Jessica Bates would marry her teenage sweetheart Alan after getting pregnant in high school. The two would have a tumultuous marriage which would end in a bitter divorce and custody battle over their two children. They would both remarry, Jessica would marry a sheriff's deputy while Alan would marry a colleague for the theater company where he worked. On the surface, it appeared that both had moved on...but Jessica was a control freak. She had a resentment and jealousy that festered after Alan had remarried. She refused him visitation of his daughters which led to her being jailed for contempt of court.