A/N:  I'm sorry this took so long to write.  Life's been getting in the way of my writing. ;-) But don't worry, I haven't forgotten this story (no matter how much it seems like it), and I do plan on finishing it, so bear with me.  Anyway, here's the long awaited next chapter.  Enjoy!

              *             *             *

     Chapter Ten:  Life Moves On

     The Blue Lady had finally decided to glance my way, because within another few days, and after several recon missions...Rec...Aw hell.  So much for not sounding like a "soldier."  Shit.  Anyway, after looking around a bit, I found a small "bar."  And I use the term "bar" loosely.  It may have been a bar at some point before the Pulse, but at the time it had resembled a dump more than anything else.  A really nasty smelling, whole-in-the-wall dump that tried half heartedly to resemble the "bar" it had once been.  It was really the main hangout for the local hookers and their tough, macho pimps.

     Dirty as hell in there though.  Surprise, surprise.  Had the worst smell to it I swear.  Can still remember what it smelled like, that's how bad it was. Still makes me nauseous too.  Disgusting combination of smells too.  Alcohol, smoke, sweat, among other things which I'll not torture you with by mentioning.  Having a hyper sensitive nose didn't help a whole hell-of-a-lot either.  Sickening.  It really was.  But I've already said that plenty.  But despite, or quite possibly because of, the nauseating smells, it was also short staffed.  And on an empty stomach, as long as some of their cash made it into my hands, I was willing to overlook the smell.

     Anyway, those are just little details of my life after Manticore.  I mean, if you really want to know, yeah, I got the job.  No big surprise.  No one else "applied."  It even wasn't so bad once you got used to it.  Well, not as bad as I had imagined anyway.  I actually got stuck with all the crappy little jobs no one else wanted to do.  Go figure.  Always made the "strange, freaky looking kid" do the crap jobs.  Made sure I wasn't anywhere near the cash though.  So little faith in me...

     Anyway, that's all water under the bridge as they say.  The money did feed me, and I did eventually make a few friends though they were mostly outside of the "bar."  The money also helped me fix up my digs.  It's funny how something as simple as "furnishing" and fixing-up your own place can make you feel so...so...content, I guess.  I didn't understand it then, and I certainly don't understand it any better now either.  Most of the stuff was crap.  Total junk.  Stuff I had "fixed-up."  Make shift stuff.  I guess that wasn't what really mattered though.  The quality I mean.  I guess it was the fact that it was mine.  It didn't have belong to some revered research company, or some secret government project.  It didn't have to fit any warped regulations.  It was mine.  I could do what I wanted with it.  Make it how I wanted it.  Well what do you know...It all leads back to our leaving Manticore.  Our freedom.  Because that's what it was about.  Maybe a very small detail in my life, but it was still about me being free to do what I wanted.

     Here I am, sitting, reminiscing, saying that all these tidbits were just that - trivial details of my life.  But in reality...in reality they were so much more.  They were the beginnings of my life.  My life away from Manticore.  My real life.  Like it was all suddenly in colour, as Maxie once said.  And it was.  Everything seemed so much brighter...so much more real.  I learned...so much.  I started to understand things...life, why norms valued it so much.  It really can be pretty spectacular, though "spectacular" works either way.  It can be a painfully sharp double edged sword...Anyway, adding freedom to something that was already so amazing just made it so much more.  Beyond words.  Cliché I know, but still every bit as true.