Disclaimer: All work from Hamilton belong to Lin Miranda, I'm only claiming my original story line.

~ My Shot ~

"What are the odds the gods would put us all in one spot? Poppin' a squat on conventional wisdom, like it or not, a bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists? Give me a postion, show me where the ammunition is!"

It was only by luck that Eliza's roommates were somewhere else tonight, probably at one of the many parties on campus for the new term. Angelica never understood how they expected to get up tomorrow sporting crippling hangovers and go to orientation. What a bunch of idiots college students were. Common sense wasn't a class you took nor was it something you could buy, too bad, so many here needed it. If she were honest though, she would take a shot now, if only to calm herself down. Between pacing the length of the living space while checking her phone every moment and moving around the boys, she was driving herself crazy. But what else was she to do?

They had come back to Eliza's dorm room, only possible because of an illegally copied key, to find it empty. After calling her sister again, and getting her voicemail again, she left a message that would hopefully push her wayward sister into coming back. But that had been an hour ago and not even a single text was sent showing that her message was heard. That girl was in so much trouble and would be lucky if she wasn't watched like a hawk everyday for the rest of the semester.

"Relax, she'll come back soon." Burr tried to reason with her. The guy was slumped against the wall and typing away on his phone. Probably talking to either Madison or Jefferson about the day's discoveries. He might even be keeping the general informed.

But she didn't want him palacating her, it made her feel childish. "I know she'll be back, I'm not an idiot." She snapped. "It's the when I'm worried about. If she comes back later than midnight, ruffled or anything of the sort you won't have to worry about Hamilton again." She answered darkly, liking the shiver that went through each male in the room.

"Let's not jump the gun okay? Alexander wasn't like that before and I doubt Alex has any experience in that department. Don't try to make a problem that doesn't exist." Laurens defended his long time friend from his own spot on the arm of the couch. Yeah, the guy had an affair, but he never jumped into bed with Eliza before they wed. It might not have seemed like it at the time, but Alexander Hamilton was a man of honor, if only one of poor choices. "You'll just make yourself crazy, well, more crazy in your case."

That earned a snicker from the rest in the room, but before she could open her mouth to tell the idiot off the door was thrown open. Eliza's eyes widened as she took in eveyone in the room, but grew pale as the sisters' gazes met.

"What are you all doing in here?" she asked as she shut the door. Arms crossed she had the nerve to look upset. "We had that key made for emergencies Angelica, not so you can just storm in here when you feel like it. My roommates would be mad if they knew you had it."

Laf was the only one to look slightly sorry for their presence, Laurens and Herc clearly didn't care at the time if they were unwelcomed. Their concerns were elsewhere.

"Where is he?" Laurens was already half way to Eliza and, in short, the door. The other boys making to follow him.

"He dropped me off on my floor not too long ago, probably already back to your room by now."

That was all they needed as one by one the guys filed out, Burr being last and threw a smile back at them both. Angelica only rolled her eyes, but small smile in return. She had to admit, the guy kept his head in a crisis better than she did sometimes. Not that she would ever admit it outloud. Like ever.

The door had only just clicked shut when she focused back on her sister, all the worry leaving and bringing back the anger.

"Not a single word. All day." She seethed.

Eliza sighed as she walked over to the couch and fell into it. "Do we have to have this discussion now?"

"We could have had it earlier had you just said you would see him later. Instead, you keep that little tidbit to yourself, allow the rest of us to run around this entire campus, run off without telling anyone, and then don't even bother to answer any of my texts or calls." She ticks off her lists on her fingers as she goes. "What in heaven's name were you thinking? Were you even thinking?"

"Of course I was!"

"Then explain it to me because this entire mess, a good portion your own creation, doesn't make any sense."

Eliza crossed her arms and legs, her eyes narrowed. Even while sitting down, her sister managed to hold all the power in the room.

"What I was thinking was maybe, just maybe, I wanted to talk to the guy that was my husband. Maybe I wanted to get to know this Alex better. Maybe I wanted time to adjust to the fact the man I loved, who was murdered, is back. Most importantly, I wanted to do it alone, without the entire group breathing down our necks. And don't you think for a moment that the guys would have left his side for anything. You would've demanded to come too and would've glared at him the entire time. Making him tense and he probably wouldn't have been so open if you had." She said pointedly when Angelica opened her mouth to argue, which was pointless, because she was right. "Hell, after today they'll never leave him alone again. Not that he should be alone alone, but alone with me. Does that make me selfish? Maybe, but I'm not sorry."

Finishing her tirade (and wasn't it supposed to be she giving the speech?) Eliza leaned back into her seat, still tense, and waiting for her rebuttal.

Angelica took a moment to just watch her sister. Her little sister that suddenly wasn't just that anymore. Sometimes she forgot, or really didn't think about) their past lives. Why? Because it was painful or depressing. She knew there had been good times, celebrations and accomplishments. But those in her later years had been few and far between. So even after she remembered her past life, Angelica tried her best to live as the person she was now. And in by doing that, she sometimes forgot to look past the youthful face Eliza now wore. Eliza had a full life with many experiences that shaped her, even now in the present. So while she was an eighteen year old college freshman, she was also a wife, a widower, a mother, a grandmother, and someone so old in mind.

Yes, she had made mistakes tonight, but in all fairness, Eliza had more than earned some room for them. If the roles had been reveresed Angelica would have probably done the same things.

Pulling out of her thoughts, Angelica croosed the small room to take a seat next to her sister. Folding her hands in her lap she gave all her attention to her sister.

"Tell me about him."

*~Hamilton is My Jamilton~*

The door to his room was thrown opened against the wall with a bang loud enough to pull his attention away from the computer screen. Alex turned around in his chair, his hands clenching so tight that his knuckles were white. Living in one too many homes were loud bangs were often followed by pain left an instinct to run. But he knew where he was now and so he pushed the feeling to flee down hard enough to look befor he acted. Sure enough there were no angry foster parents at the door, but his new roommates and Aaron Burns. Taking a second to breathe and relaxing his posture, he merely greeted them with "Hey".

The feeling of abandonment hadn't left him yet even after the great time he spent with Eliza. No, he merely forgot about it for the time being, but now seeing the source of the negative feelings staning in front of him, it all returned. Frowning, he turned back to the screen and started typing away again. He hoped they woud take the dismissal for what it was and would leave him in peace to work. His luck was never that good.

"Uh hey?" Laurens returned as he came in and sat in his desk chair. Herc and Laf took a seat on his bunk while Aaron didn't move far from the door. To escape Alex would have to go past all of them. He never had a chance.

An awkward silence fell over the room. Alex had wanted the conversation to end there, he really didn't want to talk to any of them right now.

"So," Laurens started again, dashing his hoped again for silence. "where did you run off to today Alex? You had us worried for awhile."

He gave a huff at that. "Why would you have been worried? I just went to explore a bit and it's not like I have to ask to ," he turned his head ever so slightly, "you left first."

"No we didn't, man. We were just in the other room talking." Herc explained.

Laf nodded as he looked at Alex with a smile. "We went to ask if you wanted to come to lunch with us to find you gone petit lion."

Alex grimanced at the name. "I'm not little." He muttered but made no comment about the rest of it.

"Sure you're not." The french teen responded, but was smirking as well. "But we mean to say is that we didn't just ditch you here by yourself. We wouldn't do that to you."

"Why? You don't even know me." he asked a little harsher than he meant to, but the while situation was getting to be too much. It was almost as if they actually cared. Which was impossible. No one ever cared.

"We're friends Alex, I thought you said so this morning." Aaron said and then waved a hand at the others. "So are they, if you give them a chance."

"I don't need friends." And to even to Alex it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than stating a fact.

"Everyone needs friends mon cher!"

"And whether you like it or not man, you're stuck with us."

"There's no way around it now, once those two idiots on something it's permenant."

"Look at it this way, better to have friends than enemies. And more pals to drink with!"

Shutting his computer Alex still didn't turn around. For one thing, he was too stunned to speak. Another thing was that his eyes were starting to sting and he wouldn't start crying in front of these guys. He was eighteen and an adult, damn it. There was nothing to cry about, he didn't need friends, never did. But then again, no one else had ever offered. Always seen as the new kid, the poor kid, the orphan, the charity case, the trouble maker, the egg head, or the immigrant, his peers had stayed at arms length, if no two. So why would these four, only having met them today, be so forceful about wanting a friendship with somoene like him?

Painfully slowly, Alex turned around in his seat. He wouldn't meet anyone's eyes directly, aiming his sight just slightly off.

"I've never had a group of friends before." He admitted quietly. It sounded pathetic to even say outloud. Because what kind of loser couldn't even make a single friend?

He felt a hand on his shoulder unexpectedly and jumped to his feet. Looking around he found Laurens standing next to him, his hands up in a 'I mean you no harm' gesture. After Alex relaxed his body again did he lower them and gave him a smile.

"Well you can't say that anymore!"

It seemed that the others thought the same as they gave him smiles and nods at Laurens words. Alex, with all his history with trusting people, should have known better that letting his hopes jump up at the offer. But he also knew that sometimes you had to seize an opportunity while you could. And Alex Hathaway never let an opportunity pass him by.

He wasn't going to throw away his shot.

Revised on 5/15/19