While Eliza avoided Alexander's calls, texts, letters, emails, and eventual custody papers, Angelica tried to help her raise the three kids who were left in Alexander's wake.

Now seventeen, Philip looked exactly like Alexander. Baby, now fifteen, took after Eliza in almost every way but her eyes. Her eyes harbored incomparable intelligence, just like her father's. Junior looked like his own little person. He was chubbier than the other two, with bright red cheeks and flaming red hair. Now eight, he didn't possess the same haunting sadness that his other two siblings did. He hadn't been old enough when Alexander had left to allow it to crush his bubbly spirit.

But that was good. The house needed some light in it. Eliza always did say that Junior was her main source of happiness these days.

Johnny was fine, too, though Church didn't seem to know what to do with himself when he wasn't micromanaging every little thing the poor boy did; not that Johnny ever told him to fuck off. He was oddly indulgent of the family and its strange behaviors. He listened to Philip's tirades on every news outlet that continued to criticize his father with startling patience; he helped Baby with her homework every single night and even managed to strike up witty repertoire with her after some time of trying; he took Junior to all of his soccer games and helped him practice on weekends.

He must have figured that since Angelica was trying so hard to keep the family together, he should, too. Angelica was proud of him for that.

Church didn't seem to like Johnny's generosity towards the Hamilton family, though. Whenever he found Johnny tutoring Baby in the kitchen, he would remind Johnny of his own studies and his looming college applications. When he offered to help Eliza make dinner, Church would suggest that he work on getting a summer job. Angelica might have said something, but she so rarely saw Church that it didn't seem worth it. They had drifted apart since the Reynolds Affair. Angelica had sought comfort in the wake of Alexander that Church was not able to provide. Where she did find solace will hardly surprise anyone.

"Washington's stepping down this year," Thomas Jefferson mused, leaning against the pillar on the patio overseeing the Hamiltons' backyard. He looked at Angelica, who was watching him from the porch swing that Alexander had built six summers ago. "Jemmie seems to think that if I were to run for president, I might have a chance."

"Really?" Angelica raised an eyebrow. "I thought that the polls were showing favor to Adams."

"He's the natural choice," Thomas agreed with a shrug. "He's been Vice President for eight years. He knows more about the job than anyone else who could run. I respect him, and I think he'd do a fine job as President, only…"

"Only?" Angelica prompted what would surely be typical Thomas cattiness.

"Only, his foreign policy stances are archaic," Thomas complained, looking out into the backyard thoughtfully. "He wants to shut us away from the rest of the world, just when exciting things are starting to happen."

"Such as the imminent threat of nuclear war?" Angelica asked drolly.

"Among other things." Thomas smiled.

"So, what's stopping you?" Angelica decided with a sigh. She needed to wind down the conversation; the kids would be home from school soon. Like everything else, Philip had taken his father's stance on Thomas Jefferson and was rarely civil to him when he was over for dinner. To avoid disputes such as the infamous dinner of May 14th, in which Philip threw an entire basket of dinner rolls at Thomas' head, Thomas only came over during the day and only when he had something extremely important to discuss. "Go on and run for President. You know that you'd have my vote."

"What?" Apparently, time had sort of gotten away from Angelica. Philip had come out into the backyard to say some snarky comment to Thomas and had caught the tail end of the conversation. "He's running for President?"

Philip looked at Angelica fitfully, like she was somehow responsible for this fact.

"He's thinking about it." Angelica conceded, rolling her eyes. "Don't be disrespectful, Philip."

"He ruined my dad's life!" Philip gestured at Thomas angrily. "He ruined his career and his whole fucking life! He's the reason that we're not all together anymore. And you would vote for him?"

"Philip," Angelica admonished.

"It's a bit unfair to say that I ruined his life," Thomas interjected, very obviously not helping to de-escalate the situation. "It's not as though I forced him to sleep with that woman. A man like your father, well, I doubt he needed much convincing at all."

Before Angelica could tell Thomas to leave, or Philip to go inside, Philip had launched himself at Thomas with a startling amount of force. Thomas' nose was bleeding. Angelica was sure that was Philip's doing. The two were wrestling on the ground; Philip was trying to knock Thomas' skull into the pavement. Thomas was trying to wriggle free of Philip's grasp.

"Philip!" The struggle came to a halt when Eliza came out onto the porch. The severe tone in her voice indicated that, unlike Thomas, she was prepared to take Philip to task if he disobeyed her.

"Mom," Philip scrambled to his feet, wiping his bloodied knuckles on his khakis. "I wasn't, I…"

"Go get Mr. Jefferson some ice," Eliza commanded, not listening to Philip's bumbling explanation.

"But he -"

"Now." Eliza glowered at him. Philip slunk away, glowering down at the ground.

"You need to go," Angelica told Thomas once Philip was out of earshot.

"No, he doesn't." Eliza protested, kneeling down to look at the damage that her son had inflicted upon this man. "I am so sorry about him, Mr. Jefferson. Philip has been working with his therapist on controlling his anger. We will certainly be discussing this with his therapist tomorrow."

"He's just like his father," Thomas shook his head, staggering to his feet. "No sense of self-control."

Eliza's upper lip stiffened. Despite all that had happened, she still felt the instinct to defend Alexander. Angelica might have judged her for this, had she not felt the same way.

"Let's go, Thomas," She pushed him towards the backyard gate. She couldn't have him walking through the house, where Philip was undoubtedly sulking. It would only create more problems. "You've overstayed your welcome by about an hour."

"Will you call me tonight?" Thomas craned his neck to look at Angelica as he allowed her to push him towards the gate. "I really do need to figure this out. John Adams has asked me to consider being his running mate, but I'm sure that offer would fall through if he heard that I was considering running, myself."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll call you tonight. Go." Angelica got him through the gate in one final shove. She closed it behind him, like that would make him automatically disappear.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with that boy," Eliza whispered as Angelica returned to her. Angelica put her arm around Eliza's waist and guided her towards the house. "Every time that I think he's making progress, he goes and does something like this. Do you think that Mr. Jefferson is going to press charges?"

"Nah," Angelica shook her head with a small smile. "Though I'm sure that he would love to get under Alexander's skin, it's not worth it the year before an election. Suing a kid would make him look just a little bit like a comic book villain."

"Just a bit." Eliza agreed with a small smile.

As they walked into the kitchen to continue their conversation, they found Philip pouting at the kitchen table while Johnny oversaw Baby and Junior's homework proceedings. Philip looked up when Eliza and Angelica entered the room, his eyes wide and his cheeks tear-stained.

"Philip, you and I -" Eliza started what was sure to be a very strict and disapproving lecture.

"Can I take this one?" Angelica interjected with an apologetic smile.

Philip looked at Angelica in surprise but did not dare to hope that she would get him out of trouble. Behind them, Johnny's pen dropped as he turned to look at the proceedings with a sense of shock that Angelica would not understand for some time.

"Are you sure?" Eliza asked uncertainly.

"Of course. You've got enough on your plate. I can handle this." Angelica replied, her smile broadening. She nodded towards the kitchen entryway, which fed out into the living room. "Why don't we talk in the living room so these guys can do their homework in peace?"

"Okay," Philip still wasn't willing to get his hopes up just yet. He was so cynical; just like his father.

Angelica shepherded him into the living room, sitting beside him on the couch.

"You really don't like Thomas, do you?" She tried to start the conversation off lightly.

"He ruined my dad's life," Philip mumbled sullenly.

"How do you think that he did that?" Angelica asked with a small sigh.

"Dad told me what he did." Philip turned to look at Angelica seriously. He looked more like Alexander than ever when he was angry. "He told me that Jefferson blackmailed him so that he had to come out with the whole Reynolds thing."

He never said the word "affair." No one ever corrected him. He idolized his father; no one wanted to tell him that Alexander was not the man that Philip believed him to be. If Philip didn't know that by now, he never would.

"That was unkind," Alexander had told Angelica this same story. She'd talked it over with Thomas, who had confirmed that he knew about the affair but refused to take credit for the blackmail itself. Apparently, he'd tormented Alexander with knowledge of the affair for a little while before throwing the information to Aaron Burr and letting him use it for blackmail. "He shouldn't have done that, but Philip, you know that that's your dad's battle, don't you? You don't have to rush to defend him every time that you think you should."

"He's my dad," Philip didn't seem to understand this concept. "And it's not like anyone else is going to stand up for him. You and Mom hate him, everyone on the news only says the bad stuff about him, and now…is Jefferson really running for president? He'll ruin Dad. He hates him."

"He won't ruin him," Angelica knew that was untrue. "He'll have bigger fish to fry."

Philip looked at her, frowning. God, he looked so much like his father.

"You really don't like this, do you?" Angelica wavered.

"I really don't." Philip seemed to melt into the sofa, his expression resigned.

"Okay," Angelica grabbed her phone from her back pocket. She waved it in front of Philip's face. "I'll tell Thomas to back off of the campaign. Would you settle for him being John Adams' running mate?"

"You can do that?" Philip looked at her in disbelief. "I mean, he'll just…listen to you?"

"Sure," Angelica scrolled through her phone to get to her text conversation with Thomas. "Why wouldn't he?"

"Are you fucking him?"

"Philip!"

"Dad says that you are."

"Your dad shouldn't be telling you anything like that," Angelica admonished, shaking her head. "Especially because he knows nothing about it. Thomas and I are friends."

"So you can just make your 'friend' not run for president?" Philip prompted with a small smile that looked eerily similar to the look that Alexander used to give Angelica.

"We go back," Angelica rolled her eyes. "Anyway, don't tell the other kids what your dad's been saying, or I'll tell your mom that you and I agreed that you were grounded for a month."

"So I'm not grounded?" Philip's smile widened. God, he really looked so much his father.

"No," Angelica couldn't help but smile as well. "Not yet you aren't. But don't make a habit of going around punching politicians. Eventually one of them will sue."

"I thank everyone who recommended that I might myself seek candidacy this year; it is flattering to know that my country and peers feel that I am worthy of such recommendations," Thomas read his speech mechanically, not looking at the small cluster of reporters who had gathered for his press conference. He had never been much of a public speaker. "However, I am unable to act on such recommendations, as there is a candidate who I believe in more than myself: Mr. John Adams."

"Thank god," Philip murmured, stuffing his face with the popcorn that Eliza had prepared. He offered Baby a bite without looking, retracting the bowl after five seconds without even asking. He knew she wouldn't eat - the girl only ate when Eliza forced her to. He only offered out of courtesy.

"He wouldn't have been a bad president," Johnny remarked from the armchair beside the couch, looking at Philip patiently. "I still think he's a better candidate than John Adams."

"What do you know about John Adams?" Angelica asked him amusedly.

"I looked up his platforms," Johnny answered uncertainly. He wasn't used to Angelica teasing him the way that she teased Philip. They weren't particularly close; he took after Church too much for them to be very close. "I've never heard of anyone being so conservative about the First Amendment."

"Yeah, well, Jefferson hates my dad," Philip commented, as though that was the only platform worth worrying about.

There were murmurs among the group of reporters onscreen, but no one clapped at Thomas' lofty compliment. Still, sitting in a chair behind Thomas, John Adams beamed.

"I fear that if I were to assume the role of a president - indeed, even if I were to only assume the role of a presidential candidate - I would be doing the American people a disservice. I am currently far too occupied with the upbringing of my daughter," Thomas gestured off-screen to his daughter, Polly, who rolled her eyes and shook her head. It was no secret that she loathed her father. She was roughly Baby's age and was going through her angsty teen years. The angst was extenuated by the fact that she lost her mother when she was young and her father was relatively absentee. "As well as managing the charity that she and I started on behalf of her mother."

"Please," Philip rolled his eyes, popping another piece of popcorn into his mouth. "He only started that charity so he could talk about it in the press."

"He might be a good guy," Johnny disagreed with a shrug. He looked at Angelica in askance. When she didn't contribute anything to the conversation, he continued. "You can't let your dad decide how you look at politics forever."

Those sounded like Church's words.

"Why are you taking his side?" Philip demanded roughly, turning to look at Johnny. He glanced at Angelica narrowly. "Why are both of you so determined to take Jefferson's side? Don't you know what he did?"

"I'm just saying, I don't think that you should -"

Philip stood up and stomped out of the living room. Hearing him climb up the stairs, Eliza popped her head out of the kitchen, where she and Junior were baking cookies for some girl in his second-grade class.

"Philip, where are you going?" She called up the stairs.

"I'm going to Dad's," Philip called from his room. His words were paired with a rustling sound - he was packing a backpack.

"What?" Eliza emerged from the kitchen and placed herself at the bottom of the stairs, her arms folded across her chest. "No, you're not. You're not supposed to go to your father's until next week. You're touring Columbia in two days."

"I'll catch a ride with Philip and Uncle Church," Philip announced, appearing at the top of the stairs with his backpack slung over his shoulder. "You know Pop won't let me miss a college tour. I think he's stricter about it than you."

"You're not going." Eliza's voice wobbled as Philip descended the stairs, placing himself directly in front of her. He towered over her.

"I am," Philip spoke softly, the corner of his mouth curving into a placating smile. "Just for a little while. I'll be back in a few days, Ma. I just miss Pop."

"You'll see him in a week." Eliza reminded him, her voice not carrying much weight.

"I'll call you when I get there, Ma." Philip kissed Eliza's cheek before passing her and approaching the front door.

As he walked out of the front door, Eliza turned to look at the rest of them, her lips pursed.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Betsey," Johnny immediately apologized. "It's my fault. I didn't know that he would get so upset about Mr. Jefferson. Should I go with him? I'll apologize and try to get him to come home, and -"

"No," Angelica shook her head, looking at Johnny sternly. "We don't need another one of you running off to Alex's apartment. Eliza, I'll give him a call."

"Thank you," Despite working with Alexander to reach a custody agreement without the involvement of lawyers, Eliza still did not like speaking to Alexander any more than she had to. Every single time that she saw him, she hurried home to watch his press conference, to remind herself how badly he had hurt her.

Angelica sighed as she exited the room to call Alexander, pretending that she didn't have the same aversion to speaking to him that Eliza did.

"Annie," Alexander answered on the first ring.

Angelica's eyes narrowed. "Don't call me that."

"Angelica," Alexander sighed. He sounded older. "What's going on? Are the kids okay? Is Betsey okay?"

"They're…yeah. Philip and Johnny just had a little argument over Thomas being John Adams' running mate, and now he's headed your way."

"Shit," Alexander breathed. He started rustling around. Angelica heard the distinct sound of bottles clinking together. She decided against asking him what he was doing. "Is he planning to stay here? Isn't his tour of Columbia coming up?"

"He says that he's going to go with Church and Johnny," Angelica lowered her voice, looking around to see if Eliza was listening from the doorway. "But I don't think Eliza likes that. She was really looking forward to taking him; it's the only school he's interested in going to. Give you five guesses as to why."

"He's a good kid," Alexander asserted among the rustling. "He'll love Columbia. I did. What's so wrong with him going with Church and Johnny?"

"Johnny doesn't really want to go to Columbia," Angelica answered as though it were obvious. "Church is trying to push him towards a school that's closer - that, or Yale."

Alexander scoffed. "Yale."

"Anyway," Angelica didn't feel like discussing Johnny's college decisions. "You need to tell him to come back when he gets there."

"What?" Alexander asked incredulously. "It's a thirty-minute train ride to my apartment. It'll be dark by the time he gets here. Wouldn't it be safer for him to stay the night and go home after school?"

"Alexander," Angelica warned him. "I know what you're doing."

"He's my son, Angelica." Alexander didn't back down. "I am entitled to some time with him - especially if he decided to come here all by himself."

"He needs to go to the college tour." Angelica asserted. "Eliza doesn't think that he'll go to any other school if he doesn't get into Columbia."

"He'll get in." Alexander insisted. "I'll take him myself. That's gotta count for something, doesn't it? His alumni father bringing him?"

"His disgraced politician father taking him? I don't know," Angelica bit back.

"Please," Alexander begged. "I'm already missing so much - I only get to see them once a month for a few days. Let me do this with him. I'll take Johnny, too. At least let me ask him."

Angelica looked over at the doorway. She thought of Eliza, who was probably agonizing over whether Philip was going to go to the tour at all. She thought of Philip, who was so goddamn stubborn when it came to his father. She thought of Johnny, who was agonizing over whether he had hurt his best friend's feelings.

"Fine." She agreed at length. "But Eliza reserves the right to go along with you. And if she does, she doesn't have to talk to you. And Church gets to go if he wants to, too. And you can't talk about Thomas Jefferson."

"Is that all, counsel?" Alexander asked sardonically.

"Think about that tone of yours or I'll change my mind," Angelica warned him.

Alexander chuckled. "Goodbye, Annie."

"Don't call me that," She protested, but he had already hung up the phone.

Rewind

Angelica didn't want to tell him - oh god, she didn't want to tell him - but she would be damned if she would get a second abortion without first asking Alexander for his opinion. The first one had been difficult enough - she doubted that their marriage would survive a second.

"Annie," Alexander looked across the dinner table at her inquisitively. "Are you alright? You haven't touched your dinner."

Angelica swallowed hard. She hadn't had much of an appetite since her doctor's appointment. She looked up at Alexander resolutely, determined to tell him.

"Annie," Alexander's eyebrows furrowed. "What's the matter? You're worrying me."

"I, um," Angelica's voice was raspy. She paused to take a gulp of water, thinking through every word that she would have to say to him. She swallowed and looked back up at him. He was still staring at her with concern, oblivious to the truth. "I'm pregnant."

His face lit up. He didn't realize why this wasn't good news yet.

"Annie, that's great!" He allowed himself this moment of joy before allowing realism to crack through. "Are you…I mean, do you want to…you know that I would do anything to help if you…"

Angelica watched him struggle to think of a way to ask her to keep the baby.

"Alex," Angelica shook her head. She didn't want to make any sort of decision before she told him the truth. "There's something that you should know…"

"Wait," Alexander was starting to figure it out. "How far along are you?"

There it was.

"A month," Angelica didn't meet his eyes.

"A month?" It was painful to wait for Alexander to get to the conclusion that Angelica had reached the moment that she heard the timeline. "But that would mean…Angelica."

Angelica looked up at him guiltily. His joyous expression had morphed into a furious one. His face was reddening. His jaw muscles were taut. His eyes were flashing with anger.

"Is it Jefferson's?" His voice was dangerously quiet.

"No," Angelica hoped that he would be less angry by that fact.

"Aaron's?" His anger was flecked with disbelief.

"No," Angelica shook her head, wrinkling her nose in a knee-jerk reaction. "Of course not."

"Then whose?" Alexander's brows furrowed. Disbelief and anger were now swirling around in equal parts. "You can't act so fucking sanctimonious when I can't even guess who the father of this baby might be."

Angelica frowned at him. He was being cruel, but it was deserved.

"Whose is it?" He demanded.

"Church's." She answered meekly. She looked down at her plate, knowing that Alexander's temper was only going to get worse.

"Church?" Alexander echoed. He choked on the word.

Angelica looked up from her plate, her eyes pleading for Alexander to understand. "You had just cheated on me, and…"

"I don't fucking care why you did it," Alexander stood up from his chair. Angelica stood up, too, although she did so much slower than he did. Her eyes warned him against approaching her. He obeyed, gripping the sides of the tables so tight that his knuckles were white. "I care that you chose him. Why the fuck did you cheat on me with your high school boyfriend? Or should I be angry because he's your fucking boss?"

"Not anymore," Angelica protested weakly. "I quit a few weeks ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Alexander's sarcasm was biting. "You're right. That makes you fucking Church much less bad."

"You fucked Maria Reynolds," Angelica reminded him, gaining a bit of confidence. "And you expected me to forgive you for that. What's the difference?"

"The difference is that I wasn't in love with Maria in high school," Alexander snapped as though it were common sense.

Angelica rolled her eyes. "I wasn't in love with Church, either. You know that."

"Then why'd you do it?" Alexander wasn't arguing coherently. That only seemed to make him angrier.

"Because he was there!" Angelica had had enough. "Because he was there and you were never there. When you first started working for George, I tried to tell myself that it was because you were just too busy and that you were trying to make a name for yourself. But you found time to be there for Maria. You found time for someone else. You weren't avoiding coming home because you were busy with work - you weren't coming home because you didn't want to. Because I wasn't enough for you."

Alexander looked at Angelica long and hard. Angelica glared back at him resolutely.

Alexander broke the stare down first. He left the dining room without another word. Angelica was left listening to the sound of his heavy footsteps followed by the sound of his office door slamming shut.

Angelica had not been left alone in the house since Alexander's return from New York. He had taken special care to make sure that she was not alone; knowing how much she hated it. Now that she was left alone, the silence was suffocating.

Doing what she did best, Angelica left. She grabbed her car keys and walked out the front door. If Alexander wanted to pout, he would be left to pout in an empty house.

"Angelica," Thomas was surprised to find her standing on his doorstep. "What are you doing here?"

Angelica blinked back the tears burning her eyes, frowning in an attempt to control her quivering lips. "Alex and I…"

"Come in," Thomas ushered her indoors straight away. "Are you hungry? I just cleaned up after dinner. I didn't have anything too special, but I think that there might be some leftover macaroni and cheese in the fridge if you want."

"No," Angelica shook her head, rubbing her eyes with balled-up fists. "Thank you. I don't…I don't know why I'm here."

"Okay," Thomas wasn't going to press.

"Alex is just such an asshole," Angelica couldn't sit in silence. "He acts like he's the only one in our marriage who's allowed to be imperfect. Like I'm supposed to just sit around and forgive all of his mistakes without making any of my own."

"What did he do?" Thomas asked just a bit too eagerly.

Angelica shook her head, not wanting to tell him. Mostly because she knew that Thomas would be just as upset as Alexander had been. She had no desire to have another argument about something she already regretted.

"Do you think that this is it?" Thomas tried to sound grave, but Angelica saw right through the act. "Do you think that you might not be able to work through this?"

"I don't know," Angelica answered miserably. "It was pretty bad."

"Aw," Thomas put an arm around Angelica, pulling her close to his chest. "Well, maybe it was for the best."

"No," Angelica pushed Thomas away from her.

"Angie, what are you -" He furrowed his eyebrows, looking at her.

Five knocks on the door interrupted Thomas' line of questioning. Alexander's knocks. Angelica was relieved. She didn't want to have another conversation with Thomas about not wanting to move out of her house and move into Monticello. Angelica just couldn't imagine a life with anyone other than Alexander, and Thomas' bid for the Vice Presidency would only further convolute the situation as it were.

The knocks sounded a second time. Thomas looked at Angelica dispassionately before removing his arm from her shoulder and shuffling towards the front door.

"Is she here?" As soon as Thomas cracked open the door, Alexander burst through. He looked around, presumably for Angelica. When he finally saw her sitting on the couch in Thomas' living room, he walked over and sat down right beside her. He ignored Thomas, who was still working on blustering out a response to his presence.

"Alex?" Angelica looked from Alexander to Thomas confusedly.

"Annie, I -" Alexander paused, turning to look at Thomas, who was standing on the threshold of the living room. He was staring at the two of them, watching them like one would watch a TV show. "Could we have a moment?"

"You're in my house." Thomas reminded him sulkily.

"This is my wife," It seemed that Alexander was growing more possessive as time went on. "And this is a conversation about my marriage. I think that merits some privacy."

"Thomas," Angelica interjected, smiling at Thomas in the hopes of placating him. "Please."

"Fine." Thomas huffed, beginning to shuffle in the direction of his study. He glanced at Alexander over his shoulder, his expression pointed. "I'm coming back after ten minutes."

"Don't be an ass-"

"Thank you," Angelica cast Alexander a warning look. She was mildly surprised when he obeyed the look and closed his mouth. As Thomas disappeared from sight, she turned to look at Alexander again. "What are you doing here?"

"Look," Alexander didn't meet her eyes. He looked like he was working for every word that came out of his mouth. "I know that this baby might not be mine, but that doesn't…that doesn't mean that I don't want it."

Angelica looked at Alexander in disbelief. Seeing this, Alexander shrugged and continued.

"I've waited so long, and I just feel like this might be our last chance," He picked at a thread stemming from the hem of his sweater as he spoke. "You know, when you first left, I called all of the doctors in your address book to make sure you hadn't set up an appointment without telling me again."

"Alex," Angelica disapproved.

"I know," Alexander held his hands up in resignation. "I'm not proud of it. I'm usually good at respecting your space and your privacy, but I just…I feel so powerless. I've never wanted something that I couldn't get for myself before. It's completely in your hands and it's driving me crazy."

"You really want this baby?" Angelica asked dubiously.

"I really do." Alexander didn't hesitate.

"Okay," Angelica sighed.

"Okay?" Alexander looked at her with just a hint of excitement; he didn't dare commit to more than that.

"Okay." Angelica agreed, letting out a sigh and smiling.