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Love and Memories

"MOM!" Hope shouted, running over to her mother and throwing her arms around her.

"Hi baby," Jade smiled as she hugged her daughter tight. She felt herself under Damon and Freya's hard stare, while Vicki looked at her in confusion. No one seemed to know what to make of it given that Jade wasn't supposed to be within miles of New Orleans.

"Jade?" Damon questioned her and she mouthed out I'm sorry to him.

"Mom, what are you doing here?" Hope asked excitedly as she finally pulled away from her. She kept looking over her mom to make sure it was really her, because she was sure she had to be dreaming.

"Can I see you?" Damon was asking Jade at the same time. Hope looked at Damon like he couldn't be serious. Her mom just got there!

"Two seconds, ok?" Jade assured her daughter as she touched her cheek, kissing her forehead before following Damon into the next room.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Damon demanded from her, his voice just above a whisper. He was furious. He was the one that worked through this separation with Hope for years, helping her along with it. Now, Jade's return probably set them back to the beginning.

"Damon, I," Jade started off, but she stopped. "I'm really sorry."

"You're sorry?" Damon questioned her. "You know, I mean you were told what could happen if you're around Hope."

"I know," Jade nodded in agreement with him. "I'm not stupid, all right?"

"Then what-" He wanted to know what she was thinking again.

"I'm being selfish, ok?" Jade finally snapped at him and he looked at her in confusion. "Damon," she sighed hard, collecting her thoughts. "You didn't hang up on me last night."

"Jade," Damon sighed now.

"I heard everything," she stopped him. "Ok? Everything. I heard her screaming and crying, the things flying around the room-"

"And I'm sorry you had to hear that," Damon cut her off, though his voice was sympathetic; she could see how sad he was in his eyes that she had heard all that. "Ok? I really am. But, unfortunately, this is our life. It's not easy to have to watch her have these attacks, but I don't go driving her off to see you or Mason."

"Jade," Vicki interrupted them, coming into the room now. "What is going on with you?"

"Vic, please don't start with me too," Jade told her, running her hands through her hair in frustration.

"I know that it has been hard on you," Vicki tried telling her gently. "All right? But right now, just blowing into her life just to have to leave again-"

"Do not," Jade warned her and Damon mentally begged her not to say it.

"You're acting like mom, all right?" Vicki blurted out.

"Mom didn't want to be around us Vicki," Jade snapped at her angrily. "I want to be here, I need..." She trailed off now. She wasn't going to get into this part of the story, how before heading to the airport last night she meant to go to a bar. But then she kept driving; past the next one and the next one. All the way till she ended up compelling her way through airport security and onto the next flight to New Orleans.

"If we can just see how this goes," Jade was telling them desperately. "Just a few hours then maybe I can try every 6 months or something. Or every year and Mason can come in between-"

"I think she should," Freya cut in now, coming in to talk to everyone else, leaving Hope at the table. After Freya had given her such a hard look upon arriving the last person Jade expected to be on her side was her aunt. "You shouldn't go out anywhere," she started off. "We all need to be around in case something happens."

"Not to mention Vincent is gonna freak," Damon said shaking his head though his expression softened.

"Damon," Jade looked at him apologetically. She hadn't actually thought this the whole way through, she acted purely on impulse. Once she was gone again though it was Damon that was going to be left to pick up the pieces.

"Go see her," Damon nodded at the door, giving her a small smile. Jade squealed with delight, hugging him quick before heading out the door. Hope was still seated at the table but jumped up when she saw her mom.

"Are you leaving?" Hope asked fearfully.

"Not yet," Jade assured her and Hope smiled. "I can't stay long, ok? But-"

"You're here, I don't care," Hope stopped her, hugging her mom again.

"We can't really go out," Jade told her now once Hope released her. "No one can know I came here, ok? Not till we see how this goes." Hope nodded though she wasn't really sure she was taking anything in her mom was saying. Jade was here! They were there in the same room for the first time in almost a decade; really, it was the same room they were in the last time they saw each other.

"I can show you what I did to my room," Hope was telling her now.

"Ok," Jade nodded, following her up the stairs. It seemed like such a trivial thing; what color Hope painted it, where she hung up the string lights, where she set up her easel for painting. But to them, it was everything. Jade looked around the room, smiling as she noticed the little details that Hope did to make this room hers. Her eyes settled on Hope's night stand which held 3 picture frames. One of a shot of her whole family; her parents, stepdad, grandfather, uncles and aunts. The other two were pictures of her parents. The first was her sitting on Mason's shoulders; the second was her mom sitting with her arms around her, sitting outside in the sun.

"Hey," Jade said as an idea came to her. She was going to make today fun, as fun as it could be. She picked up the frame and turned to her daughter. "We need to take an updated one of these." Hope smiled at her. "C'mon, where's your phone?"

"Ah," Hope started off, biting her lip. "Damon kind of took it."

"Right," Jade nodded. "The thing." Hope wouldn't look in her mom's direction. "You wanna talk about it yet?" Hope shook her head. "Ok," Jade shrugged. Was it the most responsible parent thing in world? Jade knew it wasn't. But, again, they weren't together long; fun was her focus. "Then, we'll use mine," she said, taking her phone of out of pocket and handing it to her daughter who laughed. Jade missed that laugh.

They sat on the bed together while Hope held her hand out, taking the pictures selfie style. They took so many. Some pretty, some funny faces. They hadn't had a picture together in years. They fell over onto the bed in a fit of laughter after taking so many. Hope played her favorite music for her mom and Jade listened intently. She showed Jade her paintings, she told her about school. Anything that came to mind Hope shared with her mother and Jade was more than happy to share in it with her. The others gave them their space for the day, with Marcel wondering what all the giggling upstairs was about when he came home.

After a few hours it started to get dark and Jade figured that night was falling. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to stay much longer, certainly not over night. As the time passed she worked hard to ignore the increasing whispers inside her mind. Laying next to Hope she was reminded of all the times she would stay with her until she fell asleep when she was young; side by side, facing each other, Hope's eyes started to flutter.

"You can go to sleep baby," Jade assured her as she saw her daughter fighting to stay awake. Hope shook her head.

"I don't want to miss you," Hope told her, keeping herself awake.

"I don't think I can stay much longer," Jade told her sadly now, resting her hand over hers. Hope nodded sadly.

"Mom," Hope said now. There was something she wanted to talk to her mom about, something she didn't think she could talk about with her stepdad or even her dad if he was here. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure honey," Jade nodded reassuringly.

"How old were you when you met Damon?" Hope asked her now. Jade smiled, figuring this probably lead back to a boy.

"What's his name?" Jade asked her, teasing a little. Hope gave her mom a face that asked her to be serious. "Ok, ok," she let up, thinking back on it. "I was in my second year of college so..." She thought about it. "Nineteen, twenty?" she offered, then shrugged. "Not too much older than you." Hope didn't want to talk to her mom about her crush yet.

"You've been together that long?" Hope asked.

"Well, I'm not that old," Jade laughed at how she phrased it. While she was stuck in her twenty three year old body, Jade was technically only thirty eight. "I'm not as old as Damon, or even your grandfather," she joked and Hope smiled.

"What I mean is," Hope started off. "He must really love you, huh?" With these new feelings about boys starting to come up Hope had that age old thought in her head; would it happen for her? And if so, when?

"I hope so," Jade laughed, turning onto her back. "I don't know honey, love is never easy. We were pretty hot and cold there for awhile."

"Really?" Hope asked in surprise, propping up on her elbow to look at her mom.

"Oh yeah," Jade nodded, staying on her back but looking over at her daughter. "We were together then not, fighting then not. That went on for a few years." She shrugged. "Then I moved back to Virginia to take care of your aunt and uncle and I don't know. He was there-"

"That's when you found out his secret," Hope cut in and Jade nodded. "What was that like, finding that out about someone?" she asked cautiously.

"You're worried about people finding out you're a tribrid?" Jade asked, turning to her daughter again; Hope's silence gave her the answer. "Honey, you..." She struggled for the words. "You are so incredibly special. You are the best of a few worlds." Hope didn't seem convinced. "Tell you what, Damon's secret didn't change the way I felt about him at all." She gave a weak smile. "And when it turned out I had an even bigger one," she said, referring to when she found out she was a Mikaelson. "It didn't change anything for him either. If anything, those things we shared, the supernatural things? They made us closer."

"Really?"

"Mhmm," Jade nodded. "So," she said and Hope gave a small smile now. "What's his name?" she asked again.

"Roman," Hope admitted now. Jade didn't comment on her daughter blushing.

"Is he a witch?" Jade asked curiously and Hope shook her head.

"He's a vampire," Hope told her.

"Ah," Jade nodded with a slight laugh. "Your mother's daughter then." Hope bit her lip with a slight smile. The truth was Hope was thinking a lot about her mom and step dad lately, how they paralleled her and Roman. He was a vampire. She was a werewolf and a Mikaelson. Now, if only she could get Roman to talk to her again, like he did that day outside Alaric's office.

"Can I ask you something else?" Hope asked. When she was a kid she just kind of accepted that she had a mom, a dad, and a step dad. That was just how it was, her parents loved her but they weren't with each other. But talking about her mom and Damon a lot now, combined with her being older, lead to a pretty big question though she wasn't sure it was appropriate to ask.

"Sure," Jade promised.

"How did..." She wasn't sure how to word it. "How did you and dad..." She still didn't know. "You know?" She was at a loss. Maybe she shouldn't have asked.

"Oh my God," Jade laughed a little to herself. "Honey, that-" They both bolted upright at the sound of the door swinging open. There was Vincent having come to the house to investigate, having known something wasn't right that day. And there was Damon having followed him to stop him but it was too late.

"I knew something was going on," Vincent said as he came into the room.

"Oh look, it's the fun police," Jade was saying sarcastically as she got up, though she had a pit in her stomach.

"That's good Jade, very funny," Vincent quipped back as Hope watched the two of them from her bed, glancing at Damon in the doorway. "While you've been living in your little fantasy world-"

"Vincent, that's enough," Damon cut him off. He didn't entirely agree with Jade's tactic here but he also knew how much both her and Hope needed this.

"You all need to accept the truth here," Vincent argued back. "Do you see what's going on outside Jade?" he asked, motioning to Hope's balcony doors.

"It's storming?" Jade asked with raised eyebrows. "It's New Orleans, it does that."

"Yeah?" Vincent asked her in annoyance, going over and opening the doors. He stuck his hand outside to catch the rain then brought it back in. "Does it always do this?" he asked, revealing that it was raining blood.

"Two minutes," Jade told him through her teeth.

"One," Vincent told her though he left the room.

"Mom," Hope argued.

"Baby," Jade sighed, sitting on her bed with her, taking her hands. "We both knew I wasn't going to be able to stay."

"But mom," Hope protested.

"I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna call you," Jade assured her. "And one of these days, we can try again, all right?"

"Jade," Damon said seriously. He didn't want her to go promising something they weren't sure they were going to be able to keep. That, and the storm was getting worse.

"Just give me a second Damon," she snapped at him, before turning back to her daughter. "I don't know when it'll be, but I promise this isn't the last time." Without leaving room for protest, Jade got up and kissed her daughter's head. "I love you," she promised before heading out of the room, shoving her way past Damon. She knew it wasn't his fault, but unfortunately much like with Hope, he found himself on the receiving end of some anger. Jade said goodbye to everyone quickly, promising to talk to Damon and Hope later before heading out the door into the storm.

Hope had other ideas though.

"Hope," Damon was trying to get her attention the next morning as she pushed breakfast around her plate. He was met only with silence. "Well, you and your mom can see who can not talk to me the longest," he murmured in frustration as he took his phone out to try Jade again. She had said she would call him last night once she was far enough away and safe but nothing. He figured she was upset and ignoring him. As he was trying her again though he noticed something he hadn't before.

It was the sound of her phone ringing nearby.

"Hey, Damon?!" Vicki said, rushing back into the compound; she had heard the phone too and went to see what was going on. "I found this out in the street," she said, handing it to him. The phone still worked though the screen was cracked.

"You think someone took my mom?" Hope asked breathlessly, though she knew exactly where she was. She got the hybrid she recently turned, Henry, to hide her mom for her before cloaking the location. The way she saw it was that the worst thing that happened when her mom was around was a freak storm. She was never in any real danger she felt. This was her plan to get her dad back into town as well so they could start towards fixing things.

"I don't know," Damon started but trailed off when Jade's phone started ringing. "Dammit," he said when he saw that it was Klaus. After his run in with Marcel, the latter convinced him that he needed to call his daughter. Knowing he had to answer, Damon put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?" Damon asked and he dreaded what was to come next.

"I was trying to reach Jade," Klaus told him, a little confused on why Damon was answering her phone. "Is she around?" he asked, then paused thinking of the one reason Damon might be answering Jade's phone. "Is she angry with me?"

"You, ah," Damon said, not sure what to say. As soon as he said it he knew that Klaus was coming to New Orleans; that was 2 people now in the city that couldn't really be around Hope. "You really picked a hell of a time to call," he admitted.

"Where is my daughter Damon?" Klaus asked seriously.

"I don't know," Damon said honestly. "She came to New Orleans-"

"She what?!" Klaus snapped.

"She needed to see Hope," Damon said, glancing at his stepdaughter. "I honestly don't blame her."

"I'm coming there," Klaus said now as he hung up the phone.

thanks for reading! please please review! it's not easy coming back here but i'm really trying to finish, your reviews encourage me to do so! would love to get as many as possible each update!

so let me ask a question: what do you think of jade and hope's time together? or how damon is at being a step dad?