In a world that hates and fears mutants, Professor Charles Xavier is challenged with owning X-Corporation, a company that keeps mutants employed and gives them an opportunity to secure their futures. As this happens, Xavier finds that he has taken in his two legal wards, Scott Summers and Jean Grey, two orphaned teens, as well as fourteen-year-old Bobby Drake, an ice-controlling mutant teen from Boston.

While Xavier has found success with taking in his adoptive children, Scott and Jean are still faced with psychological issues, including nightmares of their tragic pasts which haunt them in the night.

Issue 8: A Place for My Head

Cockrum Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska – Nine Years Ago

Eight-year-old Scott Summers found himself getting ready to board a private plane with his mother, father and younger brother. The minute his mother told him that they were going on an impromptu, free vacation to Hawaii, it was an opportunity Scott and his six-year-old brother, Alex, could hardly refuse. Their father being an Air Force test pilot and their mother being a genius military scientist, they had opportunity to go on free trips in the summer all the time. It happened suddenly. Their mother had announced that they were going to Hawaii for a little family get-away. It being in the middle of July, Alex and Scott were both looking forward to the heat of the Hawaiian suns and enjoying the ocean, due to the cool summers that they got in Alaska all the time.

Scott stood there in his Air Force sweatshirt and jeans, clutching Alex's hand hard in his own as his parents talked privately with the person giving them the plane. They both had looks of stress permeated on their faces, though they tended to hide what they did from their sons as far as their work went. Their mother had told them at least three months or so ago that she was pregnant with another baby, and that they would be having another younger sibling joining the family soon. It excited Alex and Scott, the idea of having a little brother or sister. His parents were both whispering quietly, looking as though they were trying their hardest to hide something. They knew only as much as their parents told them. They knew that their mother had been working on a top-secret project that she couldn't share with anybody at all, including her boys. But, Alex and Scott didn't care. They were just happy to get away for a while.

Christopher and Katherine Summers walked over to their sons once everything was finalized, smiles on their faces.

"Are you boys ready to go?" Christopher asked, lifting Scott up and onto his shoulders. Scott nodded as he wrapped his arms around his daddy's neck to hold on, a big smile on his face as his eyes lit up with joy. Scott's appearance was exactly like his dad's. They both had deep chestnut hair and a square-like jaw, but, Scott's eyes were his mother's. They were a clear, crystal blue . . . and very blue at that. Alex resembled his mother with blonde hair, but his eyes were his father's light brown color.

"Yeah!" Alex said in excitement as they boarded the plane. Katherine grinned as she held Alex's hand, pressing a wet kiss to his cheek, causing her youngest son to giggle. She rubbed her pregnant stomach as she sat on the plane, a relaxed look on her face as Christopher sat in the cockpit to pilot the aircraft. Katherine set her boys up with the TV that was on the plane and put on a movie for them to watch. She also set them up with headphones and MP3 players, which consisted of music including bands such as Linkin Park, Nickelback, Skillet and Three Days Grace.

Scott and Alex sat there in their seats, listening to music as they thumb-wrestled with each other, an episode of Johnny Quest playing on the DVD player on the plane. They didn't even hear their parents talking worriedly in the cockpit about their mother's work. For all these years, Katherine and Christopher were determined to keep their boys' innocence by not allowing their sons to know too much of what Katherine did for a living. As far as they knew, their mom was a military scientist who was working on uncovering something rather vital; that was all that they knew. And Katherine and Christopher wanted nothing more than to keep it that way, because it was for their sons' own protection.

As Christopher piloted the airplane, Scott and Alex continued to have their fun, playing with their Transformers that they had brought with them in a suitcase filled with toys, which included action figures and books to keep them occupied on the trip. Alex soon turned his attention to a copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, while Scott's attention stayed plastered to the TV, watching Johnny Quest and focusing on the plot of the episode.

Suddenly, that was when it happened. They could hear the sounds of something crashing into the plane and the smell of something burning, like a fire.

"Mommy, what's burning?" asked Scott in a worried voice as his father instantly put the plane on autopilot to check and see what was going on.

"Oh good Lord," whispered Katherine in worry. The smell of a fire started to fill the air. The plane started to malfunction and shake as Christopher checked what was happening.

"Daddy, what's going on?" Alex asked.

"Katherine, Kath, honey, get the boys into parachutes, now!" shouted Christopher in worry for the safety of his two little boys.

"Daddy what's happening?" Scott asked in worry as his mother got him and his little brother into chutes. Christopher and Katherine knelt down in front of their boys.

"Scott . . . listen to me, listen very carefully, Scooter," Christopher said, taking his son's face into his hands as tears filled his eldest son's eyes. His father had been calling him "Scooter" since he was five. "We are going to need you both to be very brave and jump from the plane, okay?"

"What about you and Mommy?" Alex asked, tears already falling from his eyes as he started getting scared. Katherine wrapped her arms around Alex, holding him closely to her and stroking his hair, pressing kisses to his head.

"Mommy and I will be fine, you hear me?" Christopher told them. "Right now, you two just need to stick together, alright? You two need to jump!"

"No . . . No! We wanna stay with you!" Scott's tears were starting to pour down his cheeks as he started getting hysterical, shaking his head.

Katherine reached over and stroked Scott's face, kissing his cheek as her own tears welled in her eyes.

Christopher kissed his son's crown. "Scott . . . Scottie, listen, buddy, you need to take care of your brother, alright? You need to be strong now, son, okay?"

"No, no!" Alex sobbed, shaking his head as he clung to his daddy's hand. "I want you and Mommy!"

"Alex, sweetie, you two need to go!" Katherine and Christopher hugged their boys one more time, kissing their faces and whispering "I love you" to them. "Go . . . GO!" Katherine had tears filling her eyes as she opened the door to the plane. "Jump, alright? Go, now! We'll be okay!"

Scott grabbed his brother's hand, the high winds whipping across their faces. They turned to face their parents one last time before they leaped out of the malfunctioning plane. Falling through the winds, Scott and Alex both screamed, tears rolling down their faces as they crashed into the earth below. They pulled their chutes, but, Scott's got caught in a tree nearby as he crash-landed, hitting his head hard against the trunk of the tree. His vision swam around him as Alex rushed over to him, shaking him before everything around him went black.

Scott's Room in X-Corporation Tower – Present Day

Scott burst awake, gasping for air. He turned to look at his alarm clock. It read 1:45 in the morning. He was covered in a cold sweat as his body shook. Rushing to his bathroom, he splashed some cold water onto his face, taking a deep breath.

He closed his eyes as he remembered his nightmare he had just had. It was always the same one: the day his parents had died. It always managed to haunt him, even in his dreams. Scott spluttered as he looked at his reflection, his eyes masked by his ruby-quartz sleeping goggles.

As Scott took deep breaths to relax his shaken body he remembered the dream so vividly; nightmares and hallucinations about the deaths of his parents were almost common, especially when he had lived in the orphanage in Alaska. He gripped the sink, noticing the tear tracks on his face. He wiped at them fiercely, trying to pull himself together the best that he could. As Scott finally began to relax, he turned his head to see Jean leaning against the doorway to his bathroom.

"You okay?" Jean asked him, the concern evident in her voice.

Scott nodded.

"Nightmares?" Jean asked.

"How did you figure?" Scott asked her.

"I sensed it." Jean shrugged.

"Jean, just go back to sleep, Red, I'll be fine." Scott forced a smile in her direction, but, Jean could see right through his façade that he was close to tears. She just simply walked over to him and hugged him firmly.

"You know you do not have to pretend that everything is okay, right?" Jean asked him softly, running her fingers through his thick dark hair.

Scott leaned in and breathed in Jean's scent, a scent of vanilla, lavender and strawberries that came from her shampoo and body wash that she used.

"Do you need some air?" Jean asked him.

Scott nodded, and the two proceeded to head out to the balcony to just sit out in the crisp, cool autumn night. The wind flowed through Jean's fiery red hair as she just sat there, looking so angelic and peaceful.

"How have you been holding up, Jean?" Scott asked her softly. "How've you been sleeping?"

"Not very well," Jean admitted. "I'm having telekinetic fits in my sleep. I already broke several items in there already. The professor is working on adding some psi-shielding in there in effort to make it more reinforced so that I do not hurt myself in my sleep."

"It'll do you some good," said Scott in agreement.

Jean took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah . . . I just . . . I just want the nightmares to stop. I mean, for the most part they're not about my parents dying. They are more so about my time in the mental asylum and hearing everything in there at once. It was awful."

"I can only imagine," said Scott, reaching over to wrap his arm around Jean's waist to pull her into a side-hug.

"I just worry about you, Slim," Jean said softly.

"Yeah, I know, Red. God, why does everything in our lives have to be so damn complicated?"

"It's not that complicated anymore."

"I know, Jean, I know it's simpler now, but, before, our lives were so screwed up. But, once an orphan, always an orphan," said Scott.

"Same goes for a mental patient," Jean whispered, leaning her head on Scott's shoulder.

The two friends just sat out there in the crisp fall night, watching the bright streetlights of New York City as they took in the view. They noticed Stark Tower a few blocks away from them. The night just felt peaceful; calm as the two teens just stayed out there, allowing their troubles to melt away, as if Scott hadn't just awoken from a nightmare about his past. Up until four days ago or so, their lives had been so tumultuous. To think that now, they were living some place with a roof over their heads, having clean clothes and eating three meals a day, it was still something that the two teens needed to wrap their heads around.

"You know, Slim . . . if you cannot sleep alone tonight, I can stay with you," Jean offered quietly.

"But what about the professor or Hank or Forge, what if they catch us? God forbid we get Warren or Bobby cracking jokes about it tomorrow," Scott said.

"Does it look as though I give a flying shit what they think?" Jean asked. "Besides, the professor knows that the two of us have sleeping problems; he wouldn't mind. And Warren's respectful of our privacy. The only one we'll have to deal with is Bobby, but, he won't be too much of an issue either."

"How do you figure?" Scott asked.

"Because believe it or not, Bobby, he's got his share of secrets as well," Jean said, thinking back to the conversation she had had with Bobby back in Boston regarding his sexuality. "I can agree that there are just some things that we do not wish to talk about. That's why when I read people's minds, I try not to mention it; because I can tell when someone wants to keep their thoughts private. I didn't have any privacy for my own thoughts for years; the least I can give someone is the respect to their own private thoughts that I didn't have for the last decade or so."

Scott finally nodded in agreement and the two friends proceeded to go to Scott's bed. Scott lay down underneath the covers as Jean got on top of the sheets and blankets. She leaned her head onto Scott's chest as he played with her hair gently.

"Sweet dreams, Red," Scott whispered to her.

"You too, Slim," Jean whispered around a soft smile. She proceeded to just lay there beside him as Scott hummed in her ear softly, and they found themselves falling asleep peacefully.

Up next: The Brotherhood