When Sammy rang the bell Ian was glad that he wasn't all that close to it. The little boy rang the bell tentatively at first, but with typical enthusiasm once he really got it going, and the peals of the bell rang out through the sleepy camp far longer than what was probably necessary to make sure all the campers were actually awake.

Ian didn't mind, though. He'd done the same thing when he'd been the one ringing the bell, so he could understand. He finally waved to Sammy – who had been watching him while he'd been ringing it – to tell him to stop, and the boy came running over to the cabin porch.

"Pretty good, huh?"

Ian nodded.

"Couldn't have done better myself."

Sammy beamed.

They went into the cabin, and found that all the boys were wide awake. They were even more or less dressed – proving to Ian that they'd been awake longer than just the minute between then and when Sammy had rung the bell.

"Ian!"

As soon as he walked through the door and they realized who was there, Ian was rushed by the group, each of them trying to hug him while they all chattered excitedly.

"You're back!"

"I told you he wasn't dead."

"No, you didn't. You said-"

"Yes, I did!"

"What happened to your head, Ian?"

"Are you staying?"

"Hey! Jaffer!"

"What happened to-"

"Where's my toilet paper?"

This last one was a plaintive call from the bathroom, and Ian grinned – despite the fact that the kids were making his headache worse.

"Someone take this to Hayden," Ian said, tossing a roll of toilet paper to Brian, who was closest to the bathroom door. "Before he decides to use his hand – or worse, someone else's."

"Ewwwww!"

"That's gross!"

Shawn chuckled from the bunk he'd been stretched out on. Fully clothed and ready to go, he wasn't in any hurry to get up, even though he was glad to see Ian was up and around – and back.

"How are you feeling?" Shawn asked as Jaffer came over and whuffled him cheerfully.

Ian broke away from the boys, shooing them back to their bunks to finish getting dressed, although they were all still listening to him.

"I'm fine. Just a little tired."

"You're limping." Shawn made it a question.

"Not much."

"Did you hurt your leg?"

"Just my knee – and it'll be okay."

At least it wasn't broken.

"Good."

"You okay?"

Shawn nodded, gesturing to the cast on his ankle – which had a couple dozen signatures on it.

"I've never broken anything before… but it's not too bad."

Of course he'd never broken anything before, Ian thought as he went over and leaned against the bunk near Shawn's. Not with a mother who could heal in a heartbeat – and do it far more effectively than Ian, who hadn't been born with the ability. It made him wonder, though, if Shawn could heal – or ever would be able to. He wasn't full Ancient, after all – and maybe it was an ability that didn't always breed through. Who knew? Not Ian – and he wasn't about to bring up the topic with Shawn. Maybe later, when Dotty's death wasn't so fresh…

"Well, now that you have, you can join the broken bone club," Ian said.

"Sounds exciting."

"Oh yeah… secret handshake, membership card…the works."

Shawn grinned.

"Have you seen Jack?"

"Yeah. He's down at the cafeteria with Sam and Frasier."

"Is Janet staying?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"Hey! Look what the cat dragged in!"

Ian turned and saw River coming out of the bathroom, a big grin on his tanned face.

"Hey, look who finally wiped his-"

"Ian."

Shawn interrupted that particular greeting, reminding Ian that there were more people in the room than just the three of them – they weren't in their dorm room, after all.

River laughed, walking over. The Californian was wearing a pair of tan cargo shorts – normal enough – and a brilliant orange Hawaiian print shirt that was unbuttoned, showing bare chest and stomach, which was just as tanned as his face.

"How are you doing?"

"Fine."

"Good! The boys missed you."

There were clamors of agreement to that, and Ian couldn't help but feel just a little warm and fuzzy at the sincerity in the little faces. He scowled, though, unwilling to turn the reunion into a mush fest.

"Adams? Why don't you head down to the cafeteria now, so you don't get trampled when the breakfast bell rings? Jack already has a table for us."

Shawn smiled, knowing that Ian wasn't going to acknowledge the boys' excitement to have him back.

"That's not a bad idea." He looked at his watch. "When will it ring?"

"Twenty minutes."

Ian hadn't looked at the schedule recently, but he still knew what it said.

"What's for breakfast, Ian?" Chad asked. The boys had already decided that Ian knew everything, since he could always answer their schedule questions.

"I smelled bacon."

"Which means French toast," Shawn said. He, of course, had been to camp long enough to know that when Jared made bacon it was almost always on French toast mornings.

"I'm starving," Brian said.

"Me, too!" Wilson agreed.

"Me, three!"

"Me, four!"

"Me-"

"Finished getting dressed, guys," Ian said, interrupting them.

"While you're doing that," River said, moving over to find his shoes. "You can tell Ian all about the scavenger hunt that he missed yesterday."

"It was great!" Chance said, excitedly. "We had to find all sorts of things, and we got points for them, and we had to go in order of what was on the list or they didn't-"

"And we had to find an elephant!" Wilson added.

"Sammy had one, though," Bruce said. "We had to get a horseshoe, too, and a-

"And a feather!"

"And a picture of dogs playing poker!"

The list went on and on, and Ian had already heard it all from Sammy, but he didn't stop them. There wasn't any point in telling them that he already knew, and if they weren't yelling at him about that then they'd just be blathering on about something else – or asking him questions or something. This way all he had to do was nod every now and then – and that wasn't so terrible. But breakfast couldn't come soon enough – and not just because he was hungry.