a/n: Here's another oneshot for the collection! This one is set further in the future than the previous two fics. Please review and enjoy the oneshot!

Disclaimer: I've said this a million times, but I don't own Covert Affairs. Maybe I'll ask Santa to get it for me for Christmas haha...

Earrings

"This is a really pretty school, isn't it, Daddy?" Fifteen-year-old Ally Anderson asked, walking side-by-side with her parents as they exited the school's small auditorium, filtering out along with the other families into the school's courtyard.

"It is," Auggie agreed, listening to the hundreds of people around him, "Then again, I guess I'm just taking your word for it."

Ally laughed as Annie poked her husband in the chest.

"She's just appreciate the school's beauty, that's all," she informed him, "But you're right. We're here for Catie, not us."

"And if we don't hurry, we're going to miss her."

Picking up their pace a little, Auggie, Ally, and Annie followed the rest of the families as they circled around to the front of the school, where the students would come out after one last walk through the school's halls.

"We did the same thing at my high school. I can't decide if this part of graduation was my favorite part or not," Annie shrugged, "Although, it was nice to get one last look at the school."

Auggie shrugged as well.

"I don't know," he said, "We didn't do the same thing at my high school. I mean, it sounds nice and all, but it seems to me like it just makes you wait longer to get away from here."

Annie laughed again, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, look!" Ally said suddenly, pointing over the crowd. "They're coming out!" As Ally spoke, the doors opened, letting the latest of Emerson Prep's student generations out and into the world.

A sea of burgundy robes met Annie's gaze as she looked out over the gathering of students, the collective proof of Emerson's educational success illustrated over and over again by every dark red robe and graduation cap worn by each and every one of the hundred or so academy graduates. Auggie hung on Annie's arm as she led the way through the mass of joyful parents and relatives surging towards the throng of equally ecstatic and freshly liberated teenagers.

Out of the corner of her eye, Annie could see the father of two of Catie's friends (she recalled his name was Ken) congratulating his kids, the twin brother and sister pair waving their diploma covers about wildly in front of a father who had jokingly told them time and again that after inheriting his genes, they had no chance of getting past the eighth grade. His wife, Lauren, was hugging her children over and over, and Annie could tell all the way from here that she was informing them that it had been her brains that they'd inherited.

"Oh, look," Ally said, grinning when she spotted a couple lavishing their son with praise, "Ron did it!"

"Catie told you he would graduate early," Auggie said, "She said he's the sole reason she passed physics."

"I don't doubt that at all," Annie answered, "He's probably got an IQ of two hundred and fifty."

Ally nodded her agreement, her loose brown curls bobbing around her head at the movement.

"Now, where's ours?" Auggie asked.

Annie shrugged and stood a little straighter, scanning the crowd and trying to spot her blob of burgundy among so many others. It was difficult, with the only part of the kids that was truly visible being their matching caps.

"This must be what it's like for penguins," Annie muttered.

Turning his head, Auggie smiled as he heard the footsteps he memorized nearly eighteen years ago, "She's coming."

"Mom, Dad! Ally!"

Annie spotted a girl pushing her way through the crowd towards him. She was beaming up at her family from a face framed with stick-straight blonde hair.

"Caitlin!" Annie cried, releasing Auggie and hurrying over to scoop her daughter into a tight hug, "Oh honey, we're all so proud of you!"

"Thanks mom," Catie said, laughing as Annie nabbed her diploma so that she could look it over. She then posed obligingly for a few photos, during which Annie handed the camera over to Auggie so she could stand with her daughter. Auggie never understood why Annie insisted on him taking some of the photographs. He was blind, so this clearly wasn't something he was good at. The photographs in question were always terrible; usually a little blurry and he sometimes cropped off someone's arms or half their face. But Annie loved them, saying that Auggie truly captured the moment better than anyone else could. Auggie disagreed of course, but he would never win this battle. Once Annie was satisfied that the moment was sufficiently captured on film she took the camera back, finally allowing access to his daughter.

Ally engulfed her older sister in a huge hug, "Congrats, Catie," she released her sister, a huge grin painted on her pale features, "So, um, does this mean I get your room now?"

"Dream on, little sis," Catie winked.

"Congratulations, baby girl," Auggie said, grinning as she captured him in a crushing hug.

"Thanks, Daddy," she said, still beaming wildly. Bouncing back, she handed her diploma to her sister to see. "Awesome, huh?" she asked, while brushing her blonde hair distractedly behind her ears. Annie smiled when she noticed the earrings she was wearing—light blue and bright yellow. The school had said that all students were to dress formally under their robes, in no colors other than black and white. While she had gone with a simple white dress, Caitlin had been unable to refrain from adding quite a few pieces of blue and yellow jewelry to the ensemble. Her last act of academic defiance she'd called it. Annie just laughed at the irony of it all, remembering the day she and Auggie fought over the paint colors for the nursery for their baby boy. They ended up with blue and yellow…and a new baby girl.

Annie, for her part, hadn't minded the earrings the least. There was nothing wrong with pushing the boundaries a little and, as she'd explained to Auggie earlier that day, it was better than what Ken's son wanted to do. He'd attempted to sneak an entire gorilla suit under his robe—something his father had found hysterical. His mother, not so much.

"Yeah, Catie," Annie said, handing the diploma back, "It's pretty awesome."

Catie grinned, her nose wrinkling cutely as she tried not to laugh at her mother's attempt at teenage jargon.

"Now what are we going to do?" Ally asked, looking back and forth between her parents and her older sister.

"Well," Auggie said, tossing one arm around Catie's shoulders, and then the other around Ally's. "How about your parents take you both out to a nice, celebratory dinner?"

"Okay!" Catie and Ally said in unison, their grins widening. Annie grinned too, giving Auggie a sly look.

"Only if the gentleman foots the bill," Auggie rolled his sightless eyes good naturedly as Annie, Ally, and Catie giggled loudly.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, directing the three women towards the parking lot. "Dad will pay for dinner. As usual."

Besides, he thought, as he hugged the three most important people in his life closer, after all that they'd brought into his life, it was the least he could do.

a/n: i hope you guys enjoyed it! please review! another oneshot will be joining the collection soon :)