Pierce Riley lived in a cabin at Willow Lake. He was a very talented artist with a mysterious past.

While living in the woods he found a sick Janet Greene and Laura Kirk hiding in the woods. Pierce nursed Janet back to health, and they began having an affair.

Months later, Laura had an appendicitis attack forcing the hermit-like Pierce to visit Pine Valley Hospital. It was there that Pierce met Brooke English. At the time Brooke was involved with her ex-husband, Adam Chandler.

Stuart Chandler became interested in Pierce's artwork. Stuart and Brooke persuaded Pierce to donate some of his work to an auction to benefit Brooke's homeless shelter.

Soon Both Adam and Janet were jealous of the growing relationship between Brooke and Pierce. Brooke offered Pierce a job at her homeless shelter teaching children to draw.

Adam asked Brooke to move in with him, and she agreed to a one-month trial period. Brooke had been married to Adam before and knew how controlling he was. She was not anxious to be in a relationship with him again, but she was willing to give him a chance to prove he had changed. If Brooke felt that Adam had changed his ways, then she would marry him. If not, Adam would give a big donation to the homeless shelter.

In an effort to win her bet with Adam, Brooke agreed to let Pierce paint her in the nude in Adam's living room. This nearly drove Adam over the edge. Adam paid up, and wrote a check to the shelter. Both Adam and Janet became jealous of Brooke and Pierce's growing relationship. Adam went to the cabin to find out more about Pierce from Janet. While he was there he noticed a photo of Pierce and Trevor together. Adam and Janet snuck into Brooke's house and found Brooke and Pierce asleep together on the couch. Janet and Pierce left together and Brooke accused Adam of reverting to his old ways. He asked her to marry him, but she turned him down.

Brooke held a New Year's eve party in Pierce's honor because he had been named premiere artist of the year. Brooke took Pierce around introducing him to everyone at the party, which made both Janet and Adam jealous.

Pierce accepted a job painting a mural. He would be traveling to the mountains to paint at the same time that Brooke was going skiing. Janet was supposed to go, but at the last minute her daughter Amanda became ill. Pierce and Brooke headed to Mt. Evangeline as a snowstorm moved into the area. Brooke's car hit a patch of ice and was stuck in the snow. The pair walked to Adam's ski lodge, which happened to be nearby. The snow, the crackling fire, and champagne set the mood. Pierce and Brooke proved unable to fight their growing attraction, and made love. Adam tried to get to Mt. Evangeline to check up on Brooke and Pierce, but the snowstorm kept his plane grounded until the next day. Janet and Adam showed up at the art exhibit and Adam was very suspicious when he found Brooke and Pierce had spent the night together in his cabin, especially when both of them told him different versions of what they did all night.

After returning to Pine Valley Brooke decided that she would not be with Pierce again. She and Adam decided to patch up their differences. Pierce came to her house and admitted that he had feelings for her, but she told him she was back with Adam. Adam again asked Brooke to marry him, but she turned him down.

The plot thickened as Janet was arrested for the murder of Laurel Dillon. In the meantime Laura was arrested for shoplifting. Brooke agreed to provide a foster home for Laura.

In jail, Janet had a revelation that Brooke was Natalie, (Janet's dead sister), reincarnated. Janet reasoned that Brooke had Pierce, Laura, and everything that Janet wanted. She vowed to put an end to Brooke.

Janet was in fact not guilty of Laurel's murder. Jason confessed, and Janet was released.

Pierce told Janet that he didnt feel the same way about her that she felt about him. Janet decided to impersonate Brooke. Her plan was to kill Brooke, and have plastic surgery so that she looked like Brooke. Janet wanted to take over Brooke's life with Pierce and Laura.

Brooke admitted to Adam that she had feelings for both he and Pierce. She also admitted that she slept with Pierce. Adam gave Brooke an ultimatum-all or nothing.

Janet started to work in Dr. Kinder's office. She stumbled onto the fact that a woman was being held prisoner. In the meantime, Janet told everyone that she was leaving town. In fact, she was planning Brooke's demise, and to assume her identity.

Trevor Dillon put the pieces together and figured out Janet's plan. On his way to spill the beans, Trevor wrecked his car and was seriously injured. Amazingly, Janet called for help for Trevor. Then a mysterious figure dragged Janet into the woods.

Janet was held prisoner because of the information she had about Dr. Kinder. In the meantime, Trevor had a head injury and suffered from paralysis. When he tried to tell everyone about Janet's plan, it seemed too farfetched and they chalked it up to his head injury.

While held captive, Janet regained her sanity, and abandoned her plan to kill Brooke. Janet broke out of her prison, and Dr. Kinder was exposed.

Brooke and Pierce tried to keep their relationship a secret from Laura. Laura harbored a fantasy that Janet and Pierce would get back together. When Laura walked in on the two of them kissing, she blamed Brooke for the breakup of her surrogate family.

Laura went back to the cabin, and fell asleep. A candle caught the cabin on fire. Pierce had a vision that Laura was in trouble, and rescued her from the fire. Laura's social worker felt the incident proved that Brooke was not providing a happy home for Laura. Brooke broke off her relationship with Piece putting her children before her love life. Pierce eventually left Pine Valley.

A few months later, Pierce was drawing in Santa Fe. He couldn't forget his love for Brooke. He sketched a picture of her, and decided to return to Pine Valley.

Laura invited Pierce to her adoption ceremony. She had consented to become Brooke's adopted daughter. Laura had grown up and was ready to accept Brooke and Pierce as a couple. At the party afterward Brooke and Pierce danced and talked about their time away from each other.

Brooke and Pierce had dinner together. Pierce sat down and informed Brooke that he had a present for her. Brooke was flattered by the offering and awed by the gift inside the package. The present, a stunning handmade bracelet, came with a request: Pierce wanted Brooke to promise that they would communicate with each other. He said that if he was moving too fast or too slow, he wanted Brooke to tell him. Brooke smiled and said that things were moving at a nice pace.

Pierce built a new home for Brooke and her children. They were happy for a time, but then Pierce started to have flashbacks of his time in Central America.

Many years ago, while serving on a peacekeeping mission in El Salvador, Pierce became romantically involved with a woman named Christina. The rebel troops murdered Christina for fraternizing with the enemy. She was shot as Pierce looked on. He took her in his arms and comforted her, but there was nothing he could do. She opened her mouth to say something, but she made no sound. Still in her lover's arms, Christina died.

Pierce was seeing a psychiatrist and told her that he was found in a near catatonic state with scrapes and bruises all over his body and severely undernourished. He was taken to a V.A. Hospital where he was nursed back to health. His body returned to normal, but his mind still carried the scars of seeing his loved one murdered. Pierce spoke of how Janet and Laura brought him back to the "real" world. His flashbacks began, however, when he began to have feelings for Brooke. Dr. Tolan said that it seemed "natural" that Pierce would be concerned for the safety of someone he cared about. Pierce rose from his seat and thanked her for her services, but added that he would not need her help any more. She warned him that sometimes being in love with someone masks the real problems, but he ignored her.

Things between Brooke and Pierce went along fine for awhile, they even got engaged. They were madly in love and made love often. But the flashbacks returned and Pierce began to be afraid that he was a danger to Brooke. His behavior was erratic. He was afraid that he had murdered his former lover, Christina. Under hypnosis, Pierce remembered that he and Christina had had a child together. Rebels had broken into the cabin that Pierce and Christina shared. They had given Pierce a choice between his wife and child. Pierce was ordered to shoot Christina or they would kill their baby. Christina begged Pierce to kill her in order to spare their daughter. He had pulled the trigger, and the rebels carried off her body.

Brooke started investigating Pierce's story. She tried to find his daughter. Because of Brooke's investigation, a mystery woman came to Pine Valley. In the meantime Pierce built a house for Brooke. The mystery woman overheard Pierce tell Brooke how much she meant to him and how she had saved his life. It was obvious she was hurt when she heard that. She was in fact Christina. Pierce had only wounded her, and she had spent the time since in prison as a political prisoner.

Christina wrote a manuscript for Tempo about her life in Central America. She was upset when Brooke told her she had let Pierce read it. Pierce hadn't seen Christina, so he didn't know she was the author. Pierce wanted to meet her because he thought she might be able to help track down his daughter. When Brooke next met with the woman she asked if she knew a Christina Vargas. The woman claimed she didn't, but when Brooke asked her where she was from it was the same village where Pierce had met Christina. Brooke began to put the pieces together and realized the woman was Christina.

Pierce held an exhibit of his work and Christina showed up, but Pierce didn't recognize her. Trevor noticed a Christina Vargas had signed the guestbook and showed it to Brooke. At first she didn't believe it, but then had to admit it was probably true.

Brooke met with Christina and finally got her to admit her real identity. Brooke wanted to know if she still loved Pierce and she said she loved him once, but was heart broken when he didn't recognize her. She wanted Brooke to keep her identity a secret from Pierce. Brooke was torn because she didn't want to lose Pierce to Christina, but she felt Pierce had a right to know she was alive. So finally she told him that Christina was in Pine Valley. Pierce took off to find Christina at the cabin where he used to live with Janet. Christina explained to Pierce what had happened and how she had survived.

Pierce and Trevor traveled to Central America to try and find Pierce and Christina's daughter. They came back empty handed. Pierce wanted to go ahead with his plans to marry Brooke, but she told him he needed to resolve the situation with his daughter first. Brooke told Pierce that he and Christina should go together to find their daughter. If Brooke and Pierce were meant to be then they would reunite after he found her. She sobbed as Pierce finally agreed and left to go to South America with Christina.

At Tempo the next day Brooke broke down in tears while Edmund listened to her rant. She hated being noble. She'd ended up losing Pierce. Then later that night after Tad took Jamie to his house for a sleep over she cried again.