Favorable (Jamilton)

35. Jefferson

The better part of Thomas's week was spent driving around. If he wasn't in class, he was driving around with someone from his chosen group of super sleuths trying to find Alex and Sam. On top of telling the police that Alex was officially a missing person, Thomas was using every second of free time that he found visiting places that Hamilton would have had even a remote interest in. 

He also developed a strong hatred for anyone walking around campus as a cop because they were doing less than nothing to help find them. At least in Thomas's eyes. They had a search party, but they were looking in obvious places. Cliched places. Anybody that's ever watched a criminal investigation show would know that the woods is the most common place to hide a victim, which is exactly why no one would do it.

Secret rooms and basements that don't exist would be the smartest choice and Thomas knew it. From his progress so far, that's where he expected them to be. 

Scared and cold in a basement with no ventilation and mold growing in the corners. . . It'd be dark, too. Too dark to know what time of day it is. Alex would try to keep himself alive as long as he possibly could, Thomas knew that much for sure. He'd stay alive. 

Jefferson tiredly walked out of the bookstore. He didn't remember going there before, but the shop's owner apparently did and he hadn't seen Alex or Sam.

Which is the same answer that he gave the first time. 

"Maybe we could call Jane, see if they found anything," Jefferson suggested when he got into the car. It was getting tedious asking around when he knew that nobody would know where they are. Maybe he was just looking for someone that looked suspicious. 

"I already did while you were inside," Lafayette said. "she hasn't seen anything." 

"That's fine, we'll just go check--" 

"Uhm, actually," Laf interrupted. "maybe we should head back?" 

Thomas looked at him in confusion. 

"Thomas, we've been out here for hours. That's not counting all the hours that we've spent looking this week, and you look like death. We can get some rest, come back out tomorrow and start again." 

"You want to stop?"

"No, I want to go sleep, get into a fresh mindset and start again tomorrow. I still want to find him, but we aren't going anywhere by checking the same places." 

"Yeah, you have classes tomorrow, right?" Lafayette nodded. "Alright, we'll go back. Maybe there's something in Alex's stuff that'll help." 

"Good thinking." 

Thomas dropped Laf back at his apartment building after listening to his reminders of how important sleep is. 

He texted everyone that he was done for the night as he went into the room. It was obvious that he needed to take a break from the looking, not like the ones the police were taking to gain more publicity, but he still felt like every second he wasn't out there looking was another second spent disappoint both Alex and his mom. 

She gave him one job to do, just make sure that nothing happened to her son and his lover, and so far he'd watched Alex get himself stuck in an illegal job ring, then a cult sort of situation, then he got kidnapped. Thomas seemed to be doing a bang-up job of keeping Hamilton safe. 

He sat down in front Alex's bed and started digging through the drawers to find a slip of paper or something that would help in the search. He felt like Alexander should have walked in and yelled at him for digging through his things, but Thomas figured that after a week it was safe to assume the obnoxious opinionated loudmouth wasn't coming home on his own. 

Which meant that it was in the hands of people like Jefferson to bring him back. 

And that was the most horrifying thought that Thomas had had during the entire situation. 

He didn't find anything in the drawers and there wasn't much else in the room to look through other than Alex's laptop which was already examined. Thomas sighed in defeat and pushed himself onto Alexander's bed. The covers were still wadded up and disorganized from the last time someone slept in it. Mostly because Thomas really wasn't one to be adamant about making beds. 

He flopped down and threw his arm over his eyes to block the light. Sure, he could have gotten up to turn off the light, but really he was almost too exhausted to breathe. 

It took a second before he realized the pillow seemed lumpier than it should have. He moved the headrest and found his letterman jacket wadded up into a ball and shoved under the pillow and almost in between the bed and the wall. 

So that's where that went, Thomas thought as he pulled the jacket out from underneath the pillow. 

He stared at it for a second in pure silence. It was so deafeningly quiet that he could practically hear the electricity buzzing in the walls. The jacket seemed way heavier than it really was and Thomas couldn't help but remember the times that Hamilton would either just take it or need it because he didn't bring a sweater of his own to wear. 

In specific, Jefferson remembered the first time that he ever gave the jacket to his roommate. They both hated each other and Alex was being a toddler and throwing a tantrum about not needing a sweater because of the cold and then silently regretting it when he got outside. Thomas laughed when he remembered the absolute stubbornness that Alex had. 

He thought about how far they'd come from that. They went from hating each other to dating each other and that's a pretty huge jump in feelings, depending on who you ask. 

Thomas sighed and hugged the sweater to his chest, pretending for a second, just one second, that he was hugging Alexander. 

"Don't worry, Alex, I'll find you."