Route To Alaric's Office

Alaric's Diary Entry

The moment I closed the girls' door I pulled out my phone and speed dialed Caroline. She surprisingly answered it unusually quickly.

"Hey!" She greeted over the phone. "I was about to call you."

"Please tell me you're still coming," I pleaded.

"That's what I was about to call you about," Caroline said, and my heart sank. "I can't make it."

"Caroline..."

"I'm still in Nigeria and I just got a possible lead on the knife and our fairytale problem," she informed me.

"What's the lead?" I inquired, hoping she had good news.

"I had a technical problem with my presentation and accidentally showed our potential investors pictures of the knife and one of them approached me after the presentation and questioned me about the knife," Caroline explained. "And by approach and question I mean kidnapped and interrogated me."

"Are you alright?" Now I was concerned.

"I'm fine," she claimed, I wasn't sure about that. "But I learned the fingerprint feature on my phone is overrated. They unlocked it while I was out and searched it for the answers I refused to give. They returned my things to me when I woke up and told me to tell you to protect the knife by any means necessary, or you'll be responsible for what will happen if you let the fairytales get their hands on it."

"What will happen?" I asked, ignoring how light she made the situation by referring to the monsters as fairytales.

"I don't know," was her answer. "But I would rather not find out the hard way. Their leader wants to meet with me, so I'll hopefully learn more about the knife and how they know about it. How are my girls?"

"You don't want to know," I replied, entering my office and closing the door behind me. "They just let me know that I am a failure as a father and a Headmaster, and that I should add my name to Emma's list of patients so that she can help me with my 'baggage'."

"You haven't been seeing Emma?" Caroline's tone made me cringe just as I was about to pour myself a glass of good ol' bourbon. "We talked about this, Ric."

"I know, I know," I did know, but therapy was not for everyone. All I needed was some good exercise, which I received from my sparring sessions with Hope and now the monsters, and a glass of bourbon and I was good to go. I wasn't going to tell Caroline that, though. "But I have to deal with the monster problem first and..."

"And then you have to deal with another problem and then another and then another one after it until Emma decides to move on from the school and you won't have to make excuses anymore," she interrupted, audibly irritated. "You told Emma that everyone had to see her and yet you are the only one who hasn't seen her."

"The only one?" I questioned, sitting on my office chair. "I don't see you here..."

"You don't see me there but we're talking, aren't we?" Caroline interrupted me again. "Just because I'm not there doesn't mean I am not following the mandatory therapy policy. I'm a co-founder of the school with you, Ric, but I follow the terms and conditions that we signed off, and our investors expect you to do the same.

"If you don't want me to bring this issue to the attention of your newly established student honor council and have it force you to attend the mandatory therapy you are supposed to enforce, you're going to see Emma right now. I'm supposed to call her in a few minutes for our session, but I'm giving you my spot.

"Oh, by the way, the investors love the creation of the Honor Council, and some are considering increasing their investment, but the deciding factor is the Honor Council's success in improving things around the school, so I need you to ask the kids what they think needs improvement from their point of view, and you should keep the knife away from the school.

"We can't have the kids associate the school with trauma like I associate Mystic Falls High with it. I don't need my girls to be traumatized further by the fairytales. Speaking of them, what do you have planned for the girls again? I need to improvise and making it up to them for not coming home for their birthday."

I couldn't help but sink into my chair with a heavy sigh. It was painfully clear where Lizzie got her control issues. Even from afar, Caroline was in charge and I was following her lead, and unfortunately, I wasn't invested enough in the job to be more than a figurehead.

Well, I wasn't really a figurehead, but this wasn't my passion anymore. The passion died along the way, if I had to guess, around the time things began to be stable around the school.

Yes, the stability was good for my children, our financial security, the school and its financial security and all the parties involved, but after moving to Mystic Falls what felt like lifetimes ago in search of a vengeful adventure and the wild ride that saw me go face-to-face with the likes of the late Klaus Mikaelson, being indoors all the time was suffocating, that's why I used every chance I got to go out and bring in troubled new students.

It wasn't that I didn't love my children, I loved them more than they could ever understand and they were my priority. But now that they were old enough to call me a jerk in front of Emma and tell me to my face that I couldn't protected them and that I was actually an obstacle in their way of self-protection...

"Ric?" Caroline pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts.

"I've been too distracted since I brought in Landon and Rafael to confirm orders and set things in motion for the girls' birthday," I admitted.

"You said that they just let you know that you're a failure as a father," she recalled. "I'm guessing this is why."

"Partly," I concurred, and then decided to let her know that I wasn't the only one they called out. "They also think that keeping this school running is more important to you than they are."

Silence.

"I used to tell myself that I would be a better mother than my mom was," Caroline began after a long moment. "But it turns out I downgraded and became an absentee parent like my father was to me."

"Hey, you didn't walk out of Lizzie and Josie's lives," I defended her. "You went out in the world to provide for them and ensure that they have everything they need."

"Except the mother they need," she countered with a sniffle. "They need a present mother but I'm always away."

"I'm present but I'm not doing anything right," I responded.

"You are my mother."

"Come again?" I thought I heard Caroline say that I was her mother.

"You take after my mother in the girls' lives as a parent who is present but not really," she explained. "You are there, but you have little time for them and when you get to spend some time with them, its brief, and you're probably in your Headmaster persona without realizing it because you spend more hours as the Headmaster than not.

"As much as I love my mother, I remember her Sheriff persona better than her mother persona because of the same reason, and that's why you need to get off that chair and go to Emma's office right now."

I couldn't believe it, but Caroline's explanation was spot on the longer I processed it. It made sense, but it also frightened me. Would I have to look at my relationship with my parents if I went to see Emma?

The way Caroline was able to explain her relationship with her mother told me that she unpack it to its molecular level with someone, a professional, and the only professional I knew was Emma Tig and she has been working at the school for years.

"Ric," Caroline called me to attention once again. "You're not moving."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I have super hearing, remember?" Was her answer as I stood up, internally cursing that ability because I couldn't pour myself a glass of bourbon and take a few sips before facing the challenge she issued.

"I'm leaving my office now," I informed, heading for the door. "So, I'm ending the call."

"Wait," she said as I opened the door. "If we had time, I would ask you to look for Lizzie's sixteenth birthday grand plan, but we don't, so I need someone competent to organize a surprise birthday party for the girls for me."

"How can it be a surprise birthday party when they have a birthday party every year?" I inquired, heading for Emma's office after closing my office door.

"You're definitely not the person I'm looking for, for the job," I was told, to my relief.

"What about the Honor Council, excluding Josie and Emma," I suggested.

"Hope, Kaleb and the new boy?" Caroline asked contemplatively. "Can you really see Hope organizing a surprise birthday party for the girls? And Kaleb and the new boy -"

"Rafael," I supplied.

"Do you think they can handle the task?"

I didn't know, but organizing the party would keep Hope busy and maybe earn her a few points with the girls.

"Let's give them a chance to prove their worth," I said. "This will serve as a test to see if they can work together for the greater good despite their differences."

And I wanted to see if Rafael would play nice with the people who voted to send Landon away or if Josie was the exception, in which case I would have to watch him closely. It was a win-win situation.

"If my girls are disappointed, you're taking the blame," Caroline state just as I arrived at Emma's office door.

"They're going to follow your instructions," I pointed out while knocking before I opened the door and... "And I just found one of the trio, so you can start with the instructions."

"Doctor Saltzman," Emma drew my attention to her just as I directed my feet to Rafael direction. "I believe there's a reason doors were invented and this is the one room everyone knows not to enter unless granted permission."

"Um..." I thought of a response.

She entered my office without me granting her permission the other day, but I couldn't reply with that, not with Rafael present, he was still too impressionable as he was new at the school.

"Nice going, Ric," Caroline commented over the phone I still had to my ear. "What a good example you're setting."

"My apologizes," I apologized, and saw an opportunity to avoid taking Rafael's place. "I..."

"Give Emma the phone," Caroline directed, and I did as directed and Emma looked at me a questioning look before she placed it on her ear.

"Hello," Emma greeted.

I turned my attention on Rafael.

"His Alpha Highness," I greeted him with the title the girls and the werewolves used for him and he cringed and hid his head with his forearms, embarrassed. "Since you're so good with birthday surprises, I'm gonna need you to do something for me."

"Doctor Saltzman?" Rafael asked, lowering his forearms, confused.

"I want you to do what you did for Lizzie and Josie, but on a bigger scale," I clarified. "Actually, their..."

"Alright, I can do that," Emma said, distracting me for a moment and possibly sealing my fate to a therapy session.

I hoped Dorian would save me with a call.

"Doctor Saltzman," Emma offered me the phone back and took it with little dread.

"Is everything set?" I asked into the phone.

"Yes," Caroline confirmed. "Your therapy session will start soon. Get me an hour to plan the surprise birthday party from my end and I'll call you to bring the Honor Council in on the plan when I'm done."

"An hour?" I wasn't sure about that. "They'll be..."

"Available if you make the task an extra credit activity," was the solution before I could finish the problem with the timeframe.

"OK," and just like that, my fate with therapy was only held back by Rafael.

"... This to an Assistant Librarian and you'll be lead to the books," I caught the end of whatever Emma was telling Rafael. "But remember, the books will only offer you guidance, you have to walk the path."

"I'll remember," Rafael acknowledged, standing up. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Emma smiled as the boy then turned to me.

"Uh, I'll call you to my office in an hour," I addressed Rafael. "Until then, don't say a word to anyone."