AUTHORS NOTE: guys I might actually cry. Not only are we at the last chapter, but we got 2K reads. With everything that's been going on in my life right now, it's so fantastic to have support from you guys. I'll have another A/N at the end of the chapter but for now, thanks and enjoy.
- THOMAS' POV -
*5 years old after the previous chapter, Phillip is almost 6*
Eliza, Maria, and the 3 of us Hamilton-Jeffersons don't live together anymore. About 6 months after Alex and I got married, Mar and Eliza decided to move out and get their own space, and start a family. Today, we were going to visit them for the first time in about 2 months. We'd been very busy lately, with Phillip starting kindergarten, and Alex and I working.
I think over the past few years as I turn onto the road the Schuyler-Lewis's house is on. They hyphenated their last names at marriage just like we did. I find the address and park in the road by the mailbox. They bought a house with a big amount of land in the front, and the 3 of us love to walk through it.
Today's visit won't be like all the other visits, though. For all Pips life, we've told him Eliza was just a family friend; she had moved out around the time he turned 1, so it wasn't as hard to lie to him about who his mother was. We knew he'd still be a little confused, but we thought it would be the right time to tell him. He wasn't old enough to be mad at us for not telling him, and not too young that he would have absolutely no clue what was going on.
I decide to walk ahead, so I could clear my head a little bit. The long grass and wildflowers mixed with the fresh air always calmed me. I walked for about a minute until Alex caught up with me, holding Pips hand. His curly hair hit about his shoulders, and his brown eyes were full of happiness. My son.
"C'mere, Pip!" I say, holding my arms out to him. Philip laughs and I take Alex's hand.
"Ok, Philip, are you ready to go see aunt Angelica, aunt Peggy, and meet mommy?" Alex asks, ruffling his hair.
"Pip is ready!" Philip cheers. I scoop him up and twirl him around so he's laughing and giggling, then set him down. Me and Alex take his hands and we walk towards the house together.
Less than a minute later, we're in the house and everyone is surrounding Philip, talking about how big he is and asking about kindergarten. Eliza pulls me to the side.
"Were telling him today, right?" She asks. I nod in response.
"We can do it now if you want." I say.
"Ok. Hey everyone!" She calls, beckoning our family over.
Alex walks over to the chair in in and sits next to it in another, taking mine and Eliza's hands. I nod at him to let him k ow what's going on.
"Philip, can you come see Daddy?" He asks with a smile. Pip obliges and climbs easily into Alex's lap, curling into him the smallest bit.
"Pip, we have a special announcement for you." I say to him. Peggy gasps, realizing what's going on. She holds her hands over her very prominent baby bump contently when I nod at her to assure her she's right. Philip bolts up, excited at the mention of an announcement.
"What is it? I wanna know, I wanna know!" He says happily.
"Pops, can you tell me?" He asks me. I look at Alex in confirmation, to see if it was ok for me to tell Pip. He nods and I say,
"Well Philip, you know how you were asking about your mommy?" I say. Philip nods, remembering our conversation from about a week ago.
"Today you're going to find out who your real mommy is. You already know her, though. Do you want to guess?" I ask him. He nods his head rapidly and beams.
"Is it aunt Peggy?" I shake my head.
"Aunt Angie?" He asks, a look of confusion appearing in his face.
"Nope, not Peggy or Angie." I tell him.
"Aunt Maria?" I shake my head and he looks at Eliza, who's sitting next to us. He points at her nervously. It's weird seeing him so flustered, as he's usually more confident. He looks at me again.
"Yes. Philip, Eliza is your mommy!" I tell him. I hear cheering and see Peggy doing a little dance to try and encourage Philip. It takes him a second, but then he launches himself out of Alex's lap and onto Eliza's. He throws his arms around her torso and screams,
"Aunt Eliza is my mommy!", with a very happy voice. Eliza is stroking his hair and crying, a smile on her face.
"Yes, Philip. I am your mommy." She says, beaming down on him. I hear our friends aww in the background and I see Alex wipe away a tear as he watches our little boy.
"This was a good idea, right?" He asks.
"Definitely." I say to him. We both lean in and kiss quickly, but still full of the fiery love and passion each kiss, each glance, each touch always contains. We part and look at Philip, who suddenly is very tired and curled up in his mothers lap. I'm happy that we don't have anything to hide from him. He deserves the world, and Alex and I plan on giving it to him.
- ALEXANDERS POV -
After we leave Eliza's (with much hesitation on Pips part, he didn't want to leave his mommy,) we go back to our house. I walk in, my bare feet hitting the cold hardwood. Philip bounds over to the couch, where our miniature husky puppy, Tobillo, resides. Philip leans his head onto the dogs soft fur, and very quickly falls asleep, still on Tobi's stomach. I go to find Thomas, who's reading in our bedroom.
"Hey babe." I say, kissing him as I walk to our other chair. We like to sit there and talk or read or work in the mornings, so we have two and they're close to our bed so we don't have to move much. He sets down his book and smiles at me.
"Where's Pip?" He asks, a linger of a smile still on his lips.
"Asleep on the dog." Thomas laughs at this, and so do I.
"Did you take your medications?" Thomas inquires and I shake my head, standing up to get them. I walk to the master bathroom and fond my weekly pull organizer in the cabinet. Popping open the door for Saturday, I fill up a glass of water and swallow my pills. I still need to take them after what happened a few years ago when I stopped. Just as a precaution. I walk back out and pick up my phone, scrolling through my Instagram feed. I stop at a photo of Philip and Eliza, both beaming, from Eliza's account. The caption says: I will love you forever and always💕. I smile to myself at Eliza's sweet words to our son and like it, as well as adding to the comments already posted by our family. Then I decide to call Laf.
"Hey, mon ami!" He says happily.
"Hey Laf! What's up?" I ask. They couldn't stay the whole time when we got together today, they left a little after Philip found out about Eliza. He and Hercules were going back to France for a while.
"At the airport. We're about to board our flight." He replies.
"I'm going to miss you guys. How long are you staying?" I can't remember if they're staying there for a long time or not. Usually, they spend about half the year there and half in New York with us.
"Only 3 months this time, since we're going back later in the year." Laf explains.
"That's good. 6 months is a long time." I say with a sigh. It's hard when all our family is off vacationing, or working, or getting ready for a baby, in Peggy's case.
"I've got to go, Alexander, but I will call you when we land in Paris!" We say our goodbyes and hang up. I know I'd be seeing Laf and Herc while they were gone, probably at least 3 times a week on Skype. Laf loved Paris but hated leaving, so he called a lot to just check in and make sure all was well. I was happy though. He was practically my brother.
My thoughts shift to my real brother James. He and Angelica and Jasmine, who was almost 10, were moving to somewhere a little more rural and better for their family. Just a little outside of New York City. Eliza and Maria were staying where they were and looking for a child to adopt. I believe they actually settled on a pair of twins, two girls named Holly and Remi, both aged 3. They were about to start fostering them.
Peggy was pregnant. Like, very, very pregnant. Her due date was 2 days ago. She isn't worried though. She was a late baby herself, along with Angelica. Eliza was actually born right in her due date. I figured we'd be getting a call any day now about Peggy going into labor. I knew John would be a fantastic father. I was happy for him. He was still, and probably always would be, my best friend.
George and Martha are still amazing. They're the best grandparents to Philip we could ever imagine. Thomas's mother, Jane, comes and visits every once in a while, but Virginia is far and she doesn't have quite as much money as she used to, for some reason.
Little Sally Hemings, from Starbucks, is l grown up. She went from being a scared, minimally paid 16 year old with and infant, to a strong, financially secure and happy 26 year old with a great 10 year old son who Philip looked up to greatly. Thomas and I helped her get into colleges, and she visits every other week.
As for Thomas and I, we were both working. Me in the morning and afternoon and him in the afternoon and early evening. One of us was always here with Philip at some point, unless he was at school. Which, in fact, he was doing amazing in. Luckily, the combination of Eliza, Thomas and I's brains, he's very intelligent.
All was well with our little world. Our friends and family, and we were happy. Our problems, or the big ones at least, were in the past. Our only arguments now were hardly real or even relevant, usually about who forgot to buy milk and which of us left our dirty clothes on the closet floor.
I have to say, I never thought my life would be like this. Heck, a decade ago I didn't even think I'd be alive this long. But I am. I'm still here, I'm still ok, and I'm still in love.
"You good, darling?" Thomas asks. I realize I've been having a very deep thinking session for the past few minutes, and have been staring at a very specific spot on our wall, which is covered in picture frames.
"Perfect, love. I'm great." I respond truthfully.
I love this life.
I love my family.
I love my friends.
I love my son.
I love Thomas Jefferson.
And all my past pain, every problem,
Is worth it.
AUTHORS NOTE: crappy ending to the book! But I could think of anything else, so I tried to be happy dramatic. Not bad dramatic. I might make another fic for Hamliza or Lams, or even a oneshot book, but that'll be a little while. A week or so, maybe. I said earlier that I would write more in this authors note, so here it is. I want to explain to you guys why I haven't been posting as much. I told y'all it was depression and anxiety, which it is. The thing is, school started again and I have a really hard time with stress. I've cut in the past and recently I've been getting back into it. I'm trying to stop but if you've ever cut, you'd know it's very hard to. There we go. It's out there. That's why this book hits so close to home for me. With all Alex's problems, I felt like he deserved a happy ending. He needed one after all that I did to him. Also, we hit 2K reads! Thank you guys so much. I'm so happy this book actually went somewhere. I love y'all more than you know, not to be creepy or anything, lol.
For the last time, thank you so much for reading!! 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕
Word Count: 2156 words