THE OLD ONE SHOT SERIES (or four-shot???? idk) THAT I NEED TO REVIVE BECAUSE I WAS ASKED TO AND I ACTUALLY PLANNED TO! thank you for motivation! -C
His job, frankly, is very cut and dry. He will sit there at the doors, or gates, or whatever politically correct interpretation you have. Then, he will usher you in if you pass the test. He doesn't make the judgment. He doesn't make the connections. He is just a soldier to guard the gates (doors, windows, politically correct openings). Like he was in life, he is a soldier in death so...
Peggy jolts him, her elbow brushing against his. "Oh my God, it's actually happening?"
Ah yes, who could forget his partner in crime? She drifted up so far ahead of her sisters, and she latched to him. Who was he to protest?
"What's happening, Peggy?" he asks tiredly, expecting another round of how 'Thomas is sending creepy love notes to Ang' or 'WHY CAN I SEE MY SISTER AND BROTHER-IN-LAW IN BED? WHY ARE THEY- EW EW EW NO! NO YOU ALREADY HAVE TOO MANY CHILDREN!'
Her eyes are shining, but he never knows what that means. Tears or happiness? "I think Aaron Burr is coming to join us-"
"Aaron Burr?!" blurts the soldier incredulously. He certainly has a lot of, uh, memories with the man. He never would have expected him to be one to die an early death.
Peggy nods, hair bobbling in her pigtails. Here, on the Other Side, you can choose how you appear. And Peggy chose to look like she's sixteen until her husband and children join her. Of course, she has the two who died as children, but they're too young to grasp that their mom should look and feel older.
He dreads the moment his wife and child might come and join him.
She then peers closer down, trying to see the life of Earth again. "Uh, wait, it might not be so clear."
"What's going on, Margarita?" he desperately asks. It's not that Peggy's companionship isn't enough for him. He has George Washington and Philip Hamilton as well to keep him company.
But Aaron would be fun to catch up with.
She raises an eyebrow. "Don't full name me, John Laurens!"
"What's going on?" he asks again, carefully skirting her name entirely.
Peggy smiles at that before her face pales. Quickly, words of a duel slip through her lips right before a bullet splits through the ground near them.
Who fired in the sky? The coward, Burr, or his dearest...?
No, John knows Alexander isn't like that.
The clouds are parting for him to go collect the soul. Peggy clings to him as they make the surprisingly slow walk down.
When John sees his dark hair and glasses and green jacket and stubble and worn face and Caribbean tan, John refuses to turns away.
The world jolts.
Rewind.
-
Peggy has always been an eloquent woman.
"What the crap did you just do?! You don't get to make those decisions! It's not right!"
"Alexander threw away his shot. For what?" John challenges. "Maybe this time, he'll see sense and do what he always has?"
"Go around cheating on his wife?" Peggy snaps, leaning down to get a better view.
