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Paint It Black

The next morning they found that Freya was long gone from the house, all assuming she had gone to stay with Keelin. Elijah wasn't seemingly around either, though that was very much all right with Jade. She sat there that morning at breakfast with Hope next to her and Damon across from her, Mason across from Hope and Klaus of course at the head of the table. She could distantly hear him saying something about them all being reunited, how he was proud of both her and Hope for what they did the day before, but she was also busy trying to block out the voices in her head.

"Mom?" Hope asked to get her attention.

"Hm?" Jade asked; the other three looked concerned. "Sorry, no, you did great yesterday baby," she said with a soft smile, squeezing her daughter's hand. "Sorry," she told everyone else. "Just exhausted, nothing else." They all seemed to accept this, going about their breakfast; she noticed her father's eyes flash concern again.

"Jade," she heard a voice saying and they all looked over, spotting Elijah there.

"I said I didn't want to talk Elijah," Jade told him, staring at her plate. "Same as last night."

"If I could just-" Elijah was cut off as something on a nearby shelf went flying, narrowly dodging it.

"Excuse me," Jade said, pushing herself away from the table and leaving the room.

"I got this one," Damon told Klaus to stop him from getting up, pushing away from the table himself. He caught Hope's worried eyes. "Your mom is fine," he said though he knew he was lying. "She went from having no magic to having a lot of it." And with that he went after his wife.

"I'm fine Damon," Jade told him before he caught her in the hall.

"Looks like it," he commented.

"I'm pissed at Elijah," she said like it was obvious. "Hope's had way bigger outbursts from being upset before, that's all that this is."

"Why aren't you wearing the bracelet?" Damon questioned. She had been wearing Hope's bracelet up until yesterday to keep her newly returned magic as well as the hollow in check. Her outburst that morning showed she wasn't wearing it anymore.

"Damon, it's...nothing," she shook her head at him.

"Usually meaning it's something," Damon pointed out and she rolled her eyes.

"Look it didn't take well to the extra magic, ok?"

"What does that mean?" he asked in confusion.

"I felt like it was burning through my skin," Jade confessed. "But, I swear, it's fine."

"It doesn't sound fine Jade," Damon insisted, grabbing her arm to look at her wrist, to see if the burns were still there. Instead, he spotted blackness taking over her veins. "Have you seen this?" he asked her.

"What the," Jade trailed off at she observed her arm.

"Mom," Hope said, coming around the corner. Not wanting her to see, Jade took off. "Mom?!"

"Dammit," Damon muttered to himself.

"What's wrong with my mom Damon?" Hope was asking worriedly; Damon opened his mouth to say something. "And don't lie," she warned him. "Don't tell me she's fine." Damon wasn't sure what to tell her.

"It's the Hollow," Damon started off. "I think that it's feeding off your mom's new magic, which-"

"Is already magnified because she's a full tribrid," Hope finished for him and he nodded. She figured when her mom got her magic back it was going to be stronger than hers because she was turned; she never realized though that her taking the Hollow would actually be worse. "What do we do?" she asked quickly.

"Get your dad, we're gonna find her," Damon promised, though he didn't know what to do after that.

They all split up, Klaus going one way, Mason and Hope another, Damon on his own. Anywhere Hope tried to track Jade to it seemed like a place she had already been, like her magic was leaving bread crumbs. They searched through most of the afternoon, coming up with nothing. They had reached out to a lot of their friends but she hadn't gone to any of them either. That was when Damon got the call from Josh.

"Hey man," Josh said when Damon answered. "Ah, Jade's here."

"Ok, great," Damon said with a sigh of relief. "That's-"

"No," Josh cut him off. "Damon, she..." Damon knew what Josh couldn't bring himself to say as it dawned on Damon that here meant she was at Josh's bar.

Damon took off for the bar which thankfully wasn't very far away. When he got there he saw Josh first who nodded over at the bar. Rather than sit at it Jade took to laying down on it, nearly empty bottle behind her. Damon nodded at Josh in thanks who nodded back, giving them their space.

"Jade," Damon said, getting her attention as he stood next to the bar.

"Ah, crap," Jade groaned, rolling off the bar and onto her feet, standing on the opposite side from him. "I'm guessing you didn't come to join me?"

"What are you doing baby?" Damon asked her and she couldn't miss the sadness in his eyes.

"I thought," she said, realizing she was slurring a little; she took a second to gather herself. "I thought that it would make the voices stop." Her eyes started welling up. "Damon, nothing makes it stop."

"I know," Damon assured her, taking her face in his hands. "I know, ok? We're going to find something else, something stronger than that bracelet ok?"

"I thought the whiskey would be," Jade said lightly, though she winced, rubbing her forehead.

"We'll-" Damon started off.

"Mom!" Hope called, rushing into the bar. She had tracked Jade here, though her dad didn't want to go there, figuring what probably happened. She ditched him though as she wanted to see her mom and to try to help her.

"Oh no," Jade said, taking her spinning head in her hands as the voices picked up more when she was around her daughter.

"Mom...what's going on?" Hope asked as she looked around. As her daughter got older Jade felt the need to be honest with her and tell her about her drinking problem, hoping to keep her daughter from the same issues by making her more aware.

"Honey, you," Jade started off but she couldn't keep her head straight.

"Were you drinking?" Hope asked in confusion.

"Ah, Damon," Jade begged him for help, her head feeling like it was going to explode.

"Damon!" Hope protested as he grabbed her and was speeding out of the bar. Mason had just shown up, Damon nodding for him to go in and take the lead while he got Hope out of there.

"Jade, what's going on?" Mason asked, observing her behavior; she had started to pace. "Are you hammered?" he asked as he took in the scene, empty bottles everywhere.

"Mason," she said, her head still swimming, but she got him over to the bar to stand opposite from her. "Mason," she took his hands. "I need your help."

"Ok, yeah," Mason nodded reassuringly. "Whatever you need Jade."

"I need you to kill me," Jade told him.

"You're past hammered," Mason accused her, trying to back away but she kept a grip on his hands.

"I'm serious Mason," she insisted.

"So am I," Mason argued with her.

"I can't get them to stop," Jade said, letting go of his hands to she could take her head in them, pacing again. "The voices, the voices don't stop, they never stop." She shook her head. "It's stronger than I thought it would be."

"Then we find something else to fix it," Mason told her, getting her to stop. "I'm not going to kill you Jade."

"Mason, please," she was begging him, stopping in front of him at the bar again. "Damon won't, my dad won't."

"I won't either," he snapped at her. "You don't know what you're asking me to do Jade."

"Yes, I do," she insisted.

"You're the mother of my daughter Jade," Mason argued. "I can't just-"

"I'm going to hurt our daughter Mason," Jade stopped him and he looked at her in confusion. "This thing, the voices, they want me to hurt Hope. Ok? And I'm fighting it, I am but I don't think I can keep fighting it."

"Jade."

"It's stronger than me," she told him, her eyes tearing up. "Mason, I'm going to hurt our baby. Please don't let me hurt her."

"You're not going to hurt her," Mason insisted. "All right? And you are much stronger than you give yourself credit for." He heard someone coming into the bar and he figured it was Damon coming back after getting Hope somewhere safe.

"If you won't kill me, I can think of someone else that might," Jade was saying, looking past him; he turned to see Elijah had come to the bar.

"Really not a good time Elijah," Mason told him seriously.

"I was hoping to speak to my niece," Elijah was saying, surveying the scene.

"He said it's not a good time," Jade said, sending her uncle flying backwards.

"Jade," Mason said seriously but she ignored him, sending her uncle side to side. All her anger, all her pent up feelings were coming out and there was no stopping her. She felt someone grabbing her and pulling her to the side to stop her.

"Jade, what are you doing?" her father said, snapping her out of it. "You're going to hurt someone."

"I know," Jade said as though it was obvious, her head clear for the first time that night. "But, you don't understand."

"I know he hurt you love, but-"

"No, no, dad," she stopped him. "You don't understand. They stopped for the first time since last night."

"What?"

"The voices, they stopped," Jade told him.

"Then," her father started off. "I have an idea." He looked her over once. "Your uncle is going to have to help us though, just a little."

"...ok," Jade hesitantly agreed. "Help us with what?"

thanks for reading! i really hope you liked it, please let me know what you thought! more soon :)