Author's Note: Quick heads up, I bumped the rating to M because of the violence in this chapter. It's not too intense but just to be safe. And this won't be the last time. I'm probably going to be including sporadic graphic scenes, so just be forewarned about that.
A small apology here, I know the prologue and beginning of this chapter is pretty heavy on the exposition dump. That's because up to this point, Jade has been 3 years old or younger. There's not much meaningful dialogue or character development to be had there. It won't go on like that forever. I expect the chapters that follow will be more normal.
Thank you for the support so far! That is always nice to see :)
Once she was a little bigger, Jade realized that something was very different about her new body. She felt stronger now, and… well, life as a toddler was somewhat droll, despite being raised by a man like Gerard. As such, she spent an inordinate amount of time studying her surroundings, because what else could she do?
Part of her suspected that it wouldn't be very difficult at all to actually verbally say what she was really thinking to someone if she wanted to, but something told her that an articulate two year old explaining that she hated the texture of beans and never wanted them on her plate again would be… alarming. So, she kept her thoughts to herself, and she spent a lot of time observing the world around her. And that's how she noticed it.
People had a different type of energy to them now. It was like, she was hyper-aware of their thoughts or emotions, or… something. It's difficult to describe, but she just felt like she was discovering a new way that people communicated to her. She first saw it in Kate.
Kate was five years old by this point, and Jade wasn't entirely sure she liked her new sister very much. She was very bossy. Unfortunately, she fixated on Jade like she was her new toy to drag around, and she would tell her blatant lies about the way the world worked. If Jade actually had the mind of a toddler, it could have been a very damaging relationship for her, especially during such formative years.
This was the first year that Kate was in school. All summer leading up to her first day, she'd bragged nonstop to Jade that she was about to become very busy and Jade would just have to find a way to occupy her time without her. Kate felt that school would finally open up the world. She expected that everything would change for her, that for the first time in her life, she wouldn't be bored or disappointed by people.
She was so excited, she barely slept the night of her first day of class. She was, of course, sorely underwhelmed by the reality of it. The illusion was shattered, and her disappointment was so intense that it encouraged some secret bitterness that Kate had kept stowed away from the world. It was growing now, and day by day, she was increasingly unpleasant to be around.
Every afternoon she would come home, tramp up the stairs and barge into the kid's playroom. She'd toss her backpack in the corner, their mother would scold her and make her go hang it properly on its hook, and then Kate would go interrupt whatever Jade was in the middle of doing—drawing, reading, watching cartoons—and she would launch into stories about her latest epiphany she'd had at school that day.
She wasn't sure why it surprised her so much to figure out that Kate was a catty gossip, but it seemed so far beneath the character she'd seen on television that… well, everyone started somewhere, she supposed.
Every day it was something different. "There are three girls in my class named Ashley. Three! Mrs. Findlay makes us call them Ashley P, or Ashley J, or Ashley R, just so there's a difference between them. It's so dumb. Maybe I should call Ashley R 'pee stain', since she had a giant one on her shorts today."
And as she continued to ramble, Jade noticed that the purple shirt that Kate had worn was actually a deep orange. Or, no… that was her heart. Or no, not her heart, that wasn't right either… Jade narrowed her eyes and squinted hard. She watched as Kate continued to talk, as her movements and commentary grew more and more agitated, and the colors radiating from her chest intensified. It looked like the girl had a chunk of scorched earth that was nearly transparent, flashing brightly, almost dangerously, and then dulling back down to an ember, depending on her sister's emotions at that current moment.
Jade turned to see if her mom was seeing the same thing, if she knew… but her mom had it, too. Except it didn't look like the red burn of dry grass that had just caught fire, it looked faded and green and… weak. Jade looked down at her own chest, and saw that there was a soft, white light that emanated from it like a night light. She touched her small hand to her shirt and jumped when Kate flicked her forehead.
Her sister got down in her face with her eyes narrowed. "Are you even listening?"
"Kate! Don't hit your sister." Their mom didn't even stop the motions she made while she slowly, meticulously sharpened the blade of a sword on a stone. That was another thing that Jade was surprised to see in her new life. Jade had always overlooked the Argent family dynamics when she watched the show. She thought that Chris knew about hunting from a young age, almost like Dean did in Supernatural, but that wasn't the case. Like Allison, from what Jade has gathered in her time here, it seemed that Chris didn't find out about the supernatural until much later on. Despite this, the signs were all there, if only you knew to look for them.
Often times, her mother would pass time by cleaning weapons or sharpening blades. The family treated it like... like both a hobby, and their job. It was treated as normally as if she was sitting over in the corner knitting a sweater. And yet because of her previous life, Jade knew that this was extremely odd behavior to display in front of such young children. It isn't normal to leave weapons out within reach of toddlers. They do, though, and it was with the full expectation that the Argent children inherently knew not to touch them. Weirdly, they did. At least, Kate seemed to know. Jade was never explicitly taught, it just was. It was so weird.
"I didn't even hit her! She had a piece of glitter on her face, I was getting it off for her! She's making a mess over here." Kate shifted in her seat and grumbled, casting Jade a poisonous glare every now and then like it was her fault entirely. "Brat," she muttered, but the light in her chest stayed the same intensity.
Jade took a deep breath and forced herself to ignore Kate, tucking into the page under her hands to finish coloring the drawing of a kanima she'd made, though she was careful to also make it look like a normal ambiguous monster that any random kid could draw. Nope. No knowledge of the supernatural here.
As Kate spun off into a new story about her day, Jade kept careful watch of the bizarre light in her chest, entirely unsure what it meant or where it came from.
By age three, Jade was able to notice the sheer number of people who came and went through their home. Men of varying ages, but all of them wearing dark colors and looking relatively slim and carrying with them the same sort of rigid posture that she saw in Gerard and Chris. Like they were strong, and confident. And observant.
She could also see the way none of them really wanted to look directly at her. Oh, there were a handful of them who seemed to enjoy children as a general rule, but every time they got within range of seeing her eyes, they steered clear. Averted their gaze. As though it was rude, and they clearly wanted to stare, to take a closer look at something they hadn't seen before, but it wasn't exactly polite behavior, so they avoided her altogether.
They all did it, along with every other adult in public that she'd seen so far in her short, sheltered life. But the unexpected result was how much easier it was to sneak around when people were actively making an effort to not see you. Combine that with her new eye-sight-thing she had going on, and she found that she had the advantage of spotting anyone in the same room as her. Even if it was in the dark.
That's how she knew a stranger was in the house one night. It was late, later than she'd ever been awake. But in the calm quiet of the night, at the end of the hall, she awoke to hear a thud against the wall. She knew pretty quickly that it wasn't Gerard going to bed late. She knew he was away on a mission. And most nights Chris didn't even sleep over at the house anymore, although he was probably with Gerard, come to think of it—and it certainly wasn't Kate. So, an intruder, then.
Much to her displeasure, this family seemed to be in the unfathomable habit of sleeping with their doors open at night. As soon as she was old enough, Jade had every intention of changing that for herself, but for now it meant that once she'd awakened to the sound of the thud at the end of the hall, it was easy to hear the voices, too.
"Which room is it?"
"They told us it was at the end of the hall."
"But there are two rooms at the end!"
"Well, I guess we'll have to check both, then. Won't we?"
There was a grumble, and then a softer noise, like someone was punched in the arm. Jade carefully and quietly sat up in her small bed, one hand on the rail that was there to prevent her from falling on the floor. Hairs on the back of her neck pricked as she her mind spun trying to figure out what to do, and she listened to their feet creeping along the floors, never hitting a single creaky plank. How did they do that? She knew from personal experience there were several spots in the old wooden floors of the hall that groaned like a track straight out of a horror movie at even the slightest touch. And yet somehow, these men avoided all of them.
Her heart thundered so loudly in her ears she almost missed the unmistakable flick of a switchblade. And then the men were at her door. They were both impossibly tall and massive, like two hulking archangels there to fulfill god's will. It was the first time she'd ever seen a werewolf in the flesh, though she didn't quite realize it in that moment. Not yet, at least. One of them had a bright flare of electric blue in his chest, the other a more muted cobalt that flickered upon seeing her. They froze, one standing with a knife held aloft, the other with an arm outstretched to hold his partner back. Moonlight gleamed off the edge of the blade as he moved back a step and she locked gazes with him, and his eyes flashed a bright, glowing yellow, and she screamed.
Time seemed to speed up, then. The men jerked like they needed to silence her but didn't want to get near her, and now they had to worry about the loud crash that came from her mother's room. "What the hell! A baby! He never said anything about no goddamn kids!"
"Shut up!" Snarled the other one, elbowing him sharply in the side. The light in their chests flared at the same time. "Shit!"
They both turned, one lunging forward with his claws out to attack someone at the end of the hall. A gunshot shattered the remaining stillness of the night, the man in front was blown back from the impact and Jade's ears rang as she watched the man in her doorway leap against the wall to dodge his friend's body as it crashed to the ground and didn't move again, the light in his chest snuffing out like a candle flame.
The man looked up and put his hand out. "Wait!"
Jade heard her mom's voice, clear and unwavering and calm. "Drop the knife."
The man didn't even hesitate. It fell with a loud clatter, and she heard Kate's small voice from further at the end of the hall. "M-Mom?"
"Get back in your room!" Her mom barked.
"Oh, fuck, did you shoot him in the head?!" The man groaned. "You—you really are crazy, you bitch!" The man was gaping down at the bloody, pulpy mess of his friend's skull. "You—"
For a split second she saw a flash of silver and pale skin as her mom's hand came into view, gun pointed straight between the man's eyes, and she pulled the trigger, and he fell. She shot him twice more at point blank range, stepping over limbs to get closer, and then his light went out too.
Her mom turned around and looked at her. "Jade," she said, and Jade realized she had never stopped screaming.
She was crying, too, and shaking almost violently. Her head throbbed from the force of her wails and her throat stung at the volume of it, but she couldn't stop. As her mom quickly swept into the room and made to reach for her, Jade flinched and cowered at the corner of her bed, and for a moment her mom looked devastated.
At the doorway, Kate gagged. Her mom whipped around. "I told you to get in your room and stay there!"
Her sister asked so many questions, they ran together and repeated, each word almost spilling on top of the next. "What happened—who are—why are they here—why are they here—who—what happened—"
Kate flinched too as her mom grabbed her by the shoulder in what looked to be a pretty tight grip, but this time her mom seemed to expect it. She knelt down and the hem of her nightgown was stained with the blood that seeped across the wooden floor into Jade's bedroom. "Go to your sister, Kate. Take her in the closet. I'm closing the doors, okay? Don't open up for anyone until I say it's okay. Do you hear me?"
"Y-Yes, ma'am," Her sister stuttered. Their mother waited for Kate to stumble over and grab Jade's hand to help her climb down. Kate's palm was cold and clammy, and it trembled as she obediently guided Jade over to the closet on the far side of the room. Jade kept her eyes on their mother for as long as she could, watching her until Kate slid the door shut.
They backed up against the wall and disappeared into the clothes, and she realized that she had stopped screaming at some point. And her mother never came back.
Chris and Jade were outside the night of their mother's funeral. It was a warm summer, so Jade was in a short sleeve dress and Chris had shed his suit jacket and folded it up to lay it on the grass beside them.
They laid in their backyard, with Jade tucked in close against Chris's warm side, and for the first time since that awful night, Jade felt safe. She watched as Chris looked at the sky above them and if he wiped at dampness on his cheeks, she pretended not to notice. Honestly, she wasn't entirely sure he'd mind if she did notice, since she was technically three years old. For some reason, Chris seemed to open up around her. Ordinarily he was a pretty stoic person. As an Argent, he was raised to be a soldier, and usually he played his part perfectly. But when he got around Jade and it was just the two of them, he tended to let that facade drop.
It happened now, as Chris sighed, and it sounded heavy and mournful. A spot deep in Jade's heart ached, and she watched the warm yellow light in Chris's chest swell momentarily with a tangible mixture of sorrow, denial and anger. "I'm sorry, Jade. I'm so sorry that I wasn't there."
Jade lifted her head and frowned at him. He gazed somberly back at her. "Why?"
He hadn't been expecting that response from her. Chris blinked. "Well, because I could have been there when it happened. I could have protected you. I should have protected you."
Maybe, she wanted to say. Or maybe you would have died too. But as always, she had to filter her thoughts through what she thought might be an appropriate response from a toddler. And in all honesty, she wasn't really sure how good she was at guessing. She'd never been around children, before. Still, she tried. "Where were you?"
His face flashed in pain and he had to look away. He cleared his throat, and after a moment, he said, "I went on a hunting trip with dad."
And maybe it was wrong, but Jade realized she had an opportunity before her. After all, part of why Chris was so willfully blind to the true nature of Kate and Gerard had always been due to his loyalty and allegiance to the hunter's code. He was raised to believe in their role to rid the world of supernatural monsters, in order to protect innocent lives and prevent unnecessary bloodshed. And now that Jade was actually living it as a reality, she knew just how far they took it.
This wasn't the first important event that Chris and Gerard had missed. Far from it. Being the oldest of the group, by the time Jade was born, Chris was already eighteen and a full-fledged hunter. Three years ago he'd forged his silver bullet and cemented his life in the family legacy, and he hadn't slowed down since. She felt like she barely knew the man because he was gone so often.
Maybe she should take this opportunity he just handed her on a silver platter, and though part of her objected to it, she knew she could manipulate him by implying that he should make more of an effort to be there for her. In order to do that, he would have to sacrifice some of the time he dedicated to the hunters, but maybe… maybe that would be good for him, to get some distance.
A pretty long silence had stretched between them, but she hoped it seemed like she was contemplating his words before she said, "You left to hunt monsters?"
His grip tightened on her and he pulled her in a little closer. "Yeah, monsters."
Jade's voice dropped to a whisper. "I saw monsters," She said, thinking of the men in the door. "Mean, scary monsters."
Chris sat up slightly. "You mean that night? You remember what you saw?"
Jade nodded. "They were big, and had glowing eyes and sharp claws like…"
"What color were their eyes?" He wanted to know, suddenly extremely interested in what her answer was.
She closed her eyes and pictured them. "Yellow," she said. "They glowed yellow like the sun."
"Yellow," He murmured thoughtfully, and latched onto the thought like a hound on the trail of its prey as he laid back down and stared up at the night sky. "Yellow like the sun…"
Jade poked his arm with her stubby little finger. "Next time, you hunt monsters at the house."
Chris's blue eyes snapped back to her and she saw the light in his chest flare, and felt something like a warm, soft blanket fresh from the dryer settle over them—almost like the intention of protection and comfort. "Yes," He agreed, and soothingly rubbed her arm. "Next time, I'll be there."
Jade let the quiet stretch between them and thought. Well, it wasn't exactly what she had hoped for; it wasn't her ultimate goal, but it was a step in the right direction. If she could get him to see that family was more important than the code, then it would be easier for him to see signs of what will happen to Kate and Gerard later on after they lose touch with their humanity. At least, she hoped it would.
"She remembers that night," Chris told Gerard. "Jade said that she saw monsters with yellow glowing eyes."
It had been bothering him ever since he had the conversation with her. Eating at the corner of his mind every hour since. What if she figured it out? What would they do if she happened to cling to this traumatizing memory, if she remembers and decides to investigate? With everything they store in the house as far as documents, how hard would it really be for her to learn the truth? All she has to do is look, and she could find it. Hell, she's already seen the horrible, horrible reality with her own two eyes. But Gerard seemed almost like he'd been expecting it.
"Hm. Yes, well, she's young yet. She'll grow up thinking she saw monsters kill—" Gerard paused, the muscle in his jaw twitching. "Kill her mother," he finished with a snarl. "And she'll be right. But she'll rationalize it. She'll chalk it up to misremembering, to her infant mind misinterpreting the horror of the situation. We'll make sure of that, because that's what we'll tell her if she asks."
Something about that didn't sit well with Chris. It's not that he disagreed—it did make logical sense. But it feels like they're lying to her, like they're making her feel worse about an already horrific night, and that felt wrong. "How can you be so sure?" He prodded further. "You can't know—"
"I think I know my own daughter," Gerard growled, his temper boiling over for what must have been the thousandth time that night. Everyone was on edge since what happened, but no one more so than his father, and it had turned him in a nasty, intolerant man with very little patience. "Now, don't think that I didn't catch on to what you tried to slide past me there. I don't appreciate being lied to in my own house."
Now Chris was truly confused, and he felt his own temper rile up. "What are you talking about?"
"Yellow eyes!" Gerard slammed a palm dramatically on the thick, wooden desk in front of him. "You've known for days that we should be looking for a pack, and you thought it wise to keep that fact to yourself?"
Chris frowned. "They could have been omegas—"
"If you're going to act like a child, maybe I should bring in a different man." Gerard's voice boomed across the room like thunder, and Chris stiffened at the threat. "Do you want to avenge your mother's slaughter, or not?"
He flinched, and not for the first time wondered why his father had to choose such specific, infuriating words that only served to inflame the situation. There was a whole laundry list of issues he wanted to take up with his father at that moment, but somehow—somehow—he forced himself to stop. He clenched his fists tightly. "If there is the chance that they're part of a pack, we need to find out who sent them and why."
Gerard didn't miss a beat. "Yes. Let's not forget that it happened on a night where neither you, nor myself were present to help. The question is: was that deliberate, or an oversight?"
Their methodology for hunting was slightly unorthodox, at least when compared to other hunter families. Traditionally speaking, most families operated like the police did: they received reports of supernatural activity, and they analyzed the physical evidence along with eye witness accounts in order to track down the monster responsible and take him out, so that it would never happen again.
Conversely, thanks to Gerard's brand of thinking, the Argents operated more like the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. Sure, they considered the physical evidence and they took eye witness accounts just the same as other hunter families would. But they extrapolated from that. They leaned heavily on psychology, and Gerard made the effort to get to know the target he was hunting down; he tried to put himself in their mind and figure out what motivated them, not to empathize with the beast, but to predict their next moves in ways that other hunter families simply couldn't.
The result was that the Argents were almost always at least one step ahead of the monster they tracked, as well as any other hunter family that may have been following the same trail for one reason or another.
Chris mulled Gerard's question over in his mind. He was right, of course: the werewolves that killed his mother had come on a night that neither of the men in the room were home. The question being, was this a strategy on their part? Or had they been operating under misinformation? Chris considered the possibilities. "They were young, and sloppy. Too sloppy to be Talia's."
"She wouldn't send her own into the lion's den without provocation," Gerard agreed. "She guards her cubs and keeps them close to her chest."
"Ennis is always biting new people, growing his pack, because his betas die so quickly."
"That's because of his poor leadership skills as an alpha," Gerard tersely interjected, his lips drawn into a pinched sneer. "What reason would he have to target us?"
"You mean besides the scores of betas of his that we've killed?" Chris dryly quipped back.
At this point, Gerard hummed thoughtfully to himself. He leaned back to steeple his fingers and let himself get lost in thought for a moment. "You said that Jade remembers that night. She mentioned the glowing eyes. Was that all she could recall?"
Chris felt his hackles rise in defense of his little sister. "I didn't exactly think it would be a good idea to ask her to give me a play-by-play of the worst night of her life. Especially not on the day we buried mom. I mean, you saw where the bodies were. She probably watched it happen!"
Gerard placed his hands on the desk and pushed himself away. He moved around Chris and said, "Never underestimate an Argent. She is stronger than you give her credit for."
"Wait—" Chris tried, even as Gerard skirted the door in search of the traumatized three-year-old. "What are you even going to ask her?"
Gerard's lips curled and he met Chris's weighted gaze evenly. "What she wants for dinner, of course."
And with that, he left the room. Chris smacked a hand over his face and wondered what Gerard would do if he followed him. Shoo him off, probably. Better to wait for a few moments, and then ambush the interrogation when it's already underway.
For weeks and weeks after the funeral, the casseroles just kept coming. By that point they had about a week's worth of dinner built up. Jade didn't even want to think about all the beans in the countless taco casseroles she'd have to eat. But one day, when the doorbell rang, it was early enough that Gerard was home to answer it.
Jade and Kate sat in the living room early one Saturday morning, watching the news. Well, Jade was watching the news, Kate was scribbling in a magazine to write in the columns and change the way things were written if she thought it was funny.
Gerard came into the living room with his hands clasped behind his back. "This afternoon I'm taking you two to the arcade."
Jade choked on her juice. Kate gaped at him. "But why?" Kate whined. "Tiffany gave me her decoder ring and we were both supposed to listen to the radio later, so we could get the secret message!"
"Well maybe they'll have a radio at the arcade," Gerard offered.
"Daaaaad," She whined, and Gerard's face hardened. Jade hadn't forgotten his skillfully disguised interrogation he'd popped on her by surprise a few weeks back. He'd sought her out, which Gerard never really does, and though at face value it could have been interpreted as a rare attempt at compassion from a normally detached father, Jade knew better. Even if some part of it had been genuine, Jade also knew Gerard always had other intentions. Always. It was pretty easy to spot that he was digging at her for more information about the intruders from that night, and in the end she couldn't really tell how satisfied he'd been in his endeavor.
"That's enough," he snapped at Kate, the silver light in his chest gleaming like the tip of a blade. "We are going. You received an invitation to Ashley R's birthday party, and you are going to have fun."
Well, when you put it like that… Jade snorted to herself, and then pretended not to be listening because three-year-olds don't snort at someone else's conversation. She ignored Gerard's gaze as Kate's light ignited into a white hot-rage. "Ashley R?!" Her voice sounded extremely high-pitched and strained from the effort she made not to scream. "She—she's so—but my friends will…"
"You have two hours to lose the attitude," Gerard informed her. "Get yourself together, child. What's there to complain about? You're going to have cake and ice cream and play in an arcade—like normal children do."
Kate crossed her arms and her bottom lip jutted out. She huffed, her short blonde bangs lifting slightly. "I'm normal."
"Excellent!" Gerard declared, with a smile so wide it creased his cheeks. Jade hated that smile. It was so fake. "That's the spirit."
A few hours passed and found Jade trapped in a booth with Kate. Gerard had practically dropped them off and then abandoned them to go discuss something or other with Ashley's parents, and Jade was left to wonder if her parents were somehow involved in the supernatural.
"Are you even listening?" Kate asked. The older girl had made absolutely no attempt to interact with or even wish Ashley a happy birthday, despite Gerard's earlier threats. The five year old clearly had zero interest in befriending her classmate, for whatever reason.
Jade blinked. "Mhmm."
"Oh really? Then what did I say?"
She stalled from answering by taking a large bite of pizza and taking great care to make sure she chewed as thoroughly as possible.
Kate grew too impatient to wait for a proper response, which was of course Jade's goal the whole time. "I was telling you the plan! Okay, so listen up. And actually listen this time! This is important." She gazed at her little sister imploringly. "Listening? Good. As you know, people think you're blind."
Jade promptly choked on the pizza. Kate reached out and almost absent-mindedly whacked her in the middle of her back, causing the piece of food lodged in her throat to catapult across the table.
Kate scrunched her face. "Gross. But you're welcome. Anyways, like I said, people already think you're blind, and now you're always going to be the blind girl whose mom died."
Harsh. Jade let herself glare openly at Kate's offhanded way of saying that. How could a five-year old be so… insensitive? What's wrong with her? It had only been a few weeks since their mother's funeral.
"So, the plan is for you to… you know what? It's better if I don't tell you. If you have to act, we'll never get it right." She reached out and grabbed Jade's hand, dragging her along behind her. "Come on, Jade! Follow me," She loudly instructed, as though taking care to make sure that others around them saw her… leading Jade… through the arcade, like she was helping her blind sister.
Jade resisted the urge to roll her eyes, but only just.
They marched straight up to the ticket counter, and just before they reached it Kate let go of Jade's hand and executed the most unexpected performance Jade has ever witnessed. She threw her hand in the air and waved the 10 measly tickets she'd managed to score off skee-ball. "Yes! Yes, we made it, sis! I told you we would make it! Can you believe it? No one's going to believe this!"
Jade wandered closer and kept her face carefully blank as Kate continued just as enthusiastically as before, never hesitating. Deliberately, Kate jutted her toe out just far enough to cause Jade to stumble. She toppled forward and smacked against the glass case. There was no hope of her seeing over the counter; she was nowhere near tall enough, so she didn't get to see the reaction of the worker, but she could see the uncomfortable and uncertain glances from the kids in line behind them and the people nearby.
"Oh, whoops!" Kate gasped. "I'm sorry, I'm such an idiot. I should've led you up here." She leaned in to stage-whisper to the teen behind the counter. "She's blind!"
Kate then bent down, and in a feat of strength she didn't expect her to possess, hoisted the large toddler from the ground. Jade wasn't really all that much smaller in comparison to Kate, having been born big and stayed big for her age, so her feet were practically touching Kate's ankles. Still, she lifted her just high enough for the teen behind the counter to catch sight of Jade's eyes.
The teenager couldn't even stifle a gasp—though whether it was because of the way Jade's eyes looked, or the way Kate very nearly dropped her, or some combination thereof, she'd never know. Jade slid to her feet.
Kate let out an extremely fake-sounding laugh (well, fake sounding to Jade because she happened to know that Kate could only cackle maniacally when she actually laughed, which was rare) and said, "What luck that on your birthday we just so happen to hit the jackpot on that game!"
Jade's eyes widened when she realized what she was doing. The teen behind the counter looked down his nose at the ten tickets that Kate slid forward, and Jade watched as Kate leaned over to offer him an exaggerated wink. "Yep!" She continued. "A whole thousand tickets! I know you can't see them yourself, little sis, but trust me! They're there. It's just too good to be true. I only wish mom was here to see it."
And that was the final straw. Jade very nearly walked away, but as she turned she ran squarely into the round legs of an old lady. "Excuse me little miss, I couldn't help but overhear. Did you say it's this little one's birthday?"
Kate nodded vehemently. "She just turned three."
And Jade felt downright indignant at that, because she was three and half, thank you very much! The old woman cooed and practically petted her hair. Jade huffed.
"We came here to celebrate, and when she saw that big purple stuffed horse, she just knew she had to have it. I told her it wouldn't happen, but then she took me straight over to that machine, and well. Now we have one thousand tickets!"
Even the woman looked momentarily lost, frowning skeptically at the short strip of tickets as Kate tapped them meaningfully with her finger. "A thousand tickets," she insisted, leaning over as though conspiring with the old woman as she gestured clearly to indicate Jade's pale, ghostly eyes.
Jade watched the woman recoil at the sight and she could almost see the moment she assumed the three-year-old was blind, recognizing the shameful way the woman dutifully averted her gaze and shifted uncomfortably. And then she also saw the woman finally connect the dots that Kate had laid out for her. "Oh. Oh! Yes! I've never seen such luck before! One thousand tickets! How special, for such a special girl on her special day!"
"That should be enough for the horse she wanted and then some!" Kate merrily nodded.
The teen behind the counter leaned over to get a closer look at Jade. "I thought you said she was blind."
Kate's face went blank for a second, and the light in her chest sputtered. Her cheeks heated bright red. "Well, gee, mister. You don't have to be so rude about it."
Jade's jaw dropped.
The old woman wagged a finger at him. "Hey, what's the bright idea, here? Are you giving these girls trouble?"
"What? No! I'm just saying, she said she was blind, but then she said she saw the horse when she walked in." The teen shrugged. "So which is it?"
"Why," The old woman reeled. "I have never heard such a disrespectful young man before! Where's the manager? I want to see your manager!"
And the situation just devolved from there. Gerard came over to find his children on the sidelines of an all-out battle between the old woman, and now a random woman from the crowd that had gathered behind them, plus the teen and supposedly the manager.
As Kate walked away with the giant purple horse bouncing in her arms, her cheshire-cat grin was stretched so wide it looked painful, and she reached down to pat Jade on the head. "Thanks for sticking it out back there. I owe you one."
And what a thought that was. Kate Argent in debt to her? She wasn't likely to forget that one soon.
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