2008: For Taylor Thompson, the military was in her blood. She grew up going from base to base, never making any real friends or setting down roots. Her father and brothers were all in the military. Taylor knew of no other life. After enlisting, Taylor was sent to Iraq where she came face to face with the brutalities of war and death.
After completing her first tour of duty, she came to Pine Valley to deliver a silver heart to her comrade Dr. Frankie Hubbard. But Frankie did not want any reminders of his past life. Secretly, Taylor was nursing the traumas of her time in Iraq too; not only her physical injuries that left her unable to serve, but the mental anguish that consumed her thoughts. She had saw her fiancée, Brot Monroe, die on the front lines. Her mental condition manifested itself when she killed Randi Morgan’s former pimp, Fletcher, at the Bella launch party.
Dr. Jake Martin and Taylor could not seem to escape each other. After renting the same apartment, and running the same wooded trail, the two struck up an acquaintance. Jake’s girlfriend, Amanda Dillon, saw there was something more than friendship blossoming between Jake and Taylor. Jake, like Taylor, saw the brutalities of war on the front lines of the conflict in Sudan.
During the mayhem at Pine Valley Hospital after the tornado, Zach Slater accidentally pushed Taylor down a flight of stairs. Taylor was forced to face the reality of never being on active duty again. Jake paid special attention to his new patient. Both could no longer deny their growing feelings for each other. But before their romance could go very far, Taylor learned Brot was alive and in Pine Valley.