Jessica Wakefield hummed to herself as she pulled into her parking space at the studio. It was bright and early, 6:30 AM to be exact, and Jessica was ready for another day full of the dramas and misfortunes that took place every second of 'Malibu Heights' to Brooke; her beautiful but slightly naïve alter-ego.

She entered the building wearing work-out clothes, with no make-up, and her hair tied back away from her face. She was greeted as soon as she entered the building by Jen, her on-set assistant, who handed her a skinny cappuccino with a dash of caramel - just the way Jessica liked it.

Two hours later, Jessica emerged from make-up and wardrobe; made-up, dressed and up to date with her lines for the day. Her shinning, blonde, shoulder-blade length hair was twisted up and sprayed out (the way Brooke usually wore it) and she wore a pretty pink and white sundress with heels to match. As she made her way on to set one of her co-stars, Daniel McLean emerged from his trailer. On screen, he was her romantic interest of the moment, off screen he was a pig, and Jessica tried to avoid him. Unfortunately, today was not starting well.

"Good morning Jess. Ready for our big love scene? I bet you could hardly sleep last night, knowing what I am about to do to you today…" He trailed off, winking at her.

Jessica smiled tight lipped, keeping her amusement to herself. How right he was! She had spent the night wondering how she could make their on screen love scenes less painful, and hadn't slept well at all.

"Yes, Daniel. I was worried you might take it too far, and get your boyfriend worried." Jessica smiled to herself as she saw Daniel go red. Daniel wasn't gay, far from it, but ever since he had started chasing her when she first started on the show, she liked to innocently pretend he was gay, and 'agree' with him when he angrily claimed he wasn't.

Its guys like Daniel that turned me away from dating, she thought to herself as she walked away from Daniel, leaving him fuming. And that's what Jessica told all her shocked friends, along with the 'I'm focusing on my career', 'I just haven't met the right guy', and 'all men are pigs' excuses. But the truth was, it had all just finally gotten too much for Jessica. Ever since she was 12, there had been boy after boy, guy after guy, man after man… And Jessica had even fallen in love a few times. But each time she thought she had met the right guy for her, she got hurt. In one case, she had actually had her heart ripped into pieces. But, she thought, squeezing her eyes shut to expel the memory, I can't think about that. She never thought about him.

Elizabeth Wakefield threw her keys into the glass bowl on the table, in the hall of the townhouse she shared with Jessica in the 'Sweet Valley Shores' duplex.

"Jess?" She called out mildly, flipping through the mail she had collected from the mail box. No answer, she thought, Jess must still be at work. She entered the kitchen, and sighing she put the mail on a kitchen bench. Grabbing herself a water from the refrigerator, she hit the play button on the answering machine.

"Hi Liz, Jess, it's your big brother, just checking in. I'm flat out at the firm right now, but we were hoping to come down to California to see you all soon. Billie says hi, and Danielle says she misses her aunties. Bye guys"

Liz smiled at hearing her brother's voice. She had missed him and Billie, and her niece Danni since the family moved to Chicago two years ago.

"Hello Elizabeth, I just missed you as I went to my meeting after lunch. I wanted to check and see how that article on '10 ways to keep your guy' is going. I'll need it by Friday. See you tomorrow."

Liz grimaced. Somehow she doubted the Liz of ten years ago would have imagined herself writing columns that would fit right into one of Jessica's Seventeen mags. It wasn't what she had planned at all.

"Hi Liz, it's Lila."

Elizabeth paused, her forehead wrinkling up in confusion. Had Lila just said 'hi Liz'?

"Listen, I just thought you should know… you remember that Bruce is Alumni at SVU?" (Liz rolled her eyes; Lila just loved bringing herself and Bruce's successful lives into every conversation) "Well he's just informed me that they have hired a new Assistant Basketball coach. And you'll never guess who it is! Todd!"

Liz's mind drifted off after that, missing the rest of Lila's message (something about a promotion for Bruce), as she felt her cheeks warm up. Todd Wilkins… That was a name she hadn't heard in awhile. In the four years since she had left SVU, she hadn't kept much in contact with Todd. Their on again, off again relationship had gotten too much for Liz, and when she returned from London, she was relieved to find he had moved to Ohio to coach. Although she had no ill feelings toward Todd like she did toward the other 'love' of her life Tom, she hadn't expected for Todd to re-enter her life, or for that matter, Sweet Valley. She wondered what this would mean… Whether she would even run into Todd, and if she did, how it would affect her…