HAMILTON: Mr. President, you asked to see me?

WASHINGTON: I know you're busy...

WASHINGTON: What do you need, sir? Sir?

"Oh, but when I tell him he's busy he dismisses me," Angelica huffed, a trimmed eyebrow lilting up. She gazed at her shaped fingernails disinterestedly, and Alexander very much felt like he was in danger.

WASHINGTON: I wanna give you a word of warning...

HAMILTON: Sir, I don't know what you heard, but whatever it is, Jefferson started it-

Angelica somehow brought up a filer and began sharpening her nails. Correction.

Alexander was in danger.

WASHINGTON: Thomas Jefferson resigned this morning.

HAMILTON: You're kidding!

"No man could sing a lie so sweet," Alexander breathed emphatically, his hands clasped almost piously. But knowing everything that had happened, from Eliza's leveled gaze to John's shifting loyalties, he was nothing of the sort.

WASHINGTON: I need a favor-

HAMILTON: Whatever you say, sir, Jefferson will pay for his behavior-

"Such childish behavior."

"Oh, indeed," Hercules mocked in an exaggerated, snooty, French accent. One could almost imagine him twirling a mustache and dancing romantically with a baguette as Lafayette certainly did every night.

WASHINGTON: Shh, talk less.

"Brevity is a valued trait," Washington said, and all quieted to listen to his paternal advice. "But smiling is rather unneeded in my opinion."

Washington's head was held high, but his chin did not jut out like a king. It was obvious why he would make to be a respected president.

HAMILTON: I'll use the press, I'll write under a pseudonym, you'll see what I can do to him!

"Like Alex to do the opposite of what someone asked him to," Lafayette added, locking eyes with his angry little friend. "Remember when we told you not to drink all that brandy before a courting date, and in response you lovingly finished half the bottle and we had to call you in sick?

"I remember the vomit more than anything else," Alexander grumbled. "That week is a blur, to be honest. I think I met God."

WASHINGTON: I need you to draft an address-

HAMILTON: Yes! He resigned, you can finally speak your mind!

Alexander had no qualms about speaking his own mind, Burr thought quietly to himself. His calculating gaze shifted around the room. Alexander's face was tinged red, and Eliza was holding onto her sister's hands, the Schuyler sisters looking like a trio of vengeful angels.

And Burr, himself? Mouth shut, waiting for the prime time to assure himself. Waiting.

WASHINGTON: No, he's stepping down so he can run for President-

HAMILTON: Ha! Good luck defeating you, sir!

WASHINGTON: I'm stepping down, I'm not running for President...

HAMILTON: I'm sorry, what?

"I am not a king that will continue my legacy for as long as I can," Washington said earnestly. His hands, calloused from bayonet gripping, gestured vaguely at the screen, remembering the dramatic flairs of the mad King.

Eliza leaned into Angelica's elegant form. "Alexander, on the other hand, is downright obsessed with his legacy." Her voice was no longer meek, but she still confided in only her elder sister instead of sharing her thoughts out loud.

Peggy brushed a stray curl off of Eliza's cheek and tucked it behind her ear.

WASHINGTON: One last time..

Relax, have a drink with me, one last time…

"It's almost like he's dying," Peggy said aloud, dread furling in her stomach. "Or if it isn't, something is dying." Angelica nodded proudly at her sister's keen eye, the young woman obviously paying more attention that she began with.

WASHINGTON: Let's take a break tonight, and then we'll teach them how to say goodbye,

To say goodbye, you and I…

"Hamilton is at this point losing political backing," Madison began, realization slowly creeping up. "Considering the last song, this is the moment to strike."

"Like a cobra," Jefferson added, as an afterthought.

HAMILTON: No, sir, why?

WASHINGTON: I wanna talk about neutrality-

HAMILTON: Sir, with Britain and France on the verge of war, is this the best time-

"When has Britain and France ever not been on the verge of war," John said, head tilted down. His fingers were tapping incessantly on his thigh, a nervous tic Alex and his friends were familiar with.

WASHINGTON: I want to warn against partisan fighting

HAMILTON: But-

"Quite the opposite of...current events," Angelica said distastefully. Alexander and Jefferson very pointedly ignored her in order to enter a glaring contest, which ended as Washington sent them a sharp look. Lafayette, John, and Mulligan unconsciously mimicked Alex's death-glare.

WASHINGTON: Pick up a pen, start writing-

"Oh, he's never needed an invitation before," Eliza said. She was so bewildered she didn't notice she had said it aloud until chuckling and choked giggles surround the room. She leaned down into her seat, a pleased smile on her rosy lips.

She gazed at the screen so that she wouldn't have to see Alexander's lovestricken expression. More so that he wouldn't see her longing expression.

WASHINGTON: I wanna talk about what I have learned, the hard-won wisdom I have earned-

"His advice more so than his achievements," Alexander breathed, frowning at the (future) absence of his mentor. A small voice in his head perked up, whispering that he had a chance to run for president.

A glare from John vanquished that small voice, his internal Alex-Is-Being-Stupid Radar going off.

HAMILTON: As far as the people are concerned, you have to serve, you could continue to serve!

"That is the exact opposite of our values," Washington told Alexander, sternly but not unkindly.

"You need not scold me like a child, sir," Alexander replied quickly.

WASHINGTON: No! One last time…

"Funny since he's berating you like one."

WASHINGTON: The people will hear from me, one last time...

And if we get this right, we're gonna teach 'em how to say goodbye,

You and I-

"It's gone full circle," Burr mused, pretending to be disinterested. "From close-called battles to political catastrophe.'

"And we were the ones at the forefront of it," Alexander replied, staring into Burr's eyes. He was looking for something in them, but Burr did not know what.

HAMILTON: Mr. President, they will say you're weak-

WASHINGTON: No, they will see we're strong.

"You're both so different," John conceded. "Washington looks ahead of the scope, but Alex-"

"Alex acts in the moment," Eliza finished for him, a silent moment of solidarity neither would acknowledge.

HAMILTON: Your position is so unique-

WASHINGTON: So I'll use it to move them along.

HAMILTON: Why do you have to say goodbye?

"The nation does not need to fade like I must," Washington said. At this point, he wasn't even sure if he desired such a high position, but apparently his many mistakes were softened by the country's near worship.

WASHINGTON: If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on, it outlives me when I'm gone-

"A legacy," Alexander breathed. A figure frozen in time was everything Alexander wanted. He glanced at Eliza's nut-brown eyes, John's persistent freckles on the sides of his nose, Burr's pursed lips.

Yes, everything he wanted. It had to be.

WASHINGTON: Like the scripture says:

"Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid."

They'll be safe in the nation we've made.

"Our children will be safe in the nation we've made," Eliza murmured, brushing Peggy's soft hair back and thinking of her own little son.

"Our children are our legacy," she finished. Alex and Burr, two young fathers obsessed with the nation, suddenly remembered chubby fists and gummy smiles.

WASHINGTON: I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree, a moment alone in the shade, at home in this nation we've made.

One last time…

HAMILTON: One last time...

"It seems he's finally accepted the events," Washington noted. If only his own Alexander could do the same.

HAMILTON: Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error,

I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. I shall also carry with me-

"Fitting that Alexander be the one Washington trusts," Lafayette smiled a bit hesitantly.

"He's the writer," Mulligan chuckled. "Don't think I've ever seen him without ink smudges on his hands."

WASHINGTON/HAMILTON:

The hope (that my country will) view them with indulgence (and that)

After forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal

(The faults of incompetent abilities will be) consigned to oblivion,

"So many forget my mistakes," Washington confessed, in a rare moment of vulnerability. "As a man, as a general, as a father, and soon, as a politician."

"That is why you all are so important to the country," he continued. "You are the future of our fair nation. All of you."

As I myself must soon be to the mansions of rest

I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize the sweet enjoyment of partaking,

"And perhaps you need to partake in your own enjoyment," Washington said privately to Alexander. "Not papers and pens, young man."

In the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government,

The ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust

Of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers

"Alexander is speaking," Angelica mused, "while Washington is the one singing."

"He was always the one who could encompass my words," Alexander shrugged. "I'm just the one who wrote them."

WASHINGTON: One last time...

ALL WOMEN: George Washington's going home…

George's shoulders dropped almost imperceptively to those who did not know him. His own fig tree to lie under.

As George relaxed, his eyes scanned the reactions of his fellow Americans. Their expressions betrayed disappointment.

Well, George paid his dues.

HAMILTON: Teach 'em how to say goodbye...

COMPANY: George Washington's going home!

"An end of an era," Jefferson said respectively.

"And the start of the new one," Madison added. Alexander felt a rash itching.

WASHINGTON: You and I…

"We did teach them, I suppose," Alexander conceded, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding. "We will teach them. We must."

COMPANY: George Washington's going home!

WASHINGTON: Going home!

COMPANY: George Washington's going home!

WASHINGTON: History has its eyes on you!

"At times like these, I realize the eye of history is not nearly as welcoming as it is," Alexander confessed. When he first arrived in the colonies, he was so insistent on making his mark.

Now, he wasn't so sure if his legacy was quite worth it, when Eliza can't look him in his eyes and Burr had a tragic ending rivaling his own.

COMPANY: George Washington's going home!

WASHINGTON/COMPANY:

We're gonna teach 'em how to say goodbye!

(Teach 'em how to say goodbye!)

Teach 'em how to say goodbye!

(Teach 'em how!)

To say goodbye!

(Say goodbye!)

Say goodbye!

(Say goodbye!)

One last time!

(One last time!)

Time...

~o0o~

hey everyone! haven't updated bc ive been visiting fam in Pakistan and doing homework lol. ya girls bouta enter 11th grade!

ALSO OMG MY MOM TEXTED ME OUT OF NOWHERE AND WAS LIKE "wanna see Hamilton" ITS PLAYING IN MY TOWN i didn't tell my parents bc i thought it was too expensive sksksks were seeing it tonite

eighth grade me is QUAKING