"If I fall asleep, pinch me." Briar whispers to Meredith, who shakes her head at her. They're all in a conference room, listening–or not listening, in Briar's case–to Teddy explaining her latest case. Briar is especially annoyed about it, since she wants to have an important conversation with Owen and the Chief, and she'd prefer to get it over with as soon as possible.

"It's all in your head." April whispers to Jackson, grabbing Meredith and Briar's attention from where they sit behind them.

"My name isn't on the O.R. board. I checked the schedule. Nobody wants to work with me, 'cause I'm not on anybody's service." Jackson says back, and Briar grimaces, glad that he can't see her. He still hasn't decided what service he wants to specialize in. They've had a lot of discussions about it over waffles: she's one waffle away from never eating them again.

"It's an oversight, okay? Just–Just ask around." April tries.

"Do you know how many things I've screwed up in the last month?" Jackson asks her, sounding disappointed in himself.

"Stop it. I'm serious." Meredith interjects, making the two of them turn in surprise. "Just ask around and get on someone's service and get back to work."

"Maybe try something new." Briar adds, shrugging when he looks at her with annoyance. "You'll never know if you like a field until you try it. I didn't think I would like ortho, but now look at me."

Alex joins them as soon as she's finished talking, looking–and smelling–like hell, dressed in a light button up and a jacket instead of scrubs. He falls into the seat next to Meredith with a groan, and they immediately turn to him.

"You smell like you're sweating booze." Meredith murmurs to Alex, making Briar sigh. "Where have you been?"

"I want the weekend you had." Jackson tells him, looking over his shoulder at them.

"What happens in Vegas, you know?" He asks, and Briar snorts.

"I certainly know. Who'd you marry?" She asks, making the whole group laugh and then desperately try to quiet down. She winks at Alex, having purposely distracted them from his weekend away.

"Who's Stark?" Alex asks as soon as they're sure no one is looking at them. "I'm supposed to be on Stark's service today."

"Oh, me too. He's the new peds attending. Since Robbins left." April says with a bright smile that falters at the mention of Arizona leaving.

"Crap." Alex whispers, shaking his head. "I can't handle a bunch of sick kids today. I can't do it."

Briar reaches over Meredith to grab his hand, squeezing it extra tight before turning to face the front of the room again. Teddy is still talking, but Briar can't bring herself to focus on her or the case they're supposed to be learning about.

"So was it a bachelor party or–?" April starts to question, looking curious, but Meredith shushes her.

"Shh! They're talking about Cristina." She says, sitting straight up. Briar does too, her hand falling out of Alex's.

"And why did Dr. Yang opt to use the intra-aortic balloon pump over an R-Vad?" Someone questions.

"I, um . . . I can't answer for Dr. Yang." Teddy answers with a smile.

"And why isn't she here?" The same man asks. Briar grimaces, looking sideways at Meredith, who looks annoyed at the question.

"She, um . . . She quit. She left the program." Teddy admits, making the room go silent for a second before the questioning starts.

"I'm sorry, what?" Mark asks, leaning forward in his seat. "She what?"

"Dr. Yang cleared the balloon pump with Dr. McQueen who agreed that it was the best–" Teddy tries to push the conversation along, getting interrupted by a phone ringing and Mark asking more questions.

"Go back. Go back." He says, now standing up and staring at Teddy. "Yang quit the program?"

"Yeah, where have you been?" Derek asks him, making Briar snort.

"Well, that's the first I've heard of it." He says back. The phone starts beeping, finally getting answered by Webber. "Hunt, what the hell happened?"

"She told the Chief she quit."

"Richard–" Mark tries talking to Webber next, only for him to hold his pointer finger up at him to wait, walking away as he listens to the phone call.

"If we could just finish the presentation, then–" Teddy once again tries to get everyone to focus, but Derek isn't having it.

"I have a question. Can you tell us about your decision to put Dr. Yang in charge of this patient?" He asks Teddy.

Briar feels her eyes widen, sharing a look with Alex, since Meredith is leaned completely forward as she focuses on the conversation. Derek sounds pissed.

"Sorry?" Teddy questions, clearly taken off guard by his question and tone.

"But she didn't quit quit, right?" Mark questions, once again standing up, before turning and finding Meredith in the audience. "Grey. You're joined at the hip. What'd she say?"

"Uh, she hasn't spoken to me about it." Meredith answers. Everyone in the room stares at her, clearly making her uncomfortable. "Stop looking at me. Look up there."

"Does Torres know anything about this?" He says, before pulling his phone out. "I'm calling Torres."

"Can we please just–" Teddy tries again to finish her presentation while Mark leaves the room.

"Look, I guess I'm asking you, why did you choose to put Dr. Yang under so much pressure that day?" Derek asks.

"I didn't. I intended the opposite. I gave her a simple pre-op checklist on a stable patient." Teddy explains, looking a little impatient with all of the questioning.

"Stable patient?" Derek repeats, his voice rising. "The patient almost died twice."

"I couldn't have seen that coming." Teddy argues, her voice becoming colder. "I'm sorry. Is this a, uh, a patient presentation or a postmortem on Dr. Yang?"

"Well, you saved the patient." Derek responds, putting emphasis on the word 'you.' The two of them have a stare down, neither one willing to back down, while Briar regrets stepping foot into the hospital today.

She should've taken a sick day.

✦

"Dr. Hunt!" Briar calls out, pushing past her friends in her rush to catch him in the hallway. He stops, along with Teddy, who he was walking with. "Hi, sorry, is this a bad time?"

"No, you're okay." Teddy gives her a small smile, looking relieved when Briar returns it. Everything with Cristina is unfortunate, but Briar knows that no one—aside from Gary Clark—is at fault for it. Certainly not Teddy.

"Dr. Hunt, I was wondering if you would let me be on your rotation today . . . and also, if we could talk later about the possibility of me specializing in trauma?" She requests, desperately hoping that he'll have a positive answer for her.

"I thought you chose ortho?" He answers, looking confused, and Briar nods slowly.

"I–I did, yes, but, um, I would like to talk with you and Chief Webber about the possibility of me doing a dual-certification in trauma and ortho. I was hoping to talk with you and Callie about it today, but Callie hasn't come back yet."

To be fair, Callie got broken up with after deciding to relocate her life to move to Africa with Arizona, so Briar can understand needing more time before coming to work.

"It'll be a lot of work, but I think you could do it. We'll talk more about it later. Come on, you can join me for the day and then we'll figure out a schedule with Torres later." Owen gives her a smile, looking proud of the decision in a way that delights Briar.

"Thank you." She says softly, getting a warm smile and side hug from Teddy.

"Altman, Hunt." Webber greets the attendings as he turns the corner, nodding a greeting at Briar. "Emergent patient ten minutes out. Can you meet me in the V.I.P wing?"

"V.I.P wing? Who is it?" Owen asks.

"Oh, you'll find out when we get there." He says and then hesitates before turning to Briar. "Sinclair, I know you're on a different rotation, but is there any way I can get you to cover the pit–"

"Of course I will, Chief." Briar tells him with a bright smile, thrilled that he thought to ask her. "Also, can I get a meeting with you, Dr. Torres and Dr. Hunt soon? Nothing bad, I promise."

He nods at her, before turning back to the attendings.

"Listen, Hunt, I'm required to send a letter to the American board of surgery declaring that Dr. Yang has officially left the residency program. I have to let 'em know. I'm asking you, is there any reason I need to hold off on sending that letter?"

"Yes." All of them answer at once. Briar bites her lip after, knowing that she wasn't being spoken to, but not willing to entertain the thought of Cristina not being a surgeon.

"Please don't mail it." Teddy requests. "Just give us a little more time."

"Okay." He answers after Owen nods, agreeing with Teddy. "Let's go."

✦

To: Jax
Did you find an attending?
Plz say no

Yes

Ugh!!
Can u skip?

On Bailey?
I don't have a death wish

Understandable, nvm

Wait, why?

I'm running the pit
Thought u might want to help

Ugh, I'm just watching a
patient but it's Bailey's, so.

Yea stay there, cya later

Diner?

Diner.

✦

"Ow!" Lexie shrieks, getting hit by Alex with his . . . ping pong ball gun while they walk up to the lunch table. Briar side-eyes the gun, deciding not to ask questions. She's too tired to bother. "Since when is it okay to shoot people in this hospital?"

Yikes, Briar thinks, eyeing the room for any reactions. Jackson does give her a dirty look before turning to April, and Briar wastes no time in sitting down in between him and Alex and opening her lunch box.

"Now Bailey's given up on me, too." Jackson sighs out, completely downtrodden.

"You're on her service. Why are you still freaking out?" April questions, sounding worried about him. Briar, who feels for him but doesn't have the mental capacity to deal with this right now is just relieved that someone else is handling the conversation.

"Bailey's in surgery. She trusts me to watch her post-op drip fluid into a bag every ten minutes." Jackson rants, getting shot by Alex a second later. "Ow!"

"Okay, inappropriate." Lexie tells him, while Briar just sighs loudly and ignores it when Alex points the gun her way before lowering it without shooting. Lexie turns to Jackson next. "You should relax. You get an easy day, you take it. Shepherd didn't need me, so I took a nap in the research library. Give me–give it to me."

Briar almost chokes on her next bite when Lexie wrestles the gun away from Alex after he shoots her again, aiming for him as soon as she has it.

"Jerkface." Alex sighs.

"He's having a rough day. New Robbins is no Robbins." April defends him, making Briar raise her eyebrows. She takes a quick look between the two, wondering if she missed something there. Last she knew, they were barely even friends.

"Check this out–armed escort to get a yogurt." Meredith tells them, stopping at their table with her security guard. Briar just waves at her, ignoring her curiosity in favor of actually eating her lunch.

"Okay, who is it?" April asks. "Is it Bono? It's totally Bono, it's all over the hospital."

"You're welcome." Jackson says, smug about starting that rumor.

"It's not Bono." Meredith tells them, sounding exasperated.

"Are you going to Cristina's tonight?" Lexie asks next, referring to the invite they all got to go to Cristina–and Owen's, technically–housewarming party.

"I don't know." Meredith admits, getting shot by Lexie a moment later.

"Not okay!" Meredith snaps, picking the ball up and throwing it back at Lexie, making everyone but Alex laugh.

"Okay, that's addicting." Lexie admits, still laughing.

"Put it away before my guy wrestles you to the ground." Meredith says, getting a scoff from Briar.

"Please, he did nothing to stop you from getting shot." She points out, because the guy's response time was non-existent. Before Meredith can say anything else, Alex starts arguing with Lexie over the ball, finally running off with one.

"What's his problem?" Meredith asks while they all watch him leave.

"He's having a rough day." April answers, and then Meredith is made to leave by her security guard. Lexie aims for her, only to hit the guy in the back. He turns and stares her down while they all point at her until she sets the gun down and puts her hands over her head.

As soon as they're gone, their table erupts into laughter.

✦

Briar doesn't think she's ever been happier to finish a shift.

She had an insane amount of cases in the pit today, and two interns and one resident called in sick, so she was spread a little too thin. The only reprieve she had was in her lunch break, and she was forced to take that by Tyler, who is truly her favorite nurse. She needs to get him a gift basket one of these days.

She sends a text to Cristina asking to get together soon, having decided not to go to her party. The others are planning an intervention, but Briar agrees with Derek that trying to force her back to work won't work. Cristina needs to make that decision on her own.

Briar can't help but smile, realizing that she'll have the house all to herself since everyone else will be at Cristina's party. She can't remember the last time that house was quiet.

She barely gets past the locker room before Alex is stopping her, looking like a complete mess.

"Alex, hey, what's–?"

"You should–you should check on April. She's in the on-call room down the hall. She–I fucked up."

"Alex?" Briar asks, confused, but he won't make eye contact with her.

"You should check on her."

"Okay. Alex, I will–are you okay? Do you want to wait here and I'll drive you home?"

"I'm good. I'm gonna go to Cristina's party. I need a damn drink."

Briar watches him go, feeling a headache starting at her temple, before she shoulders her bag with a heavy sigh and turns to go find April. She's not in the first three rooms Briar peaks in, although she does find two interns in a very compromising situation, and she's cursing Alex for not giving her a better description than "down the hall" when she finds April. She's curled up on the bed, crying, and Briar's heart lurches when she sees her unbuttoned scrub pants and missing scrub top.

"April?" She asks softly, carefully shutting and locking the door behind her. April's cries only pick up in volume before she shoves her face into the pillow and they become slightly muffled. Briar grimaces in sympathy, slowly walking closer to the bed and grabbing April's shirt from the floor.

"Hey, I can leave if you really want me to." She says softly, making the decision to sit on the bed by her feet. "Or I can stay. It's up to you."

"S–Stay." She chokes out after a minute, and Briar smiles at her even though she can't see it. "Please stay."

"Okay." Briar agrees, reaching out and putting a hand on her ankle. The contact only seems to shake her up even further, and after a few minutes Briar feels worried that she'll suffocate herself if she holds the pillow any closer to her face.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. It's going to be okay." She starts rambling, feeling awkward. She's never had to comfort April before, she doesn't know how to do this. "You're–you're not alone. I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere."

They sit like that for long enough that Briar feels her foot falling asleep, although she does her best to ignore the awful feeling. A little bit after that, April shyly peeks her head out from the pillow. Her eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot, her cheeks are bright red with tears and snot covering them, and her hair is all over the place, but Briar is just happy that she's not trying to suffocate herself anymore.

"There you are." She says with a light smile, before reaching out for her bag. "Here, if you're comfortable drinking from the same bottle as me, I've got a water bottle. And–ha! I knew I had tissues in here!"

"Thanks." April says quietly, clearing her throat a moment later and looking pained. Briar imagines that her throat feels destroyed after all that sobbing.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks after April's cleaned her face, blown her nose into a handful of tissues, and drank almost the entire water bottle. At the question her eyes water, although she doesn't start crying again, slowly nodding her head.

"Before that, you might want to put this back on. It's cold in here." Briar tries to lighten the mood as she hands her her scrub top, but April just holds it in her lap and stares blankly at it. Briar gives her a few seconds, and then reaches out and helps her put it on.

"Sorry." April mumbles afterwards, but Briar only shakes her head.

"Nonsense. There's nothing to be sorry for." She says honestly, before slowly reaching out and grabbing her hand. "Do you want to stay here or go home?"

"I want–" She starts, and then clears her throat and bursts into tears again. "I want Reed."

"Oh, April." Briar sighs out, feeling horrible for her. She reaches out and pulls her into her side, letting her turn and cry into her shoulder. "I know. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"It's not fair." She sobs out, her voice squeaking. Briar holds her tighter, completely lost on what she could say to make this better. "It's not fair that my best friend is dead and that everyone else is fine and that I'm almost thirty and still a virgin and my almost first time was horrible and I can't even tell my best friend about it!"

Well, there's a lot to unpack there. Briar blinks rapidly, trying to process it all, and then feels relief flood her. She said "almost." Whatever happened with Alex, they didn't have sex.

"It is unfair." Briar agrees, listening to her sniffle before she seems to calm down again. "And—well, I know I'm not your best friend, but I've been told I'm a good listener."

"But you're Alex's best friend." She says so quietly that Briar almost doesn't hear her.

"I am." She agrees, because that'll always be true. "I'm also your friend. Anything you want to say won't leave this room. You can talk as much shit as you want. I won't join in but I won't judge you for it."

"You're so sweet." April whispers, her lip wobbling before she takes a deep breath. "I just—um, it's a little embarrassing but I've had a bit of a crush on Alex e—ever since we went out for drinks after our team won Hunt's test. And watching him advocate for our patient today, it just—"

She stops there, looking embarrassed, but Briar gives her an understanding look.

"Alex with kids is attractive." She agrees, because he is. "No one can blame you for seeing that."

"He's so attractive." April whines, pouting. "Remember how Alex ran away with that ping pong ball? Well, he had this genius idea of using it in surgery, but Robbins' replacement criticized him for it and then tried to pass it off as his idea after he pulled myself and the Chief into the surgery. And I—I called him on it in front of Chief Webber because it wasn't fair, and then I came in here to talk to Alex and tell him that it isn't right and—and I don't really know how it happened but he kissed me. And then—and then I was underneath him, and my shirt was off and—and I asked him to slow down and he got mean."

"How mean?" Briar whispers, squeezing April closer and dropping a kiss to her hair. It's all instinct, and she hopes April doesn't mind her doing that.

"He, uh, basically said that he couldn't hold my hand through this, and that I'm not a child. And then he said that he couldn't take care of me, and that he couldn't take care of everybody. He was just yelling but it—it kind of seemed like he didn't even see me. Like he was looking through me."

"Oh, Alex." Briar breathes out, shaking her head. It's such a shitty situation, and she'll definitely be having a talk with him about it, but she knows that this was really about his trip home this weekend. He just managed to get April caught in the crossfire.

"I'm sorry, he never should've said that to you." She tells April, meaning every word. "And I'm sorry that you experienced any of that, but I'm glad you didn't have sex with him. You deserve better than for your first time to be in an on-call room. You deserve it to be as magical as you've always imagined it to be, okay? It's not childish or lame or whatever else you've been told to want to wait or make it special."

April pulls away at that, searching her face. She must be able to tell that Briar really means it, because she gives her a bright—if a little wobbly—smile and nods.

"Thank you. This—this meant a lot."

"Of course. What do you want to do right now?"

"I want to go to Cristina's party and drink." April decides, and Briar just raises her eyebrows.

"Alex is there." She warns her. "He told me he was going. I have alcohol at the house if you want to come home–"

"No. I told Cristina I would go to her party. I don't want to be the girl who can't handle anything. I want to go. I want—I want to talk to Jackson."

"Okay, fine, but I'm coming with you. Come on, you can get dressed and drink some more water and then I'll drive you."

So much for a quiet night in.

✦

"Are you sure you want to be here?" Briar whispers to April as they climb the stairs up to Cristina and Owen's place. "'Cause we can turn around right now."

"I'm sure." April nods, despite looking shaky, and Briar sighs but continues following her up the stairs.

"Fine, but we can leave at any time."

"Oh, hi!" April greets Owen, who is standing at the entrance. "Um, uh, I'm sorry, I-I didn't—I know I should bring a gift, like a housewarming gift, to things like this, but I didn't—I didn't really have time to bring anything." She explains, starting to cry at the end of the sentence. Briar awkwardly rubs her back, shrugging when Owen gives her a panicked look. "So I'm just really sorry."

"It is really—it's no problem." Owen assures her, reaching out to pat her on the shoulder.

"What happened?" Jackson asks, appearing out of nowhere and looking deeply concerned. "April?"

Oh, thank fuck, Briar thinks to herself, watching with the utmost relief as Jackson leads April away, the girl still crying. Surely he can handle her emotions better than Briar can.

"I'll bring you a gift this week." Briar says to Owen, now feeling awkward about not having anything. "Your wife didn't really give me a lot of notice on the gift front."

"Yeah, me neither." Owen says with a sigh, making Briar laugh. He didn't expect to be throwing a party tonight, but he's doing good at going with it from what Briar can tell. "Don't worry about a gift. We really don't need anything. Is, uh, is Kepner okay?"

"She will be. Speaking of, I should really . . ." She trails off, pointing over her shoulder, and he waves her away with a fond smile.

She practically runs to the booze table.

✦

She's just downed her fourth raspberry kamikaze shot when she spots trouble. More specifically, she sees the exact moment that April tells Jackson what happened and he starts looking around for Alex.

"Oh, fuck me." Briar moans, setting the shot glass on the table and trying to intercept them before—Jackson punches Alex in the face.

Fantastic.

"Hey, hey, stop!" Briar shouts, just as Jackson punches him again, sending him into the coffee table. The noise of it breaking is almost drowned out by the sudden shouting as everyone focuses in on the fight, and Briar jumps into it, tugging Jackson's arm back after he lands a few strong punches.

She nearly catches a fist to her face before Mark and Owen have him pulled back. She sees a mixture of anger and horror on his face before she turns to Alex, who is being pulled up and held back by Meredith and Callie. She has one second to notice Callie's new hair—the short with blue ends looks great on her—before she's pushing Alex back herself.

"Hey, hey, stop! Outside! Meredith, can you check on April?" She asks, busy wrangling Alex to join her outside of the apartment. "Callie, can you get me ice? And a first aid kit?"

"Got it." She hears from behind her. She sighs to herself, wrapping Alex's arm around her shoulders and wrapping her arm around his waist as they slowly take the stairs.

They don't talk until after Callie goes back inside. Briar takes care of his cuts in silence, before handing him the bag of ice to put over his eye.

"You're going to be bruised as hell, but you'll live." She says flatly, leaning against the trunk of her car and staring straight ahead.

"You're pissed at me."

"No shit." She scoffs, before shaking her head. "Of course I am. But, whatever I'm feeling, it's nothing compared to what you're feeling about yourself."

Silence and then—"You know me too well. It's annoying."

"Yeah, I know the feeling." Briar says dryly. "You said it yourself, you fucked up with April. You didn't deserve to be punched like that, and I'll be talking to Jackson about it, but . . . Alex, you need to work on this."

"I know."

"Alex, I'm serious. You—I know that you've been through a lot, but you can't take your anger out on other people every time something like this happens."

"I know."

"Okay." She says, because there's not much else to say that they haven't discussed before. "Do you want to talk about your trip home?"

"Aaron didn't—it wasn't an issue from the surgery, or anything—anything physical. He was diagnosed schizophrenic. Just like our mom. He—he's always been scared of that, just like I have, and I always told him he would be fine."

"It's not your fault." She says softly. She knows that his heart won't accept that, even if his head knows it to be the truth. It doesn't hurt to hear it.

"He tried to kill Amber." He tells her, looking more vulnerable than she's seen him in a long time. "Our 16 year old sister. She's a kid, she's just a kid, and our brother tried to kill her. And our mom didn't do anything 'cause she's off her meds again, and I showed up afterwards to get him committed, and to shove pills down our mother's throat, and to hold my sister's hand in the hospital for ten minutes, and then I ran. I'm always running. I'm the ass who can't stand to be there."

There's a hundred things she could say to that: that he's not giving himself enough credit, that he supports them by sending them checks, that he's allowed to have his own life, but she knows he doesn't want to hear any of it. He doesn't want the comfort, or the platitudes. She never did either.

Instead, she leans against the car, looks to the sky, and says "twenty bucks says you'll have, hmm, seven bruises from tonight."

Next to her, he snorts, looking up to the sky himself. "Please, Avery packs a punch. I've got at least ten."

"You're on."

✦

"Hey." Briar hears from behind her, although she doesn't turn to look. She just hums, still staring up at the sky and thinking to herself. Alex left a while ago, wanting to get some rest before starting on his apology tour the next day.

"Can I sit?" Jackson asks next, sounding a bit nervous. Briar just nods, finally turning to look at him when he joins her on the edge of the driveway. "I—uh, I want to apologize. I almost hit you back there, and I didn't mean to. If I scared you, I'm sorry."

"Thank you." She says, giving him a nod before looking away from him. There's too much pain in his gaze for her to handle right now. It's too much. It's all too much. "Why did you punch him?"

Jackson's quiet for long enough that Briar thinks he isn't going to answer, but then he sighs.

"Bailey's patient died earlier. She had a fistula, and I operated but it wasn't a success. And I—I keep failing at this job constantly, over and over again. The attendings don't trust me. I don't trust me. And I screamed at Bailey in the O.R. because she said she would join me, but she didn't until it was too late for the patient, and I'm so tired of being too late."

"And then, I got here and I'm standing in this room full of people I have no relationship with. I haven't bonded with any of them. So I holed myself up in the corner with a bottle of liquor because I don't really have anyone anymore. My best friend was murdered at the hospital and I don't have anyone except April and you, and neither of you were there. Until suddenly you were, but then I have April crying and telling me about Alex treating her badly and I—I just reacted."

"Okay." Briar says. She doesn't look at him, even though she can feel him staring at her.

"Okay?"

"Yeah, Jackson. Okay. I understand it. I don't like it—Alex is my best friend, and I'll never approve of anyone punching him, and certainly not them using him to break a table. You got lucky, he doesn't have anything more than cuts and the start of some bruising. It could've been a lot worse."

"I shouldn't have done that." Jackson whispers, ashamed, and Briar nods.

"No, you shouldn't have. I don't want to see you become a violent person, or a mean person."

"I won't—" Jackson starts, sounding determined, but Briar shakes her head.

"Everyone says that, but they don't do the work. Trauma and anger, they can be deadly when they're mixed. And you—you're really traumatized, Jackson. I know you don't want to admit it, and we don't have to talk about everything tonight, but you are. We all are, but you really went through a lot, and you need help. You can't live with this much anger, Jackson, it isn't healthy—not for you or anyone around you."

"Okay."

"Okay." Briar agrees with a nod, before forcing herself to her feet and holding a hand out for him. "I'll give you a ride home if you're ready to go."

"Thanks." He tells her, the word coming out thick, and Briar knows he means it for more than this ride. She just nods.

"Tomorrow's a new day."

authors note

double update, who am i???

seriously though, the next few chapters are going to delve deeper into everyone's mental health post shooting. i know that people tend to mainly focus on cristina's, and while that's important, it bothers me that the others don't get that same focus. especially jackson and april.

anyway it's 3 am here and my brain is turning to mush, but i hope you all have great days!! please let me know how you feel about this chapter, good or bad :)