'he was our friend'

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She had learnt the man was named Alaric Saltzman and that Caroline Forbes' twin daughters who had been left out in the corridor were also his twins - although the adult duo had made it rather clear they weren't together as if it even meant anything to Georgie who didn't even know what was happening.

She had stood up from the chair quite soon into his clearly rehearsed speech about the world of the supernatural, unaware that she knew the majority of the things he was telling her. Caroline and Alaric studied her carefully as she explored his office, clearly hardly listening to the ex-vampire hunter. The lack of surprise on her face told them both that she was already well aware of the species that lived under the school's roof, making them wonder exactly who this mysterious Georgie was.

The girl's hand trailed along some personal photos that sat on the shelves of the bookcases that lined the room, her eyes instantly drawn to a photo of the man sitting in the same room as her with a woman who was clearly in a wedding dress. Caroline looked solemn for a moment as she shared a sad glance to Alaric before continuing watching the strange movements of the teenage in front of them. It might have been 16 years since the disastrous wedding, but the death of Jo would always be a painful topic for them all.

She looked at the next photo and her eyebrows furrowed as she saw it. Everything just felt so familiar but she knew she had never seen these people in her life before. It was clearly two brothers, big smiles on their face as they stood out the front of the school long before it clearly had became one.

"That's the Salvatore brothers, the one on the left is Damon. The one on the right was Stefan Salvatore, my late husband," Caroline told Georgie as the girl cast a glance at herself and Alaric before putting the photo down.

She knew death well, and it was seeming like that was something they also knew well too. She could almost feel the death that resided in the town, her pulse having been beating slightly quicker the entire time. The realisation that Mystic Falls seemed to be the centre of a lot of suffering wasn't hard for her to come across.

"So this is like... a school for vamps, witches and wolves?" Georgie summarised as she sat back down in the chair, having only looked at some of the photos but making sure she was able to still have a look at the ones she hadn't already looked at.

"Yeah, it's exactly that. We teach young gifted individuals like yourself to harness your abilities and learn to live your most authentic self," Caroline chirped, a warm smile across her face as she smiled warmly at the girl across from her. "We don't like to brag, but we're pretty cool."

Alaric and Caroline both let out a chuckle at that, expecting Georgie to have at least smiled but instead the girl just nodded before fiddling with a simple silver bracelet on her wrist. The small wolf charm stayed close to her skin and Caroline narrowed her eyes at it in confusion. She had noticed the girl wearing it when she found her in the woods, but hadn't realised that it would have broken when she shifted until now. It was clearly a magical object - which just opened up so many more questions about Georgie.

"How did you end up with Tyers? I didn't know he had any relatives."

Georgie shrugged, taking one of the mints from the desk in front of her and popping it into her mouth before answering. She was starting to think this maybe wasn't the worst place to stay in - and it wasn't really like she had much of a choice otherwise now that she had literally killed the one person left in her life who cared about her. She knew it hadn't sunk in yet, and she knew it wouldn't be long before she came to the full realisation of what she had done.

"He doesn't. The niece story was just a cover up, the pack I used to live with sent me to live with him before they all got killed by a vampire," she answered casually, ignoring how Caroline and Alaric shared concerned glances.

"You used to live with a pack? Were your parents a part of that pack?"

"Nah," Georgie told them, causing them to sigh slightly in relief at the idea that her parents might not be dead. "They took me in after a vampire killed by dad."

Their relief was short lived from the words that fell from Georgie's mouth, amazed at how casually she was just telling them the hardships in her life. The girl was still studying the room from her seat, taking in every photo and artefact that she could see.

"And your mom?" Caroline asked, her chest tight as she listened to the pain that this girl had endured.

"She died giving birth to me. I never knew much about her," Georgie admitted, leaving out the part where her mother was a hybrid meaning that hybrid blood ran in her veins too. She didn't know how it was possible as it defied all the rules of supernatural creatures - but she guessed the main rule to magic was that there always was some sort of loophole. Maybe her mom dying was the loophole for her birth.

"I'm sorry to hear that Georgie," Alaric said, his hands folded sincerely in front of him as he studied the girl for signs of a break down. She was ridiculously held together for someone whose life had just changed completely. "Were they like you?"

"I guess so," Georgie shrugged, not knowing what to say that wouldn't give her hybrid bloodline away. Her father had detailed in one of the many notes he had left her that it was to be her tightest kept secret as hybrids were hunted by not just hunters but every supernatural force there was.

"So..." Alaric trailed off before looking back up at the girl. "What were their names?"

Just as Georgie went to open her mouth, another photo on the bookshelf to the other side of the room caught her eyes. She jumped out of her seat instantly, the photo in her pocket feeling heavy as her suddenly shaking fingers skimmed the photo frame. Caroline and Alaric rose from their seats, Caroline standing slightly defensively as she prepared herself to potentially need to fight the teenager simply from the sudden change in her attitude.

"What's this?" Georgie asked, turning the photo around as she held it up for Caroline and Alaric to see. They shared a conflicted glance before Caroline started describing the events of the photo for the teenager. It had clearly set some reaction off with her and she wanted to know why.

"That was me and my friends in senior year. The blonde boy on the left is Matt Donovan, he's the deputy sheriff now. The smaller girl beside him is Bonnie Bennet who might be the best witch I've ever met, while the boy next to her is Jeremy Gilbert who you might see from time to time around her. The brunette beside him is his older sister Elena who I told you about earlier and that's obviously me. Finally, the boy beside me is..." Caroline rambled before she was cut off by Georgie who had slight tears in her eyes.

"Tyler Lockwood."

Alaric nodded, not surprised that this girl who already knew a lot about werewolves would have heard of the late Tyler. It wasn't every day a wolf got turned into a hybrid then resurrected back as a normal human before triggering his werewolf curse again.

"You've heard of him?"

"Yeah," Georgie murmured, knowing she would have to tell them about her father now that she knew they had been his friend. Or at least Caroline had been, she had a gut feeling Alaric was older than the teenagers in the photo. "I knew him."

"Sorry, what?" Caroline said in confusion, she didn't understand how a girl who would have only been alive for like three years before he died would know him. "How?"

Georgie looked at the bracelet on her wrist for a moment before looking at the adults and taking a deep breath. It was now or never. She reached into the pocket of the new plaid trousers that Caroline had bought her, pulling out the small photo she had tucked away the second she had been able to.

Just before she passed it to Caroline, her brain suddenly made the connection and she stopped extending her hand with widened eyes as she looked at the blonde with a complete new outlook.

"You're her," Georgie breathed, almost rolling her eyes at how stupid she had been. "You're his first love."

"Bit awkward, but yeah I was. How do you know that?" Caroline asked, getting a little defence now at how this girl seemed to know more than she had let on about a lot of things.

"You were the history teacher turned vampire hunter," Georgie continued, the names all lining up in her mind now.

Salvatore sounded familiar because it had been a no humanity Damon Salvatore that had murdered her father and left her orphaned. She had spent so long wanting to hate the man, but now she just pitied him. Her father had once told her in a letter that not all vampires deserved forgiveness but when their humanity was off things got heated too quickly to stop.

"Sorry, what did you say your full name was?" Alaric asked with a slightly stricter tone, his hand resting naturally on one of the wooden daggers he kept on the side of the desk. He knew she was a wolf, but it would at least slow her down to get one of the witches in here to help if this went haywire.

"I didn't," Georgie admitted before finally passing Caroline the photo. The blonde took it carefully, her eyes widening as she took it fully in.

"Ric," she breathed, her eyes wide as she looked back up at Georgie.

"Lockwood," Georgie said to Alaric, causing him to squint in confusion. He was well aware they were talking about Tyler Lockwood. "My name is Georgie Lockwood."

Alaric took the photo from Caroline, his eyes wide as he studied the photo. The werewolf they once had fought with (and sometimes against) was cradling a three year old Georgie into his chest, both of their hands wrapped around a stuffed wolf toy that the child was clearly playing with.

"That photo was taken two nights before Damon Salvatore killed my dad."

____

"So let me get this straight, he hid you from all of us for three years because he was worried we'd use you against him? He was our friend!" Caroline explained twenty minutes later after Georgie he just proved using some ball of truth that she was in fact a Lockwood.

"Yes, exactly that," Georgie sighed, knowing that they didn't underhand why their supposed friend would do such a thing. "He didn't trust the Salvatores, especially Damon after looking after Elena's body for so long. I guess he was right not to, since Damon killed him."

There was a long pause before Caroline moved forward and tugged the girl into her arms. Georgie didn't know what to do at first, having never had another woman in her life hug her let alone the way Caroline was. She wasn't her daughter - or Alaric's - but they had already shown so much compassion for her in the short time they'd met her.

"Well, Georgie. What do you want to do? You're more than free to go if staying here brings up any trauma or emotions you don't want to deal with but you're also more than welcome to stay. The girl you passed coming in, Hope, needs a roommate anyway," Alaric announces as Caroline slowly pulled back.

"If it's alright with you Doctor Saltzman, I'd like to stay."