DISCLAIMER: Q. Why does a cow wear a bell?
A. Because his horn doesn't work!

Jean looked around.

It was quiet.

Normally, you'd think this was a great thing, especially for Jean, who had been having a lousy time controlling her powers of late… And it was.

She let her head slump to the table, exhausted, and folded her arms over the top of it.

Finally. Everything was done. Everyone was out or gone. Even Logan was nowhere in sight. Kitty had finally gone to bed, her woes with her. Rogue was out for the night, forcing her glares on someone new. Paul had hauled off Scott; Kurt by Amanda, and Evan had taken his skateboard for a date. The new mutants were tucked up in bed, and all the teachers were having 'quiet time' in Xavier's office with a bottle of sherry.

She was alone.

It was quiet.

There was nothing more to do.

And she loved it.

Jean had spent the last six weeks doing work. She hadn't stopped once. School work was piling up in the run to final exams, the younger people in the institute needed comforting, the professor needed her help with Cerebro, Scott needed her in the Danger Room, Ororo needed her around the house, Hank needed her in the medical laboratories…

Everyone needed her.

And she was more than happy to help. After all, she didn't want to see any of it end. And if it was up to her to keep it going, she would.

But sometimes… it was hard.

A while ago she had cried out, demanded the others help her. She couldn't take it anymore, why weren't they doing the same as her?

Okay, so not everyone could do everything she could, but each of them could do some! No one had an excuse to not do something, right?

The others agreed, of course, and jumped to help. For an entire two weeks she had breathing room, space to think. She didn't have to do as much around the mansion, and she could finally concentrate on her schoolwork without feeling guilty. She could talk to the others about the nothing that invaded their lives. She could, to quote Evan, stress less.

But then it started slowing down. The others stopped helping as much again.

They didn't understand that she did it all constantly, without stopping for a few days. They thought they'd done enough.

And they were right. She knew it, and she wouldn't complain. It was all her responsibility. She'd taken it on voluntarily and now she had to deal with it herself.

But still… it was… hard.

Somehow she managed to study, though. Somehow she was passing all her final assessments. Somehow she managed to sort through Kitty's and Rogue's and Evan's problems. Somehow she managed to keep the institute running, the same as the teachers managed to keep their sections under control too.

And now here it was.

Ten o'clock, the night before the first exam.

And she had finished studying. She knew everything about math from Addition and Times Tables to Geometry and Trigonometry. She was ready.

And Ororo had managed to keep everything under control tonight. She and Hank had come together and fought off the massive constraints of this demanding household and lived to battle it out again the next morning.

She chuckled. She knew all her Shakespeare too.

And Kitty had worked it all out on her own tonight. Jean just happened to be sitting in the same room while she talked. She hadn't had to do anything.

And all her extra curricula's were done, and over.

There was nothing to stop her doing what she wanted to do now.

She smiled into the wooden table and closed her eyes, content.

So what did she want to do now?

She didn't want to sleep yet. Another hour before she would even consider that.

She looked up, her chin resting on the table as her eyes moved around the room.

What could she do?

She shrugged to herself and lowered her head again. She would wait until Amara woke up from another 'premonition' about mutant-haters.

Then she'd have something to do.