When Xander Reeves and Melody Tisdale got together, no one knew what to expect. The two were complete opposites and had very little in common. Melody was a party girl relocating to Athens, Georgia after failing to get into medical school, while Xander was working to save up money to permanantly relocate to Atlanta. He had just graduated from the police academy and was eager to get settled. Melody was just looking for a good time. The pair kept things casual, hanging out together whenever Xander went back to Athens to visit family. Melody was still trying to figure things out for herself when she learned that she was going to have a baby. After nine long months and several paternity tests; Xander learned that he was the father of a healthy baby girl born on July 2, 1980. He begged and pleaded for Melody and the new baby, named Leilyn Miranda, to relocate to Atlanta. He had a good job with the Atlanta PD and had recently put a down payment on a house. Melody, faced with no other alternatives, agreed. Weeks after her birth, Leilyn settled into a new life as the infant daughter of a police officer and stay-at-home mother. She was a quiet baby, only fussing when she was hungry or had a wet diaper. She advanced early but retained the tiny features that likened her to her mother. The couple married when Leilyn was six months old and by the time she was a year old, Melody was pregnant for a second time.

Three months after announcing the pregnancy, Melody was chasing after Leilyn and fell. The fall, combined with poor diet, resulted in a miscarriage. The news was devestating to Xander, who had been looking forward to the possibility of having a son. Melody withdrew into herself, barely caring for Leilyn while Xander threw himself into his work. He was promoted quickly through the ranks, proving to be a much better cop than he was husband and father. The couple began fighting more and often around Leilyn. She hated to see her parents fighting and often wondered why her mother usually left the room crying.

When Leilyn was four years old, she woke up to find her mother nowhere to be seen. She asked her father where Melody was and Xander burst into tears. That was the first and only time she ever saw her father cry. Refusing to ask again, she quit talking about her mother and settled into a new routine with her father. Xander struggled to provide for a little girl he had no idea how to raise. He was completely out of his element and soon made the mistake of getting back out into the dating world for the sole purpose of finding her a new mother.

Leilyn hated the string of women that came through her house. They were barely of age and almost half loathed the idea of having to relinquish time with their new boyfriend just so he could deal with his daughter. When none of his relationships panned out, Xander decided to relocate. His mother had ended up in Tarrytown, New York after her third marriage and offered him a place to stay. She wanted to see more of her granddaughter and felt Leilyn really needed a positive female role model. He agreed and at the age of eleven, Leilyn found herself in a completely different world.

One of the first things that Leilyn worried about was being picked on. Her accent obviously made her different but the quiet and sweet-natured little girl quickly gained friends. She got into cheerleading and found that it helped pull her out of her shell. She had always loved to dance and one of the only things she knew about her mother was the fact that Melody had once been a cheerleader herself.

Once settled into her new life in Tarrytown, Leilyn grew into a beautiful and vivacious teenager. Cheerleading helped enhance her social life and she soon started seeing her best friend in a whole new light. She had known Jayse Kent since arriving at her new middle school. They had always gotten along great and her grandmother would constantly suggest that the two get together. They were perfect for one another, she claimed. By the end of her freshman year of high school, Leilyn felt inclined to agree. She managed to juggle things well, never letting her grades slip while she balanced school with cheerleading, softball, and her new romance.

As graduation loomed, Leilyn began making plans to attend college. Xander assumed his daughter would follow in his footsteps and took her on countless tours of the precint he called his second home. But she had already fallen in love with medicine and began taking the steps to apply to colleges specializing in what she would need to achieve her goals. The only problem came when she and Jayse sat down to talk. Long distance never worked and she didn't want to be the reason he was upset or unhappy in any way. She cried herself to sleep in the last month of her high school career but when the summer after graduation ended, Leilyn boxed everything up and moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

She came back for summers and all of the school holidays that she could manage. It was a bit of a strain on the studious brunette, but she was determined to keep some semblence of a life going in Tarrytown. She had just gone off to college, she had no intentions of staying gone. She wanted to be there for her family when and where it mattered. But on September 11, 2001; Leilyn was in a UNC classroom hearing the horrific details with her classmates. Running from the classroom, she received a frantic phone call from her grandmother. Xander had been in the North Tower when a plane crashed into it. He'd never had a chance to make it out.

Once the airports opened back up, Leilyn was on the first flight back to New York. The family had gathered to pay their respects to Xander, who had been visiting a friend on the 93rd floor. Leilyn returned to school, numb and going through the motions. She managed to finish college, obtaining her Bachelor's degree and an acceptance letter into UNC School of Medicine. It was a difficult decision but after an extensive conversation with her grandmother, Leilyn decided to stay in Chapel Hill for four more years. No one was told that part of her decision stemmed from Jayse and seeing how he had moved on with his life. Despite trying to get something going whenever she was home for an extended period of time, things just never panned out. She was still hopelessly in love with her high school sweetheart, but she was too embedded in her schoolwork to walk away.

Leilyn finally returned to New York after graduating from medical school. Athena was over the moon by her granddaughter's success and declared that she would move in with her until her plans became more concrete. She had no idea what was happening next, only that she had one more phase to complete before she was finally where she wanted to be professionally. A residency opening in New York, New York came available and Leilyn jumped at the chance. She could stay closer to home and look after her grandmother, who hadn't fully bounced back after the loss of her only son.

The four years as a resident were grueling and other areas of her life often suffered, but she didn't entirely try to create a life for herself outside of the hospital. Constantly on call, she hid in her work and tried to ignore the fact that she was a failure in the romance department. Her co-workers pushed her to date, often taking her out after a long night to unwind. Shortly after coming back from Thanksgiving and a short-lived tryst with Jayse, she broke her own rules and fell into bed with a fellow resident. He was good-looking and had no problem dropping hints that he wanted to see her outside of work. When she found out weeks later that she was pregnant, Leilyn automatically assumed it was her co-worker. Telling him about the pregnancy was extremely difficult and he told her that he couldn't handle having a baby. He was nearing the end of his residency and had secured a job on the West Coast. An offer wasn't extended for her to follow so that he could be in the child's life.

Upon completion of her residency, Leilyn left NY Presbyterian and settled full-time in Tarrytown. She struggled to job hunt for the first month after gaining liscenture, but she was determined. Athena tried to talk her granddaughter into waiting until she'd given birth, having no problem having the pair stay with her. As time grew closer, Leilyn relaxed and on August 23, 2010; she gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Xander Jace Reeves. Everyone was skeptical of her story at first, claiming the father wouldn't be in his son's life. It was just widely assumed that Jayse had fathered the child and they were being coy about reconciling. Leilyn let it all go in one ear and out the other, dedicating herself to finding a job while she adjusted to the new strains of motherhood. Xander was much like his mother, quiet and alert. He very rarely cried but was much happier curled up in his mother's arms. She often complained about his refusal to be put down, but it was all in loving jest.

Six weeks after she returned to job hunting, Leilyn happened to be in the right place at the right time. A vacancy in the Obsetrics department of Phelps Memorial Hospital had come up and she quickly put her name into the running. The interview process was lengthy and extensive but at the end, Leilyn was offered a position within the hospital. She jumped at the chance and settled quickly into her new role as a working OB/GYN. Shortly after Xander turned two, Leilyn decided it was time to finally leave her grandmother's home. She secured a tiny house in Sleepy Hollow, near Jayse. Xander was convinced that his mother's best friend was his daddy and happily called him that once he started learning how to put sentences together. It sent Athena and Jayse's mother into a tailspin and the two women felt even more convinced that Leilyn's story of a co-worker getting her pregnant wasn't real. Leilyn just turned a blind eye to it, intentionally staying out of the way so that Jayse could decide how he was in her son's life. She didn't want him to assume responsibility for a child she felt convinced wasn't his, but she had to admit that watching them together was probably the cutest thing she had ever seen in her life.

In July of 2014, after endless flirting, Leilyn finally came clean. She was still very much in love with Jayse and wanted to really make things work. She was tired of hiding behind excuses and didn't want to risk Jayse someday finding someone new to love. Xander was happy to have them together but began experiencing trouble with his daycare center. Kids were talking about his home life and as a result of mean words, Xander was involved in his very first fight. No one believed him in his adamant demands that he very much had a father. He carried those claims with him when he went into Pre-K, demanding that Jayse be as present in the firsts of his life as his mother. As their relationship strengthened, Leilyn fell into a happy little routine. Jayse happy to be whatever Xander needed but at the beginning of October, everything threatened to fall apart.

Nathan Bennett, the man Leilyn thought to be Xander's father, resurfaced in the form of custody papers. He'd recently been married and his new wife demanded he know his son. With plans underway for Nathan to obtain full custody of Xander (essentially taking him away from his mother so another woman could play house), a paternity test was scheduled. Around this same time, Jayse was making plans to move in with Leilyn and Jayse while they looked for a house to call theirs. Three days after the first paternity test was performed, Leilyn realized that her grandmother and Jayse's mother were right. Xander was biologically Jayse's son.

A new normal was needed in the Reeves-Kent household while Leilyn and Jayse adjusted to the news that they were parents. Another paternity test was performed and paperwork was submitted to put Jayse's name on the birth certificate. Xander was happy with the news, calm while his mother told him that his name would be changing. A house was found shortly before Christmas 2014 and the couple submitted an offer. While they waited for an answer on the house and for Xander's name change to go though; Leilyn learned she was pregnant for a second time. At first, she was terrified. She had never really thought of having another child but she couldn't see herself terminating the pregnancy. So she gave Jayse the space he needed to wrap his mind around another baby coming into the picture. When the first of the year rolled around, Xander became Xander Jayse Kent and the family learned they had the house.

The couple settled into their new home around Valentine's Day 2015. Both families were over the moon but Athena began wondering when Leilyn's last name was going to change. Lei just rolled her eyes and told her grandmother that it wasn't necessary. She was content and happy in her life. Even more so when they found out on March 26 the sex of their baby.

Plans are now being made for the arrival of their second child around August 18. A room is being renovated and so far, the pregnancy has been relatively easy on Leilyn. But she's scaled back her hours and is trying to spend more time at home with her boyfriend and son. There are some small squabbles with her grandmother over who will pay for the nursery furniture, but life has become pretty settled. There are whispers of advancement for Leilyn at the hospital but she's content where she is. Happy that her life is doing so well but still afraid of the other shoe dropping.