#doc and donut COULD be on here bc i do think doc is important to junior but

[leonardalphachurch]

something you should know about me: i will ALWAYS take the opportunity to make a relationship chart

theta and junior are the main characters here so while i could include other ppl and relationships on here i tried to keep it to like. only the stuff that would directly affect their story as much as possible.

list of each character and their relationships under the cut in a maybe easier to read format?

if a characters name is small and i don’t give them a full name here it’s bc they’re not actually a real character and only exist bc there needed to be a person there

[C parents] Parents of Caboose; Grandparents of Smith. [C sis] Sister of Caboose; Mother of Smith. [Caboose] Michael J. Caboose: Uncle to Smith; Friends with Church and Tucker. [Smith] John Elizabeth Andersmith: Nephew of Caboose; Part of the teen's friend group.

[Price] Aiden Price: Caretaker to Church; Unrequited feelings for Director. [Director] Dr. Leonard Church: Widowed husband of Allison; Father of Church and Lina; Grandfather to Theta; Unrequited love interest of Price. [Allison] Allison Beth Church: Dead. Wife of Director; Mother of Church and Lina; Grandmother of Theta. [Lina] Carolina Church: Daughter of Director and Allison; Sister to Church; Ex fiancées with York. [Church] Leonard L. Church: Son of Director and Allison; Brother to Lina. Father of Theta; Unlabeled exes with North; Coparenting Theta with North; Friends with Tucker and Caboose; Rivals with Temple; Complicated relationship with Tucker. [York] Anthony York: Ex fiancées with Lina; Unrequited love interest of North.

[S/N parents] Parents to South and North; Grandparents to Theta. [South] Sarah Dakota: Sister of North; Aunt to Theta's. [North] Noah Dakota: Brother of South; Father of Theta; Unlabeled exes with Church; Coparenting Theta with Church; Unrequited feelings for York. [Theta] Theta Dakota: Child of North and Church; BFFs with Junior.

[J dad] Father of Jensen; Stepfather of Simmons. [S/J mom] Mother to Simmons and Jensen. [S dad] Divorced father of Simmons'. [Jensen] Katie Jensen: Half sister to Simmons; Unrequited crush of Palomo; Mutual crush with Volleyball; Part of the teen's friend group. [Simmons] Richard "Dick" Simmons: Half brother to Jensen; Complicated relationship with Grif. [Volleyball] Valerie Kimball: Daughter of Vanessa Kimball; Mutual crush with Jensen.

[G parents] Mother of Grif and Kai. [Grif] Dexter Grif: Brother to Kai; Helps take care of Bitters; Complicated relationship with Simmons. [Kai] Kaikaina Grif: Sister to Grif; Mother of Bitters; Exes with Tucker; Flirty casual thing going on with Georgina. [B dad] Father of Bitters. [Bitters] Antoine Bitters: Son of Kai; Taken care of by Grif; Boyfriends with Matthews; Part of the teen's friend group. [Matthews] Madison Matthews: Boyfriends with Bitters.

[Tucker] Lavernius Tucker: Father of Junior; Exes with CB; Reluctantly helps take care of Palomo; Friends with Church and Caboose; Complicated relationship with Church; Budding romantic feelings for Temple; Exes with Kai. [CB] Dead and we're all glad about it; Exes with Tucker; Father of Junior'. [Junior] Junior Tucker: Son of Tucker and CB; Friends with Palomo; BFFs with Theta; Rivals with Biff Jr.; Part of the teen’s friend group. [Palomo] Charles Palomo: Friends with Junior; Very happily taken care of by Tucker; Unrequited crush for Jensen.

[Temple] Mark Temple: Coparenting Biff Jr. with Georgina; Friends with Georgina; In love with Biff; (Also very close friends with Biff I didn’t put it here but you know); Manipulative but kind of genuine romantic feelings for Tucker; Rivals with Church. [Georgina] Georgina Buford: Widowed wife of Biff; Mother of Biff Jr.; Coparenting Biff with Temple; Friends with Temple; Flirty casual thing going on with Kai. [Biff] James “Biff” Buford: Dead. Husband of Georgina; Father of Biff Jr.; Unrequited love of Temple; (Also very close friends with Temple I didn’t put it here but you know). [Biff Jr.] James Buford Jr.: Son of Georgina and Biff; Raised by Temple and Georgina; Rivals with Junior.

[scientia-rex]

Reasons my life is better this year than last year:

-Umbrella reason: new job

-Work next to doc who consistently laughs at my jokes

-My boss doesn't get passive-aggressive and also doesn't mind profanity

-My boss, despite being straight, fully supports me providing gender care and likes to send me CME opportunities for conferences I can't go to because I can't take time off without a lot of notice but it's still a nice thought that he saw "LGBTQIA+ healthcare" and went "oh I know a doc who does that! she should go!"

-On my other side is an MA I get along with fabulously bc despite having different native languages we both appreciate the importance of snacks, naps, caffeine, and being a little bit snarky

-She always brings me a donut if somebody leaves a box in the break room and she knows I might not see them until they're gone

-My MA sits behind me and is possibly my long-lost twin? Except that she's a foot taller than me, GOD, I wish I was tall, but we're on the same wavelength at all times and we have very similar interests and senses of humor and I love it and I hope she works here until we both retire

-The other people who sit in our room with us vary between a delightful nerd who I only haven't befriended harder bc she has kids and is always making a point of going home to them on time, an older doc who works per diem for us now and taught me how to do greater occipital nerve blocks on a whim and is actually a decent person despite being an old white privileged man, and our dermatology provider who once told a patient I was, and I quote, "cool as fuck," which is funny because I think SHE'S cool as fuck

-Our nurses are the best. Just the literal best. They go all out, on a daily basis, to not only make sure I do the minimal amount of bullshit busy work, but also to make sure patients are getting high-quality care and that they have positive interactions with our clinic, and they never kick a request back to me with "we can't do that," they will always at least ask around to see if someone else knows. I love them. I love them so much I literally sometimes cry about it.

-Our chief referral coordinator is so much fucking fun AND so good at her job. I ask her for things and they just... happen??? She's relentlessly competent and also loves animals and also when I mentioned I need more plants gave me seeds from her double-ruffled hot pink poppies, which I WILL be planting next year.

-Seriously, I love everybody at my new work. It's been 10 months and I feel like a rescue animal, finally starting to creep out of my shell and have a personality, after working at my prior clinic for 4 years (2 in residency) of absolute chronically understaffed passive aggressive toxic workplace hell. Like, I love the providers at my former clinic, I love the support staff, I loved my patients and I loved what I got to do, but there simply weren't enough people and everyone was always being told to do more and more and more with no additional time or resources or compensation, and that was a big part of why I quit--I could see, very transparently, that the administrators didn't give a hot shit about how hard I was working and how I was busting my ass, any time they saw a chance to shaft me out of any benefit, no matter how small, that might save them money.

Life is better this year. I think it's going to be even better next year. I had no idea working in medicine could be this much better. Working in medicine is going to be draining, no matter what you do--but a good, solid, competent administration makes the difference between draining and soul-crushing.