Running Out of Time

Chapter 10 - It's Never Anything Good

"Peggy, where are we going," Lafayette asked following her out of the elevator. He knew what part of the hospital they were in but he didn't understand why she was in such a hurry. He watched as she looked around the three different hallways, this was as far as she could get them.

Peggy put her hand up to hush him, "just listen for a minute."

"What are we listening for?"

"Bitterness."

The ICU was one of the quietest parts of the hospital but it wasn't completely silent. Lafayette wasn't sure what exactly he should be trying to hear. "This way," she pointed and began walking down one of the halls. Lafayette had to follow her even if he had no idea where she was going. Peggy hadn't explained much to him, she just told him to meet her at the hospital. He hadn't expected being dragged on whatever sort of goose chase this was but he wasn't exactly ready to complain yet.

He watched as she snuck glances into each of the rooms they passed until she finally stopped at the room numbered 1804. She opened the door and walked inside. Lafayette didn't think she was allowed to do that but he also went inside without saying anything.

"Merde," Lafayette looked at the man in the bed.

He could tell by the amount of machines that this person was not in good shape at all, it appeared that they were in a pretty bad coma. He could tell that the body belonged to Hamilton, they both looked the same. To both Lafayette and Peggy, the situation of the ghost still didn't make much sense but now they had a body for him. This was what Hamitlon had been looking for but he still didn't seem to be here.

Peggy wasn't sure what she was feeling in this moment. This was where she expected Hamilton to be but yet, he wasn't anywhere to be seen. She had been certain that she heard him in this hallway, he had to be close. She wasn't sure what to do now. One of the things they had been thinking about all week was in front of her but she didn't have Hamilton. That was the most important piece. If they wanted to put him back together at all, they would need him.

"I can't believe you're my doctor," they could hear Hamilton's voice in the hall, "who made that decision?! Anybody would see that as a bad idea. I am defenseless in there, you could kill me and no one would know. That's not even mentioning that when you aren't here Burr is the one checking in one me. Seriously, who is making these terrible choices? You do know that Burr actually killed me, right? He shot me and I died. I remember that."

Peggy and Lafayette watched as Jefferson entered the room, he stopped when he saw them. Hamilton, on the other hand, didn't notice them right away, "you probably thought about doing it. I mean, I'm all alone here. There is nobody here that would notice." Hamilton's entire posture changed when he finally saw Peggy and Lafayette, "oh shit, hi guys."

"What are you two doing here," Jefferson asked as he flipped the page on the clipboard.

Lafayette looked at Peggy. It was her cue to answer, "that's Hamitlon," she pointed at the bed.

"Yeah, and?"

"And he's a friend," Jefferson lowered the clipboard to listen to Peggy. "Do you know how worried everyone is about him? None of knew where he was all this time. Did you think you could just keep all that to yourself?"

"Well Peggy, quite frankly no one asked me if I knew anything," Jefferson said very matter-of-factly.

Peggy sighed, "when does it look like he's going to wake up?"

"Why?" Jefferson knew it would have been better to just tell her the answer straight away but she was in a fairly emotional state and he didn't want to see her more angry. He wasn't exactly afraid of Peggy but he had been around both Eliza and Angelica when they were upset, it wasn't a fun experience.

"I need to punch him in the face," she said trying her best to sound sarcastic. She wouldn't actually punch him but she wanted to make sure Hamilton knew she was also mad at him. "When do you think?"

Jefferson sighed, he didn't think he would have to do this but he maintain himself, "it's not good, it's really not good."

Peggy softened as the moment of quiet fell across the room. It wasn't the answer any of them were truly prepared for. "You don't think he's waking up, do you?"

"Fuck that," Hamilton almost shouted, "I am waking up, I have things to do."

"It's not looking that way," Jefferson avoided looking at her, "there is something else."

"What is it," both Peggy and Hamilton asked at the same time.

"Well," Jefferson began but stopped as Burr walked into the room.

"It just got confirmed," Burr didn't look up to acknowledge the people in the room. He had a number of papers in his hands.

"What did," Peggy looked over at him.

Burr looked up, he wasn't sure he should say anything until Jefferson nodded in approval. "There was an anonymous donor supporting Hamilton since obviously he can't pay for himself and they have cut it off."

"Cut it off how," Lafayette questioned.

"There won't be anymore funding for him," Burr explained, "when whatever money is already here runs out-"

"So does he," Peggy finished.

"Yeah."

No one had things actually being this bad. Peggy seemed to be the most on top of everything. She understood that this meant one of two things: Either Hamilton was going to get back into his body and everything would be fine and dandy again, or her and Laurens were on a very short timeline. She would much rather it be the first option but there was no way to tell. Just when she had started to think that everything would be over, there was more to do.

Peggy knew that they would still have to do their best to reconnect Hamilton with his body but she also knew that they would have to keep an eye on Laurens. If anything happened to him it would be clear that there would be no way to wake Hamilton. She thought it possible that Mulligan might be able to help with trying to reconnect them but nothing was promised.

"Listen to me," Hamilton was pretending to address the entire room but he was really talking to Peggy. "I am not dying. I'll figure something out, we can figure something out, we have to. There is no way I'm going out like this, okay? I'll wake up and everyone will be alive, it'll be good. Things will be normal again. We'll figure it out."

He knew that if he was really dying it meant Peggy would be gone before him. He couldn't see that she was anywhere near finished living. He wasn't about to quit on her, he couldn't do that. Hamilton was determined to get back in his body even though he had no idea what that would include.

Peggy nodded, "we'll figure this out."