all lowercase letters: Like every other chapter title of this fic, this chapter's title is in all lowercase letters.
Anguished Declaration of Love: After James Madison reveals that Alexander Hamilton is the true father of at least two of Aaron Burr's children, Aaron reacts calmly, at least outwardly, upsetting Alexander, who wants him to show he cares about the situation, because
Alexander:You were the love of my life, you, it was always you.
Bait-and-Switch Accusation: Madison and Jefferson confront Aaron and Alexander with evidence of an unsavory arrangement between the two, and ask Hamilton to step down from running for office. Aaron thinks this is evidence of their relationship during the war. Madison and Jefferson were vague about the exact claim, so Aaron asks for exactly what is going on. The actual accusation is not of Aaron and Alexander being in a relationship, but of Aaron being infertile and arranging for his wife Eliza and Alexander to have sex so he might raise children. This might be a Downplayed Trope since it's not a full rug-pull where Aaron was absolutely sure what he was being accused of, he had some level of uncertainty and the reveal of the real accusation was prompted when he asked for clarification.
Deliberate Values Dissonance: Modern audiences would probably not view asking another man to have sex with your wife to produce children for your infertile self nearly as negatively as the fic characters would view it.
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Following the convention of naming every chapter title after a Hamilton lyric, this chapter takes its title from the lyric “The people won't know what we know” and possibly "Rumors only grow and we both know what we know." Those lyrics also Title Drop the song from which they come from, "We Know."
One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Madison and Jefferson confront Aaron and Alexander with evidence of an arrangement between the two that the public will disapprove of. Aaron speaks thinking they mean to expose his relationship with Alexander during the war. Madison and Jefferson are actually speaking of their belief that Aaron is infertile and asked his wife Eliza and Alexander to have sex to give Aaron children. Again, might be a Downplayed Trope since it's not a full rug-pull where Aaron was absolutely sure what Madison and Jefferson were talking about, he had some level of uncertainty and the reveal of what they were talking about was prompted when he asked for clarification.
Titled After the Song: The song "We Know" from Hamilton doesn't have "what" in its title the way the chapter does, but it's close enough, and the phrase "what we know" shows up in the lyrics twice.
Title Drop: The chapter title (and the full line of which the title was taken from) is titledropped when Madison says "The people won’t know what we know."
Madison: It seemed like a very personal matter, and one that I had no business bringing up. So I didn’t.
Thought They Knew Already: Madison thought Aaron knew Alexander was the father of at least some of his children, which is part of the reason why he never talked about it with Aaron, with the other parts being him thinking this arrangement was consensual and something Aaron asked for, and him thinking this it was a personal matter he had no place bringing up until now. Aaron did not know this.
"Yes"/"No" Answer Interpretation: Madison informs Aaron that Alexander fathered some of Aaron’s children. You’d expect Alexander would confirm or deny, but he is silent and shaking. Aaron takes this silence as a “yes.”
