This is absolutely a long shot that has very little evidence but what if the reason that Garcia that she was/has been so defensive with Langdon isn't because they're besties, rather thay she had went through this before. From what we see, Garcia and Langdon are fairly close. At least at work. If we are to give what we've seen with them the benefit of the doubt we could maybe assume they're friends outside of the hospital. Seeing him almost like a brother as some people have pointed out, having known him anywhere from 4 - 5 years depending on when in residency they met. Now to the part that's probably something that I pulled out of my ass, let's say Garcia had a friend who died not too long ago. From a drug overdose. All the signs were there, but it would be more plausible in the storyline if they weren't. Then looking back she realized they were there all along, she was just too stupid to notice. So yeah, she probably thought thay she knew better. That if someone she knew, someone she even remotely cared about, was struggling with drug addiction she would notice. She would help. She would make sure they got help, hell she would toe them to a chair and drag their ass to rehab. So imagine she was pretty got off guard when an intern consulted her(Garcia) about her friend or at the very least close colluge (Langdon) was stealing drugs. Like yeah, given this POTENTIAL backstory it would make sense for Garcia to get defensive and basically tell Santos to leave her tf alone about Langdon. Then to further deflect by saying, "you're trouble." She doesn't want to believe this is happening again. Also, Garcia does seen to shut down in certain cases. At least visually. We as the audience don't get to see a whole lot of her so we don't know how exactly she handles things behind closed doors. However, there is the DKA patient and the "nepo baby incident" patient. She seemed distressed for both of them.
Especially with tbe whole, "you're should've convinced her!" line with the DKA patient. While Garcia is often regarded as harsh she never really raises her voice a whole lot. Sure, she can be mean at time but there's very few times throughout the show where she actually gets close to yelling. This is one of them and it seems to be out of almost desperation.
Both of them being older patients in dire situations thay she had a very low chance of saving. So now I may just be purely pulling shitbout of my ass, but what if it was one if her parents that either died or she went non contact with because of addiction.
Sure, this could be attributed to the fact that they now had a patient with a DKA could've avoided all of this had Dr. Mohan not convinced Ana to kinda let go of the whole Gofundme thing for th3 dake of her father's pride. Avoiding ending up in the ICU(i think) and costing the hospital more money.
Maybe because it also mirrored her (Dr. Garcia's) own story. Maybe not having the money to pay for let's say rehab (cause that shit is EXPENSIVE) and her not knowing what to do resulting in the lost of said loved one (which again i am still thinking may have been a parent and it would be even worse if she was kind young when it happened but it may have been a family member or husband a very close friend) since they couldn't they clearly needed.
Now this case is obviously different being that it's about diabetes and not yk drug abuse. However, if we're sticking with the theory, we have to understand that drug abuse can lead to many things down the road. Liver failure, kidney failure, brain damage, heart problems, etc. Which again, Garcia may have not had the money at the time to fund the treatment and tried to scrape all the money she or her family did have and it still wasn't enough. That past trauma coming out in the way she expresses this to Dr. Mohan.
Also, Garcia isn't like a "fuck this patient" kinda person. Although, she often does give the patient full autonomy over their body (from what we've seen but granted a lot of patients she works on are uncouncioys si take it with a gain if salt what I'm about to say) she doesn't really say, "wtf why didn't you talk her into chopping off her limb?" So this is a little ... eyebrow raising.
Now just moving on to the general naturę of Garcia, she does seem to kinda push her emotions down. Not ever really blowinf up or breaking down like the other characters. We've seen McKay stressed out, Dana cry and cuss someone out, Robbie being a total jack ass (although thay is kinda the ugly side of depression showing) and have a compleye breakdown, Mohan crying in the bathroom and have a panic attack, Langdon's behavior in s1 due to addiction, and Santos have, at the very least, vulnerable moments. Yeah she may shir down a little but at least she's vocal. And most of the time when she is triggered and acts out of line, we know why.
But they all have a reason and as far as we know ... Garcia has no reason.
Garcia actually doesn't show much ACTUAL emotion besides annoyance, occasionally happiness, and being pissed off. Then we also see the moments where thay wall comes up. Such as with the "nepo baby incident" patient who she had to call her(the patients) husband in NY to operate. Her voice is clipped. Blinkinf like no tmrw. Frog in her throat. She, at least to me, she doesn't seem so much as pirelli pissed off but upset but trying to cover it up.
Now she obviously has no obligation to share her emotions. This is her place of work after all, not a therapy office (although there is one in the psych wing thay she could always visit.) But back to my point she's never really soft with anything of the characters. Besides Abbot (it's kinda alluded to in the episode with thr one giy with the tablet and he jad a sister in a different state) and Santos.
So like this woman is just closed off to most people, just like Santos. Although Santos does actuallus till have people she talked to. People she has in her corner but just doesn't realized it. We don't see that a whole lot from Garcia.
So I'm wondering if much like Santos, she has a tendency to push people out not because she doesn't trust people but because she doesn't know how to express jer emotions.
When Santos said she had a problem with Langdon, she talked about it. Repeatedly from what it sounds like. Garcia just kinda shuts down when she heard about Langdon. Presnetending as if nothing was wrong. Thoughx there is about a 10 month difference in prespectives and theu are 2 completely different people with completely different ideas on who Langdon is as a person.
Which, at times, cases her to be a bit of a dickwad to others. Now i don't believe that Garcia is actually the devil. I don't think she's a sweetheart but i don't think she's a bad person. She's just a complex character we haven't gotten much of yet who may be struggling with past trauma in the background.
Perhaps often just being told to suck it up or just beinf viewed as the strong and calable one (much like ahe is in the show) So her issues were just kinda swept under the rug and it's just what she's done with most things in her life. Especially when it comes to emotions. Which works for the career she's pursuing, but there still comes a point in time where everyone breaks and they just need time.
But as Dr. Robbie has said, "Dr. Garcia has a hard time expressing her emotions." Which yeah might just be a little quip at her but ... i don't really think so. Cause what we've seen thus far she DOES have issues with even expressing how she feels or even verbalizing how she feels. Again, I just reiterate, she doesn't OWE anyone this but she does have a pretty good habit of just shutting people down. Not out, down. Trust, there is a difference.
Maybe with simple and professional things, yeah she can do. She can say "I fucked up, sorry" or "I forgive you" to a coworker but anything beyond that she just kinda let's the person drift away. Shutting them down. Not acting downright mean but still avoident.
Sooner or later we're gonna see thay with Garcia. Whether my very very unlikely THEORY be correct or it's smthn else idk.
Bottom line: Maybe Garcia has a history if family or friends who have dealt with substance abuse, Garcia is very obviously avoident, she seems to push down her emotions, have very quick moments where jer true feelings start to show before she composes herself and just deflects. (You're trouble and Nepo baby) Obviously playing at other people's insecurities to bring them down so that she doesn't have to while may not be enough to excuse her shitty behavior in that aspect, it gives it a reason. Although I do feel like she does have SOME sort of past when it comes to familial chronic health conditions thay have left her with unresolved trauma.
But this is all just a theory is thought of while sitting on my phone and watching Modern Family and I probably sound like a babbling idiot.
