To Be or Not to Be | hamilton

five : thomas

"HOLY SHIT! Madison, get your ass over here!" Thomas looked at the bleeding man he had stepped on in horror.

Not waiting for his friend, he fell to the ground beside him. He tried to take wrist for the pulse, but it was slippery with blood. He grabbed the boy's neck and checked for a pulse. "He's still alive! Madison. Call the police. Now. Someone just killed himself!"

The boy looked like meat on a slab, but his face- his steadily-paling face that drove fear into the lighthearted Thomas- looked like... John Laurens?

John was that quiet boy in class. Thomas had picked on him before; he never knew it would hurt him like this.

Thomas had never felt like this. Was this... panic? Grabbing his hair and pulling it into a messy bun, he tried to steady his breathing, failing miserably. He had never been put in this situation before.

This was life-or-death, and Thomas played a key role in it.

He heard Madison talking to the police on the phone, and he heard the rustling of paper as Madison pocketed what must have been John's suicide notes. Thomas let that fade to white noise; John's life mattered more now.

Thomas had never panicked. Thomas was calm and under control. But now, he had to save a life.

Where did he start?!

"Take the phone," Madison grumbled. He rushed by his side, knowing what to do.

Thomas was a flighter. Madison was a fighter.

Thomas grabbed Madison's phone with a shaking hand. "H-hello?"

"Is this the same person? You keep breaking up."

"Y-yes. S... sorry... My... Someone I know is... is... is dying."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'M ON A BEACH. I'M SORRY ABOUT THE SHITTY CONNECTION. SOMEONE I KNOW IS DYING NOW FUCKING GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE," Thomas screamed into the phone.

He was greeted by silence.

"The bitch hung up on me," he realised slowly, chucking the phone into the sand. "The bitch hung up on me!"

"I'm losing him," Madison cried out, startled.

A thousand thoughts were whipping through Thomas' mind viciously. Tunnel vision, he reminded himself. You want John to live. Focus on that. He slowly breathed. "H-how far away i-is the... hospital?"

"You can't drive."

"And John can't die."

}{

The drive to the hospital was pure hell. Thomas had broken so many traffic laws on the way to the hospital, sped, and panicked. Madison swore occasionally, but Thomas didn't ask why. He was too scared to ask why, to panicked.

When the two arrived at the hospital, John looked dead- more than before. Thomas's heart sank. "Are we too late?"

The clerk looked up and gasped. "Right this way-"

The duo watched as John was hooked up to machines and whisked away.

They weren't told if John would live or not.

}{

Half an hour later, Madison pulled out the suicide notes, Thomas looking over his shoulder.

He read them, one-by-one, stopping when he saw one for Alexander.

"I have somewhere to go... stay with John," he whispered, barely audible as he left the hospital.