Darragh and Hays were already waiting for them when they reached the rendezvous point.
Eliza and Harrison gently lowered John to the ground, "Thanks," he murmured as he sat down on the grass, his eyes screwed shut in pain.
Laf and Alex made their way over to them and Alex collapsed on the ground next to John.
"We need to assess injuries before we can leave," Herc said, "You two don't seem to be in much of a condition to ride right now,"
"I'm fine," Alex insisted,
"Sure you are,"
Eliza shrugged off the red jacket she was still wearing, "We can use this for bandages," she suggested,
"Good idea," Laf said.
Herc pulled a knife from his belt and Eliza laid the jacket on the grass. The two of them cut the jacket into strips and bundled them into a neat pile.
"Harrison, Hays, you two keep watch," Laf ordered, "Darragh, you get the horses ready to leave,"
Herc knelt down next to John and started unbuttoning his shirt. John let out a cry of pain as Herc tried to pull his arms out of his shirt, "Sorry!" Herc winced, "Laf, have we got any water I can use to try and clean up some of this blood?"
"I'll go have a look."
Eliza knelt down in front of Alex and started undoing his shirt too, "Come on,"
"Eliza…" Ales whined, "I'm fine,"
"You most certainly are not,"
"But John…" Alex trailed off as he glanced at Herc and John,
"Herc's got John, let me look after you,"
Alex went limp and let his head fall on to Eliza's shoulder, "Ok," he said quietly, "but not here,"
"Alex there's nowhere else we can go, we're in a field,"
"I know, I just meant somewhere over there, away from the others,"
Eliza nodded, "Ok."
She collected up some of the makeshift bandages, but before she could offer Alex her hand Laf hurried back over to the group with a bottle of water, "Here," he passed it to Herc who unscrewed it and poured some out on to a handkerchief,
"Laf, come here and help me hold John still, I think his shoulder might be dislocated,"
Laf knelt down next to Herc,
"Eliza, take this," Herc held out the bottle out to Eliza, before he turned his attention back to John.
Eliza turned to Alex, "Let's leave them to it,"
Alex nodded and let Eliza pull him to his feet. The two of them walked a few metres to the right before Alex collapsed back down to the ground,
"Is here good?" Eliza asked,
Alex nodded and Eliza knelt down in front of him. She copied what Herc had done and tipped some of the water out on to a handkerchief. She then started gently dapping at the dried blook on Alex's head.
Alex winced as Eliza scrubbed at a particularly tough bit of blood,
"Sorry!" Eliza cried, "But I need to get the blood off you,"
"It's fine, keep going," Alex said tightly,
"I'll try and be quick," Eliza went back to cleaning the cuts on Alex's head, they looked less vicious without all the dried blook but that didn't make Eliza less worried, she knew while they were still out on the mission there was a high risk of infection.
Eliza took a deep breath and pushed those thought to the back of her mind, "Ok, shirt," she said. She reached out to continue unbuttoning Alex's shirt, but he batted her hand away. Eliza raised an eyebrow at him, but she sat back and let Alex take off his own shirt.
"Oh my god!" Eliza cried, as the extensive bruising on Alex's ribs was revealed, "How have you not collapsed by now‽"
"Adrenaline," Alex said with a weak smile.
Eliza's eyes widened in horror, and she reached out and grabbed some makeshift bandages.
"It's not as bad as it looks," Alex offered, as Eliza started wrapping the strips around Alex's torso.
"I'm sure," Eliza scoffed. She carefully wrapped Alex's ribs, doing her best to ignore the squeaks of pain Alex made every time she pulled too tightly. She tucked the end of the bandages in, "Ok, we're nearly done,"
"I promise that's the worst of it," Alex said.
Eliza nodded, "Just let me do your wrists,"
Eliza could tell just how much Alex was crashing by the fact that he put up no resistance and just offered Eliza his wrists.
There was a ring of dried blood on Alex's wrists, from where his handcuffs had dug in. Eliza scrubbed the blood away and wrapped a bandage around his wrist before swapping and doing Alex's other wrist.
"There, all done," Eliza said. She picked up Alex's shirt and held it out. Alex let Eliza pull his shirt on and do up the buttons. Once that was done Alex leant into Eliza and rested his head on her shoulder,
"Thank you," he said quietly,
"You're welcome,"
"No, I mean thank you for coming for me,"
"Of course, I came for you! I was never going to leave you in the hands of the British,"
"You didn't have to join the mission, you could have left it to Laf and Herc,"
"Never,"
"Schuyler, Hamilton!" Laf called, "Are you two ready?"
Eliza looked over at Alex, "You good?" she asked,
"Yep," Eliza and Alex got to their feet, with Alex leaning heavily on Eliza.
Herc and John had also gotten up. Eliza could see that John's hand and wrist had been wrapped in makeshift bandages, and she was sure there was many more hidden beneath his uniform.
"Harrison! Darragh! Hays!" Laf called, "Get ready, we're leaving," Laf turned back to Herc, "What's your assessment?" he asked,
Herc glanced at John, who was leaning heavily against him, with his eyes closed, "He needs to see a proper doctor, the sooner the better,"
Laf nodded, "We'll go as quickly as we can. Mulligan, you take Laurens, Schuyler, are you good to take Hamilton?"
"Yes Sir."
The party all mounted their horses. Eliza pulled Alex up, so he was sat behind her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. Eliza squeezed Alex's hand before letting go and taking hold of the reigns, then they set off back to Valley Forge with the rest of the party.