Stuck In A Moment

Peggy, what happened?

A/N: I'm not going to be mean this time and purposely wait to release the next chapter. In reality, I wasn't even going to release the last chapter as early as I did, but then it was requested of me and again I had guilt. So here you go.

Eliza looked at the text on her phone. Today was not a good day for the Washington family or the Schuyler family. It looked as if the Rensselaer family was either doing bad or rejoicing. Either way, it meant bad things for Peggy, especially if Angelica was asking Eliza to leave her husband at the hospital with his sick brother to go and talk to Peg. She didn't want to leave Alexander though unless he said it was ok. And if she got the ok from Laf, knowing that Alexander always had a hard time with asking people to do things for him.

"Alex? I just got a text from Ange, something came up with Peggy. Will you be ok if I left?"

"Yes. I mean, all you would do here is wait." Alexander nodded.

Eliza looked over to Lafayette. "He'll be ok." He mouthed to her. "I'll make sure of it."

"Ok." Eliza replied. She got up and made her way to her car. She drove on over to her house to be with Peggy and Angelica. Who knows what possibly could have caused all of this chaos. But she knew that she would soon find out.

When Laurens woke up, he felt awful. He knew they probably had him on a bunch of drugs to help him stay alive, but they really made him feel like crap. He saw he was in some strange room. It smelled like hand sanitizer and cleaning products. He looked around until he saw a young woman wearing a doctor's mask. (Covid vibes.)

"What happened?" He asked. The last thing he remembered was them taking him into a room before placing a mask on his face and everything going dark.

"They had to get you to stop coughing in order to actually treat you." (I made that up, I have no idea what would actually happen in this case scenario.) The woman replied. "You started up again not too long ago."

"Where is Eliza?"

"Your friends are waiting, but we can't let them see you until you're no longer contagious." The woman added.

"Oh, do you know how long that could..." He was interrupted by a cough. Luckily, there was no blood this time.

"No blood. That's progress." She continued. "But let's hope it stays this way."

"What do you mean?"

"You haven't been very steady. We can't tell if you're making progress unless you you stay steady for a little while."

Laurens sat back and tried to rest. His body was drained and he felt as if he was losing feeling in his torso. "I'll be ok, right? I sorta promised people not to die yet."

"I'm sure you will be alright." The woman fibbed.

"I want to hear the truth. If you don't know that's fine, but I need to know the truth." Laurens asked again. "I'm not one for false hope. I mean, I don't have much to lose."

"You're that kid that was on the news a few years ago, right? The one who's father went to prison?" She said after looking him over again.

Laurens sighed. "Yeah, that's me."

"Well, the truth is, I really don't know if you'll be ok. It all depends on your body's cells and the ability to fight infection."

"Makes sense." He coughed again. Still no blood. "What makes me contagious?"

"Sneezing, coughing, if you still have mucus, fever. But our biggest concern is the fever." The woman explained. She grabbed a needle, a syringe, and a bottle with clear liquid.

"What's that?" Laurens asked nervously. He didn't really trust clear liquids after what his father did to him.

"It's just some medicine. I just need to inject it into your arm and hopefully it will make you feel better." The woman stated.

"Oh, ok." He took a deep breath and let the woman shove the needle into his arm. She removed it and placed a band aid on top.

"I'm done. You can relax your arm now."

Laurens didn't just relax his arm, his whole body had tensed up. He tried to calm down, knowing that it was just the past. A bad part of his past, but it wasn't happening in current time. He was ok.

Laf was still with Alexander, he knew this must be hard on him. He felt the same way when Laurens was in the car accident, since that's how he lost his family. Dang, Laurens had been through all of this. Poor kid.

"Relax mon ami. Laurens has lived this long, I'm sure he will be fine." Laf tried to calm him down.

"They said the same thing to my mother. Yet she's not here anymore, is she?" Alexander mumbled.

"You lived."

"She had them treat me first. She had treatment. But it didn't do anything because she spent all the money we had on me. She died while holding me. I felt the life slip away from her as her body went limp." Alexander continued.

Lafayette wrapped his arm around Alexander's shoulder. Even though he was only the oldest by five months, he was very protective of Alexander and Laurens. Wanting the best for both of them. He missed his real brother, but found comfort in the two of them.

"Even though you're a close second, I have to say that Laurens is the most stubborn person I know. He refuses to quit no matter what life throws at him. And he doesn't let people change his mind, even if he blames himself for things he couldn't control. He won't quit now." Laf stated.

"I guess you're right." Alexander smiled. "Wait, did you just call me stubborn?"

When Eliza finally got to Schuyler Manor, she was greeted by her older sister.

"Thank God you are here. She's a mess." Angelica said.

"Is she in her room?" Eliza asked.

Angelica nodded and without another thought, Eliza ran into the house and made her way up to Peggy's room.

She saw the girl crying on her pillow. Poor thing.

"Peg what happened?" Eliza asked, concerned.

"Me and Stephen broke up." Peggy sobbed.

"Oh my gosh Peg! I'm so sorry." Eliza gasped.

"I still love him."

"I know, but I guess Stephen didn't feel the same." Eliza tried to comfort her sister.

"No, I called off the wedding." Peggy cried. "It's Laurens. I still love him."