True to his word, George did stop in a McDonalds Drive Thru on the way to the hospital to get breakfast. An Egg McMuffin and some orange juice. Alex picked at it in the car, but as they approached the hospital, ate it fully.

Alex walked with George into the children's hospital. He was sixteen. He didn't need to be in a children's hospital. What was wrong with a regular hospital?

"Alex, we're going first to the rheumatology department. See if we can get you some better drugs for your arthritis." George explained. "Then we're going to the renal department for your kidneys. You will be needing dialysis soon, I imagine. Then lastly, we'll be going to oncology."

George Washington didn't need to say anything else for that one. Alex knew perfectly well why he was going to oncology. And he thanked him internally for not mentioning why.

"Come on." George led the way and Alex followed. He seemed to know the way, but then again, with four other disabled kids, George probably did know his way around.

As they walked, they passed the ENT. Then they took an elevator and passed by the PICU and coronary. George paused to talk to someone working the x-ray reception and then they were on their way again, down the hall.

"George. Fancy seeing you here."

Alex looked up from his feet to see a tall black man and his much smaller... son? The son definitely had problems. He was using some kind of walking frame. And he... kind of looked like Hercules. But way scrawnier.

"James, hi." George greeted happily. "This is a surprise too. It's Sunday."

"Ah..." The man, James sucked his teeth. "We both know our kids come first."

That was when Alex realised he recognised this man. "You're a Virginia representative." He said.

"Yes I am." The man James said. "You must be George's new foster child."

"Alexander Hamilton." He said.

"How old are you, Alexander?"

"Sixteen."

"Ah!" The man James smiled. "You're the same age as my son!" He gestured to the small boy. "This is my son, also James. We call him Jemmy-"

"Dad." The boy James cringed.

"Sorry."

"Alex, this is James Madison." George said.

"He's the frail guy you mentioned yesterday?" Alex asked. "The other guy who's always sick?"

"Yes." George nodded.

Alex cautiously took a few steps towards James Madison. "Hi." He greeted.

"Hi." James Madison greeted in return.

"I take it you were going to rheumatology?" James Sr said.

"Yes, Alex has numerous health issues." George said. "Arthritis being one of them."

"You have arthritis too?" James Jr asked in a sort of slur. "I've never met any other kid with arthritis."

"Neither have I." Alex said. "What's that... Walker thing?" He asked. "Is it because of your arthritis?" There were a million more questions he wanted to ask.

"It's a gait trainer." James Jr said. "And no. It's not arthritis related. It's because I got cerebral palsy."

Alex nodded. He knew what that was.

"Alex, we're going to rheumatology now." George said.

"Oh, well, so are we!" James Sr announced brightly. "That gives Alex and Jemmy time to get to know each other a little better."

"Da-ad!" James Jr grunted.

"Sorry."

The four of them walked down the corridor, with James Sr and George leading the way and talking and laughing. Alex was lagging behind and James Jr was somewhere in between.

Alex was fascinated with the way James Jr was walking. He seemed to struggle to take a step. Each time he lifted his leg it shook until he put his foot back down, with his foot pointing inwards. Like he was wading through molasses. And he had the walker thing dragging behind him, yet he seemed to be leaning on it.

James Jr seemed to notice Alex watching and turned his head around. "What?"

"Nothing." Alex said, quickly catching up. "I guess I just never seen anyone walk like you."

"Well... now you have." James Jr said. "I know, I'm pretty jerky." He coughed into his hand.

"Uh, yeah." Alex nodded.

"I can't help it." James Jr said. "It's my conditions."

"I'm always sick too." Alex said. "I never met anyone else who knows what it's like to be in near constant pain."

"Oh yeah?" James Jr looked at Alex.

"Nobody else seems to get me."

"You live with George Washington." James Jr said. "They've all got something."

Alex nodded. That was true. Lafayette was a double amputee, Hercules used a wheelchair, Aaron was deaf and blind and John was autistic.

"Try being the oldest of seven and the only disabled one." James Jr continued. "That's not fun. But I guess I got Thomas and he's my best friend."

"I don't have any friends." Alex lamented.

"Are you coming to school?"

"I... don't know." Alex had never really had formal schooling before. He'd only ever had tutors.

James Jr nodded. "Well, if you do, I'm the class president." He stopped and put his hand out for Alex to shake.

Alex hesitated briefly, seeing that James Jr's arm was stiff and kind of shaky. But he shook it anyway. The other teen certainly didn't look very presidential.

"Yep I'm not going to bite you." James Jr chuckled weakly.

That wasn't the only thing that was weak about him. Everything seemed to be. For starters, he was smaller than Alex-compared to him, Alex looked like Shaquille O'Neal. Without the weird flat earth thing. And his voice-so weak. He just sounded every bit as timid as he looked. And he looked way younger than sixteen. Try twelve. Then again, the way he stood stiffly with his legs bent, it probably wasn't doing much for his height. But he couldn't have weighed more than a hundred pounds-and that was Alex being generous.

Alex continued walking, this time ahead of James Jr, who lagged behind. Like wading through molasses indeed.

George stopped at another reception desk. This time, not to say 'hi'.

"I have an appointment for Alexander Hamilton." He said.

Alex walked over to George, curiously.

"Let me guess, George. You've taken in another disabled kid."

George chuckled. "You know me so well, Henry."

"Right. Well, I'll let him know. You go take a seat." Henry pointed over to the waiting room.

"Come on, Alex." George walked over, with Alex following him, and he sat down on a plastic chair in the waiting room. There were no other families there.

"Mr Washington-"

"Please. Call me George."

"Mr Washington... am I going to go to school?" Alex asked.

"Yes."

"Oh."

"I believe it's important for you to have an education. Do you not want to?" George asked.

"I just... I've never been to school before." Alex said.

"I see." George nodded. "Well, you would be in the same class as Aaron, Hercules, John and Lafayette as well as James, our neighbour, Thomas Jefferson and Senator Schuyler's daughter Eliza, if that makes anything easier."

"Considering I don't know Thomas Jefferson and Eliza Schuyler... no." Alex said.

George smiled. "Don't worry. They're friendly."

The two James Madisons walked over to the waiting room. James Sr took a seat first without any problems. "Hey again, George and Alex."

James Jr let go of his walker and his posture got instantly worse. He took about three steps to the chair and sat down stiffly, again, his feet pointing toward each other.

"Hello, again, James." George greeted with a smile.

"Senator Washington." James Jr pulled his walker closer to him.

While the two men talked, Alex examined James Jr. All of his limbs were stiff and his muscles seemed tense. His legs far more than his arms.

"Take a picture. It'll last longer." James Jr said.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Alex asked.

"Yes." James Jr said. "It does."

"How bad?" Alex asked.

"I got arthritis in my hips. So that hurts." James Jr said. "As you can see, my muscles contract. That causes pain. Especially when I stretch. So I wear orthoses. And those hurt too."

"Sucks." Alex shrugged. "I got arthritis too. It's in my knees though. And I got about a million other things on top."

James Jr chuckled weakly. "Snap."

"Asthma-"

"I got that too."

"I also have diabetes."

"I have epilepsy."

"Kidney failure."

"Cerebral palsy."

"And I have cancer too."

"Okay. Your life is officially worse than mine." James Jr conceded.

"Wait, George-your kid has cancer?" James Sr asked.

"Yes." George nodded. "Yes he does. The way I see it, his needs are no more complex than Hercules, Aaron or Lafayette."

"I know why you chose to look after disabled kids, George. But cancer's going a bit far don't you think?"

"Well, James, if Jemmy or Francis or Nelly, god forbid, had cancer, you would still love them and look after them. Wouldn't you?"

"Of course I would. They're my kids."

"I don't see it any different." George explained. "Lafayette, Aaron, Hercules, John, Alex, they're my kids. If Martha and I didn't care about them, who would?"

James Sr hummed. "Yes. I know what Henry Laurens did. I must say, I never liked him anyway."

A doctor came into the waiting room and took one look at Alex. "You must be Alexander Hamilton." She said.

Alex nodded.

"Well, I'm Dr Hampton. And I'll be seeing you today." She said with a smile. "Would you like to come on through?"


John tread carefully down the stairs, still wearing his ear defenders. Everyone would be watching TV now. Who's week was it? Last week was Aaron. That meant that week was Lafayette. And next week would be John's day. A whole day of watching PJ Masks.

John liked PJ Masks. He liked a lot of cartoons. Miraculous Ladybug. Bob's Burgers. Archer. Rick and Morty. Elena of Avalor. PJ Masks was good. Owlette was the best. Whose week was it again? Oh yeah. Lafayette's. Which meant having to watch teen dramas. But at least it wasn't Hercules' week, which meant watching fashion shows. And Aaron who could never decide what to watch.

John began to wonder what Alex liked. Did Alex even like TV shows? Then a sickening thought came to him-what if the TV schedule changed? What if next week was made Alex's week? It was John's week! The week after that couldn't be Alex's week either-it was Hercules' week! Then it was back to Aaron. Would Alex even get a week? It would be unfair if he didn't. John loved fair play.

John rushed down the rest of the stairs and began flapping his arms. The thought of the schedule changing was upsetting! How could it change? It shouldn't change-John was happy with the way it already was! But Alex needed to watch TV too... and nobody had talked about it changing. But it would change and John knew it.

John walked the lower floor of the house. Past George's study. Past Hercules' bedroom. Past Martha's study. And the library. He went to the den. Only John was allowed privileged access to George and Martha's den. That didn't stop the others from not following the rules and going in though. That angered John. Everyone should follow the rules.

John entered the room to find Martha already there. If Martha was there it was quiet. So he slowly took off his ear defenders and put them around his neck.

Martha swivelled around in her office chair. "Oh. Hello, John."

"Hello, John."

"You can stay. I was just reading." Martha said pleasantly.

"Reading."

"Yes, from the library. A book about Franklin Roosevelt." Martha turned around and picked the book up to show John.

"Franklin Roosevelt." John said. "Franklin Roosevelt."

"He was the thirty-second president."

John looked down at the book. He examined it briefly, then looked back up at Martha in approval. "He was the thirty-second president."

Martha chuckled. "Yes. Yes." She said. "Did you come in here to draw?"

"Yes. Yes." John said, nodding furiously.

"Well, don't let me stop you." Martha said. "Your pencils are over there." She pointed to the other side of the room.

"Pencils are over there." John went over and picked up his box of pencils as Martha went back to her book.

John loved drawing. He always had done. But he never used to be so good. He still didn't think he was good, but he had heard other people calling his drawings good, so he had to be good, right? But what would he draw?

Oh! There were books on turtles in the library! He could go for one and look at the picture and copy the turtle! Or he could Google turtles on the internet and use that as a point of reference for his own turtle. He had to draw turtles. They were the best, most amazing animals in the whole world. John didn't understand why people didn't get them. Especially when they're not hunted, most of them actually live twice as long lives than humans; two hundred years! More than that, sometimes, even!

Turtles were really amazing. Turtles. Turtles. Turtles. Turtles.

"Turtles. Turtles. Turtles." John muttered to himself. With his free hand, he began to flap again. "Turtles. Turtles. Turtles. Turtles."

Wait-was he saying that out loud? Ugh. No wonder Ben didn't like John back. He was just too weird. And he'd never get a boyfriend.

"John, is something wrong?" Martha asked, noticing John's sudden silence.

"Something wrong?" John said.

"Is your favourite pencil broken?" Martha asked.

John had reacted this way before when his favourite pencil-the one with the turtle print-had snapped in half. He was despondent until George fixed it by taping it back together.

John shook his head in response to Martha's question. His pencil was still taped up, though not at the middle any more. John had sharpened and used it a lot since then.

"Are you hungry?" Martha asked, remembering that John didn't have breakfast like everyone else.

Again, John shook his head.

"You know you can tell me, right?" Martha asked gently.

John nodded. Then quickly shrugged. He didn't know what he was feeling.

"Oh, John. Whatever it is, don't dwell on it too much. Be happy." Martha said encouragingly.

"Be happy." John said.


A/N: So I introduced James Madison here. And much like Alex, Aaron, Hercules, John and Lafayette, he's disabled. I know he kind of was in history too, but just like with Alex, I made it... Different. I changed it. So now James has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. I knew someone who had that in school. And we really hated each other because she was always out for attention. James will not be like that because now that I'm in university, I know other people with CP and they are way different to that attention whore girl.

Mentions of Thomas Jefferson.

Dr Hampton is the name of my doctor.

So I felt it was natural to write from the point of view of John and honestly, it wasn't even a challenge here like... Easiest thing I ever wrote.

My nephew loves PJ Masks and his favourite is Owlette. He is very weird and I'm pretty sure just does his best to stand out.

Autistic people love justice and fair play! We have strong views on this and generally, we all have that streak of justice. But as the saying goes, if you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person. We're not all like this.

John is repeating what Martha says. This is called Echolalia. A famous pop-culture example is Brick from The Middle, when he whispers a the word at the end of his sentences. I do it. But I don't copy what people say. I usually repeat phrases until they lose meaning-sometimes what people say, sometimes if it's on TV. Martha is a good mother because she has learned to communicate with John when he goes into this mode. She doesn't demand that he speak properly. It's how all people should really talk to people like this, but sadly, ignorance is rife.

I wrote from John's point of view because when people talk to echolalic or not typically verbal people, they assume that the echolalic/not typically verbal person (this goes for Deaf and mute people too) has a 'mental age of a child' (I hate that phrase. It's so icky), when most often, the person is, well... They understand you. Just because they don't communicate the way you do, doesn't mean they don't understand you.

There are two things John likes-turtles and boys. John is gay. Autistics in pop culture are often portrayed as asexual, which really needs to stop happening. (says the autistic asexual-lol). So yeah. John is gay and he has a crush on a boy in his class.