A/N: Hi there! So this is my first fanfic for The Patriot, hopefully it won't be too terrible. I've made some small changes and won't really be following the movie (which seems really hard to do with this kind of story I think), but nothing too drastic that it makes a big difference in what happens. I would love to know what you all think of this since it is my first one on this particular movie. Enjoy!


"Sarah, will you go get your father and brothers? Lunch is ready." Abigaile asked me when she saw me coming downstairs.

"Of course." I said, smiling. The first place I went was the barn because I knew my father would be there working on a rocking chair. Again. He tried so hard to build one that would hold some weight, but couldn't get it right. I found my brothers Samuel and Nathan right outside the barn door, watching as my father sat in the chair and, as we all knew it would, broke.

"Okay you two, let's go, Abigaile has lunch ready." I said as they sniggered into their hands, but instead of going to the house, they followed me into the barn.

"Father, lunch is ready." I said, and saw little Susan sitting on the side, watching as my father worked I assumed.

"And there's a post rider coming." Nathan said.

"Okay, I'll be there in a moment." Father said as he began picking up pieces of the chair. Susan came over to me and I carried her back to the house, Samuel and Nathan ahead of us. Once we got to the house, my other brothers Thomas and Gabriel came running up to the house with two large birds they'd gotten while hunting and I saw the post rider Samuel and Nathan were talking about coming up the lane.

"Is that all you could get today?" I said to Gabriel and Thomas, teasing them.

"Yes, dear sister. Only the best for this family." Gabriel teased back. When we were little, I would go play in the woods with Thomas and Gabriel, even though I was eight years older than Gabriel, and occasionally we would take a slingshot with us to see who could get a squirrel or small bird. They usually got mad at me because I had such good aim with a slingshot and they didn't. But after mother had my other sister Margaret she wouldn't let me go into the woods with Thomas and Gabriel anymore. Unfortunately my mother died when she gave birth to Susan, the youngest of the eight of us, and I had to help out a lot more after that, hardly ever seeing my brothers at all because I had to help feed Susan and teach Nathan, Samuel, William, and Margaret what I could since there wasn't a school close by.

After lunch, I helped father, Thomas, and Gabriel out in the fields picking what we could to start storing for winter. As we were working, we heard another horse coming up to the house. I looked at my brother's with a little bit of confusion. We walked out to the small road that ran through our crops and saw our father already there, talking to someone in an army uniform and we knew then that the inevitable war had started.

"Ah, children, you remember Harry Burwell?" my father said, seeing us standing a few feet from them. I remembered him clearly. He had fought with my father in the French and Indian War and visited us frequently until I was about thirteen years old, but I wasn't sure if Thomas and Gabriel would or not.

"Yes of course. Mr. Burwell." I said, giving a slight curtsey.

"I'm afraid it's Colonel now, dear." Father said and I looked at him slightly surprised. My suspicions were true, the war had started.

"Benjamin, I've come to ask you to serve in the army again. But against the British this time." Colonel Burwell said.

"Sarah, Gabriel, Thomas, could you take what we've picked so far to the house and give it to Abigaile? I have some business matters to discuss." Father said, and me and my brothers nodded and picked up what we had and took it back to the house.

"Do you think the war's started?" Thomas asked as we walked slowly back to the house.

"Of course it has. You heard father. His old friend there is Colonel Harry Burwell now." I said.

"Do you think Father would let me fight?" Gabriel asked, and I stopped, slightly gaping at him.

"Gabriel, you know he wouldn't. Not after what he went through." I said, walking again.

"Well that was him. I want to fight for this country. I have to." Gabriel said.

"No you don't. Your family needs you. Both of you." I said before Thomas could say anything about wanting to fight.

"I knew you wouldn't understand." Gabriel said and didn't say anything else the whole way back to the house.

That night there was some tension around the table at dinner since the war started and I suspected both Gabriel and Thomas said something to my father about fighting in the war earlier that day, plus Father had insisted that Colonel Burwell stay for dinner, but everyone was trying to keep the war out of any conversation.

"So, Colonel, how is your wife doing? I very much miss seeing her." I said to Colonel Burwell to try and ease some of the tension around the table, remembering the childhood visits from them both of them and she would always bring me a small toy or something else that could keep my interest for hours at a time (usually a book when I got too old for toys). What I didn't expect was to see a flash of pain in the Colonel's eyes when I asked.

"She died last year while giving birth I'm afraid." He said, pain clear in his voice and expression.

"What of the child?" my father asked warily.

"He passed too. Born too early. He wasn't strong enough to live more than a couple of weeks." The Colonel said and I suddenly felt very sorry for asking the question at all.

"Oh, Colonel Burwell, I am so sorry I asked. If I had known-" I said, but he raised his hand as a way to silence me.

"No, it's okay. You don't need to apologize, Sarah. It was a sincere question. Don't worry about it." Colonel Burwell said with a small smile.

"All right. I hate to pry so, but what was his name?" I asked carefully.

"Michael." He said.

"That's a lovely name." I said with a small smile of my own and I could fell every person in my family staring at me so I decided to shut my mouth.

"Harry, when will you begin recruiting?" my father asked, again returning to the subject of the war that I had tried so hard to avoid.

"Immediately. I'll go as many places as I need to to get as many men as possible." Colonel Burwell said.

"So the war really has started." I said quietly, looking down at my plate.

"Well, not officially. Not in South Carolina anyway. The Assembly still needs to pass the levee." Colonel Burwell said.

"When will this be?" My father asked since he was an important person in the Assembly.

"I'm not sure. Hopefully soon though." Colonel Burwell said.

After dinner I helped Abigail put Susan, William, Samuel, Nathan, and Margaret to bed, then joined Father, Colonel Burwell, Thomas, and Gabriel in the parlor where they were casually talking about the upcoming war.

"Father, what did the post rider bring today?" I asked, intentionally cutting off Gabriel while he asked Colonel Burwell about joining the army, earning a small glare from him.

"Oh, yes, I'd nearly forgotten." He said, picking up the small stack on the table. "Charlotte's written you." He said to me as he handed me a letter.

"Oh good." I said, taking the letter and opening it. I read through it quickly, smiling slightly as everyone else read through what was theirs.

After some small talk, Colonel Burwell stood and said, "Well, I should be going. It's getting late."

"Stay the night, I insist." My father said, also standing.

"I wouldn't want to trouble you." Colonel Burwell said.

"It's no trouble at all, I assure you. We've got an extra room or two. Sarah, could you go get a room ready?" my father said.

"Of course." I said, going upstairs to get a spare room ready for the Colonel to stay the night.

"All right, there's a room ready. I'll show you to it, Colonel." I said when I got back downstairs.

"Thank you, Sarah." My father said as I led Colonel Burwell up the stairs.

"Here we are. I really am sorry about asking about your wife, if I had known I wouldn't have asked." I said at the door near the end of the hall.

"Really, it's all right. I don't mind." He said.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then." I said.

"Thank you, Sarah. And don't worry about your brothers, if they do fight in the war I'll make sure they're in my regiment." He said, giving my arm a comforting squeeze, then went in the room and closed the door before I could say anything. I made my way slowly back to my room at the end of the hall, but once in bed I couldn't sleep for a few hours more, the last thing Colonel Burwell said staying on my mind.

The next morning I got up early to help Abigaile with breakfast like I always did and while we were in the kitchen, Colonel Burwell walked by the door. Noticing us, he stopped and said, "Good morning, ladies. Sarah, could you tell your father that I've left to go to Charles Town?"

"Yes, but please at least stay for breakfast." I said, but down the bowl in my hand.

"I don't want to trouble you any more than I already have. I hope to see you with your father in Charles Town." He said, then turned and left.

"If you want my opinion, he talks much too familiar with you." Abigaile said once the beating of hooves on the ground could no longer be heard.

"Oh he doesn't mean anything by it. I've known him my whole life practically." I said, resuming cooking.

"That may be so, but how old was he when you were born?" she asked.

"I'm not really sure to be honest. Though I know he's younger than father is." I said.

"He was fifteen when you were born. He's just five years younger than I am. He's aged very quickly since his wife died I think." My father said from the doorway.

"Yes I'm sure he has. I didn't realize he was that young." I said, making my father chuckle a little bit.

"Yes, I suspect so. You know Sarah, you're twenty-six now, you should be married and have at least one child by now, not still be here having to help out with everything." My father said, sitting in a chair at the small kitchen table.

"I don't mind it too much. Besides, no boys my age interest me." I said, taking some of the food into the dining room.

"Yes I know. I wouldn't want you marrying any of them anyway. But there is one person I would be more than willing to marry you off to." He said when I walked back in the kitchen.

"I could never marry him, you know that." I said.

"Of course you could. I don't see any reason why you shouldn't." he said, trying to weasel me into agreeing with him.

"Father, I will not marry Colonel Burwell no matter what you say. I've known him practically my whole life. Plus he just lost his wife and son just last year." I said, taking something else to the dining room.

"I didn't say it would have to be now, especially with this war going on and everything. You should at least consider it, maybe let him court you a bit before he has to go off to war." He said once I was back in the kitchen.

"Father!" I exclaimed, "He may be an old friend of yours, but I cannot marry him. Besides, I don't want a marriage just for convenience."

"It was just a suggestion. I promise I won't push it too hard." He said, making me make a noise of frustration.

"I'm going to go get everyone up and ready for the day." I said to Abigaile. I was tired of hearing my father's nonsense.

"All right, but hurry up about it. Everything's about done I think." She said and I headed upstairs to wake everyone up.

The next few days went by without much of anything out of the ordinary happening. On Saturday, we got another unexpected visit from Colonel Burwell. I was in the house helping Abigaile clean up some when we heard a horse approaching the house.

"I'll go see who it is." I said to Abigaile, standing up and smoothing down my old dress that I used to clean in as best I could. I didn't expect to find Colonel Burwell in front of the porch.

"Good afternoon, Colonel. Is there anything I can do for you?" I said, walking down the steps.

"Hello, Sarah. Is your father around?" he said.

"Yes, he's probably down at the barn." I said, still confused as to why he was here.

"Thank you." He said, then headed off towards the barn with his horse.

"Well that was strange." I said quietly to myself as I walked back into the house.

"Who was it?" Abigaile asked when I joined her again to continue cleaning.

"Colonel Burwell again. I have no idea why he would be here this time." I said, still very confused.

"Only time will tell." Abigaile said as we continued cleaning.

Later that night, after supper and everyone else was in bed, even Thomas and Gabriel, my father was still talking to Colonel Burwell in the parlor. I had gotten a room ready again for him to stay the night before dinner and now I sat quietly reading as the two men discussed something in hushed voices while drinking some whiskey, what exactly it was I wasn't sure. Closing the book I had just finished, I looked up at the small clock on the mantle of fireplace and saw that it was almost midnight.

"Father, I hate to interrupt, but it's almost midnight. Don't forget about having to go to church tomorrow." I said.

"Ah, yes. Well, Harry, what do you say we call it a night and continue this discussion at another time?" my father said, loud enough that I could hear it this time.

"That would be just fine." The Colonel said.

"Sarah, will you show him to his room? I'm going to go put this up." My father said, picking up the whiskey bottle and two small glasses they had been drinking out of.

"Of course." I said and stood up, Colonel Burwell following. "You'll be in the same room as before. Good night, Colonel."

"Good night, Sarah." He said as I walked toward my room.