back the pages. "There are some good ideas for sure, but there's a lot of holes and easily corruptible positions where it could easily fall into tyranny and come around full circle again."

Madison looked at his work, "You got all that from a glance?"

Jefferson shrugged, "I read a lot on the subject and spend lots of free time designing my own various versions."

"Where have you been all my life to discuss these things with?" Madison asked.

Jefferson smiled, thinking back to his last life when Madison and he had been inseparable friends. "Around," Jefferson replied.

"What would you suggest then?" Madison asked, turning back to his papers.

Jefferson sat down beside him and grabbed his own pen and began marking on Madison's work, "Here, you have the original one president and vice president, but if we raise this into two presidents, much like the Roman Republic that had two consuls and add two more branches to the original three and overlap them like so with checks and balances against the other, giving power to the people, it's much less likely to be corrupted within the century," Jefferson said, writing the details on the paper with arrows, circles, and diagrams further explaining what he was saying.

"You want to split everything into two halves?" Madison asked, studying the drawing. "Sure, harder to corrupt, but the response times to disasters and emergencies would slow tremendously."

Jefferson smiled. James always did think along the same lines as Jefferson. Unlike Hamilton, who disagreed with his every other word. This new outline wasn't the same as the original Constitution, Jefferson changed it to fit the times. People today couldn't get by with such an outdated form of government, he knew that. Jefferson shrugged, "If Congress didn't waste so much time bickering about the small things, that wouldn't be a problem."

"And if the two presidents can't agree on anything? Nothing would get done."

"It's a rough draft. Besides, if you got polar opposites into office, a perfect balance would be the outcome. It's just an outline. I think I'm going to wander back to bed," Jefferson told Madison, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Madison mumbled, still lost in Jefferson's diagrams. Jefferson chuckled as he walked away.

***

Over the next few days, all the army did was prepare for the upcoming battle. The Governmental armies were vulnerable, a chance that didn't arise often for the rebels, they had to exploit it while they still could. They were going to trap them while they were going through a canyon. The rebels would have the high ground and just rain bullets down upon them. With nowhere to flee, the Governmental would have no choice but to surrender.

But until the day came for battle, Jefferson wandered around camp, looking for anything he could do. He and Hamilton have been working hard with their troops, drilling them and making sure they could follow commands. During their absence, they really all shaped up so now they were all exceptional soldiers. If this went well, most of them would get to go home and live again in a free country.

Real freedom. Not this fake knockoff where everything had a price tag.

Jefferson looked forward to the day when he could kick back on his front porch and not have to worry about a thing. The country would be running smoothly again, the people would be most happy, Hamilton would be with him and they could live the life they never got the chance to have.

That was all Jefferson wanted.

Of course, that wasn't going to happen for a long long while. Not until after he helped the new government get formed and the economy reestablished. There was so much work to do. But right now, they had. War to win.

Washington finally called all the Generals into his tent to give a detailed outline of the upcoming battle and the part each one of them had to play.

The war was almost over.

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