"Mmmm…hmmm…Scott?" Jean asked, nearly hummed against her boyfriend's lips.

He didn't respond, instead kissing down her jaw and throat, brushing aside one flap of her nightgown with his nose to reveal a generous portion of her lace bra. He sucked hard at her collarbone, hard enough to leave a mark. His gloved hand was solid fire gripping her thigh.

She breathed in sharply and dragged her nails roughly up his back, pulling the zipper down and then the halves of the uniform off his shoulders with the aid of her telekinesis. The bed squeaked.

"Hnn! Come here!" she commanded in a rough whisper, running one hand over his bare torso and grabbing his hair with the other to pull his grinning mouth back up to hers. "Hmm…Scott! I need—!"

"Jesus, Jean—!"

"I need—!"

"I need to ask you a question"

At the third unrecognized voice, Scott and Jean both screamed. In less than an instant, Scott was off of Jean and both were sitting up against his headboard, breathing erratically. Scott snapped his visor back onto his face and Jean had a force field up even before she jerked her nightgown closed again. All the blood that had been circulating moments before froze in their joints.

"Who *pant* Who's there?" Scott demanded forcefully into the darkness at the foot of his bed, his hand on the visor trigger. Even as he asked, Jean reached out with her telekinesis to flick on her bedside lamp.

In full uniform, Laura crouched with an intent expression on her face.

"It's me," she replied.

"Laura?" Jean gasped out in shock, dropping her shield, "What—," she started, but couldn't make herself breathe normally yet, "What are you—doing here? How did you—get in here?"

"Trick lock," she stated without changing her expression. She jerked her head in the direction of the window and then pointed at the blushing redhead, "same way you do. I need to ask you a question"

Still in shock but breathing better, the couple exchanged a glance.

"Laura it's—it's practically morning already," Jean told her checking the bedside clock and securing her nightgown. "It couldn't wait an hour?"

X23's glare hardened. "You said 'Don't let it get you down, X. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime, anywhere,'" she parroted, in a very accurate imitation of Jean's voice. "You said that," she repeated, as if daring Jean to deny it.

Scott looked over at his girlfriend like she had gone insane as she replied, "Well, yes but—"

"And I'd been out there waiting long enough," she cut in, still on the offense. "I'll have more trouble getting back to my room in the daylight before practice"

Her words set in on them simultaneously and all the blood that had been locked in their joints flooded into their faces. Scott looked like he would have kissed Avalanche if Lance would've made the Earth open up and swallow him.

"You…were…waiting…?!"

"You shouldn't feel self-conscious," she reassured Scott, "I've seen 14 shirtless and 6 nude men prior to this evening"

Jean choked on her spit. "Fourteen…?!"

"Men are most vulnerable in what they believe is the safety of their bedrooms," Laura stated, rolling her eyes at how obvious the fact was, "easiest place to assassinate a target. Now about my question…"

Jean swallowed hard and offered a meek "go ahead" as the night replayed in her mind with the exception that now it included Laura watching and waiting at Scott's windowsill. She felt like she had a fever, her face was so hot.

"Who is Ferris Bueller?"

Jean blinked twice. "…what?"

"I said, 'Who's Ferris Bueller?'"

"Ferris…what?" Jean repeated, feeling the edges of her fury seeping into her consciousness.

"Is your hearing really that awful?" Laura asked, annoyed.

Now it was Jean who narrowed her eyes. "You sneak into Scott's room in the middle of the night while I'm clearly…" she blushed harder, "occupied to ask me who Ferris Bueller is?!"

"I just said that," Laura snapped, not understanding Jean's tone. "I overheard Shadowcat muttering about him in her sleep all the way from my room and it…" she looked uncomfortable to admit the emotion, "…concerned me. I wanted to know if action should be taken, if he was a possible threat I should be alerting Wolverine to or perhaps someone from Shadowcat's past who would be interested in hurting her…"

Pinching her eyebrows and breathing intently, Jean counted to ten. Scott glanced at his girlfriend and reached for her hand on top of the sheets.

–I'm sure she only has the best intentions, Jean— he soothed across their link. Jean could tell he was upset too but was rationalizing his way over it. –We should be glad that she's learning to concern herself with the well being of the others, right?—

Jean sighed, knowing he was right. But she'd been waiting the last four days—ninety six hours!—for Scott to get back from a mission so they could have some late night personal time with no interruptions, no spying, and especially no Logan. That was making it hard for her to be completely rational. Or gentle.

"He's a movie character," Jean responded in a tight voice still pinching her eyebrows, before her rage had time to make a comeback, "Kitty watched the movie night before last and is probably dreaming about it. Nothing to be worried about. No…action should be taken"

X23 processed that for a moment and then her posture relaxed. A bit.

"Oh," she said simply, "Okay"

She then leapt down soundlessly off the bed and headed (also noiselessly) to the windowsill.

"That's it?" Jean asked in surprise, opening her eyes as Laura prepared to step out of the window. "That's all?"

"Yes," Laura replied. "I have to get back to my room before Wolverine comes to collect me for our morning jog"

At the word 'Wolverine', Scott seemed electrocuted out of whatever mute coma he'd fallen into. Panicked, he hedged, "You're not going to tell him, though…right?"

Wolverine's clone shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly as she swung one foot out over the sill. "Not if you don't want me to. But he probably already knows"

Jean felt Scott seize up again beside her.

"He does?" she asked, paling. She thought they'd been pretty good at covering their tracks. "H-How?"

"You're arousal stinks up most of the hall, especially this area," X23 explained, wrinkling her nose and indicating a stretch of hallway beyond Scott's door with both feet now outside the sill, "and endorphins pumped full force into the brain cause a loss in fine motor control of the senses, including your telepathy, so you project unconsciously. Especially in Cyclops' room with its minimum shielding. Any sensitive enough psyche in the tri-state area can pick up on your pleasure"

She turned to Scott briefly, "Thanks for that, by the way"

And the next thing either of them knew, Laura had disappeared into the first light of morning.

The lovers didn't move for a few moments, still not having processed what had happened. Finally, Scott slid back down to the bed and spoke first.

"Please, please, tell me that was another weird-ass dream of someone else in the mansion that you acquired and broadcasted across our link," he moaned, briefly removing his visor to rub his eyes. "Please tell me that did not just happen"

Jean curled herself up into a sitting fetal position. "Don't I wish I could," she mumbled into her knees, still scarlet at Laura's revelation.

Scott sighed, propping himself up on an elbow to look at Jean. "I don't think I'm ever going to be able to touch you again—"

She snorted back a laugh and turned to look at him. "Seriously?" she asked, like she didn't believe it for a second.

"—in peace," he finished, the corners of his lips tugging upward. Sitting up completely, he moved to grasp her shoulders from behind and nuzzle the nape of her neck. "Anyway, I believe we have another half-hour before my scheduled Danger Room session if you wanna, you know, round up taking care of some unfinished business…"

"Well, it would be a terrible waste if we didn't," Jean purred in reply, dropping her head back and taking his hands in hers, "since I already—hmmmmgot most of your uniform off and everything…"

She came out of her fetal position, turned, and tangled herself with him instead, setting them both back down on her comforter. Scott chuckled, closing the gap between their lips, "I had a feeling you were going to say—"

"One more thing"

They jumped again at the sound of Laura's voice and both heads snapped to the window where she was perched to glare.

"What, Laura?" Jean asked through gritted teeth.

"She was also muttering something about Avalanche," Laura explained. She cocked her head to the side, honestly curious. "Does he pose an equally benign threat to Shadowcat?"

Jean sighed, her head flopping back down on the pillow. "No, Laura. He's not an equally benign threat"

"So direct action should be taken?" she clarified, trying to understand.

"Yes," said Scott before Jean could reply, rolling his eyes behind his glasses. Jean could tell by the subtle change in intensity of the light behind his visor. "In fact," he added, a little peeved, "direct action should be taken against any non-fictional person who shows up in anyone's dreams. So go see if Alvers is sleeping on our foyer couch (again) and castrate him so that he no longer poses a threat to Kitty. You'd be saving me the trouble," he finished in an undertone as he resumed kissing Jean.

—Scott!— Jean chided telepathically, smacking him in the chest. "Laura, he didn't mean—"

But X23 had vanished.

There were a few minutes of silence. Then Jean turned back to Scott and shot him a disapproving look.

"What? I got her to leave us be, didn't I?" Scott replied in his defense. "I've been waiting for four—"

Jean and Scott leapt up again as Scott was cut off by a thundering crash and a scream from downstairs.

"Holy Shit!! Get the Hell away from me, you fucking crazy psycho bitch!!"

Jean glared pointedly at Scott as she pushed her boyfriend away from her.

"Why do I suddenly get the feeling that they didn't clone her a sense of cranky-early-morning sarcasm?" she asked dryly as she tied up her robe.

Scott grumbled a response and zipped his uniform back up.

Then the eldest X-Men rolled out of bed and headed downstairs to do damage control.

A/N: Okay, so since the original intention of this story was an exercise to write a fanfic with only my three favorite X-Men in it (almost did it too, but Lance's line was too good to pass up), this is one of Laura's first encounters in the mansion when she joins the X-Men in my personal continuity which is shortly after Ascension (THANK GOD HALLELUJAH THAT SEASON FOUR IS FINALLY AVAILABLE!) which goes to show her awkwardness in any (and all) social situations. Also during this time, Scott and Jean's relationship is evolving (pun intended) but still more or less new so they still blush like high school students when they're caught making out in each other's rooms in the late night/early morning by the female clone of the last person they want to find them. Did I mention how grateful I was to finally see the end of the series after FIVE YEARS OF WAITING??