The Jessie and Katie (in Friends and Lovers) Series is based on the American Television series, intitled "Once and Again", which starred Sela Ward as Lily Manning and Billy Campbell as Rick Sammler. The series revolved around the romance of Rick and Lily as recent divorcee's and the blending of the two families. In the last season, Jessie Sammler (played by the wonderful Evan Rachel Wood) formed a strong new friendship with Katie Singer (the equally talented Mischa Barton), little did Jessie know, but Katie was gay and slowly falling in love with her. Jessie first denied it when rumors began making the rounds, that Katie was gay and but had to admit it when she recieved a letter from Katie, explaining her feelings. Forcing Jessie to confront her own feelings for her new friend. After a magical first kiss, their relationship was cut short, due to the series foolish cancellation by the ABC network in May 2002.

My series picks up where the Tv series left off, albiet a short time later. It begins with the first time Jessie and Katie make love, and how they get caught. The results of that brief moment in time, end up changing everyone's life forever. The shocking ending to that chapter, prompted me to turn this into a regular series. So as the series grew I added additional characters from the original Tv series (and in later chapters some of my own) as the tale warranted. I also tried hard to blend the erotic nature of the story with a traditional Tv series type storyline.

The main focus of the series early on, was the developing sexual relationship of Jessie and Katie, and the unforeseen trouble that goes along with that type of relationship. The initial trouble was triggered by their first three-way with Katie's old friend, Cori Tyler (Chapter 16), something that was Jessie's idea. Following the healing of that rift, Katie soon begins to realize that losing her virginity has changed her once, sweet and innocent young lover, forever. Jessie now sees the world in a whole new light, and in Katie's eyes, she sees it as holding a spirit that yearns to be free, which could have meant the end of Jessie and Katie or at least leading Jessie to want someone new. That someone could have been Cori Tyler, if Jessie and her's burgeoning relationship had not been cut short, when Cori risked her life to save Jessie's (Chapter 22). Now Jessie feels obligated to stay by her side, while still trying to balance her on-going romance with Katie.

Grace Manning though is a completely different story in total. Up on first meeting Sarah, she wanted to rip her head off her shoulders for her childish treatment of Jessie and Katie. But is shocked to find out she had come to apologize. Following that an instant friendship is born and Sarah forms a strong bond with Grace's little sister Zoe (Her Little Monkey), who tags along as much as Grace will let her (and meets her first boyfriend in Michael Logan, who lives in Sarah's building). After some initial denial on her part, Grace gives into the ever increasing feelings and kisses Sarah for the first time (Chapter 12). Which turns their friendship into a romance. One that Grace is not sure she's totally ready for, being that two other people suddenly are vying for her attention, August Dimitri and her step brother (and on again/off-again crush) Eli Manning. The Eli situation comes to a shattering end with their last date (Chapter 15) and August finds out he no longer has a chance (Chapter 20), and Grace finally admits she's fallen in love with Sarah.

Several characters from the original prime time series will be used in my series of stories; Eli and Zoe being the two most likely to be seen early on. Grace's Mom and step dad (Lily Brooks-Sammler and Rick Sammler) will be the most used of the parents, but Grace's Dad (Jake Manning), his new wife (Tiffany Porter), and Jessie and Eli's Mom (Karen), along with Karen's new boyfriend Henry Higgins will drop in on occasion. Plenty of original characters will be added in later chapters, RaeAnn Parker (Katie's Cousin), Joey Larue (the Sammler-Manning's new neighbor) and Cori Tyler will be the most likely to appear on a regular basis. Plus you can expect plenty of characters to pop up as "old friends, relative's and former lovers."