The Price of Love

Chapter 16

Alex's PoV

We walk back into the part of town we were just in and run into Lafayette. "Lafayette! Mon amie! Good to see you!" I call, hugging him.

"General 'Amilton, good yo see 'o too." He hugs me back, but quickly lets go. "We deed not 'ave much trouble along ze border we etableeshed."

"Glad to hear it. And seeing as you're here, then I assume that you're men got relieved and are cleaning themselves up." He nods in affirmation.

"General, ze mayor would like to speak weff 'o." He tells me.

"Alright. Take me to him." He dips his head and leads us, me and John, through the city. Me and John chat, well, flirt, back and forth in Spanish as we walk.

"Zere 'e ees." Lafayette says after a while, gesturing to a man standing a few yards ahead of us, talking to someone.

"Thanks Lafayette. You can go do whatever now. Stay safe!" I pat his back and approach the mayor. He turns and sees me. He dips his head respectfully as I stop in front of him.

"It's an honor, your Highness." He says, bowing. I squirm.

"Please, 'sir', 'General', or just plain Alex will be fine." I tell him. He nods, standing back up. "Did you need me for something?"

"I wish to offer you my thanks for coming to our aid as fast as you did. I cannot say how grateful we are to you General." He says.

"Thank you. I wish we had come sooner, the letter arrived two months after it was sent for reasons unclear." I say regretfully.

"And yet you still came to our aid swiftly, and I cannot thank you enough." He says warmly. "Is there any way that we can repay you?" I shake my head.

"I appreciate the offer, but as of the moment, my troops are outfitted fine and have had much worse sleeping quarters than grass." He nods.

"I am hosting a ball tonight in honor of the recent victory, would you care to do me the honor of joining?" He asks.

"It would be my pleasure sir. May I bring a friend with me?"

"Of course! I shall see you tonight then?"

"Tonight." I confirm. "Now I must go and organize patrols of the city to make sure there're no redcoats sticking around. I'll see you in a few hours sir." I walk back to John. "We've got a baaaalll to attend in a few hours!" I cheer. "But I've got patrols to organize first, then me and you are going on our own patrol." I wink at him jokingly. Nothing's going to happen, I don't want anything to happen. I just want to snatch some alone time with him, even though we won't really be alone because we're in a pretty heavily populated city. But whatever. We walk through the city, organizing patrols and making sure everyone who survived is okay. That's when I realized I had gotten shot. A lot. I've had bullets embedded in my flesh for a week. And I'm only just now realizing it. Thanks a lot, pain receptors!

"You okay?" John asks. My face contorted into a grimace, and I quickly wipe it off.

"Yeah. Just mad at my pain receptors, that all. Seems I've gotten shot about half a dozen times and am only aware of it now." I say brightly. "It's quite annoying, we should go fix it. Where's the nearest doctor's office?"

"I saw one back there." He jerks his head in the direction we came from. "Come on, let's get you fixed up my querido niño." I follow him his time as we backtrack, still keeping an eye out for British soldiers.

"You didn't get shot, right?" I ask. He shakes his head.

"I managed to make it through unscathed." He says.

"Good. I'd hate to have you hurt." I breathe a sigh of relief. We walk in comfortable silence until John leads me into a building. I let John handle this while I inspect myself for any bullets I might have missed. One, two, three, four, five, six, oh look. Seven. How the fuck am I alive? Probably 'cause they all missed vital organs. Two in each leg, one in my left arm, two on my right arm, one in my shoulder, one a few inches under my heart.

"Sir? We'll be seeing you now." A nurse says to me. I nod and follow her into a room. "Name?" She requests.

"General Hamilton." Is my automatic response. She gasps faintly.

"Oh my. Okay General, can you tell me what's wrong?" Keeping it professional. I like that.

"I seem to have gotten shot seven times over the past week, and they are only now just registering. I've always had a very high pain tolerance, developed over the years I've served. But anyway, I'd rather not have the wounds heal with the bullets still inside them, so could you please remove them? There's two in each leg, two in my right arm, one in my left, one in my right shoulder, and one a few inches under my heart. They don't hurt very much, as again, I have a very high pain tolerance." I explain.

"Alright sir, if you would sit on the table, we can get to work." I hoist myself up on the table, hissing as the muscles that got shot scream in protest.

"Well, they didn't like that." I remark, bouncing my foot. "And now they're angry. It's starting to hurt."

"Which one hurts most?" She asks, pulling on gloves and picking up a pair of forceps. I think for a few moments before responding.

"The ones in my arms and shoulder." I say. "Of those, the one in my shoulder hurts the most." She nods.

"I'm going to need you to remove your jacket and shirt, General." I pull my jacket off and tug my shirt over my head, clicking my tongue in disapproval at all the burn marks. I glance behind the nurse to see John practically drooling over the sight of my shirtless body. I refrain from smirking at him, instead giving him a small wave. I might be thinner than a pencil, but I have quite the amount of muscle.

"This is going to hurt, General." The nurse warns. I scoff.

"Please, you know how many times I've had those shoving themselves in my flesh? I don't, I lost track. Just do it, I'll be fine." I say breezily.

"Alright then." She spreads the bullet hole open and quickly extracts the bullet, repeating the process on the rest of them. "You're good to go now General." She says after she bandages them up.

"Thank you. I'll be sure to send you the money I owe when I get home, I don't care if you want to let me have it free, I'm sending you money and it's non-negotiable." I say, putting my shirt and jacket back on and then leaving before she can argue. Me and John walk out of the building.

"Alright, who gave you the right to be so damn hot?" John demands once there's no one around.

"You did, my dear." I reply. "I saw you drooling over me." I tease. He blushes, making me laugh. "Let's finish up our patrol, shall we?"

"Lets."