thanks so much for the reviews, follows, and favorites! :) and thanks for following/favoriting me! :) hope you like this update!

Ruined

It had been a couple days since Vicki came home and things were going smoothly. Everyone was home, Kelly was trying to get a job and wasn't fighting with Jade nearly as much. Matt was getting along with Caroline and Vicki was seeing Jeremy, which Elena wasn't too happy about but she couldn't say much; after all, she was dating Stefan. Vicki hadn't had any kind of incident since she came home and was adjusting well. The only thing really bothering Jade right now was that she didn't know what to think about her and Damon. Given everything they had gone through in the last few weeks, she was happy that was her biggest problem.

"Something smells good in here," Jade commented as she came home, her mom and Vicki in the kitchen.

"We made dinner," Vicki grinned. She seemed so much happier these days and Jade couldn't help but wonder if it had to do with her transition. By turning her, did Damon manage to save her?

"We both felt bad for leaving," Kelly said, pulling the casserole from the oven. "So, we made you and Matty dinner."

"Ah, just for Jade," Matt clarified, coming down the steps now as someone knocked at the door. "I'm heading out." When he opened it, they saw that Caroline was outside waiting for him.

"Hi Mrs. Donovan!" Caroline greeted her. "Hi Jade, hi Vicki."

"Hi," Vicki and Jade both said, their mom just nodding.

"See ya!" Matt said, leaving the house with her. Kelly set dinner on the table, sitting down while Vicki grabbed plates and Jade grabbed glasses.

"Do we like her?" Kelly asked her daughters as they joined her at the table, referencing Caroline.

"I like her," Jade nodded. "Her mom's a pain in the ass, but she's nice."

"Ugh, don't get me started on Liz Forbes," Kelly muttered, taking a bite of her food.

"Agreed," Vicki rolled her eyes. "But, I like Caroline. Better than Elena."

"Definitely," Jade agreed with her sister.

"Aw, really?" Kelly asked curiously. "I always liked her."

"Elena's kinda..." Jade wasn't sure how to word it.

"Bitchy," Vicki offered and Jade fought off a laugh.

"Fine, fine," Kelly gave up and agreed with them. "So," she prepared to change the subject. "What are you girls doing this weekend?"

"I was going to hang out with Jeremy," Vicki shrugged and Jade didn't say anything, having no plans. "Why?"

"I ran into Richard Lockwood at the grille yesterday," Kelly explained. "He invited us to the Founder's Party this weekend."

"Ok, mom," Vicki said seriously, setting her glass down. "Were you two together or something?"

"Vic," Jade protested. It was something the girls speculated before, with Richard always being nice to Kelly and even nicer to Jade, Carol seeming extra snotty towards them. What if he was Jade's dad, but it could never get out? One topic Jade learned to not bring up a long time ago was who her dad was.

"Ah, no," Kelly laughed, finding it more amusing than anything. "I'm sure he's just being nice, since he knows Matty will be going with Caroline and Vicki will be with Jeremy." She smirked in Jade's direction. "And maybe someone will be going with a certain Salvatore."

"I'm sure I'll see him there," Jade shrugged. Something else she never talked about with Kelly was her love life, since Kelly was hardly ever in a position to give advice.

"He's cute," Kelly said. Jade was tired of hearing from her sister, mom, and friends about how cute Damon was. Yes, he was cute, he was actually more than cute. Being cute didn't change the complexity of their situation though. "And he really seems to like you."

"And he's here," Vicki smirked, hearing Damon on the porch before he even knocked.

"How'd you do that?" Kelly laughed as Jade went over to answer the door. The look on Damon's face made her uneasy.

"What's up?" Jade asked curiously.

"We need to talk," Damon told her, nodding for her to come outside.

"You're freaking me out," Jade accused, crossing her arms to hug her sweater closer as the cool night air hit. "What's going on?"

"I just came from the council meeting," Damon explained. "They're catching on to the blood bank shortages in other towns." He left out that his brother was the one that robbed those blood banks, given that he had started drinking human blood again. Normally, Damon would have been all for that, but now he had two vampires struggling with control in the middle of a town on a vampire hunt.

"They know?" Jade asked, keeping her voice low even though she was sure Vicki would hear anyway.

"They know there's vampires still around," Damon clarified, hoping their vampire problems would be over with the death of Lexi.

"What do we do?" Jade asked now. "No way can we go to this party this weekend."

"No, we have to," Damon insisted. "We have to keep looking as normal as possible."

"I don't know Damon," Jade said hesitantly. Vicki hadn't had any incidents yet, but that didn't mean she wouldn't slip up. Taking her to a crowded party full of founding families and, therefore, council members didn't seem like a good idea.

"If she starts avoiding these kinds of things, it'll look really suspicious," Damon reasoned; since everyone knew by now that Vicki and Jeremy were together, they expected her to be at these events now too. "The more we're out and around these people, the more they're going to trust us."

Jade knew that was what Damon was doing with the council, providing them with vervain and helping them in their vampire hunts. The more they trusted him, the less they looked at him. And if they trusted him, they'd believe it when he said he gave both Donovan girls bracelets with vervain to keep them safe from compulsion; he had given Jade one, though Vicki's was obviously vervain free.

"Jade," Damon got her attention as she was nervously contemplating their options. "It'll be fine, we have to go. I can find out more about what they know," Damon continued. "Ok?"

"Yeah," Jade sighed, giving in. "Yeah, all right."

Jade was so glad she wasn't a founding family member, otherwise she would have to have gone go to these events her whole life. Since Damon came back into her life though, she found herself at a lot of these things. Dressed in a simple black dress, she arrived at the party with her mom and sister; Matt had left early, going to pick up Caroline. Seeing Jeremy there, Vicki sped off happily with a grin on her face to hang out with him.

"Aaaand," Kelly said, dragging it out when she spotted Damon looking at Jade from across the room, though he was currently distracted by talking to Sheriff Forbes. "I'm gonna go drink by myself."

"Mom," Jade tried to warn but Kelly was already off. Sighing, she walked over in Damon's direction, but got cut off by Stefan.

"Hey," Stefan smiled, giving her a hug. "Jade's here." He pulled away from her. "Damon's going to be happy you're here."

"Um," Jade said in confusion, looking at Damon who came over now. "Is he drunk?"

"Oh, it's not a big deal," Stefan cut in before Damon could say anything. "It's just helping with the cravings, since I slipped."

"What?" Jade asked with raised eye brows.

"Ohh," Stefan said, his whisper slightly loud as he looked to his brother. "You didn't tell her, did you?"

"Good call," Damon said sarcastically.

"I'm gonna go..." Stefan said, trailing off as he held up his empty glass.

"When were you going to tell me?" Jade asked quietly, looking around to make sure no one was around to hear.

"I didn't want you to worry," Damon reasoned.

"Is that why the-"

"Damon," Liz interrupted. "Could I talk to you?"

"Sure," Damon nodded, turning to Jade as Liz left. "I'm gonna go find out more on what they know all right?" He took her hand, squeezing it. "Just relax, all right?"

"Mhmm," Jade nodded, unsure of everything as he left. Without much more of a thought, she followed Stefan's direction towards the bar.

"Hey Jade," Vicki said, coming over to her quickly. "Can I talk..." Jade turned to her, in the middle of taking a drink. "Oh my God, are you drinking?" Jade hadn't drank since she had come home from college to take care of Matt and Vicki. She knew that she got too out of control when she drank and she had to get it together if she wanted to be able to run things smoothly.

"It's fine," Jade assured her, setting her now empty glass down; it was one of several drinks she had since Damon disappeared. Matt wasn't around and Vicki hadn't been either; who knew where her mom was. Everything around her was putting her on edge and she just wanted to take it away. "What's wrong?"

"I guess Jer read Elena's diary," Vicki said quietly. "He knows and now he wants me to turn him." Jade covered her mouth to try to keep from giggling, but it didn't work. "Jade!"

"I'm sorry," Jade laughed. "It's not funny, I know."

"Come on," Vicki sighed, taking Jade's hand. "Let's go get some air."

Vicki lead Jade away from the crowd, heading over towards the balcony to get some air. Vicki figured this would be good since there were few people over there. Jade could get some air and hopefully sober up a little before going back to the party. When they got there though, Vicki realized this wasn't going to be helping Jade's stress. Stepping out onto the balcony, they got there in just enough time to see Damon snapping the neck of Elena's uncle before tossing him over the side. Satisfied with himself, Damon turned back to go into the party, stopping in his tracks when he saw two shocked faces.

"Jade, I-"

"Gimme," she took his drink out of his hand before turning and going back to the party.

"She's drinking?" Damon asked Vicki. It wasn't like he hadn't seen her drink before, he had gone to college with her. He knew since she came home though that she was trying to stop because she was afraid she was too much like Kelly that way. Without waiting for an answer, Damon caught up to Jade who was already setting her empty glass on an end table.

"You wanna slow down there?" Damon joked to her, but he was entirely serious.

"Please," Jade slurred a little. "I have a great tolerance."

"Ah, something's telling me it's gone down," Damon commented, holding a hand out to steady her. "I want to explain, about before."

"I feel like I should be more sober for that talk," Jade told him now.

"Guess so," he nodded. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," she assured him. "I'm just...on edge. But, you kept saying that everything was fine so..." She trailed off, thinking about something else. "Where's my mother?"

"Um, I don't know," Damon shrugged. "In her defense though, can't really say much about her drinking." Jade gave him a look.

"Help me find her?" Jade asked and he nodded, going to follow her. It didn't take long for them to find her though, hearing a crash in the next room. Most other people in the party went to investigate, seeing Matt and Tyler on the ground fighting, Kelly to the side begging for them to stop. The others were watching, not doing anything to stop it. Damon went over, having to drag Tyler off of Matt with some force, shoving him to the side.

"Matty, what happened?" Jade asked worriedly, kneeling next to him as he sat up slowly.

"Where's mom?" Matt asked first. His face was covered in cuts and she knew his eye was going to bruise. Jade looked around quickly, but Kelly had already disappeared. She noticed Tyler's father ushering him away and Vicki saying something to Jeremy about needing some air, figuring the blood was too much for her.

"I don't know," Jade said, helping him up as Damon came over now.

"You should get him home," Damon was saying. "I'll make sure Vic and your mom get home all right." He looked to Matt now. "Make sure you drive."

"Are you wasted?" Matt asked Jade.

"Shhh," Jade held a finger up to her lips and Matt shook his head.

Damon brought Kelly and Vicki home soon after Matt and Jade had left. He wanted to make sure that Jade was ok, so he came inside with them. He was happy that he did because things were quickly spiraling out of control. Matt must have told Jade what happened, how he caught Kelly and Tyler kissing and that was what sparked the fight, because Jade was busy taking things out of Kelly's room and throwing them down the stairs.

"Jay, seriously," Matt was saying gently, trying to get her to stop as he stood in the hallway.

"What are you doing?!" Kelly panicked, running up the stairs now. Damon was close behind her, seeing the mess at the bottom of the stairs.

"I want you to get out!" Jade shouted at her. "Matt told me what happened tonight mom." She shook her head. "I mean, jeez, Tyler's seventeen!"

"Jade, sweetie," Kelly said, her eyes welling up. "I know I messed up, but-"

"Messed up?" Jade laughed at her. "Messed up? You're a train wreck!" She tossed Kelly's suitcase down on top of the pile of clothes. "I was stupid enough to let you back here!"

"This is my house," Kelly argued with her now. "You're all my kids and you can't just throw me out!"

"Guess again!" Jade yelled at her. "Check the papers Kelly. It's my house and they're my kids." She pointed at the stairs. "Get out before I call the cops."

"Jade," Kelly said, reaching for her daughter who was walking away. Jade turned and took a swing at her mom, though she missed in her drunk state.

"Hey, whoa," Damon stepped in, grabbing Jade and bringing her back further away.

"Just leave!" Jade screamed, Damon pulling her into her bedroom.

"Matty," Kelly said, starting to cry. Vicki was there now, coming up the stairs. "If you...if someone just talks to her..."

"I think you should go mom," Matt stopped her, Vicki silently agreeing along side him. In Jade's room, Damon blocked the door to keep her from going out there and continuing to fight with her mom.

"I hate her," Jade was pacing her room. "I hate her, I hate her so much."

"I know," Damon nodded. "And she deserves it."

"How could she do that?" Jade asked. "How does she just ruin everything? Everything was fine, great even. And she just wrecked it, she always wrecks it." She motioned to herself. "I let her wreck it."

"She did this," Damon told her, coming over closer. "Not you." He grabbed Jade's shoulders, making her stop. "Quit it," he said, teasing her a little. "You're making me nervous."

"I'm sorry," Jade said in exasperation. "Thank you so much."

"For what?" Damon asked curiously.

"Helping," Jade told him. "With everything."

"Um, some of it was my fault," Damon pointed out.

"Yeah, but instead of run off you helped fix it," Jade explained; she half smiled. "You always take good care of me." They were quiet for a moment before she moved to kiss him. Damon kissed her back at first, wanting this since he came back, but then he remembered how drunk she still was, not to mention how upset she was about her mom.

"Jade," Damon pulled away.

"Ugh, don't say it," Jade said, her head falling against his chest. "I'm so pathetic," she mumbled into his shirt.

"No, you're not," Damon promised, hugging her tight. "You're fine." He kissed her head once. "Everything will be fine."

thanks so much for reading! :) hope you liked it, more soon!