Stuck In A Moment

Forgiveness... can you imagine?

"You didn't actually mean it, did you?" Laurens asked.

"Mean what?"

"That you should've let me die. That you'd all be better off without me here?" Laurens whimpered.

"No! Of course not." Alexander stated. "If you had killed yourself because of me, I would've done the same. I couldn't lose another brother and it be my fault."

"I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me." Laurens joked. "And all of the trouble I cause."

"At least you have an excuse. I'm just trouble in general."

"Hey! Finally speaking truth."

"I'm serious. It's like no matter how hard I try, all I do is hurt people." Alexander said. "Myself included."

"It's ok..." Laurens began.

"It's not. That's why I can't keep relationships for more than a few years. It's why everyone leaves." Alexander said, mumbling the last part.

"I'm not gonna leave. Even if everyone else does, I won't." Laurens said, putting his hand on Alexander's shoulder. "You and I have been through a lot. But you're my brother, and my best friend. And that's not gonna change."

"Promise?" Alexander asked.

"Promise." Laurens smiled.

Alexander hugged him tightly, not wanting to think about anything that just happened. Just this moment. He stepped back after a second and punched his arm. "Come on, there's still a lot of people looking for you."

"Right."

The first person they ran into was Eliza. She was coming home to check on Alexander and happened to see them. "Laurens!" She immediately ran over and hugged him to where he almost couldn't breathe. "You're ok."

"As good as I can be right now." He gasped for air.

"Sorry." She loosened her grip. "We were worried sick about you."

"I know. I'm sorry for making everyone panic." Laurens apologized.

"I'm just glad you're safe. Where's Peggy?" Eliza asked.

"She already knows I'm ok. Not quite sure where she went though."

"What about your parents?"

"Nope. Do you know where they are?" Laurens asked.

"I think they went back to their house to see if you went there. If you hurry, you might be able to catch them before they leave." Eliza said.

"Ok, thank you!" Laurens and Alexander rushed out the door. "Where's Laf?"

"No idea. We've been looking all over the city. Who knows where he is by this point." Alexander replied. They both jumped in Alexander's car and drove to the Washington house. Luckily, their car was still in the driveway.

Laurens jumped out before Alexander even stopped the car. He ran inside the house to find them. He saw them sitting on the couch, Martha was in tears. "Hi?"

"Oh my gosh." They both jumped up and ran to him. "Are you ok? You didn't do anything to yourself, right?"

"Other then a bruise on the back of my head, I'm fine." Laurens laughed.

"You scared me to death." Martha teared up. "We thought you were dead."

"I'm not. I don't plan to be either. Not for a while." Laurens smiled as they embraced him.

"Are you ok? I know Alexander went out of line..." Washington was interrupted.

"We're ok now. I talked to him already and we worked things out." Laurens explained. "He's outside actually."

"I know that Alex has said some things like this before in the past, but you have to understand, he's been through a lot. And he doesn't really know how to express his emotions. He pents them up and then they come out in little outbursts." Washington said. "You know better then anyone that growing up as a foster kid is a hard life. And he got the worst of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Abuse. He doesn't like to talk about it, but it still effects him." He began. "You can ask laugh. If you could've seen what he was like when we first got him, you'd understand why he is the way that he is. To be honest, for a long time I didn't know how to discipline him because his PTSD was so bad he would get triggered very easily. Foster Care impacted him deeply." 

"I can understand."

Alexander came in a few minutes later. "Hey. Everything good?"

"Yeah. Everything's good." Laurens smiled.

"Good, cause there are still a lot of other people looking for you who still think you're dead." Alexander said. "Not to mention we still don't know where Laf is."

"I think he went back to the dorms." Martha said.

"Thank you!" Laurens and Alexander ran back out the door. They went straight to the dorms and looked for Laf. He found them first.

"Laurens! Mon ami, we were so worried about you." Lafayette ran over and hugged him. "Si cet idiot fait encore quelque chose comme ça? Ne faites rien de radical. Je vais m'assurer qu'il meurt d'une mort vicieuse et horrible!"

"What?" Laurens asked. Alexander took a step back behind Laurens.

"You don't want to know." Laf glared.

"We made amends. Please don't kill me. I hear death by a Frenchman is a horrible thing." Alexander said.

"Who says that?"

"Me."

"He's not kidding though. We worked things out thanks to the help of Peggy." Laurens explained.

"Peggy? What did she do?" Alexander asked.

"Kept me bound till I changed my mind. She then made me realize some things about Alexander I never thought about before." Laurens stated.

"Bound?"