Lobo Malo

Chapter 5 - Boot Sequence

The Theater
2218 EST

"I have never had a better reason to get rid of beer," Ryckmen replied as he took a pull from a bottle. He sighed appreciatively. "And this one has been decidedly well earned."

Gregory nodded as he sipped from his own bottle. "The last beer out of St. Louis for the foreseeable future." He frowned as a thought struck him. "God, no imports anymore. No more British stouts. No more Belgian dubbels or trippels." Shaking his head, Gregory took another sip.

"Worse than that. No more genuine scotch. No more Russian vodka. No more French champagne." Ryckmen chuckled as he finished off his beer. "The list just goes on and on."

"Doesn't it just?" Gregory growled. He looked over at the door to Sawyer's quarters, where Kelso and Sawyer were discussing the future in very heated tones which leaked through to the outside. "So, level with me. Were you and Sawyer ever a thing?"

"Hell, no," replied Ryckmen mildly. "She and Dom had been married for several years before she went through the Ranch. We went through at the same time, got along pretty well, and after we finished up, we stayed in touch."

"Kind of ruins the whole point of being a sleeper, doesn't it?"

"We never discussed Division business around Dom or Eleanor. As far as they knew, she and I met when our respective rides home laid over at Rammstein Air Base, we shot the breeze, and became fast friends. Just two Army buddies. I had them come out to my place for Christmas a couple times, they invited me out here a few times. Last summer, I was over here for the Fourth of July weekend with them. It seemed like a good idea. Realistically, if we were activated, it would be more likely I'd be ending up on the East Coast than the West. And since that was true, it didn't seem like a bad idea to make sure I knew some people in the area." Ryckmen scratched his head. "Jesus, that was the last time before Black Friday we saw each other. They were supposed to come out to my place in Bozeman for Christmas. You know, I had completely forgotten that till just now."

"Probably happened a lot to other folks. What's her story?"

"Short version: not pretty, but all too common. Teenage single mom, just seventeen when she had Eleanor. Few years later, she joined the Army. After her first tour, she met Dominique LaCroix."

"Was he military?"

Ryckmen shook his head. "Civilian all the way, but he was a good man. And I mean a man, not just a dude. He came over from Haiti when he was a kid, made good, and he didn't flinch when he met Odessa. To hear her tell it, his folks were just all sorts of umbraged that their son was even thinking about seeing a single mother. Didn't stop him from marrying her, of course. He walked down the aisle with his eyes wide open and smiled the whole way.  Even took her name.  Sort of a middle finger for all the grief his parents gave him. 

"Anyway, when Odessa did another tour in Iraq, Dom started working with the Red Cross, even though he was still a local cop. Think he wanted to be doing something more productive than homicide investigations, and that was his best opportunity. He was on the front lines of more disaster sites than I'd care to count. He even went back to Haiti after that big earthquake, and that took a lot of balls, given the circumstances surrounding his family's departure. The man was utterly fearless, and it was clear as day how much he loved Odessa and Eleanor." Ryckmen sighed heavily, then cracked open another beer. "I had nothing but the utmost respect for him. And God, how I wish he was here now. Not just for Odessa and Eleanor's sake. If anybody could make this place work, it'd be Dom." He turned to look at Gregory and saw Eleanor standing behind him. "How much did you hear, El?" he asked quietly.