The music was already pumping in the bar when Ryan finally made his way to the small room out the back that was now his home home, he thought fondly to himself as he thought about when the bar and the former store room had become a 'home' to him and not just a place where he crashed.
It looked much more homely now than it had when he had first arrived several weeks before and he had been able to add a few more items to his meagre collection of belongings including some items that had belonged to his mother, he stopped for a moment as he thought of the woman who had been his mother, Lieutenant Washington he had admired her before he had found out the truth about his parentage, she had been a good leader as well as a good person, tough but sentimental when she had needed to be and he had found that despite her tough exterior that she had a heart of gold and was in her own way like a mother to the younger soldiers of the colony.
It had been a shock to everyone when she had been killed and people had wanted to do something to honour her memory and had erected a gravestone over her empty grave, for there had been no body to bury within it. When the colony had finally got rid of the phoenix soldiers and their cohorts from not just the future but also the Sixers group who had supported them, the mammoth task of rebuilding had begun including burying the dead but Lieutenant Washington's body had not been found and some believed that she had survived but the commander and the Shannon family had put a stop to that rumour telling everyone that it was not possible to survive a blast to the face and that they had seen her drop when she had been shot.
Ryan noted that the time was getting on and if the noise level in the bar was any indication of how full it was then it would not be long before Boylan started the quiz, he raced down the hallways towards the door of his room, pushing it open quickly as he dropped his hated school bag onto his bed, he had spent the last few hours since leaving work at the school with one of the teachers who was helping him finish his educations.
When he had first been enrolled at the school a few weeks before he had been placed in a classroom with some of the older children but after a few altercations with some of the lads in the group and in particular one particular boy whose father was a member of the security force, it had been felt that perhaps it would be better for the school as a whole and in particular for Ryan if he did his lessons separately from the other students for the most part, he did join the students in some subjects but mostly he did his work alone with just which ever teacher was willing to take on the role of teaching him.
Ryan sighed as he pulled his homework out of his bag and placed it down onto the old rickety table that Boylan had let him have from the bar, it was one of the tables that had been broken so many times over the past few years that the bar owner no longer felt it was safe to have in the bar and often had worried about it breaking and crashing to the floor while it was covered in filled glasses of drink which he knew not only would annoy his customer but also would cost him extra money because he had been sure that the customers whose drinks would have been lost would have demanded he replace their drinks and as he was not willing to lose money he had allowed Ryan to have the old table in his room.
He glanced briefly down at the homework as he changed out of the overalls he wore while he was working during the day and changing into an old worn pair of jeans and a T shirt which he was certain had seen better days but it was a comfortable t-shirt despite the few holes in it that had been repaired even though his sewing was not the best in the world and wondered how he was going to do the assignment that had been set for him, this assignment was for him to do a thousand word essay on Commander Taylor and on the man's first days on Terra Nova before the rest of the colony had arrived and it was not something that he had been looking forward to, if he hadn't known better he could have sworn that the teacher had given him this particular assignment because he knew how uncomfortable it would make Ryan and some of the things he needed to find out could only be done by him asking the commander out right, something he was loathe to do.
Still that was something that could wait he thought to him as he made his way down to the bar, spotting the others who was in the day shift horticultural quiz team and making his way swiftly through the almost filled room towards them.
He took note of the other teams already present as he made his way over to his team mates, the night shift was there at their usual table, their heads already close together discussing what he did not know, the medical centre had a small team there and they were at a table near the door, the military team was there and he could see several of them looking at him hard as he passed close to their table but none made any attempt to acknowledge him in any way and he spotted the guard who had made his time in the stockade glaring at him as he passed.
He had just reached the table that his team was sat at when someone grabbed his arm as he passed another table, he tried to pull his arm back as he jumped backwards startled by the hand on his arm and found himself being pulled forward as his eyes connected with that of Dr Shannon who looked concerned at his apparent nervousness.
"I'm sorry Ryan, I did not mean to frighten you then but I wanted to see if you were alright."
Ryan ducked his head in embarrassment as he realised that he had made a bit of an idiot of himself and that people were now looking at the interaction between himself and the good doctor.
"I'm sorry about that doc, just did not expect anyone to grab me. I'm fine though really."
He could out the corner of his eye see his team mates looking on with interest as the doctor addressed him and he knew that they would have a whole load of questions once he joined them. The doctor nodded at him and released his hand wishing him and his team good luck for the quiz as she returned to her husband and family who had Mark Reynolds with them in their team and he made his way to the table, sitting down swiftly as Boylan started the quiz which he was grateful for because it meant that no one could ask him any questions although he could see that they really wanted to.
The evening proceeded with the quiz ending with a surprising winner but as Ryan thought about it as Maddy Shannon collected the prize for her team, team Shannon, it was not surprising that they had won especially as it had been Maddy who had answered most of the questions and it was not long until the bar had then closed, Ryan had helped Boylan tidy up the bar and took the empties out the back, placing them in the big storage container.
After closing the storage container Ryan took time to step out the back for a moment or two to enjoy the cool night air as he thought of how his life was going before he headed back into the bar and headed for his room and he had not been aware that he had not been alone out the back of the bar, in the shadows someone had been watching him intently and as he disappeared back up the stairs and through the door, the figure moved but not so that anyone who happened to be following would notice them, the figure pulled out a radio speaking briefly and somewhat quietly into it.
"Judas calling Phoenix can you hear me over?"