Falling Through Time: Basking in Firelight: Book 2

Presidential Manor

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Warnings: None

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Have you ever seen a movie where the love interest runs off just like Jefferson did? Because Hamilton has. He could almost hear the audience yelling at him to go after Jefferson, grab him by the arm, spin him around, and kiss him. He could see himself doing it, he wanted to do it, there was just one problem. His legs refused to move. It was like they were glued to the floor. Hamilton's mind was blank and racing through five thousand different thoughts all at the same time. Goddamnit. This wasn't how it was going to be. Hamilton's fingers crinkled the paper of his bill that he was still holding.

He found he did have the ability to walk after all. He stomped out of his room and down to Jefferson's office, bursting through the door, he slammed the document down on his desk in front of a startled Jefferson. "You still haven't signed my bill!"

"Alexander-"

"Just fucking sign it. Get over yourself and sign the goddamned piece of paper so we can actually fund the nation!"

Jefferson sighed, picked up a pen, looping the J around and signing his name with an elegance only people from the 1700's could manage. "Happy?" Jefferson asked, setting down his pen.

"No."

"Alexander, look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't've-"

"Forget it, Thomas. You're right. We're the Presidents. We can't be involved. The rumors surrounding us are already numerous as it is."

Jefferson smirked slightly, "I thought you were always right?"

Hamilton swiped the bill from Jefferson's desk. "If I had a book right now, you wouldn't be smirking."

"Send your fucking bill to Congress."

***

Jefferson, Hamilton, the Vice Presidents, and the Cabinets all stood in front of the new Presidential Manor.

"You designed this?" Angelica asked in awe.

"Yep," Jefferson said proudly. "Welcome to your new home for as long as you remain in office."

"It's beautiful," she said.

"Well let's stop gawking and go check out our rooms," Jefferson laughed, "The inside is the best part. There're all sorts of secret passageways. Only I know all of them. You guys get to have the fun of trying to find them all."

"Secret passageways? Was that really necessary?" Burr asked.

Jefferson shrugged. "An architect always enjoys a challenge."

"Think of it this way, Burr," Madison said, "We can avoid people."

"Holy shit, secret passageways are the best idea," Burr said. Jefferson laughed. Adams didn't look the least bit amused.

They all followed Jefferson inside as he gave them a basic tour. "This is the grand dining hall, where we will dine with ambassadors and world leaders," he led them into a massive room with high ceiling and dangling chandeliers. Nothing was forgotten or left out. There was a massive painting of George Washington over a mantle.

"Why is there a massive portrait of the General?" Adams asked.

"That's the General George Washington, from the Revolutionary War of 1775."

"I never realized how similar they looked," Angelica commented. Jefferson, Burr, Madison, and Hamilton all shared a look. They had no idea.

Jefferson moved on, finishing up the first floor where all ambassador related business would be taken care of and to the second floor. "Each Cabinet member of the same position, i.e. the two treasurers, have adjoined offices so that they may discuss without having to run to the other side of the building. Cabinet members' bedrooms are also not far off, just down the hall." He showed each member their specific office and decided to let them fight over who gets which bedroom. He moved on. The Vice Presidents' offices are just across the hall from the Presidents' office. That way you can barge in and yell at us at your convenience." He showed which office belongs to whom and then moved on. "Now the presidential office is just one big office for the both of us," he told Hamilton. "I got tired of all the running back and forth we did constantly, so now we can just yell at each other from our desks." Hamilton nodded, wondering how often one of them would stomp out with a handful of documents to go find some quiet. Knowing what Hamilton was thinking, Jefferson added, "We also have a workspace in our rooms." Hamilton and Jefferson were alone, standing in their office as everyone else was examining their own rooms. "Now I will tell about one secret passageway," Jefferson told Hamilton, examining a wall. "We each have a passage from this office to our respective rooms, its extremely short since our rooms are just on either side, but from how often we stumbled down the hallway, almost passing out from exhaustion, I decided a quick route from here to a bed would be a good idea. The rest you have to discover on your own," Jefferson grinned, lording in his knowledge of all the passageways. He pushed in a section of wall and it popped out and slid to the side, revealing a bedroom. "This is your room," Jefferson said to Hamilton, gesturing him through the door.

Hamilton stepped through the wall and into his room and looked around. It was elegantly done. The walls were a creamy color that went perfectly with the emerald green bed that was draped in sheer fabric and the most comfortable heavy comforter Hamilton had ever seen. There was a desk tucked gracefully into a corner, surrounded by a couple bookshelves, already stalked and ready to read. All the wood in the room was a medium coloring, if Hamilton took a guess, it would be a type of African wood. It tied the room together beautifully. There was even a fireplace.

"Do you like it?" Jefferson asked, "I designed this room myself." All the other rooms were designed by actually interior design people, Jefferson just designed the Manor. "I designed both our rooms actually."

"It's perfect," Hamilton said, "But I wonder how many passages there are."

Jefferson grinned. "You'll just have to figure that out." He stepped back through the wall and into the office, Hamilton followed and Jefferson shut the wall. He crossed to the other side of the room and opened a wall on the other side, leading into Jefferson's room. It was very similar, except instead of green, it was magenta coupled with an extremely dark wood. Jefferson had more bookcases, only because he couldn't decide which books to keep nearby and which ones in the library. "Are you saying you hand choose every book on my bookshelves?" Hamilton asked.

"Perhaps." He opened up the closet and gestured to the clothes. "On this side of our closets are the normal clothes, ranging from casual to formal to sleepwear. On this side are the Kevlar enforced, ranging from casual to formal to sleepwear. Anything you could possibly need. I suggest Kevlar whenever we're in public, we've still got targets on our backs." Jefferson led them back out and shut the wall, gathered up the other members and continued the tour.

He thought of everything. Everything. Hamilton couldn't think of anything Jefferson forgot. He was even surprised by something's that never even crossed his mind. But his favorite room would always be the library. It was the biggest room of the Manor, stretching up through all the floors, the ceiling being made of indestructible glass, letting in the sunlight for daytime reading. The shelves stretched on and on, countless books lining their shelves. Hamilton had to recover from the experience.

This was their new home. For now anyway. After the presidency, Hamilton would have to go back to his little hotel room. Fun. How had he still not gotten a house?

After everyone got settled in, they went back to work. Always with the work. It was just poured in non-stop. Congress sent in bills, nations sent letters and ambassadors, people sent complaints and ideas, the other branches of government sent in all sorts of weird things that needed to be dealt with. There were constant reports on Judge nominations and from departments concerning national security and health and countless other things. It just never stopped coming. Jefferson and Hamilton would finally manage a clear desk when Madison and Angelica would walk in with a brand new stack, earning groans from them both. And to make it harder, Jefferson or Hamilton would refuse to sign certain documents, resulting in an argument that would heat the room with more than one kind of tension as they argued for hours without end until one of them opened a wall and stomped out with a stack of papers.

So far, no one had discovered any passageways. Except for Angelica, she walked into her bedroom and immediately spotted two. One leading to the pantry of the kitchen and the other taking her to a relaxation room. She was very proud of herself, she stole a pack of cookies and smacked them down on Jefferson's desk in accomplishment. "I found a passage," she said smugly, "Two actually."

Jefferson grinned and stole a cookie. "Only five million more to go."

"Five million?" Angelica gawked.

"No, not really."

"Holy shit, how much did this place cost? And how did we afford it?" she asked.

"Magic," Jefferson smiled.

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