hiding behind the other and peeking around.
Pat's back to the pub's doors suddenly, palms up and outstretched; Ron behind the bar but tousled, like he'd been maneuvered into place by something and was being held there. Both men thinking the same thing at once- How the FUCK did we get here?! -but unlike Pat, Ron knew. He knew part of it at least, which is why he'd barked that order when the movement in front of and round him stilled into hands that clung and a body folded up and pressed into the backs of legs; stilled into a second where he could think.
To his credit, Pat didn't argue.
Man was gone soon as he'd come.
And Ron? Ron looked round at the aftermath of what'd been an explosion of all-out panic. Puzzle books, plates of nibbles and a whole pot of tea had gone flying when Boy, frit to hell by Pat's sudden arrival, all but bent time to get off his stool, round the bar and behind Ron within what couldn't have been more than two seconds flat. He looked and saw and he listened too, to what he could catch beyond the silence that'd descended on the room when adrenaline had burned the rest away.
The radio droned away about the sports scores.
The dishwasher sloshed softly away to his right.
And Boy...He could hear Boy breathing - erratic and spiked with panic but starting to settle just a touch as the tension in the air bled slowly away. Unsure if the lad would welcome comfort through contact, despite how he'd clung onto him, Ron didn't do what instinct nipped him to and reach down towards the nearest hand he could feel fisted in his clothes. He looked down instead at the too slender young man folded close at his back and mustered in the gentlest voice he could-
"S'alrigh' mate. I gottcha...'Ee's gone...
Was jus' me mate Pat, bu' 'ee's gone."
Not for the first time since meeting Boy and Beth, Ron cast silent not quite thanks but also sort of appreciation to how his mental condition made emoting tricky. It let him hide again how much anger he felt at whatever cunt had hurt this young man tucked behind him so badly that sight of a new face could do...this.
Gentle-voiced still, he asked, "----Y'wanna come aht, yeah?"