the great wide open

"I love camping!" Derrick had decided.

"You didn't think so last night when those fat raccoons were outside our tent." Ian reminded him as they sat together huddled in the morning dew in the outback of the state park. As it was, they couldn't use wood or anything else from the park. And the little cookstove was a bit of a pain, but he'd made coffee and Derrick was working on some egg sandwiches for them.

"Well, yeah, I was afraid then, until you told me there were no bears around." Case solved.

Ian held in a laugh. "Yeah, you're really sexy when your scared."

"Hahaha." Derrick mocked, turning the egg over, then slid it on the English muffin with the Canadian bacon.

Ian just smiled as Derrick gave him the sandwich.

"So how long are we going to be doing this?" Derrick asked.

"I thought you wanted to do this?" Ian was a little hurt that Derrick was more talk than doing, in the wilderness. This was their second day out. "You really have to give it a third day before you appreciate this kind of thing."

"Like what, having an epiphany or something?" Derrick winced as he got his sandwich situated to eat.

"Perhaps." Ian shrugged.

"I'd rather pack it all in, get a room and have a hot shower with you." Derrick smirked.

"That does really sound nice, but we're going fishing today." Ian told him.

"Then can we get a room, and a shower and sleep all day?" Ian wanted to know.

"We'll see how it goes." Ian had a feeling this camping was too much hard work, for either of them.

He looked to the clouds. It looked like rain might be moving in. Just their luck. Or maybe it was luck. He definitely didn't want to be close to the river if it flooded. Just then his cell rang. It was Jules, from back in England. At least it wasn't Amanda about to go into labor.

"Guess what?" Jules sounded half drunk. Ian rolled his eyes.

"Jules?" Ian questioned. This was the last place he ever expected to hear from him. Last time he'd seen him, they weren't exactly mates.

"I'm a dad!" He heard cheering in the back ground. Jules was drinking more than a few.

"Well, that's great." Ian decided to play along, hoping this would be a short conversation.

"Yeah, its great! A wee little bastard too!" Jules shouted. More cheers.

"Congratulations." Ian tried to make an effort, but he felt farther than ever before from his old mate.

"Collette and me. We're gonna make this work, mate. You hear that?" Jules informed him.

Ian almost laughed. But he felt sad too. He didn't know why, exactly. Collette had her baby. He wished she'd call. A part of him knew he didn't want to call her. This was Jules life, and as much as they'd been friends, he might have hated him as much.

He felt a drop of rain hit his nose then.

"Look, I have to go." It was time to get inside. "Have a nice life, Jules." Ian didn't have anything else to say.