hey guys! it's me! back at it again with the multi-chapter fan fics after like two years! now I'm publishing two things in one week! life is weird! I'm going to college in a week! I'm terrified! Let me know what you think of the story so far, I'm actually comsidering suggestions on this one although I can't promise I'll take anything of course. :) obviously this is sort of an AU/alternate ending kind of thing

the letter arrives

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1782

Franklin's Gazette Print Shop

James picked up his pencil.

Then he put it down.

Then he picked it up again. And put it down again.

He tilted his chair back to peer into the next room and called, "Sarah?"

No answer.

"Sarah!"

Henri stuck his head through the doorway. "Sarah's out with Moses. She said they were going to the shops today. Didn't you remember?"

He hadn't, and frowned. "Oh. Alright."

"Why're you calling for her?" Henri asked, striding into the room and glancing at the blank paper before his friend.

James nodded towards the empty paper on his disorganized writing desk, which was covered in scraps, ink stains, and other clutter. Sarah was always telling him he'd lose something in the mess, and he hated that she had been right. "Er, I can't find my notes on the interview we did with those merchants and I wanted at least one direct quote. When do you think they'll be back?"

Henri shrugged. "I don't know. Hopefully not before they get something from the baker." He turned to leave but suddenly seemed to remember something else. "Oh! But Sarah had a letter today. While you were out. It came by special messenger addressed just for her—the man who had it barely left it here without seeing her."

"It might be from her mother," James offered without paying too much attention, having gone back to searching for his missing note.

It was silent for a while as he shuffled papers on his desk, and he had assumed the younger boy had left—so he jumped when Henri suddenly asked, "James, is Sarah ever going to go home?"

"Why, do you want her to?" James said, raising his eyebrows at the boy. "You've never asked that before."

Henri shook his head. "I don't, really. But I'd like to know. I mean, now that the war is over, it's a lot easier to go between England and North America. And that's where her real family lives."

James shrugged. "Ask her when you get back. I've got some work to do still."

Henri did, and he seemed still in high spirits, but James turned half-formed ideas around in his mind, ones that he didn't really understand.

Real family, he thought.

When Sarah saw the letter her face lit up and she eagerly unfolded the envelope. "It's from my father. He hasn't written in ages..."

Usually everyone went about their business as Sarah took her letters up to her room, and only heard about them after the fact if there was a detail Sarah mentioned later. But something caught her eye in this letter, and she stood in the middle of the print shop, quickly scanning the words. When she spoke, her voice was faint and her eyes were wide. "He's coming back."

What?

"He—he's coming home. He is taking a new command post and wants us to stay in Philadelphia. But my mother will come over then too. And—" a smile was spreading like sunshine across her face, and her voice got progressively more excited. "We're going to have a household over here."

"That's wonderful, Sarah," Moses said, patting her on the shoulder. "We all know how much you've wanted that."

"When does he say he'll be back?" James asked, smiling himself. Sarah's joy was practically contagious.

"He says a few months, maybe six," Sarah replied, looking back down at the letter like she didn't believe the words. "And my mother won't come until after that. So I might not see her for another—Henri, are you alright?"

Henri nodded, but looked away, arms crossed and an unhappy expression on his face. "Will you not live here with us anymore?"

Sarah blinked, as though she hadn't thought that out yet. "Well, no, I suppose not, Henri. Not once my father comes, at least. My mother is securing us a house here and I'm expected to do everything else."

James hadn't thought very far ahead when he heard Sarah's news—he'd simply been happy for his friend when he saw how excited she had been. He knew Sarah missed her parents. He was glad for her that she wouldn't miss them anymore.

And yet...

A strange, negative feeling—disappointment, almost—settled over him. Sarah had lived with them for years. No one who had come into his life at the printshop had ever left it like that. Besides that, Sarah was his best friend other than Henri. They'd already been through so much together—himself and Sarah but also himself and Sarah and Henri and Moses as a group—that he was sad to see that end. It would end, of course, when Sarah went to live with her parents. It wasn't as though she would forget about them, but it wouldn't be the same again.

For someone who'd cheered a revolution, James thought to himself, he really hated change.

Ah, he was being stupid. Sarah was his best friend, his closest friend! Obviously, he was happy that she was happy. If his parents were still alive he would want to go back and be a family with them again, especially if he was away as long as Sarah had been from hers.

Still, he had to consciously remind himself to keep smiling.