"Hey."

Briar grunts, aiming another kick at the punching bag, and ignoring Meredith behind her. She isn't sure how long she's been at the gym, or why Meredith is here, but she has no interest in anything that exists beyond the bag she's been kicking and punching.

"You know, you have Jackson and April worried." Meredith continues, and Briar rolls her eyes as she fixes her stance and aims three rear undercuts at the bag, catching it when it swings back. "I ate your brownie by the way."

"Bitch." Briar pants out, without any anger in her tone. A brownie is the least of her concerns.

"Are you planning on being here all night?"

"Does it matter?" Briar sighs, wanting to be left alone. "I'll be at work tomorrow."

"Do you want company?"

"No." Briar says, and is relieved when she hears Meredith leave. She takes a steadying breath, adjusts her boxing gloves, and gets back into it. When she finally stops hours later, it's to find a water bottle next to her stuff, along with a brownie.

Briar can't help but laugh.

✦

Briar giggles to herself as she stumbles inside, tripping over the doorway and clumsily catching herself on the frame. She drops her keys on the table and makes her way into the kitchen, wincing at every sound she makes. She doesn't know what time it is, or if anyone is home, but she doesn't want anyone to wake up and come searching for the source of the noise.

"Briar?" She hears a little while later, wincing when a light turns on. "What–what are you eating?"

"Pretzels, duh." Briar says around her mouthful, squinting at Lexie, who is hovering by the entryway. "Want one?"

"Fuck it. Sure." Lexie sighs, moving to join her. She jumps up to sit on the counter next to Briar, before grimacing. "Oh, God, you smell like straight booze. And sex! Oh my God, Briar, did you have sex? Who was it–?"

"I went clubbing." Briar tells her friend with a laugh, feeling so warm. She takes a break to dunk another pretzel in peanut butter, before tilting the jar in Lexie's direction to do the same. "I went to . . ." She pauses there, lifting up her hand so that she can see the stamps on the back of it. "One, two . . . three. I went to three clubs."

"Four." Lexie corrects gently, tapping on the stamp she didn't notice and making Briar laugh. It's a rose, and Briar really likes it. She should buy stamps of her own.

"Riiiight. Four clubs. And I met Roni, and Livvy, and Samantha. I didn't meet anyone at the last club." She says, pouting at that.

"Okay, and uh. Did you–did you sleep with Roni, and Livvy, and Samantha?" Lexie asks, laughing as she mimics the way Briar had said their names. Briar laughs with her, not knowing why they're laughing, but joining in anyway. Lexie has a nice laugh, and Briar finds herself leaning into her side.

"No. Yes. Samantha was just really nice, like she helped fix my lipstick in the bathroom, but she's straight."

"Right. Of course. And why was your lipstick messed up?"

"'Cause I ate out Livvy." Briar tells her, smiling proudly as she runs a finger over her bottom lip. Lexie chokes next to her, and when Briar looks over, she's bright red. Briar frowns, concerned as she reaches over and tries to feel for a temperature, only to have her hands batted away. "She was so pretty. And so sweet. I should've gotten her number."

"Maybe you'll meet her again." Lexie says, making her grin. She really hopes so. "What about Roni?"

"Oh! She was at the first club." Briar says, perking up. Roni was the best. "She danced with me to a lot of songs. Like, a lot. But we did a super fun dance to One, Two Step and fuck, she was so hot while dancing. And she's a gymnast, so she's super strong, and she held me up against the wall when she–"

"Okay!" Lexie yelps, and Briar giggles when she shoves her hand over her mouth. She can't be blamed for licking it, laughing harder when Lexie whines and pulls back. "Hey! I know where that mouth has been, chill out."

"Did you have fun?" Lexie asks her a minute later, and Briar nods, leaning her head back on the cabinets behind them.

"Yeah." She breathes out, before reaching out for another pretzel. "Lexie?"

"Hmm."

"I'll take you with me next time if you order us a pizza."

"No need." She says, and Briar forces her eyes open, frowning. She needs pizza more than she's ever needed anything else in her life. "Jackson bought you one, remember? It's in the fridge."

"Fuck, he's so hot." Briar sighs out, hopping down to grab it, grinning when she sees that he wrote her name on the box. A face like that, and he orders her pizza? She's a goner. "Also, they played Work It like a hundred times. It won't leave my head."

"Is it worth it? Let me work it!" Lexie instantly sings from behind her, and Briar snags the ketchup bottle from the fridge, using it as a microphone as she joins in. She dances the same way she had at the club, beaming when Lexie jumps down and joins her properly.

When she gets to "go downtown and eat it like a vulture," Briar puts her fingers in a V shape with her tongue between them, delighting in the way Lexie throws her head back when she laughs. Her face is red again when she's done, and she has to wipe away her tears, and Briar loves her so much.

"Want to make a fort?" She blurts out.

"Yes." Lexie says instantly, and Briar grins, bringing the pizza box with her to the living room. They use the dining room chairs as a base, and giggle together as they try to discreetly walk upstairs to Briar's room for sheets and blankets only for Briar to trip on the sheet on the way down.

"Ow." She pouts from the bottom of the stairs, wrapped up in the blankets and looking up at a shocked Lexie. The look on her face makes Briar laugh, the noise increasing in volume when Lexie clamps a hand over her mouth, trying not to be loud even as the force of her laughter has her half bent over at the top of the stairs.

After the fort is made, the two girls sit and eat the pizza together silently, until Lexie speaks up.

"Callie is pregnant with Mark's baby."

Briar instantly smiles at the thought of a mini Callie and Mark. That'll be one well-loved baby.

"Man, I love babies. I'm going to be such a good aunt." Briar sighs out, already thinking of all the gifts she can buy them. She can't wait.

"No, that's not what–fuck, you're so drunk. We'll do this again when you're sober." Lexie sighs out, pulling Briar to lay down with her. Briar does, blinking slowly up at the ceiling, breathing carefully through the sudden spinning feeling. "Please don't puke on me."

When she wakes up in the morning, Meredith is curled up on the other side of Lexie, whose face is squished awkwardly into Briar's neck. She feels like something died in her mouth, her fishnet tights are itching her and she seriously regrets falling asleep in a leather skirt, but she feels much better than she did the night before just by being in their presence.

✦

"Do you need a banana bag?" Cristina questions, getting glowered at by Briar, who is sitting on one of the benches in the locker room. She feels mostly fine, until she goes to eat or drink or breathe. "I'm just saying, you look like you're gonna barf, and it's not happening on me."

"Well now I'll aim for you." Briar says flatly, grimacing as she forces herself to drink more water. Her head has stopped hurting, but her stomach hasn't gotten the memo that she has a job to do.

"It's horrible." Meredith complains with Briar nodding along.

"Yeah, hangovers suck."

"No, not that." Meredith dismisses her. "I'm talking about me. How do I choose? Alzheimer's or diabetes?"

What? Briar thinks, frowning to herself. What is she talking about?

"If you continue to whine about how you can't decide which groundbreaking medical advancement to put your name on, I'll punch you in the ear." Cristina tells her. Briar looks over at that. She knows about the Alzheimer's trial, since Alex is a part of it, but she had no idea about a diabetes one. She feels out of the loop and she really doesn't like it.

"Well, my name is already on one, according to the Chief." Meredith continues, and it takes a second to make sense of that, before Briar realizes that it likely relates back to her mother. "I mean, diabetes–"

"Affects 240 million people worldwide." Lexie interjects, running a soothing hand down Briar's back as she joins her on the bench. Briar leans into it, feeling like a cat.

"And Alzheimer's–"

"Is the seventh leading cause of death."

"It's Sophie's Choice." Cristina says, but before Briar can speak up, she gets a whiff of someone's perfume and has to rush to the garbage can. She flips off the room over her head when she hears groaning and complaining, gagging for a few moments before cautiously lifting her head up and going for her toiletries. If she throws up while brushing her teeth again, she's giving up.

"Grey's!" Bailey calls out, speed walking into the room just as Briar is grabbing her bag. She stops to watch, curiosity getting the better of her. "Okay, how long has your father been having abdominal pain?"

"Abdominal pain?" Meredith questions, still laughing from her conversation with Cristina and Lexie. Lexie looks confused and worried. Briar doesn't like where this is going. 

"It sounds like abdominal pain. Thatcher Grey is not an easy man to get information from."

"Our–our father's here in the hospital?" Lexie asks, making Bailey look confused now.

"Yeah, I admitted him an hour ago. You didn't know he was coming?"

"Well, what–what–what's wrong?" Lexie stumbles. "Could it be related to the liver transplant?"

"Of course. He's rejecting it because it's my liver." Meredith jokes, turning to smile at Briar when she laughs. She knows all about absent fathers, and isn't surprised when Meredith leaves the room to get to work. She'd do the same. Briar leaves next, although her mission is to brush her teeth–hopefully for the last time that morning.

✦

"Briar!"

"Hey." Briar greets Callie and Arizona, surprised when they pull her around the corner and into the attending's lounge, which is empty. "Uh, is everything okay?"

"More than okay." Arizona says, beaming.

"We actually have something to ask you. Well, I wanted to ask you days ago but Arizona had an idea for it and–oh, my God, I almost just ruined it." Callie says, her eyes wide. Briar slowly nods, turning to Arizona, who somehow smiles even wider.

"Close your eyes." Arizona orders, and Briar complies instantly, trusting the two of them. She feels a set of hands cover her eyes, making her laugh, and then hears a rustling noise before something is pushed onto her wrist. "Okay, open."

Briar blinks a few times when Callie moves her hands, and then screams.

On her wrist is a new friendship bracelet, mostly made up of rainbow beads. There are two brown teddy bear beads around the black and white lettered ones spelling out GODMOTHER.

"We, uh, we're pregnant." Callie says, laughing through the words. Briar doesn't look up, still gaping down at the bracelet. "I, uh, well–Mark is the father, and Arizona and I are the moms, and we–we all want you to be the godmother. Cristina would be our second, just in case something happens, but you were all of our first choices so you have to say yes."

"I thought–well, I know how much friendship bracelets mean to you and–oof!" Arizona's explanation is cut off when Briar crushes both of them into a hug, squeezing as tightly as she can.

"Yes, of course, I would love to!" Briar rushes out, pulling back and wiping away her tears. "I'm so happy for all of you, this is so amazing. I really do have to get to the pit, but can we meet up for dinner later? Discuss all the details? I'll buy!"

"We'd love that." Callie says, and Briar nods.

"Great, invite Mark! Congratulations, I love you both!" She gushes, before pausing on her way out of the door. "Correction: I love all three of you."

Hours later, she's reminded that Lexie and Mark are back together, and that wipes the smile from her face. Does Lexie know yet? How is she feeling about it? Are they going to stay together, or break up again?

Sometimes it feels like the drama never ends at this hospital.

✦

Her group of residents, minus April, seclude themselves away in a conference room for lunch. Cristina and Meredith review Ellis Grey's old journals, while Jackson quizzes Alex on his memory, using the questions for the Alzheimer's trial. Briar just leans her head back on her spinning chair, running a hand over her new bracelet and smiling to herself.

She's feeling loads better, having puked twice more in different areas of the hospital. She's planning on never drinking the night before a shift ever again, feeling way too old for that kind of behavior. Her phone dings, and she finds a text from Stella, wishing her a good shift. She responds in kind, even if some petty part of her wants to ignore her. She really needs to reach out to Kelly, but she's not in the right state of mind for that.

"Holy crap, your mom was smart." Cristina says reverently, flipping to a new page.

"Truck . . . cabin . . . spoon." Alex slowly recites, his fingers at his temples as if he's having a hard time remembering the words. Briar grins at his act, eating another bite of her salad, while Jackson gives him a high five.

"Three for three!"

"Crap, this is so good!" Cristina exclaims, making Briar curious. She's not interested enough to join the two of them, much more focused on making sure her lunch stays down, but she's hoping to lay her hands on that journal at some point when she feels more alive.

"Is it better than this? 'Cause seriously, Mer, you'd have to have died of Alzheimer's to fail this." Alex jokes.

"I don't even know if I'm doing it yet." Meredith says.

"You have to. Mother-daughter surgeons cure leading killer? I mean, I'm so jealous, and I'm doing a heart transplant on a baby that hasn't even been born yet." Cristina says, making Briar pout. She doesn't have any good surgeries scheduled: she's running the pit with Dr. Bailey, and they've mostly had simple cases. Bailey has done a few operations while Briar stays in the emergency room as a cautionary measure.

"Will you shut up about that?" Alex asks, clearly bitter about getting kicked from the case. Briar hasn't asked what happened yet. She's not sure she wants to know. She loves Alex more than anyone, but she's fully aware that he can be such a jerk at times.

"You're the one who needs to keep his mouth shut, Cabbage Patch." Cristina shoots back. Briar raises an eyebrow, making a mental note to ask questions after all. At the very least, she wants the story behind that nickname.

"Screw this. I've been on this case for a month. I'm not just gonna sit here." Alex snaps, leaving at the same time as Lexie enters the room, looking harried.

"Meredith, you have to come see dad."

"Oh, does he want more organs?" Meredith questions, making Briar choke on her sip of water. Jackson pats her back through it, and Briar gives him a thankful smile once she feels like she can breathe again, knowing that her face is likely bright red.

"He wouldn't say." Lexie says aggressively, crossing her arms over her chest. "He was too busy loving up on a tattooed 20 year old."

Yikes, Briar thinks, grateful that Bailey has been handling Thatcher's case. She'd said that Briar was too close to his children, and she hadn't protested. She can't handle the drama today.

"Is that upsetting you?" Jackson asks, looking interested. Briar furrows her eyebrows, wondering why he'd ask like that–he and Lexie don't talk much. "You wanna talk about it?"

"No." Lexie says, giving him a weird look, and he quickly nods.

"I thought you were on Mark's service today, not psych." Briar says with a laugh.

"Ha ha." He says, rolling his eyes at Briar, who just grins back. He stands up, gathering his food to toss as he goes. "No worries, I have a surgery to get to."

"Meredith." Lexie tries again, pointing to the door, but Meredith shakes her head.

"I can't deal with my dad. I'm too busy with my mom."

"Mer, let's go. I want to see your dad making out with his tatted up fiance." Cristina says, standing up, and Briar laughs as she gathers her trash as well.

"They're not engaged." Lexie says flatly.

"Are you sure?"

"Meredith, please." Lexie begs, making Meredith give in. Briar looks at her, wondering if there's more to her stress than her father–her boyfriend having a baby with another woman, perhaps. The only thing stopping her from asking is the knowledge that the pregnancy isn't hers to tell people about. That privilege goes to the parents.

Briar doesn't stop thinking about it the entire time she's with Lexie.

✦

"Ooh, can I have one?" Briar asks, making Jackson jump. She laughs at him, before reaching out and stealing one of the peanut butter cups from him, winking as she tosses it in her mouth as soon as it's unwrapped. "Snack break?"

"Uh, something like that." Jackson says, looking guilty. Briar narrows her eyes at that, watching him shift on his feet.

"Spill."

"It's nothing, just–fine. You know how I'm on Mark's service?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, he's holding surgeries over my head. He's so focused on Lexie, and he told me that he'll let me do some really amazing surgeries if I get information for him on how she's doing–please don't look at me like that. I really want to be Chief Resident, and these surgeries could help with that."

"Hand them over." Briar says, holding her hand out.

"What?"

"The peanut butter cups. They're for Lexie, right? Food gets her talking. Mark told you that, didn't he?"

"Yeah." Jackson sighs, slowly handing over the peanut butter cups.

"Right. Jackson, just stand up to him. He'll respect you more for doing that than he will if you spend your shift talking to his girlfriend."

"Ex-girlfriend." Jackson mumbles. The news makes Briar sigh.

"Right. Of course they've broken up, again." Briar complains, pocketing the candy. "I will go talk to Lexie, while you get yourself surgeries. And tell Mark he's getting dinner with me, Arizona, and Callie tonight."

Briar watches him go, shaking her head at Mark's plan, before turning and searching for Lexie. She finds her at the nurses station, clearly ignoring her dad's girlfriend, who is sitting by herself in the waiting area. Briar gives the woman a small smile before walking over to Lexie.

"Here. I stole these from Jackson." Briar smirks, passing over the peanut butter cups. "Now, come on, get whatever's bothering you off of your chest. I know this isn't just about your dad."

"You sound like Meredith." She complains, scowling as she rips open the first chocolate. "'Give 'em your blessing.' I think the fuck not. What is there to bless?"

"Have you talked to her at all?" Briar asks, continuing even after Lexie gives her a dirty look. "Seriously, Lex, you don't have to be her best friend, but I'm sure this would be easier for all of you if you sit and try to get to know her a bit."

"What, and everyone else just gets to be happy while I'm stuck being left behind, again. How is that fair? How is any of this fair?"

"Mark?" Briar asks, even though she's certain that that's what this is about.

"Yeah. He–he's having a baby. There's going to be another Sloan child in this world, and he didn't ask me how I feel about that."

"I'm getting serious deja-vu here." Briar says, remembering the conversations about Sloan from their last breakup. She helps herself to some chocolate.

"Tell me about it. I mean, I'm making the guy dinner, thinking we'll have a fun night and–and he just hits me with it. I'm flirting and he goes 'Callie's pregnant'." Briar fights back a laugh at the way Lexie imitates his voice, disguising it as a cough and shoving more chocolate in her mouth for a distraction. "And he just stared at me with these desperate eyes. And he's acting like he had any right to just spring that on me again, and like I should want it. I don't. I don't want it. I didn't want it with Sloan, and I don't want it now, and he didn't even ask."

"Lex–"

"This affects me, too, and no one cares about that. It's all–what is that?"

"What?"

"The bracelet, is that–oh my God."

"Lexie, wait, it's not–"

Briar grimaces when she sees the tears in Lexie's eyes. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

"It's really–it's not like that."

"You're going to be the baby's godmother?" Lexie questions, her voice breaking on the last word. Briar slowly nods, wincing when Lexie pulls away from her. "Wow. Okay. Talk about deja-vu. Last time he wanted to raise the baby with you, and now you're the godmother. That tracks."

"Callie and Arizona asked me earlier." Briar says gently, trying to make eye-contact with Lexie. "This isn't something I did to hurt you. This is about my friendship with them, and the baby they'll bring into the world, and–I'm sorry, Lex, that this isn't a happy thing for you, but it is for them. And . . . it is for me, too."

"Please leave me alone."

Briar opens her mouth, wanting to explain more, but stops at the look on Lexie's face. She looks a second away from breaking, and Briar doesn't want to make it any worse than she already has. She just nods, slowly walking away from her and blinking back her own tears.

She hates nothing more than fighting with Lexie.

✦

guys I love Lexie so much, truly.

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