Chapter 5
The next week, after his visit with Angelica Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton strolled through the doors of President Washington's office, shirt rumpled and hair pulled back messily with thick string and a scowl, ready to work. His bouts of absence usually happened quarterly and were usually highlighted by absolutely violent work ethic, humiliation at the core of his passionate return to society.
Hamilton hated himself for the mandatory absence his sex second required - but it drove him to work harder and faster than his alpha and beta counterparts. On a normal day, Hamilton worked in a flurry; on the days following and preceding his quarterly sick leave, he worked like a hurricane - drafting and destroying and revising document after document to stockpile and respond as quickly and efficiently as the omega knew how to make up for his absence. In the days of his youth, Hamilton could have managed, at the very least, to get some work done during his heats, but since the war (and Hamilton believed there to be mental trauma at play that affected his hormones) his heats had gotten too intense to do fiddle with papers or assignments.
While Hamilton's second sex wasn't a guarded secret, and he usually prefered to avoid the topic altogether because of the direction towards biases it usually took in the presence of less than open minded people and, indeed, many people knew of him because of his work with omega rights, the omega was a very private individual. The other members of Washington's workforce were not privy to Hamilton's quarterly predicament, though while the more observant employees had a hunch they were either too afraid of Washington to raise a fuss, or just didn't care enough to talk about it outside of rumors that tended to surface at the cusp of Hamilton's absence.
Hamilton'd been called into Washington's office at the conclusion of the cabinet meeting and found Washington sitting at his desk, hands steepled in front of him, the lines around his mouth etched deeper than Hamilton had ever seen before. "Have a seat."
Hamilton didn't and instead crossed the room to stand before Washington with a "No, thank you, I prefer to stand", arms crossed and ready to be chewed out by his alpha employer. Hamilton already knew he'd crossed a line - Jefferson had taken the extra week and used it to his advantage and, frankly, Hamilton was extremely, albeit begrudgingly, impressed. Hamilton had had to resort to verbal violence, something that didn't happen, or rarely happened, outside of a tavern, and the omega was rather ashamed.
Washington sighed and leaned back in his chair, "I'm surprised at you."
And Hamilton, despite his mental foresight, felt his stomach sink. "Sir, Secretary Jefferson -"
"- used his time to his advantage." Washington interrupted and concluded. "This discussion had been planned for the day he arrived, if you remember."
Hamilton locked eyes with Washington and grit his teeth, "Yes sir." The discussion hung in the air, not needing to reach a resounding culmination - Washington was aware that Hamilton hadn't been wasting his time during the past week, but the additional time had given Jefferson the advantage and just about ruined their efforts to produce an effective government financial plan. The meeting had been carefully arranged with Hamilton's heat in mind, but the early arrival of it had forced Hamilton into an unwilling and unprepared heat haze with no access to the outside world.
After a moment passed between the two of them, Alexander effectively swallowed his pride with a gritted out "I'll revise the bill and speak to Secretary Jefferson tomorrow."
"Make sure you do." Washington, letting the drop, pulled papers from a stack and handed them to Hamilton. "Jefferson left this yesterday." Alexander shuffled through them, gaining speed until he was practically ripping through the material. "Apparently, he'd heard about your impassioned arguments at the constitutional convention."
Hamilton sputtered, "But drafting a revision to my bill? How'd he get a copy?"
"How indeed," Washington murmured. "Despite that, he seems to adhere to your position on second sex equality."
The omega gripped at the papers, wringing them in his hands. His -no; Jefferson - because the alpha wasn't his - advocated for second sex equality. Most alphas admonished the alpha-beta-omega equality movement, ignoring the need for equality by arguing for the need for balance and stereotypes. If alphas lost their omegas, if they lost their hierarchical standing in society, what actually gave them power? And Jefferson, the same alpha that he'd argued with about the necessity of constructing a national bank, understood andadvocatedfor the equality of alphas and omegas? Even when he owned slaves? Hamilton felt both betrayed and awed at the audacity. And yet, hadn't Thomas Jefferson put to paper the idea that all men were created equal - and despite the hypocrisy, Hamilton could see, actually see the in written words in his hands, that the alpha did believe that all men were created equal.
And obviously Washington understood this, or else Hamilton knew Washington wouldn't have thrown Jefferson and Hamilton together. At micro-observational level, Hamilton somewhat understood that within himself and Jefferson possessed the drive and capacity to make change, change that Washington wanted to make during his administration. And now the President was showing the omega, with a literal proposal of both confidence and persuasion, that he required a certain level of fundamental cooperation between two members of his cabinet. Hamilton, while a bit impressed, felt intensely annoyed that he and Jefferson hadn't even begun their correspondence and Washington had already made the assumption that he and Jefferson weren't going to get along. Yet, the idea of being near the alpha, especially in light of - well -that,Hamilton felt himself breakout into a sweat.
Washington continued, "I expect, then, a fully reviewed, edited, and workable bill by the end of my administration."
