Showered, shaved and freshly dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and his only dry sweatshirt, Ian walked into the cafeteria expecting to see at least a few of the other counselors holding tables for their cabins. True, he hadn't seen of his boys when he'd returned from his run, but he'd assumed that meant that they were screwing around up at the tents, still – which had been an area he'd studiously avoided on his morning jog. He hadn't expected that everyone was still up there – and he knew from glancing at the schedule earlier that they were definitely having breakfast here, and not up in the field. Like anyone would want to eat up in the field anyways.

"Get the shit rained on them and soggy cornflakes to boot," he muttered to himself, looking out the window.

"You're Ian, right?"

The voice came from the serving window between the dining room and the kitchen, and Ian looked over and saw the cook leaning on the counter there.

"Yeah."

He walked over to the counter, drawn by the smell of cooking bacon.

The cook held his hand out.

"Jared Miller."

They shook hands, and Ian was glad to see that the guy didn't go immediately for the whole who had the strongest handshake bullshit. He hated it when people did that.

"Nice to meet you."

Now can I have some breakfast?

"Gary came by about twenty minutes ago and told me that the kids are running a little behind. Apparently everyone slept in or something, so we're going to be starting breakfast a little late."

Damn.

"That explains why no one's here, then…" Ian said, more to himself – although Jared nodded.

"They'll be around in ten or fifteen minutes. If you're hungry, though, I have bacon and muffins already cooking, and while the muffins will taste just as good warm, the bacon definitely is best served hot – which means I'll need to turn what I've cooked into bacon bits or something. You're welcome to as much of it as you want."

Ian smiled.

"Thanks."

"Toast?"

"Not if you haven't made some." There was no need for an imposition, after all. "A muffin?"

A plate of muffins was sitting behind the cook, and he simply reached back and took a couple off the plate and handed them to Ian – along with a small plate of bacon.

"I need to get busy, but if anyone asks, you stole it."

Ian nodded, taking the plate.

"Thank you."

He went back to the table he was reserving for his cabin, and started munching, even as the dining room crew started setting tables and getting ready for breakfast.

OOOOOOOO

Fifteen minutes later Ian was finished with his pre-breakfast snack and was just thinking about maybe mooching more muffins off Jared when he heard the bell ring.

"That'll be the breakfast bell," Ian heard the cook tell his staff. "Let's get things into serving bowls."

By the time they were done doing that – and from his spot at the table Ian couldn't really see much of what was going on in the kitchen – the other counselors were starting to trickle in. All of them looked sleepy, and most of them threw Ian looks that ranged from annoyed right up to incredibly pissed off. Not that he wasn't used to people being angry with him – the looks were hardly the first he'd ever received – but he was a little curious why they'd all decided they were pissed at him at the same time.

Even Hayden looked annoyed with him when he entered the dining room.

"Where have you been?" River asked as he sat down.

Ian scowled.

"Right here."

"The kids were-"

Just then there was a sudden influx of children – as if the floodgates to kiddyland had just opened up – and the boys from Australia came rushing up to the table, followed by Shawn, who was walking at a more normal pace. All of them had wet heads from the rain outside, and their jackets and sweatshirts were fairly damp – telling Ian that it was still pouring. As if he couldn't see that through the windows that overlooked the lake.

"Ian!"

Sammy came rushing up to him, grabbing the chair beside his and flopping into it without even watching what he was doing. It was a wonder he didn't fall off and crack his head open.

"Where were you?" Chad asked, looking just as relieved.

"I've been right here."

What were they, the location police?

"We were worried…" Chance said, taking the spot beside River, his dark face just as relieved as Sammy's and the others.

Ian was baffled.

"Why?"

"Because they thought the…" River trailed off, scowling. "Just check in before you leave in the middle of the night, okay?"

It was Ian's turn to scowl, now.

"It wasn't the middle of the night. It was-"

"Good morning, campers!"

Gary Hines had entered the room, and had moved to his accustomed place to give announcements. He, too, looked wet, but not at all annoyed like the others did, which was just as well as far as Ian was concerned.

Instead of the cheery response he normally received, Gary's greeting was met with yawns, and the vacant look of those who are too tired to care what's really going on. Clearly sleeping in an extra hour didn't really do all that much good for the campers – or their counselors. A few kids did manage to wave, though.

"It's raining pretty hard outside," Gary said, continuing as if they were just as chipper as usual. "So today when you're finished with breakfast, we're going to be meeting down in the gym for indoor games. Okay?"

There were a bunch of nods, and even a few looks of expectation, but more of the kids were zombies from lack of sleep – although Gary knew that condition wouldn't last all that long. Kids were walking bags of energy – and that couldn't be dampened for too long. Not at this age.

"Good. Let's eat!"

Now there was a lot of enthusiasm. As each table belatedly picked its runner and counselor, Sierra and Hank both came over to Australia's table.

"Hey Ian… got a minute?" Hank asked.

Since he'd been one of those with the annoyed expression on his face when he'd entered the dining room, Ian was inclined to tell him to go fuck himself – fairly certain that he was just going to try and get into something with him. Instead, though, since there were little kids watching, he shrugged, and stood up.

"Be right back, guys."

Ann and Hank led him outside – luckily under the awning so they weren't getting rained on.

"Okay, Ian…" Hank said without preamble. "You made the mess, now you need to come up with a way to fix it. And soon."