(no subject)

[iniquiticity]

Anonymous asked
For the war setting, what if it's Washington who gets hurt or captured (idk how that would go if you're the head general, so maybe not), and how Hamilton takes it.

Hey, this got long! So that’s cool. Features Deborah Sampson, Lafayette, Angelica.

SFW, just long.


It was an auspicious sign, to see their courier with very nervous eyes and chewing her lip. the woman had been through a lot, and what made her such a capable courier was the stern demeanor and the iron spine. that she displayed such anxiety made deborah very nervous over her desk as people flooded in with today’s post. washington was the best at organization, but he was out for obvious reasons (not to mention his present adventure out with one of the dragoon parties), and knox and sullivan were completely hopeless at it, so it left her.

“Post for the war room,” the courier said, referring to their group, and dumped the letters on deborah’s desk.

“Of course,” she replied, and dismissed the woman with a wave. If nothing the task was soothing in the inanity of it. organization. things in their place. nothing like war really was.

in the end she had been left with a single letter that had not been addressed to anyone, but only to their guard. it was clear that the thing should have likely gone to Washington, him being their esteemed general, and all. But Washington was not here. So she slid the seal open and scanned through the thing, and the color drained from her face as she read it.

“What is it?”



She looked up and General Hamilton was there, easily and without question the worst possible person to appear at this present juncture. She needed – she put the letter down and tried to control herself. Lafayette. There was no one more qualified for this issue than Lafayette. She stood, forcing herself to take deep breaths. “General Hamilton, your post is on my desk,” she said, in one breath, and practically ran past him, taking the letter with her.

“I would like to know that one,” he said, and he ignored the rest of his letters entirely as he followed her, keeping step through the camp. She ignored him. He did not like to be ignored, but he would like this much worse. They stood in front of Lafayette’s tent. Hamilton looked at the tent, and her, and the letter, and his face twisted in evident concern.

“Wait here,” she said to him, with the cadence of an order. He bit his lip. Usually no one gave Hamilton orders aside from Washington, and he had a habit of disobeying them. But he seemed to have gotten the impression of seriousness, and stood.

Lafayette was still sleeping. She sat on the side of his bed and give two rough shakes. He snapped awake, his usually cheery face twisting into a scowl. “Good morning, General Sampson,” he muttered, “The whole army better be on fire.”

“Worse,” she replied, and shoved the letter into his hand. “Read it.”

He sat up with a yawn, and took the letter, rubbing his eyes before he set himself to it. As he did, the same horror began to cloud his eyes.

“No,” he said, in unhidden agony, “no, this must be - this is a forgery. It has to be a forgery, Sampson. We do not – we cannot —–”

“Are you ready for the worse news?”

He looked up at her. “I suppose that I am.”

“Hamilton is outside your tent and he wants to know why I have rushed from my desk, into your tent, and woken you up.”

“That is worse news,” Lafayette agreed. He looked to think very hard for a moment. “He will know, when His Excellency does not return. He will take off in the middle of the night to rescue him. But how can we stop him? He is… well.”

“I know how he is,” Sampson said, with a grim smile.

“Where is General Schuyler-Church?” Lafayette asked, and he threw himself out of his bed and into his clothes. “We need her. I believe I recall that she was ordered here? Please tell me she is still here.”

“I believe that she is.”

“We need her.”

They took off together through the camp. Hamilton stared at them and followed, close on their collective heels. She would have liked to be less obvious about their emergency, but Hamilton was sharp. She could not pretend to reduce the scale of the catastrophe.

“General Hamilton,” Lafayette said, as they walked, “Myself and General Sampson will need you to audit the quartermaster, immediately.”

“You are making me do something so you can withhold information from me,” Hamilton growled.

Lafayette stopped mid-step, and Sampson almost overshot him. Hamilton glared. “That I am,” Lafayette hissed, and his easy demeanor had disappeared. Sampson knew, of course, that Lafayette’s familiar cheer hid a vicious soldier, “And you will do it, because I am ordering you to do, and so is General Sampson. I know you prefer your orders from General Washington, but he is presently absent, so you will respect your military command and show some discipline.”

The uncharacteristic snarl seemed to have an effect on Hamilton. The rage melted into a flash of concern. “Yes, sir,” he muttered, and took off in the other direction.

General Schuyler-Church - the oldest and most soldierly of the daughters - was drinking coffee and staring at a map. She felt their catastrophe immediately and stood, frowning.

“Angelica,” Lafayette said, “Washington has been captured and you need to present this information to Alexander in a way that will not make him immediately bolt to rescue him in the middle of the night.”

“What?”

Sampson handed over the letter. Schuyler scanned through it.

“Shit,” Schuyler said.

“Shit indeed,” Sampson agreed.

“We need John Laurens, but he’s not here.” Schuyler sighed, and threw the letter down over the map. “We know the exchange they want. We can do nothing else. But Hamilton will take off tomorrow, if he’s told. And nothing none of us will say can convince him. We’d have to manacle him to a wall to get him to not go, and he’d take the wall with him. He needs a cat’s bell.”


“Is there anything we can do to stop him?”

“I’ll send Peggy with him,” Schuyler said, resigned, “She’s probably eavesdropping on this conversation right now. I don’t know two other people who prefer to be places they’re not supposed to be and returning alive. I suppose if they’re caught then all we can do is say we didn’t condone it?”

“There must be a way we can stop him from going,” Sampson said, and she stared at both of them, who had exchanged determined nods.

“General Sampson,” Lafayette said, “You are welcome to try and stop General Hamilton from running off into the night without thinking of himself. But I have known him for some time, and I feel with confidence that, as General Schuyler said - if we were to manacle him to a wall, he’d take the wall with him.”

“I’ll tell him,” Schuyler added, and she gave the letter back to Lafayette. “And Peggy first.”

“Peggy?” Sampson echoed, confused. She knew that the two generals knew each other before the war, through Hamilton, who was secretly Schuyler as well.

“My youngest sister,” General Schuyler explained, “She is the person you want to have something that should not be done, done. Pick locks, decodes encryption, sneaks into military camps.”

“This seems like a very dangerous place to put two people you care about,” Sampson said, softly. She had two brothers, and both were in the war. One a doctor, the other a blacksmith. The thought of them sneaking into a heavily-guarded military camp to rescue the most important prisoner made her stomach twist.

“Our other options,” Lafayette followed up, “Are him going alone, or him going with a tail he tries to lose.”

“Peggy will think of this as an adventure. She’s the only person Hamilton trusts and respects enough to think she’ll actually contribute and won’t try to lose.” Schuyler stared back at the letter. “Shit,” she muttered. “Shit shit shit.”

“This should be a secret,” Sampson said. The three of them all nodded.

“Ok, find a place to be where Hamilton won’t harass you. I’ll tell him as soon as I can.” Schuyler took up off up the stairs, still cursing under her breath.

Lafayette nodded. “You were wise, to come to me about this, Sampson.”

Sampson smiled a grim sort of smile. “In lieu of being General Washington’s friend, I may have had a few good ideas, or two.”