"Yeah, you're not half bad~"

They started off as friends with benefits during the worst possible moment because they're a pair of impulsive idiots, but after many shenanigans and Bree rejecting Jack any chance she gets, they end up in a committed relationship. She adores his sense of humor and big heart, but somehow they always find themselves in tricky situations; they shoplift, speed through the night, get into bar fights, break furniture, and drag their friends down with them, but at least they're having fun doing it. Despite the rough start to their relationship and the shadiness of Jack being a hitman, Bree's banshee senses never once actually picked up feelings of danger or death from him.

She can't help but feel like he brings out the worst in her since it's so easy for her to fall back into her more wild and reckless habits around him, but she also feels like he accepts her and has her back. As they settle into more comfortable routines, she starts to pick little fights in order to provoke him because something in the back of her head tells her it's all too good to be true. She looks for any excuse to leave him and resorts to trying to get him to leave her because she doesn't deserve someone as patient and understanding him. She says one day he'll let her down and desert her, but she knows, in reality, she's the one who's going to let him down.

"Sounds like a plan, babe!"

They're a bit of an unlikely pair, but Bree adores how genuinely kind and optimistic Elli is. Her and Bree can relate with being left behind by a parent and Bree can't help but see Elli as the path she didn't take — unlike Bree, Elli didn't lash out in the same destructive ways because of her childhood. Even though Bree is protective of Elli and can take on the big sister role sometimes, she also looks up to Elli as the kind of sweet and forgiving person she wishes she could be. Bree truly believes that if she had a friend like Elli before, then maybe she wouldn't have made so many mistakes as a teen.

"Ahem. Pip pip cheerio jolly good peasants gambooooge!"

They butt heads all the time and Bree was especially not fond of Kas' snooty attitude, but she comes to realize Kas isn't a bad guy...ish. Whatever. She can't escape him since he's her boyfriend's best friend and her best friend's boyfriend. They are actually friends underneath all the sharp remarks they're constantly exchanging. Sometimes they hang out and sigh like two tired cats while their cheery significant others are busy singing Happy Working Song in the kitchen or whatever.

"Heyyy... I'm swingin' by in a week~ Did ya miss me~?"

Bree was incredibly wary of Esther at first, finding it unbelievable that some random woman would want a messed up kid like her — and that's what Esther was to her: just a random woman. Esther was the wife of an uncle she had never met or even known about. There had been whispers of Bree's relatives taking her in at some point, but when the whispers died down into silence all of a sudden, Bree wasn't surprised. She was still disappointed the plans had turned into nothing, but she wasn't surprised at all. She knew no one was going to save her.

Then Esther came up again out of the blue and in the blink of an eye, an angry 10-year-old Bree was whisked away to England to live with this stranger. She found out her uncle Chris was her father's brother and that he had recently passed in a car accident. Her and Esther weren't even blood related, so surely the only reason Esther went through with the adoption was some kind of sense of guilt? Duty to her dead husband? Pity? Whatever it was, Bree didn't want to have anything to do with it. She caused trouble every chance she got, waiting for the moment when Esther would inevitably throw her aside because that's what happened to kids like her. That moment never came, though, and despite wanting to unravel at the edges, Esther was patient and kind as she rode out the storm. Their breakthrough came when Esther took Bree on a trip to the Czech Republic. As they stood beneath the Prague Orloj, she told Bree point-blank that she had no idea what she was doing, but what was the point in going through life alone? They could have each other. If they wanted to be happy, then they just had to make it happen. She'd give Bree all the time and space she needed, but in the end... what was the point in wasting time being unhappy and living in the past?

Although Bree didn't exactly immediately turn over a new leaf, that trip and Esther's words stuck with her and they slowly began to build a proper relationship. Bree still spent most of her teens getting used to life in England, making the wrong friends, picking the wrong fights, and dating the wrong boys, but Esther waited it out. Bree at least looked happier than when they first met, so Esther trusted that Bree would eventually figure out her life — and she did. Bree cleaned up her act, not wanting to disappoint her aunt anymore, and took up photography — a hobby that Esther had encouraged and nurtured from the start. Bree feels like she owes her life to Esther for being the stable adult she had always needed in her life. She even takes on Esther's family name as her own, choosing to go by "Bree King" as her professional name. Despite not being blood relatives, the resemblance between the two is uncanny in the way they carry themselves and joke around. Bree speaks fondly of Esther as if she's a close friend and she definitely got her dry sense of humor and sharp wit from her "cool lawyer aunt." They keep in contact and although Bree isn't the type to easily accept help or want to burden Esther with her problems, they both have a silent understanding that Esther will always be on her side if shit ever really hits the fan. Esther tried the best that she could when it came to raising Bree, but she had no idea what she was doing. She sometimes regrets her more hands off and friendly approach and no matter how well Bree hides it, Esther can see that Bree never really came to terms with her childhood traumas; however, Esther isn't the type to pry. She didn't know the full extent of Bree's terrible childhood until much later on... She wishes she had known earlier on so she could've put Bree into therapy, but hindsight is 20/20 and Bree thinks the world of Esther either way.

When these two are in a room together, it's all inside jokes and sarcastic quips. Try to stay out of their line of vision or they'll team up and roast the shit out of you.

"You realllly just couldn't get your shit together, huh? Fuck you."

Bree can count the decent memories she has of her parents on one hand. Her dad taught her how to hotwire cars and her mom made her steal toilet paper from public restrooms, and they told her she was a good girl for doing these things, so maybe those counted as good memories, too? Maybe she could count the good memories on two hands. Either way, her earliest memories are of hiding under the bathroom sink as her parents had a screaming match in the other room. They were constantly at each other's throats, figuratively and literally. But every now and then, they'd seem to want to try. They'd scoop Bree up, take her out for ice cream, and act like one of those families on TV. It never lasted long, though. Soon enough, there would be a comment here or a scowl there and then voices were reaching new volumes, dishes were getting thrown against walls, and cabinet doors would get punched through or ripped off hinges. Meanwhile, Bree would always retreat to her spot beneath the bathroom sink. As their dysfunctional relationship wore down on each other, her parents started losing their temper at Bree instead. Why was she so needy? Why did she spill her milk? They told her to wait just another 5 goddamn minutes. Bree always liked her dad just a little bit more, though, because he didn't hit as hard. And sometimes... sometimes she'd see guilt in his eyes. She never saw that in her mother's eyes.

Between the incomprehensible screaming and profanities and the rare times when her dad would take her to get away from her mom because she was being too much of a fuckin' mad woman, Bree managed to piece together bits about their volatile relationship. Her parents named her after the princess in Swan Lake after they had snuck into a performance only to get drunk and thrown out ("It was the moment I fell in love with your mum, ya know?" he'd say in sad kind of way); it was a romantic name and a call back to a "cute" memory. Her dad had wanted to name her Bree because he thought the name was charming, but her mom had told him, "Are you stupid? What the fuck kind of name is 'Bree Brennan'?" Maybe they had been happy together once. Bree's not sure. Her dad has drunkenly said something about how she was supposed to fix things between him and his wife, so maybe? Maybe.

She doesn't really remember much of her childhood outside of that home, though. All she remembers is her parents being there and then one day they left and they didn't come back. So a neighbor noticed and suddenly Bree wasn't in that home anymore and she was somewhere else with other kids who were bigger than her and being mean to her, so she started doing what she always saw her parents do — if someone looked at her wrong, she'd bite and scream and kick and scratch. All she had to do was hold out until they'd come pick her up, and maybe they'd even say she was a good girl because she didn't let anyone pick on her. They never did come back.

She has a sense of bitterness toward her parents and wishes she couldn't remember the good moments, though. Because if there were good moments, then it meant her parents had the ability to be decent parents, but they just weren't. They had it in them, but she wasn't enough for them to get their shit together. She remembers clinging to those good memories as a child. Whenever her parents would be passed out — drunk or high — in the living room or just gone because they had disappeared somewhere for a few days, Bree would make her own bowl of cereal and sit around waiting and thinking about how maybe when mom and dad come back, they'll be smiley and take her out to ice cream like they did that one time. Sometimes they really did look happier when they came back after a few days from being away. Sometimes they would come back angry, though, because Bree had dropped and broken a cup from the top shelf while they were gone. It was always a gamble, always a surprise.

She has no idea what ever happened to her parents after they abandoned her and she tries not to care. They're basically dead to her. She has a better life now with good friends and her aunt Esther to watch her back. Unfortunately, Bree still has a lot to work through. She has severe trust issues and will always wonder if she'll end up like her parents in some way or another. She can already see parts of them in herself and she hates it, but she feels like she can't help it. Maybe she's the way she is just because. Maybe she's trash just like them. Maybe she's just a piece of shit, too. Maybe she doesn't deserve nice things or anyone just like they told her. She doesn't legally change her name, but she does prefer to go by the name Bree because she does owe it to her dad for having some sense of humanity in him to call up his brother to try and help Bree and also because she sees the name as a "what could have been" as opposed to the weird romantic reasoning behind her birth name. There was never anything romantic about her parents' relationship, and yet... they always insisted they loved each other and did everything together despite all the fighting, so Bree's sad inner child can't help but wonder if maybe that's just what love is: angry, volatile, painful.

"...y'know, it probably would've been better if you were my dad instead."

Bree never had the chance to meet her father's brother and she's only seen him in the photographs Esther keeps around the house, but she eventually becomes interested in getting to know who he was before his untimely passing. Luckily, Esther is happy to share stories of her late husband. He was the Brennan who saved himself. Him and Bree's father left their abusive family in Ireland to live with relatives in the States, but while Chris went down one path, Bree's father went down another. They lost contact and after passing the bar and becoming a lawyer, Chris met Esther and followed her back to England. They settled down. Lived a happy life. Had a comfortable house, nice cars, good food. He never told his wife about his vile parents or his messed up brother who kept running away and disappearing until one day he didn't come back at all. It wasn't until he got a phonecall out of the blue and heard a familiar voice on the other end asking him for help. Please, brother. I fucked up. I fucked up so bad. Do something. Anything. Please.

Chris was ashamed to have to tell his wife about his complicated family life, but she easily accepted it and gave him her full support when he brought up his brother's abandoned daughter. They spent many late nights together, trying to track down a girl named after the princess in Swan Lake — Odette. They believed it was a sign when they actually did manage to find her, and the two were more than ready to take her in. That is, until Chris' sudden passing due to a drunk driver. Esther was devastated and threw herself into her work, putting "Odette Brennan" on the back burner. Once she pulled herself together, she figured she wanted to honor Chris' wishes — and a small part of her was hoping to find a piece of him in his mysterious niece.

From all of the fond stories, Bree knows her uncle Chris as a funny and ambitious guy. He was a bit of a shark in his professional life and a survivalist, which doesn't surprise her at all. She vaguely remembers her father once mentioning that it was better to be an only child because siblings were just "traitorous bastards." Esther has enough good stories about Chris that Bree understands he was probably just doing what was best for himself. She knew her father was a trainwreck, so she never blames her uncle for not wanting to get dragged into the mess. Instead, she sees Chris as the kind of person her own father could've turned out to be. He had the potential to make something of himself like Chris instead of being a piece of shit.

In some ways, Bree also romanticizes her view of Esther and Chris' relationship. She's noticed that Esther never bothered to remarry or even date, saying that she was happy with the time she had with Chris and that it was enough for her lifetime. Although most of Bree's ideas of romantic relationships were formed by her toxic parents, in the back of her mind, she wonders if she could ever have something as true, supportive, and safe as Esther and Chris' marriage. Or maybe they're just the exception?