Emma knocked on the door to Alaric’s office. She’d been rehearsing what to say to him all day, but she still hadn’t found the words. By this point, she knew she wouldn’t. There was no right way to say it.
“We need to talk,” she said when he looked up. 
“Yes, we do.” Alaric sat up straighter, clearly having his own thing on his mind.
“You’re really gonna want to hear my thing.” Emma grimaced a little and shut the door behind her. 
“You’re really gonna want to hear my thing too.”
Emma studied his expression, her worry building. Alaric didn’t usually insist on going first. “You have life-or-death face. You go first.”
“I caught Hope using dark magic today.” He wrung his hands nervously as he spoke. “The spell almost killed her. I don’t know if she even noticed or - or if she just didn’t care. But I … I don’t know what to do, Emma. I can’t … I thought a licensed therapist might be better suited to handle this than I am.”
“Yeah, I’ll definitely bring it up in her next session.” Emma smiled soothingly. It wouldn’t be the first session she and Hope had about suicidal tendencies. “Kinda makes my thing seem less … priority.”
“Sorry.” Alaric laughed a little. It was strained by the long day behind him. “Didn’t mean to steal your thunder. Go ahead.”
“I’ve been looking into who sabotaged Lizzie’s honor council campaign.” Emma took a deep breath. “I found the student responsible.”
“Oh, good.” Alaric let out a sigh of relief. Emma had been making him nervous, like she’d had bad news. “Did you talk to them yet? Need more detention slips?"
“Actually, that’s the thing. I thought you’d better be the one to talk to them ... and decide their punishment.”
Alaric furrowed his eyebrows. “I told you you had full disciplinary authority -” He leaned back. “But there’s something else.”
“It was Josie.” Emma came right out and said it.
“Josie? My Josie?” Alaric looked around his office, his eyes moving fast. Emma almost expected him to deny it. “Josie tore down Lizzie’s posters?”
“And apparently bribed several of her fellow witches into voting for her. That’s why I assumed you’d want to handle it personally.”
“Yes, thank you.” Alaric was already walking around her and down the hallway to the twins’ bedroom. 
He knocked lightly and when there was no answer, he swung it open slowly. Both his daughters were asleep, snuggled in the same bed just like when they were little. Any sterness or anger he had in him evaporated.
“Dad?” Josie sat up sleepily. “What’s wrong?”
Alaric crossed the room, and in that time, Lizzie sat up too, eyes still half-closed. He looked between them. There was no way he could scold Josie now or tell Lizzie what she did. Tomorrow was another day. “Nothing.”
Lizzie and Josie looked confused, but Alaric just pulled them into a hug and said nothing else.