Orange has always been one of Briar's favorite colors.

Orange is the color of her favorite flower: tiger lilies. Orange is the color of her favorite sunsets. Orange is the color of her favorite season: autumn leaves, pumpkins, and campfires. Orange is the color of optimism, confidence, and warmth.

It's also the color of the Mercy Wester's scrubs, and so Briar is starting to hate it a little bit.

"I'm trying really hard not to hate them, but why are they wearing orange?" She complains, breaking the silence in her group. From left to right, it's Izzie, Alex, Briar, Cristina, and Lexie leaning over the banister watching a sea of orange converge with their blue.

"Who are you and what have you done with Briar?" Cristina asks, turning and placing a hand on Briar's forehead, tutting to herself. "You need to hate them with the rest of us. Come on, be prickly!"

Briar can't help but laugh at that, leaning away from where Cristina now has her hands on her shoulders. They both go back to leaning with the others, Briar admiring her nail polish as they do. She never bothers painting them herself, since it doesn't last long with her profession, nor is it professional to have painted nails as a surgical resident. This week, however, she's been on rotation in the pediatric ward, and the only way she could get a young girl to calm down yesterday was by presenting her with nail varnish.

One color away from representing my flag, she thinks, grinning down at the purple and pink polish. She's only missing blue.

"They took George's cubby." Izzie speaks up after a few moments of silence, making everyone turn to face her. Alex wraps an arm around her, while Briar looks over Cristina's head at Lexie, who looks sick. She gives her a sad smile, turning back to face the sea of orange with more resentment this time.

They make it hard to like them.

✦

"There should be at least a couple of days where they act like guests before they put their feet up on the coffee table." Izzie is bitching when Briar reaches Room 5949, smiling at Meredith as she enters. Meredith nods back from her hospital bed, and Briar quickly nudges Alex over so she can hop onto the dresser in the room, Alex rolling his eyes at her even as he moves without protest.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that they're complaining about their new residents. Briar thankfully hasn't had to deal with them today, being busy running around for Dr. Robbins. She's happy for the distraction, but also wishes she was in the fray, learning about their enemies.

"What's with the orange scrubs?" Lexie scoffs from where she's holding down the blinds, creeping on the people outside the room. Briar bites back a grin at the sight. "What, ours aren't good enough for them?"

"They look like prisoners." Briar points out, wrinkling her nose at the thought of wearing orange scrubs. Seriously, who is responsible for that?

"We ran out. They're on back order." Meredith explains, sighing as she also watches out of the window. "Randall from the supply company says they'll be here in a week."

"That's what you learn when you lie here all day." Meredith adds on when they all turn to stare at her. Briar hums at that, setting the card she'd brought down on the dresser next to her. She can't help but smile at it, it's very clearly homemade from a couple of kids in the peds ward, and she loves it. 'Get better' is written in blocky handwriting, a mixture of capital and lowercase lettering in all different colors. It's surrounded by what appears to be an attempt at a stethoscope.

When she tunes back in, everyone seems to have given up on keeping their jobs, which is alarming. Meredith clearly agrees, arguing back against the negativity. Briar doesn't understand the references she makes to being hosts, but she can respect the spirit.

"We own this hospital." Meredith argues very seriously, Briar smiling to herself. They absolutely do not own the hospital, but she's not going to argue with the woman. "We were born in this hospital." Again, no. "We will hold this hospital with our last gasping breath."

Was that in her employment contract?

Cristina's intern starts rambling about not wanting to become a coroner, Briar laughing at him as she helps herself to one of Izzie's grapes. Alex glares at her, clearly not happy about the action, but Briar knows that Izzie wants to feel normal. She's not, what with the whole living with cancer thing, but Briar can treat her the way she wants to be treated. She steals everyone's food, and she's not going to stop on account of Alex being over protective.

She smiles at Alex until he turns around with a huff, winking at Izzie who looks delighted by the interaction. She gets another grape for her troubles.

"Go out there and go get surgeries before they take them!" Meredith snaps, glaring around the room at them all. "Go! And I want a full report by the end of the day!"

"Ooh, someone's a drill sergeant!" Briar exclaims, smiling at Meredith as she swings her legs, not moving. She still has about five minutes until she has to head back to peds, and she needs to suck in as much adult interaction time as she can.

"And why aren't you going?" Meredith questions, arching an eyebrow at her.

"I already have a surgery." She explains, making Meredith perk up. Briar smirks at that, knowing that she's going stir crazy, sitting in a hospital bed instead of working in said hospital. Especially since there are a group of residents swooping in and trying to steal their jobs. "I have an appy on a kid later."

Not the most exciting surgery, but she'll take any surgery she can get her hands on.

"And what is wrong with you?" Meredith questions Cristina, not responding to Briar, who doesn't mind. She's happy to just exist in the background of the two.

"I–I don't know what I'm fighting for." Cristina says, sounding truly depressed, and Briar busies herself rearranging Meredith's dresser.

"Surgeries, Cristina! Surgeries!" Meredith says, sounding exasperated. "There will be a cardio god here again one day. And when there is, you don't want to be out of practice. Now go!"

Cristina sighs but gets up, slowly leaving the room. Meredith turns her head to stare pointedly at Briar, who cheerfully waves back.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm out of here." She says before Meredith can kick her out. "Enjoy the card! Oh, and any drama you hear about the parasites, I want to hear instantly! I'm sure you'll hear first."

They make a quick deal to keep each other informed, and Briar hustles out of the room. She's got a few minutes until she has to make her rounds, so she decides to head to the coffee cart and pick something up for her and Arizona.

Go figure, as soon as she gets there she's faced with orange scrubs.

This one is attractive at least. What can she say, she's a sucker for a buzzcut, and this man pulls it off. And hello eyes: she's always preferred brown eyes, but the green eyes in front of her might just change that.

Briar nods at him, placing her and Arizona's order quickly. She made it a point during her intern year to memorize as many coffee orders as she could, and the habit has paid off quite well for her. As soon as she's done, she moves to the side, standing next to the Mercy Wester.

"That must mean the coffee's good." He speaks up, just as she's pulling out her phone to respond to Alex's text, rolling her eyes as his request to keep an eye out for Izzie. He desperately needs to relax. She's not even going to be working on the same floor as her.

"What?" She asks, frowning at the random statement.

"The coffee." He repeats, just as he gets handed his own cup. He doesn't leave, instead just staring at Briar, who barely resists the urge to sigh at him.

George would be nice to them, she thinks, and forces a smile on her face. He's not being rude, and it'll only look bad if she's rude first. She can exchange small talk over coffee with this guy who's gunning for her job. That's totally fine.

"What about it?" She asks, just as she gets handed her own cup, Arizona's still being made. She adds in a lot of creamer–they know to leave her enough room at the top to add a ridiculous amount, she's joked about it with the workers enough times– and two sugars, smiling into that first sip.

"It must actually be good if doctors here drink it." He explains his original comment, Briar arching her eyebrow at him.

"See for yourself, you were given a cup." She points out. She's not the biggest fan of small talk, not really understanding the point of it. The guy just nods at her, smirking in a way that's grating on her nerves. She's been here for too many hours to engage in niceties when she could be chugging down as much coffee as possible to jumpstart her system.

"Jackson Avery." He introduces himself, holding out his right hand after switching his coffee to his left, and Briar reaches over to shake it.

"Briar Sinclair." She introduces herself back, giving him a quick smile as Arizona's coffee is handed over. She takes it with a genuine smile and drops a few dollars into the tip jar before turning to leave, getting stopped by Avery's voice.

"Hey, so, I was told to go to the pit. Any chance you know where that is?"

Briar takes a deep breath, trying not to react to what she feels is a condescending question. Obviously she knows where the pit is, seeing as she's not new like he is. For one second she considers giving him bad directions, but that's just petty. He hasn't actually done anything to her to deserve that kind of treatment, and she would hate it if someone did that to her on her first day. So she forces a smile onto her face, turning to face him and gesturing for him to walk with her.

"The pit is what we call the ER. Come on, I'll show you."

✦

Briar yawns into her hand, stabbing at a piece of chicken in front of her as Alex drops his tray down on their table. The noise makes her jump, but Alex doesn't make fun of her for it, a real sign that he's in a truly bad mood.

"This blows."

"Getting your ass kicked?" Cristina asks around a sigh, dropping down next to Lexie, who has been ignoring Briar in favor of reading out of a little red notebook. Not that Briar's complaining. She loves working with kids, but she always needs some quiet after to recuperate her energy. The kids need all of the energy she can give them.

"Shut up," Alex says around a mouthful of his sandwich, making Briar wrinkle her nose. She hates most of the food the cafeteria makes, which is why she packs her own lunches. Today seems to be tuna salad sandwich day, which honestly just makes Briar want to throw up. "I hear yours got a standing ovation in the E.R."

That jab makes Briar look up, whipping out her phone so she can update Meredith as they talk.

"Yours is the one who saved the whole E.R. from the maniac with the hammer?" Lexie demands, finally turning away from her notebook. Cristina glares back at her, looking pissed, while Briar looks in between all of them.

Of all days to be on a different rotation. Not fair.

"Okay, he didn't save anyone!" Cristina retorts, clearly bothered. "He did some stupid ninja leap and then tripped a guy. I used actual medicine to stop a person from dying."

Amused, Briar gives her a thumbs up, making her look smug for a second before Alex says that there's a video of the tackle floating around, making them look bad. Why hasn't Briar seen it?

"Who is your guy, anyway?" Briar asks absentmindedly, texting Meredith as she does. Did you know Cristina's guy apparently fended off some guy with a hammer??

"Jackson Avery." Cristina says the name with disgust dripping from every syllable, making Briar's head shoot up. She ignores the look she receives from Lexie at the movement, instead twisting to face Alex.

"You said there's a video? Send it to me." She demands, because if the guy was hot while putting in a coffee order, she's sure he was even hotter tackling a guy. She might have a thing for wrestlers. When Alex starts to narrow his eyes at her, she waves her phone in the air. "For Meredith! Come on, she wants to be informed."

Alex rolls his eyes but does as she asked, Briar grinning when her phone dings twice in her hands. She's so watching that later. With Meredith, of course.

It's obvious that Alex doesn't believe her for a second, even as the others start discussing other things, but he doesn't point it out. Briar almost wishes he would, because she knows he's distracted worrying about Izzie, and his level of constant concern is starting to really concern her.

"Mine has a notebook." Lexie says, holding up the red notebook she's been reading. Briar raises her eyebrows at that, shocked at that move from Lexie. She didn't think she had it in her, but she's honestly kind of proud. "A notebook that she takes notes in–"

Briar can't help but snort at that. What else would she do with a notebook?

"Notes of a very personal nature, and I stole it." Lexie pushes on as if she wasn't interrupted.

Again, Briar is impressed. It's dark and twisted and she would expect that move from Cristina or Meredith, not Lexie.

"Give it." Alex says what they're all thinking, and Briar nods along with that, but Lexie shakes her head. She presses the book even further into her body as if expecting one of them to pull an Avery and tackle her for it.

"No! No, I–I am not sinking to their level," Lexie stammers, sounding as if she's trying to convince herself of that more than anything. "They are vindictive and they are aggressive and–and they are not team players."

Briar watches with wide eyes as Lexie works herself up. These new residents must be worse than she thought if they have her friends freaked out this badly, and she doesn't like it. Objectively it's a little amusing, but it's also worrying her for when she'll be working with them.

"If we are not careful that spirit is going to infect our hospital." Lexie emphasizes her spirited speech by banging her fist on the table, knocking over Briar's water bottle. She watches it fall to the floor with sadness: she's not touching anything that touches that floor. "We have to fight it!"

"Which is why you stole her notebook?" Cristina points out the hypocrisy, smiling proudly.

"And read it." Alex and Briar both point out, Briar slapping his arm when he speaks with his mouth full again.

"Well, she's not a very nice person." Lexie explains, and Briar snorts. Lexie gives her a wounded look, but Briar just shrugs back. Honestly, she would read the notebook too, but she doesn't think Lexie wants to hear that.

Before the conversation can continue, Izzie walks over with two coffees, perking Alex up. Briar laughs in his face when she explains that the second coffee isn't for him, but instead the Mercy West resident shadowing her. That has to sting.

"They're handing us our asses on a plate, and you're serving 'em coffee?" Alex questions, sounding scandalized. Briar looks between them, feeling left out of the loop. Surely they can't be losing to the other residents that badly. . . right?

"Charles is actually kind of awesome." Izzie says with a smile, while Briar exchanges looks with Cristina and Lexie, not sure how to feel about that. "And if you all could get past your sad, little egos, you'd realize that you can't write off all the Mercy West residents just cause you feel threatened."

Well, damn. Briar frowns down at her lunch for a second before starting to pack it away, not feeling hungry anymore.

"We don't feel threatened." Cristina protests, Alex joining in, but Briar just pushes back her chair and joins Izzie.

"I need to drop this off in the lounge." She nods to the lunch bag she's holding, and then smiles at Izzie as they walk away. "But. . . maybe you can introduce me to this Charles guy. I'll try not to be too much of an asshole."

Izzie needs all the people in her corner that she can get, and if that means she has to play nice with orange scrubs, she'll do it. It's worth it for the delighted smile she receives, Izzie wrapping their arms together as Briar grabs one of the cups from her, letting herself get pulled down the hallway.

Izzie explains that Charles knows about her cancer and was actually nice about it, making Briar feel bad for all the thoughts she's had about the merger. She's been trying her best not to be rude to any of the new staff, knowing that it isn't their fault, but that's easier said than done. Thankfully she really hasn't been around them enough to be rude.

Three of the Mercy West residents are gathered around the nurses station, Briar giving them a quick once over. Pixie Cut, Ginger, and a plain looking guy who she thinks might be Charles judging by the way Izzie starts to quicken her pace.

"The woman does whatever I ask," Charles is laughing when they get in hearing range, his friends laughing along with him. Briar and Izzie both freeze where they are, Izzie still smiling while Briar starts to get a bad feeling. "I want something, she gets it for me." He snaps his fingers as he says this, Briar looking over at Izzie, whose smile is starting to fade.

He better be talking about someone else, or Briar is going to ruin his life.

"The research library? Anytime you want to go in, it's closed, just say the word. She gave me the code to the place."

They're talking about Izzie. They're talking about Izzie.

Briar can't look away from the trainwreck happening in front of her. Izzie's hold on her arm tightens enough to hurt, but Briar doesn't complain or pull away from the pain. It has to be nothing compared to the emotional pain Izzie is feeling.

"You're kidding." Pixie Cut says with a smile, Ginger laughing even harder.

"She can't do enough for me." Charles continues, and anger takes over Briar's shock. "It's like I have my own surgical bitch."

Just as he says that, Ginger finally looks past him to see Izzie and Briar standing there, and her face falls out of her smile as she clears her throat. Her and Pixie Cut back away from Charles, but they still seem too amused for Briar's liking.

Briar is no saint. She doesn't like most people, she's made fun of more people than she can count, but this is just sad.

Izzie reaches over and grabs the coffee cup from Briar's hand, quickly dropping it so that it covers Charles's shoes and the bottoms of his scrubs, making Briar smile. He completely deserves that. Izzie doesn't say a word, just turns and leaves, and Briar watches her go.

She knows her friend enough to know she doesn't want an audience right now, and she has a few things she wants to say.

Pixie Cut grimaces at Ginger, both of them moving as if to walk away, but Briar clears her throat before they can.

"Sorry, I think I got lost." She says with false cheer, all three of them giving her nervous looks since she'd clearly heard their gossiping. "I thought I walked into a hospital this morning, but I seem to have taken a wrong turn and ended up back in high school."

Charles opens his mouth, expression still frozen in shock, but Briar silences him with a glare.

"Since you're a bunch of gossipy bitches, I'm guessing you told them about her?" She asks, not saying the word cancer in case he did one thing right, although she doubts it. He looks away from her, a flush crawling up his neck in the process, and her resentment builds.

"I mean, it's kind of obvious." Pixie Cut says, gesturing to her own hair as she tries to defend her friend. She takes a step back when Briar rounds on her, angered at the slight against Izzie's appearance. Izzie is beautiful; she always will be, with or without hair. Not that physical appearance is what matters, not when compared to how strong and dedicated Izzie is, but she has all of it.

"You're one to talk, Pixie Cut, but I wasn't speaking with you." Briar says flatly, not wanting to waste time engaging with her. Anyone who laughs at the comments Charles was making isn't someone she wants to waste time with after she's made her point.

"Woah, what's going on?" She hears, rolling her eyes at the sound of Avery's voice. Great. Another Mercy Wester.

"She's freaking out." She hears Ginger whisper to him. "She just came over and–"

"Okay, if you're going to be a gossipy bitch, do it right." Briar snaps, turning so that she can look at all of them, not just Charles. Ginger takes a step back, her face paling dramatically, walking right into a confused looking Jackson Avery. "You got caught talking shit. Own it! The nice girl routine is tired and, quite frankly, pathetic."

"Okay, hold on." Avery interjects, frowning at her. "I don't think this is the place for–"

"Your friends made it the place when they acted like bullying assholes in my hospital." Briar snaps back, before turning back to Charles, who still isn't looking at her. Briar takes a deep breath, reminding herself that she's a doctor and can't cause physical harm to anyone.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding." Avery continues on, and Briar shakes her head in disbelief. Why is he even talking?

"Okay, I'm going to say all of this once, and you're all going to shut up and listen." She commands, taking the time to look all of them in their eyes. She has to force herself not to stop at Avery's, it's truly unfair how beautiful his eyes are, even now. "I know that you're new here, and you don't understand how we do things, but what just happened is not going to happen again."

"You called Izzie Stevens your bitch." She snaps, scowling at Charles, who looks away from her instantly. "Your bitch? First of all, if Izzie's your idea of a bitch, what does that make you? She's the one working the same exact shift as you with kindness and grace, all while fighting cancer. Stage 4, by the way. Yet here you are, having the nerve to make fun of her for being kind?"

Ginger looks a second away from crying, Pixie Cut is staring at the floor, and Avery is staring at Charles in shock. Briar honestly forgot he wasn't there for the original comments. She wonders how he would have reacted. Would he have stood and laughed like the others?

"You know, this is honestly pathetic. Do you know how many people would kill to be standing where you are, learning at this hospital? No one is happy about the merger, but coming into it like this? That can't be what you want your reputation to be. So get your shit together. Learn how to be team players instead of bullies."

She goes to turn away, honestly dissatisfied–she wants to do a lot more screaming and name calling, but she is unfortunately at her place of employment–when another thought occurs to her and she turns back around, looking directly at Pixie Cut. She heard all about the arguing between her and Izzie over a cubby, only just connecting the dots that this is who they were complaining about taking their friends spot and refusing to acknowledge Izzie's request. They called her crazy for that, and Izzie still tried to befriend them.

"You have until the end of the day to get your shit out of George O'Malley's locker before I destroy it all."

With that, she turns around and walks away, fighting back the tears that want to appear. She can't believe she has to spend her time with these people, when George should be here instead. He should be laughing with them at lunch, competing with them over cases, arguing about where to get dinner.

She knows his cubby being filled isn't the end of the world. With the merger, they don't have the liberty of having empty cubbies, which is why she beelines straight to the lounge at the end of her shift. His locker is empty, so apparently Pixie Cut knows how to take something seriously.

Ten minutes later, she takes a step back and admires her belongings, now in George's locker. She's moved Alex's stuff as well, wanting to remain next to him. It's stupid and superstitious, but it feels important to their friendship. Pixie Cut can have Alex's old locker, but she can't have George's.

Not when it feels like such an insult to his name.

She gives herself a second to smile at the picture in the middle of the cubby. It's from right after they befriended Alex, all six of them crowded into frame. George is beaming at the camera. He'd had a great day at work, beating all of them during a case, and he'd been annoyingly smug about it.

Having the picture hanging up in their locker makes her feel better about everything. They're not forgetting him. They're not leaving him behind.

He's there, even when he isn't.

authors note:
first real chapter!!
if anyone's reading this, i'm curious about what you think of briar.

honestly, she's the messiest character i've ever made, and i love her for it. she doesn't handle grief well. she's struggling a lot with losing george, for reasons that will be revealed later on. she's messy, she's a hypocrite, she's going to struggle a lot. don't expect perfection here

alex & briar being best friends is everything to me. i love them a lot.

jackson wasn't in the original "izzies a bitch" scene, which is why he doesn't come into this until after briar starts snapping. i wasn't going to have him in it at all, but i think it fits his character to come in after and immediately try to defend his friends without knowing the situation. briar can respect loyalty but she hates when it's blind, so she doesn't like him because of that. and also because of his scrubs color, she has an issue with them being orange!!

posted 12/6/2023