Hamilton / Lams Oneshots

Time Travel (Philip - Angst) Pt. 1 [Time Travel AU]

Requested by PhilipHamiltonPoet!

This doesn't have angst yet, it's only the lengthy unnecessary beginning, but it took me so long that I didn't want to keep you waiting for me to finish it, sorry. I'll try to get to Pt. 2 as quick as I can.

"Day 638, I've gotten close. A few of the mechanics are still malfunctioning, but once I have that fixed I can do a test run. I hope..." I pressed the pause button on the tape. What did I hope? What was my goal in all of this? Almost two years I'd been building this invention, and yet I had never asked myself what for. I guess I just wanted to take my research further, find out things not written down in letters, documents, notes that miraculously survived the years. I could travel to ancient Rome, to the Inca, so much more. History books would be more detailed than ever, closer to reality than ever. That was my goal.

Disregarding the never finished voice note, I stood up from my desk and put on my coat by the door. I couldn't wait any longer, I'd just have to chug a cup of coffee and go. Stepping out the door to the apartment complex I lived in, I was met with cold air. Winter was approaching fast, so much was sure. I walked down the street since public transport wasn't going at this time of day, luckily 7/11 was still lit. I walked inside and grabbed a few energy drinks, together with a cup of coffee, then continued my way to the lab. (Please keep in mind I have no clue what 7/11 offers.)

20 minutes later, and I stood in front of the doors to my lab. I took out my keys and turned it in the lock, surprised to find the door open. Had I forgotten to lock it? I stepped inside, and found that the heater was on, the lights were lit and at the desk was my assistant, a young man at the age of 18, sitting over what seemed to be... a rubik's cube?

"Jonathan?" He shot up and scrambled to stand. "Dr. Peters, I didn't expect you to come here this late!" "Don't worry, I didn't expect you to be here either. How come you're not at home?" "My roommate has her girlfriend over and I didn't want to third-wheel." I nodded understandingly, pulling off my coat and making my way over to the other room. "You'll work on it?", I heard him ask. I just nodded. "I have to finish this now, otherwise I'll be restless until I have."

Jonathan followed me into the side room, its walls were decked with electric wiring and cables, with a platform in the middle of the room. It looked almost like some sort of science fiction novel, some scene of an adventure that you could find in a 14-year-old's head. After all, that's what this all is, but let's not get into that.

I walked up to one of the many electrical panels, readjusting a few of the cables, careful not to make a mistake that might fully change the whole construction. Half an hour later, me and my assistant were standing in the middle of the room, with Jonathan looking rather nervous. I will spare you of details, but after a few more caregul calibrations, we were ready to make the test run. "Dr. Peters, are you sure this is okay?" I ruffled through his dark hair, and smiled. "I've never been so sure in my life, Jonathan. Now, would you do the honors of putting in the date?" He nodded and stepped to the panel that showed the current date, June 6th 2020. He turned around. "Where to go?" "It doesn't matter much. What's the first thing you can think of?" He thought for a moment.

"I guess... the first thing I can think of is 1800, the United States." "Then go ahead and put that in", I answered, smiling a bit at the unusual answer fueled by his love for broadway. He did as told and stepped back next to me. I clicked the button and the room went dark, then light again. We weren't standing in the same room, we were standing in an old-fashioned office, with a large desk under the window, bookshelves and a young man staring at us horrified.

Jonathan was the first to say something. "Uh... Hi! Hello, I mean. First of all, don't panic, we're not gonna do anything bad, we're scientists. Well, I'm not, he is, I'm his apprentice, it's just that we kind of built a time machine, he did with me helping, and well we ended up here, on purpose, but also by accident, on purpose in this time and on accident at this place, we didn't mean to barge in, we're really sorry. Uhm... my name's Jonathan Frank, this is Dr. Will Peters. What's your name?"

The man leaned against the wall, almost a bit smug. "I'm Philip Hamilton, pleased to meet you."