Meredith gets temporary custody of Zola the night that Alex moves out. Briar learns that over the hotel's continental breakfast the next morning, gaping at Alex as he explains that he helped make it happen, being Zola's doctor.

"Ugh, and the new interns come today." Briar sighs, honestly done. "I don't have anything to do with this bunch yet, but Webber said he might have some shadow me a bit later on this month."

"You like the interns." Alex points out with a disgusted look. "You get all excited about teaching."

"Sure, but I'm running on no sleep and I can't do it today. Oh shit, don't we have that breakfast this morning, at the hospital? Move, move, move! And brush your damn teeth, you stink!" Briar shoves him out of his booth and into the elevator, not wanting them to miss out on breakfast. Anything the hospital wants to pay for, Briar will take advantage of.

When they arrive, Jackson is quick to wave her over, and Briar perks up when she sees that he already got her a plate of her favorite foods.

"You are my favorite person, I swear." Briar tells him, dropping down in the seat he saved for her next to him. "Also, how many waffles did you eat this morning?"

Jackson pouts at the question, stealing a slice of her bacon and making her shove his shoulder.

"None of your business. How's Alex?"

"Depressed as hell." Briar says bluntly, taking a bite of the sausage and cheese muffin he made her, relieved that there aren't eggs on it. She only likes scrambled eggs, and fried egg whites: egg yolks make her feel sick. It's cute that he remembered her rant about that from months ago. "He thinks it's his fault, when it's not. I mean, what was Meredith thinking? She gets away with a lot, sure, but tampering with a clinical trial? Absolutely insane."

"Hmm, yeah. It's all really shitty." Jackson says, nodding along before smiling. "But, hey! We're fifth years. Only one more year of residency and then we're the attendings."

"Assuming we pass our boards." Briar says, still feeling miserable, before shaking her head. "No. You know what? You're right. This is going to be a great year."

"That's the spirit." Jackson tells her, high-fiving her before faltering. "Shit. I still don't know what to specialize in."

"General is always an option." Briar reminds him, taking a sip of her smoothie. A second later he drops a pack of Lactaid in-front of her plate, and she pulls him into a quick kiss for the thought. He totally just saved her from a world of pain later. "Ooh, or you can try and get on Sloan's service again."

"Maybe." Jackson says slowly, looking lost in thought. Briar takes the opportunity to steal a strawberry from him, grinning to herself at how different her life has become in a year.

✦

The call is both Briar's dream, as someone specializing in trauma and orthopedics, and her worst nightmare: she's never performed an amputation in the field before, and she has no idea what she's walking into. She never would've expected there to be a sinkhole in Seattle.

"We're going to the scene of an onsite amputation." Owen explains when they reach the ambulance bay, where Bailey, April, Cristina, Alex, Jackson, and Lexie are waiting for patients to arrive. April moves forward, holding her clipboard, and Briar gives her a small smile as she unloads her bags. "Woman's trapped under her car. You guys are gonna get swamped with bodies. Kepner, you're in charge 'til I get back."

"You've got this." Briar tells her, silently hoping that she's right and April will find her authority.

"Yes, sir. Have fun!" April answers Owen, making Briar wince as she hops in the ambulance, closely followed by Callie.

"At an amputation?"

"Uh–I meant good luck!" April calls out. Briar shakes her head in amusement, before quickly sobering up at the sight of the amputation kit.

✦

"Dr. Torres?" A woman asks as soon as the ambulance doors open on the scene. Callie is the first one out, followed by Briar and then Owen, who is holding the amputation kit. "Dr. Hunt?"

"Yes. This is Doctor Sinclair." Hunt introduces her, and Briar smiles at the woman as she shakes her hand quickly.

"Karen Lorenz, in charge of search and rescue." She introduces herself as she walks with them, leading them to the victim. "We're still pulling victims out of the debris, but we have a couple–Danny and Susannah Wilson–stuck down there. He has a head wound and his ankle's messed up, but I don't see any other obvious injuries. We could potentially bring him up, but he won't leave without his wife, and her leg is stuck under the car."

She finishes reporting just as they arrive at the sinkhole, all three of them staring in shock at the size.

"Wow." Briar breathes out, taking a second to take it all in before turning to Lorenz, who gets them set up with headsets.

"We've got a vitals monitor and a camera, so we have a visual." She tells them, gesturing to the monitor where they can see the couple, with the man leaning over his wife.

"Danny, can you hear me?" Callie asks into her headset, making him turn and look at the camera.

"She's–she's not talking anymore." He tells them, while Briar leans forward, trying to get a better grip on the situation. Her leg is completely trapped under the car, and there are spots of blood on her white shirt, although she can't tell if it's hers or the husband's from here. "You gotta–you gotta get down here. We need help."

"Danny, Danny, I'm Dr. Hunt." Owen says into his mic. "Can you read out for me the top three numbers on the monitor?"

"87." He starts, looking back and forth between the monitor and the camera. "63. 122."

"B.P's 87/63, she's shocky. How do we get down to her?" Callie questions, looking at Lorenz, all of them holding their mics so Danny doesn't hear them speaking.

"You don't. It's too unstable." Lorenz says, but Briar instantly shakes her head.

"You can't be suggesting that he performs the amputation." She protests, shaking her head again. "No. No way. It's too risky, and it's way too much to ask of him. I'll go."

"I'm not sending–" Lorenz starts, but Briar speaks over her, determined now.

"I have rescue squad training, and I'm still certified. Send me down." She states, causing Lorenz to look at her in shock.

"Who trained you?"

"Kelly Severide, Squad 3, Chicago." Briar states, turning to Owen and Callie. "I can do this. I want to do this."

"It's a huge risk." Callie tells her, sounding worried. "I don't–"

"It's one I'm willing to take." Briar says as patiently as she can, knowing that they're wasting time. "Dr. Hunt, please."

"Okay." Owen agrees after looking at her for a long minute. "Okay. But you listen to Lorenz, and don't do anything stupid."

"You know me, I would never." Briar jokes with a cheesy smile, before sobering up quickly. "I can do this. I'll be back before you know it."

Briar turns to Lorenz, who looks like she's swallowed something sour, even as she leads her to an aerial truck and helps her get suited up. Briar puts on the harness with practiced ease, before reaching over and stealing a helmet.

"Did you really train under Kelly Severide?" She asks after giving her instructions, leading Briar to the ladder and helping her secure herself to the rope. Briar is going to perform a high angle rope rescue with the help of the aerial truck, and she can feel her adrenaline surging as she starts to climb the ladder behind a firefighter assisting her, calling down to Lorenz as she goes.

"Yes! He's amazing." She brags, unable to stop herself, before focusing on her movement, not wanting to trip herself up. That would be embarrassing after insisting that she could do this.

"What's your name?" She calls up to the firefighter, feeling bad for not introducing herself beforehand. She is putting her life in his hands, since he's going to be attaching her to the high point, and she'd like to at least know his name.

"Benjamin!" He calls back, turning and giving her a smile, which she makes sure to return.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Briar!"

When they get to the top, he gets to work attaching her harness to the pulley system so that she can repel down once the aerial is in place. He gives her a rundown of all of the ropes, and next thing she knows, she's hanging over the sinkhole as they move the truck to get her in the proper position.

Benjamin gives her a thumbs up, and they work together to lower her into the hole. She has a back-up harness, and a trauma board loaded up with anything she could need, including the amputation kit. She spends the time of the descent thinking back to everything she's ever learned about on-site amputations.

Briar is immediately thankful for the protective gear, especially the glasses, when she's surrounded by dust and falling debris. Her arms are getting scratched up on the sides, since the space closest to the victims is a much tighter fit. She does her best to ignore it all, focusing on repelling down as safely as possible, not wanting anything to fall and do more damage to Danny and Susannah.

Finally, she makes it to them, and sees clear relief on Danny's face when she lands.

"Danny, my name is Briar." She says, moving to open the kit. "I'm going to help get you both out of here, okay? Can you move for me, just to her other side? As carefully as you can, there you go."

"Please save her." He breathes out shakily. One of his hands holds his wife's as soon as he's moved, and Briar gives him a once over while she finishes opening the kit. He looks mostly okay: he definitely needs to be checked over once they're out of this, but for now, Susannah is the biggest priority.

She moves over to do an evaluation on the off chance that they don't have to amputate, before turning to Danny again.

"Danny, I have to amputate her leg in order to get both of you out of here." She says, seeing him starting to panic. "I know that it's scary, but it's her best chance of survival. Keep holding her hand, okay, we're going to get through this."

"No, no, no." He mumbles, shaking his head rapidly. "She needs her leg, she can't—can't you lift the car? Aren't the firefighters supposed to do that?"

"They can't." Briar says bluntly, not having the time to be anything else. "I'm sorry, but with the sinkhole being as wide as it is, there's no chance of that. The ground is too unstable, and we run the risk of doing more damage to her. She has crush injuries, and her best chance is this amputation."

Danny lets out a groan, cradling his wife's head and looking horrified. Briar gives them a second to themselves, grabbing her intubation kit.

"Sinclair, you need to work quickly." Callie says over the headset, and Briar nods, knowing that they can see her through the camera.

"I know. Danny, I need you to be an extra set of hands." Briar answers, getting straight to work on intubating and sedating her. She's unconscious for now, but Briar has no intentions of letting her wake up during the amputation. Unfortunately, while the amputation kit is all sterilized, there isn't much she can do to sterilize the environment. She narrates her every move, feeling more comfortable speaking it to Callie and Owen since they aren't physically with her. "I just pushed antibiotics. Danny, I need the saline, betadine–um, the brown soap–and the tourniquet from the kit. Thank you."

Briar makes quick work of applying the tourniquet, although she does not tighten it yet. Instead she requests the saline, washing away as much debris as she can, before holding her hand out for the betadine and prepping the leg.

"Danny." Briar says softly, waiting until he makes eye contact to continue speaking. "I would look away. You don't want to watch this."

"Are–are you sure she's not going to feel anything?" He questions, and Briar nods her head.

"She's sedated. She won't wake up, and she won't feel a thing." She explains gently.

He looks away, squeezing his eyes shut. Briar takes a second to glance at the camera, wishing that one of them was down here with her before tightening the tourniquet and grabbing a scalpel. She gives herself three seconds to shut her eyes and breathe before making the first cut, putting her whole body weight into it.

Briar starts sweating quickly, and has to replace two of the large blades after they dull quickly. She does her best to block out the sound of Danny talking to himself, trying to distance herself from the scene she's in and focus only on the leg. Every minute she makes a point to check the monitors and report on her vitals. Part of her wishes Danny was doing that, but she doesn't want him watching any part of this process.

Callie talks her through tying the neurovascular bundles, and she reaches the bone soon after, having to breathe through her nose to avoid throwing up or passing out. Danny starts sobbing when she grabs the saw, and Briar can't blame him, not with how horrible the noises are. She can't imagine how traumatizing all of this has been for him, and she does what she can to be as quick as possible, not wanting to prolong anything for him.

"She's free." She calls out a minute later, sucking in a deep breath. "Danny, hey, you need to go now. I'm going to finish up with her, and we'll follow behind you. Go." She urges, wishing that he would have left sooner, but admiring his dedication to his wife.

He nods, bending down to kiss Susannah's forehead gently, a few tears sliding from his face onto hers. He doesn't stop looking at her the entire time they bring him up.

"Callie, I think we're looking at an open-book pelvic fracture." She calls up, inspecting the stump for any bleeding, clamping two spots before applying a compressive dressing. "Definite abdomen trauma. I'm applying a pelvic binder and then I'm getting her on the trauma board."

"They can pull you up first." Owen tells her, but she shakes her head, making sure that Susannah's ABC's are clear and grabbing the monitor.

"No. I'm okay. Take her." She says, relieved when someone comes for her a minute later. She helps clip her in as securely as possible, handing over the portable monitor and watching as she moves up, leaving her to sit in silence for a long moment.

"Sinclair, start leaving now." Owen orders her, forcing her eyes away from the part of Susannah's leg left under the car still. She nods to herself, pushing down her nausea, and starts grabbing all of her supplies.

She needs to get out of there as soon as possible.

✦

"Great job, Briar." Owen says warmly as soon as she's out of the sinkhole, sucking in a deep breath and pulling the helmet off of her head. Her hands are shaking, now that she isn't focused on keeping them steady. She hopes he doesn't notice. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine." She says, forcing a smile as she watches Callie load Susannah into the ambulance, taking off a moment later. She's secretly relieved not to be in that ambulance with them, still hearing the sawing noises in her head. "Where do you need me?"

"We're going back to the hospital, they have more coming in and need the help. Kepner mixed up patients and they almost did the wrong operations on them, so we're needed in the pit. Karev did an infield bilateral fasciotomy on a kid and is back at the hospital." Owen informs her, shocking her into silence. She can't believe all of that happened while she was operating. "Run and give them their equipment back and meet me at our ambulance. You have five minutes."

Briar takes off, sprinting over to where she recognizes Benjamin, standing with a few of his crew.

"Hey, rockstar!" He calls out when he sees her, making her smile despite herself. "Congratulations."

"Thank you. Seriously, thank you." She tells him genuinely, smiling at the others when they congratulate her as well, starting to strip out of the harness and hand it over.

"Hey, do you seriously know Severide?" One of them questions, and Briar quirks an eyebrow, amused. "He's a legend. Youngest to–"

"–Ever make rescue squad, yeah." Briar finishes with a laugh, shooting them a smirk. "He's my ex-husband and one of my best friends."

"I am so jealous of you right now." A different guy says with a sigh, and Briar shakes her head.

"Look, just–no promises, but my Facebook is just my name. Briar Sinclair. Add me, and I'll see what I can do about getting Kelly to answer some of your questions or something. I have to go, but thank you all! Stay safe!" She calls out, rushing away and making it back to Owen with a minute to spare.

✦

"Kepner gave us this chart to use and it's a mess." Tyler says as soon as Briar is back in the pit, and Briar grimaces as she looks around at the chaos. It's almost worse than the scene she just left behind, and there was an actual sinkhole there. At least it was organized chaos. This is just a disaster.

"Scrap it." She decides. "Use our regular system. Are any patients in critical care?"

"Not at the moment."

"Great. I'm going to assign patients, let me know if you need anything." She says, sighing when she looks down and sees how disgusting she looks. She's covered in dust from the debris, and there's spots of blood on her scrubs, although it has long since dried. She got the blood off of her hands and arms, although there is still some underneath her fingernails. She has no time to change, though, so she gets to work.

By the time she's paged an hour later– 911 BAILEY– the pit is back to its normal level of organization, and she feels comfortable leaving it to Tyler, knowing that he'll page her if he needs something.

She runs up to find that Bailey also paged Cristina, Alex, Jackson and April. They all follow behind Bailey, who says nothing to them as she leads the way.

"Where's Meredith?" Briar asks, confused that she's the only one missing.

"Ask Evil Spawn." Cristina grunts, glowering at Alex.

"Oh, don't start this shit again." Briar snaps back, tired of her yelling at Alex for making a report.

"You want to know where Meredith is? At daycare with Zola, since she no longer has a job, thanks to your best friend being a snitch." Cristina spits out, while Briar gapes at her, trying to process that Meredith got fired.

Alex doesn't defend himself, so Briar does.

"Meredith got fired for her own decisions. Alex didn't force her to mess with the trial. She did that all by herself." Briar says, tired of having the same discussion. "She's an adult, and she needs to know that actions have consequences."

"Oh, of course you would–" Cristina starts, only for Jackson to chip in.

"Alright, can we hold off on fighting about this? Until we know what Bailey wants with all of us, at least?"

"Oh, God. She's gonna fire us, isn't she?" April asks, sounding terrified.

"Why would she fire us?" Alex shoots back, grimacing at Briar a second later. "You look awful."

"Thanks so much." Briar says dryly, scowling back at him.

"There was that patient mix up in the O.R." Jackson says pointedly. April turns and glares at him for the call out while Briar tries to tamp down her amusement.

"Oh. You should be fired." Cristina tells April.

"Me? You guys didn't update the board!"

"That's why she looks so pissed off." Alex says, just as they arrive back in the pit. Briar shrugs at Tyler when he looks at her weirdly, silently annoyed that she just walked in a giant circle. Not that she'll be complaining to Bailey, who is grabbing patient charts and mumbling to herself, about it.

"That's not good for it."

Good for what, Briar wonders, starting to grow worried.

A moment later, they've turned the corner to where Callie and a team are working on Susannah. The sight of her stops Briar in her tracks, and Cristina bumps into her, grumbling about it.

"What have you got?" Bailey asks Callie.

"A field amputation with complicated extrications. Still assessing her multiple crush injuries, but I felt a broken pelvis for sure, and her B.P's in the toilet." Callie reports, while Briar stares at the empty space where her leg should be.

I did that to her, she thinks, suddenly feeling like she might throw up.

Bailey doesn't share her feelings. Instead, she looks excited.

"Now this is a gunther." She says, while the residents all share a confused look. Briar has no idea what a gunther is, and can tell that the others don't know either.

"Really?" Callie asks, surprised, and Bailey nods.

"Really."

"Think they can handle a gunther?"

"Oh, I think they need a gunther." Bailey says with a scathing look back at their group.

"Uh, what's a gunther?" April asks them, looking around as if the answer will pop out at her.

Briar just shrugs back, terrified by the look on Bailey's face as she forces them all to sit on gurneys and wait for them to come back.

✦

"She was pinned under her car." Bailey explains to all of them, once again around Susannah's bed. "Sinclair here amputated her leg in a pit of dirt. Her abdomen is pulp, and her pelvis is probably crushed."

Briar listens, despite having been the one to do the initial report on the patient, while putting on the yellow protective gown.

"You will work together to assess her injuries and repair them."

"In the O.R.?" April questions brightly. Briar gives her a strange look for the question.

"No, at the Jiffy Lube. Yes, in the O.R.!" Bailey exclaims back. "Now, Dr. Torres will supervise your work. If you're killing her, she will step in. Otherwise, you're on your own. Don't screw this up like you screw everything else up you've touched lately."

"Ladies and gentlemen, step away from the patient." Bailey tells Susannah's care team while the rest of them rush into the room to take over, getting scans done instantly and starting examinations, all talking over each other.

"It's an open-book pelvis fracture." Jackson reports, and Briar snatches the scan from him, wanting to see it for herself.

"And a comminuted femur fracture." April adds. "Has anyone fully examined the stump?"

"I have." Briar says dryly, watching as April runs over to examine it herself.

"Pneumopericardium and an enlarged cardiac shadow." Cristina states. "She needs a chest tube and a C.T."

"Free fluid. She needs the O.R." Alex says back.

"An embolization and angio would help stabilize the pelvic bleeding." April calls out, but Briar shakes her head.

"Not a priority right now, I already used a binder." She informs her. She plans to keep an eye on it, in case of complications like blood loss or sepsis, but it isn't the main priority at the moment.

"But an angio would–" April starts, only to be cut off by Alex.

"An angio is just going to waste time."

"We can pack her in the O.R." Jackson adds, while Briar moves around to her stump to make sure the clamps have held.

"Call the O.R. and tell them to prep for an emergency laparotomy." Alex calls out, causing Cristina to protest.

"Hello? A C.T.! I'm telling you guys something's going on with the heart."

That starts a fight that has all of them yelling at each other, each of them finding their own operation to be the most important.

"Oh, yeah? Who died and made you God?" Cristina snaps at Alex, making Briar scoff.

"There's no way you are accusing anyone of that." She says, because that's just too hypocritical. "I'm sorry, why did Altman not want to work with you again?"

"Excuse me!?"

"Okay, look, I think what we need to do is–" April starts.

"April, you're Chief Resident, not Chief of Surgery!" Jackson bites out.

"Did somebody call the O.R.?" Alex asks.

"No, because she needs a C.T. to assess her injuries." Cristina says firmly, but Briar shakes her head, grabbing the phone and calling in. "You did not just do that. We're supposed to work together and–"

"Well, we clearly can't get along long enough to do that." Briar snaps back, shaking her head when Cristina goes to respond. "No, you don't get to yell at me right now. She's my patient. I amputated her leg in a pit and I am not letting her die here after that! Now help me get her to the goddamn O.R.!"

"She needs to be assessed–" Cristina tries, but Briar shakes her head, getting her ready for transport.

"We have O.R. 3. Come with me or get off the case, I don't care what you do." Briar tells her coldly, just as the monitor starts beeping erratically.

"Still want to take her to radiology?" Alex questions Cristina, who scowls even as she finally helps them transport her. "Maybe wait in line for a little while till the machine's free?"

"Let's check the liver first. It's the most likely source." Jackson tells them, wheeling her out of the elevator.

"Hey, Yang. Where's Meredith?" Derek calls out, making Briar grit her teeth. Why is everything always about Meredith in this damn hospital?

"I don't know!" Cristina calls back impatiently, turning back to them. "She's in cardiogenic shock. That's our main concern."

"Yang!"

"They–they fired her." Cristina tells Derek as they wheel Susannah past him. "Maybe she's putting Anthrax in Karev's locker."

"B.P's tanking. We need to up her fluids." Alex states.

"No. Her pericardium is filled with air and blood." Cristina protests.

"Do you listen to anyone else, ever?" Alex complains.

"All the time. Just not you."

"Or me, apparently." Jackson joins in, also annoyed with her.

"Look, she's not answering her phone or her pager!" Derek shouts after them.

"I haven't seen her. I was in the pit. She's not in the pit. I was in the elevator. She's not in the elevator." Cristina answers before they turn the corner and Derek's voice fades out. Their fighting picks up even more when they get into the O.R.

"Give me a 10-blade." Cristina orders, hand out to receive it.

"Don't give her a 10-blade. The woman just had her leg hacked off. She doesn't need her chest cracked open for something we're not even sure she has." Alex advocates for her, while Briar bristles at the wording. Her leg was amputated, sure, but it's not like Briar was messy or rough with it.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure, and if her heart craps out, she's not gonna give a rats ass about her leg." Cristina defends her position.

"Look, we know that she is bleeding from her abdomen, which gives her plenty of reason to be hypotensive–" April starts, getting cut off by Alex.

"Let's just do an X-lap and see what we're dealing with."

"No!"

"Karev, start the incision." Jackson says, tired of arguing over it.

"What? Just because you're pissed that I'm Chief Resident doesn't mean you can pretend I'm not here!" April shouts from next to him, sounding pissed.

"Nobody cares that you're Chief Resident!" Jackson bursts.

"Okay, shut up!" Briar yells, glaring around at all of them. "Cristina, how sure are you about this?"

"Completely sure." She states firmly, and Briar nods, pushing down her annoyance with her.

"Fine. We do both."

"What?" Alex asks, but Briar shakes her head.

"We don't have time to have a pissing contest over it, and we can't ignore either issue–"

"If there's even a heart issue–"

"If Yang says there is, I believe it." Briar tells them, ignoring Cristina's smug look. For all of her ego issues, she truly is amazing at what she does. "We need to fix that, and take care of her abdomen and pelvis. Cristina, what do you need?"

"Assist me." She says, giving her a nod. Briar moves to do so, watching as she opens her chest before Briar grabs the rib spreader.

"We've got some bleeding in the upper right quadrant." Cristina announces a minute later. "Give me more suction and lap pads." Briar takes care of the lap pads while Jackson suctions from her other side. "Do you see any bile or pancreatic secretions?"

"None here."

"Negative."

"Cardiac rupture, like I said." Cristina brags a few minutes later, and Briar purses her lips.

"Not the time, Cristina."

"A lot of bleeding down here." April reports, sounding concerned.

"Briar, uh, help her hold pressure there. Jackson, you too. Lap pads down in there, please." Cristina orders, with Briar and Jackson moving to do just that. "Did you get it?"

"Can you give us a second?" Briar snaps, applying as much pressure as she can.

"Can you suture it?" Jackson asks.

"V-Fib!" Jackson shouts out a moment later, just as the monitor announces that with the beeping sound Briar hates so much.

"I need the paddles!" Cristina cries out, getting them and shocking her at 20, only for there to be no change.

"Okay, I need 1 intracardiac epi." Cristina decides. "Someone take over massaging the heart."

"I got it." Alex says, rushing to do just that.

Cristina moves fast, all of them freezing when she inserts the epi into Alex's hand.

"Ow!" He shouts, and Briar's heart drops. She can't move her hands, since she's applying sutures, so all she can do is watch as Alex starts swaying.

"Oh my God. Alex. Alex, look at me!" Cristina panics, just for him to fall to the ground, passing out.

"Alex!" Briar cries out, putting in the last suture and watching as Cristina and Callie drop to Alex's side.

"Epi! Give me another epi!" Jackson calls out, taking charge of the patient.

"I can't find a pulse." Cristina panics while Briar carefully applies the epi for Jackson, since he's massaging the heart.

"Why the hell doesn't he have a pulse?" Callie demands.

"Cristina, if you don't get him back, I swear I will murder you." Briar promises, meaning every word. If she just killed her best friend–well, Briar will happily go to jail. "Get them a crash cart!"

"An epi doesn't stop a healthy person's heart." Callie points out. "What did you do!?"

"I don't know."

"Her heart's back. I'm gonna deal with the pericardium." Jackson decides, using both April and Briar as his assistants. "Forget about the pelvis for now. She's bleeding through the packing in the right upper quadrant."

"As soon as she's stable, I'm going to do a percutaneous iliosacral screw insertion for her pelvis." Briar tells him, swallowing down any nerves she has since she technically hasn't done that operation before.

"Got it. April, try a pringle maneuver." Jackson orders after she asks if she should repack the quadrant. "Graft, please."

"Okay, uh, get me and Dr. Altman gowned and gloved, and I need something to stand on." Bailey announces, coming into the room with Altman.

"Dr. Bailey, it's under control, okay?" Jackson tells her firmly, working on the graft. "We've got a lot of hands in here, and two more surgeons are only gonna confuse matters. I'm gonna ask you to step back, please."

Briar smiles slightly at the look the two attendings share, knowing that Jackson is earning himself more respect in the hospital.

"Charging to 200!" Callie calls out, and Briar shuts her eyes for a second as they charge him. She's never been more relieved to hear Alex groan and start coughing.

"Alex, can you hear me? Alex?" Cristina asks desperately.

"You crazy bitch. You almost killed me." He chokes out, and Briar lets out a whimper at the sound of his voice before getting back to work.

✦

"Don't touch me!" Alex yells at Cristina as he's wheeled from the O.R.

"I'm not touching you."

"Don't touch my gurney!" He shouts next, making her throw her hands up as she follows them out, leaving Jackson, April and Briar in the room.

"Alright, get this artery. See right there?" Jackson asks, showing April what he means while Briar works on prepping the pelvis. "Good. Now do a tie on the hemostat."

"Who'd have thunk it?" Miranda asks, standing with Teddy and Callie at the other end of the bed, watching them operate. Briar is relieved to have Callie there in case she has any questions or needs a hand.

"What the hell happened?" Mark questions, entering the room.

"Yang almost killed Karev and Avery's the gunther." Callie tells him.

"Avery? Get outta here." Mark scoffs.

"Hand to God."

"Avery!" Mark calls out. "Good job, son."

"Thank you." Jackson responds, sounding exasperated.

"I'm right here if you need anything." Mark continues. Briar has to bite back her laughter, not wanting to distract Jackson or April. "My guy won."

He's your guy now? Briar thinks, endlessly amused by Mark.

"We're gonna be great together." Mark continues, sounding excited, and Jackson slowly turns his head to give him a strange look.

"Briar, she's all yours." Jackson tells her a little while later, having finished up on his end. Briar nods, turning to the O.R. team.

"Okay, I need a bolster placed under her. The X-Ray needs to be positioned above her. I have all of my instruments, and I'd like to take some images before we start to make sure everything is at the proper angle."

"Do you want help?" Jackson asks her, and Briar considers it before nodding.

"I can always use a second pair of eyes." She says, giving him a grateful smile before helping to position her properly so they can get right to it. She does her best to ignore the assortment of attendings watching from the gallery.

"Nice job, by the way, Gunther." Briar teases, laughing when she gets a blush out of him. It's become pretty clear what Gunther means in this hospital–the surgeon who takes control and comes out on top. She's proud that it was Jackson.

✦

"Briar, hey." Alex says, rushing over to where she's standing outside of Susannah's room, looking in at her. "Look, I need you to help me help Meredith. She stole Zola and we need to–"

"No." Briar says simply.

"–Help her not–did you just say no?" He asks, gaping at her. Briar takes a deep breath, looking over to him. He looks loads better after getting a meal in him. Briar had visited him earlier to make sure that he was okay, leaving when all he did was complain about being a patient.

"Yeah, I did."

"Why?" Alex asks slowly.

Briar takes a deep breath, picking at her nails before turning to face him fully. He's looking at her like she's insane, and Briar finally has enough.

"You know, I amputated a woman's leg today." She tells him flatly, pointing to Susannah's room. "Her leg. I did an in-field amputation, and–and I know that I asked to do it. I know that. But I can't get the sounds out of my head: the sawing, and the–the sound her bone made. It was horrifying. I can't stop hearing and seeing it."

"Okay, look–" Alex starts, glancing over his shoulder impatiently. That pisses her off more.

"Why do you want to help them anyway?"

"Because not having their support sucks, and they'll forgive me after this." Alex says as if it's obvious. "I'm tired of having nothing–"

"Nothing." Briar repeats, glowering at him. "Nothing!? Alex, all I've done is support you. I helped you pack and move into a hotel–that I paid for, by the way! I've been defending you every chance I get, even after you said the same shit about having nothing here, like I'm–like I mean–and I–"

Briar stops, taking a second to breathe through her anger before speaking again.

"I can't keep doing this." She says, and now her voice is dangerously calm. Alex seems to notice the shift, looking concerned now. "I can't–I give everything to this hospital, and to you guys, and what do I get back? Today, I showed up back here covered in blood, and not a single person stopped to ask if I was okay. Owen is the only one who checked in after I performed the most traumatizing surgery of my entire career."

"I wasn't thinking about it." Alex defends himself, frowning. "I was thinking about–"

"Meredith?" Briar guesses, taking a deep breath when he nods. "Alex, I'm not asking you to make me your main priority. I just want to be one of them."

"You are."

"Am I?" She asks, taking a step back and shaking her head. "You know what, you don't have time for this. Go help Meredith."

Alex gives her a long look before turning and rushing off, and Briar finally loses the battle against her tears.

✦

She finds Mark standing with Arizona and Callie, watching Meredith and Derek talk to their social worker. Briar gives them a quick glance before looking away, turning to Mark and pulling him further down the hallway.

"What's up?" He asks her, looking surprised.

"Can I move in with you?" She blurts out. "Just–just for a little bit. I just need some space to figure things out and–"

"Of course you can." He says softly, pulling her into a hug. She sinks into it, shutting her eyes and taking a second to just breathe. "You can stay over whenever you want, you know that."

"You're sure?" She asks, pulling back and hugging herself. "I know you don't have a ton of room, and I don't want to intrude on your space."

"Shut up." He tells her firmly, shaking his head. "You're never intruding. Are you okay?"

"No." She admits, her voice shaking. "I–I amputated that woman's leg earlier, and it–it's really messing with me. I didn't expect it to this much, and I just–I need my entire life to not be about this hospital. I mean, I just started dating my dream guy, and I've barely seen him. I can't remember the last time I got a full night's sleep or did something for myself and–"

"Woah, hey." Mark interrupts, grabbing a gentle hold of her arms. "We can work on all of that. Take Jackson on a date. I'll let you drag me to that pottery place you like so much, if you want."

"I haven't been there in ages." Briar whispers, hating that she never does anything she enjoys. She loves her job, truly, but it has become her entire life.

"We'll fix that. I can't promise you rest, though, because of Sofia." He admits, pulling a laugh out of her.

"She's cute enough that I can deal with it." She laughs, before pulling him into a hug. "Thank you, Mark. You're an amazing friend."

"And don't you ever forget it." He says with a wink. "You still have your key, right?"

"Right." Briar confirms, before looking around the corner at where Alex is waiting. "I'll see you later."

"Hey." She greets Alex, who looks at her with a cautious look he hasn't directed her way since their intern year. It hurts to be on the receiving end of it. "Look, the hotel is yours. I paid for a week, so enjoy it. I'm gonna stay at Mark's, and . . . I'll see you around, alright?"

That night, Callie and Arizona have her and Mark over for dinner. They update her on the hospital drama she missed–apparently Richard took the fall for Meredith, claiming that he tampered with the trial and she only covered for him. She'll have her job back. Briar gets so pissed at that news that she ends up locking herself in Mark's room for about ten minutes, seething silently. It's not that she wants Meredith's life to fall apart even more, but she hates that Richard is taking the fall for something he had no part in. What will this do to his career?

They spend the rest of the night coming up with fun ideas for her to do, both with and without them. She ends up on their schedule board for Sofia, having offered to help out even more now that she's living down the hall and more readily available. They give her the honor of putting her goddaughter to sleep before letting her rant about the day with a glass of wine in their living room, and something in her heals at the clear love they show her.

That night, she finally calls Kelly.

✦

authors note

fun fact: im related to a firefighter & it took all my restraint to not go full detail mode about the aerial rescue

the girls are fightinggggg 🫣

what do you guys think about her little speech?? do you think she's right or wrong?? i'm just curious :)

love all of the comments you guys are leaving, i seriously love you guys SO much <3