No, I'm talking about having a crossbow in each hand. Not a melee weapon in one and a crossbow in the other. It just seems impossible for someone to be able to do that unless there was some kind of very significant penalty involved. You can't reload a crossbow with one hand.Let's say you attack with a shortsword, and then you use a hand crossbow for an offhand attack with your bonus action (per the Crossbow Expert feat). The feat does say you have to be holding the hand crossbow. So I would assume it does need to be in your other hand. Are you thinking that the person would actually stow the shortsword, pull out the hand crossbow, then do that bonus attack? I don't think both stowing and drawing would be allowed as a free action, so that seems impossible.