Nightmares were very common at the Xavier Institute. Someone awoke screaming almost every night, but that didn't mean that the children of the institute enjoyed the rough awakening. Most often, it was Jean Grey that cried out in her sleep, but those nights were considered restful compared to others. In the worse cases, everyone in the mansion would rush into the seventeen-year-old's room, only to find that they could not wake her up. Those were, by far, the worst.

Everyone at the Xavier Institute had their own opinions on nightmares. The youngest member of the institute, thirteen-year-old Kitty Pryde, despised them with a passion. On this particular Friday evening, Kitty had plans to go to bed early, so that she could wake up earlier and spend the day with her friends. It was for this reason that Kitty was most annoyed when Jean, who slept just down the hall from her, awoke screaming...again.

Farther down the hall, sixteen-year-old Kurt Wagner awoke from his won nightmare, albeit more quietly than Jean. He had dreamt of drowning in a rushing river, for the third time that week. When the familiar sound of screaming, pattering feet, and whispered voices met his ears, he knew exactly what had happened. Kurt sighed and tried to rub the sleep from his eyes before he teleported down the hall and into Jean's room.

Professor Charles Xavier had known what had happened before Jean had even awoken. The young teenagers' dreams had been getting worse and worse as of late, and the professor had been keeping a close eye on her. It worried him, that Jean's dreams had become so intense. Charles had been consulting with a close friend of his, Moira Mactaggart, to see if the pair could find out what was happening to Jean. So far, they had had no luck, which meant that Charles had to settle for watching his young pupil closely. Which is why, when he heard her scream, he was already halfway across the mansion, where his students resided.

Scott Summers hadn't yet fallen asleep when he heard his girlfriend scream from her room across the hall. He had been up late, studying for a test on Monday, and so he was the first one in her room when she awoke. He hated seeing her after a nightmare, the fear in her eyes-which were sometimes glassed over with tears-the obvious distress she was in, and worst of all, the knowledge that he couldn't do anything about it.

"Jean? Jean talk to me, what happened?" That was a useless question, they both knew it, but Scott didn't know what else to do. Jean was sitting up in her bed, looking wildly around her room, and hyperventilating.

"Jean," He repeated, coming to her side," What happened? What did you see?" Scott was dimly aware of the smell of brimstone and sulfur behind him, alerting him to the fact that Kurt had appeared. Not far behind him was Kitty, who just walked in through the wall.

"What was it this time?" Kitty asked with a yawn.

"Vee don't know," Kurt answered, his blue tail moving back and forth like a pendulum. Kitty sighed and leaned against the wall right next to the doorway, which was soon occupied by the shape of the professor in his wheelchair.

"Jean," Scott whispered," Talk to me. Please." Jean slowly turned her head to face him, and he saw the tear streaks that lined her face. It had been a bad one, then.

"You're okay," She whispered, so quietly he almost hadn't heard her.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Jean, what happened?" Instead of answering, Jean just pulled him into a hug that almost crushed him.

"Jean?" The professor asked," What did you see?" Jean let go of Scott to look at the professor, who was, really, the only one that understood what Jean was going through, as he had gone through the same thing.

"I-" Jean paused," I don't know, exactly. But whatever it was, "Jean looked behind her, at her window and the full moon that shone brightly in the sky," It was horrible."

The professor sighed and motioned for Kitty and Kurt to go back to their rooms. Charles was sure Scott wouldn't leave even if he had been asked to, there was no point in bothering with him. He had been privy to the relationship between Scott and Jean, his first two pupils since it had first started. But even before then, Charles had suspected something would blossom between the two, so he didn't attempt to smother it.

"Jean, remember, it was nothing more than a dream." The professor was quiet-more quiet than usual-which worried both Jean and Scott, but Jean had always listened to the professor and that wasn't likely to stop anytime soon.

"You look exhausted; try to get some sleep." And with that, the professor left the room, surprising the two teens.

"Is something wrong with the professor?" Jean asked, breaking the silence that had blanketed the room.

"I don't know," Scott sighed, then moved up to sit on the bed beside her," Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, Scott," She closed her eyes as he tucked a strand of her bright red hair behind her ear. Scott could still remember the day his eyes adjusted to his red-quartz glasses, which was the first day he had been able to see the real world since he had first gained his powers. The very first thing twelve-year-old Scott had noticed was how Jean's hair really was without the filter of his glasses.

" He's right, you know. You look exhausted."

"I am," Jean said, leaning on Scott's shoulder," But I don't know what I'll see when I close my eyes." Jean hated admitting when she felt weak, but she knew that Scott would never think less of her for it, which was one of the reasons she fell in love with him in the first place.

Without responding to her, Scott laid down on Jean's bed, and Jean suspected he had closed his eyes. With both a sigh and a smile, she laid down next to him and cuddled into his side, letting her eyes close. It didn't work all the time, but sometimes, her nightmares just...drifted away whenever Scott was next to her. Besides, he was alive, and he hadn't been crushed by some absurd blob of darkness. That was enough for Jean.

Just before she drifted off, she heard, faintly,

"I love you."