The warm lights of the mansion provided an aura of safety around the carriage, as Gilbert fixed the horses. It was early in the morning, and Adrienne was entirely exhausted. The children were still asleep in the coach, and they'd agreed that this time, Gilbert would be the one to talk to the Secretary.

Adrienne groggily laid her head back against the seat, and closed her eyes, just for a second, images of warm beds, decent food, and a hairbrush to tame her frizzy locks dancing in her head. The sky gradually stained to a pale grey color, the birds beginning to chirp in the trees. Most likely, it was somewhere around six A.M., and she'd stayed up all night.

In no less then ten minutes, though, Gilbert returned with a wide smile on his face.

"Did you speak to Thomas?" Adrienne guessed. "He said we could stay?"

"Thomas isn't awake, yet." He laughed, throwing open the door to the coach, and leaning inside to lift little Georges out from his seat. That was when she noticed the small, lithe woman trailing behind her husband with a shy, yet eager smile.

"Sally!" Adrienne smiled, and hopped down from the coach, arms outstretched to her friend. "It's been ages!"

The girl beamed ear to ear, and wrapped Adrienne in a warm hug. "Adrienne! I missed you!" She replied, her American accent almost drowning the French words. Sally had never exactly been the best at the language, and her sentences were still choppy, and somewhat forced. It was no matter though. She spoke more French than Adrienne spoke English, so it balanced out. "How long will you be staying with us?"

"I think that depends on what Monsieur Jefferson says." Adrienne sighed. "Hopefully, until the war in France ends."

Sally snorted a laugh. "Please. This is Jefferson we're talking about; he'll let you stay until the next war starts up."

Adrienne smiled softly, as Henriette sleepily slipped her small hand into her mother's. "Henny, you remember Mademoiselle Hemings?" She wondered with a small smile.

"Oh, goodness, you're Henny?" Sally knelt down to get on eye level with the eight-year-old girl. "You've grown so much!"

Henriette gave timid smile, before burying her face in Adrienne's skirts.

Gilbert strode up beside her, Georges in his arms, asleep on one shoulder, and Marie clinging sleepily to his sleeve. "Sorry to break up a heartfelt moment, but I think we're in dire need of a few beds."

"Of course, I'm so sorry." Sally laughed, and led them in the grand, beautiful front doors of Monticello.

Within five minutes, Sally had found enough guest rooms for the five of them, and Adrienne collapsed on the soft, goose-down mattress. Quietly, Gilbert sat down on the bed next to her, and began pulling out her hairpins.

"Leave them." She murmured. "I can deal with my hair when I wake up."

"How about… no?" He smirked, and fondly caressed her cheek. "You can't sleep with your hair up, and your shoes on."

"Watch me."

He chuckled softly at her exhausted state. "This is why you should have slept while I drove."

Adrienne hummed softly, too tired to remind him that if she'd slept, there would have be nothing keeping him awake. In a state of half-doze, she allowed him to take down her hair, slip off her shoes, and pull the soft comforter up to her neck, before he slipped under the covers, himself, and hugged her closely to him. "I love you, Addy."

"Love you, too…" She whispered, and then she was out like a light.

Gilbert awoke with a start at the chiming of the clock in the corridor outside. To his dismay, he noticed the sun was already high in the sky, and Adrienne was long gone.

For a moment, a curling tendril of panic wrapped around his heart at the deathly, awful silence, the horrible stillness only broken by his breathing and thudding of his heart.

Yes, he knew there were people in the house, but it had only been two months since he was in total solitary confinement, and the dreaded silence was still a horror to him. Hurriedly, he slipped on his boots and coat, and tied his hair up out of his face, before racing down the hall to find his wife, his children, any other human being to converse with, and ran head-long into…

"Laf!"

He glanced up to see Monsieur Jefferson himself, with a wide grin on his face. "Finally decided to join us in the land of the living, huh?"

"Uh… yeah…" Gilbert forced a smile, shoving his panic down. It was fine. He was with a friend. He wasn't in prison any longer. "What time is it?"

"Half past noon." Thomas laughed. "It's good to see you, my friend. I'm sorry I missed you, when you came in this morning. Business in Washington totally wore me out. I actually only got here a few hours before you did, you know."

"Secretary of State, right?" Gilbert inquired. "How's that going for you?"

"Oh, actually, I'm not secretary, anymore." Thomas shrugged ruefully. "No, I quit that job two years ago."

"Really? Are you a congressman, then?"

Thomas grinned cheerfully, and shook his head. "Nope. Guess again."

"Senator?"

"Not even close." Thomas' eyes twinkled joyfully. "You're looking at the vice president of the United States of America."

"Vice president?" Gilbert's eyes widened n awe. "That's amazing, my friend! Congratulations!"

"Thank you, thank you." Thomas did a fake-bow. "What about you, though? You didn't tell me Georges was so adorable!"

"I didn't?" Gilbert raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I could've sworn…"

"It's fine. He's precious, either way." Thomas laughed. "Sally's taken a shine to him, and they're best friends, already. Are you hungry? I find myself craving macaroni."

"You always find yourself craving macaroni." The Marquis teased cheerfully. "But, for once, I think it would not go amiss."

I honestly don't know why this story has such short chapters. *shame face*

Fact check: Henriette died during the American Revolution. She's alive, here because I'm too lazy to figure out the name of Lafayette's third daughter. :D

Fact check #2: Technically… Sally Hemings and the rest of the servants on the Montijello estate were, historically, slaves. But, only because, at the time, it was a legal pain in the butt to liberate slaves in Virginia. If my sources are correct, Jefferson was, in fact, an abolitionist, and in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, one of the reasons stated for leaving Britain was because they were imposing slavery on African people. He was actually thrown in jail a couple times for illegally freeing his slaves. That's why I'm going to be depicting the (historically) slaves, here, as paid servants. They… weren't? But if Jefferson had his way, they would have been. The musical made Jefferson out to be this terrible pro-slavery guy, when, in truth… he kinda wasn't.

TheOnlyHuman.