The booms had woken him first. Samuel shook his wife awake and ushered her to a safer room in their home. It had been a few days since his sister had come up missing, along with William and the one armed soldier. A neighbor had informed Samuel that the militia had taken Keziah, but how could he believe that Loyalist? They would say anything to discredit the militia. Samuel had looked for days but to no avail and now there was a war outside, closer than he'd ever remembered it being. The booms were loud and even though his home wasn't as close to the wall as Keziah's little house was, he could hear the sound of fighting. 

Elizabeth was crying as she crouched behind one of the dressers in the room. Her baby would be here any day and with Keziah gone and a war going on outside of their door she didn't think that she or the baby would make it. Samuel was a doctor but beyond his [i]knowledge[/i] of her…he wouldn't know what to do. He was a smart man but there was only so much he knew. Childbirth was still very much a women's job. And seeing a strange woman's intimate bits was…well it wasn't very appropriate. 

He held onto his wife tightly as he thought of a way out of this mess. He'd find his sister, or he'd find that blasted man that had likely drug her into this mess in the first place. 

Samuel eventually decided to have Elizabeth go out the back door and escape through the garden. Even in the current state she could make it across the garden. He followed after her and prayed to God that they'd be safe.* 

---

Hours passed, most of them had been spent tending to the soldiers as they came in with all sorts of wounds, the next worst than the last. Keziah was exhausted but she didn't stop, not until the doctor came over to tell her to get a drink of water. Her hands were bloody as were her clothes and she had a few streaks of his in her hair and on her face. Samuel and Elizabeth weren't among the few civilians that had escaped and ran to the camp. Hopefully they were alright.*

She wondered what her [i]husband[/i] was doing right now. How could he have slept through the night when he'd been so concerned about keeping history the way it was. Keziah didn't see the problem honestly. Boston wasn't controlled by the British, or rather in a few more hours or days it wouldn't be. When she was excused so another nurse could take her place, she was escorted back home by a guard. They were silent the entire way there and he left just as she reached the door. The usual guards were in their posts. She ignored them, to tired at the moment to care or say a few kind words. 

The nurse heat some water and prepared herself a bath. The blood on her clothes had soaked through and made her skin feel uncomfortable. She scrubbed the blood off of her and out of her hair. For a little while she just sat in the water, thinking over what she'd seen today and how many they had lost despite their best efforts. Keziah finished with her bath and quickly dried herself and changed. Rather than put on a dress, she took some of the clothes that belonged to her [i]husband[/i]. Trousers felt a little funny but nothing that she couldn't get used to. Keziah sat in front of the fireplace, knees pulled up to her chest and her arms were wrapped around them. She stared into the flames and sighed. She wished that none of this had ever happened. 


(* Samuel and Elizabeth are still alive.)