A/N: 100-something views!!! YAYYY! Sorry, this chapter is slightly depressing. (Just like my life.)
Everyone is still as I run towards my sister. I see Peggy lying unconscious on the floor with people crowded around her. She's pale and sweaty. Eliza and Hercules are squatting beside her and I join her. Alexander stands behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"What happened?" I asked. The man who was dancing with her spoke in a panicked tone.
"We were standing over there-" he points across the room "and she took a drink. Then after a minute or so, she said she wasn't feeling well so I offered to take her home. She came over here to tell Eliza and she fainted!" I feel her pulse.
"Her pulse is slowing down!" I yell. "We need a medic!"
"We should take her outside." Alexander says. Eliza and I move out of the way and he picks her up bridal style. We follow him. He quickly carries her past the gapping faces of everyone in the crowd and to the doors. He kicks them open and lays her gently on the sidewalk. Hercules runs to find a medic somewhere. I kneel next to Peggy. I begin to fan her with my hands. She's sweating so much and her pulse continues to slow. The man she was dancing with squats next to her and brushes the hair off of her forehead.
"Come on, Peggy. Fight. Stay alive." He says.
"Who are you?" I ask. He looks down and blushes.
"I'm John Laurens." He says.
"Who gave her the drink?" Eliza asks finally speaking up.
"A servant offered one to us. We both took one." He replies.
"Do you remember who it was? What they looked like?" She asks.
"No. He didn't really show his face."
"Did he hand her a particular drink?" I ask.
"Um, yeah he did. Well, sort of. I grabbed a drink and then he turned the tray to offer her one." He says.
Eliza looks at me and I look at her. We know what this was. We have seen it before. It had happened to our mother and a few cousins.
Peggy was poisoned. Poisoned to get to our father. To get inside his head. To get him to back down.
Eliza immediately starts crying. She knows that there is no surviving it once you've reached its stage.
I feel like I'm going to throw up. Tears run down my face as I hold my baby sisters head in my hands. Her breathing quickens.
"What's wrong? What's happening?" Alexander asks.
I look up at him with tear stained cheeks.
"She was poisoned, Alexander." I say.
"What?! Why?" John screams.
"To get at our father. People want to make him weak." I say.
I stand up to hug a sobbing Eliza. I hear shouting. I look up to Hercules running towards us with a doctor trailing behind him. I shake my head knowing it's too late. This has happened too many times before.
The doctor kneels down beside Peggy to examine her. John explains what happened to the doctor and the doctor nods knowingly.
"We don't have much time." The doctor says. "I need to take her to the hospital down the road and we will treat her there."
Alexander took that as his cue to pick her up again. The doctor leads him towards the hospital. I start to follow but I notice that Eliza isn't going.
I take her hand in mine and I wipe away her tears. She looks at me and I try reassure her. We don't say anything. We walk together to join the others.
