The only good thing about Valentine's Day is the amount of chocolate floating around.

Along with confetti, streamers, and every other decoration April could find while shopping for the hospital. Every available surface has something on it about it being Valentine's Day, whether it's a stuffed animal or a card. Briar is trying really hard not to be hateful about it.

"We're gonna get a zillion Valen-trauma's." April tells her, Alex and Jackson, trying to rally them up. Briar just forces a smile for her, flipping to a different chart in her hands. "I bet a few of them will be good surgeries for our boards."

"Well, it's not St. Patty's Day. Those are good traumas–car crashes, bar brawls." Alex tells them.

"Pfft. The Fourth of July is where it's at." Briar scoffs, shaking her head. "Drinking and fireworks? Never a good mix. Fun for us though."

"Yeah, Valentine's Day is all swallowed engagement rings and guys who threw out their backs getting laid."

"Speaking from experience there, Alex?" Briar quips, winking at April when she starts giggling. "But I'll never understand the ring in a drink proposal. It just feels lazy. Like, make it personal, or at least try not to immediately kill your fiance."

"It's all lame." Alex says, and Briar hums along.

"You're just bitter 'cause you don't have a date." April tells Alex, who shakes his head in denial.

"First of all, Valentine's Day isn't for having a date with some chick." He starts, all of them looking at him with amusement. "No, it's for macking the chicks who don't have dates. Besides, I have to study for my boards."

"Ugh, don't even mention them to me right now. I'll actually be sick." Briar complains, because she's so tired of studying for them. Callie has long since stopped helping her study, insisting that she's all set for the ortho boards, but she's still studying for both specialties and hating herself throughout.

"You're studying already?" Jackson asks, and Briar gives him a confused look. It's February. They have less than three months until their boards.

"Of course." April tells him. "You're not?"

Jackson clears his throat, looking uncomfortable. "No, I am."

Well, that's an obvious lie.

Before Briar can say anything–she has so many teasing comments to make–Owen comes up to them, looking as done with life as ever. Briar just raises an eyebrow at him, completely unimpressed by him and his attitude.

"Who put up all this?" He sighs, frowning at the decorations surrounding them.

"I did!" April tells him proudly. "Well, research shows that a cheerful environment reduces stress and helps patients to feel more–"

She's cut off by Owen crushing one of her paper decorations–a teddy bear holding a heart. He walks away after that, and Briar shakes her head in disbelief. What a child.

"Ignore the sourpuss." She tells April, reaching over and giving her one of the chocolate hearts. "It looks great, and it's good for morale. He's just miserable."

"Thanks." April says softly, before sighing. "Do you think I should take it down?"

"Not a chance." Briar says firmly. She hates the holiday, but other people love it, and hospitals need any cheer they can get. "I'm sure patients will love it. Speaking of, where are they? Surely someone's tried an awful proposal by now!"

"Are you guys planning on standing around all day?" Owen snaps, appearing back at the nurses desk.

"We're grabbing charts." Briar defends the group, frowning at the trauma surgeon. "Everyone is taken care of. It's not like someone's bleeding out while we stand around and gossip."

"Yeah, well, it's a bad look." He tells her coldly. "Go make yourselves useful."

"Someone needs to pull the stick out of his ass." Briar says flatly, watching him walk over to Meredith and Cristina. He talks to Meredith, completely ignoring his wife, and Briar just rolls her eyes at how immature that is.

"Hey, want to compete?" Briar asks Jackson before he can leave the desk, grinning when he instantly perks up.

"Obviously."

"Okay, uh . . . whoever has the most ridiculous case today gets free drinks the next time we go to Joe's." Briar decides. "And, to make it fair, we can have April or someone decide which case was worse."

"Oh, I am in." Jackson declares. "Get your wallet ready!"

✦

Briar loves working on Valentine's Day.

The day brings out stupid accidents: she gets a man who uses an engagement ring as a makeshift cock ring–what was she just saying about awful proposals?– followed by a couple that had too many candles near their bed, a car accident caused by a drunk girl whose boyfriend had just broken up with her, and about a hundred sex toy injuries.

"You know, I'm totally winning this bet." Briar teases Jackson, walking away from him and towards the ambulance bay, having just gotten paged that they have an incoming patient.

"Yeah, in your dreams. I just had a–watch out!" Jackson shouts suddenly, startling Briar into looking back at him, seeing panic on his face right before he tackles her to the ground. Behind them, there's screaming, along with the sound of glass shattering, and she gapes at the sight of a van crashing straight through the ambulance doors, right where she was just standing.

"You okay?" Jackson asks, standing up and pulling her up with him, his eyes roaming over her as if expecting a ton of injuries. She just nods, her brain finally catching up as she pats over his arms and anywhere she can reach.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Are you?" She worries, relieved when she doesn't find any blood or obvious injuries.

"I'm good." He assures her, and she nods, rushing over to the van.

"Hello? Everyone okay over here?" She calls out, stepping over the debris to reach the driver's seat. Inside is an unconscious man, and she quickly calls out for a C-collar. Jackson is the one to get it for her, and she quickly asks him to get Cristina, seeing that the man's jugular vein is visibly bulging. Cristina has been taken off of cardio for the last two weeks, but Owen is just going to have to get over himself.

"Sir, sir, just try and breathe." Briar says gently when the man begins waking up, gasping and trying to move. "You're at a hospital, you're okay."

"What have we got?" Owen asks, climbing into the back seat while Cristina comes around to Briar's side. Briar moves over to give her more room, taking back her stethoscope.

"He's got J.V.D but his airways are fine. Tachycardic." She reports, moving around the van to stand at the patient's other side, leaving more space for Cristina.

"Muffled heart sounds." Cristina informs them, doing her own examination.

"What happened?" He gasps, and Briar reaches out to grasp his hand, hoping to calm him down.

"Sir, you're at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital." Cristina tells him. "Your van crashed."

"No one was hurt, but we need to get you examined. Come on."

"I must have fallen asleep at the wheel for a second." The man groans. "I've been working like a dog all week."

Well, I hope you got paid well, 'cause this bill is going to suck, Briar thinks to herself, grimacing at the mess around them. She's not sure how much he'll be financially responsible for, but she imagines it'll be a nightmare.

"Oh, God. No, no, no. I–I gotta go. I–" He starts freaking out while they transfer him to a gurney.

"Sir, please lie down." Briar says, helping steady his neck as they position him on the gurney. "We're going to take good care of you, just relax as much as you can."

"No, I have to go. I'm a florist." He tells them, moving to sit up. Briar stops him with a hand on his shoulder, giving him as much of an understanding smile as she can. "These roses won't last long in the open air. They're gonna wilt."

"Sir, I understand that you're busy, especially today. You can't do anything until you feel better, though, so please let us do our jobs." She urges him, getting him to finally calm down, looking resigned.

"We need to get trauma labs, films, and ultrasounds!" Owen orders. "Make sure that C.T. is available, and page Altman!"

"Happy Valentine's Day." Briar sighs to Jackson, both of them watching the patient get wheeled away by Cristina and Owen. At least the two of them are working together fairly well.

"Thank you, by the way. I forgot to say that." She tells him, turning to face him properly. He gives her a small smile, shifting slightly on his feet. "That was–I appreciate it."

She doesn't really know what to say–how do you properly thank someone for tackling you out of the way of a moving vehicle?– so she decides to let her actions speak for themselves, pulling him into a tight hug and kissing his cheek when she slowly pulls away a minute later. Behind her, she can hear Tyler asking for her, and she reluctantly backs away, not wanting to leave him.

"Does this mean you're buying me drinks?" He calls after her, and she laughs, feeling more centered by the joke.

"Not a chance, Princess!"

✦

"Kepner, forget the flowers!" Owen barks, watching as April scavenges for all the good bouquets in the wreckage. Briar had just been thinking about how cute she was, only for Owen to ruin the mood in seconds. "Throw them out and get back to work!"

April looks heartbroken as she joins Briar, Richard, and Lexie out by the ambulance bay, frowning down at the bouquets she's holding.

"Kepner." Richard gets her attention. "You're not throwing those flowers away?"

"But–but he–?" April starts, turning to point to Owen as he marches off–probably to go yell at someone else–and Briar smiles when Richard shakes his head.

"He doesn't need to know."

They all laugh when a breathtaking smile forms on April's face. She scoops up another bouquet before turning and rushing off.

"You have an office for a reason!" Briar shouts after her, smiling to herself. April is too cute.

"Throwing away perfectly good flowers." Richard says in disbelief, turning to her and Lexie. "Everyone's a cynic these days . . . talking about not believing in Valentine's Day. I mean, what's wrong with a day devoted to the person you love? I take this day very seriously."

"We know you do." Lexie assures him. "Happy Anniversary, sir."

Briar nods, even as she's mulling his words over. It's easy to get lost in the commercialism of the holiday, but the way he views it is very sweet. She doesn't think she'll ever be able to like Valentine's Day for the very reason he loves it: it's a day devoted to a person she loves, who she'll never have a relationship with again.

"Thank you, Dr. Grey." He tells her, before turning to Briar. "And thank you again, Briar. The gift was very sweet."

"Oh, what'd she get you?" Lexie asks, curious.

"I found this vinyl from when Miles Davis performed My Funny Valentine." Briar explains, smiling over at Richard. "It was their wedding song, so it seemed fitting. And you don't have to thank me. I just hope Adele likes it."

I hope Adele remembers it, she thinks, sadness washing over her when she thinks of the woman. She really does need to make it over there for dinner soon.

"Well, I'm going to play it for her tonight. I'm heading home early, to try and spend most of the day with my wife." He tells them with a happy smile. "What about you girls?"

"Jackson and I don't have plans for tonight, but we have a date scheduled for later this week." Briar tells him, getting a warm smile in return. "He planned the last one, so now it's my turn."

"Well, if you need ideas, I'd love to help."

"I will take you up on that." Briar tells him, curious about what dates he took Adele on. He surely knows about some amazing local places.

"What about you, Dr. Grey?" He asks Lexie next. "You hitting the town?"

Lexie chuckles, her arms swinging around. "I'm not hitting much of anything these days."

Briar bursts out laughing, the amusement only growing when Lexie realizes who she's speaking to and starts panicking. "Oh, God. I'm sorry! That was crass. I'm h–uh, uh, no Valentine's plans!" She stutters out just as the ambulance pulls up. The paramedics falter at the giant hole in the building before reporting on the patient, who is currently screaming about how she should've listened to her mom and how she used to be young and pretty.

"Charlie Bilson, 32, hit by a car when he ran head-on into traffic." Nicole reports, handing Briar his chart. "Complaints of chest and back pain."

"I thought it would happen! How stupid could I be?" The woman with Charlie is screaming, storming out of the ambulance. She hits Nicole's hand away, causing all of them to give her annoyed looks. Briar can already feel the headache forming.

"Has abdominal tenderness upon palpation, and it looks like a broken nose." Nicole continues over the shouting, having to raise her voice.

"I cannot believe you did this!" The woman shouts now, pointing a finger at him while he gets wheeled out of the ambulance.

"Okay, if you hadn't made me chase you down–"

"You should not have chased me! You shouldn't have bothered, because it's over! This is over!"

"What happened? We're having breakfast in bed, one second, you're so happy–"

"I thought you were going to propose!" She screams, waving her arms around as they enter the hospital, getting looks from most people in the room.

"Okay, ma'am, you need to calm down." Briar interjects, meeting her annoyed stare and refusing to back down. "I know that you're upset, but this is a hospital. If you can't calm down, I'm going to ask you to leave."

"Like I want to stay." She scoffs, but she does quiet down. She doesn't leave either, which Briar silently thinks is a good sign for this guy still having a relationship at the end of the day.

"One, two, three." Lexie counts off as they transfer him from the gurney to the hospital bed, all moving to examine him while the girlfriend moves to the head of the bed.

"Honestly, those little boxes?" She asks, and Briar sighs, shaking her head to herself. "They taunt me, Charlie. I would rather a nice coffee table book or maybe even a mug, because then at least I wouldn't get my hopes up every freakin' Valentine's Day when you pull out the little velvet box!"

"You didn't even look at the necklace!" He shouts.

"I didn't have to! It wasn't a ring!"

"Oh, that's a pretty nasty cut there." Richard tells her, trying to subtly remove her from the room. "Dr. Grey, you want to take a look?"

"Sure. Come with me." Lexie tells her, leading her out of the room.

"A man should get to bleed in peace." Richard tells Charlie, who thanks him. Briar just shakes her head to herself, hoping that she never gets that desperate for a ring.

✦

"Hey, do you still have it?" Ben asks as soon as he sees her, looking around the room to make sure no one is eavesdropping. Briar just smiles, endeared by his plan, and proud that he trusts her enough to be part of it.

"Yeah. It's all in my locker." She tells him quietly, leaning in to make sure that they truly aren't overheard. "Also, there's a pie that she really liked at Christmas in the resident's fridge. I know you hired someone to cook for you, but in case you want dessert later, that's all for you. Also, I would talk to Kepner. Did you hear about the florist driving into the hospital? She stole a bunch of the flowers from the scene, so I'd get some from her."

"Great. Thank you, Briar." He says, surprising her by pulling her in for a quick hug. "And you're sure she has no idea?"

"She's been telling everyone that she can't stay late because of your guys' dinner reservations. She has no idea." Briar assures him. "It'll be perfect, you just wait."

"I hope so." He says softly, before his eyes widen when he sees Bailey enter the room, quickly leaving with one glance back at Briar, who has to hold back her laugh. She's so glad the two of them are back together.

"Was that Ben?" Bailey asks her, frowning after her boyfriend before giving her a suspicious look. "What did he want?"

"Oh, I was wondering if he was the anesthesiologist for this case Webber and I got. This woman is going crazy over her boyfriend not proposing to her."

"Valentine's Day." Bailey scoffs, shaking her head. "It brings out the crazy."

"You don't have to tell me that twice." Briar agrees, relieved when Bailey leaves the pit without any more suspicions.

✦

"If you ask me to babysit again, I will hit you." Briar tells Arizona as soon as she sees the woman, done with getting asked that. Mark, Callie, and Arizona have all asked every time they've seen her, since they'd gotten their dates messed up. They'd all made Valentine's Day plans, with Mark thinking that Callie and Arizona were babysitting while Callie told Arizona that Mark had their daughter for the day.

"I'm serious. I love Sofia more than anything, but I'm not in the right headspace to watch her." Briar explains, just as Arizona's pager goes off.

"Walk with me." She says, and she quickly falls into step with Arizona as they go to meet Mark. "Okay, fine. I'll leave you alone about babysitting."

"Good, 'cause I would've actually hit you." Briar jokes, smiling over at her friend.

"Are you okay?" Arizona asks, frowning slightly. "You said you're not in the right headspace, so . . . anything you want to talk about?"

"No, just . . . family stuff." Briar sighs, quickly changing the subject. "Are you excited for tonight?"

"Honestly, part of me wants to have Sofia tonight just so that I don't have to go camping, but I also need to get laid desperately." Arizona complains, pointing at her when all Briar does is laugh. "Ha! So it is camping!"

"Hmm, no clue." Briar lies, shrugging at the annoyed look Arizona sends her way. "It's a surprise! Just let yourself be surprised."

"I hate camping." She groans, just as they turn the corner and find Mark and Jackson waiting for them. "What's going on?"

"Well, I had a good idea to decide who has Sofia tonight." Mark tells her, straightening up and looking very serious. "Rock paper scissors."

"You paged me for this?" Arizona asks with disbelief, pacing in front of them. "Why would I do this?"

"Because it's fair." Mark tells her, and she stops pacing to stand in front of him. "Because the three of us are equal parents to Sofia and this is the fair way to decide who stays in with her. Unless you'd rather raise her with no sense of fairness or decency . . . in anarchy and chaos. Your call."

"Okay. Fine." Arizona agrees softly.

Briar smirks at Jackson, amused at how they've teamed up: Jackson standing behind Mark while Briar stands behind Arizona, both ready to cheer their person on.

"Best two out of three?"

"Best two out of three."

"You ready?" Jackson asks Mark, making the hand gesture of 'I'm watching you' and causing Briar to laugh.

"Pfft, he'll never be ready enough." Briar dismisses Mark, winking at Arizona. "Arizona has this in the bag."

"Rock, paper, scissors!" They call out, both playing rock. There's tension between them as they hold eye contact, moving onto the next round. "Rock, paper, scissors!"

"Ha!" Arizona cheers, smirking at Mark. "My rock crushes your scissors!"

"Rock–hold on, hold on." Mark calls for a time out, causing the women to gape at him in disbelief.

"Time out? Time–I'm sorry, time out?" She questions, both of them watching as he turns around to face Jackson, who motions for him to come closer.

"Jackson, team huddle."

"Oh my gosh. Are you guys kidding me?" Arizona says, while Briar just smiles, endlessly amused by these two. "Briar, can you believe them?"

"Have you met them?" Briar asks back, laughing to herself before getting serious, thinking over strategy.

"Some of us have surgeries!"

"Can you just give us a second?" Jackson asks, waving Arizona away. Briar finds the whole thing way more attractive than she should–a common issue when she's around him. He makes the most mundane things hot.

"Zona, listen." Briar whispers, leaning into Arizona. "You should do rock again."

"You think?" She whispers back, frowning slightly, but Briar nods seriously.

"Yeah, think about it. I know Jackson, just–just trust me." She urges, sharing a look with Arizona, who finally nods.

"Fine, but if you're wrong, I'm going to haunt you." She whispers very dangerously, and Briar can only gape at her. What does that even mean?

"Okay, you guys, it's not a chess game." Arizona tells the boys, who finally turn around. "Can we just do this?"

"Get out there." Jackson urges Mark, smacking him on the ass and causing Briar to giggle while Arizona looks disgusted.

"Wow."

"Hot." Briar jokingly wolf-whistles at them, grinning when Jackson winks at her.

"Alright." Mark sighs, cracking his neck and clearing his throat, maintaining eye contact with Arizona the entire time. "Here we go."

"Rock, paper, scissors!" They call, the four of them erupting into noise as soon as the play is over.

"Yes! I knew it!" Briar shouts, laughing when Arizona pulls her into a hug and spins her around. "HA! Suck it, boys!"

"Damn it!" Jackson shouts, pissed at the loss while Briar sticks her tongue out at him, always happy to beat him in any competition she can.

"I'm getting lucky tonight. Happy babysitting." Arizona tells Mark smugly, pulling Briar back down the hallway with her.

"See ya, loser!" Briar waves at Jackson, who waves her away with pretend annoyance.

✦

If there was a competition for having the cutest patient, Alex would win. He's got a young girl whose boyfriend's mom accidentally bought her a box of peanut clusters, not knowing that she's allergic. The whole thing is ridiculously cute, especially since he holds her hand through the entire process–until her mom comes and instantly pushes him back, starting to argue with his mother.

Briar finds him sitting on the floor behind the nurse's desk.

She watches him for a second, seeing the way he never takes his eyes off of his girlfriend across the room, and wastes no time sitting down next to him. He looks at her for a second before focusing back on Clementine, and Briar smiles as she reaches out and drops a handful of chocolates in his lap.

"They don't have peanuts in them, I promise." She says gently, getting a small smile out of him as he slowly unwraps one of them, relaxing as soon as he's gotten a taste. The magic of chocolate.

"Your name is Nico, right?" She checks, getting a nod in return as he shifts slightly, his gaze flickering between her and Clementine now. "That's a cool name. I'm Briar. How are you feeling?"

"Clem's the one who's hurt, not me." He says softly, sniffing before unwrapping another chocolate. Briar doesn't miss the way he stares at it as if expecting it to hurt someone, clearly feeling guilty for causing the anaphylactic reaction.

"Well, Clem's in the best hands. Her doctor, Alex, is my best friend and he's the best." Briar tells him, getting him to properly look at her. "I know that this was probably really scary."

"She couldn't breathe." He tells her, his eyes watering, and Briar nods sympathetically. "We–we were talking and laughing and then she just turned red and started clawing at her throat."

"Did anyone explain what was happening to you?" She asks, her heart breaking when he shakes his head no.

"Well, you know how she's allergic to nuts? She went into something called anaphylaxis." She starts to explain, noting how he's paying attention to her every word. He's turned to fully face her now, fidgeting with the candies in his lap. "It's a severe allergic reaction that causes everything you saw: shortness of breath, rashes, turning red. I know that it's really scary, but I can give you some tips to stop it in the future."

"You can?" He whispers, looking at her like she's magical.

"Yeah." She tells him, reaching up and grabbing a pamphlet to give him and talking through the main points. "So, with her being allergic to nuts, you really just have to try and avoid them as much as you can when you're with her, or if you think you'll be with her that day. That means that you can't eat anything with, like, peanut butter in it if she's around, which I know might be awful–"

"I can do that." Nico says instantly, flipping open the pamphlet while Briar grins to herself. He's so cute. "Wait, does that mean no Reese Cups?"

"It does." Briar says very seriously, trying not to laugh when his face falls even as he nods, clearly resigned to his fate. "You can see what foods have in them on the back of their label, like this. Don't tell the nurses, but they have a super secret snack drawer that I'm not supposed to know about . . . here it is!"

Briar winks at him as she pulls out a Reese's Cup from the drawer, passing it over to him and delighting in the laugh he lets out. He flips the candy over before setting it on his lap, frowning down at it.

"Am I okay to touch it?"

"Yeah." Briar says, coughing to cover up her laugh. This kid is too adorable, with his serious face matched with the button up, tie, and sweater. "It's in a wrapper, so you're okay. Here, look at the back. See how everything is listed there? Do you see anything about nuts?"

Briar watches him mouth the ingredients to himself, frowning at some of the longer, weirder named ones before he nods, his eyes going wide.

"Just do your best to pay attention to what's in anything you give her, or make her." Briar tells him, hoping that she isn't overwhelming him too much. "And I know that Alex is going to give her something called an epi pen to take home, in case this happens again. If you want, I can show you how to use one."

"Please." He says eagerly, so Briar jumps up, holding a hand out to pull him up with her. As soon as they're by Clem and the parents, the two kids gravitate to each other, with Nico immediately grabbing her hand again.

Cutest patients ever.

✦

Charlie passes away while Briar was talking to Nico, and Lexie takes it much harder than Briar does, having been involved with his surgery. Briar hasn't performed a single surgery all day, seeing as she's running the pit.

Briar finds her in his room, putting his clothing in the bag to be given to the girlfriend.

"Hey, are you still babysitting Zola tonight?" Briar asks, leaning against the doorway.

"Yeah." Lexie sighs, glancing at her for a second before shoving Charlie's shirt inside the bag. Briar nods to herself, about to leave and give her space until she sees Lexie freeze before lifting up a necklace.

"Is that–?" Briar starts, trailing off as she moves to stand next to Lexie, thinking of the girlfriend screaming about getting a necklace instead of an engagement ring.

"Yeah." Lexie breathes out, opening the heart shaped locket to reveal a note inside: Will you marry me?

Briar shuts her eyes, pulling Lexie into a hug, thinking about how desperately that woman–Briar never had learned her name– had wanted a proposal. This whole time, it was waiting for her.

"Are you coming home or pulling a double?" Lexie asks her after they've pulled away, wiping under her eyes to remove any evidence of tears.

"Double." Briar sighs, running a hand through Lexie's hair, feeling exhausted. "It's Sebastian's birthday, so I'm just trying to not think for a while."

"Have you emailed him lately?" Lexie asks, frowning with sympathy. She knows all about her estranged little brother— Briar had told her about him when she'd first come to the hospital to try and have a relationship with Meredith, hoping that she could understand the other perspective.

"No, I, uh. I have something to do." Briar answers with a sigh, forcibly pulling her gaze away from the necklace before leaving to go to April's office.

✦

"Jackson!" Briar calls out, stopping Jackson before he can get in his car. He turns around as soon as she calls for him, looking surprised at the sight of her.

"Hey, what, uh, what's going on?" He asks, eyes falling down to the bouquet in her hands. She swallows thickly, practically throwing them at him, and then running her hands through her hair.

"Happy Valentine's Day." She tells him, truly meaning the words this time.

"Thank you." He tells her, smiling down at the bouquet–a mix of sunflowers and roses that Briar had thrown together in a rush with April's help–before setting them in the car, shutting the door and leaning against it. "I, uh, I didn't get you anything. I'm sorry, I just thought that you wouldn't want to celebrate Valentine's Day, but I should've listened to Mark and–"

"No, you're okay." She rushes to say, shaking her head. "I–I don't want to celebrate Valentine's Day. It's always going to be the anniversary of one of the worst days of my life, so you–you were right about that. I'm not upset. And I stole these flowers from that florist that crashed into the hospital, so like, don't feel bad about not getting me anything."

"Okay, good." Jackson sighs, sounding relieved. There's a long pause while Briar tries to figure out what to say, feeling completely out of her comfort zone. "Are you okay? I thought you were pulling a double."

"I am." She says, rocking back on the heels of her feet. "I am, I just–I wanted to give you those, and say that I really appreciate you not doing anything today. I was worried that you would make a big deal out of it and that it'd be a whole thing, but I should've realized you wouldn't do that."

"I like to think I know you pretty well." Jackson jokes, reaching out and grabbing her hands. Briar looks down, just now realizing that she'd been picking at her fingers until he stopped her.

"You do." She breathes out, and there's no fear at the thought. "And, uh, thanks for saving my life earlier."

"Yeah, well, my life would suck without you in it, so it was really just me being selfish." He brushes it off, and she smiles, shaking her head at him.

"Just take the gratitude." She says, stepping closer to him. She'll never get enough of watching his eyes dart to her lips before moving back up, as if he can't help himself whenever she's nearby. She doesn't make him wait, leaning up into a kiss and grinning into it when one of his hands automatically lands on her hip.

She pulls back after only a minute, not wanting Owen or someone to come looking for her. She would lose her mind if she got a lecture from him right now.

"What are you doing tonight?" She asks, stepping back so that she isn't tempted to continue kissing him.

"Hmm, I'm going to see if Mark will help me study." He admits, rolling his eyes when she smirks at him. "Oh, shut up! Seriously, do you think he would?"

"I think he's in love with you and would gladly help you study." She tells him, snorting when he preens at that.

"Okay, great. Is he more of a steak or seafood kind of guy?"

"Steak." Briar tells him, still amused. She'll never get enough of this friendship. "He loves cooking, so just bring him the uncooked steaks. Oh, and some shrimp to grill on the side, 'cause he makes amazing garlic skewers."

"Is wine too much?" He asks, grabbing his phone and starting to make note of everything she says.

"We're talking about Mark Sloan. Nothing is too much." Briar laughs. "Have fun on your date, maybe give him that bouquet to really set the mood. Oh, and give my goddaughter a kiss for me!"

She backs away, blowing a kiss and enjoying the look on his face at the bouquet comment, cackling as she walks back into the hospital.

All in all, the day goes way better than she could've imagined.

✦

authors note

okay i've had this written for like 2 weeks and i kind of hate it? but also don't? i think i just hate my writing in general right now lol

anyway im gonna do my best to write a bunch today & sunday, and next weekend, since i have a ton of overtime these next few weeks!! my entire body hurts but my rent is going up and i need money so!! cheers!

love you guys <3