"Sinclair!" Mark's sharp tone makes Briar stop in her tracks, slowly turning to face him with her hands up.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it." She says quickly, thinking on her feet. The last prank she pulled on him was quite some time ago, since she hasn't wanted to accidentally prank his daughter instead. Well, she kind of does, but not when the girl is pregnant.

"What? No, whatever. Look, I need your help."

Briar slumps in relief, really not in the mood for a prank war right now. "Alright, what's up?"

"Well, I had Lexie give Sloan an ultrasound, and he's got amniotic bands around his legs."

"Okay. . ." She says very slowly, dragging the word out as she tries to figure out what to say to that. She's really not sure why Mark came to her about it, instead of Arizona or someone working the OB floor today.

"I kicked the OB off the case, we're getting a fetal MRI. I called Addie in and–"

"I'm in." Briar declares as soon as Addie's name is brought up, before frowning. "Have you started the MRI yet?"

"No, I–"

"Okay. I am going to go do that, because I think it'll be better coming from me, and not your girlfriend. I love Lexie, but the focus right now has to be on Sloan, not on her constant bickering with Lexie. I will go take care of that, but you have to tell Hunt that I'm off his service for today."

"Thank you!" He shouts after her, Briar waving him off. She spent a good amount of time learning from Addison Montgomery when she was at Seattle Grace, and while she's not set on a neonatal specialty, she'll happily learn from the woman again.

"Lexie, out!" She says as soon as she's entered the room, giving a smile to Sloan, who looks really freaked out. "Seriously. Move it." She orders her, not having the time to play nice.

"Woah. Wish I could do that." Sloan says, watching Lexie leave.

"She was my intern, she's used to me ordering her around. Let's focus on you, alright? I'm going to be taking over your care until Dr. Montgomery arrives. Mark is busy right now, but anytime you want him in the room, let me know and I'll page him. Do you have any questions while we take the MRI?"

✦

"As the legs continue to grow, the bands will cut off his circulation." Addie explains, pointing at the picture on the monitor to show Sloan, who looks overwhelmed. "If we wait, we risk severe damage to the left leg, possible loss of the right entirely. But if we operate–22 weeks, it's–it's still risky."

"But if you don't operate, you're not gonna kill the baby?" Sloan asks.

"We can rehabilitate the remaining part of his leg after he's born, and we can fit him with a prosthesis." Arizona explains to Sloan, Briar grabbing her phone to pull up a study done on that. Sloan will likely want to do research; she would, if she had to make a decision like this. "It's entirely possible that he'll walk."

"Oh, my God." Sloan cries out, and Briar gives her a sympathetic look, unable to imagine how difficult this decision must be.

"Honey, we've got options here." Mark says, Briar shooting Addie a can-you-believe-this look while the two are distracted. Honestly, the fatherly look works for Mark, and it's sweet. "If we operate, Dr. Montgomery can remove the bands, he'll be just fine. Or we can wait a few weeks till he's bigger and stronger, and we know the surgery is less risky."

"Well, which one of you did he sleep with?" Sloan bursts, making Briar blink in shock, almost dropping the clipboard she's holding.

"Not me!" Arizona says brightly, shaking her head with a smug smile while Addie looks shocked.

"You told her?" Addie asks, while Briar coughs, trying to ignore the heat in her cheeks.

"She's my kid, we were bonding." Mark says casually, and Addie scoffs.

"That is not how you bond with children!"

"I'm still getting the hang of it–"

"So you're sure that he didn't, like, knock you up and leave you with a child to raise on your own or something?"

Oh, fuck. Briar can't help but be impressed by her guts.

"You're not just, like, really pissed and you're trying to get revenge?"

"No." Addie states firmly, although she chuckles a little, clearly still shocked. "No. It was a long time ago, okay? The fact is, Mark–your father–is–is a good guy, and I think you're a good kid, and I'm gonna do everything I can to help you with your baby."

"Full transparency, I've also slept with Mark." Briar pipes up, despite really not wanting to. "If you want me off your case, I understand, but also, good luck finding people in this hospital he hasn't slept with."

Sloan stares at her for a moment, clearly considering it, and she does her best to ignore the looks she's receiving from the doctor's in the room.

"I like you. You danced on a table with me at the New Year's Party. You can stay."

"Cool." Briar says, giving her a small smile.

"Okay." Sloan says now, addressing the whole room. "Well, let's just get these things off his legs right now."

"I'll book an O.R." Addie says, before quickly leaving the room. Briar grabs a stack of post-it notes, quickly scribbling down her number and handing it to Sloan, telling her to call her if she needs anything before the operation.

✦

"Okay. Got the first band." Addie says. "Let's move down so I can take a look at the second."

"Like that?" Briar asks, moving the ultrasound down, twisting to look at the monitor as she does.

"Good." Addison confirms, "Why can't I grab his leg?"

"Problem?" Mark questions instantly, Addie shaking her head.

"No, it's just that one of the bands is holding the leg in place, making it a little difficult to get around. Can you move the ultrasound up here?"

Briar moves it where she's directed, making Addie sigh at the results.

"Oh, come on." She sighs out.

"What's the matter?" Mark demands, Addie being quick to explain that her uterine arteries are engorged, and that the only way in is in-between them.

"Okay." Addie says to herself, before looking at Briar. "I'm gonna need another trocar. You want to hold this?"

Briar grabs it from Addie so that she can grab the instrument while Mark starts questioning her.

"Are you sure you have enough room? Those arteries are huge."

"That's why I'm gonna be very, very careful." Addie assures him, holding her hand out to BokHee. "Scalpel."

"What happens if you nick them?" Mark worries, and Briar bites back a sigh. She understands that he's concerned, but this is exactly why family members are not allowed in operating rooms.

"Dr. Sinclair?" Addie prompts her to answer, which Briar does, looking directly at Mark out of respect.

"They both could bleed out." She answers honestly.

"I don't like it." Mark decides, shaking his head. "It's too dangerous."

"Mark, I have assessed the risk factors. I'm 95% confident I can get around the arteries." Addie explains, Briar biting her lip as she keeps an eye on the ultrasound. She understands both sides; Addie is confident in her abilities because she truly is one of the best neonatal surgeons, but this is Mark's daughter and grandson. He won't accept anything but 100% certainty, and Briar can sympathize with that feeling. "I'm choosing to continue my surgery."

"And I don't like the 5%!" Mark protests, "You hit any one of those, she bleeds out right on this table."

"Look, you're nervous. I get that." Addie states, turning to look behind her at Mark.

"I'm a surgeon, and I'm looking at a time bomb in a uterus." Mark snaps. "Shut it down! Now, Addison!"

"Close her up," Addison says, turning back to Briar, who quickly does as ordered. They work in silence, and Briar makes quick work of scrubbing out, not wanting to witness the discussion between Mark and Addison.

"Page me if you need anything. I'm going to grab a drink, do you want something? Coffee, water?" Briar asks Addison before leaving, getting her coffee order and rushing away from there. She's quick to drop the coffee off to Addie, sad to see her getting ready to leave again.

"You have my number, use it!" Addie calls after her, Briar throwing a thumbs up over her shoulder, a giddy smile crossing her lips.

She finds Meredith and Alex in an operating theater, but gets yanked aside by Lexie before she can enter. Briar raises an eyebrow at the annoyed girl, annoyed herself as she moves her coffee cup to avoid spilling it during the move.

"You know you could just talk to me, right? Instead of yanking me?" Briar questions, getting annoyed by Lexie as she quickly finds an on-call room.

"Little Grey, you're really not my type." She smirks, watching with interest as Lexie slams the door shut and turns to face her with her arms crossed. Briar takes the chance to get off her feet, throwing herself on the bed with a happy sigh.

"What was that back there?" Lexie snaps, starting to pace the room. Briar watches her in amusement. An angry Lexie is like a pissed off kitten: not scary in the slightest.

"You'll have to be more specific."

"You know I'm not your intern anymore, right? I'm a resident! You don't get to–to order me around and–!"

"Oh, that's what this is about." Briar says, crossing her arms behind her bed and looking up at the ceiling. She could take a nap right now. "Look, Lexie, I was focused on Sloan's care, not on your feelings. You're too close to her case, I'm not. That's all it was."

"Oh, my God, she's won you over! You like her more than me already!" Lexie cries out, throwing her hands in the air, while Briar closes her eyes and wonders what she's done to deserve this.

"Lexie, stop!" She yells after a few more minutes of her complaining, her head starting to hurt.

"This is what I mean. It's not a popularity contest, and you aren't competing with Sloan. She's overwhelmed, and she's young, and she's pregnant. She's been kicked out by her mother and is now living with a father she doesn't know, and there are complications with her pregnancy. Anything you're feeling about this situation is valid, and I will support you no matter what you decide about your relationship with Mark, but that is not the priority right now. The priority is Sloan, and her baby, and you need to get a grip."

Lexie is frozen, staring at her from where she stopped pacing, and Briar makes a point of gentling her voice.

"I'm sorry that this was sprung on you, but you can't take it out on her. She's not the one you're really mad at, Mark is. You need to have an actual discussion with him. It's okay to not be ready for all of this, but all you're doing is hurting yourself by pretending you are."

Lexie stares for another second before whimpering and falling onto the bed. Briar makes room for her, reaching over and grabbing her hand.

"I'm not ready to be a step-mom." She whispers, Briar smiling sadly as she smooths back her hair with her free hand.

"That's okay, Lex. You don't have to be." She whispers back. "It's a lot. Seriously, talk to Mark. . . and maybe talk to Sloan. I'm not sure she's looking for a step-mom."

"What do you mean?" Lexie asks, and Briar hums as she tries to find the right words.

"Sloan is 18. She's technically an adult. And she came here to find her dad, and I don't know what their relationship will end up like, but she didn't come here to find a mom. She might just need a friend."

When Lexie seems to be considering that, Briar reaches over and tugs the blanket over her, moving to leave the bed.

"You have ten minutes, and then you're going to go with Mark and explain this to Sloan. I need to get back to Dr. Hunt's services, and I think you need to be there for that. Just. . . think things through, and let me know if you need me later."

And with that she leaves to hunt down the surgeon she was actually supposed to be working with–"checking" the coffee cart before any of the places Hunt is actually likely to be at this time.

She would do anything to get coffee injected into her veins.

✦

"Izzie leaves, and Mark gets a kid, and you two decide that the best way to deal is to get drunk and mash your genitals together?" Meredith asks Alex and Lexie, holding an intervention in the kitchen after she walked in on them in bed together.

Briar smirks from her spot sitting on the kitchen counter, nursing her second cup of coffee. She might have an addiction, but what doctor doesn't have a caffeine addiction?

"Look, no freaking way you get to judge us or give relationship advice." Alex responds, Briar laughing as she nudges a cup of coffee his way. Lexie gives her a desperate look but Briar doesn't budge: if Lexie does something chaotic or funny–more chaotic and funny than sleeping with Alex, that is–then Briar will make her a cup. Until then, she has to suffer.

"Besides, you were a total dirty mistress, like, two weeks ago!" Alex continues, Briar reaching over and giving him a high five.

"Are we calling me a dirty mistress?" Lexie asks in distress, Briar nodding to her.

"That was two years ago, and his wife didn't have cancer." Meredith defends herself while Briar wonders if she should start recording this. It's hilarious enough that she doesn't even mind having been yanked out of bed by Meredith for backup.

"Because I've only been with, like, six guys in my whole life." Lexie continues, still hung up on the dirty mistress comment. "Okay, Alex and I–we've done it before. T-That was recycling. It was, like, good for the environment."

"Woo Earth day." Briar mumbles to herself, getting a weird look from her best friend. She just shrugs back.

"Izzie's gone, I was horny, she was there." Alex says, Briar nodding her head. Sounds about right to her.

"Oh, crap. I am a dirty mistress. Oh, God!" Lexie wails, putting her head in her hands, while Meredith turns to Briar.

"You're supposed to be on my side! What, you don't care?" She demands, Briar shrugging.

"I mean, cheating is bad, blah blah. But it's not like the marriage is gonna last, and Alex deserves better than a wife who disappears on him." She says, and then nods at Alex. "No offense, Bud."

"None taken." Alex nods back, even though he looks a little conflicted about her words. Oh well. At least she's honest, if nothing else.

"You're gonna tell Derek, and then Derek's gonna tell Mark that I'm a whore!" Lexie exclaims, her hands flying to cover her mouth as she stares wide-eyed at Meredith.

Briar goes ahead and makes her a cup of coffee. She even gives her one of the better mugs, a homemade one from Briar's pottery kick a year ago. It's covered in tiny painted penises. Briar thinks it's very fitting for the situation, especially when Lexie whimpers at the sight of it before chugging the drink anyway.

"No, I am not gonna tell Derek, and neither are you." Meredith responds to her sister, before turning and pointing to Alex. "And you're not gonna say anything. We are keeping our mouths shut. Izzie is coming home. No one needs to know."

"Hi." Izzie says, slowly coming into the kitchen as Alex takes a long sip of his coffee. "Know what?"

Ugh, that's Briar's cue to leave. And maybe to find somewhere else to live.

✦

"Take over my case for me!" Alex begs as soon as he sees her, Briar instantly shaking her head as she rushes past him. "Please! I'll–I'll, uh–"

"You're horrible at this begging thing!" Briar calls over her shoulder, biting her lip as she looks over patient files. "And no, Alex. I'm running the pit while Hunt is in surgery, sorry about your luck."

No way in hell is she dropping the ball when Hunt's showing her a huge sign of trust. Also, she doesn't want to deal with Annoying Singing Guy up close and personal unless she absolutely has to. Instead she's dealing with . . . Sarah with chest pains, Benjamin with a broken ankle, Cassandra with a laceration on her arm, and a lot of patients with upper respiratory infections. Yay trauma!

"Davis!" She snaps, seeing one of her previous interns leaning against the nurses station. He snaps to attention instantly at the sound of her voice, Briar biting back a smirk. "Flirt with our lovely nurse–hi, Michelle, love the new hair–after we clear the pit, I taught you better than that. Take these and move!"

She shoves half of the URTI patients and Cassandra's clipboards at him, tutting when he stays frozen, Michelle laughing at him.

"Michael James Davis, move your ass!" She barks, smirking when he rushes to grab materials to stitch up Cassandra. That's what she thought.

A few moments later, she pulls aside the privacy curtains to reveal Benjamin, smiling at him and his fiancée as she rubs hand sanitizer in.

"Hi there, I'm Dr. Sinclair. I hear you took quite a fall." She says sympathetically, eyeing how pale the two of them are. "I'm going to take a quick look, and then we'll get you in for some x-rays and we'll come up with a treatment plan together. Does that sound okay?"

"Perfect." Benjamin answers, sounding calmer than Briar would expect of a nineteen year old with a broken bone. Then again, he's a college student with a hockey scholarship, so hospital visits aren't exactly a foreign concept. "The doctor just in here said she thought it was an oblique fracture, I'm really hoping she's wrong."

"Hmm, let me take a look." She shoots him a smile, moving to the end of the bed to start her examination. Instantly, she has to work to control her facial expressions. "Well, good news, I believe this to be a stable ankle fracture, which is why you thought it was a sprain, because your foot has rolled to the inside. I'm going to get you in for an x-ray to see exactly what we're looking at."

"Oh, good." The fiancée breathes out, both of them looking deeply relieved. She smiles gently at them, already working to schedule the test.

"I'm going to bring the nurse back in here, her name is Michelle. She's going to bring you to the x-ray, and she's going to get you set up with pain management. She'll take care of you, and I'll be back in to speak with you once we get the results. If I'm needed before then, have Michelle page me and I'll be here as quickly as possible."

"Thank you." The fiancée–Amelia, a pretty name–says with a grateful smile, one that Briar returns. It quickly falls off her face as she goes to find the intern who did the intake, a Dr. Barlowe.

With Michelle's help, she finds the intern, giving her a quick look over before going over. She seems vaguely familiar, although Briar hasn't worked with her before. She's talking to one of Briar's favorite nurses, Tyler, and looks amused by what he's saying. She's pretty, with long black hair and a heart shaped face.

"Hi, Dr. Barlowe, is it?" Briar asks, making her way over and shaking her hand. She's greeted with a smile and a nod, her dark brown eyes wide as she looks at Briar. "Hi, Tyler."

"Dr. Sinclair, hi, I've been wanting to meet y–" She starts, sounding nervous, but Briar quickly cuts her off. She plans to make this quick, she has other patients to see and an entire E.R. to run.

"You told the patient in bed 3 that he had an oblique fracture?" Briar questions, watching her face fall as she realizes what's going on.

"Uh, I told him, um, that he might–"

"Stop talking. Rule number one as an intern: don't diagnose patients without your resident around." She says firmly, making her eyes drop to the floor as she nods her head. "I know that you didn't misdiagnose him on purpose. This is a learning hospital, and you're an intern: mistakes are going to happen. I'm not trying to embarrass you."

When her eyes meet Briar's again, Briar makes sure to maintain eye contact. "Now, what I want you to do is to go to the orthopedic learning lab. I'll tell your resident, and this isn't a punishment. You're going to stay there until you feel confident that you know the signs of all the different bone fractures, and then you're going to come find me and explain where you went wrong."

She rushes away and Briar rolls her eyes when Tyler whistles, having watched the whole thing.

"What?" She asks him, but he just shakes his head, looking amused.

"Nothing! Just, this is why your intern group did the best out of your class of residents. You've perfected that stern but nice act, and you actually teach them." He says, Briar smiling to herself. It honestly wasn't that much of a compliment, seeing as her friend's barely actually taught their interns last year, but she'll take it.

"You flatter me." Briar answers with an over dramatic wink. "Fine, I'll bring you a coffee later." She sighs out, laughing when he cheers as he moves away to do his own work, Briar heading in the opposite direction.

✦

"Lexie? Why do you have Callie's phone?" Briar asks when Lexie picks up right before the call could go to voicemail, frowning in confusion.

"She has chicken pox." Lexie explains, her voice high pitched, and Briar bites back a laugh as she hears Callie shouting at her in the background. "No, Callie, I can't take your gauze paws off!"

Briar does laugh at that, doing her best to keep it quiet since she's still in the O.R.

"Please get a picture of that, I'm begging you." Briar says, before remembering why she called. "Alright, tell me what room you're in. I'm going to send an intern with some x-rays and my plan to treat, I want to make sure Callie agrees with me."

"Will do!" Lexie chirps, and then: "Callie, please stop!"

Briar is still chuckling as she gets off the phone, before going to find an intern to hand the case files off to. She has to say, she loves working in a learning hospital: it's a lot less leg work for her.

✦

"And you walked them through the treatment plan?" Dr. Hunt asks, Briar nodding her head. "Okay, that's great. I see that. . . all but one of the URTI patients has been discharged."

"Dr. Davis is in with his last one." She explains, pointing over to where he's currently speaking with his patient.

"Well, that is good. However, why did I get a complaint that you stole an intern?" Owen questions, sounding more intrigued and amused than anything else.

"Oh, because I did. Dr. Barlowe misdiagnosed the ankle fracture in front of the patient. I sent her to the learning lab. She'll come down when she feels confident in her knowledge of bone fractures and their symptoms, and I told her I would be quizzing her."

"Well . . . Alright, then." He says slowly, before giving her a small smile. "I have to say that I'm impressed. Go on, have lunch, and come back here after."

When Briar does just that, it's with a skip to her step. It takes her a few too many minutes to find her friends, and she can't help her confusion as she slowly walks into the room, blinking at Alex, Cristina, Meredith and Jackson.

"Why are we eating lunch by a dead body?" Briar asks, completely confused, even as she moves to set her lunchbox next to Cristina's tray. She makes sure not to be in the spitting range of Alex, annoyed that she has to consciously do that. "Also, why is Jackson eating with us?"

"Wow, I feel so welcome." Jackson responds with a scoff, Briar giving him a sarcastic smile.

"Don't you normally eat with Pixie Cut and Percy Weasley?" She questions, genuinely confused on why he would want to eat with them instead of his super annoying friends. Actually, that just answered her question for her.

"Grey and I are on the whipple surgery." Jackson says, although he does laugh at the nicknames she's given his friends first.

"Ooh, you're doing a whipple?" Briar asks, turning to Meredith, understanding now why they're eating lunch with a corpse. It's morbid, but it makes sense.

"Who cares?" Cristina bursts out, glaring at Briar when she slowly turns to face her. "My question is more important?"

"What is your question?" Briar asks her, amused when Meredith sighs loudly.

"She's on this thing–"

"Okay, if you had to choose between the thing you love–surgery–and the person you love, which would you choose?" Cristina asks, making Briar freeze with her fork halfway to her mouth.

"You would choose Izzie, right?" Meredith pointedly asks Alex, ignoring the disgusted face Briar makes. "Because you two are gonna get back together!"

"Shut up." Alex says, Briar sighing at him speaking with his mouth full. She should really be used to it by now, but it's just so disgusting.

"Yeah, I've lost my appetite." Briar groans, although she doesn't put her food away. She knows better than to not eat when she gets a minute to at work.

"Wait, why do you have to choose?" Jackson asks.

"It doesn't matter, you just do." Cristina declares. "Which is it–surgery or love?"

"I want both." Jackson decides, Meredith agreeing with him, but Briar tilts her head to the side as she considers the question.

"No, you–you can't have both." Cristina explains quickly, making Jackson start protesting.

"Why the hell not?"

"Why the hell is he here?" Cristina retaliates, Briar laughing while Jackson just smirks. Meredith explains what Jackson has already explained, about being in the whipple, while Briar quickly looks away from him.

How the fuck does he make chewing on a carrot sexy? She questions to herself, feeling slightly crazy. She needs to get laid, like, yesterday if this is turning her on.

"Okay, whatever." Cristina changes the subject, Briar exchanging a smirk with Alex. "Once again, you cannot have both, you have to choose. Sleeping Beauty, what's your decision?"

"Surgery." Briar decides, not thinking too hard about it. Cristina throws her arms up in celebration, and then gives her a high five. "I'd choose surgery. I've chosen surgery."

She chose surgery, Kelly chose firefighting, and they're still close friends. Also, Stella is smoking. It was clearly the right call, and Briar thinks she would make it again.

"You get me! Alex, your turn. You have to choose." Cristina says, just as the door opens and Briar's current least favorite person walks in.

"Choose what?" Izzie asks from the doorway, Briar slowly spinning her chair around to face her. The room goes silent, and Briar turns to look at Jackson, who looks the most amused out of everyone. He's definitely getting a free show with a side of lunch.

"Uh, my. . . My pet-scan got pushed back an hour," Izzie explains, slowly walking into the room. Her eyes are on Alex, who is pointedly looking away from her. "So I thought I'd. . . join you for lunch."

When Cristina waves her over, Briar spins away in her chair, making her way over to Jackson and Meredith's side of the room. She leaves her lunch behind: she's not the slightest bit hungry now, although she takes great joy in stealing a carrot from Jackson's tray, the man only rolling his eyes at her before they both turn back to the show happening in front of them.

"Okay. That." Cristina points directly at where Meredith is still practicing for her surgery, everyone turning to look at her. "You have to give up that–learning the procedure, tuning out the world until you get it, like, you know, doing the procedure is the only thing that matters, like if you don't get to do it, you'll die!"

Briar nods along to that, smiling to herself. That's exactly how surgery feels for her. It's the most amazing thing in the world, and it makes all the sleepless nights, all the stress and anxiety, all the horrible headaches from nonstop research, completely worth it.

"For what?" Izzie asks. Briar ignores her, moving so that she's in-between Jackson and Meredith, watching her friend's every move. The whipple is so much more interesting than Isobel Stevens.

"Love." Everyone but Jackson chimes in, making him chuckle.

"That's what I said." He tells Izzie, getting a nudge and a glare from Briar. What? He mouths at her, frowning, and she just shakes her head.

"Okay, that's not the point!" Cristina exclaims, throwing her arms to the side as she looks at them all. Briar steals one of Meredith's carrots this time, scrutinizing the corpse that the food is a little too close to, before shrugging and eating it anyway. "You know you couldn't do it. You know you'd choose the procedure."

"Fine! If I had to choose, gun to my head, I would choose surgery, okay?" Meredith says, giving Cristina a sarcastic smile. Briar hums, nodding her agreement.

"Okay, well, thank you." Cristina exclaims, "Is that so hard to say? I don't know, why is it so bad to say that out loud?"

"Because it's crazy." Izzie says softly. "It's crazy. Surgery–it's just a job. It's just a job. It's the thing you come home from, not the thing you come home to. And if you lose your job, you get another one, 'cause there's always another one. But. . . if you lose your love. . . if you think you're losing your love. . . well, then suddenly nothing else matters."

"This is what you guys talk about during lunch?" Jackson asks, making Briar laugh.

"Not normally, although we are normally very dark and twisty. I'm still with Cristina, by the way." She says, meaning it. Izzie scoffs loudly, finally pulling her gaze away from Alex, glaring at Briar.

"Oh, really?" She asks, Briar arching an eyebrow as she waits to hear what crazy thing Izzie is going to say now. "So, if Kelly walked through those doors right now, wanting you back, you would say 'no, sorry, surgery is too important to me.' and send him home?"

"Uh, duh." Briar said with a laugh, amused by where Izzie was taking this. "We're divorced, remember? We divorced because we both cared more about our jobs, and that's okay. We're close friends now." She says, pointedly looking at Alex while talking about divorce, before pausing. "Actually. . ."

"See!" Izzie cries, getting excited, but Briar waves her down.

"No, you're still wrong. I'm just saying that I wouldn't send him away without having sex first." She explains casually, making Jackson laugh and give her a fist bump. She winks back, before turning to Izzie.

"Honestly, I'd be pissed if he tried to leave his super sexy, super hardcore firefighter girlfriend to try and win me over. Seriously, she's smoking. And the things she does with her tongue," Briar moans just thinking about it, exaggerating the sound when it makes Izzie twitch.

Making her angry is just so much fun.

"Wait, you've had sex with your ex-husband's current girlfriend?" Jackson asks, sounding shocked, and Briar coos at him mockingly.

"Dude, I've had so many threesomes with them. They're both hot, I'm hot, and the three of us in bed together is heaven on earth."

"So you'd rather have pathetic threesomes with your ex husband and his actual lover than experience real love for yourself?" Izzie snaps just as Briar starts laughing at the look on Jackson's face. Guys are so easy to get riled up, Briar loves it. "You'd throw everything away for some stupid career?"

"Okay, do not call my threesome pathetic. They're sexy and you wish you were in on them. I know some people that would pay for a foursome with us. Also, just 'cause you got fired doesn't mean you get to act like this job isn't worthwhile." Briar snaps, sitting up straight, finally done. "Yes I have and will put this job over any relationship. I didn't go to two different universities and put everything I have into this job, just to wash it down the drain for some man or woman. The work we do is important: it's important to the patients, it's important to their families, and it's important to me. I would think you'd understand that, but I guess you're too busy breaking every rule–"

"Oh, so that's what this is about! You're still mad about Denny!" Izzie shouts, making Briar stand up as she raises her voice as well.

"YES! I'm still mad about Denny, and every rule you've broken since then!" Briar snaps, glowering at the woman in front of her and ignoring Meredith as she tries to tug her back down. "Honestly? I'm glad you got fired. You cost a patient their life, and you deserved to be fired for that! You should've been fired the second you cut a patient's–a patient you fell in love with, by the way, do you have any idea how wrong that is– LVAD's! But the real reason that I haven't liked you for a long, long time, Izzie, is that you never take responsibility for your actions."

"You cut the LVAD. We covered for you. I didn't lie and say I did it, but I also didn't snitch on you, because of my own stupid rules about loyalty! I wanted to, I wanted to so badly, but I didn't! And I didn't say anything about it, I didn't yell at you, because Denny died and you were a wreck. But you didn't really take responsibility then, and you never learned how to, and I am sick and tired of picking up the pieces you drop." Briar finishes, her chest heaving, to complete silence in the room.

"I thought we were friends." Izzie whispers, and Briar has to shut her eyes for a second.

"We were." She answers, completely honest. "We were Izzie, but I can't be friends with someone who can't accept responsibility for their actions. You blame everyone around you for everything, and it's–it's childish. It's childish. And I am genuinely sorry that your life has turned into what it has–I'm sorry you lost Denny, I'm sorry you got cancer, I'm sorry about George and every bad thing you've gone through. But you can't use all of it as an excuse. You don't get to abandon your friends, your husband, and refuse to answer any of our calls, texts, emails, goddamn Facebook messages! You don't get to crawl back and expect your old life back with no consequences. You're an adult, Izzie, act like one."

"Really? You're going to shove George and my cancer in my face?" Izzie snaps, apparently not actually listening to what Briar is saying, and Briar sighs as she runs a hand down her face. "Wow. Talk about loyal–"

"I'm not rubbing anything in. We all lost George, and we almost lost you, in the same night! And I know that you two were close, I understand that, but it doesn't mean that you're the only one who can grieve. And, you know what, I have been loyal to you. I pushed all my feelings aside to be there for you, time and time again. We all have been nothing but good friends to you! We slept in your hospital room when we weren't on shift, or in the hallway outside of your room. We held your hair back when you puked and we kept a constant watch incase of a heart attack and–and we would do it again! Because we are loyal. I would do it even though I honestly kind of hate you now. I want you to be healthy, Izzie, I do. I hope your pet-scan goes well. I hope you live a full, wonderful life; I just don't want to be a part of it."

With that, she plops back down, reaching over and stealing more of Jackson's vegetables. He slowly pushes his tray, and the table it's on, closer to her, his eyes wide at her outburst. She munches angrily on her carrots, trying to calm her heart rate down, which is when Alex speaks up.

"I'm with them. Love comes and goes." He says, staring directly at Izzie. "Surgery doesn't."

Before anyone can say anything else, all watching as Izzie's eyes start to water, both Alex and Cristina's pagers go off and they quickly leave. Briar watches them go with interest: she wants to know about their case, but she definitely doesn't want to subject herself to Annoying Singing Guy.

"You choose love." Izzie says to herself, just as Meredith cheers, doing a fist pump.

"Yes! I just did a perfect dissection without lacerating the portal vein." Meredith cheers herself on, showing off to Jackson and Briar. Briar claps for her, honestly meaning it even as she exaggerates to make Jackson laugh.

"You gonna do that little fist pump in surgery, too?" Jackson asks with a smirk, making Briar laugh as she pictures it. Bailey would freak. Out of the corner of her eye, Briar watches Izzie leave the room, shrugging at the look Meredith gives her once she's gone.

"What? I was honest." Briar says, honestly not feeling guilty about it.

"We live together." Meredith sighs, and Briar snorts.

"You actually think she'll stick around? I don't." She points out, and then gathers up her abandoned lunch. "I gotta go, I'm back to covering the pit. See y'all later."

"Did she just say y'all?" She hears Jackson asking as she leaves the room, grinning to herself. She thinks her lunch was pretty successful.

✦

"Briar! Come here, quick." Owen hisses, making Briar turn around and rush over to where he's standing peeking out of one of the supply closets. He grabs her and pulls her inside, taking a quick glance down the hall before quietly shutting the door behind him.

Briar blinks in the darkness before Owen switches on the light, and then she just waits for instructions.

"Quick, grab as much as you can." He tells her, ducking down to grab handfuls of supplies. Briar watches him for a minute, before deciding to just go along with it, and grabs the most helpful items she sees. She's still not sure what this is for, but she's willing to go with the flow.

They end up in the doctors' lounge, where they quickly get caught.

"Are you stealing sterile supplies?" Derek questions them from his seat on the chair, making Briar jump and almost drop the items in her hand.

"Jesus! Why are you sitting in the dark you creep!" She hisses at him, before turning and following her boss to the closet, where he starts hiding their stolen goods.

"I need sterile instruments." Owen says firmly, grabbing another handful from Briar, who turns and shrugs at Derek. "I'm not gonna get caught with my pants down because this hospital can't get–"

"I get it." Derek interrupts, holding a hand up to make Owen stop talking. Briar makes her way to the coffee machine: it's not as good as the coffee cart, but she'll take it. She makes quick work of making hers and Owen's the way they like it–Derek already has a cup– while listening to the two talk, always eager to overhear hospital gossip.

"I want to do something. . ." Derek says, sounding conflicted, and Briar listens carefully as she adds sugar to her cup before pouring the coffee. "Something I. . . think is. . . I have a responsibility. But I just. . ."

"What's stopping you?" Owen asks.

"Meredith."

"Ah." Owen says, before moving to sit on the arm of the couch. "The other half of the Twisted Sister's."

That startles a laugh out of Briar, who hands Owen his cup of coffee and takes her time finishing making hers. If the conversation gets too personal, she'll leave, but she's enjoying the peace of the moment.

"Is that what you call Meredith and Cristina–the Twisted Sisters?" Derek asks, chuckling to himself, Owen joining in. "Well, that fits."

"So this. . . this thing." Owen says, nudging Derek into talking about it again. Briar sips her coffee, surprised Owen hasn't tried kicking her out of the room yet.

"I could come out of it looking, uh, pretty bad." Derek says, his tone serious again. "Like I did it for the wrong reasons, like I did it. . . for myself."

"You're not." Briar says, startling when they both turn to face her. "I don't know what you're talking about and I don't expect you to tell me, but it's clear that this is something that worries you. And I think . . . I think you have to do what you can live with."

Derek nods slowly at her words, processing them, before turning to Owen for his advice. Owen stares at him for a long second before nodding his head.

"You know, in my experience, nobody goes into a battle because they want to win a Purple Heart." Owen says slowly, making Briar smile slightly. She's used to him making military references, and she's found that she's come to enjoy them. "You do the right thing, and sometimes that gets you a medal, and sometimes it gets you killed."

Well alright then.

"How do you know it's the right thing?" Derek asks.

"When it's the best thing for the most people." Owen answers, Briar making a mental note to try and remember that. It's great advice. "The thing that. . . keeps the most people alive."

✦

"I told her to leave." Alex's voice makes Briar look up from where she's drawing, trying to stay awake in order to not completely destroy her sleep schedule. Not that she has a good one: she's a surgical resident, she takes sleep when she can get it, not during set hours.

"What?"

"Izzie. She came to the residents' lounge, after her pet-scan, and showed me the results. She's good, really good." Briar hums, genuinely relieved to hear that. Cancer is a beast, and she wouldn't wish that on her worst enemy. Certainly not on someone who was once her friend.

Alex comes over, Briar moving over so that he can have his preferred side of her bed. She throws her sketchbook and charcoal onto her bedside table, grimacing when the charcoal pen slides onto the floor. Chances are she'll break it by stepping on it later. Alex wastes no time in laying down next to her, stretching out and staring up at the glow in the dark stars on her ceiling. They put them up there one night while drunk.

"That's good to know." She says, and she really does mean it. She hopes he knows that.

"Yeah. And I just. . . I would've jumped for the chance to have her back, even a few weeks ago, y'know?" He asks, and she nods, because she does know that. "She came back, and she wanted to make it work with me, but I just couldn't do it. I–It took me a while to find my footing without her, but I'm happy. I'm really happy. So I told her to leave: her stuff's already out of her old room. She's gone and I'm relieved."

Briar isn't quite sure what to say about that, so she just reaches over and grabs his hand, pulling herself closer to him. She ends up with her head on his chest, and smiles into his shirt, relieved that she's not losing this. Because the Alex of a few months ago would've done anything to have Izzie Stevens back, including leaving his job and home for her, but this one. . .

This Alex knows his worth.

"I love you." She says into his shirt, the words muffled.

"I love you too." He says, honest, and Briar smiles again. The two of them have a hard time saying those words to other people, and sometimes with each other, so when they do say it, it almost means more. They genuinely mean it when they say it.

"I don't think I would've gotten through these months without you." Alex says, his voice almost a whisper, like he doesn't want her to actually hear him.

"You would've." Briar decides, believing it. "You would've, Alex. You're strong. But I'm glad I could help. I'll always be here."

She believes that too.

She waits until he falls asleep, listening to him snore and feeling the rise and fall of his chest, before she slowly reaches for her abandoned phone. It only takes a minute to find the phone number she's looking for, staring for a long few minutes at the contact before slowly typing out a message.

To: Dr. Model <3
I meant every word earlier. I'm glad your scans went okay; please take care of yourself. There were good memories too. I'm going to hold onto that. Have a good life, Iz.

✦

authors note:
it always bothers me that lexie was helping the sloan's. she's way too close to it, and she was antagonizing sloan (i love her, i understand her feelings, but they need to be set aside when the girl is your patient. not the time, or the place, to be bugging her to move out.)

another thing i didn't like was the way MAGIC—well, minus george— treated their interns. they barely taught them, and when they did it was mostly reluctantly. they had just stopped being interns and were instantly not teaching them, annoyed at their presence, cristina called hers by numbers, etc. it's a good show of how power gets to people's heads at least. also, it didn't make sense for them to get interns: that should've been for more than second-year residents. but i digress.

there will be a few OC news, doctors, interns. most of them aren't going to get face claims or anything; they're mostly background characters. i'll give them personalities when we see them, but they're mostly there as fillers. because there's more than like 10 doctors working in this hospital.

also, im going to be changing some things in the plot. i'm going to be adding in cases & patients; some borrowed from other tv shows, some made up by me. i don't want briar just stealing someone else's lines and plot points constantly. i want to make this realistic, like she is actually a doctor at SGMW, and every presence changes things. so be prepared for some differences in relationships, etc. if you don't like that, don't read this— go watch the show or read a different fic where they just steal someone's personality. no offense to writers who don't change things— write your story the way YOU want to, that's all that matters. i just don't want the "but this never happened in the show" comments ive seen on too many fics for other fandoms.

once again, i think it's clear that im not an izzie fan. i know that argument might seem kind of out of left field, but it's been brewing for years for briar. she's tired, she's upset, and she's pissed that her best friends wife keeps disappearing and reappearing. i'd snap too. also, i've always hated that izzie never took responsibility. even with denny, when she does admit to cutting the LVAD's, nothing really happens. she quits and everyone just feels bad for her. yes, it's sad that denny died, but come on! she got in a relationship with a PATIENT; she cut his LVAD's; she stole a heart... and that's just it basically. i understand that it's a tv show, so it's focused on relationships in drama, but if that happened in real life she would've been fired, had her medical license taken, and that's not getting into the potential legal ramifications.

i am not a fan. but she's gone, so yay!!!

i love the speech alex gives izzie so much, and i just try to ignore the way his character gets butchered in the end. but him choosing himself is so important to me <3 i also hope it's clear that im not making it so he chose briar over izzie, or anything like that. he very much chose his happiness over his failing marriage, she's just a part of that happiness as his best friend—or, since this is greys, his person. <3

okay this was a super long AN and i don't anyone read it, but i am so thankful for the people voting and reading this. i'd love to talk to all of you, so if you have anything to say, please do so!! i love any and all comments, and i really love getting to know people
on here.