Long chapter, yay! Here is your Angelica moment, I used a lot of lyrics from the cut song Congratulations, if you haven't heard it go on YouTube and look up Congratulations Hamilton such an awesome song... anyway, enjoy!

Peggy had been at the Hamilton's house for three weeks and was waiting for Angelica's arrival. For three weeks she had comforted her sister, and taken care of the children. In that time she had barely seen Alexander, he had locked himself in his study and hardly emerged.

When they did see him he was distant, not exactly cold, but barely speaking. He wandered, wraithlike, and aimless through the house. He seemed in a trance, seeing them, and yet not realizing that they were there, as if they were only objects to navigate around. It was like he was searching for something that he had lost, but he didn't know what it was.

Peggy had been standing by the door thinking for a full ten minutes before there was a knock. Peggy threw open the door a smothered her older sister in a tight embrace.

"Thank God, I need help! How does Eliza handle being a mother of eight?"

"Hi Peggy."

"Sorry, hi Angie."

"So how is everyone?"

"Eliza is in the parlor sewing, it took me a week, but I finally got her out of her room. The children are everywhere it seems, and Alexander is in his study."

"Okay, let's get the boys to take my bags up to my room and we'll go see Eliza."

Peggy nodded and a minute later the children were carrying the heavy bags upstairs, jostling to be the ones to carry the heaviest ones. The two women were soon right outside the parlor door. As soon as she was inside the room Angelica rushed towards her younger sister and pulled her into a hug.

"Eliza!"

"Angelica!"

"and Peggy!"

The three sisters grinned, it was Eliza who said it. She smiled, voice still slightly muffled by Angelica's hug.

"The Schuyler Sisters!"

All three sisters laughed, and the three women sat down to talk. Eliza, while still heartbroken by her husbands betrayal, was quiet and collected, unlike her sisters. Angelica was a blazing inferno with a heart of pure rage, and Peggy... well Peggy as different. While she had not forgiven him, (and doubted she ever would) she had come to pity him in a way.

Peggy had been right, that day when she first confronted Alexander, his children would never look at him the same way again. All seven avoided him, when they were in the same room they wouldn't make eye contact, hurrying out as quickly as possible. Even Phillip had come home briefly to confront his father.

Perhaps that had been what crushed Alexander. His whole life Phillip had looked up to his father, striving to be like him in every way, but no longer. She remembered that day. She had seen him storm upstairs, kept the children away, and eventually waited outside for him to come out. She had stood outside the study door and heard yelling, muffled to incoherence by the thick, oaken door.

When the young man had finally emerged he was red faced, and tears brimmed in his eyes. He had come up to her and she had hugged him, drawing him away from the door, and into his room, he had sobbed quietly,and she had let him cry. When he finally looked up and spoke, his eyes were wet, and his voice was choked.

"Aunt Peggy, I don't know what to do. How could he do this to us! To Mom, to me, to my siblings? I looked up to him! I worshiped him!"

"I know Phillip, I know."

The memory was painful, even for her. So she blocked it from her thoughts, trying not to cry. She watched as Angelica raged, a barely controlled wildfire, ready blaze as soon as it touched something it wanted to burn. She watched as Angelica stormed out of the room toward Alexanders study.

Sighing, she followed her sister. Eliza stayed behind, and waited patiently for them to return. Angelica threw open the door and stormed in; Peggy hung back, catching the door before it hit the wall, but refusing to go further. Alexander whirled around, eyes widening in surprise, then heaving a sigh of relief.

"Angelica, thank God, someone who understands what I'm struggling here to do."

She looked disgusted, "I'm not here for you!"

"Angelica!"

"Alexander."

"But-"

"You have invented a new kind of stupid, a damage you can never undo kind of stupid, an open all the cages in the zoo kind of stupid!"

"Ange-"

"Clearly you didn't think this one through, kind of stupid! Congratulations!"

Alexander seemed to shrink back from the glare of the woman in front of him. Angelica had always been tall, but now she seemed to tower over the shorter man. If he was a mouse, cowering in her shadow, then she was serpent. If she was a serpent then she was a poisonous one, venom dripping from long fangs, head twisting to and fro to hypnotize her prey.

"You've redefined your legacy, congratulations!"

At this he rose to the challenge. His legacy was his whole life, no one would mess with his legacy. So he faced her, flames of defiance roaring up to greet her rage.

"It was an act of political sacrifice!"

All three people in the room froze. He had crossed a line, and they all knew it. Wow... that was not the right thing to say! He shrank back as she replied. Her voice, Peggy noticed, was choked with grief.

"Sacrifice? I languished in a loveless marriage in London; I lived only to read your letters. I look at you and think, God what have we done with our lives, and what did it get us? That doesn't wipe the tears of the years away, I'm back in the city and I'm here to stay, and we both know what I'm here to do."

"Angelica-"

"I'm not here for you."

This was an old habit, sometimes when the three sisters would speak in verse when they were trying to control themselves as children. The tactic had fallen out of style as they got older, but sometimes the sisters would lapse back into it when they were trying to process strong emotions.

Eliza, she knew, had done this when she read the pamphlet. Peggy herself had done it, when she heard that John was dead, she still had to keep herself from doing it when he was spoken of in her presence. Now, as tears ran down her sister's face she stepped forward. Gently, she took Angelica's arm and tried to pull her away, but Angelica had one last thing to say.

"I know Eliza like I know my own mind, you will never find, anyone as trusting or as kind! Put what we had aside; I'm standing at her side! Why could you never be satisfied, God I hope you're satisfied?! For the rest of your life, every sacrifice you make is for my sister, give her the best life! Congratulations!"

With that she turned and stormed out. Peggy saw that Alexander was shaking, eyes glazed and staring straight ahead, but Angelica was her sister. Angelica and Eliza: they came first. So she shook her head at the broken shell of a man that had once been her friend that stood as still as a if he was made of stone. Ducking her head to hide her own distress, Peggy followed her sister out the door.