thank you for the reviews, follows, and favorites! hope you like this next update!
i really hope you enjoy this opening, i wanted to write more of klaus and jade together and since i've skipped over so much with the time jump...here you go!
You Found Me
Flashback - 15 years ago
Jade came stumbling back in through the door of the compound late that night, plastered. Since having to give Hope away to keep her safe she had gone back to her old ways. Damon tried talking to her but she would always shut him out, saying that he couldn't possibly understand. The burning statement was that Hope wasn't even his. He knew that she didn't mean it, that she was grieving. What was worse than her drinking again was that she had shut her humanity off. Matt couldn't reach her, Vicki couldn't get through to her. Tonight, his plan was to send Mason after her. He was dealing with the loss of a child as well.
He watched Jade go off to her father's study where she knew there would be more booze. Damon let her pass, figuring Mason hadn't gotten through to her as she was still drinking. Mason came into the house now, quietly shutting the door behind him, his eyes glazed.
"You started drinking too?" Damon accused him as if he was the stupidest person ever. "You were supposed to get her to stop."
"Just," Mason struggled for the words. "Don't. Ok Damon? You wouldn't-"
"Understand," Damon cut him off. "Yeah, I hear that."
"Would you both stop?" Klaus said in annoyance as he pushed by two of them. These days, he'd had enough of Mason and Damon's fighting; it seemed worse than when Jade was pregnant. He watched his daughter go on a weeks long bender, hoping she would find her way back. He didn't want to smother her, which was Damon and her siblings immediate thought of what to do. But as no one else seemed to be able to get through to her, he knew what he had to do now.
"Jade," he said as he entered the study, closing the door behind him. She was rummaging among the bottles in the liquor cabinet.
"I'm looking for something older than me," she said, finally settling on a bottle. "End the night on a classy note," she shrugged, offering it to him first; he waved her off and she shrugged again, taking a swig.
"Sit down Jade," Klaus told her.
"What, is it your turn now?" Jade asked sarcastically as he sat on the couch. He nodded for her to sit next to him and she rolled her eyes but sat anyway.
"Do you know why I came to Mystic Falls last year?" Klaus asked and she looked at him confused.
"You were looking for Elena," Jade said as though it were obvious. "You needed her to break your curse."
"No," Klaus told her. "I didn't know about her until I saw her at the grille that night." He nodded at her. "On your birthday."
"I really don't understand-"
"Just listen to me Jade," Klaus insisted, snatching the bottle from her. "Listen." She crossed her arms but she did turn more towards him. "After your mother left Chicago, I was fine. But a few months passed and I..." He searched for the words. "I had this need to go back to Mystic Falls. This urge I couldn't understand." He shook his head. "And I hated that place. It was where we lived as children, it was where..." He wasn't going to get into the details of his brother's death or their turning into vampires or anything with Mikael. She knew all of that.
"So, I never went," Klaus continued. "Never went, but I could never shake this feeling, this emptiness." He motioned to himself. "I thought maybe I was just getting worse with age." She just shook her head at him. "That's when I found out your uncle was on his way to Mystic Falls. And I thought to myself, I have to go now. So, I got there," he went on with the story. "And I went to that bar..." He trailed off. "And I saw your mother."
"Nik," Jade tried to interject.
"And then I saw you," Klaus wouldn't let her interrupt. "You, my perfect, beautiful daughter. And I realized why I was being pulled to Mystic Falls all that time."
"Dad," Jade really wanted him to stop now as tears sprung to her eyes, her humanity cracking back through.
"The same way Mason knew Hope was a girl," Klaus continued. "The same wolf sense that lead Ansel to know I was his. I figured out that that was what I was feeling all that time." He rested his arm over the back of the couch, his hand touching her shoulder. "Do you know what I felt after that, the first time I saw you?"
"If you say proud I swear dad," Jade muttered sarcastically, wiping at her eyes.
"Shame, in myself," he clarified. "Because I wasn't there." The tears were in full force now, spilling out of Jade's eyes. "I didn't see you walk for the first time, or teach you to ride a bike. I didn't play mediator between you and your mom when you were a teenager, or scare boys from coming to see you," he listed and Jade laughed a little at those parts; it made him smile some, but he was still serious. "I didn't protect you from your step-father," he continued and her eyes got painfully sad.
"It's ok," Jade said, twisting her hands.
"It's not," Klaus told her. "I should have acted on that impulse to go to Virginia, I should have found your mother, I should have known about you. And I live with that still every day." He brushed a piece of hair out of her face. "And that's how I feel, even though I didn't know you." He took one of her hands she continued to stare at. "So, I can only imagine what it feels like knowing your daughter is out there, and still missing all those things I missed."
"I miss her so much dad," she started sobbing, throwing her arms around him and sobbing into his shoulder; he wrapped his arms around her tight.
"I know," he reassured her, rubbing her back. "I know. But, you know what?" he said now, pulling away from her and taking her face in his hands. "I am going to fix this for you. Because I am your father, and that's what fathers do." He motioned to the bottle he set to the side. "But, I can't fix it if you destroy yourself in the process." She nodded. "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me Jade," he told her. "And I won't let you be hurt."
Klaus unfortunately knew that he wasn't always going to be able to keep that promise. Maybe it wasn't then, maybe it wasn't in the seven years they lived peacefully, but he knew sooner or later someone from his past was going to come for his daughter. That very much seemed to be the case now. While Vicki and Freya took a trip to go see Hope at school, he went back to questioning all the factions.
While they were doing that, Damon was doing some hunting of his own.
As soon as he landed in Costa Rica he hopped in a car and drove to an all too familiar address. While he had never been there, he had sent many report cards, school photos, and paintings from Hope to that address. Pulling up, he could hear arguing inside, but he was too angry himself to care about it. He had never been to angry before with Mason in his life, more than when he slept with Jade even. He had shattered Hope's heart; if Damon could kill him, he would. Because Mason owned the house there was no stopping the vampire from entering. He rushed in, grabbed Mason, and sent him flying through the room, denting the wall. Olivia let out a scream as she saw what happened.
"Damon?!" Mason snapped in confusion. "What the hell?"
"Are you serious?" Damon snapped back at him, punching him in the face.
"What is your problem?" Mason demanded, fighting with him a moment before shoving him off.
"You really have no idea why I'm here," Damon accused sarcastically, unable to believe it.
"No, and I'm really not in the mood for any of this," Mason told him. "So you better start telling me-"
"Did you get a lot of work done on the baby's room last night?" Damon cut him off. After all, that was allegedly the reason he couldn't take Hope's call.
"What?" Mason asked in confusion. Damon started to see that it was genuine. "I wasn't working on anything last night, I was out on the beach looking for my phone I lost the day before."
"You lost your phone?" Damon asked with a raised brow, glancing over at Olivia who shifted uncomfortably.
"Yes," Mason said in exasperation.
"Ah, well someone found it," Damon said, nodding over at the young woman now.
"How would you even know-" Mason started again.
"Hope called last night," Damon stopped him.
"Is she all right?" Mason asked quickly.
"She's fine," Damon reassured him. "It's...Jade. She's missing." The anger in Mason's eyes now seemed to match Damon's when he first entered the house. He slowly turned to his fiancee who was standing behind him.
"Did my daughter call here last night?" he asked through his teeth.
What Damon didn't know was the fighting between the two of them before was that he figured out she had been lying about being pregnant. He had never been able to sense the baby the way he sensed Hope and he continued to question why. She would come up with one reason or another, usually blaming it on her being a witch and not a wolf. That morning though she confessed the truth. In her twisted mind he missed his daughter, so telling him she was pregnant should have made him really happy, like stay with her forever happy.
"Yes," Olivia answered, her voice shaky. She knew that this was it for them.
"Did she tell you that Jade," he was saying, his tone level but deathly seriously. "The mother of my child was missing?"
"She told me it was something to do with her, she didn't say-"
"Are you serious?!" he snapped at her. Damon thought he might actually hit her, though he truly knew Mason was better than that. "Where is my phone?" he demanded and Olivia turned to where her purse was on the table, taking it and tossing it to him. He turned it on and saw the missed calls from Damon and Klaus, the multiple texts from them and Vicki.
"When I get back," Mason said, placing the phone in his pocket. Damon thought it was odd that Mason already had a bag packed that he was grabbing now; then he remembered he already heard fighting when he pulled up. "You and your shit better not be here anymore."
And with that, the two men left the house.
"How long has Jade been missing?" Mason asked as they started down the road towards the airport.
"Ah, night before last," Damon told him. He wasn't sure what all to say or act around him now considering he spent most of that morning planning on killing him, or as close as he could get to killing him. They also hadn't been around each other since they all had to separate, though their animosity with one another had subsided with Hope's return as an infant.
"Where's Hope?" Mason asked.
"Back at school," Damon said and Mason nodded; it was the safest place for her. "Vic and Freya are heading up to see her, keep an eye on things. Marcel went back to France to see if he can get Elijah to...turn his memory back on or whatever," he settled on the phrasing.
"Meaning Klaus is alone in New Orleans looking for Jade," Mason said skeptically, glancing over at Damon.
"Ah, yeah," Damon nodded, not thinking too much of it when he left. Just then his phone started ringing and he groaned. Mason had to mention Klaus being alone in New Orleans. "Yeah Vincent?" he answered.
"Do you know what your father in law has been up to?" Vincent asked in return.
"Since I've been tracking down Hope's dad, no," Damon told him. No way was Klaus his responsibility. "Haven't been keeping too much of an eye on Jade's," he tacked on sarcastically.
"Very funny Damon," Vincent told him. "Klaus has been on a tear through the city, he took one member of each faction until someone tells him where Jade is."
"Look," Damon stopped him as he and Mason arrived at the airport to return home. "In history there have been two people that have been able to keep Klaus on the straight and narrow. Elijah," he listed first. "And Jade."
"Well, Marcel called," Vincent told him. "Elijah doesn't have his memory back, but he apparently knows who everyone is, through research or something. I don't know." He shrugged. "He ain't coming."
"Then, someone better track down Jade," Damon said, though that was obvious. "Before he burns the city down."
"Whoa!" Vicki jumped as she rounded the corner after taking a phone call, running into Freya. "You've got to stop doing that," she complained.
"Any word?" Freya brushed her off.
"Marcel is on his way back," Vicki told her. "He talked to Klaus, I guess some vampire Greta came forward?"
"So, it was the vampires?" Freya asked and Vicki nodded in confirmation.
"One of the ones newer to town, but yeah," Vicki nodded, then rolled her eyes at herself. "I can't believe I told Marcel to give her a chance." She remembered when Greta came to town a few years ago. Marcel had a weird feeling about her, thinking she was too nosy or seemed to always be around when there was a hint of trouble. Vicki told him it was just his paranoia. After all, they were all working on seven years of peace; it was bound to make them jumpy.
"How's she?" Vicki asked now, nodding at the door down the hall where Hope's room was.
"Skeptical," Freya said, knowing Hope was smart enough to realize they weren't just there to hang out with her and help her ditch classes for the day. They were there to keep an eye on her in case whoever took her mom came after her. And, unknown to Hope, Vincent was concerned about a recent vision Ivy had about her. "But, overall, happy we're here I think." Vicki smiled.
"Well, I know all the best places to ditch class in this town," Vicki smirked at her. "Let's do it."
"Damon, where are you?" Klaus was calling him urgently.
"We just got to New Orleans," Damon told him, literally walking through the airport at that moment.
Marcel beat them back, going to meet up with Klaus for Greta's interrogation. Mason didn't plan on staying in the city long. His plan was to turn, then see where that took him to track down Jade. He remembered when Hope was gone with Rebekah, how he and Jade would turn to blow off steam. They had to stop though as they realized they would wake up further from the city. Their werewolf sense was drawing them to their daughter, even though she was cloaked. Now, Jade wasn't his blood, but she was one of the most important people in his life as the mother of his child.
"Something wrong?" Damon asked quickly, worried he had bad news about Jade.
"Still no word on where Jade is," Klaus informed him. "But someone has to get to Mystic Falls by tonight and I think it should be you."
"Is Hope ok?" Damon asked.
"Not for long if her aunts stay involved," Klaus said with disgust. "Marcel made the mistake of sharing with Vicki what Greta said."
"Which was?" Damon asked impatiently, Mason listening intently as well.
"If Hope binds her werewolf side, they'll give Jade back," Klaus said. With that, Mason turned back to the airport so they could get back as quickly as possible.
"Yeah, we're going," Damon told him, hanging up the phone and following him.
"I don't know if this is what your mom would want," Vicki was saying as Freya prepared the spell. She knew that it wasn't Marcel's intent for them to go along with what Greta wanted when he told her. She knew that because when she told Freya she had his same tone; that it was ridiculous. Too bad Freya got Hope involved and now they were planning on doing the spell. All she could do against the powerful witches was go along with it and try to talk them out of it.
"This is how I get her back," Hope argued with her. She was tired of listening, tired of sitting around and feeling like she was doing nothing.
"You should talk to your grandfather before you do this," Vicki told her. After all, Klaus had a similar spell placed on him by his mother. "Or your dad-"
"My dad isn't here!" Hope shouted at her, her voice cracking with the threat of tears. She looked to Freya. "We're doing this now."
"Freya," Vicki tried to reason with her; she wouldn't do anything. "Freya, she's a kid," Vicki emphasized.
"She's not just any other kid," Freya told her now. And while Vicki wanted to point out that Klaus knew what it was like to have his werewolf side bound, it was she who knew what it was like to grow up without her mom. Moonstone prepared, she began the ritual. She noticed how big Hope's eyes got when she got closer with the hot stone. She continued as planned though. That was when she felt herself get knocked to the side, her breath catching and the stone falling to the ground.
"Are you kidding me Freya?!" Mason was demanding of her as they both got back to their feet.
"Dad?!" Hope was saying in shock as she saw him. "What are you doing here?" she accused. Him being here now didn't make up for ignoring her last night.
"You're angry with me, and you have every reason to be," Mason assured her, his heart hurting at the sight of her, the pain in her eyes. The plants surrounding them started to die. "Do not do this Hope," he was begging her. "You're a Lockwood, all right? Do not give in to this."
"You don't get to tell me what to do," Hope said angrily.
"Dammit Hope, I'm still your father!" he shouted at her. "I will find your mother," he told her now, looking angrily between her two aunts; he looked at Damon now. "Make sure she gets back to school." And with that, he took off.
"What were the two of you thinking?" Damon was asking Vicki and Freya as Mason took off. "She's fifteen."
"Thank you," Vicki was saying to Damon in exasperation.
"Neither of you know what it's like to be one of us at fifteen," Freya argued with them.
"Is anyone going to ask me what I think?" Hope interjected; Damon turned to her.
"Your mother wouldn't want this," he told her.
"She's not here to tell me that, is she?" Hope said now, blinking back tears. "And it's my fault, so let me try to fix it."
"Your grandfather is over a thousand years old Hope," Damon reminded her. "For each year he's nearly made over a dozen enemies. Do you really think that whoever has your mom is going to give her back because you can't trigger your wolf gene? There's a bigger plan at play here." He turned back to Vicki and Freya, though he was realizing that Vicki had been against it. "And you're playing right into it."
"Don't talk to me like I'm a child," Freya argued with him.
"You're not, but she is," Damon reiterated.
"She's not just any other child," Freya said to him now, much like she said to Vicki.
"You don't get to make these kinds of decisions Freya," Damon snapped at her. "You're not her mother."
"And last I checked you're not her father!" Freya snapped back but immediately stopped herself. Vicki's eyes were wide and Hope's jaw dropped slightly. She had never even thrown out the phrase that Damon wasn't her dad. The worst thing she said to him was the other day when she said that she wasn't a Salvatore and that even left a guilty feeling in her stomach.
"Damon," Freya was saying now, her voice apologetic. She couldn't place what emotion was on him, whether it was sadness or anger.
"If I catch you near her again with this," he said, picking up the moonstone.
"Damon," Vicki was stopping him, thinking he was going to threaten her.
"I'm not gonna kill her," Damon informed Vicki. "I just won't stop Jade." He turned back to Freya. "And don't forget, she gets her temper from your side of the family." Glaring at him, Freya grabbed her bag and left.
"Damon!" Hope protested as he placed the moonstone in his pocket. She felt bad over what Freya said, but she should be allowed to do this if she wanted to.
"Hope Mikaelson," he told her seriously. "Lockwood, whatever it is you're going by these days," he said lightly but his demeanor remained serious. "These people that took your mom, they want you to think there's something wrong with this family. That there is something wrong with you," he told her. "And there is nothing wrong with you."
"Damon," she tried to argue.
"Do not give them the satisfaction, do not let them think they're right," he told her now. He turned to Vicki, knowing Hope wouldn't go with him now with how angry she was that he was in her way. "No more ditching classes," he told her, taking off with the moonstone.
"Ah!" Hope screamed, knocking over the table Freya had set up for the spell. Her out burst stopped there though, which Vicki was thankful for. No one could quite get her to calm down the way Damon did, and he was the one that just upset her and took off.
"How could he-" Hope said, turning to her Aunt Vicki.
"Before you get too angry at him," Vicki stopped her. "He's the one that went to hunt down your dad," she told her. They had been keeping that from her all day, not wanting her upset more if her dad didn't come back. "At the very least, he was going to kick his ass for not answering your call," Vicki told her and Hope was at a loss for words.
"I wanna go back," Hope was saying now. Vicki nodded, linking arms with her niece and taking her back to school.
Vicki left Hope off at school, giving her some much needed space to go see Matt for awhile. Hope sat in her room alone, her mind racing. She appreciated what Damon had done for her with her dad, but she still didn't want to listen to him. She knew they would find her mom eventually, but after how long? How much of her mother would be left if she was alone with those people much longer? Hearing someone at her door, she looked up. She expected her aunt or step dad maybe; but it was someone else.
"Roman," she said in surprise.
"You missed history today," he said, tossing her his notes, shutting the door behind him. "You...ok?" he asked, not sure where to begin.
"Where do I start?" Hope said lightly, looking away. Her eyes fell on the updated picture of her and her mom on her bedside table.
"That your sister?" Roman asked, even though he knew better.
"My mom," she told him. "And...she's missing." She blinked back tears. "I was trying to get her back, but my step dad stopped me-"
"Anything I can do to help?" Roman offered, seeing his chance. His mother had taken Jade and was now looking for him to bring Hope to where she was holding her.
"Know any witches?" she asked lightly. "The super powerful type."
"I know how to sneak out of here," Roman told her with a smirk and Hope smiled back.
To her, this was how she would get her mom back.
"How exactly did you know Greta?" Damon was asking Klaus that night; it was late. He had left Mystic Falls immediately. Initially it was to give Hope space, but then he found out that Greta got away. With Mason turned who knew where and Vicki still visiting Matt he went back to help Klaus. It was the best way he knew to get Jade back.
"Certain you want to know that?" Klaus asked. Once he realized who Greta was he cursed himself, though there were plenty of others from his past that could have done this instead. Unfortunately, there were no shortage of people that would want to hurt him. Damon motioned for him to keep going as he poured himself a drink. "The short version, I killed her husband back in the 30s," Klaus told him; he studied his reaction. "What?"
"Just something I told Hope earlier," Damon recalled. "That whoever did this wasn't going to stop if she buried her wolf side."
"Probably not," Klaus agreed with him. "But, her husband frequently spewed hatred against the wolves, I'm sure Hope and Jade's werewolf genes are her first step at getting back at me." As he was saying this, Vicki was calling Damon.
"Yeah?" Damon asked, finishing his drink.
"Is Hope with you?" Vicki asked him quickly, standing in the teen witch's dorm room. Klaus's head snapped over in Damon's direction when he heard.
"Vic," Damon said seriously.
"Damon, I'm sorry, but she's not here," Vicki was saying, panic rising in her voice. "She was so upset, I went to go see Matty to-"
"Vicki, hey, it's ok," Damon stopped her. "We'll-"
"There's another student missing," he heard his brother saying to Vicki. "Damon," he said as Vicki put the phone on speaker; Damon did the same to include Klaus.
"What's going on brother?" Damon asked him.
"My guess?" Stefan said. "Hope snuck out with the other student, Roman."
"A boy?" Damon asked.
"I'll kill him," Klaus said.
"Get in line," Damon told him, turning his attention back to the phone. "What kind of school are you three running there Stef?"
"One full of teenagers," Stefan reminded him, rolling his eyes. "Look, the kid she went off with, he's your stereotypical high school bad boy," Stefan told him. "This is her next step in rebelling."
"Her mother's daughter," Klaus said as he looked at Damon who rolled his eyes now.
"Can you send me a picture of this kid?" Damon asked.
"Sure," Stefan said, already prepared with one on his phone from Roman's room, figuring Damon and Klaus would want to know what this kid looked like for when they tracked him down. He sent it and Damon opened it, shocked at who was in the picture with him.
"Who's in the picture with him?" Damon demanded and Stefan was surprised by his tone.
"His mom, Greta," Stefan said like it shouldn't matter. "Why?"
"She's the one that took Jade," Damon said.
"Oh my God," Vicki was saying, looking at the picture on Stefan's phone now.
"This isn't just Hope rebelling," Damon shook his head. "We have to find her."
thanks for reading! i really hope you liked it! it has been so weird to write the story without actually having my oc in it lol but she will be in the next update! please let me know what you think! what did you think of this chapter & can you guess what's coming next? let me know :)