Author's note about this chapter- I mentioned a couple of times in the book that Craig's power could put people to sleep and he could also walk in the dreams of those he'd previously put to sleep. This is a chapter I wanted to write where Craig spent a night traipsing through everyone's dreams.

Craig paced around the room. It was late, he couldn't sleep, and he doubted he was going to get to sleep anytime soon.

"Man if you don't stop that soon I'm gonna knock you upside the head," Stone griped from where he was stretched out on his own bed trying to get to sleep.

"Sorry, but I'm not tired. I'm completely wired, there's no way I'm gonna be able to sleep."

Stone rolled to his side and propped his cheek in his palm. "I can fix that; want me to give you a slap upside the noggin'?"

Craig grimaced at him. "No, a slap from you is likely to crack my skull, thanks."

Stone dropped his hand and shrugged before stretching back out. "Suit yourself, but if you keep pacing and don't let me go to sleep, I'll do it anyway."

"Fine, I'll try some meditating." No need to let Stone know he wasn't just going to do some plain old meditating. He actually didn't know how to do that. Truth was, with his power to put people to sleep, he could walk in the dreams of anyone he'd put to sleep. He sent a glance over at Stone and smirked. His roommate had no clue that since he'd come to the school Craig had used his power on him a few times.

Stone had a tendency to snore—loudly. Craig had used his power to put people to sleep on Stone in order to put him into a deeper sleep a couple of times to stop the racket so he could get some sleep himself.

Craig lay down on his own bed and tried to relax, took a few deep breathes and cleared his mind, concentrating carefully on those in the house that he'd used his power on in the past. It didn't take him long to slip into a slight trance.

He blinked and looked around with a slight frown.

He was surrounded by rolling hills of chocolate, topped by whipped cream. Candy cane trees with gumdrop pinecones. An animal cracker elephant went plodding by. In the distance a clear river of God only knew what trickled slowly over rock candy, well, rocks.

"Must be Melissa," he mumbled as he did a slow turn. And as he spoke, Melissa came twirling by, singing something about gumdrops and rainbows.

"Oh hey Craig! What are you doing here?"

"Couldn't sleep, thought I'd do some dream walking."

She reached down and scooped up what appeared to be a lollipop. "Hey you want a lollipop?" She held the struggling sucker out to him.

He recoiled from it as he realized it had not only arms and legs, but eyes as well. It was struggling wildly in an attempt to get away. "Uh, no thanks I'm good."

She shrugged and took a bite out the thing before tossing it over her shoulder. "Your loss. See ya later!" She went dancing off.

Craig gave his head a shake and turned away. Melissa's dreams were always weird. He wondered where he'd end up next. Whistling, he wandered off and out of Melissa's sugar filled dream world.

Things shimmered and changed he walked into the wings of what appeared to be Carnegie Hall.  A woman smiled at him and shoved him out on stage. He looked around frantically when he realized he was dressed as a male ballet dancer.

"What in the hell?" he mumbled.

"Oh hey Craig, what are you doing here? Not that I'm not happy to see you, I need someone to do the lift! Like now!" Angela said, smiling at the packed crowd in the theater.

Swallowing hard he lifted her high in the air, spun about and set her back on her dainty toe shoes. "Great. Can I go now? I'm not exactly comfortable with this outfit."

She giggled. "Why not? That's what all the male ballet dancers wear."

He glanced down at himself. "Yeah, just not comfortable with all my, um assets out for the world to see. I'll catch ya later." 

He spun off stage and happily got the hell out of there. He was excessively glad when he exited her dream and the skintight outfit disappeared along with her dream world.

Looking around in confusion, he realized he was on the deck of a pirate ship ala a cheap romance novel. Well this was interesting. He wondered whose dream this was. He smirked, wondering if Storm had some deep-seated fantasy about Logan that they should know about.

The smile fell off his face when he saw Ziva, her arms pulled behind her back, tied to the mast of the ship, wearing what he could only describe as a wench outfit. His jaw dropped. She looked like the tawdry cover of one of those bodice ripper romance novels.

He blinked rapidly when some guy—who looked vaguely familiar—dressed in a white flowing shirt, black pants and boots. Stalked toward her, holding her a sword point. His face scrunched as he listened to the idiocy the guy was spouting.

"Surrender now wench and maybe I'll go easy on you!"

Ziva's dialogue was even worse. "Never will I surrender my innocence to the likes of you!"

Craig frowned. "What in the hell is going on here?"

Ziva gasped and stared at him with wide eyes. "Craig what the hell are you doing here? Get the hell out of my dream! I warned you about invading my dreams! GET OUT!"

He gestured at pirate boy. "Who the hell is this guy?"

She sent him a panicked look before looking at the pirate, who was sneering in his direction. "Um, no one. Now get out of my dream!"

The pirate stalked toward him. "I am one of the most feared pirates in the Caribbean! You should know my name and fear it worm!"

Craig narrowed his eyes on the pirate as he stalked closer. "The hell? Ziva you have got to be kidding!" He realized why the pirate had looked familiar. He was staring at himself. A him with slightly longer hair and several days growth of beard, but it was him.

"Get out of my dream!" she insisted once again.

"Yeah, fine but we are going to talk about this!" he grumbled as he stalked away.

He passed into a dark, smoky barroom. Stopped and looked around. Logan sat at the bar, elbows propped on the bar top, a drink held loosely in his fingers, and a cigar in the corner of his mouth. Nope, nothing out of place here, he thought to himself as he passed through and headed out of Logan's dream.

When he left Logan's dream, he came out into bright sunlight and a large crowd that was cheering loudly. He frowned, shaded his eyes, and looked around. He stood at the edge of a stage that had been set up in a town square. Stung up above the little stage was a sign that read, "Welcome Senator Covington".

His glance fell to the couple standing on the stage before a podium. He smirked. Stone stood and waved to the crowd. It figures, Stone's dad was currently a Senator, so why wouldn't he want to be one?

He edged closer to the podium to listen to Stone's speech, except when he got closer he figured out real quick that this wasn't Stone's dream.

It was A'Cadia's nightmare.

She spotted him and sent him a pleading look from her spot beside Stone, dressed in her pale pink Chanel suit and pumps. She looked miserable. It was too bad that he could only walk in dreams. He couldn't interfere in them.

He sent her a small smile and a little wave as he crossed the stage and headed for his exit.

"Craig! Craig, help me dammit!" she pleaded as he left.

It took everything he had not to grin back at her. He wondered if Stone actually wanted to be a Senator. Poor A'Cadia if he did.

Humming he was nearly blinded by the light of the sun in the nearly cloudless blue sky he emerged into. "Holy crap! What in the hell?"

He shaded his eyes and looked around. Bright green rolling hills surrounded him on all sides; in the distance, a fairytale castle topped a hill. Cute furry animals scampered around chattering happily. They all appeared to be getting along together nicely as well.

Weird.

"Oh hello there Craig!" Skylar said in a sickeningly cheerful voice as she rode up on a winged unicorn.

"Ummm, hello there Skylar. How are you?"

"I'm perfectly divine. What are you doing in my dreams tonight?"

"Couldn't sleep." He shrugged and glanced around. Skylar was dressed as a fairytale princess, complete with pointy veiled hat. "Death isn't going to appear on a white stallion in armor is he?"

She giggled airily. "He's around here somewhere. And yes he's wearing armor."

"Right, I think I'll just go before this gets awkward. Or more awkward than it already is." He waved and walked away, leaving her and her steed behind.

Another shimmer and another change of scenery. He walked in on another huge crowd. Only this one was in front of the White House on what appeared to be an inauguration day. He frowned and looked over at the podium to see whose dream this was and balked.

Good Lord above. Poor A'Cadia. He'd thought her dream about Stone the Senator was bad. Daayum. She was in deep doggie doo doo if she thought all he wanted was to follow in his daddy's footsteps and be a Senator.

As he watched Stone was sworn in as the new President, while his smiling First Lady stood at his side. A very happy A'Cadia from what he saw. Oh yeah, those two had a whole lot they needed to talk about.

As Craig listened, Stone gave a very moving speech about mutant and human relations and how he intended to improve them in the future. He smiled, shook his head, and turned to leave Stone and his grand dreams.

Just as he was about to step out, he froze and turned back, his eyes landing on the man standing to Stone's right. His Vice President. "Oh heeeellll no." Yeah he and his roommate were gonna be talking too in the morning.

He stalked out of the dream and straight into what most would consider a true hell.

"Aww crap, really Stevie?"

Stevie sat in front of a bank of computers that looked out over, well, what was obviously the lawn of the White House. He spun around to look at Craig, giving him a cheeky grin. "Hey Craig, what's shaking? Like what I've done with the place? More high tech."

"Uh yeah great."

Stevie nodded and spun back around in his seat, tapping away at some keys. "Listen, I don't have time for small talk, busy running the world, and blah, blah, blah. However, I can always use another minion, so glad you could join up! Being ruler of the world is very tiring."

"Riiiight, not a problem. Before I jump right into the whole minion thing, I think I need a bathroom break." He spun around and got the heck out of Stevie's little freak show of world domination.

And leaped right into another kind of screwball dream world that he truly didn't expect to end up in. Most likely, because he had only been thinking about jumping through the dreams of those inside the school when he'd drifted off, but somehow he must have let Lenny creep into his mind.

For that, little error he'd ended up stuck in his former best friend's little screwed up dream. It wasn't something he wished to view. But for at least a few minutes, he was stuck here. That was the way it worked. He had to stay for a couple minutes before he could jump free.

Short of squeezing his eyes closed, he would be forced to view what was going on around him. Call it morbid curiosity; he stared around him, taking in what he saw in sick fascination.

He would have expected Lenny to concoct some rich fantasy where he ruled the world something like Stevie had created. Instead, he was back at the school. It was an odd thing for him to dream.

That is, until Craig figured out the new world that Lenny had created for himself.

A world where Craig didn't exist. One where Lenny was the center of attention. Popular. Athletic. Everyone was his friend.

And Ziva was his girlfriend.

Craig felt sick to his stomach. Turned away from the scene of Lenny with Ziva snuggled into his side and left before Lenny could spot him.

When he woke, he was slightly disoriented for a moment, his eyes out of focus. He blinked, rubbed at his eyes, and gave a start when he saw Melissa hanging over him, smiling.

"Morning Craig! Hey, you should have totally had a lollipop last night! And next time you need to come with me to my candy castle! It's way awesome!" She patted both his cheeks and then left the room.

He sat up with a groan. He had a slight headache, too much dream walking in one night, he thought as he rubbed at his temples.

"Dude you okay over there?" Stone asked.

"No. Too much dream walking last night. And you and I need to have a long talk about your political aspirations."

Stone gave him a curious look, but didn't get a chance to ask any question before Ziva came thundering into the room.

"You have some nerve, do you know that? After I specifically warned you to stay out of my dreams, you come strolling in as if it's nothing! You had better keep out of my dreams Craig De Leroy do you hear me? Those are my private thoughts! PRIVATE!"

He snorted. "Yeah so I noticed. What am I supposed to go out and get a pirate outfit now? Do you not like me as I am, am I not good enough like this?"

She made an exasperated sound. "No, that isn't it and you know it! It is a dream you idiot! A stupid fantasy. God just stay out!" She turned and stopped halfway to the door and looked over her shoulder at him. "And in case you hadn't noticed moron it was you in the dream! God men are such idiots!" She stomped out of the room.

Stone chuckled and looked at him. "Dude what exactly did I miss last night?"

"You just shut up Mr. President! And where do you get off making me your Vice President?"

Stone stared at him wide eyed. "How the hell did you know about that?"

"Dream walking, were you not paying attention?"

Stone scowled at him. "You've never used your power on me man."

"Try again." He gave Stone a quick explanation of where and when he'd used his power on him. Stone gave him an angry glare, but got no further than that as A'Cadia came into the room.

"You couldn't have saved me last night Craig? You just walk off and leave me standing there in that nightmare?" she fumed.

"Not allowed to interfere. Part of the rules. Sorry." He pointed at Stone. "And you two really need to talk about your future. Seriously. 'Cause you've both got way different views on how things are gonna turn out."

He rose and left them alone. Honestly, he didn't need to witness that fallout. As he meandered down the hallway, he spotted Princess Skylar and Sir Death, twined together, sitting on Skylar's bed. He waved at them and Skylar winked at him. Death waved. Craig had a brief moment to wonder what it was Death dreamed about, he'd never used his power on the guitarist, so he had never walked in to other teen's dreams.

He met Angela coming up the stairs as he was heading down. "Hey Craig, thanks for the lift and spin last night."

"No problem. Next time just don't dress me in that outfit. Okay?" She giggled and scampered off. He smiled and made his way into the kitchen. Logan was leaning up against the counter drinking coffee.

"Was it my imagination or did you wander through my bar last night?" Logan asked him.

"Nope, I was there. Just passing through." He reached for a mug and poured a cup of coffee.

Logan nodded. "Right. Thought I saw you. Stay out of my bar from now on kid, it's damn creepy when you do that."

Craig sighed and shrugged. "Can't control it much, I go wherever I go."

Logan shook his head. "Damn creepy." He wandered out of the kitchen still shaking his head.

Yeah it was. Some things were creepier than others were. He tried real hard not to think about Lenny's dream.

Some stuff he didn't need to relive.