Hurts Like Hell | John Laurens

Treize

"I'll see you soon, mon amour." I kiss Frances head. She giggles. "Never forget that you mean everything to your father and I. We'll make it home alright, I promise. I love you Frances."

I know she didn't understand a word I said, besides 'I love you Frances"

"I wove you mama." She says. I kiss her head and hold her close to me.

"Goodbye, princess. Dada will see you soon. I love you, Frances." John says, kissing her head.

"I wove you dada" Frances giggles.

She has no idea what's going on. She doesn't know this could be the last time she sees John or myself.

"Make sure she gets to Eliza safe, Herc." I say, handing Frances to Herc.

"I will. Eliza will take good care of her I promise." He says, I nod.

I give him three letters, one to Frances from John in case he doesn't make it, one to Frances from me if I don't make it, and one to Eliza.

"Goodbye, mon amour. I love you." I say to Frances, kissing her head one last time. John kisses her head as well.

"Bye bye mama and dada. I'll see you tomorrow!" Frances says.

John laces his fingers with mine as we watch the carriage in the distance. "She'll be alright. Eliza will take good care of her." John reassures. I nod.

"To the revolution."

... 

I lead my men into the war. I've already lost so many men. The battle of Yorktown has gone on for a week. There are fallen redcoats and Americans everywhere. I scan for John, and I catch a glimpse of him in the distance. He's alright.

I load my musket and take out a redcoat in a tree. "Connard." I mutter and continue forward.

I wipe the sweat from my forehead, and quickly scan my men. I've got about half as many as I started out with. Great. Just great. Don't give up just yet.

We fight off the redcoats. It seem like whenever you kill one, a hundred more show up out of nowhere. How on earth are there so many of them? Don't be a Charles Lee.

I chuckle to myself the the memory.

"ATTACK!"

"RETREAT!"

"ATTACK!"

"RETREAT!"

"What are you doing Lee!? Get back on your feet!"

"But there's so many of them!"

I feel Lee's dilemma, but I don't tell my men to retreat. Maybe if we fight hard enough we'll stand a chance.

A bullet barley misses me as I load my musket again. I spin around and shoot the redcoat responsible. I look around for John again, I spot him after a moment of searching. Before I know what's going on, I hear John scream in agony and he collapses to the ground.

"John!" I scream and run over to him. Dodging redcoats and their soldiers. I reach him and fall to my knees. "John." I hold onto his body. He winces in pain.

"G-Go." He whispers.

I shake my head, "No! Not without you!"

"Go, Antoinette. You need to get home to Frances." John says.

"You need to get home to her too. She loves you John. I won't let her grow up without you." I place my hand on his cheek and kiss him. He weakly kisses back.

"I love you." He says.

"I love you to-" I'm cut off as a bullet enters my side. I collapse on the ground next to John. I cry out in agony.

"L-look at me." John says, lacing his hand in mine. "I may not live to see our glory." He sings.

"But I will gladly join the fight," I sing.

"And when our children tell our story." John smiles.

"They'll tell the story of tonight." We both sing.

Tens of thousands of people flood the streets. There are screams and church bells ringing.

"The world turned upside down. The world turned upside down." I hear people singing.

"John, listen." I say, "we won." John and I smile.

I scoot closer to John. He wraps his arm around me and holds me tight. Both our wounds growing more painful and more severe. We're not going to make it.

"John I love you." I whisper.

"I love you more Toni." John turns his head to kiss me one last time.

"Raise a glass to freedom~" We both sing as our vision fades to black.