{ āŖ } Meet GREER KINGSTON, who is THIRTYĀ years old and a LIVESTOCK VET AT THE KINGSTON RANCH. She was born in WILMINGTON, NCĀ and now calls MURRAYVILLEĀ her home. You might have heard that she can be COMPASSIONATE & ADVENTUROUS, but also be STUBBORN & VENGEFUL. This is HER story.
trigger warning: death, overdose, child abandonment (ish), addiction, drugs
Growing up the middle child and oldest daughter of Olivia and CK Kingston, Greer often found herself feeling a little lost. She wasnāt burdened with the responsibility her eldest brother, the future owner of their familyās prized ranch, and she wasnāt the doted on baby of the family. She was, quite frankly, the seemingly forgotten middle child of the Kingston family and when she was little she found that she much preferred it that way. Born fiercely independent, she was able to make her own decisions, run about the ranch without expectations and responsibilities, without her mother watching every move she made in hopes she didnāt get hurt; she truly was carefree and she thrived in it.
While her parents didnāt hover over her like they did her siblings, it didnāt mean they didnāt care and didnāt spend time with their oldest daughter. The young child was easily a daddyās girl, a fact made all too certain whenever her mother would ask her to complete a task she didnāt want to do. A young Greer would always turn to CK, eyes pleading, and his reaction gauged whether or not that task would be completed. Oftentimes her gaze was met with stern eyes telling her to do as sheās told, but there were a few times, much to Oliviaās dismay, that the man took pity on his first daughter and would simply wave her off to play. In fact, her relationship with her father was the reason Greer Kingston got into the only activity sheās ever spent more than a year on: show jumping.
After a long business trip away when Greer was ten, her father came home with presents for each of his young children. She canāt remember what either of her siblings had gotten, but she remembers her gift. After the other children were presented with their presents, Greer was led out to the barn where a beautiful white Dutch Warmblood was waiting for her. An incredibly excited Greer gave her father a hug before jumping onto the horse bareback and taking off into the fields. As the pair galloped throughout the property, the ten year old, only having a bridle to hold on to, tried to pull back on the reins as they approached a fallen log, but the horse sheād named Lion had other ideas and jumped the obstacle with ease.
After racing back to the barn and excitingly telling her mother and father the news of what had just happened, Greer and Lion set off on the journey of competitive show jumping. With the best trainers and coaches in the state of North Carolina in her corner (along with, as she would say, her natural talent), Greer easily placed second in her first ever competition. Never having been an incredibly competitive person, something inside of the young woman switched on after that and show jumping with Lion became her life until she was seventeen years old.
They were at a competition doing a walk through of the course theyād be competing on later that day, her coach was leading them through the various jumps, the pair developing a strategy of timing for the series of jumps when Lion collapsed suddenly with Greer on his back. Heād fallen on her leg, causing the bone to break, but that was the least of her concerns as she pulled the broken limb free with the help of her trainer and crawled up to the animalās head, ignoring the pain and cradling his muzzle in her lap while screaming for help. There was blood in his nostrils and Greer knew what that meant: Epistaxis. It was like her entire world stood still for the fifteen minutes it took for a vet to get to them, the seventeen year old rider refusing all medical attention for herself until Lion could be looked at. He was young, only 11 years old, and had always had amazing medical care at the ranch. Their vet, Scott, was trusted by their entire family to care for all of the animals on their property and even he couldnāt have predicted the chain of events that lead to this moment. Not only did the horse collapse, but in the fall heād broken one of his legs. They were able to coax him back into a standing position, Greer only allowing herself to be taken to the hospital once she was sure that Lion was going to be in the best hands possible. It was there, while she was waiting for her cast to be put on, that Greer learned of Lionās fate. Her mother came in, having just gotten off of the phone with her father, and she knew just by the look on the womanās face. It was the first time Greer had ever broken down, collapsing into her motherās warm embrace as she cried, mourning the loss of her best friend. Little did she know that not only was it not going to be the only hardship she faced that year, but it was also the end of her show jumping career.
Sheād made it through the rest of the school year, her senior year, with relative ease. With her competition days over she had more time to focus on her future. Sheād decided that she was going to be an equine veterinarian. She didnāt want to ever feel as helpless as she had the day that she lost Lion, and wanted to do everything she could to ensure that others wouldnāt lose their companions in the tragic way she had. She went into the summer ready to attend Penn State in the fall. It would be her first time away from home, a new city, new possibilities, and she was excited for her future and what it held. Even more so when her eldest brother returned home after being gone for almost the entirety of her high school years. Theyād kept in touch while he was away, growing closer even with the distance that separated them, and while his homecoming was a joyous occasion for her and her mother, her father wasnāt as pleased.
The two Kingston mensā reunion was full of screaming, slammed doors, and another great escape; but while her brother was off doing God knows what, her father, huffing around the house angrily, suddenly went quiet and it was the moment she heard her motherās shrill call for an ambulance that the entirety of the Kingston familyās lives changed. CK had suffered a debilitating stroke that had left him wheelchair bound and unable to care for himself without their motherās assistance. It was an occasion that almost prevented Greer from leaving and going to college, telling her father that he was much more important than any school and sheād be happy to spend her days helping with the B&B and tending to the animals the best she could. CK, however, was having none of it, and after a long, tearful conversation between father and daughter, Greer spent the rest of the summer with her family ensuring her parents would be okay before leaving for Pennsylvania.
She spent six years back and forth between Pennsylvania and North Carolina, taking summer classes to speed up her return to her familyās ranch. It wasnāt that she didnāt enjoy her time away from home, but the fiercely independent Kingston girl was finding that she was only independent when she wanted to be. Being unable to go on rides around the ranch with her little sister, sit by the fire and sip on moonshine with her older brother, and read classic westerns to her father whenever she wanted to was weighing on her. Somewhere along the way sheād grown more attached to her family and the life she led in Wilmington than sheād ever imagined. So after graduating with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree she returned home and got her license, beginning to work towards her specialized certifications on her familyās ranch where she worked under Scott, her mentor, until he retired five years ago. Since then, sheās been the familyās sole veterinarian, spending her days with the animals and the people she loved. At least for a while, but as fate seemed to have it the Kingston family was never meant to be a full five again.
Bailey had always been a free spirit, the youngest and the most rebellious, the vivacious blonde didnāt want anything to do with the ranch, so when sheād taken off to Miami none of the family was concerned. She was just carving her own path in life, and while that path seemed to be littered with potholes of addiction and bad choices, everyone knew that the Kingston stubborn streak was just as strong within her and sheād have to choose to do better; forcing her would only end the minimal contact they already had with the baby of the family. And while theyād believed everything was going well with the blonde, sheād shown up on their parentsā doorstep of January 2019 with a three year old. Sheād had a son nobody knew about and had been going at it alone, choosing to forego the familyās money to do things her own way, which led the three years sober woman to relapse. With no other choice, Bailey had decided to attend an inpatient rehab in Arizona and asked that her parents (with a private plea to Greer and Cass for their help) take care of her son, Easton, until she returned and could give him the life she knew heād deserved.
Itād been a shock, a lot to take in and process, but in the end everyone agreed to the new arrangements and everything was going great. Bailey was checking in weekly, Easton was growing accustomed to life on the ranch, and Greer, whoād taken quite a liking to her three year old nephew, was maturing in ways even sheād never thought possible as she took on the brunt of the responsibility for raising the toddler. But then Baileyās check-ins stopped. The first missed week there wasnāt much cause for concern, sheād been in the inpatient facility for six months and theyād expected her to come home soon, the family had brushed it off and waited for the call and apology the following week. However, when she missed that call they became worried and contacted the rehab facility themselves and found out the 23 year old had checked herself out and hadnāt been heard from since. And so the Kingstons embarked on their new journey, one that consisted of finding the youngest member of their tight knit family to bring her home back to them and her son.
Three months would pass before theyād hear anything, the fateful phone call from a detective out of New Mexico confirming Greer and her familyās biggest fears. Bailey had lost her battle with addiction, relapsing and ending up dying in an ER thousands of miles away from home all alone, and the realization nearly broke Greer. Sheād been Baileyās emergency contact and was therefore tasked with notifying her family and Easton of her baby sisterās death along with volunteering to go to New Mexico to bring Bailey home. Sheād insisted, even. Bailey had died alone but Greer would make sure that her little sister wouldnāt have to travel to her final resting place alone. Not if she could help it. So with the help of her best friend, Greer went to New Mexico, packed up a life she hadnāt even known Bailey to have, and come home to grieve. The spitfire blonde had been subdued to embers for the next few months as she navigated becoming a full time guardian to her nephew while balancing her own grief along with the grief of those around her with the daily duties of the ranch. Itād been a difficult juggling act, one where at times, Greer felt that sheād had too many plates spinning at once. It was a steep learning curve, once sheād only been able to navigate with the help of her family and friends. And now, seven months after receiving the worst news of her life, Greer is finally settling into her new normal and is ready to face the outside world again. It would shine a little less brighter without Bailey, but that only meant the veterinarian would have to live twice as much life for the both of them. A challenge she was finally ready to embark upon with a new guardian angel watching over her.
This character is portrayed by HILARY DUFFĀ and penned by BRI.