Wow! I can't believe all the support I got after just a few days! It means the world to me. And it actually inspired some more writing. I'm not sure if I'm ready to turn this into a multi-chapter story, but who knows? Anyway, here's the parent/teacher conference scene.

Disclaimer: Still don't own :(

One Long Night:

"Are there any questions you have for me?" Lizzie asked as she started shuffling all the materials that Anne De Bourg has chosen to show her mother back into the portfolio. She slid the folder across the table top to the woman. It was customary for the parents' of the students to take everything home to bask in the joy of their child's perfect spelling quiz and gloat about their accomplished paper bag hand puppet crafting skills.

The uptight society mom sitting on the other side of Elizabeth's desk sniffed disdainfully as she flipped back through the numerous drawings of puppies and photographs of her daughter's performance as Flying Monkey #3 in The Wizard of Oz. She stared down her nose at a picture Anne had drawn of her family. Lizzie had to admit that the sketch of the silly looking woman in a puffy fur coat and ridiculously high heels wasn't as far off from the real Catherine De Bourg as she had imagined. In fact, she was pretty sure that Mrs. De Bourg was wearing that same atrocious coat at this very moment.

She really was a sight, with her over bleached, platinum blond updo. Lizzie also noticed she must have had at least thirty pounds of diamonds on her fingers, around her neck, and dangling from her ears, the weight of them stretching out her earlobes. That looks painful. She was also fairly certain the woman was wearing what once was a live skunk around her neck. Catherine De Bourg laid the drawing aside and gave Lizzie a look that screamed of disapproval.

"Ms. Bennet," Catherine began in a pompous tone "I cannot help but notice that there is an abundance of…artistic expression within your classroom." Lizzie was confused as to where the woman was going with this but nodded her head at her so she would continue. "Well, with all the pursuit of such trivial activities as music, acting, and doodling, there seems to be an extreme lack of core subjects, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic."

Trying to hide her amused smirk from the fine lady, she responded. "I can assure you ma'am, I am teaching all the core subjects. Considering they are a required part of the curriculum, I would be out of a job if I didn't."

"Well, they don't seem present to me at all," Mrs. De Bourg said stubbornly.

Lizzie let out a delicate sigh. She was so tired of explaining her methods to these stuffy, obnoxious socialites who thought they knew everything just because they had money.

"The trivial activities, as you put it, are used as a sort of doorway to teaching other subjects. For instance, in math the students were learning about different forms of measurement and how to convert one form to another, so when designing the set for The Wizard of Oz, the students had to do all the measurements for the set pieces and convert everything themselves." She felt a little smug as she finished, but the feeling was short lived as the woman across from her fired another retort.

"I don't see why you can't just teach the subject straight out instead of muddling it with all this nonsense!"

"Well, ma'am," Lizzie took a deep breath "I just find that the students become more interested in learning when there is a little fun connected to it. They are more willing to participate and do the work when the arts are integrated into the subjects. And they get to express their creativity."

"Creativity," Catherine scoffed "I assume you are a first year teacher." She jutted out her chin, and Lizzie couldn't hide her offense at the comment.

"No," Lizzie said shortly "Actually, I've been teaching for four years. I'm by no means a veteran, but I have a little experience. I've found this method to be very effective." Elizabeth held the offensive woman's stare without the slightest hint of fear. After a moment, De Bourg huffed and stood up. She scooped up the folder and shoved it into her purse.

"Well," she began as she grabbed her bejeweled, black cane. Yes, she actually carried a cane. Lizzie didn't think it was for medical purposes. "You better hope your methods continue to work," she spat "Because if my Anne shows the slightest decrease in intellectual abilities, I will be having a word with your principal."

"I'm sure you will," Lizzie mumbled sarcastically as Mrs. Catherine De Bourg swept from the room.

Elizabeth sighed and banged her head against her desk in frustration. She was so sick of all these ridiculous, entitled parents she had to deal with. She supposed it's what she got for working in the rich part of town. Lizzie almost wished she stayed at that school in The Bronx. Sure the pay wasn't nearly as good, and the kids there were usually terribly misbehaved, but at least the parents didn't question every decision she made in the classroom. Well, typically, they didn't take an interest. Period. Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles. At least the kids here were sweet; well, most of them were.

Lizzie let out a little relieved sigh as she thought about the fact that she probably wouldn't have to deal with most of the parents until the spring conferences; there would be a few that would insist on meeting with her in order to suggest the most effective way to organize the children's desks because the Feng shui in the room was completely off. Some ridiculous crap like that. Mrs. De Bourg had been her last conference of the evening. That meant that she could go home have a nice long bubble bath and not think about lesson plans, classroom holiday parties, and pompous parents for the rest of the night.

Her head snapped up as she heard a distinct whistle that had the same effect on her as the Jaws theme song would have on unsuspecting swimmers. Oh, no. Shit. Lizzie thoughts ran in circles as she tried to find an escape route. Maybe if she turned out the lights and hid under her desk he would assume she was gone for the night? She could jump out the window! A three story fall couldn't be all that bad? It wouldn't kill her…she hoped. Lizzie jumped up to grab her purse. Too late. He stood in her door.

"And, how are you this fine evening Elizabeth?" He leered at her from across the room.

"Fine, Mr. Williams. How are you?" Lizzie asked defeated.

"Ah, ah, ah," Mr. Williams shook his head in disapproval as he strode further into the classroom "What did I say about using such formalities? Were friends Lizzie. There's no need," he finished as he stood only a few feet from her.

"Right. Sorry, William." Lizzie sighed and tried to ignore the disgusting look William Williams was giving her. That's right folks, William Williams. What kind of twisted parents would seriously give their child a name like William Williams?

After a few minutes of standing awkwardly, trying to avoid William's creepy gaze, Lizzie cleared her throat.

"Did you need something, Bill?" she asked, already knowing why he was here but dearly hoping she was wrong. Bill licked his pale, cracked lips.

"Yes, actually. I was thinking that since parent/teacher conferences are over, we should go out and celebrate."

"The whole staff?" Lizzie asked hopefully. William grinned in what he probably thought was an alluring way but ended up just looking like he had to pass gas.

"No. Just you and I," he purred and Lizzie held back a gag. William Williams was possibly the most repulsive man she ever had the displeasure to meet. He was short and pudgy, with pale skin that was always covered in a sickly looking sheen of sweat. His beady, pale blue eyes always seemed to find their way to her chest, and if his receding hairline wasn't already an indication that he was too old for her, then the liver spots that were beginning to form on his hands were. His nails and teeth were yellowing, and his breath reeked of the tuna fish sandwich he ate for lunch every day. All in all, he was disgusting. Unfortunately, he was also her boss. She let out an exasperated sigh

"We've had this conversation a million times before, Bill," she said as she walked around him towards the cabinet the held her coat and scarf. "You're my vice principal. Not only would it be highly inappropriate, but it's against the rules. We would get fired." This was always the answer Lizzie gave him whenever he asked her out, and it usually worked just fine any other time. Tonight was a different story. Bill gave a low chuckle and walked towards her as she wound her scarf around her neck.

"I know. You've said that before, but I was thinking. It wouldn't be too hard to keep it a secret from everyone," he said as he closed in on her. Lizzie froze for a nanosecond and then quickly dodged around him toward her desk to retrieve her purse. This was not part of her escape plan. Why couldn't he just accept her answer like he usually did?

"I'll be transferring to a new school in the spring, a high school," he emphasized the last two words like she should be impressed or something. "We would only have to hide our relationship for a few months, and then everything will be totally acceptable."

Lizzie sighed and closed her eyes as she leaned against the side of her desk. This was the last straw for her. She couldn't deal with him harassing and bugging her anymore.

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you, Bill, no," she said harshly as she turned to face him. He was a lot closer than she realized. "I don't think of you that way. At all. I never have, and I never will." This didn't seem to discourage Bill in the least bit. He just continued to creep closer to Lizzie with that same weird smirk as he had earlier.

"You don't have to pretend like you don't feel something for me anymore, Elizabeth." The way he said her name made Lizzie want to puke, and she was about ready to kick him in the balls when three raps sounded at her opened door, and whoever it was cleared their throat. Both William and Lizzie turned their head towards the noise.

"Mr. Darcy!" Lizzie never thought she would be so thankful to see awkward Will Darcy standing in her classroom.

"Ms. Bennet," he nodded in her direction and looked at William with a little more hatred than she thought necessary, but hey, at least the attention was no longer focused on her. William cowered under Darcy's glare and beat a hasty retreat. He actually bowed as he scuttled around Darcy and walked out the door. Will watched him go with distaste and then turned back to Elizabeth.

"Was I interrupting something?" he asked cautiously.

Lizzie snorted. "Nooo. No. Absolutely not." She vehemently shook her head. Will stepped further into the room, and Lizzie realized she wasn't sure why he was there. With the absence of Mr. Williams, her dislike of Darcy was beginning to surface again.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Will apologized, but offered no explanation, as he made his way towards her desk. Lizzie was confused for about two seconds before she realized he must be there for Georgie's conference. She didn't bother to comment on the fact that he was over three hours late.

"Oh, yes!" she exclaimed "Um…have a seat," she offered as she began to unwind her scarf and take off her coat. She didn't bother hanging them up but just laid them next to her purse. Lizzie was a little disappointed her bubble bath was put off because this man couldn't fit her into his schedule, but this was one of the few conference she thought needed to happen, therefore she wasn't too disappointed.

"You'll have to forgive me," she began as she turned to search through her filing cabinet for Georgiana Darcy's portfolio "I didn't think you were going to show up so I put Georgie's portfolio away. Aha!" She let out a small triumphant cry as she located the folder. She turned back around and took a seat at her desk "But I'm glad you decided to come. There are some things I want to discuss." Lizzie's tone became much more serious. This was what she liked to call her teacher mode.

"Okay," Darcy said a little hesitantly.

"Well, first, let's just go through some of what Georgie wanted to show you," Lizzie said as she opened the folder. She pulled out the first few items: A stack of pictures of Georgiana as Glinda the Good Witch and some of her during the set designing and painting workshop the fifth graders did. She handed the pictures to Darcy, and he smiled slightly.

"These are just some pictures from The Wizard of Oz. Georgiana just thought you might like some since you didn't take any yourself, so we printed a few off. There are some from the set day too." Lizzie then pulled out the next item: Georgie's latest social study test. She got a 100% "You should have seen her face when she got the grade back on this. I don't think I've ever seen a student so proud over anything. She kept gushing to me about how she couldn't wait to tell you."

"Yeah, I think she said something to me about it. I can't remember exactly," Will said as he took the test out of her hand. Lizzie held back a biting remark about his inattentiveness and pulled out the next piece of paper.

"She wasn't too keen on showing you this, but I felt it important. This is Georgiana's portion of a group science experiment that all the student's had to participate in. She didn't do so great," Lizzie handed Darcy the group project score sheet. "As you can see the thing that brought her down were participation points. She understood the material just fine, but she didn't get involved with the other students. Every time I would walk by their table, she was either reading her free time book or had her head down. To put it simply, Mr. Darcy, Georgiana doesn't work well with others." Darcy looked up from the score sheet and frowned at her bluntness. "That's not to say anything about her intelligence. It just means that her social skills aren't all that great."

"Her social skills are just fine," Darcy said stiffly.

Lizzie didn't comment but merely pulled out the last item on her list. She was aware that this was probably where all hell would break loose.

"This is the last piece I wanted to show you," Lizzie said as she handed Darcy the drawing. He looked down at the picture Georgie had made and smiled fondly. It was him and her, crudely drawn, but clear enough. They were standing in front of a large yellow house and holding hands. She had a big cheesy smile and had drawn Darcy with a frown. Lizzie saw a real one start to form on his lips. She wondered if Georgie always saw him as so unhappy. She pulled him out of his thoughts with her next comment.

"The students were asked to draw a picture of their families. Along with it, they were supposed to write a little bit about their family members. Most of the stuff I read was pretty standard. 'I have a dad, a mom, a brother, and a dog' that sort of thing. Georgiana's was a little more…in depth," Lizzie became very serious as she pulled out Georgie's paragraph and handed it to Darcy. She watched his frown grow more pronounced as he scanned the paragraph. "She only mentioned you and her, no one else. The thing I found most interesting was what she wrote at the very bottom. 'I wish Will would pay attention to me like he used to'." She waited for Mr. Darcy to say something. When he didn't, she continued, "I've only been teaching here for a year, but I've become quite fond of Georgiana. She is sweet, and bright, and extremely talented. But she's also cripplingly shy. I kept wondering to myself, why would such a beautiful and kind girl be afraid of making friends. And then she started to tell me about you, and I figured it out."

Darcy's head snapped up and spoke up for the first time in a few minutes.

"Are you implying that Georgie's shyness is my fault?" he shot.

"I'm not implying, I'm saying it outright," Lizzie responded calmly, but underneath her cool exterior she was livid. How could he not see this was his fault? "Georgie is so shy because of a lack of attention from you." Will Darcy's jaw dropped.

"Are you trying to say I'm neglecting Georgiana?" Darcy raised his voice.

Lizzie had to tread lightly and with caution. Neglect was a serious accusation and not one you just threw around, especially when you were an educator.

"Not in an extreme sense, but enough to affect her. And enough that she notices." Darcy shook his head a rolled his eyes. That pissed Lizzie off. She was hoping they could do this peacefully, but he obviously wasn't going to listen. Lizzie couldn't help it if she became harsher than she intended. "I'm not sure what the situation is with Georgie's mother is, but it's clear she is no longer in the picture," Will's face screwed up in confusion, but she continued "I'm aware that it must be difficult being a young single parent, but, I'm sorry to say this, that's no excuse to completely ignore your daughter. I mean, she doesn't even call you dad. What does that say about the kind of relationship you have? Or what about the fact that you can't even bother to take an interest in what she tells you? I've never seen her so excited about anything when she got back that social studies test, and you couldn't even remember that she told you about it. She is desperate for some kind of acknowledgement from you, and you're too busy at work to even notice." Darcy looked down dejectedly at the picture in his hands, but didn't appear to actually be seeing it. He was lost in his own thoughts. Lizzie was on a roll, and not even the sad look on Mr. Darcy's face could stop her. "It's not really my place to say any of this, but I can't, with a good conscience, sit by and watch a sweet girl get crushed daily by the fact that her own father barely gives her the time of day."

"Alright, that's enough," Mr. Darcy said, standing quickly. Something Lizzie said must have struck a nerve "We're done here."

She watched as he shuffled everything back into Georgie's portfolio and made his way to the door. Before he made it completely out he swallowed hard and turned slightly back towards her. Without looking her in the eye he wished her a good evening and quickly left.

Lizzie stared at the now empty chair he used to occupy. She heaved a great sigh and couldn't help feeling she may have been too harsh. Not the she regretted telling him. He absolutely needed to know everything she said. Lizzie hoped that her words might make a difference, but she doubted they would. There was no reason for him to listen to the "ditsy elementary teacher", as he had once called her. Lizzie had done all she could. It was really up to him to act on what she said. And if he didn't try to be a better father to Georgie, she would do everything in her power to help the girl along and boost her confidence.

Elizabeth slipped her coat back on and rewound her scarf around her neck. She picked her purse up and went to turn out the lights to her classroom. She walked down the hall towards the stairwell that would lead her down three flights to the street below all the while wondering whether what she said would actually help Georgiana Darcy. Only time would tell. As Lizzie made it outside the school and walked to her car she decided worrying wouldn't help anything. She took a deep breath and focused on the bubble bath she now needed a million times more than before. This had been a long night.