thanks so much for the reviews and follows! :) i'm so glad you guys liked it so much! hope you like this one, some parts funny some parts serious. enjoy!

Summary: A collection of mini-shots based on each child's parent-teacher conference
(we discussed our old parent teacher conferences the other night at our family dinner which inspired this lol)

There's Always a But

Flashback, 2009

"Hi Mrs. McGarrett," Julia's second grade teacher, Miss Bee, smiled warmly at her as Alexia came in and sat on the other side of her desk. Tonight was parent-teacher conference night, which Alexia grew to dread since Julia had started school since she always had to go alone to these things. She had no idea where Steve was tonight, just that it wasn't in the States let alone Hawaii.

"Hi," Alexia greeted her.

"Are we waiting on Mister-"

"He has work," Alexia stopped her.

"Oh," Miss Bee nodded. Alexia didn't like her tone. There was something too chipper about it, like she was trying too hard to cover up some condescending notion.

"...what?" Alexia asked in confusion.

"I wanted to let you know, Julia is doing fantastic," she emphasized. "She's way ahead of the rest of her age group. Next year I'm going to recommend they let her take the math class with the fourth graders."

"Wow," Alexia said, impressed by her children more each day.

"But," Miss Bee bit her lip. Here it comes, Alexia thought to herself. "Last week we were drawing family portraits for art class." She pulled a piece of construction paper from the drawer and handed it to her. "This is Julia's." Alexia observed the crayon drawing made by her seven year old. There was their house and out in the yard there were her, Lucy, and Julia all holding hands with their respective names above their heads; Steve wasn't in the picture.

"Do you see anything wrong-" her teacher started off.

"You don't have a lot of experience with military families, do you?" Alexia cut her off, getting up from her chair and taking the picture with her. "I'll talk to Julia about this, thank you."

"But we still have..." The teacher trailed off as Alexia was already gone.

Flashback, 2011

"And that's why I hate these things," Alexia was explaining to Steve as they walked down the halls of the elementary school on the way to meet up with Lucy's kindergarten teacher.

"You never told me about that," Steve said in surprise.

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings," Alexia continued.

"Well, I appreciate it, but you really could have told me," Steve said as they turned down the kindergarten hallway. "But, all of Julia's conferences have been great since then, she's a great kid and so is Lucy."

"I know that they're great kids," Alexia agreed with him. "But there's a but, there's always a but. But she drew this, but she's too quiet, but we think her glasses prescription might not be good-"

"I get it," Steve stopped her with a laugh. "But, you're obsessing." She made a face at him. "We're going to change your mind on these things. Come on," he said, holding the door open for her. Sighing, she went in and sat in one of the two chairs in front of the teacher's desk, Mr. Ziegler.

"Hi, you must be Lucy's parents," he greeted them and they nodded. "Lucy is doing fantastic."

"See?" Steve said to Alexia.

"She's very bright, her handwriting is improving while we practice writing names, and she's good with numbers," the teacher continued.

"Told you," Steve said to Alexia.

"But," Mr. Ziegler said now.

"Told you," Alexia murmured to her husband.

"Since it happened yesterday, I wanted to wait to talk to you in person tonight," he continued. "There was an...altercation on the playground."

"With another little girl?" Steve asked in confusion.

"No, with one of the boys," Mr. Ziegler corrected him and Steve raised his eye brows. "I wasn't able to get the whole story out of either of them, but she really got a hold of him."

"Really now?" Steve asked and Alexia nudged him.

"We're not proud of this," Alexia informed him and he shrugged, making her shake her head. "So, you don't know what happened?"

"Just that I had to pry her off of him," Mr. Ziegler said. "I haven't seen her get so upset before. Because this isn't like her, I was hoping talking with you would help us get to the bottom of this. Has she been acting differently at home?"

"Not at all," Steve shook his head.

"And everything has been business as usual?" he asked. "There isn't any trouble with you two, or other siblings?"

"No, nothing," Alexia said now. "We just had a new baby, but she loves her little brother."

"I'm only asking because she said she got this from home?" Mr. Ziegler said, slightly confused.

"Oh God," Alexia said, rubbing her forehead, slumping in her seat a little. "Steve."

"I taught Julia when she started school, I did the same for-"

"What my SEAL turned cop husband is trying to say is this is his fault," Alexia said.

"My fault?" Steve asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I teach our daughter to punch kids out on the play ground?" Alexia asked sarcastically, both forgetting that the teacher was there.

"If it helps, she didn't punch anyone," Mr. Ziegler said. "She mostly kicked him, then tackled him."

"Ok," Alexia stopped everyone. "This is just a self defense thing that got out of hand, I am so sorry," she apologized. "We'll talk to Lucy when we get home."

"Thanks," Mr. Ziegler said as they were getting up to leave.

"All I'm saying is maybe the kid deserved it," Steve was saying to Alexia now, getting shoved by her.

Flashback, 2016

"Hey, sorry we're late," Steve said, coming into the same kindergarten room as Lucy, but with a different teacher, Mrs. Craig.

"You brought Danny?" Alexia asked in confusion, the teacher seeming confused as well.

"We were working, it ran long, I didn't want to miss it," Steve was saying, sitting next to her, with Danny pulling over a chair.

"I'm sorry, who is this?" Mrs. Craig was asking.

"His work wife," Alexia said.

"You know I hate that," Danny told her and she smiled sweetly.

"All right," Mrs. Craig agreed, smiling cheerfully. "So, Jack is doing fantastic. Numbers were a little shaky at first, but he caught on fast. From what I've heard from other teachers his sisters are very bright, I imagine he has the same genes."

"But," Alexia said.

"Why do you do that?" Steve asked.

"There's a but, isn't there?" Alexia asked Mrs. Craig. "Some kind of incident. Disturbed drawings, misbehavior, fights on the playground. What did he do?"

"Oh, nothing like that," Mrs. Craig shook her head. "Jack's been an angel."

"Excuse me?" Danny chimed in now.

"Danny," Steve protested.

"No, I've babysat your child before. Your child," he emphasized. "He's a cute kid, but he's not an angel." He held up a hand. "No offense."

"There was one...moment," Mrs. Craig said now. "I wouldn't quite call it an incident, but..." She trailed off, getting up from her desk to go over to the window. She brought over a plastic container with a bright green lid; sitting it down on the desk the others could see a small lizard inside. "He got us our new class pet," she smiled. "I guess he found it outside then brought it in his pocket?"

"Oh Jack," Alexia sighed.

There was always a but.

thanks so much for reading! :) i really hope you like it, please let me know what you thought! :) the next chapter will probably be the follow up at home after the conferences...

also, like i guessed, alexia/steve have a huge lead with 56 (81%) votes ;) thanks guys!