A/N: Something I wrote when I was bored.
Peggy Schuyler was dying. She knew that. She'd been sick for years now. She wasn't getting better. There wasn't a chance of her recovering anymore. But that was okay. She'd accepted it. She could deal with it. Besides, was...was death really that bad? Maybe she would see John again. God knows she'd barely met the man but from the way Alexander talked about him? He sounded truly spectacular. The way Hamilton smiled whenever he spoke of John Laurens was heartwarming to say the least. It was impossible to deny the love between them; the relationship that society forbid and a war destroyed.
Though, Peggy didn't pity Alexander on that front. He had memories with the man she loved. She had glimpses. Of course, there had been a man she'd fallen head over heels for at first sight but her father wouldn't allow her to even consider it. He'd already made the arrangements for her to marry one of her cousins. That didn't mean the man didn't still full her every dream. That didn't mean her heart ever truly stopped yearning for him. But it could never be and she accepted that now. She accepted that life was cruel and unfair and hers would be ending soon enough.
Just like Alexander had met Eliza and Angelica, Peggy had met the man at the Winter's Ball. They had flirted; they had danced. It had been nice. He even danced with her at the wedding! But that's all they could ever be. Nice. Already forbidden from loving him, Peggy hated how she'd had to turn him away; fool him into thinking she didn't care. She hated how she could never be held in his arms and kiss him softly. She hated how trapped she felt.
But most of all?
She hated how she was in love with Lafayette.
He was her biggest regret. If she could go back in time; if she could rewind, she'd tell him. Peggy would confess right there and then that she loved him. She'd be happy with him. She would have been satisfied. But instead, the youngest Schuyler sister had fallen prey to her father's whims, only doing as he asked. Whilst her sister's strived for independence, she'd long since had that stripped away with her. She'd long since been left with the numbness of having someone else control her life. Her husband had been no better; dictating where she could go and who with. She barely even saw her sisters anymore! Not to mention all her friends...Every letter from them, he'd destroyed before she could read it. Every word was gone.
That was when she wanted Alexander by her side. Her best friend; the one she trusted most. He was the only one she wanted there when she died. It felt as if he were the only one that understood. Glancing over at him, staring into his eyes, Peggy knew that for certain. Alexander Hamilton understood her. He knew what it was like to lose at the game of love. He knew what it was like to be caged by society. But most importantly? He'd taken the time to know her. He'd taken the time to understand her. That was why she offered him one last smile before closing her eyes for the last time.
Her dreams were perfection. They were filled with the life she could have lived with Lafayette; her friends and her family surrounded her. They laughed and they smiled and they were...happy. Nothing seemed wrong. It was as if the war had never happened; as if nothing terrible had ever occurred to them. It was peaceful. It was Peggy's paradise. Slowly, she could feel herself slipping away into the next life. But she didn't mind.
She was content.