Angelica successfully ignored Alexander for about six hours before Eliza called her, begging for baby advice about little Philip.

"He's not sleeping!" Eliza sounded as though she was on the verge of tears. Angelica could hear Philip squalling in the background. "I don't know what to do! Do you think that something is wrong? Alexander was looking on the internet and he says -"

"Don't worry about it," Angelica couldn't help but laugh. It felt like forever ago since she had been so frantic about Johnny…though, that could have been the fact that Church had become something of a baby expert the moment that Johnny was born. He had read at least 50 parenting books, and had 200 more on his Amazon wishlist. "He'll be fine."

"Do you promise?" Eliza demanded, not so easily placated. "Did Johnny go through something similar? How many hours a day does he sleep?"

"You would really have to check with Church on that one," Angelica sighed, flipping through the contract that CNN had sent over just moments after watching Angelica's audition reel. "He's the one keeping track of Johnny's sleep journal."

"A sleep journal," Eliza echoed it as though it were a revolutionary idea. Angelica rolled her eyes. "Alexander, do you have an extra notebook? We need to start a sleep journal for Philip!"

Angelica could hear Alexander's muffled response in the background, but couldn't distinguish what it was that he said. Philip continued screaming. It was starting to give Angelica a headache.

"Annie," Alexander's voice suddenly filled her head. He had taken the phone from Eliza without Eliza warning her. It was possible that Eliza hadn't known that he would do it, but it was far more likely that she didn't see why Angelica wouldn't want to speak with him. "You haven't been answering my emails."

"Did you email me?" Angelica asked, her eyebrows furrowing. Since being offered a job at CNN, she had tried her best to stay away from all methods of communication. She didn't want to have to justify herself to either Thomas or Alexander.

"One hundred and sixty times," Alexander answered, not sounding very amused. "What the hell are you doing? You're quitting?"

"CNN made me an offer that was too good to refuse," Angelica sighed, struggling to remember the speech that she had thought up for this exact conversation. "You know that if George wins the campaign, you'll have to move to D.C. with him. I don't want to do that. Church and I want Johnny to grow up in New York. We already have our perfect house, and the school systems here are second to none. Plus, my salary will be doubled and with all of the expenses that are coming up…I couldn't turn it down."

"Uh-huh," Alexander didn't believe her. It was obvious.

There was a long pause that hung in the air just long enough to make Angelica question whether or not Alexander had hung up on her before Alexander spoke again. "Would you visit Eliza in the hospital again? She misses you."

Angelica swallowed hard and nodded despite the fact that Alexander could not see her. "Okay. As soon as I'm done signing this contract, I'll be there."

"Good," Alexander sounded different. Angelica didn't like it. "Goodbye, Annie."

"Goodbye, Alex," Angelica frowned down at her phone for a moment before pressing 'end call.'

"Angelica!" Eliza's face lit up when Angelica appeared in her hospital room the following morning. She was cradling little Philip, who appeared to be fast asleep. Lying at the foot of her bed was a notebook entitled "Philip's Dream Journal."

"Eliza," Angelica smiled, approaching the bed. "How are you?"

"Much better, now that Alexander is back at the office and you're here in his place," Eliza answered playfully. "That man has not stopped running around since he read your resignation letter. I thought that he was going to give himself a heart attack."

"I'm sorry," Angelica didn't meet Eliza's eyes. "I know that it was a selfish thing to do, but I -"

"I completely understand," Eliza assured her, smiling. She hoisted herself out of bed and placed Philip in his cradle next to her bed. She returned to bed, sitting up on the bed like she had when she and Angelica would have sleepovers as girls. "Between you and I, I wish that Alexander would take a job in New York, too. I'm loathed to go anywhere but here, especially with Philip. On top of a new baby and a new job, we have to find a new home with a good school system."

"Alex will be able to do that," Angelica assured her. She didn't necessarily believe herself - it was an extraordinary amount of stress for one person to endure on their own - but Eliza very obviously needed to be reassured. "That man never sleeps."

"His son, too," Eliza sighed with a pointed glance in little Philip's direction. They both laughed, knowing that Eliza would soon have her hands full with a son just like his father. "Oh, but Alexander is just enamored with him. I've never seen him so wholly satisfied with anything since I met him. He thinks that Philip is already talking. He won't listen to anyone who tries to tell him that it's just baby babbling."

"That sounds about right," Angelica giggled, trying to disguise the fact that her heart was sinking with each word that came from Eliza's mouth. She felt so guilty. So horribly, horribly guilty. Eliza and Alexander were so happy with their newborn son, and Angelica was mulling over feelings that she had been harboring for Alexander since high school. It was so incredibly selfish of her. She should just forget about Alexander, allow him to enjoy his perfect family with Eliza. "Listen, I'm going to run and grab you some water, okay? I remember how dehydrated I got when I was here. No one ever thinks about bringing you water."

Angelica scrambled to her feet before Eliza could protest and quickly darted out of the room.

She contemplated cutting them off - disallowing herself from talking to Alexander at all - as she walked through the eerily white hallways. To do so would be more painful for Eliza than it would be for Angelica, though. Eliza would take it personally; thinking that Angelica no longer liked her family. Angelica was through with doing things that would hurt her little sister. Still, that left her at a loss for a solution…

While she was mulling over this conundrum, she didn't realize that she was walking right by Aaron Burr, who was standing in the middle of the labor and delivery department. Luckily, or perhaps, unluckily, Aaron Burr was not so distracted.

"Angelica?" He emerged from one of the rooms, a smile crossing his face.

"Aaron," Angelica whipped around at the sound of his voice, naturally deploying the polite smile that had become one of her main defense mechanisms. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting ice chips," Aaron gestured to the empty bucket in his hand with a small smile. "My wife is in labor."

"Your wife?" Angelica couldn't hide her surprise. "You're married?"

"And having a little girl," Aaron didn't seem offended by her surprise. "It's been a while since high school."

"So it has," Angelica agreed with a small smile.

"But not long enough, it seems," Aaron looked at Angelica like he could see right through her, his mouth tilting into a small smile. "I assume that you're here visiting Alexander's son? Must be hard for you."

"Not at all," Angelica lied through gritted teeth. "I'm happy for him and Eliza."

"Of course," Aaron was tactful enough not to call Angelica out on her obvious lie. "Anyway, I should really get those ice chips. I've left Theo alone for far too long as it is. It was good to see you, Angelica."

"You, too." Angelica lied, allowing Aaron to walk past her in search of ice chips.

Angelica's eyes followed Aaron for a minute before she glanced back in the direction of Eliza's room. The thought of returning to the cramped little room filled Angelica with dread. The door, just down the hallway, was tempting beyond comparison. It took no effort at all for Angelica to allow her feet to carry her down the hall and straight out the door, into her car and towards an unknown destination.

When Angelica snapped back into reality, she was surprised to find herself standing on the doorstep of Monticello.

"Angelica?" Thomas, who had been rounding the corner outside, noticed her before Angelica could decide whether to ring the doorbell or take herself home. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know…" Angelica answered, looking down as her phone began ringing. It was Alexander. After just a few seconds of thinking, Angelica not only ended the call - she deleted him as a contact.

"Are you okay?" Thomas was looking at her like she was crazy.

Angelica looked up from her phone, a smile crossing her face. "I think I am."

Rewind

"Stay home today, Annie," Alexander suggested, following Angelica around the house as she searched for two matching shoes. "You're still recovering from the flu. I'm sure that George would understand."

Angelica rolled her eyes. She hadn't expected Alexander to get so worked up over her fake flu. "I'm fine, Alex."

"You're not," Alexander looked her over suspiciously. "You've hardly eaten since the hospital trip on Saturday."

Well, that definitely was not because of any flu.

"I'll be okay," Angelica insisted, finding her missing shoe under the bed and putting it on triumphantly. She turned to grin at Alexander, as if finding her shoe were somehow exemplary of her ability to go to work. "I actually have lunch plans with Aaron today. How's that for not eating?"

"Why do you have lunch plans with Aaron?" Alexander took the bait and shifted his focus from Angelica's fake illness to her lunch date with their colleague, just as she had anticipated that he would. He shrugged on his jacket and started walking towards the car, his eyebrows furrowed as the gears in his brain began to spin. Angelica followed at his heels.

"Because I'm trying to make up for the fact that we somehow forgot to tell him about getting dinner on Fridays," She responded as she pulled a set of car keys out of her purse and darted for the driver's side before Alexander could remember to protest. "I feel bad. He said that he doesn't have friends."

"We're his friends," Alexander supposed, slipping into the passenger's side of the car.

"But does he know that?" Angelica sighed, running a hand through her hair as she waited for Alexander to buckle his seatbelt. "We were kind of mean to him in high school. He might think that we hated him."

"We got drunk with him and let him tag along to the hospital," Alexander said, buckling his seatbelt and looking at Angelica expectantly. She rolled her eyes and started the car, driving out of the neighborhood just quickly enough to appease him. "Is that not what friends do?"

"Still," She was leaving no room for argument. "I think that taking him out to lunch is the right thing to do. And I think that you should order in and eat with Thomas. If you don't start getting along soon, you're going to have a really hard time when George is president."

"I don't want to have lunch with Jefferson," Alexander shook his head, his mouth curving down into a childlike pout. "He's in love with you."

"Alex," Angelica warned him against pursuing this debate again.

"I know," Alexander's shoulders slumped sulkily. "But surely you don't actually expect me to eat lunch with the man?"

"No, I guess not," Angelica sighed. "Just keep out of trouble, then. Don't give George any more work than he already has to do."

"I don't see why I can't just go to lunch with you and Aaron," Alexander remarked, unbuckling his seatbelt as Angelica pulled into their reserved parking spot at the office building they were working out of. "If he has no friends, aren't two friends better than one?"

"I don't want to make him feel like a third wheel," Angelica shook her head, emerging from the car and closing the door behind her. She looked at Alexander from over the hood of the car. "If you went, you would only talk to me. You have a tendency to speak to everyone else only when I remind you that they're talking to you. It's extraordinarily rude."

"Everyone else is stupid," Alexander shrugged defiantly, a sheepish grin on his lips. "You're not. Why should I talk to anyone else?"

"You're in politics, Alex," Angelica laughed, unlocking the office door and holding it open for him. He walked through, his mouth open like he was about to argue. "Like it or not, talking to people has become half of your job."

"And why is that?" Alexander protested, walking backward to maintain eye contact with Angelica as they walked to their respective offices. "Whoever decided that it was absolutely necessary to speak to the people that you govern? The people are stupid. They don't know what's best for themselves."

"Mmm, I think that was the founding fathers?" Angelica reminded him with a smirk. "Now, get to work. You've got a lot to do before you start questioning the democratic process."

"All in a day's work," Alexander shot back, grinning as he backed into his office.

Angelica rolled her eyes and shook her head as she walked into her own office. Aaron - who had taken up residence in Angelica's office, mostly because David didn't want to pay for him to have an office - was already there, hard at work.

"Good morning," He glanced up at Angelica with a small smile. "How are you feeling?"

"I need you to tell Alex that we have - and went on - a lunch date together," Angelica closed the door behind her, trying to vocalize her request as quietly as possible.

"What? Why?" Aaron's eyes widened. This was clearly not a problem that he had anticipated solving first thing in the morning.

Angelica looked around the office like someone might be hiding and eavesdropping. "If I tell you, will you promise not to tell anyone else, especially not Alex?"

"Look, I really don't want to get in the middle of your marriage…"

"I didn't have the flu," Angelica knew that Aaron wouldn't tell. He was cunning, but it was in his best interest to maintain his loyalty to Angelica. Besides that, she was dying to talk to someone. She knew that it couldn't be Alexander, and if she was keeping a secret from Alexander, she knew better than to tell Thomas, so Aaron was the only viable choice left. "The doctor took one look at me and told me that I was pregnant. So today while we're supposed to be going out to lunch together, I'm going to go to a clinic down the street and get a little pill that will make this whole problem go away."

"What?" Aaron looked horrified. "Angelica, you should…you need to tell Alexander about that. I've never been married, but I think that's probably something he'd like to discuss."

"Thank you for the lecture on what I am obligated to tell my husband. Can't wait to see you running for office as a feminist," Angelica remarked sarcastically. "Are you going to help me or not?"

"I'm all for women's rights, but…" Aaron looked like he was going to be sick. He looked up at Angelica, silently begging for her to understand the difficult position that he found himself in. "It's half his, isn't it? Isn't this some kind of moral gray area where feminism doesn't…"

"Are you going to help me or not?" Angelica asked a little bit louder.

"Fine," Aaron squeezed his eyes shut. "Yes, fine, I'll help you, but I would just like it to go on record that I recommended that you tell Alexander."

"Consider it on the record," Angelica felt dizzy with relief as she sank into her desk chair across the room from Aaron. "Thank you."

Aaron nodded, looking thoroughly dissatisfied. "I don't think 'you're welcome' is necessarily appropriate here."

"Maybe not," Angelica agreed. "But I do appreciate it, Aaron. You're a really good friend."

Aaron pretended not to hear her as he returned to work. When Angelica glanced in his direction, though, she could see that he was chewing on his lip nervously.

"Okay, we're off to lunch," Angelica made Aaron stop by Alexander's office before they left the office under the guise of going to lunch. "Can I pick you anything up while I'm out?"

"What? Oh, no, thank you," Alexander looked up from his computer distractedly. His hair was a mess and his eyes were wild. He was obviously in the middle of a massive brainstorm. It was a good thing, too. Otherwise he might have noticed that Aaron was refusing to meet his eyes; instead, the poor man was staring down at his shoes and frowning. "Have fun at lunch, Annie."

Angelica forced a smile and nodded before shepherding Aaron out of the office.

"Well," She let out a massive sigh as they reached the parking lot. "I guess you can go get yourself lunch wherever. Just try to steer clear of places that Alex frequents. I doubt he's leaving the office for another few hours, just based off of how he looked, but…"

"I'm coming with you." Aaron shook his head.

"What?" Angelica was too surprised to argue. For now.

"Someone should be there for you, and if you won't tell Alex, then it'll have to be me," Aaron explained it as though it were a rule of law instead of some weird social code that he seemed to think existed.

"No one needs to be there aside from me," Angelica responded irritably. "Me telling you about this wasn't some weird cry for help. I just needed you to cover for me for an hour or two."

"You don't have to pretend to be brave all the time," Aaron rolled his eyes, following her as she began to walk down the street towards the clinic. "Nor do you have to make everything a display of your independence. I imagine that this isn't going to be an easy thing for you - no matter the reason. I want to be there for you, as a friend."

Angelica looked him over warily.

Aaron sighed and held his hands up in resignation. "If you don't want me there, I can just walk you there and then leave."

"No," Angelica spoke slowly, torn between wanting to accept Aaron's offer and wanted to critique his presumptive attitude. "You can come. If it would make you feel better, anyway."

"It would," Aaron was obviously just appeasing her, but that was okay.

"Okay," Angelica smiled at him gratefully. "Then I guess you can come. For your sake."

"Of course." Aaron smiled patiently.

"Yeah, she was completely fine throughout lunch, but once we started walking back, she just felt a little off," Aaron cringed as he paced the length of Angelica and Alexander's cramped living room. It was clear that he did not like being dragged into this lie deeper and deeper with each passing moment, but it was really out of everyone's control once he acquiesced to helping her in the first place.

Angelica had been wrong to think that she could return to the office after her doctor's appointment. She had been very, very wrong.

"She'll be fine," Aaron shot Angelica a look that let her know that he was very angry with her for putting him in this position, but he knew that it was not the appropriate moment to express such anger. "Really, I don't think that you need to come home immediately. She says that she'll be fine. Can you talk to her? Oh, uh…" He looked at Angelica in askance.

Angelica nodded grimly.

"Sure, she's right here." Aaron handed the phone to Angelica like it was a ticking time bomb.

"Hey, you," Angelica tried to sound pleasant as she placed Aaron's phone to her ear.

"Annie?" Alexander's voice was panicked. "Are you okay? Do you want me to come home? I can come home right now."

"Don't be stupid. I'm fine," Angelica tried to reassure him. "I just felt a little off and decided that it would probably be wise to work from home. I'll see you when you get home from work tonight, okay?"

"Annie," Alexander did not sound convinced.

"Stay where you are," Angelica's tone was firm this time. "I need you to finish that set of speech edits more than I need you here."

"Okay," Alexander sighed. "But I want you to call me if you need anything."

"Of course," Angelica agreed easily.

"And no more lunch dates with Aaron until I can determine whether or not he's been poisoning you," Alexander sounded like he was only half-kidding.

"He's not," Angelica rolled her eyes.

"Hm," Alexander disagreed. "I'll see you tonight, then. Hang in there, okay?"

"Okay," Angelica smiled. "I love you."

"I love you too," She could heard the smile in his voice. It was enough to cause a smile of her own to bloom on her lips. "Bye."

As she hung up the phone and returned it to Aaron, Angelica's smile evaporated. Aaron was trembling. Angelica didn't know if it was from anger or nerves, and frankly, she didn't care. He was not holding up well under the weight of the secret and that worried her.

"You have to tell him," He insisted between clenched teeth. "I can't walk around the office and see him every day and pretend that I don't know about this…this…thing. He's going to find out eventually, and when he does, he's going to kill me for helping you keep it from him."

Angelica raised an eyebrow. "Why is this bothering you so much? Haven't you ever kept a secret before?"

"Of course I have," Aaron exclaimed irritably. "I found Jefferson's Wedding Board on Pinterest in high school and was able to go without telling anybody. This is more than a secret, Angelica. This is like some life-ruining bomb. You can't expect me to just walk around and act normal about it!"

"Wait…Thomas has a Pinterest?" The smile returned.

"Yes, and it's just as amazing and embarrassing as it sounds, but that's not the point." Aaron hissed.

"If I promise to tell Alex when the time is right, will you show it to me?" Angelica asked with a hopeful smile.

"Fine," Aaron sighed, plopping down on the couch beside Angelica and typing a username into the search bar on Pinterest. In seconds, a profile popped up for Thomas. It was under a pseudo name, but it was obvious from the things he pinned and the comments he made, that this was unquestionably his.

"Oh, my god," Angelica's eyes lit up. "This just made my entire afternoon."

"Yeah, well, don't enjoy it too much," Aaron stood up and approached the front door. "I have to get back to work, where Alexander is probably assembling a small crew to make you soup. Think about how you're going to tell him, would you?"

"Sure, sure," Angelica waved him off, fixated on the Pinterest account.

Aaron sighed as he walked out the door.