Phew! This is the end of the road for this installment. Don't worry, the third is already mapped out and it's my hope to have it rocking this weekend. Thank you all so much for coming on this adventure. I feel bonded to all my readers, I'm a pretty lucky human. Can't wait for you to see what comes next!

"I still don't know why you think we need to be friends with the Burrs." I complained.

"They're our only 'parent' friends."

"Angelica has a kid."

"She has a kid, though. The Burrs have a baby. Just… it'll be fun. I really like Theodosia."

"Okay. Question, though. Where are we going to eat?" determined to poke holes into his plan.

John sighed, seeming not to have considered this, "family style on the couch."

Come on, I don't want Burr to see us be real people, he's supposed to think… ugh, "fine," I mumbled.

"You're such a petulant teenager sometimes, Alex. The power in that eye roll alone could be harnessed to bend steel." he smirked at me.

"I am not…" I crossed my arms, trying to puff myself up into being mad, but a smile broke free from my lips before I could catch it, "good use of 'petulant,' though."

He flipped his hair and inspected his nails, saying carelessly, "oh, did you like that? Thanks, see, I'm married to this really smart guy and so it just gives me this giant vocabulary that I don't know what to do with."

""Don't know what to do with it,' that sounds about right," I chuckled and grabbed a handful of his ass, "what was it you said last week, 'it's got plenipotentiary,'" was that it, because you thought that meant 'plenty of potential?'"

He blushed, "that's what it sounds like! I've heard you use it."

"Yeah, I work for a political publication, of course I use plenipotentiary."

"I still have no clue what that actually means," he giggled.

"It's like a powerful person in politics that's given executive decision making abilities, mostly when visiting other countries."

He nodded slowly, eyes glazing.

"But you used 'petulant' very well."

He rolled his eyes, "what a high compliment."

Unable to let wasting my last night with John on the Burrs of all people go, I grumbled, "ugh, do they have to come over? Can't we just cancel and you know… do something better?" I jumped up to sit on the counter behind him to make myself taller than him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pulling him in between my legs.

"That does sound fun." His voice was breathy.

"More fun than the Burrs. You're leaving me tomorrow, I don't really want to share you." I growled and anchored my heel around his hip and held onto the lapels of his sportcoat.

He swallowed hard and kissed me, I kissed him back, enjoying him being the one to lean up for once, breaking apart just to savour the sight of his neck elongated up, stretching to meet me, begging me to suck and bite my way across his throat to the creamy skin of his collarbone.

"I have to finish dinner." He panted.

"Let you finish something else later." I bit my lip and reached a hand between his legs, surveying the territory, pleased to find the tightness in his jeans.

"Dinner. They're probably already on their way." He reminded both of us.

"If you say so. Could just lock the door and pretend no one's home." I kissed him again, dragging my teeth over his bottom lip before sauntering into the living room to check on Philip where he was laying on his playmat, reaching for the suspended toys.

"I hate you." He grumbled, I watched him shake his leg while shifting his hips, trying to find a way to make his pants fit better and grinned at my handiwork.

"You can join my anti-fan club."

"Join it? I'm the president." He winked at me.

John was just finishing dinner when the Burrs arrived. Aaron had dark bags under his eyes and wore the most casual clothing I'd ever seen him in, Theodosia looked more put together, but equally careworn. I had Philip on my hip and Theodosia gushed over him while Aaron got their daughter out of her carseat.

"Nice to see you both." I smiled.

John came in and wiped his hands on the towel over his shoulder and cooed at the littler Theodosia. Philip, ever inquisitive, stared from his perch at my hip at the younger baby, watching John with her.

"Please have a seat." John offered of the couch.

We settled around the coffee table to eat, I felt the need to apologize for our lack of a proper table.

"It's New York, there's never enough room." Burr laughed off my apology. Damned charismatic.

I smiled, feeling like I wore my poorness on my sleeve, despite our lavish apartment.

"You can say that again, serious shock to the system coming from the house I grew up in. I thought I was living in a matchbox when I got up here." John agreed.

"Where are you from, again?" Theodosia asked.

John finished chewing his bite of salad, "South Carolina, uh, Charleston. You?"

"Jersey, Aaron and I both are."

John nodded. Theodosia complimented John's cooking, Burr agreeing that he wasn't sure they'd had a sit down meal since the baby came.

"You have a good place for me to change Thea?" Theodosia asked as we sat around chatting after dinner.

"Yeah, absolutely, here, follow me, this one's due, too." He picked up Philip and led Theodosia to the nursery, leaving Burr and I alone.

"You a whiskey man?" I guessed.

"Scotch, but whiskey's fine." He offered a glowing smile.

"Can I offer you a snifter?" I got up to get my own pour.

"Yes, please, that sounds… God, that sounds great. Thank you."

"You take it neat? Straight up? On the rocks?" I pulled down the glasses.

"Just neat's fine."

I brought him his glass and he took it gratefully, I sat back on the couch across from him.

He held his glass toward me, "to fatherhood?"

I clinked his glass with my own, "to fatherhood."

He took a drink, I watched him power through the burn, his face betraying little of the sting, his eyes bore into his glass and finally broke the silence, "hardest damned thing I've done."

I pushed my glasses up my nose, still getting used to their presence, and took a drink, "amen, I just… he smiles and I fall apart."

Aaron took another drink, "this world's so messed up, I wonder sometimes if bringing another baby into it was the right decision, but it just makes me want to work harder to make the world a better place, I'd bleed and fight for her… just make it right for her."

I nodded listening in the background to John and Theodosia's laughter from the nursery, "I just want to make the world safe and sound for him, Jesus, I'm making a million mistakes." I took a drink.

He chuckled, "me, too. They'll figure it out, though, someday they'll blow us all away."

"I don't doubt that. It's… I don't even know, pride's not the word I'm looking for… there's, there's so much more."

"Alexander Hamilton, speechless? Goddamn, I didn't know you came with that setting."

Our spouses came back, each other's babies in tow, "look, she's gonna be this big someday!" Theodosia looked between Philip in her arms and her own baby in John's.

John sat beside me, "can you believe we missed out on when he was this little?"

We all talked parenthood until the evening grew late, little Thea was long asleep in her carseat, Philip sleeping on John's chest. The Burrs left, looking completely exhausted. I locked up the door after them.

"Was that better than you thought it would be?" John whispered, stroking Philip's back.

"I guess." I rolled my eyes.

"I don't want to leave tomorrow."

I traced Philip's ear, "I know. I don't want you to go, either."

"I'm gonna get some really cool pictures of liftoff." He tried to find a smile.

"Yeah, you fucking are." I beamed at him.

"I just want to hold him forever. Little Thea made me realize how much we've missed already. I don't want to miss more."

"Not our faults, we got him as soon as we could."

"I know, just, what do you think he looked like when he was new?"

I contemplated it, "...squishier."

"Squishier? That's the best you've got?"

I shrugged, "pinker. I still don't get how it's possible for him to look so much like you."

"You feeling alright about holding it down while I'm gone?"

"Yup, I'll have to brave the grocery store, but, I think I can manage."

"I know you can… and remember, lotion after his bath."

I rolled my eyes, "you and your lotion obsession… yeah, yeah, I'll do it."

"Wouldn't hurt you to use lotion every once in a while with those ashy elbows."

"My elbows are fine." I furrowed my brows.

He giggled, "your elbow cut me last week while we were sleeping."

"Oh, fuck off, quit making stuff up." I chuckled at him.

"You sure you're gonna be okay?"

I leaned against him, trying to offer reassurance, "of course, we'll be fine. You going to let me show you how much I'll miss you?"

"I still need to pack." He winced.

"Christ, really? You leave in nine hours."

"I just didn't want to make it real yet."

I squeezed his knee, "you're going to be fine. We're going to be fine."

He nodded.

"Come on, let's put the baby down and we can get you packed… and then I can finally give you something to remember me by."

"Like what?"

"Morally, I can't tell you while you're holding our child."

He put Philip down for the night while I drug out his suitcase and, together, we got him packed, getting distracted in conversation.

"I haven't had a chance to tell you yet!" John gasped.

"What?"

"Remember how you said Laf's cousin got a job?"

"Yeah?"

"It's at the embassy. He's apparently some political affairs liaison, sort of like what Laf does. I got the scoop from Laf, apparently the dude's ambitious."

"How many liaisons do they need?"

John shrugged.

"That guy is such a pompous ass. Can't stand him."

We were done packing him, finally, and flopped into bed.

"I think I have everything." He curled up against me in bed and picked at the duvet.

"We'll be okay." I promised.

"I know."

I kissed his hair and turned off the lamp. In the darkness his lips found mine, we kissed slowly and sweetly. Hands on faces, lips soft and supple, legs weaving together. Our kisses slowed, becoming more and more tender the sleepier we got. I held him pressed against me and felt his eyelashes flutter shut on my cheek.

I lie in the darkness and listened to him sleep, holding him warm and pliant against me, watching the video feed on the monitor on the table on my side of the bed of Philip sleeping in his crib, he made little snuffling sounds, warm and cozy in his sleeper.

All was right in the world. More right than it should be, than I could ever hope to deserve. Somehow I had it, though, found a husband who loved, a baby we adored, a good job, a future. Things were okay. I was okay. I was better than I'd been in years.

John curled up tighter to me, his breath warm on my neck as he snored softly. I drew lazy circles on his back and stretched, nuzzling back against him, content with life and thought about everything we had waiting for us still, the million things we hadn't done.

Philip smacked his lips and I could hear the soft sounds of his rolling over in his crib, already so big. Hardly the scared, sick baby we'd brought home a month ago. He was surrounded by family and friends to love and dote on him. People who wanted good for him, wanted him to be happy and healthy and cared for… like what they wanted for me. We both had a community, taken in and grounded by John's love - his goodness.

Things were okay.