As far as free time was concerned, Ian had already decided that it was erroneously named. When he'd first seen it on the schedule, he'd assumed – incorrectly as it turned out – that it was time that the counselors would be able to spend away from their charges. Hence the name free time. Instead, it was just a period of unstructured time, where the kids could do whatever activity they chose to do, be it swimming, playing games in the field, playing in the gym or one of the other many activities that the camp had available to the campers.

Unfortunately, the counselors were expected to join their kid in these activities.

When the swim time for Romania and Australia was officially over and they were told it was free time until lunch, Ian was still holding Sammy, who was simply watching the other kids swim while loosely holding onto Ian. Ann was still sitting beside him, too, seemingly in no hurry to swim again – although she was chatting merrily with her girls when they'd swim up to talk to her. They tried several times to get him involved in the conversation, but Ian wasn't in the mood for small talk – when was he ever in the mood for it? (Although he had to admit that he much preferred little girls trying to talk to him than older girls – say anyone over the age of 16 – because these girls weren't ogling him like a piece of meat, they just wanted to talk). The little girls didn't mind his lack of conversation. They were more than willing to chat with their counselor and allow Ian to just listen in. When Ann wasn't talking to them, she was talking to Sammy, who was more than willing to talk – as long as it didn't mean leaving Ian's grasp.

Which was annoying, because Ian had long since started getting sunburned. It wasn't like he spent all that much time out in the sun to get tanned in the first place, but now he was sitting on a dock, surrounded by water which was reflecting the sun up at him from every direction. The little boy sitting in his lap protected his belly and chest from the sun – probably the caked on dried snot would have done the same job – but his back was killing him already, and he knew it was just going to feel worse, later.

When they announced the free time, Ian finally decided he'd had enough. He nudged Sammy, who looked up at him.

"I'm going to take a quick swim."

That got his attention quick enough, and Ian wished he'd have said it an hour ago. Sammy slid off his lap, coming to sit between Ian and Ann, and the cadet slid off the dock and into the water. He didn't really care whether he swam or not, but the water felt good on his back and he needed a good way to wash the snot off his chest. Immediately the other boys splashed over to him, and started asking him to throw them into the air so they could splash. This was better than the diving board – which was scary for most of them.

Ian sighed, but caught the amused gleam in River's expression.

"You're too weak to toss a couple of kids?" Hayden challenged.

He'd be too tempted to toss them too far was more like it, but Ian didn't say that. Instead he rubbed his nose – with one finger – and the Californian chuckled, even though the kids had missed it entirely.

"Come here, Chance," Ian said.

The camper paddled over to him, grinning excitedly. He could actually touch here, barely, but he was getting good at paddling and was getting all the practice in he could get before trying the deeper water again. Ian made a stirrup out of his hands, and showed them to the boy before putting his hands underwater, and Chance immediately put one foot in his hands, one of his hands coming down on Ian's shoulder to steady himself.

"Not too far," River cautioned him.

"Relax, Hayden." He wasn't stupid, after all. He'd fling all the kids that wanted it, and then haul his ass back up to the cabin where he could get a shirt on. Stupid fucking sun.

Ian brought his hands out of the water in a powerful motion, flinging Chance over his back about three feet in the air and a good ten feet away. The boy squealed in delight, landed with a huge splash, and immediately paddled back to go again.

"Me!" Chad yelled.

"Me, too!" Yelled Wilson.

"Me, three!"

"Me fo-"

"I get it," Ian said, dryly, cutting them off.

Ann smiled, amused at the trap he'd made for himself, and Ian was tempted to flip her off, too. But he didn't. His hands were suddenly filled with kids – even some of the girls – and he spent the next half an hour with River and Shawn in the lake, tossing kids over his shoulder – much to their delight.

Then the water suddenly filled even more when the other campers who had been off doing other activities came down to the water for a swim before lunch. Ian took advantage of the influx of counselors to make his escape, telling River that he was heading up to the cabin.

"Put something on your back, too," River said, getting a look at Ian's sunburn for the first time. "You're beet red."

Like he didn't know it? Instead of saying anything, Ian trudged out of the water, dodging screaming kids and being splashed half a dozen times as he became the victim of crossfire from several different water fights. But he did manage to shake Sammy, who was being distracted by Shawn just then.

He made it as far as the parking lot, where he stopped at his car to get some lotion out of his trunk (it wasn't his but Cassie wouldn't mind if he borrowed it, he knew) when he heard someone calling him.

"Hey, Ian!"

He looked over and saw Hank coming over.

"Well, shit…"

This was simply mumbled under his breath, but the guarded look in his expression when the other guy approached plainly told Hank that he didn't really want company. Hank wasn't offended, though.

"Hey… I just wanted to apologize for earlier."

"What?"

"I wasn't very nice, and I shouldn't have called you a jerk. Sorry about that. It was early, and I slept like shit on the little bed – and the kids wouldn't go to sleep no matter how many stories I told them, and I pretty much took it out on you. I'm sorry about that."

Ian couldn't have been more surprised if the guy had asked him to the prom. Disgusted, yes, surprised, no. He was so surprised he actually accepted the apology gracefully instead of telling the guy to go fuck himself like he might normally.

"It's okay," Ian said, shrugging. "I didn't sleep very well, either."

Which wasn't to say that was the reason he hadn't wanted to chat.

Hank smiled, glad the apology had been accepted. Then he looked at the car.

"Is this yours?"

"Yeah."

"It's sweet."

And wasn't that the best way to get on Ian's good side? Ian thought it was a pretty sweet car, too, and he was proud of it.

"A friend of mine gave it to me for my birthday."

"No shit?"

"Yeah."

"I'm hanging out with the wrong people…" Hank said, moving so he could look into the interior. "All I get are cards – and sometimes a cake."

Ian actually smiled at that.