Alexander and Thomas spent three days staying in the apartment. It was quiet. Peter had a couple conversations with them, but they were short and rushed like he was always trying to get somewhere else. Hamilton didn't know where or what was so important that he couldn't stop to have a conversation longer than two minutes, but the two had always respected each other's privacy, so Alex left his cousin alone to do his own thing.
As the two college kids sat with a pizza in between them on the couch, a show played on the T.V.
"I just don't see how they can get away with hiding all this! That defeats the whole purpose of the show, right? It's criminal investigation!" Thomas shouted as one of the agents destroyed incriminating evidence against another member.
"It's supposed to make the series more interesting and it shows how far they're willing to go for their friends."
"They're FBI agents! He's being accused of killing someone, smuggling drugs, all kinds of things that just add up to him being a criminal. And you don't think that it's convenient that the one that doesn't forget anything forgot what happened while he was there?"
"He was doing it for his mom, though. That's the part that they're thinking of because of his entire backstory."
Jefferson shrugged and picked up another slice of pizza. "Just saying, maybe they should be focusing on the evidence against him."
"They know him as a person and that's enough for them," Alex replied. He looked down at his personal phone that was buzzing on the table and furrowed his brows at the number. Thomas looked over at him in confusion. Hamilton waved it off and took the phone into the kitchen to answer it.
Once he was in the other room, he heard the show pause and could imagine Thomas leaning over the back of the couch to see what was happening. Alex kept his voice down when he answered the phone.
"Mr. Hamilton?"
"Yes?"
Alex listened closely as the doctor told him the situation before he bolted out of the kitchen. He rushed out what was going on and together, Jefferson and Hamilton ran out of the building and to the hospital.
Hamilton wasted no time running into his mother's room. After around half an hour of fussing over whatever would make Rachel more comfortable, she finally gave in and said, "Alexander, would you be a dear and get me a fresh glass of water? These nurses don't listen too well when it comes to water." she smiled as her son walked out of the room quickly.
He saw Thomas move to follow him, but Rachel insisted that she only wanted her son to go get it.
Alex ran around the hall to find the nearest water cooler. Once he found one, he sprinted toward it, filling the small paper cup with water and hurrying back to his mother's room. He'd never been more worried to leave her alone, not with how the doctors were talking.
But technically, she wasn't alone. Thomas was still there and that made Alex feel at least slightly better.
Hamilton rushed back in and set the cup down on the side table. "Here you go. Are you doing alright? Anything hurting? Do you need anything else?"
"If you could open the window, that'd be wonderful."
He nodded and opened the blinds to show the dark orange and blue sky. Alex hadn't even realized that it was already sunset when they left. He stopped for a second to wonder when Peter would arrive.
"Is that alright?" He asked, turning to face his mother.
Rachel only smiled and scooted over. She patted the side of her bed. Alexander got comfortable next to his mother and let a few tears slip through. It took all he had to keep himself composed. He knew that this was the last time he'd get to see his mother alive and it tore him up inside. She wasn't coming out.
The woman ran a hand through her son's hair.
"Do you boys want to hear a story?" Rachel asked. She didn't give them a chance to answer, she just waved Thomas over to sit in the seat and listen to the story. Once Thomas was sitting, Rachel started up on a tale about a soldier that was working through the war. The same one that she would tell Alexander when something went wrong as a child. It was originally just a tale that would keep him occupied when he got sick, but then it turned into one that kept him comforted whenever someone would get hurt, or they'd move, or when his father left. . .
"It didn't matter what happened to him, he would always get back up again and rejoin the fight," Rachel said. "He was a marvelous soldier, an even better strategist, and an excellent man. He wasn't the best because of the choices he made, those were mostly horrible, but he always tried to do what was right for those around him in the end. He wasn't a perfect human, but he was an excellent man.
"In between battles, he was writing letters to his family. He didn't have a wife or children yet, so his mother was always his first choice to communicate with. The soldier would tell of his adventures in the field, the victories and losses of battle, the new people he was meeting. . . Everything that a son would tell his mother.
"He made so many people proud of him without knowing it. What he considered adequate, people around him found extraordinary. The letters that he would receive from his mother were always expressing how proud she was to have him as a son."
Rachel stopped to cough, the only difference from the last times was this time it sounded like she was. . .
"Mom?" Alex sat up and looked at his mother with worry.
"I am so proud of my little soldier," she said as soon as she found the time. "I love you so much."
"Are you --"
"Alexander you are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I want you to know that I am so, so proud of you. . . You have done so much that I would only dream of doing." Her smile turned from relieved to bittersweet as she recounted everything mentally. "You are a wonderful student, friend, cousin, son. . ." She momentarily glanced at Thomas but said nothing.
"Thank you, but where is all of this coming from?" Alex laughed nervously and got off the bed to look at the machine that the tubes were connecting her to like he understood what all of it meant. The beeping representing her heartbeat started to become rapid and Thomas called for a nurse.
"I love you so much, I am so proud of you."
The nurse called a doctor, the doctor called for a cart, and soon there were doctors and nurses rushing around, shoving Alex away from his mother. He tried to squeeze back through only to get pushed back. Thomas grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the wall so the nurses and doctors could do their job. Of course, Hamilton wasn't just going to stand there, so he struggled to the point where Thomas had to wrap his arms around Alex's waist to keep him out of the way.
"What are you doing, Jefferson, let me go! I need to see her!" Alex tried to squirm away. "Mom! Don't leave me, please! Mom!"
Through the wall of doctors, Rachel turned to look at her son one last time. She gave him a reassuring smile. "I love you so much," she repeated.
Suddenly, everything stopped as the rapid beeping was replaced by one constant sound. One of the nurses turned to face the men standing in the corner, her face was dark like she just got back from three consecutive funerals.
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"What do you mean?! You're supposed to be reviving her, bringing her back, stop just standing there!" Alex shouted again.
"She is-- was, uhm, DNR?" The nurse said, glancing nervously at the floor. She went on to explain that since he was underage when the forms were signed, he didn't get a say in what happened. That was up to Peter and Rachel. Alexander tuned her out for the majority of it, only processing that his cousin signed for his mother to be given up on. "I am very sorry for your loss."
"No. No! No, the wires and the-- the tubes they just need to be readjusted, she's fine! Please, let me see her! She'll be fine if you'd just let me see her. Mom!"
"Alex, come on--" Thomas tried guiding him out of the room.
"No, you shut up, she's still breathing! She's tough!"
"Alex, we need to go. . ."
"I'm not leaving her! She needs me, let go! Mom, please don't leave me, please!" Hamilton kicked against Thomas's grip as he was dragged from the room. "Mom, I need you! Don't leave me here alone, me and Peter need you, please!"
By the time Alexander was in the car, his kicking and fighting against Thomas's grip were reduced to weak begging to let him go back. He leaned his head back on the headrest and tried to stop himself from crying.
He was thankful for Thomas not trying to start up any conversation. The only conversation that he wanted have was one with Peter about why he thought it would be okay to do that without consulting the recipient's son, her only child that really cared. It wasn't his choice to make what happened to Rachel.
Rachel wasn't Peter's mom.
Rachel was only his aunt. Obviously, he wasn't going to have the same connection as mother and son. He shouldn't have gotten to make the decision that would affect Alex the most.
When they got back to the apartment, Peter was hunched over the counter and Alex felt waves of different emotions over him. Anger, relief, sadness. . . Sadly, the only emotion that was successfully acted on was anger.
"DNR?!" Alex shouted at his cousin. "You didn't think to tell me that my mother was a fucking DNR patient?!"
Peter turned around, shoving whatever was in his hands back into the drawer with a harsh slam. Alex stormed away from Thomas, letting go of the hand he didn't realize he was holding.
"That wasn't your call to make," he continued. "you aren't her son! You haven't been through what I have with her, you shouldn't have gotten to make that decision!"
"Al, I know you're angry with me--"
"You're damn right I'm angry! I take up those stupid jobs again to help you and to keep her alive, and then I figure out that they couldn't even try to bring her back because of what you did! I didn't even hear it from you, either, no you kept it from me! I hope you're proud of your big decision! Where the hell were you when it took effect!"
"I had something important that I needed to--" Peter's face lost its color. "Wait, Rachel? Is she. . ."
"Yeah," Hamilton spat. "Thanks for being there. I'm not sure what was so goddamn important that you had to miss--" he stopped for a second when his voice broke. "--that you had to miss that, but I sure hope that it was worth it."
Without another word, Alexander stomped out of the room and into his and Peter's shared bedroom. Since Alex and Thomas had been staying there, Peter took over the couch in the living room, so he didn't really have to worry about that too much.
The light was off in the room and Alex didn't have the motivation to turn it on. Instead, he sat down on the edge of his bed and grabbed fistfuls of his hair as he cried. The weight of everything that had happened to him seemed to come crashing down on him with the same weight as when they first happened. Even the small things that didn't bother him much, like his father leaving, made Hamilton want to punch something.