Burr closes his eyes, when he hears that voice behind him. Soft, wavering, unsure. God, Hamilton did always know the ways to get at him, to weasel his way to the soft so that he could later turn back, gouge and tear and rend soft belly.

A repetition, that was what this was. They happened sometimes, though Alexander really is an idiot, to have ended up here. He has a wife and uncountable children and grandchildren, still living in the city. If Burr stops they will repeat the cycle again--a few years tentative friendship, learning just enough to destroy the other.

"Do not follow me, Alexander. I should have thought you learned the last time, what happens when two such as us become too entangled. I will not be goaded into shooting you again." He has not turned around. Cannot bear to look at him, a kind of acute pain, and burning anger.

Alexander is here, given a second chance, for all his sins, the anger and heartache he has wrought. What of Burr's wife, Burr's children, his sister and his son-in-law, his parents? No second chance for them. Perhaps because they are in heaven, and Hamilton is not. He's not sure he believes in such things.