"Isn't that a little early?"

"No ," she said as she struggled through the door with the Christmas tree. "I even waited till after Thanksgiving."

"It's not December yet," Alaric said, looking at his niece amused. "Is this roughly the time the castle starts to decorate?"

She nodded.

"The weekend before December normally," she said giving the tree another tug.

"A lot of pines will fall off before –"

Azalea raised her eyebrow, gesturing to her wand, which was tucked in her boot, and his eyes widened.

"Good point, let me help."

The two put the tree in the sitting room. Once it was in Alaric helped her get all the other decorations from the car. Which seemed to have an undetectable extension charm. Once all the boxes inside he turned to her.

"Where do you want this?" he asked, holding up the silver and green tinsel.

"Uh, I was thinking of weaving it along the banister. What do you reckon?" she said biting her lip.

"Sounds good to me," he started at the top of the stairs and began to make his way down, she began to tie holly above the doors. She wanted to stay clear from the mistletoe, and planned to only put it on the walls near the fire.

The two worked all day, talking and dancing to Christmas music as they worked. It wasn't till the sun had disappeared and the house didn't have an inch untouched by Christmas decorations did the two head to bed.

"I said I'd help Jenna set up," Alaric said as he took a large bite of his toast and gulped down the rest of his coffee.

Azalea smirked at him.

"Is Jenna the winner of Batchelors number 4," she said smugly, spreading marmalade onto her own toast. Her uncle turned around and made himself busy with the dishwasher, the redhead laughed.

"I can help too if you like? It's why I moved here right, normal stuff."

"No, you rest. Between school, the vampire stuff and trying to recover from your school years. The latter is the one I am not seeing you do. You need to process and find peace with it. Put it behind you."

"Yeah, yeah, what do you think my painting is?"

"Well then go paint," he demanded, but he was still smiling. She gave him a salute before making her way back up the stairs. The door had barely closed when her phone began to ring.

"Hey," she said brightly seeing who the caller was.

"Hey can I come over. I was talking to Jenna." Elena's voice sounded nervous. Azalea wondered what the brunette wanted to talk about.

"Sure, Alaric was just leaving to help her." She left the untouched art room and made her way down to the kitchen, boiling some water.

"Great I'll be right over."

The two hung up and as the kettle finished boiling, she heard the knock on the door.

"Elena, come in,"

Elena was smirking as she walked in.

"Who else was it going to be?" she said shrugging off her coat.

"Yeah, cause in this town you yell come in, when you don't know who is at the door." She said sarcastically. Elena opened her mouth with a small frown before quietly laughing.

"Good point,"

"Plus, Damon really wants to be invited in," Azalea pointed out offering the girl the mug.

"Thanks, uh, can we sit down on the couch?"

"Sure," the redhead grabbed her own tea and the two made their way to the sitting room.

"I talked to Jenna today, you know, about my birth Mom."

"I'm guessing there is something she found out."

"Yeah, but it's weird."

"Have you seen who you are talking to?"

"That's kind of one of the reasons I came to you first," Elena admitted shyly. "We found her, Isobel. Isobel Flemming, she lived not too far away, but…"

"But…" Azalea gestured gently for her to keep going.

"Alaric's wife Isobel… she was from around here… and, and she's gone. What if…" Elena looked down at her tea, allowing the redhead to put the pieces together.

"Ah, so you are worried it's the same person,"

"Jenna said she'd find out for me, but… I just don't know if I can handle another death. You know." She looked at her. Azalea felt her heart tug, this girl had similar luck to herself. Never able to catch a break, crazy coincidences.

"Oh, I know," she said, her brain still trying to come up with a better response.

"That's why I came to you." She said taking a sip. "Stefan though older than all of us. I don't think he's lost as many people as we have. Sure, people he knew have died but –"

"No, I get you, and know you can talk to me about whatever you want. I will always try and help however I can."

"I think I am going to go to Stefan's. I just wanted to talk to you first… Then maybe for a drive."

"Sure, call if you need anything." She said, they both placed their tea's down and Azalea walked the brunette out.

Once she was gone Azalea flopped back down onto the sofa; pinching her nose, and closing her eyes. She guessed that Jenna was going to ask Ric today, meaning she should probably stay nearby in case it was true and he needed someone to talk through having a stepdaughter with.

Her phone began to buzz again.

Oh what now, she glared at the phone. Caroline.

"Hel –"

"Finally! One of you picked up," Caroline's voice interrupted her. "I am so embarrassed; Matt's mum is home."

"And why is that embarrassing?" the redhead picked up her tea again.

"Cause she just walked in on me and Matt,"

The redhead realised what Caroline meant and began to giggle.

"This is not funny. She hates me,"

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you Caroline," the redhead argued, tucking the phone between her ear and shoulder as she opened the fridge grabbing the blueberries.

"She does," Caroline insisted, she began to tell Azalea the full story, and about how Kelly had always loved Elena, and how she and her mum Liz never got on and that caused her to be mean to Caroline.

"Ooof, a rival to a parent who treats you like crap, been there," she said popping some blueberries in her mouth.

The redhead stayed on the phone for another half an hour before Caroline told her she had to go. As she hung up, she heard the door click.

"Hey Ric, I swear I was about to go paint and – what happened to you?"

"Elena is my step daughter," he said.

"So it's true," the redhead hugged him. Thinking about her friend's loss too. "She came round, she was nervous cause she knew Jenna was going to talk to you about it." she explained as he pulled back and frowned at her.

"She never told me, she never told me she had a baby."

"It was probably hard for her; she maybe would have told you eventually." Azalea reasoned. "She was my age, probably scared out of her mind. She may have thought you'd think she was a terrible person for leaving Elena,"

"I would have never –"

"Sometimes the fear of someone we love rejecting us clouds logic," she said gently. "She probably knew that deep down."

"There is something about Isobel's death you need to know," he said, taking a deep breath. "It's the reason I came to Mystic Falls, it's the reason for a lot of things."

He went on to explain more about Isobel's work, and how she was digging into the town. Then he told her about what he saw, and who."

The redhead sat down, putting her head in her hands, looking down at her lap as she processed everything he had just told her.

After a long moment, she looked up at him.

"Call Stefan, talk to him about it." she said. "He'll help you get any information that you can. I'll get where she is from Damon. He's my – huh feels weird saying friend now." She said frowning.

"No, I don't want you anywhere near him. Ok."

"Please don't do anything stupid."

"He killed –"

"I know, but she – and I don't want you to die because of it. Be smart about it, acting rashly can do more harm than good. Go to the auction thing, take your mind of it. We will come up with some kind of plan another day, but right now, embrace the fact you have met someone else who could make you happy."

The redhead finally did do some drawing, she decided to draw the Gryffindor common room, she was just about to start painting when she heard the door click downstairs.

She smiled, glad that she hadn't opened any of the paint, and made her way downstairs. As soon as she saw her Uncle she frowned he seemed very deflated.

"What's wrong? What else has happened?" she said, rushing to his side.

He sighed.

"I confronted Damon,"

"You did what!"

"Relax,"

"He could have killed you," she yelled at him, her emerald eyes making him recoil.

"I think he would have." He said, dumping himself onto the sofa, his shoulder slumped. "He said he'd upset enough friends for one night… Isobel wanted him to turn her. She's alive. Been alive this whole time… She left me to become a vampire." He put his head in his hands.

Azalea sat beside him and hugged her Uncle tightly; she began to feel his shoulders move.

"I'm so sorry Ric," she said as she held him too her.

"What a day,"

Azalea laughed once, it really had been.

The two stayed in this position until Alaric was out of tears, he pulled away wiping his eyes, they ate and drank quietly. Azalea knew that he didn't want to keep talking, but she also didn't want to fill the conversation trying to ignore the elephant in the room.

The two went to bed without another word.

The next day Alaric had gone to the Grill to grade papers. Azalea slightly begrudgingly and with a frown already on her face had decided to sit in the garden and read the books about her life, she had bought the original editions from her home, as soon as she saw the American title about her first year.

She read with investment as she listened to the conversations her teachers had had while dropping her off at the Durlsey's. She'd never known that Professor McGonagall had been there, and the concern the older witch had towards her. Looking back, she realised how much the older woman had been there for her, and how much support the animagus had given to her over the years. She had laughed and felt a little hollow as she read about her first term with Ron and Hermione, the train, the troll. It was kind of nice to reminisce with a thin layer of protection of Harry.

Then it was Christmas.

The descriptions of her lost parents, so accurately described across the page. She began to feel a tightness in her chest and throat, her vision blurring as her mouth crumbled.

She didn't know how long she had been crying until warm arms held her.

"Whoa hey shh,"

Damon's smell comforted her, as she tried to stop the tears.

"Damon what are you –"

"I came over to talk about what happened yesterday, with Alaric and Isobel," he said. "See if you were talking to me, then I heard you. At the risk of you hexing me, why have you decided to read your own story? Seems like a bit of an ego trip of you ask me."

She laughed, but it didn't sound right with her uneven breathing.

"I figured it would be useful to see how much they put in, and maybe a part of me wanted to see if it would unlock any old memories, I didn't realise I had. Obviously, some of it is clearly fiction but… I dunno... Today I just couldn't handle it. Sometimes you can talk about it no problem. Then other times –"

"Your emotions go haywire," Damon soothed rubbing her arm.

"I didn't even know them. How can I miss and grieve people I never knew? The things people take for granted. I wish more than anything that my father was there to scare boys, walk me down the aisle. They haven't seen my achievements. Mother and Father's Day are meaningless, my mum and my dad sound alien to me."

He rubbed his hand up and down soothingly keeping the redhead close to him. She had suffered more loss in her young life than he had in his entire 160 years. He just wanted to protect her from the world and it's pain and suffering that it brought.

She didn't know how long they sat together in the garden, but when her eyes seemed as though they could not physically produce any more tears, the redhead pulled away from the vampire, wiping her eyes. A small dull headache beginning over her forehead.

"Right," she muttered to herself, trying to collect more emotional stability. "You wanted to talk to me, and I'd rather you didn't tell anyone about today," she said now feeling a little embarrassed.

"I won't, and uh, I just wanted to see where we were at. If you were mad at me,"

"I care more about how you behave now, vs then. You are making strides to be a better person. I see that, I'm watching you change. I am obviously not happy with a lot of your past."

"I could slip,"

"Look, I reckon you will, just like Stefan will, just like any vampire will who has some form of moral compass. From what I remember from Hogwarts, the desire for blood, along side the heightened emotions. Even me, or Elena or Hermione could kill someone in the moment. It's a hard existence, sometimes. Now that's not me giving you the green light." She said frowning at him. "But… you are growing Damon, people make mistakes, for a vamp you're still somewhat new."

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Azalea of course trying to relax and move on from her past. Yet being sucked into other peoples lives and problems. What do we think of Damon not killing Ric? And Azalea's little cry, it is very strange grieving for someone you don't know. And yet… That's how the mind works. Yay…

See you guys next time 😊 xx