Running Out of Time

Chapter 2 - Just Hear Me Out (That Would Be Enough)

"Okay," Peggy gave Hamilton the okay to turn around and she buttoned the last button on her shirt. "Let's go over this one more time, maybe a little slower this time." She felt comfortable talking to him within the confines of her own bedroom. Both Eliza and Angelica were at work so it didn't matter too much.

She clasped her hands together, "you're a ghost but you're not dead."

"I'm not a ghost," Hamilton nodded.

"You know for certain that you're not dead?"

Hamilton nodded again. Peggy was still trying to get thing all sorted out. She had left Laurens' place a few hours ago, it wasn't until she got home that she said anything to Hamilton. By this point, she was a little freaked out, she knew she wasn't dreaming. This was a real thing that was happening to her, she was seeing a not-dead ghost-thing. It was a bit to take in.

"And you know for certain that I am the only person who can see you?"

"Well, I spent an hour and a half with each of your sisters, the same with Laf and Mulligan. I was with Laurens for an hour before I saw you and, well, I gave Burr forty-five minutes because I remembered that time he shot me. I'm telling you Peggy, I did everything I could. I was yelling, maybe a little crying, they all walked through me a couple of times. They have no idea I'm here."

Peggy thought for a moment, "did you try to touch anything?"

"Touch anything," Hamilton raised an eyebrow, he hadn't even considered it. If he was just going through people he didn't see why an object would be any different.

"Just try. Sometimes ghosts can move stuff," she was trying her best to be hopeful.

"I'm not a ghost. Ghosts are dead and I am not dead," Hamilton looked at her for a moment before sighing, "I'll try." He looked around the room for something that seemed easy to move. Finally, he settled on a few bobby pins that were on her dresser. Hamilton put his hand on the dresser and lined up his shot, if he was going to try this, he was going t give it all he had. For some reason, he felt as though he needed to try extra hard to prove to Peggy that he was really trying. He dramatically pulled his hand away and swung at the pins. Nothing happened, his hand went right through them, they didn't move a millimeter. "Well that didn't work."

Peggy crossed her arms and tapped her foot. There had to be something that would work. She just had to think about it. "What about something you have a connection to?"

"All of that stuff is in museums or somewhere, it's not like we can just find something like that."

"That's not what I mean. You've lived after that, there's other stuff," she had already turned around to walk out of the room.

Hamilton followed her to Eliza's room and watched as she rummaged through the jewelry box. "Peggy, that stuff all gets lost when we die."

She ignored him, "damnit, it's not here. Okay, here's what we'll do, in two hours I have to go to work and you can try to find her."

"You work at the same place?"

"We all kind of do, it turned out that we all wanted to become doctors of some sort. Eliza works with the kids and Angelica works in surgery."

"What about you," Hamilton leaned against the wall.

"Me? I cuddle some of the babies."

--

Hamilton seemed a little nervous as the two were getting ready to go. Peggy couldn't figure why, he didn't have too much to worry about. They had gone over the plan twice even though it wasn't a great plan. Hamilton's job was to find Eliza and see if their idea would work. Peggy knew about a necklace that he had given her, somehow Eliza had the ability to find it every time they came back.

Each one of them had some little thing they found every time but Peggy was fairly hopeful that this necklace might do something for Hamilton. If it didn't, they would have to start fresh. Of course, that wouldn't be too much of a problem.

"You okay," Peggy figured it would be best to ask.

"I'm not sure," Hamilton fiddled with his fingers, "what if someone sees me?"

"Hamilton," Peggy finished pulling on her shoes, "you tried that, remember?"

"Yeah, but what if the plan works in a different way? What if instead of it making something happen to me it makes something happen to Eliza?"

Peggy understood what he was saying. Eliza was a great part of both of them, if something happened to her neither of them were certain about what fallout there may be. "I guess we'll have to deal with that if it happens, won't we?"

"I guess so," Hamilton nodded. There wasn't much of a way to prepare for any of this. He had little faith in anything happening but, once again, he was going to try for Peggy. If she was going to be the only person who could see him then she would see the best he had. That was the way things had to be for now.

--

Hamilton followed Peggy closely as they walked through the hospital. Although he hadn't been here before something about the place felt familiar. It wasn't just the fact that it was a hospital and he had been in ones before, it was something bigger, something he couldn't quite place.

Hamilton couldn't help but follow Peggy all the way to the babies. Despite that only occasionally being where Eliza worked, he considered it an option. He wouldn't admit that it was because he wanted to see the babies. He also wouldn't admit that he was still a little nervous. Something made him think that it was possible that Eliza would see him after this, that was if it even worked of course.

To the surprise of both Peggy and Hamilton, Eliza was in the baby room. When she didn't have too many children to care for she would go see if any help was needed with the younger ones. Hamilton couldn't help but smile when he saw her, she always loved kids.

As Eliza turned around after acknowledging that Peggy was in the room. Peggy turned and shot Hamilton a glance that basically told him to go do something. The only issue was that he hadn't considered what exactly he was going to do. It was clear on his face that he had no idea what was about to happen. He disregarded his doubt for just long enough to speak.

"Eliza..."

Hamilton almost let out a scream as her head moved up. He hadn't expected it to work at all, it hadn't worked before. He hadn't exactly considered the fact that when before happened, she was half asleep and half dressed. His excitement was short lived, Hamilton wasn't convinced he had anything to do with her putting her head up.

"Did you hear something," Eliza looked at her sister.

Peggy tried to hide the disbelief on her face, their plan had somewhat worked. Something, she wasn't sure what, had happened. It was only a short moment but something certainly happened. " I...no," Peggy shook her head. She thought it would work as an answer. She didn't want to freak Eliza out, especially not here. It was all still sinking in for Peggy. She had been happy to see the moment of joy come across Hamilton's face. She could tell that he was having his own difficult time, being a not-ghost and whatnot.

"Huh," Eliza gave a quiet chuckle, "it's weird, it almost sounded like Alexander."