Another birthday, another year older. It was pretty much meaningless, Maria told herself as she got ready for work. Who cared who did or didn't celebrate it with her? She'd treat it just like any other day, because celebrating alone would feel too much like a pity party, no matter how much she told herself it was irrelevant. Anyway, she hadn't had a birthday party since leaving the orphanage, and she had never had them before then, either; it was hardly against the norm.

Just another day.

She hopped on her bike and went to Resurgam.

"Oh!" Tomoe seemed surprised to see her, and she paused in her footsteps. "Good morning, Dr. Torres!"

Maria had been working there for a couple of months, and yet everyone was still on formalities with her. It wasn't that they didn't try to get to know her, but rather, she didn't let them. Her walls were high, and she refused to let anyone change that. "'Morning," she answered. She waited a bit, Tomoe seeming like she wanted to say something else. (No, she totally wasn't hoping it would be 'happy birthday,' she insisted. That would be stupid. She was pretty sure no one even knew it was her birthday in the first place, and she didn't care.)

Tomoe hesitated, then spotted Gabe. Maria's gaze followed and saw him walking down the hall holding a box of something. Paperwork? Maybe some tools, actually; that seemed most plausible. Regardless of what Gabe was doing, Maria slipped away, since neither was particularly paying attention to her at the moment.

For now, she went to her office. The stack of paperwork on her desk that she hadn't had time to do yesterday suggested that today was going to be mind-numbingly boring, but it was a trade-off. Sitting around and doing nothing paperwork was boring as hell, because the part about her job that she liked was actually doing things. Important things. On the other hand, it went without saying that it would be better if her assistance wasn't needed, since that meant no crises.

Hours went by. She was pretty sure she was about to fall asleep and drool on this boring paperwork. At least it was nearly lunchtime, so she could take a break soon. Which was good, because Maria wasn't particularly a morning person, and thus she was also not much of a breakfast-eater.

Finally, she decided it was time for her lunch break. As was her habit, she went out to a small cafe nearby to eat. Nobody wanted to eat food at the hospital's cafeteria, that was for sure. And anyway, if she tried to eat in the break room, it seemed pretty likely that people would try to make conversation with her. That was typically how it worked. Maria didn't understand why everyone was trying to be so friendly here. She wasn't used to it, and she didn't know how to trust it. She didn't know how to trust them. Her reasons for refusing their attempts at friendship weren't something she reflected on, past feeling that they were likely disingenuous or short-lived, though.

When Gabe walked in the door, she kept her gaze on her food so as not to make eye contact that he might take as an invitation to sit with her. Occasionally the other doctors came here, and she didn't want to talk to them here any more than she did at the hospital. Still, once he had passed her table, she watched him out of the corner of her eye. He went to the counter and bought something, although Maria was too far away to hear what he was saying above the general cafe chatter from other customers. The person at the counter disappeared for a moment, then returned with a box and gave it to him. Another box? Was Gabe starting a collection or something? She smirked to herself at the thought; that would be quite the interesting thing to collect...

Rather than sitting down, he left the cafe. Apparently he wasn't actually going to eat anything here... unless he was going to eat what was in the box. Donuts for everyone or something maybe? She could see them chipping in and doing something like that. She would never admit it, even to herself, but sometimes the community the other doctors had did make her feel a bit left out. And yet, she was certain that she would never be a part of it. That was the thing: even if she did accept their efforts at friendship, she was somehow certain - based on her past, less than stellar experiences with people - that they would never stay friends. That she would always be the outsider of the group, and it would be better not to let herself get particularly invested.

As long as she was the one pushing them away instead of the other way around, she could tell herself she wasn't friends with them because she didn't care. As long as she had herself convinced it was only through her own choice, it wasn't as bad.

After lunch, she returned to her office. Time to get back to this paperwork shit. Having a break had been nice, but it would be even nicer if the paperwork wasn't a thing. On the other hand, there wasn't all that much left. If she could power through it quickly enough, maybe she'd be able to go home early.

It seemed like no sooner had she started and gotten into a rhythm, however, that someone knocked at her door.

"Come in," she said, looking up.

Esha opened the door and stepped into her office, smiling at her.

Maria's opinion of Esha was torn. The Chief gave her the sorts of vibes that made her feel she could all too easily open up to and trust her. She tried to make herself dislike her so as to avoid that, but she hadn't had much success. The truth was, Esha scared her. Not in the sense that she was in any way frightening; it was the exact opposite. Because a part of her knew it would be too easy to trust her, and then, inevitably she thought, be let down.

"Can you come here for a bit? I need to show you something," Esha said, making a small motion for Maria to come with her.

"Uh… sure, I guess." She stood, heading over to her. Esha led Maria to the break room, then gestured for her to open the door and enter. She didn't give it much thought, of course, although it was unusual for the door to be closed in the first place.

"Surprise!"

Maria looked around. There were decorations and even a birthday cake, and most of all… everyone was there. Tomoe, Gabe, Hank, Emma, Darnell…

Esha put a hand on her shoulder. "Happy birthday, Maria."

"Chief…" Esha's face began to blur. "E-everyone…" She brought a hand to her face, trying to cover it as tears started to fall.

She moved her hand to put an arm around Maria and draw her closer, motioning with her other for everyone to come in for a group hug. Even Gabe complied, when Tomoe specifically looked at him, knowing he was the most likely not to want to do it.

It was stupid, Maria thought. It was cheesy.

It was what a family might do.

"Why…?" she asked quietly. Why would they bother celebrating her birthday when they weren't even friends? Why go to all this trouble?

"What do you mean?" Esha replied. "It's your birthday. Of course we want to celebrate it."

She said it like it was so natural. Like it was what was to be expected. And… even though it was certain none of them would have even the slightest idea why she had suddenly become emotional, knowing nothing of her life outside the hospital, all of them had come to her side to support her. Like they all… actually… legitimately cared about her.

"Dr. Torres…" Tomoe spoke up; "if you'll let us… we'd like to consider ourselves your friends."

Maria hesitated briefly before pulling away slightly and wiping away her tears. "...You can just call me Maria. ...All of you." The group hug disbanded as Maria pulled the rest of the way away. She then grinned at them. "So, uh… how about we dig into that cake?"

And with that, the mood lightened. "I'm starving!" Gabe replied, grabbing the cake cutter.

"Wait, Dr. Cunningham…!" Tomoe objected.

"What, you don't think I know how to cut a cake?"

Hank, Tomoe, and Esha's expressions became dubious.

"I can totally cut a cake!"

"I wanna see him try," Maria said, amused and curious just how bad he could be with food that they were so skeptical.

"No, you-"

Gabe interrupted Hank's objection. "Birthday girl's wishes!" He then proceeded to hack the cake into seven uneven slices. "See? One for everyone!" It was only when he put the knife down that he noticed the inconsistency in size and, somehow, even shape.

Maria laughed. "Okay, now I see why they didn't want to let you!"

Hank, whose value of precision made the mess of a cutting job particularly troubling to him, took a plate and placed the biggest slice on it. He then brought it to Maria.

"Thanks!" She got a fork and knife, then sat on a countertop to eat.

"See? The cake is fine!" Gabe still insisted.

While Gabe continued to defend his cake-cutting abilities to Tomoe and Hank, Esha got herself a slice of cake and a cup of milk, then got another cup of milk and brought it to Maria. She stood next to her and asked, "Are you okay?" Her voice was soft, not wanting to attract the attention of the others. Most importantly, it was clear her concern was genuine.

"Yeah," Maria answered, sincerely, accepting the cup of milk. "I'm okay now." She looked at Esha, then around the room. At… her new friends.

Her unconditional family.