Cristina and Meredith join her at the nurses desk, and Briar glances over at them for a second before going back to signing outpatient forms. Meredith is glowing, looking thrilled about something, while Cristina looks distracted.

"I finally understand the complexities of postobstructive pulmonary edema." Meredith brags, and Briar smiles to herself, flipping over the chart and signing the next page.

"Callie?" Briar asks, getting an eager nod from Meredith.

"Yes! I've been up since 4 am, studying for the boards with her. Since 4 am!" She tells them, still smiling. "I haven't seen my husband or my baby since yesterday. I don't even care, because Callie blew my mind!"

"Yeah, she's a genius." Briar agrees with a proud smile.

"She blew my mind." Meredith repeats, her eyes wide. "My hair is on fire! I mean, literal flames shooting out of my head."

"Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's really–" Cristina murmurs, staring across the room. Briar follows her gaze but doesn't see anything out of the ordinary to be staring at. "Whatever. You know what? I'm gonna catch up with you later."

"I mean, she's that good! I'm gonna kill the boards! I'm gonna make the boards my bitch!" Meredith gloats, and Briar looks at Cristina once more before following her, linking arms with Meredith.

"We are gonna make the boards our bitch." She corrects her with a smirk. "Hey, you want to meet up later and go over notes from Callie?"

"Yes!" Meredith squeals. "Yes, oh my god. I can't believe you've been hiding your genius mentor this whole time."

"Hey, it's not my fault if you didn't see the genius before." Briar tells her with a laugh, already mentally going over the notes she can show Meredith.

"Well, I'm not blind to it anymore." Meredith says with pride, just as they arrive at the elevator, bumping into Cristina when she suddenly stops in front of it.

"Uh, ow." Briar complains, despite not actually getting hurt.

"What are we doing?" Meredith questions when Cristina turns around.

"Nothing." She says firmly, while Briar and Meredith share a look with each other.

"You look weird." Meredith says, forgetting all about her excitement.

"Why do you look weird?" Briar asks, frowning.

"I do not look weird." Cristina tells them. "You were talking about . . . uh, the boards." Her head is down as she racks her memory, and Briar feels her concern grow.

"Who cares about the boards?" She asks dismissively, even though she very much cares about the boards.

"I was talking about what a good teacher Callie is, and you weren't listening." Meredith says.

"No, I–I was listening."

"What did I say?" Meredith challenges her, but her gaze is focused over their shoulders. Briar bites her lip, fighting the urge to turn around, not wanting to make it obvious if Cristina is looking at someone. "Cristina?"

"Are you feeling alright?" Briar questions, lifting a hand to feel her forehead and getting it slapped down.

"Your hair is on fire, Callie is that good, the boards are your bitch." Cristina repeats some of what Meredith has been saying, sounding exhausted. "I–I gotta go."

She leaves the two of them standing there, and Briar exchanges a concerned look with Meredith.

"Owen?" She asks, and Meredith sighs loudly.

"It has to be. She hasn't mentioned anything to me, though." Meredith sounds hurt by this, since she normally knows what's happening with Cristina.

"I'm sure she will. In the meantime, I'm starting up an I Hate Owen Hunt club. You in?" She asks, relieved when a smile lights up Meredith's face again.

"Bitch, I'm co-founder." She scoffs playfully, laughing when Briar holds her hands up in defense. "Where do we meet?"

"My room, later tonight? I couldn't get access to a dank church basement fast enough." She jokes with a pout.

"I'll be there." Meredith promises, laughing as she walks away, and Briar heads to the pit, almost laughing when she sees Owen, who's as moody as ever.

✦

An espresso machine explodes at a cafe, giving them a handful of patients with various injuries, a majority of them burns. Jackson and Mark take the patient with second-degree burns to the neck, head, and face, while Meredith and Briar take the next patient.

"37 year old male, hypotensive in the field, resolved with fluids. Open proximal humerus fracture and multiple lacerations and abrasions." The paramedic reports to them. Meredith starts looking at the lacerations while Briar focuses on the fracture.

"An espresso machine did this?" Meredith questions incredulously.

"Blew him clear across the shop and into some shelves." She explains. Briar winces at the thought. "And the parts that didn't hit him went through the wall and into the next store."

"Remind me to never become a barista again." Briar says with a grimace, before turning to the nurse in the room. "We need a complete X-ray and CT."

"Page Dr. Hunt." Meredith tacks on, continuing the patient examination while Briar immobilizes his arm, not wanting to risk nerve damage before she can operate. "He's got shrapnel in his chest. Let's page cardio."

"Angie? Is Angie okay?" He questions, speaking through the pain.

"Who's Angie? Is that your wife?" Meredith asks gently, putting on her stethoscope to continue the physical exam, while Briar starts cleaning the lacerations, wanting to make sure there isn't more damage that they haven't noticed.

"My barista." He answers, his breathing labored.

Briar shares a look with Meredith, amused. That's a story she wants to hear.

✦

Briar tries not to be annoyed when Meredith pages Callie for their patient. She knows that Meredith does it out of respect for the attending, and a desire to watch her work, but Briar has taken on much more complicated cases than this one by herself.

"Out of the way, Grey. I need to get in there." Callie orders as she enters the room, coming to stand next to Briar.

"We've got a white out on the right. Yang, chest tube." Owen tells Cristina, who is standing on the patient's other side, checking his respirations.

"Sure." She agrees, moving to work on that. "Rough night last night?"

"Hmm?"

"You didn't come home." Cristina continues, and Briar gives Meredith a quick glance, seeing that she's completely focused on Cristina's conversation.

"Oh yeah. Uh, M.V.C. I texted, but, uh, you must've been asleep." Owen tells her, still focused on the charts.

"Okay, Devin, we are gonna give you some pain meds." Meredith tells their patient. "And we're gonna put a tube in your chest that will drain the blood, and you will start to feel a lot better."

"I just ran into Teddy." Callie tells Owen, while Briar works on his shoulder. "She said that she blew her pitch to the board this morning. It might be nice if you backed her up, you know?"

Doesn't exactly make up for lying to her about her husband's death, Briar thinks to herself, tired of Owen acting like a victim about the situation. He's all pouty because Teddy doesn't want to be his friend anymore. Briar understands not wanting to inform her while there's a patient that could die in her O.R., but going into the room multiple times to tell her how well the surgery went while Henry's body was being prepped for the morgue is just cruel. Plain and simple.

Briar would never forgive that.

"Pulse is faint on the left. I need a C.T. angio." Callie tells them, smiling when Briar tells her that she already ordered one.

"Okay, Devin, once we get this tube in, we're gonna take you to C.T." Owen tells him. "Do you have any family we need to contact?"

"My parents are old. I don't want to worry them." Devin explains. "If you could just let Angie know I'm okay. She's probably worried."

"I'm sorry, who's Angie?" Callie asks.

"Uh, the burned barista in trauma 1." Meredith starts to explain before a nurse comes in and tells her that Dr. Webber is in the E.R.

Likely place for him to be, Briar thinks with amusement that disappears when he repeats himself.

"No, he's in the E.R." He says, letting them know that he's a patient.

"Let us know how he is!" Briar calls after her while she leaves the room, sharing a worried look with the others before they get back to work.

✦

Briar gets sent on a coffee run.

Devin is heading into surgery with Meredith and Callie, while Callie wants Briar in the pit in case other cases come in. Somehow, working in the pit became 'bring Angie a cappuccino from Devin' instead. Cristina was going to do it, but Briar stepped in since her friend has been distracted all day, and she doubts she has the presence of mind for coffee runs at the moment.

"Knock knock." She announces her presence verbally, getting an amused smile from both Mark and Jackson. She returns it before focusing on the patient on the hospital bed. Jackson is in the process of applying burn cream to her face and neck, and Briar hopes she gets out of this with minimal scarring. "Delivery from Devin, if you want it."

Briar wouldn't want coffee after getting horribly burned from an espresso machine, but what does she know?

When Angie just looks at her, Briar gives her an awkward smile, not too sure what to say. "He's heading into surgery right now, but he wanted me to bring you this as a gift."

"Devin?" She asks, sounding confused.

"Uh, yeah, he said that you've been flirting for a while now." Briar tells her, uncomfortable now. Does she really not know him, or is there something wrong with her memory? "Did you hit your head at all?"

"I–I don't know a Devin." Angie tells her, frowning and then wincing when it pulls at one of the burns.

"He's a customer that comes in every day, apparently." Briar explains, grimacing when Angie still looks confused. "Um, he said that you started drawing leaves on top of his coffee? He thought you were flirting with him."

"I–I have to make those leaves for everybody." Angie says, shaking her head. "It's a new company policy. I definitely haven't been flirting with anyone."

"Gotcha." Briar says slowly. "Well, I'm sorry for confusing you. Just . . . you might want to be careful, if you go back to that job. He seemed really convinced that there was a vibe between you two."

Briar doesn't tell her any of the comments he made about their supposed sexual tension, not wanting to distress her more than she already is.

"Thanks." Angie tells her, before wincing when Jackson applies more of the cream to her forehead.

"I'll take it." Mark chips in, shrugging when Briar looks at him. "What? I doubt you want it."

"It's all yours." Briar says with a laugh, setting it on the table. She's halfway out of the room when Mark calls her back in. "Yeah?"

"What are you doing tonight?" Mark asks her, and Briar is intrigued by how red Jackson's face turns in about five seconds.

"Uh, babysitting Zola, probably." Briar tells him, since that's what her life has come down to. She was supposed to go on a date with Jackson tonight, but he rescheduled so that he can get more studying in. "They haven't had a date night in a while, so I might surprise them with a free babysitter. Don't mention anything to them, 'cause with my luck I'll end up pulling another double."

"How would you like to go on a date with my man here, instead?" He asks, gesturing at Jackson, who gives him a mortified look in return. "I promise he'll make it worth your while."

"Did you hit your head?" Briar asks him slowly, genuinely confused by the suggestion. "We've been dating for months now."

"Yeah, but he's been so focused on studying with me for the boards, and you've been so busy studying with Callie. You both need to get laid." He says it bluntly, and Briar watches Jackson's face turn redder than Briar has ever seen it, knowing that her face must be doing the same. Angie looks like she's about to start laughing from where she's being mostly ignored, since Jackson has stopped applying the cream to her.

"Why are you doing this?" Briar asks in disbelief.

"Well, Jackson here is too shy to do anything about it, and I can't deal with him being snarky because he hasn't been getting any." Mark tells her, sounding proud of himself.

"Right." Briar says blankly, grabbing the coffee from the table and backing up to the doorway. "You know what, I'm taking this back. You don't get coffee. Bye!"

The laughter starts when she's halfway down the hall, having dropped the coffee off at the nurse's desk for Emily, who's been on more trauma rotations. They have this thing where they jokingly flirt back and forth, and they've progressed to gift giving— mostly snacks from the vending machine, which totally counts as far as Briar is concerned.

✦

"That's not my point!" Lexie exclaims, frowning at Alex. She's on a peds rotation, and has been helping Alex with the care of Morgan's incredibly premature baby. "I can't believe that they're not gonna do anything. I mean, they are basically giving this kid a death sentence. Chris just wants to get back to his residency, and Morgan is too weak to even think straight."

"The parents have made up their minds." Alex snaps back. Briar shakes her head at them, not asking questions since she's sure she won't like the answer. "Just let me eat my food in peace."

"Ali doesn't even have any parents, as far as I can see." Lexie shoots back. Briar frowns at that, even as she hands Jackson a new stack of flashcards. He has headphones over his ears, listening to music as he tries to block out their talking so that he can study. "And you know what? She is your intern. You need to step up!"

"Give me those." Alex says, standing up and pulling the headphones off of Jackson's head, while he protests the move and tries to stop him from grabbing them. "She won't shut up."

"No, I'm studying!" He protests, pushing them back to cover his ears again and glaring at Alex, and then at Briar when she laughs at him.

"Sorry, babe, but you looked funny." She laughs at him, the noise amplifying when he flips her off before going back to studying.

"Okay, look, all I am saying is–" Lexie starts, getting cut off by a frustrated Alex.

"Look, let it go, Lexie!"

"All I am saying is," She repeats herself, louder this time, silencing Alex. "Parents did not decide his treatment plan, doctors did. Math did!"

Briar and Alex watch her storm off, her chair quickly getting taken by Meredith, who is beaming again.

"Hey, so it turns out Devin needs a thoracotomy." She tells them, stealing Alex's chips and ignoring him when he tries to stop her. Cristina doesn't look up, staring across the room. Briar follows her gaze again, surprised when she sees her staring at a table full of nurses. "Your surgery?"

Cristina nods before looking right back to the nurses table.

"Remember Devin? Likes coffee, is in love with his barista?" Meredith prompts, and Briar perks up at that.

"He's in unrequited love with his barista." She gossips, leaning forward. "She has no idea he exists!"

"Wait, what? She doesn't know him?" Meredith asks her, looking at Cristina, expecting her to also be intrigued. Briar isn't surprised when her gaze remains unfocused. "What about me? Remember me?"

Cristina ignores her still, scooting her chair closer to Alex's and talking to him instead. "Hey, um, have you, uh, hit that?"

"Which that?" He asks back, turning to look at the table.

"That–the brown haired that."

"Oh, the that with the brown hair and the nice ass and the perfect–"

"Teeth." Briar and Cristina both finish for him, all of them looking at Emily.

"Have you?" Cristina continues, impatient.

"Uh, no. Mnh-mnh. She only goes for the attendings." Alex explains. "Next year."

"Stay away from my girl." Briar jokes with him, swatting at his shoulder. "Leave my favorite nurses alone!"

"She's your favorite nurse?" Cristina asks next, switching to interrogating her.

"Tyler is my favorite nurse." She corrects. "And BokHee. Then Connor, and Alaina, and–"

"Who cares about them?" Cristina snaps at her, leaning across the table. "What do you know about her?"

"Uh, her name is Emily." Briar tells her, frowning now. "Why are you so concerned about her? You normally ignore the nurses."

"Oh, save the lecture for another day, no one here cares." Cristina dismisses her, having heard Briar tell her to respect the nurses more multiple times by now. Briar stands by it: they do a lot for this hospital, and Briar's life has been greatly improved by forming friendships with them. "You know what? Forget it."

Briar and Meredith stare at her for a second, while she stares into her coffee cup, before Briar turns to Meredith.

"Okay, so, get this. Apparently it's store policy to make the fancy leaf designs, and not her flirting with him!"

"No way." Meredith gasps, leaning closer to her. "Tell me everything she said."

✦

Mark finds her by the vending machines, making a triumphant noise when he rounds the corner and spots her.

"What are you getting?" He asks when she turns back to the machines, her lips pursed as she tries to decide.

"Reese Pieces, I think." She decides, surprised when he inserts his own money and buys them for her. "Oh, thanks!"

Briar watches while he buys himself a granola bar, waiting him out for a minute before her impatience wins out.

"Just spit it out." She says, laughing when he immediately starts talking.

"I don't get you two." He says, clearly referring to her and Jackson. Briar doesn't respond, simply arching her eyebrows at him and waiting for him to continue. "You're both very attractive people. Jackson has the whole hypnotic eyes and fantastic bone structure thing going for him, and you–I mean, wow, I tried to hit that for a reason."

"I'm going to hit you." Briar says, failing to keep a straight face when he winks at her. "You are ridiculous."

"All I'm saying is that I don't blame him for falling for you." He says, smiling softly at her now. "I mean, those pretty brown eyes of yours would pull any guy in. And you two have this whole competitive rivalry thing going on constantly–the sexual tension is off the charts."

"Thanks." Briar says dryly, moving to leave before he pulls her back.

"All I am saying is that you two are too young and attractive to waste time." He says, and Briar nods slowly, fighting back her laughter because of how serious he is about this. "I will cover for you both for half an hour. Get your man and get laid for the good of every patient who has to be around Jackson."

"For yourself, you mean." Briar corrects, still amused.

"Briar, I have been helping him study every single day. I can't deal with his attitude anymore. Please do something about it."

"Fine." Briar gives in, shaking her head at him. "But you need to cover the pit!"

"You're a goddess!" He shouts after her, causing her to get curious looks from the nurses passing by. Briar shakes her head at them, waving her finger by her ear to signal that Mark is crazy–even as she goes to follow his advice.

She finds Jackson in an on-call room, which makes her job easier. He barely glances up at her when she slips in and locks the door behind her, immediately going back to the notecards he made with Mark, and Briar raises an eyebrow. This is worse than she thought.

She gets his attention when she pulls the headphones off of his head, setting them on the table next to him, his book and notecards quickly following.

"Did we get a case?" He asks her, moving to stand up and frowning when she pushes him back down. "I have a surgery with Mark in, like, an hour but I can do a consult. Just let me finish this set of questions and–"

"Wow, Mark was right." Briar marvels. "You really are tense."

"Is this about what he said earlier? It was totally unprofessional and–"

"Right." Briar interrupts him, giving him an amused smile. "Believe it or not, Mark knows you really well. You're tense, and snapping at patients, and way too worried about the boards, and need to get laid. I can help with at least the last thing."

Briar slips into his lap, smiling when his hands automatically come up to stabilize her, holding her waist. His focus is no longer split between her and the study cards, but he's still tense, and Briar hates that he's struggling so much even as he pulls her down into a heated kiss. While the boards are still on her mind quite often, she's not feeling anywhere near as worried as he is: that's what happens when you have the Torres Method on your side.

He's not tense by the time they leave the room, getting proud smiles from Mark as soon as he sees them, but Briar is still worried about him.

✦

"Come with me." Meredith orders as soon as she sees Briar, pulling her down the hallway.

"Ow, Mer!" Briar yelps, wincing at the way Meredith's fingers dig into her arm before she mercifully lets go. "Where are we going?"

"To figure out what's wrong with Cristina." She answers, and Briar picks up the pace, seeing Cristina lurking by the nurse's desk, once again watching Emily. She doesn't even notice the two of them next to her until Meredith grabs her and yanks her into the supply closet. Briar follows, shutting the door behind them.

"What are you doing? Stop it." Cristina complains. "OW!"

"What's the plan?" Meredith demands, while Cristina rubs her arm, turning to face them. Briar sympathizes with the pain.

"You have bony, sharp fingers. What plan? There is no plan." Cristina tells them.

"Your plan, which makes it our plan." Meredith tells her, waving between the three of them. "Whatever it is, we need to know. Are you plotting a murder, a nuclear attack? It's fine. I'll get on board–"

"We'll get on board." Briar interrupts. "Maybe. Assuming you have a good reason." She tacks on, ignoring the way Meredith hits her shoulder.

"I'm sure you have a good reason." Meredith finishes pointedly. "But just let us know! You're starting to freak us out."

Cristina's face falls, and she turns around as she sighs, clearly trying to figure out her next move. They watch her grab one of the shelves, taking deep breaths, before twisting back to face them. The devastated look on her face takes Briar's breath away, before she says the words that have them reeling.

"I think Owen is cheating on me."

"Did you see something?" Meredith asks instantly, while Briar just stares between them, her mind racing. She's spent so much time with Owen recently, working double shifts and covering the pit. Did something happen and she missed it?

"No." Cristina admits, her voice still small.

"Did someone else see something?"

"No."

"Did he do something?"

"No." Cristina groans, pacing back and forth.

"Well, then how do you know–"

"I don't know!" Cristina shouts, twisting back to face them. "I don't know! I just know. I was going to ask Briar about it later, but then you dragged me in here and–"

"You don't think Briar–" Meredith starts, sounding incredulous, but Cristina interrupts her again.

"Of course I don't think that Briar was involved. She'd never do that to me. Or to Jackson." She tacks on the Jackson part as an afterthought, while Meredith sighs with relief, and Briar nods vehemently. "I just meant that, you know, she works with him so much."

They both turn to her, and Briar swallows thickly, still struggling to process the last minute.

"Um, I haven't seen or heard anything." She answers, while Cristina sags. She looks like she can't figure out whether she should be relieved or not. "Do you–do you think he's cheating with Emily?"

"Do you think she's sleeping with him?" Cristina asks back, looking sick at the thought.

"I mean, she's a flirt." Briar says slowly, frowning. "We flirt with each other, even, so I don't mean that in a bad way. It's part of her personality. I can't really see her getting with a married man, but I'll keep an eye out. On her, and on everyone, really. Owen is going to get so sick of me, I'll be around that much."

"Please." Cristina whispers, and the tears in her eyes are killing Briar.

"Okay, back up." Meredith interrupts, but Briar ignores her.

"I can talk to Callie and spend more shifts in the pit." Briar tells her, already mentally rearranging her schedule. If she discovers anything, Owen is going to wish he was never born.

"Cristina." Meredith says firmly, and Cristina's face changes as soon as she looks at Meredith, a mask coming down over her real emotions.

"You know what? I am–I'm being crazy. I'm crazy, right?" She asks them. "This is totally . . . I'm crazy. I'm just . . . we're having a hard time, and I'm–I'm–I'm making it into . . . I'm crazy. I'm–I'm–I'm crazy."

"Okay." Meredith says after a long minute, moving forward to rub her back, since she's turned away from them. "I really think he's not cheating."

"I know that!" Cristina snaps, whipping around to face her, surprising both of them. She leaves the room after that, and Briar and Meredith look at each other for a long second before Briar leaves as well, pausing in the doorway.

"I'm still going to switch my schedule." She tells her, leaving to do just that.

✦

When Briar gets home, it's to the sight of Jackson studying in the dining room, his notes spread out all over the table. His head is in his hands, and he looks a second away from a breakdown.

"Come on, get up." She orders, grabbing a messenger bag from the hook by the front door–she's fairly sure that it originally belonged to Izzie, but it became a communal bag during their intern year and never left the house again– and starting to scoop his books and papers into it.

"What–what are you doing?" He questions, frowning when she puts his headphones in the bag as well, pulling it over her shoulder. "Seriously, I need those. Briar!"

Briar ignores him, heading upstairs to grab her own bag of notes, and a pair of headphones before going straight to the front door.

"You coming?" She asks him, smiling to herself when he rushes after her, all the way to her car and into the passenger seat.

"Where are we going?" He asks her, frowning when she drives in the opposite direction of the hospital. "Briar, no offense but I really don't have time to do anything other than study. I'm so far behind. I know you started studying last year but I waited and–"

"I know." Briar tells him calmly, reaching over and turning the radio on. "Oh, I love this song!"

He gives up on asking where they're going a few minutes into the drive, singing along to the next song with her even as he continues to look longingly at the back seat where she put their bags.

"Alright, we're here." Briar announces a minute later, pulling into the mostly empty parking lot of one of Seattle's public libraries. It's an unassuming building from the outside, with no real sign of it being a library–until you go inside, of course.

"And where exactly are we?" Jackson asks, giving her a frustrated look. "I'm really not trying to be an asshole, but I thought you were okay with us pushing date night back."

"We're at a library." She says, grabbing his bag and handing it to him before grabbing her own. "I figured you could use a change of scenery, and they have some old cases that can be fun to look through. Date night doesn't have to be fine dining restaurants. It can be me helping you not fail the boards so that I can say I'm dating a board certified surgeon in a few months."

Briar gives him a cheeky smile, surprised when he looks at her with something similar to awe.

"I'm sorry." He tells her with a sigh, slumping slightly in his seat. "I've been a bit of a brat."

"Just a little bit." Briar teases him, because he has been ignoring her a bit while he studies as frequently as possible. Briar doesn't hold it against him: she was doing the same thing with Callie until a few weeks ago. The boards are important.

"I didn't mean to ignore you." He continues, still looking pitiful. Briar shakes her head as she reaches over and grabs his face in her hands, making sure that he's properly looking at her.

"Look, I didn't bring you here to make you feel badly about caring about your future." She tells him firmly, shaking her head again when he goes to speak. "I'm serious! This is the most important test of our lives, of course we're both going to put it above our relationship. I've done it, when I wouldn't let you spend the night with me so that I could meet up with Callie in the morning. I did that multiple times a week, and you never said anything about it. Why would I throw a fit now, because you'd rather be studying than having sex? Honestly, that's kind of hot."

"How could that possibly be hot?" He asks her, giving her a strange look before he starts laughing at her.

"A man with priorities?" She asks, letting go of his cheeks so that she can fan herself, pretending to swoon. He laughs even more, playfully shoving her away from him. "Hot! Seriously, we're good. Especially because you're under more pressure than I am to pass this, being an Avery and all."

"Thanks." He says, giving her a small smile, before his eyes go back to the bag in his lap.

"Alright, let's go." She tells him, laughing when he yanks open the door and practically sprints into the building.

Briar thinks it would be impossible not to love him.

✦

there's 8 episodes left in season 8 ... i'm gonna be sick

i'm almost done with the next chapter and i did something different with the writing for it!! you get some scenes from jackson's pov :) not sure how well written they are but they've been very fun to write! it's exciting to write this story from a different perspective.

i've done a lot of planning and plotting and writing this weekend so you get the double update this week, love you guys <3