Janelle and Tamara DeMent (September 1986 to 1988; guest)
Alex and Brittany Smith (1988; guest)
Eliza Clark (1990; guest)
Erin Torpey (1990 to 15 January 2003)
Bree Williamson (5 February 2003 to present)
Maggie Andersson (1998; temporary replacement)
Other Names
Tess (alternate identity)
Jessica Eugenia Buchanan (full name; changed to in 2004)
Jessica Lynn Buchanan (original full name)
Augustico Santi [Married: 2004; annulled after his death]
Antonio Vega [Married: Nov 9th, 2006; Divorced: Jul 6th, 2007]
Relatives
Mitch Laurence (biological father)
Victoria Lord (mother)
Clint Buchanan (father; via adoption)
Cordero Roberts (paternal brother; via adoption)
Megan Gordon (maternal half-sister; deceased)
Kevin Buchanan Sr. (maternal half-brother)
Joseph Buchanan (maternal half-brother)
Natalie Buchanan (maternal half-sister; twin)
Victor Lord (grandfather)
Eugenia Randolph (grandmother)
Asa Buchanan (grandfather; via adoption)
Olympia Buchanan (grandmother; via adoption)
Walker Flynn (paternal uncle)
Miles Laurence (paternal uncle)
Bo Buchanan (paternal uncle; via adoption)
David Vickers (paternal half-uncle; via adoption)
Ben Davidson (paternal half-uncle; via adoption)
Tony Lord (maternal half-uncle)
Tina Clayton Lord (maternal half-aunt)
Todd Manning (maternal half-uncle)
Meredith Lord (maternal half-aunt; deceased)
Drew Buchanan (paternal cousin; deceased; via adoption)
Matthew Buchanan (paternal cousin; via adoption)
Brian Kendall (maternal half-cousin)
Starr Manning (maternal half-cousin)
Thomas John McBain (maternal half-cousin)
Jack Cramer Manning (maternal half-cousin)
Daniel Wolek (maternal half-cousin)
C.J. Roberts (nephew; via adoption / maternal half-cousin)
Sarah Roberts (niece; via adoption / maternal half-cousin)
Duke Buchanan (half-nephew; deceased)
Kevin Buchanan Jr. (half-nephew; deceased)
Zane Buchanan (half-great-nephew)
Children
Megan Victoria Buchanan (daughter; with Will; deceased)
Brennan Buchanan (daughter; with Nash)
Killing Mitch Laurence (2003)
Aiding and abetting a fugitive(Will), unlawful flight
The haunting of Dorian Lord Hayes
Brief Character History
Jessica Buchanan was born in September 1986. She was kidnapped as a baby by Allison Perkins and was well-cared for by Allison's mother, Ruth, who knew nothing of the abduction. Maria Roberts, Clint's first love and mother of his son Cord, was instrumental in returning baby Jessica to her parents. However, unknown to Maria, Allison's mother returned the wrong child.
Jessica grew up in a large and loving family, doted on by her older brothers, Kevin and Joey, and Clint, Asa, and Viki. To say she was the apple of their eye is an understatement, even when she accidentally started a fire which burned down her home, Llanfair, in 1991. As we've watched Jessica grow up, she has often showed more maturity at a young age than the adults and siblings around her. She helped care for Viki after her stroke and was a voting member of Buchanan Enterprises, regularly sitting in on business meetings.
When Jessica met Cristian Vega in high school, it was love at first sight and they began seeing one another despite Clint and Carlotta Vega's objections. Even though she loved Cristian, Jessica wanted to "save" herself for marriage, which sometimes caused problems in their romance. Their relationship was in a rocky stage when Cristian's childhood friend, Roseanne Delgado, came to town in 1998. She had set her sights on having Cristian for a boyfriend, which made Jessica jealous on many occasions. One evening Jessica and her step-brother Will saw Cristian and Roseanne in an embrace. Feeling they were both losing the one they truly loved, they went up to Viki's cabin and got drunk and had unprotected sex. The next morning they could barely remember the event, and Jessica was very sad to have lost her virginity in this way with someone she didn't love.
The one encounter produced a pregnancy and all the problems that a teenage mother can endure. Jessica had to face the wrath of her father, who thought Cristian had done this to his daughter. Will always wanted to proclaim he was the father, but Cristian decided to accept responsibility. After a few months, the truth came out and the relationships of the four young people involved would never be the same. After contemplating abortion and adoption, Jessica decided to raise her baby and Will was anxious to also be a father to this child. Cristian had a difficult time discovering where he fit into Jessica and the baby's life with Will being such a prominent presence.
Cristian decided to propose to Jessica and raise the baby together. Jessica accepted and they planned to go to New York together so Cristian could attend art school. At Jessica and Cristian's engagement party at Crossroads, he and Will got into an argument and Jessica left and went into labor. As she was walking out into the street, Dorian, who was coming to make amends with Viki, hit Jessica. Afraid of Viki's reaction she called 911 and fled the scene. Jessica ended up in a coma and had a miscarriage. When she came to, she had lost her memory and she didn't remember Cristian and she left town with Will. Unsure of when or if Jessica would ever come back to him, Cristian slept with Roseanne Delgado.
Jessica and Will came back to Llanview although Jessica didn't have her memory back. Jessica had to testify against Lindsay Rappaport, who was on trial for Megan's murder, even though she didn't remember what had happened. After she testified, she remembered that Dorian was the one who hit her at the same time that Dorian confessed. With her memory intact, Jessica went to apologize to Cristian, only to find out that he had slept with Roseanne more than once. The wedge between them kept getting bigger and bigger and Will and Roseanne started working together to keep Jessica and Christian apart. Jessica decided she didn't want to go to New York with Cristian and Roseanne went with him instead. At the last minute, Jessica decided she did want to go and Cristian was going to make one more attempt at convincing her, but he ran into Will and Jessica ran into Roseanne and they convinced them that one was happy without the other.
Jessica and Will started growing closer, bonding over Megan's death. Jessica began sending threatening letters to Dorian and planting tapes of a baby crying in Dorian's house. She ransacked Dorian's house and Will took the blame for it. Then Jessica sent Dorian a note telling her to meet her at Crossroads where she planned to hit Dorian. Viki found out in time that Will was innocent and they got to Crossroads in time to witness Jessica preparing to hit Dorian. At the last minute she stopped. The whole time Jessica was haunting Dorian she had no idea she was doing it. Cristian had a feeling that Jessica might need him, so he went to Llanview that same night, only to see Jessica and Will together. Jessica went to New York to tell Cristian about the haunting but there was miscommunication because Cristian thought she was there to tell him about her and Will and she thought he already knew about the haunting and just didn't care.
Meanwhile, Jessica's grandfather, Asa, didn't want Jessica with a Rappaport, so he called New York to have Cristian's scholarship cancelled in hopes that Cristian would go back to Llanview. But Roseanne called Will, who worked with Asa on the Megan Foundation, and told him that if he wanted to keep Jessica he had better send some money to help them live in NY so Cristian didn't know that his scholarship was cancelled. So Will secretly began sending money to Roseanne. On Thanksgiving Cristian and Roseanne came to town and Roseanne asked Will for $30,000. Will didn't have it so he "borrowed" it from the foundation. Meanwhile The Diner was held up and Kevin was in danger and Cristian helped him out. Jessica was grateful that Cristian had put himself in danger to help her brother. But she had received some of Cristian drawings of her and she thought that was a final goodbye so she didn't take her gratitude any further. She tried to convince herself that she was happy with Will and they slept together for the first time since Megan had been conceived.
Cristian and Roseanne went back to NY and Asa found out that Will stole from the foundation and he sent Roseanne a check for $100,000, setting Will up for a big fall. Cristian and Jessica had no idea this money exchange was going on. Cristian and Roseanne went back to Llanview for Christmas and ended up at the same hotel as Jessica and Will. Jessica and Cristian talked and they realized there was a miscommunication about the haunting. Meanwhile Will found out that Roseanne received a check for $100,000 from him, but he didn't send it.
Jessica and Will grew closer and closer as the time went on, but in February of 2000, Bo had to arrest Will for the embezzlement that Asa caused. Jessica didn't want anything to do with him after that. Cristian and Will began to try to dig up evidence on Asa. They succeeded, and after Asa had his heart bypass surgery, Jessica became convinced that Asa set Will up. In March, Jessica went to visit her grandfather while he was recovering in Baltimore and got him to admit on tape how he set Will up. Max caught on to Jessica's plan and Max showed Asa that she had recorded him and Asa threw the tape out the window. Cristian and Jessica went to look for it and found it. On the train to Statesville prison, Jessica played the tape of Asa's confession to Bo, but both Bo and Nora told her that it would take months to get Will out of jail.
The train crashed and Jessica, Will, and Cristian escaped. Cristian and Jessica hid Will at Viki's cabin until Roseanne discovered them. Soon after that, they quickly went on the run. All during this time Jessica felt guilty about leaving her mother, Viki, while she struggled with breast cancer. Jessica, Cris, and Will all joined a band and Todd caught them all together in Ohio. Soon after that, Todd was able to trick Will and Cris into thinking that Viki was dying so that Jessica could return home, which she did and got arrested. Out on bail, Jessica asked Cris to marry her and he agreed. They were planning their wedding when Jessica found out that Cristian had hid a letter that Will had sent to her. Upset, she broke off her engagement to Cris and went to Ireland to see Will. Thanks to Asa and Max, Will was arrested and sent back to Llanview. He was about to go to jail, when Colin traded the tape that Jessica and Will had made for immunity in Nora's kidnapping case (he had found the tape on Nora after the train wreck).
Jessica and Will moved in together into an apartment above Break Bar. Jessica started taking classes again at Llanview University and wanted to become a writer. But then the stress surrounding Colin MacIver's murder broke up Will and Jessica's relationship and Will decided to leave Llanview. Al helped Jess move out of Will's apartment and back into Llanfair. Things were going smoothly between she, Ben and Viki when she met Natalie Balsom and her friend Seth Anderson. Natalie told Jessica she was homeless, and had no job or money. Jessica begged Viki to give Natalie a job, so Viki let Nat become her "personal assistant" and let Jess and Nat live in the carriage house. Jess and Seth started to have feelings for each other, while Natalie smiled on the sidelines. Jess thought she had met her two best friends: poor, mistaken Natalie and good ol' Seth. How wrong she was.
Natalie the entire time was the real "Jessica", the baby that Allison Perkins had taken from Viki in 1986 and switched with the baby that Mitch Laurence had given Roxanne Balsom. Allison had told her this, and Nat wanted Jess's money. Seth was to pretend to be her boyfriend so he could find out stuff too. Jess found out about the scheme and was horrified and hurt that the two people she trusted were nothing but fakers. Viki stood by her side, declaring that Jessica was her one and only daughter, and Ben enforced this. But Allison got papers drawn up to legally let Natalie stay in Llanfair, and she was legally to get all the money in Victor Lord's will, and all other wills. Jess went through a distressing time, while Natalie smirked with the cleverness of her scheme. But not Seth. Seth had discovered true feelings for Jess and constantly tried to win back her trust.
Finally he did, and the two had restarted their relationship. She and Natalie got along for a short while, but all hell broke loose when Natalie discovered Jessica was seeing Seth, whom Natalie loved. Natalie tried to undermine Jess and Seth's relationship by blackmail and tears.
But Natalie's attempts to win Seth back failed, and she went in other directions, such as falling in love with Jessica's ex-boyfriend, Cristian, which irritated Jessica to no end. Jessica was very happy with Seth and also doted on her newly arrived assumed brother, Rex Balsom. She was so distracted with living her own life that she didn't realize Viki had once again been taken over by alternate personality Niki Smith. When Viki/Niki pushed her husband Ben out a window and put him in a coma, she blamed Natalie, and Jessica fully backed her, believing Natalie not only wanted to take everything of hers, she wanted to destroy everything of Viki's. By the time realized the truth, Ben was in a more permanent coma after being accidentally shot by the cops during a standoff with Viki/Niki and Allison Perkins. Remorseful about her horrible, judgmental behavior, Jessica tried to extend an olive branch to Natalie.
Jessica's life began to spiral wildly out of control within weeks of this crisis. Long-thought-dead Mitch Laurence had slowly wormed his way back into the Buchanan's lives, marrying Natalie under an assumed identity. By the time she realized who he was, she was trapped and Mitch said the only way he'd free her was if Viki allowed him to get close to Jessica. Mitch revealed the revolting details to Viki, details so horrific she had blocked them out for decades: Mitch had broken into Llanfair, drugged the maid, and then drugged Viki's tea. While she was out of it, he raped her. Nine months passed, and she gave birth to twins. Mitch gave Natalie to trashy Roxy because she was Clint's daughter and deserved only the worst in his eyes. Jessica was his real daughter, and as an immobile Viki looked on, Mitch kidnapped Jessica. Although he had Allison return Jessica within a few weeks due to him having to disappear and wanting the best in life for his daughter, Viki was still guilt-ridden about not trying to stop him and then blocking everything out.
Mitch wanted Jessica to know she was his, and wanted to tell her. Viki sent Jessica and Seth out of town, only telling Jessica that she was in danger. After a while Jessica couldn't stand being kept in the dark any longer and locked Seth in the bathroom to return to Llanview. When she made it back, Mitch found her and told her every ugly tidbit. In disbelief, Jessica asked Viki, and Viki admitted Mitch was correct. Jessica was sickened by the image of Viki letting her go, and no amount of rational arguments from Viki or anyone else could help ease Jessica's rage. Her entire life now felt like a huge lie. She wanted nothing to do with the Buchanan name or the family she grew up with. She hid out with old friend Al Holden. Seth found her, and when she learned he'd known everything and didn't tell her, she dumped him, claiming she had lost her identity while involved with him.
Jessica was in grave danger with Mitch staying around, constantly looking for her. She went to his mansion to tell him she would never love him, and only the timely intervention of Todd saved her from assault. Jessica decided to flee town and stay with Clint for a while. Viki managed to track her down at the airport, and the two made a guarded peace before Jessica boarded her plane.
Jessica returned to town several weeks later, and was almost immediately kidnapped by Mitch to participate in a bizarre heart transplant scenario with Natalie. The police rescued the sisters just in time. Jessica warmed towards her mother again as well as bonding with Natalie, and although she detested Mitch, he persisted in his attempts to win her over. At one point they argued and he was accidentally blinded by chemicals. She was guilt-stricken, and attempted to form a relationship with him. He was then presumed dead (again) after falling into the river while trying to get Jessica away from Blair, Lindsay and Dorian, who had kidnapped her. Jessica had willingly participated in the kidnapping because she wanted Mitch to pay for his crimes, but had never wanted him to die.
Slowly, she began to get over his demise and fall in love with Antonio Vega. They had clashed on cultural and class levels for months, but now saw the best in each other. Unfortunately, just as Jess opened up again, a still-alive Mitch kidnapped her. He drugged her and saw her as the Viki to his Victor Lord. She managed to send several cryptic messages to her family and Antonio, thanks to a kind young cult member named Brian. Viki was also taken prisoner, and when Brian tried to help them both escape, Mitch shot him in cold blood. Moments later the police rescued the two women, but Jessica was traumatized by being drugged and mentally tortured by her father, as well as the enormous guilt of Brian dying because of his part in her escape attempt. She pushed everyone, especially Antonio, away, and with Jess having to deal with being a suspect in Mitch's death (real this time) and not-so-dead-Keri returning to town with her and Antonio's daughter Jamie, the wall Jessica had built grew higher and higher. However, when Antonio found himself accused of Keri's murder, Jessica's defenses broke down and, as she worked to find evidence to clear him, she opened her heart to his love.
Before Jessica and Antonio could truly begin their lives together, Antonio took another undercover assignment that left Jessica wondering where he was much of the time. She went to Puerto Rico, where she encountered Tico Santi locked in a bank vault. She took the young man back to Llanview with her, and after Antonio continued pushing her away, Jessica wed Tico. Their happiness was extremely short-lived, as Tico soon turned violent before being shot and later dying when his life support was unplugged. Jessica had their marriage annulled post-mortem once she realized what a monster Tico truly was, and began moving back toward a relationship with Antonio, but when she began experiencing blackouts and losing time, she began pulling away again, as her alternate personality, Tess, began taking over more and more of her life.
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