The Immigrant

Chapter 55| March 28 1803

I approached City Hall with a feeling of dread. I reminded myself that it was just another ordinary day, but the pressure of my peers after my trial bit down on my consciousness. I walked inside and made my way down the hall to my office, ignoring eyes that followed. Before I could get to the end of the hall, I was stopped by a voice.
"Mr.Auditore." Jefferson said gruffly as he stood outside his temporary office.
'Mr.President sir." I addressed through clenched teeth.
"Meet me inside my office at once." He said looking down at my tense frame.
"Yes sir." I murmured as I followed him inside his office.
I stood there like a statue in front of Jefferson's desk as Jefferson sat down and folded his hands on top of his desk.
"I haven't seen you around for a month or so." Jefferson noted.
"..I..uh.." I stammered being cut off by Jefferson.
"Not surprising after what happened last month." Jefferson added looking up at me.
"You're a good man to have around Mr.Auditore, but your prison sentence has had many downfalls your career." Jefferson sighed.
"Though You will not be fired, I will be putting you under strict rules for the time being." Jefferson said lowly.
"I beg pardon?" I asked panic rising in my voice.
"You won't be able to address any personal documents that are given to you, you won't be able to attend any congressional meetings for quite sometime, and you'll be restricted to only sign others work that isn't your own for future plans and references." Jefferson ordered.
"Is that understood?"
I swallowed hard. He was basically throwing my whole reputation away..everything I've worked up to. Deeply disappointed I nodded.
"Yes sir." I sighed.
"I promise that these restrictions will not be permanent, but will take some work to earn your..rights back." Jefferson said warningly.
I stared blankly at the floor before nodding slowly. None of Jefferson's reassurance felt slightly comforting. It only put a bigger hole in my reputation.
Without another word uttered from either of us I walked out of the office.
This was something that Burr was warning me about sense I stepped foot here. People with power are capable of destroying careers. I was just eager and blind to see its consequences.
I ruffled my hair back as I felt a sense of hopelessness. What was I going to do...
I walked back to Burr's residence in a sullen mood. It felt like my whole career was ruined, no sign of redemption as my honor and legacy seemed to be absent to the public eye.
Clouds formed up above as the air cools down. I walked slowly down the streets, a sense of emptiness shrouded me.
Suddenly a voice called from behind me as I turned. Alexander Hamilton approached me with a soft smile.
"Good evening Ezio." Hamilton greeted pushing his glasses up as he looked at me.
"Good evening." I responded not making eye contact as I felt a sense of guilt crawl through my stomach.
"I've been wanting to talk to you, it's been a while sense I've seen you." Hamilton said softly.
I gave a long,depleted sigh as I bit my lip but said nothing.
The sky grew darker as we made our way uptown and towards the city park.
A place that I once always visited now seemed foreign and new. The sound of our footsteps on the pathway brought slight comfort as I looked up at the sky.
"Listen Ezio, I know you're in a tight situation right now and I wanted to say I'm sorry." Hamilton apologized.
I closed my eyes as I shook my head.
"Why did I shoot him...it caused more harm than it did good." I said bitterly looking down at my shoes.
"I..I thought it would fix things." I breathed my voice hitching, emotions pouring out of my speech.
Hamilton looked up at me with a sadden look.
"We all miss him...we all wish we could fix the damage and bring justice to the accused." Hamilton spoke his speech slow and thoughtful.
"God, I didn't know what I was thinking, I should have known shooting Eacker wasn't going to satisfy my aggression and pain." I hissed bitting my lip as I felt tears well up in my eyes.
Hamilton stopped as he looked at my pained state.
"I...I'm sorry if I brought your family more pain and fear, I just thought..." I trailed off as my breath hitched.
"Ezio...what you did showed all of us how much you cared about Philip, no one who didn't think it right to shoot Eacker for what he did to my son didn't know Philip as much as you did." Hamilton said softly placing a hand on my shoulder.
I took a shaky breath as I nodded.
"Thank you Mr.Hamilton." I said softly giving Hamilton a sad smile.
"Of course." Hamilton said with a serious but comforting tone.
As we got back to the streets, we said our goodbyes and parted ways back to our own residences as cold rain started to drip from the sky.

The rest of the year went by slowly. I spent miserable hours down at City Hall trying to redeem myself of my capabilities. Writing and writing, it seemed like a political suicide for people who underestimated my work that I've done in the course of a year. Though I wrote my way out, still I knew Jefferson and his party would never see past their noses and shrug off my hard work.
Burr became a awful person to be around. He always seemed to be in a tempered mood and it seemed that his political career was falling quickly. Loosing the election of New York's senator, another loss and blow to Burr's career.
It seemed to be the snapping point of Burr. Constantly I would find him in a bitter mood, pacing around the study as he cursed Alexander Hamilton's name to hell. I thought with a worrying presence that these to political rivals were going to come face to face one day and one will be limping home without their honor intact. The year of 1803 was a miserable and tense year in a long time. It seemed that I was standing at the bottom of a bottomless pit.