Title: Unexpected Company
Author:Lisea
Pairing: Mostly S/J
Summary: An unexpected visitor visits the School.
Rating: No graphic sex, no violence. Sorry.
Disclaimer: I have squat, you get squat.
Notes: I watch too much tv, spend too much time surfing the web, and I've read far too many books. And Scrat is the sabertoothsquirrel from Ice Age. Great philosopher of our age. With or without acorns.

***

"Honey? Come to bed already!" Scott called out to Jean, who had locked herself in the bathroom.

"Be right there" she mumbled. After a few minutes more, the door opened. "Well, what do you think?"

Scott raised his eyes from the book he was reading, and looked to the bathroom door, where Jean was leaning against the door jamb. She was wearing a short, dark red nightgown, with a v-neck made of black lace. 

"Wow. I'm one lucky man" Scott said, as Jean was walking to the bed as seductively as possible.

"I'm glad you approve" she said, straddling his hip, and leaning down to kiss him.

***

A few hours later, they slowly awoke again, by a noice coming from the floor above. Scott looked at the clock on the bedside table. It read 2:14.

"What is that?" Jean asked, sitting up and facing the ceiling. "Sounds like something's dragged across the floor."

Scott got up, pulled his pants on and put on a t-shirt. "I'll check it out. If Jubilee, Kitty and Rogue are up to something at this hour, they'll be grounded for the weekend. You go back to bed. I'll be right back."

***

"Girls. Come on, open up" Scott said, trying not to bang the door too loud. A full minute of persistent knocking, a very sleepy Jubilee in pale pink pajamas opened the door. 

"Mr. Summers? What's going on?" she said, yawning with her hand on her mouth.

"I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing up here?"

"Lying in bed, wrapped in a warm blanket. I think it's called sleeping. Many people do that at two in the morning, you know" she was tired, hardly keeping her eyes open. 

"Sure you were. Then what's that noice coming from your room? Sounds like you're pulling something on the floor."

"That was Rogue. She clubbed Logan unconcious and dragged him into her bed" Jubilee said, completely deadpan.

"Jubilee."

"We were just sleeping! If something's being dragged across the floor, it's doing it on it's own. Honest. The only thing I'm dragging is my ass back to bed."

"Okay. But you mind if I come in to take a look?"

"Sure" she opened the door to let him in. Scott turned the lightswitch, only to be hit by a pillow.

"Jubes. Cut it out, some people are trying to sleep" Kitty said, turning her side and pulling the cover over her head. Scott shook his head and looked around. The floor was empty, and the two other girls didn't look like they had left their beds. 

"So you didn't hear anything?" 

"Yeah. Annoying knocking on the door."

"Alright!" Scott whispered, throwing up his hands in surrender. "It must've been something else then. Sorry I bothered you. Go back to sleep."

In the hallway, Scott shook his head. He was tired, and all he wanted was to spoon himself around Jean and go to sleep. There was a sudden, cold breeze on his back. He turned, and seeing the hallway empty, shrugged it off as a open window somewhere. But, as he started coming down the stairs, he didn't notice a shadowy figure of a woman standing ten feet behind him in the dark hallway.

***

Jean was still sitting on the bed when Scott back their room. "It hasn't stopped. In fact, I think it's getting louder."

 Scott looked up. The sound was getting louder. "Sounds like someone's dragging Scrat around the floor. But it didn't come from upstairs, and I didn't hear it while I was there."

"You would've had to. It's coming from the next floor" Jean said, getting up and wrapping her robe around herself. "I'll be right back."

Scott listened to the sound, trying to figure out what it was. He could distinctly hear something scraping the ceiling.

Jean came back in the room, with Logan in tow. "What do you think?"

Logan listened to the noice. "Something's scraping the floor upstairs. Sounds like claws, or nails."

"The girls were asleep, and I couldn't hear the noice upstairs, but Jean heard it while she was here."

Logan took a step closer. "Strange. I hear the scraping, but nobody's moving upstairs. They're asleep. There's nothing else there."

"There has to be something there.  Something has to be making that noice" Jean said. 

"Maybe you've got ghosts" Logan joked, and turned to the door. "If it bothers you, switch rooms. I'm going back to bed." 

"So should we. Grab your clothes, lets go sleep in the guestroom down the hall" Scott said, taking his clothes and briefcase, with his lesson plans. Jean took her clothes and followed Scott to the door. 

***

They came in the dining hall the next morning for breakfast, took their plate and went to join Logan, Ororo, and the professor in the teachers' table. 

"Sleep any better?" Logan asked, when Scott and Jean sat down the opposite side of the table. 

"Yeah. We couldn't hear anything in the guestroom" Scott said, taking a roll from a bread bowl on the table. Buttering it, he gave it to Jean, then made another one for himself.

"Did something happen last night?" Xavier asked them. 

"Some noice kept us up. It came from the next floor, but we couldn't find any explanation for it" Jean said, yawning.   

"That is strange. Well, maybe it won't happen again, and you'll sleep better tonight."

***

"Class dismissed. And remember, I want those papers back by tomorrow" Scott said, looking at the fastly disappearing crowd in the classroom. Jean was standing in the doorway, smiling. 

"Hey, handsome" she said. She held out his bike keys. "Wanna go for an icecream?"

"Hey, gorgeous" he walked over to her and kissed her. "And I would love to. But I've got a better idea. Let's buy some icecream, and make a beeline for our bedroom."

Jean smacked his chest playfully. "You wicked man."

They got to the door, when Jubilee ran down the stairs. "Mr. Summers! There's something you should see!" 

"Calm down, Jubilee. What is it?"

"Someone's ripped the carpet from our floor. And there's something else." 

***

Scott looked at the girls' room's carpet in disbelief. The center of the wall-to-wall carpet has been ripped open in the center of the room. There were several scratch marks on the wooden floor. 

"We were in class, we didn't do this!" Kitty was telling him. 

"It's okay, I know. Go get Logan."

"Already here. You okay?" Logan asked Marie, who was leaning against the wall by the door. She just nodded, not leaving her eyes from the floor.

"Can you tell if anyone else was here while the girls were away?" Scott asked him. 

"I smell the girls' scent, and yours. No one else's."

"There's something else" Jubilee said, then pointed at the far corner. "On the wall, near the floor."

Scott and Logan went over to take a look. They had to move Rogue's bed to get a better view. Strange writing had appeared on the wall.  ' I'm innocent '  three times over. "What the hell is going on?" Logan said, then looked at Marie, who had sat on the floor. She was shaking.

"Alright, girls. Pack a few things you'll need. You'll be staying somewhere else for a while" Scott said. 

***

"Where did you take the girls?" Jean asked her lover, when he came into their room. He walked over to her at the bathroom door. 

"I gave them the empty room next to Bobby's and John's room. Rogue went to stay with Logan."

"And you're okay with that?" Jean asked, surprised.

"I'm okay with that. She's scared, Jean. Logan will take care of her. Now, if you're done with the bathroom, I think I'd like to get ready for bed." 

"All yours."

***

"There it is again."

"What time is it?"

"Fourteen past two. Same as the last time."

Scott and Jean sat on the bed for a while. Then there was a series of loud crashes. They got up and dressed in record time and headed for upstairs. When they reached the stairs, Logan came running the other hallway, and they all stopped in shock. 

Kitty's bed had been thrown from upstairs. It was lying broken at the bottom of the stairs. 

The professor wheeled from his room. "What on earth did this?"

"I can't sense anyone in the hallway, or in the girls' room" Jean said.

"I've told the students to stay in their rooms" Xavier said. At the same moment, the was another loud crash, and Rogue's bedside table was thrown down the stairs. 

"At the risk of sounding like a total idiot, I'm gonna say this out loud. Something's thrown a bed and a table out of their room, a hundred feet across the hall, and down the stairs. And there's nobody up there?" Logan asked Jean. She looked at the bed and table, and just shook her head.

"We need to get up there, see what's going on. Should we wait till whatever's up there has run out of furniture?" Scott asked Logan. Jubilee's CD-player came crashing down.

"Or maybe we should sue whatever's up there for financial compensation" Xavier said, looking at the broken CD-player. Jubilee was going to get pissed. Another louder crash echoed again, but this time from upstairs. 

"You'll have to get upstairs. Another bed has crashed in Abby's room, she's hurt" Xavier said. 

"Let's go, One-Eye. Try not to get in anything's way" Logan said, jumped over the broken bed and leaped over two steps at a time. Scott followed, Jean not far behind him. 

Papers, cds and other miscellanious objects were flying out of the girls' room. One more table came flying out and down the stairs before they reached Abby's room. The bed had taken the door off it's hinges and broken a big part of the wall. The bed itself had flown against the far wall, leaving Abby squeezed under it. 

"Hey, Abby. How are you doing?" Jean asked, trying to see how badly she was hurt.

"I'm just peachy. This bloody king-size bed comes crashing in my room, throwing me against the frigging wall, and my side and leg hurts like hell. Just peachy."

"Sorry I asked" Jean said, amused by her sarcastic remarks. Scott and Logan lifted the bed so she could pull Abby away. 

"Jean, be careful!" Scott yelled when another bedside table came through the door. Jean stopped it mid-air just two inches from her temple.

"That's gotta be handy" Abby said. 

"Can you move your toes, Abby?" 

"Yeah. I don't think anything's broken, but I'm gonna be sore for the next few days. Just wait till I get my hands on whoever threw that bed in here, I'll introduce the jackass to my fist!"

"Okay, okay! Logan, can you take her safely downstairs?"

Logan lifted her up, and quickly strode back downstairs. Jean made sure nothing hit them on their way. Logan came back up again, and with the others, noticed that the crashes had stopped. They carefully looked in the room across the hall.  

"Let's go check it out" Logan said, going in the girls' room. 

"Oh my god" Jean said, looking around the messy room. Everything was broken and thrown on the floor. More writing had appeared on the walls, and kept appearing, with the familiar scratching sound. 

"I'm innocent", "I didn't do it", "It wasn't me", "Please help".

Written over and over. 

"Looks like a child's handwriting" Scott said. He was watching another sentence being written by an unseen force. "Please help"

"What's it written with?" Logan asked. 

"It looks like it's made with something sharp, a knife or something. It's ripping the wall."

"If that something was trying to tear the floor open..." Jean started,

"...Then what's under the floor?" Scott finished for her. 

"Maybe we oughta ask her" Logan said, pointing towards the door. The shadowy figure of a woman was standing in the doorway. 

"Oh my god" Jean said, grabbing Scott's arm. The woman was dressed in a early 19th century dress, from what they could tell. She slowly slid across the floor, accompanied by the sound they had heard many times before. When she reached the spot on the floor where the scratch marks were, she disappeared. 

A loud wailing sound started echoing in the room, a strange mixture of someone moaning in agony, and a child's cry. Then the force threw them out of the room, and down the stairs.

Jean reached out to them with her telekinesis, before they had crashed on the floor downstairs like Kitty's broken bedframe. She slowed down their speed so they easily slid down the stairs, where the professor was waiting. They listened to the moaning coming from upstairs. Rogue, Kitty and Jubilee had come there, too.

"You know, nothing surprises me in this house anymore" Jubilee said. 

***

The professor had sent the students, with Ro, to a hotel in town. Scott, Jean , Logan and the Professor had stayed at the mansion to try and make sense of the situation. 

"Altough the mansion has had a long history, there are no written records from the 19th century. We have no way of knowing who the woman is, or what she wants" Xavier said.

"I think we should tear the floor open. I think the answer is there" Scott said. 

"I agree. Whoever she is, she's got something to do with that room and the texts on the wall" Logan said.

"If the writings were a child's, then who is the woman? The child's mother?" Jean asked no one in particular.

"Maybe. Only one way to find out."

***

Logan's claws ripped through the wooden floor like a hot knife through butter. Scott was throwing the pieces away, and Jean kept an eye on things just in case things started flying in the air again. The moaning and crying hadn't stopped, and the woman was standing in the doorway. Quiet and watching.

After revealing the old wooden floor underneath the new one, Logan found a small jewellery box under the floor. He opened it cautiously. There was a golden ring inside. 

"A wedding ring" Jean gasped. Logan turned the ring in his hand, reading the enscription. 

"To my love, JS."

"JS?" Jean asked.

"Jean Summers. I wish I'd hidden it better."

"Very funny, Scott."

"This still doesn't explain anything" Scott said, looking at the ring. 

The woman in the doorway slowly came forward, took the ring, and placed it on her finger. And disappeared again. At the same second the voices in the room went silent. 

"Anyone got any ideas on what just happened?" Scott asked.

"Yeah. Jade came back for her wedding ring, which was taken from her just before her husband took it from her and killed her and her daughter" Logan said, reading a newspaper article found from the box. 

"Can I see that?" Jean asked, took the article and started to read.  "It's dated March 20, 1915. A little later than we expected."

"A man was convicted of murder yesterday in Salem Center, Westchester. The man, one Thomas Stounding, 32, and his family had been working for the Xavier family for a number of years, when Mr. Stounding had accused his wife, Jade Stounding, age 28, of adultry. He had locked Mrs. Stounding and their 11-year-old daughter in a servants' storage room. The womens' bodies were found by another maid six days later, when the maids were called back as the Xavier family returned from their vacation. The mother had died of internal bleeding shortly after she was locked in, and the child a few days later. The maid who had found the bodies had told the police the child had written on the walls with her hair pin. The maid who found the bodies wishes to remain anonymous, but told the press that "Jade was not guilty of adultry, that she loved her husband. He took her wedding ring just before he locked them in. I wish he'd return it to her so she can rest in peace." The police believes the husband still has his wife's wedding ring, but the ring was never found."

"He hid it here afterwards, to ensure she'd be here forever" Scott said. 

"How did the newspaper clipping get in the box? He couldn't have put it there if he was arrested" Logan said. 

"I think Jade put it there, to let us know. After all that's been happening over the past few days, I wouldn't be surprised."

"So now that Jade's got her ring back, you think she'll be back?" Jean asked.

"I don't know." 

***

Two days later, the students had returned and the teachers were having dinner at their table. Jubilee came over to Scott, sat down next to him, turned sideways to face him and stared at him until he put down his chicken sandwich in frustration. "Something I can do for you, Jubilee?"

Satisfied with getting the attention she was looking for, she smiled. "When can we have our room back?"

"As I told you many times during the last two days, you'll get it when Logan's done fixing it. I don't know how long that will take. Stop bothering me and go away, little bug" the last sentence was delivered with humor. Jubilee sighed and pulled Kitty and Rogue after her, towards the kitchen door.

"I swear, that girl has more energy than a power plant" Scott chuckled.

"They are comfortable in living in that room?" the Professor asked, glancing after the three girls and sipping his tea. 

"Yeah. When I asked whether or not they'd like to get another room, Jubilee's exact words were: "No way. We have the coolest room in the whole building, down-below included.""

"I think they'll use the recent events as an excuse to the slumber parties you'll be raiding. You'd better check their closets and under their beds too, now" Jean said, smiling at him. 

"I already used to do that. Now I have to check the floors for secret compartments and passages. Who knows what Rogue has talked Logan into."

"Mr. Scott Summers. Master of conspiracy theories at Xavier's school for the Gifted" Jean said, before bursting out laughing at the look Scott shot her.

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