Having
confessed to murdering Curtis, Billie was sent to jail to await her
sentence. In jail, Billie sat up during the night and remembered her
hellish childhood with Curtis. She recalled the first time he raped
her, when she was 12, one day after coming home from school with an
exemplary report card. Curtis had told her that she needed to take
her mother's place. While remembering all of this, Billie came to the
conclusion that everything bad that had ever happened to her was her
mother's fault. If she had been there to protect her from Curtis, she
wouldn't have gotten raped, she would've finished high school, stayed
away from drugs & pornos, etc. And for this reason, Billie was
less than pleased to come face to face with Kate. Austin and Jennifer
had done some research and discovered that Kate was indeed their
mother. Kate came to the jail to visit Billie, but Billie let her
have it without listening to her explanations. Kate said that Curtis
had taken Austin & Billie, changed their names, and moved
constantly to avoid detection; one day, he called her up and said the
children had died in a car crash. Nevertheless, Billie blamed Kate
for her problems and made it clear she didn't want her mother
now.
Meanwhile, Bo didn't come too see Billie. She was convinced that Bo didn't love her anymore as a result of the revelation of her past, and her lies about Curtis. In reality, Bo was prohibited from seeing Billie by Commissioner Samuels, who believed his personal connection to Billie was making a mockery out of the justice system.
The
day came for Billie's sentencing. Just before the judge was to
pronounce her dreaded sentence, Bo burst into the courtroom demanding
one last attempt to free Billie. After much squabbling, the judge
allowed Bo to question Billie, who believed that she held the key to
unlocking the mystery of Curtis' murder. According to Billie's
previous testimony, the murderer had said "Check, Checkmate";
however, chess is something completely foreign to Billie, so she
couldn't have possibly said it. Next, Bo asked Billie to recall the
kind of shoes Curtis had been wearing that night, to which she
responded, "men's dress shoes." Funny, considering that the police
photo of Curtis' body clearly showed that Curtis had been wearing
snake skin cowboy boots. Somebody else must've been there that night.
Finally, Bo said the words "Check, Checkmate" in a deep voice to help
Billie remember. And something clicked, because she did remember. The
now-supposedly-deceased Stefano DiMera had shot Curtis. Billie
remembered being in the alley behind some crates in a drug-induced
haze, and watched Stefano and Curtis fight, ending with Stefano's
shooting of Curtis. However, it seemed to Billie like the shooting
had been in self-defense. A corroborating witness, Fred Harris,
testified that everything Billie had remembered was true. Fred, an
ex-police officer, had been on Stefano's payroll and the guard to his
hospital room the night Curtis had died. After Stefano had returned
from the alley that night, Fred had gone back to the alley, found
Billie unconscious, placed her fingerprints on the gun, and put the
gun in her apartment. With all of this evidence, Billie was cleared
of all charges and finally freed.
Having
survived this horrible trial, Bo and Billie started anew. Bo let
Billie know that he wanted to be different from the men who had
treated her so poorly in the past. He wanted to take things slow. And
to start things off, he concocted a trip into the past to commemorate
their official first date. Bo and Billie dressed in 70's outfits and
went to see a movie at Salem Place, followed by a picnic in the
woods. They continued to take things slow for a couple months. In the
meantime, Bo encouraged Billie to go back and finish high school. She
took a few classes that she needed at Salem High School, with Sami
Brady and Jamie Caldwell among her classmates, and was on her way to
getting her long-awaited diploma.
While that was underway, Billie got a desire to start a new cosmetics company. Though Kate was now willing to become closer to Billie, she refused to return control of Countess Wilhelmina back to her. And so, Billie began her search for investors for a new company. One of the people she sought help from was Jamie's father, attorney David Caldwell. David Caldwell heard Billie out, and told her that he would consider investing in her company. Meanwhile, Billie noticed Jamie acting very oddly in school when teased by other boys about her virginity. She also noticed a couple of bruises on Jamie. This made Billie very suspicious. With every passing day, she believed that Jamie was being abused by her father. However, Bo told Billie to forget such ridiculous thoughts. One evening, Bo and Billie went to the Penthouse Grill and saw the Caldwell there. At one point, Jamie and David were on the balcony alone, and Billie followed. She saw David make a move on Jamie and made a big scene about it. David denied everything and so did Jamie, and Bo was deeply embarrassed. Worst of all, David told Billie to forget about him investing in her company! Billie was made to believed that she had misconstrued what she'd seen on the balcony and wanted to apologize to David. The following evening, Billie went to David's office and found that her suspicions had been warranted. She walked in on David trying to kiss Jamie! After Jamie ran away in shame, David grabbed Billie and tied her to a chair. For a while, David didn't know what to do, and drank to "clear his head." When he was good and drunk, David concluded that he needed to kill Billie to save his reputation. But he didn't get the chance. Jamie had told Bo what had happened and he came to Billie's rescue.
Billie was safe, but her dreams of beginning a new company were dashed. Or were they? Kristen decided to help out Billie. Her husband Tony DiMera, who had recently acquired 49% of Countess Wilhelmina stock, didn't want to actively work in the company. And so, Kristen convinced Tony to make Billie his representative in the company. Thus, Billie was now part of the Board of Directors, and able to actively work with her company once again.
By
that point, it was clear that Bo truly loved Billie. One day, Kristen
surprised Billie with the news that Bo was going to propose to her!
Yes, it was supposed to be a secret, but Kristen just couldn't keep
this from her best friend. In fact, Kristen invited Bo & Billie
to a charity cotillion she was holding in her plantation home of
Maison Blanche, in New Orleans, to give the proposal a romantic
atmosphere. Billie was extremely overjoyed and thought it was too
good to be true. And she was right. For some time, Billie had worried
about the memory of Bo's late wife, Hope Brady, coming between her
and Bo. As soon as Billie and Bo arrived at Maison Blanche, Billie
caught glimpses of a mysterious woman with dark hair around the
plantation. However, the woman kept running away from her. The night
of the cotillion, which everyone attended exquisitely dressed in Old
South costumes, Billie met face to face with the woman. Before having
a long conversation with her, the woman ran away once again. Later
that night, Billie saw a picture of Hope and swore to Bo that the
mysterious woman looked exactly like her. The cotillion ended when a
hurricane struck the plantation, in addition to a fire in the main
house. While taking shelter in a separate house on the estate, Billie
saw the woman once again and ran after her, ultimately slipping on
the wet grass and hitting her head on a rock.
Fortunately, Bo found Billie and healed her wound. Despite Billie's cries saying that Hope was alive, Bo assured her that that was impossible. He decided to take her to a hotel, where he was going to do what he'd intended to do. In a candlelit suite, Bo proposed to Billie and presented her with an engagement ring of sapphires, diamonds, and rubies -- each stone represent a particular quality of Billie. Just as the happy couple was to make love, however, the unimaginable occurred: John Black, half-naked and on the verge of passing out, burst into the room carrying an unconscious and half-drowned woman who looked like...you guessed it, Hope Brady! Bo and Billie took John and the Hope look-alike to a New Orleans hospital, where all was explained. Stefano DiMera, who was not dead as everyone had believed, had been keeping John and Marlena prisoners in the basement of Maison Blanche. Upon escaping, John had rescued another one of Stefano's hostages, this woman who looked exactly like the "late" Hope Williams Brady. Bo refused to believe that this woman was really Hope, but Billie was already worrying about her future with Bo.
When the woman finally awoke, she didn't remember anything. She didn't remember her name, or her past before Maison Blanche. Finally, she recalled that her name was Gina. Still, Bo decided to prove that this Gina was an impostor and flew in some medical experts. The real Hope had perished 4 years prior in an acid explosion; if this woman was really Hope, she would have scars from such an explosion. The medical experts, one a plastic surgeon and the other a dental surgeon, gave mixed results. After through examination, the plastic surgeon informed Bo & Billie that Gina had been given extensive plastic surgery, the scars still visible behind her ears. Said scars looked like the result of acid burns. The dental surgeon examined Gina's dental structure and said that Gina had been given extensive dental work, although the roots of her teeth were very similar to Hope's. Meanwhile, Bo decided to bring Gina back to Salem and try to jog her memory. However, he remained faithful to Billie. At the same time, Billie befriended Gina and asked her to move in with her, making their current situation quite peculiar.
One of the first things Bo did to prove Gina was not Hope was give her a DNA test. Because no DNA samples of Hope were available, since DNA testing was not done during her lifetime, Gina's DNA was tested against Shawn-Douglas', Hope's son. The tests were sent to Washington DC and everyone anxiously awaited the results. When they finally came back, they were inconclusive. Her DNA did not match Shawn-Douglas' exactly, but did suggest that she was related to him. Meanwhile, Gina began acting strangely. She began going into trances and having flashbacks of Hope's lifetime, which really worried Billie. After numerous flashbacks, Bo was convinced that Gina *HAD* to be Hope, and was forced to break things off with Billie. Meanwhile, Billie curiously came upon some helpful evidence of the state of things. One day while sleeping on her sofa, Billie had the strangest of dreams, in which she thought she was Hope. When she woke up, she saw a woman quickly leaving her apartment. Confused, Billie picked up a book that the woman had dropped. The book contained memories of Hope Brady's life; Billie put two and two together and figured that the woman had thought she was Hope and had been feeding her these memories, thus the weird dream. Seeing that something fishy was obviously going on, Billie decided to show Bo this book. After much searching, she found out that Bo & Gina (who now called herself Hope) were on Smith Island ready to make love at the Horton cabin. The ferry had stopped running by then, however. Kate, who had been trying to bond with Billie for some time, offered to help her by having the Titan helicopter fly her to the island. Billie greatly appreciated this, but it was too late. When she got to the cabin, Bo and "Hope" were already beginning to make love. Billie tried to show him the book of memories, but he wouldn't listen. Tearfully, Billie left the book there and left.
With
nothing left for her, Billie decided to leave Salem that very day.
She packed her things and got on a train headed to Helena, Montana.
While on the train, all she thought about was Bo. A woman she met on
the train, Teresa, even suggested to Billie that maybe leaving Salem
was not the answer to her problems. Little did Billie know that Bo
had found the book of memories and was fighting Heaven and Hell to
get on the train! Meanwhile, Billie came face to face with Celeste,
Stefano's helper who'd been charged with burning down Maison Blanche;
Billie also recognized her as the woman who'd been feeding her the
Hope memories, although Celeste vehemently denied this. Finally, Bo
made his way inside the train and surprised Billie! He apologized for
the way he'd acted in the cabin and proposed to her, after which they
finally made love. Upon coming to the next stop, the happy couple got
off the train boarded another one back to Salem.
Convinced that Gina couldn't possibly be Hope, Bo and Billie began preparations for a New Year's wedding. Gina, who felt like a third wheel, having fallen in love with Bo, decided to leave Salem. However, Billie asked her to stay. Despite everything that had happened, Billie still treasured her friendship with Gina. While she and Bo prepared for their wedding, Billie tried to set up Gina on dates, one of which was with the available Dr. Mike Horton! (yikes!) Fortunately, Gina and Mike did not hit it off.
Bo
and Billie prepared a New Year's wedding at St. Luke's Catholic
Church. Kristen decided to help Billie out by having a famous
designer, Jacques Marcel, come to Salem from Paris and make a wedding
gown for her. Everything seemed perfect. Kate, who had slowly
developed a close relationship with Billie, gave Billie an old
handkerchief to carry down the aisle -- it'd been her grandmother's.
Billie appreciated this and began to think of Kate as a mother more
than ever. Austin walked Billie down the aisle, with Shawn-Douglas as
the ring bearer. But of course, everything was too perfect. During
the ceremony, the chandelier above the altar fell and nearly killed
the wedding party. Bo pushed Billie out of harm's way. No one was
injured, but the wedding was temporarily postponed. Abe considered
closing the Church for investigation, suspecting The Desecrator, an
anti-Christmas bandit that had been wreaking havoc for some weeks, as
the culprit for the chandelier falling. In the end, the wedding
continued as planned. But just before Bo and Billie were to be
pronounced husband and wife, something even more unbelievable than a
chandelier's fall happened: Alice Horton stood up and proclaimed that
Bo couldn't marry Billie because Hope was still alive. Alice believed
that Gina was Hope, and until that was positively disproved, Bo
couldn't marry Billie. Father Jansen, who presided over the ceremony,
agreed that he could not marry Bo & Billie if there was a
possibility that his late wife was still alive. Yet another bump on
Bo & Billie's chances to be happy.
Yet, Gina had no desire to stand in the way of Bo and Billie's happiness. And although she wished to continue to explore whether or not she was Hope, Gina agreed to have Hope declared legally dead in order for Bo & Billie to be married. In February of 1995, Bo and Billie were finally wed, and this time nothing went wrong during the wedding. No, the wedding was fine; it was the reception at the Penthouse Grill that went awry. After Bo and Billie had left, Marlena Evans, of all people, entered the restaurant stark naked. Meanwhile, Bo and Billie slithered away from the party and went back to the Fancy Face, where Bo presented her with an unbelievable wedding gift: adoption papers. Bo wished for Billie to adopt Shawn-Douglas and become his mother. Billie happily signed the papers, and Bo & Billie spent a quiet day at home with Shawn-Douglas.
Billie moved into the Fancy Face with Bo and Shawn D., and leased the apartment to Gina, who now took the surname "Horton" at Alice's suggestion. Gina was still trying to search for her identity by playing around with a puzzle box that only Hope & Tom Horton had know how to open. If she opened it, then it would suggest that she was Hope. In the meantime, Bo and Billie were happily (and tediously) married. At one point, a clue to Gina's past came from New Orleans, and Billie went there to investigate under the guise of Countess Wilhelmina business. In New Orleans, Billie met a hospital orderly named Bobby Lee Cooper, who had found Gina in 1990, two weeks after Hope's death. Bobby had in his possession a gold bracelet that Gina had been wearing when he found her; the bracelet had an inscription that read, "To Hope with all my love, Bo." Billie considered keeping this information to herself, but finally decided to tell Bo & Gina. They then all went to New Orleans to see the bracelet, but Bobby Lee melted it before they got a chance. After that, Bobby Lee kept mum.
Meanwhile,
Billie finally formed a true relationship with Kate. They had bonded,
and Billie had actually managed to call her "Mom." One day, Kate
confided in Billie and told her that she was suspicious of Vivian
Alamain. She didn't know why, but she felt like she couldn't trust
her anymore (Kate and Vivian had become friends.) Because of all
this, it was devastating when Billie got word that Kate had died in a
plane crash. The pilot who had been flying her plane had fallen
asleep. Kate's body was not found, but Billie was beyond consoling.
Soon, Billie thought back to her talks with Kate and began to think
that Vivian was acting very peculiar. She went ahead and had Steve,
the pilot, checked for drugs. Nothing. Still, it seemed very odd that
Steve had fallen asleep, especially since he claimed to have drank a
lot of coffee before flying. Billie still believed he'd been drugged.
She was going to have the thermos from which he'd drank coffee tested
when it was mysteriously lost. By the time they found it (actually,
Vivian's dog Noelle dug it up from the Kiriakis rose garden), it had
been thoroughly washed, erasing any traces of drugs. Billie could do
nothing but accept Kate's death.
After many excruciating months, the question everyone had wondered for over a year was finally revealed. At Austin & Carrie's wedding, Billie literally stumbled upon the blasted puzzle box, which had been stolen, lost, thrown away, etc. over the past few months. Outside of the church, Billie saw Abby Deveraux playing with it; the silly girl had had it for several weeks now! Billie returned the thing to Gina, and Gina opened it. The box contained a letter that Hope had written to Bo on their wedding day. Bo began to read it out loud, and halfway through, Gina recited the rest of it without having seen it. Still, Bo refused to believe Gina was Hope. However, when he lifted Hope's fingerprints from the letter they matched Gina's. At last, the truth that Gina indeed was Hope was finally revealed. Of course, this also meant that Bo and Billie's marriage was invalid.
Despite the fact that Hope was still alive, Bo remained faithful to Billie and vowed to divorce Hope and remarry Billie. Bo and Hope traveled to the Caribbean island of Santa Rosa to receive a quickie divorce, while Billie stayed in Salem. However, Billie decided to join them just to see what was taking so long. To her dismay, she found out that Santa Rosa was a special place for Bo & Hope; they had renewed their wedding vows there while traveling around the world on the "Fancy Face." Billie watched Bo and Hope while they were all in Santa Rosa, and it began to occur to her that he still had feelings for Hope. After the divorce was finalized, they all returned to Salem. Billie began to think that marrying Bo would be a big mistake. She finally realized this when she overheard Shawn-Douglas praying for God to let Bo and Hope get married again. Billie didn't want to break up a family and decided to step out of the picture. Some time earlier, she had received a letter offering her a position in Paris as the Overseas Manager of Countess Wilhelmina. She chose to take it. After saying good-bye to Austin, Billie rushed to the airport. As she was about to board her plane, Bo showed up and tried to talk her out of leaving Salem. However, Billie told Bo that he still had feelings for Hope and he needed to explore them before jumping into marriage with her. And with that, Billie boarded her plane and left Salem.
Billie
tried to get over Bo in Europe, and almost did. But after a visit
from Austin and Carrie in 1996, Billie could not ignore her residual
feelings for Bo, and came back to Salem with the pretext of attending
a conference. She stayed, and was delighted to see Franco Kelly
living in Salem. She had dated Franco in Italy sometime in the past
year, although it was obvious they only wished to remain friends. Bo
thought Franco was bad news, and he watched over Billie. Hope mistook
Bo's caring for Billie as love, but Billie assured Hope that she
wanted nothing with Bo. Soon after, Hope and Bo were engaged.
Although Billie was hurt, she thought their marriage was for the
best. Despite that, she couldn't bring herself to go to the wedding;
so she went to Smith Island, to the Horton Cabin, the night before
the wedding. Bo found out and hurried to the island fearing for
Billie's safety. A murder had just occurred on the island and Bo was
afraid that the murderer was still there. So he raced to the island
during a windstorm, found Billie, but discovered that the boat had
gotten loose. The ferry wasn't running, and the telephones were down.
So Bo and Billie were stuck on the island. Bo refused to miss his
wedding and tried to swim ashore, but he almost drowned in the raging
waters. Luckily, Billie saved him and dragged him back ashore. Both
of them were half-frozen and, to keep warm, took off their clothes
and held each other tight in bed at the Horton cabin. They stayed
like this for the rest of the night. When the morning came, and Bo
didn't show up at the wedding, Hope found out he'd gone to the
island, so she went there. When she walked into the cabin, of course,
Hope assumed the worst.
Although Bo & Billie tried to explain to Hope what had happened, the damage had been done. In the meantime, Billie innocently sought the advice of Franco, whose one wish was to break up Bo and Hope. As 1997 began, Bo and Hope were still apart, and Billie was beginning to wish she could be with Bo once again. To pass time, she hung out at a new nightclub, The Snake Pit, and witnessed many illegal actions, like drug dealing. And one night, she witnessed Bo talking to one of the drug dealers, Max. Bo had just been demoted to being a "beat cop", so Billie assumed that Bo had gone bad. To her surprise, Bo informed her that his demotion had been a ruse to fool J.L. King, a drug kingpin; Bo was playing "bad cop" in order to infiltrate J.L.'s organization. Bo begged Billie to keep this a secret, and she did. Unfortunately, she tried to help him out, only getting into deeper trouble. Eventually, Billie was forced to play along with Bo's routine and pretend to be his girlfriend -- which, of course, didn't sit well with Hope. Bo and Billie couldn't tell Hope that they were only pretending because it would blow their cover. Hope was hurt, and tried to move on with Franco Kelly. Meanwhile, Billie took this opportunity to try to regain Bo's love. However, he constantly reminded her that he only cared for her as a friend. Hope was the only woman he loved.
After
some time, it seemed like Bo was successfully becoming J.L.'s
right-hand man and very close to having enough information to bust
him. At that point, J.L. informed Bo and Billie that they were to
travel with him to Rome to meet with some big time drug dealers from
Italy. J.L. wanted to bring Bo and Billie along because he was
convinced that they were wonderful together. In Rome, J.L. surprised
Bo and Billie with the news that he'd arranged a wedding for them! To
add insult to injury, Hope and Franco were also in Rome and J.L.
invited them to witness the wedding. And so, certainly the most
uncomfortable wedding took place in a little Roman garden. With
Franco as the best man and Hope as the maid of honor, Bo and Billie
were married. Although Hope fainted during the ceremony, it did go
off, and Billie secretly relished the moment.
Soon
after, J.L. was arrested in Rome. Bo and Billie's mission seemed
over. All they had to do was wait for the trial, at which Billie
would be a key witness to the prosecution. Billie was dismayed
because she and Bo had gotten closer, but he remained faithful to
Hope. One evening, she was kidnapped by Max, J.L.'s cohort who was
still on the lose. Max took her back to a seedy apartment and tied
her to the bed. Then he revealed that he was going to pump drugs into
her until she became a junkie. Max was under orders from J.L., who
believed that Billie's testimony against him would be meaningless if
the court found out she had a drug addiction. Max gave her all kinds
of drugs, including heroin and drugs. While Billie was strung out,
she saw visions of her dead father, Curtis. Curtis taunted her about
their past together and encouraged her to become a drug addict. After
days of being missing, Billie was finally found by Bo. Bo somehow
discovered that Curtis' ghost was tormenting an unconscious Billie.
So somehow Bo crossed into the astral plane and battled Curtis' ghost
to keep Billie from becoming hooked on drugs again. Bo defeated
Curtis and saved Billie. Later on, after Billie recovered, the two
"accidentally" slept together. However, Bo told Billie that he only
loved Hope and was going to start divorce proceedings. Before that
could happen, Billie discovered that she was pregnant.
Because of Billie's pregnancy, Hope left Bo for good. Meanwhile, Billie convinced Bo to be a responsible father and remain married to her for the child's sake. All the while, however, Bo longed for Hope. In the meantime, Billie suddenly turned into a witch and waged war on Hope, even though Hope constantly told her that she didn't want Bo! Their friendship dissolved and months of boring and bitter rivalry ensued, all because Billie knew that Bo could never love her again. But despite Billie's knowledge of this, she tried to win Bo any way possible. In one instance, she pretended to drink alcohol just to get Bo's attention. After some time, Bo found a way to become involved with Hope again.
Hope
had begun trying to find out what she had done during the four years
she had been missing from Salem during which she adopted the name
Gina. Bo tried to help her in this quest for the past, which led them
to New Orleans and the surrounding Bayou Dugar. Thinking that Bo and
Hope could reunite by working closely together, Billie traveled to
the Bayou even though she was well-advanced into a delicate
pregnancy. While in the Bayou, Billie met a family of backwoods
people comprised of a mother, Erline, and two sons, Wayne & Earl.
For some reason, the boys tried to get fresh with Billie and she
tried to escape from them. In doing so, she went into labor in the
middle of the swamp. Erline delivered the child, a stillborn baby
girl whom Billie tearily named Georgia. Despite the loss of her
child, Billie decided to continue to feign a pregnancy in order to
hang onto Bo. She, Erline, Wayne, and Earl buried the baby in a
shallow grave in the swamp, unaware that a mysterious bayou
inhabitant, Swamp Girl, watched.
Billie acted as if nothing had happened and never told Bo about the death of the baby. Finally, she convinced Bo to return with her to Salem. Once back home, Billie goaded Hope into a bitter argument at the Salem Place. Once finished, Billie left the mall only to end up in a car accident. Working with a corrupt obstetrician named Dr. Appleby, Billie claimed that the accident, caused by the stress from the aforementioned argument with Hope, had caused her to miscarry the child. Billie continuously blamed Hope for little Georgia's death, turning Bo against Hope for a brief period. Billie and Bo then mourned their child together, giving it a burial in the cemetery. Unbeknownst to Bo, Georgia's grave was empty; Georgia's remains were still in the Bayou.
More information to
follow!
The character of Billie Reed has been
played by the following:
Lisa Rinna (1992-1995, 2002-2003)
Krista Allen-Moritt (1996-1999)