Mr. Burr saw the fire in my eyes that I hid from Theo and Mom. He seemed to recognize what that was, and he nodded, patting my shoulder. "Use that."

We walked back into the courtroom and I shuffled my files, reading through them. We'd put together a couple different attacks, and so far we were using one, but now I shoved it to the bottom of the pile and handed Mr. Burr the other one. "We're changing tactics."

He looked at it and raised his eyebrows. "You want to?"

"Yes sir." I nodded.

Mr. Burr looked over at my father as he shuffled his own papers, then nodded. "Alright, we'll try it."

Court came back to order and I sat up, focusing on the judge and what was being said.

Mr. Burr stood up, shuffling his papers. "I am taking over questioning for a sole person, your Honor. We are calling Philip Hamilton forward."

Whispers flew, but I stood up and walked to the stand, preparing myself silently.

This was our endgame. It also happened to be one chess match that I was not losing. Ever.

The questions were fast and I answered them all immediately. Did my dad hit me? No. Was I ever scared that he would? Rarely. Was he controlling? Absolutely. Were there times when he was neglectful? Yes.

Pa looked apoplectic by the time we were done, but he passed his opportunity to talk to me as well. I sat back with Mr. Burr feeling pretty accomplished.

"You're doing great." Mr. Burr said again, patting my shoulder.

After that, it wasn't long until the trial came to an end. I made my closing statements, straight-backed and without my notes. Pa seemed subdued when he gave his, which probably boosted my ego more than it should have.

"Case of A. Hamilton versus P. Hamilton, jury rules in favor of Philip Hamilton."

Theo ran up the aisle behind the wall. "Philip! You did it!"

Mom was following close behind her, but I was more focused on catching the excited teenage girl that had pretty much just jumped into my arms. I caught her and spun her around in a circle. She giggled and kissed my cheek twice.

"Alright, let me hug my budding lawyer." Mom said with a laugh. Theo climbed off of me and backed up, going to give her dad a hug. 

Mom hugged me and I rested my head on her shoulder, smiling. "What did you think?"

"It was a lot, but you did well, peanut." She swept some loose curls out of my face as she leaned back.

"Philip, may I talk to you for a moment?"

I turned and then glanced at Mom for a moment when I realized Pa was the one talking to me. "Uh... sure?"

He made a motion with his head that I took to mean we should move away, but I shook my head. "I'm staying here. Whatever you need to say, say it here."

Pops looked irritated for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "I only wanted to say that you did well... you'll make a very good lawyer one day, you know that? I'm sort of proud of you, even considering what happened."

A laugh bubbled up before I could stop myself. "Oh I am never doing that again, Pa."

Pops raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Yeah, no, absolutely not. No more lawyering. I think I'm gonna be a chef, what do you think Theo?"

She muffled a giggle and shook her head. "You're going to have to practice a lot."

"Better start now then, right?" I grinned, taking her hand. I paused, then looked at Pa again. "Thanks for the compliment, but I don't think I'm cut out for this stuff. See ya, Pops."

He paused, then sighed and nodded, turning away.

"Alexander." Mom called after him.

When he turned around, she smiled. "I'll give you this, you can come over for holidays and Philip's birthday, but on one condition."

"And that is?"

Mom informed him that he would need to pull his head from certain choice places and figure some things out.

His expression flared angrily, but he drew himself up and walked away stiffly.

I gave Mom another hug.

[A/N once again I apologize if this is incorrect. I've only studied criminal trials so I'm trying to kind of form something off of that??? probably not right, that's why I've been keeping it as vague as possible]