Work Text:
You won't leave me alone
Every time I rest, you're in my head
Breaking bones, Breaking bones.
Eliza at 12:55
Hey John are you in class rn?
John at 12:56
Yeah lol what's up
Eliza at 12:56
Not much
John frowns at his phone. His professor drones in the background, something about blood pressure and skin pallor. Eliza barely texted him when she knew he was in class, insisting that she didn't want to distract him.
John at 12:56
???? Liza what's going on
Eliza at 1:01
don't freak out
John at 1:01
You saying that is guaranteed to make me freak out tho
Eliza at 1:03
Okay but don't....
Eliza at 1:03
Alex is in the hospital.
John stares at the phone. He can feel his heart rate increasing. Alex. In the hospital.
Hospital.
John at 1:03. ELIZA WHAT HAPPENED RESPOND IS HE HURT
No response. He waits a full minute (a good show of patience on his part, he thinks) before he slams his laptop shut, stands up, slings his backpack over his shoulder, and runs out of the lecture hall.
The hospital is four blocks from their university. John interns in the ED. He's done this walk a trillion times. With every step another scenario passes through his mind- shotstabbedpoisonedbrokenfemurconcussioncancerinfectiondisordercarcrash- JESUS. He barely feels the hail soaking through his thin jacket. He bursts through the double doors of the ED and marches straight up the front desk.
"John!" Maria is on duty, looking at him with opened mouth surprise. "You're not supposed to be in today, are you?" She turns to flip through the calendar, but John stops her.
"I'm not." He says shortly. "My boyfriend's here. Maria, you gotta let me see him."
Maria turns and stares at him for half a second before apparently coming to a decision.
"What's his name?" She asks.
"Alexander Hamilton. I-I don't know why he's here...I ran from class, and-"
"Okay, breathe." Maria says. She raises her eyebrows, and for a split second she looks eerily similar to Eliza's little sister, Peggy. But then she lowers them again and it's gone. She clicks on something. "It looks like he's in room 109. Be calm, John." She warns.
"Thank you." John says breathlessly. He's gonna owe Maria something big. He'll buy her lunch later. He pulls his hospital badge out of his bag and swipes open the bay doors.
Has this hallway always been this long? He has to stop himself from sprinting down the hallway. Finally. 109. He skids into the room and faces the biggest wreck of a Hamilton he's seen in his entire life.
Alex is laying on the bed, blood staining the entire front of his shirt. John is weak for a second, his stomach clenching, until he sees a cut held together with stitches on his forehead. He has a black eye, and his wrist is splinted and held protectively to his chest. His eyes are closed.
"Alex." John breathes. His breath is coming erratic now. Keep it together, John. He needs you. He walks forward and leans over Alex, gently running his fingers over the cut splitting his lip.
He opens his eyes and smiles at John. Or maybe he's trying to smile. It looks more like a grimace.
"Hi," he says. "I'm okay."
"Oh, you are? You're okay?" John says. He's trying as hard as he can to keep his voice neutral but it comes off scared, a little desperate.
"I am!" He insists. "I swear to god, John, this isn't my fault."
"What happened, Alex? Eliza said you were here- where's 'Liza?" John looks around the room as if she could be hiding behind a curtain.
"She's in x-ray." Alex says.
"What- WHY? What HAPPENED?"
Were they robbed or mugged or kidnapped or-
"Okay, John, calm down. Come here." Alex's eyes are wide. He reaches for John's hand with his functional one and squeezes it. His hand is warm and dry under John's. Alex takes a deep breath.
"We were in a car accident. I was driving Eliza to go pick up Angelica from the airport. I was turning at an intersection and this car swerved out in front of us. I slammed on the brakes and didn't hit them, but then-"
"-We got hit from the back." Eliza says. She's standing in the doorway, a nurse behind her. She doesn't look terrible, but she's holding her ribs a funny way. By the way Alex looks at her, John knows she's hurt. John leaps off the bed to hug her, albeit very gently. She still winces.
The nurse comes around to Alex to check his vitals, and Eliza sits on the chair.
"You were hit from the back." John prompts. He searches for Alex's hand again and grasps it.
"A fender bender." Eliza says. "But, we jerked forward pretty violently. Alex was okay. I did break my ribs. Two of them." She directs this to Alex, who hisses "motherfucker" under his breath with a venom he usually reserves for Thomas Jefferson.
"What happened?" John says tightly.
"The car was pretty damaged. And the guy who hit us, he was upset. He got out of the car. So did Alex."
John turns to glare at Alex, who offers him a lopsided grin. John knows exactly how this is gonna end. He's seen Alex stagger into their apartment with bloody noses and bruised cheekbones too many times not to know.
"They got into a fight." John says flatly.
Eliza nods.
"And did they. This guy wouldn't stop yelling about how his car was damaged and Alex wouldn't stop yelling about how I was hurt and probably dying-"
"I didn't know you weren't." Alex mutters. John squeezes his hand tightly, a silent shut the fuck up.
Eliza ignores him.
"-and the next thing I know, they're swinging fists. Alex decks him, then gets decked."
Eliza shrugs, then winces again.
"And the broken wrist?" John asks.
"He pushed me. I fell wrong." Alex says. John groans and rubs his forehead. He's at once so relieved that Alex is okay and so pissed at his hot-headedness he wants to explode.
"Alex Hamilton," John says, pushing back a strand of hair that's fallen in Alex's face. "You're the most exhausting person I've ever met."
"Seconded." Eliza says from the chair.
"Well, that's why you love me." Alex says. He juts out a swollen lip and flutters his eyelashes on the one eye that he can.
"For now." John mock threatens, then relents. "Don't ever do that again. You scared the shit out of me."
"No promises." Alex says.