THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DR. IN PINE VALLEY (1997-2006)

David Hayward, a devilish but brilliant world-renowned cardiologist, swept into Pine Valley in 1997. He was on the trail of ex-lover Dr. Allie Doyle, trying to coax her back by discrediting her boyfriend Dr. Jake Martin for giving the wrong medication. When David’s enemies proved his machinations on tape, he stalked out of town. But David was back months later, evildoer extraordinaire except for his all-encompassing mission to save lives. Indeed, David saved the beguiling Dixie Martin, for which her uncle Palmer Courtlandt reinstated David at Pine Valley Hospital. When David’s occasional lover, Gillian Lavery, begged him for jail money for her husband Ryan, David coldly agreed, on the condition she sleep with him. Later, his malevolent mother Vanessa Bennett arrived in town, and David stepped over her body when she seemed to be suffering a heart attack, refusing to help her.

Meanwhile, David had been sparring with the inimitable for months. David and Erica shared an airport rental car in a blizzard, and David was responsible for Erica’s face being horribly scarred in a reckless accident. For payback, Erica locked David in a vise in her basement, his precious surgical hand at risk. An agonized David finally broke down and confessed why he hated women and the world. When he was twelve, Vanessa told David’s father Charles she was leaving him, handing him a loaded gun to shoot himself. David watched his beloved father put a bullet in his head and then held him when he bled out. Ever since, David was driven to save lives. Erica was so moved that she and David fell in love over the next year, after David arranged for cutting-edge surgery to erase her scars. Erica taught David how to love. He learned so well that he asked Erica to marry him.

However, David’s web of lies and secrets finally caused Erica to end things. Crushed, David, now director of the Andrassy foundation, found comfort with his handpicked assistant, rival ’s wife Dixie, also mother to JR Chandler. David was spellbound, falling deeply in love with Dixie and revering her as the perfect wife and mother. To win her, David schemed to spike Tad’s drink with Libidozone, a drug that boosted the libido, so Tad would cheat on Dixie with Leslie Coulson. However, David accidentally (and infamously) dumped his Libidozone flask into the party punch on Ryan party yacht and an orgy erupted. Dixie later discovered Tad’s seeming liaison with Leslie from that night, and she and David made love at last. When Tad exposed his elaborate cover-up, David and Dixie’s passionate affair ended with David’s shocking arrest at a gala in his honor. David redeemed himself by saving the hospital from Leslie’s sabotage and performing tricky heart-transplant surgery on Laura English. David then blackmailed Adam with evidence of JR’s drug use, and Adam arranged for David’s criminal charges to be dismissed. David’s madcap younger brother Leo Dupres, had arrived in town earlier, and Leo stood by him. Big and little bro developed strong ties. When Leo married spitfire Greenlee Smythe, David was their best man.

David was determined to earn Dixie’s forgiveness by creating a drug that eventually saved her from hereditary heart disease. In the process of David’s research, the dashing Anna Devane investigated him while drug lord Proteus, AKA, Vanessa, ran amuck in PV until her arrest months later. The ex-spy Anna and the cunning doc challenged each other in a tempestuous relationship. Anna married David to avoid testifying against him for dabbling with Dixie’s experimental drug. David so enjoyed married life that he begged new Chief of Police Anna to have his baby. Meanwhile, David was devastated when he learned that after helping Dixie flee to Switzerland for high-risk pregnancy care, she’d died in a car crash. A few months later, an amnesiac Maria Grey returned to PV and it was revealed that David had been keeping her on the run for years to conceal saving her life with an unapproved drug. Furious, Anna arrested David, he lost hospital privileges, and she divorced him, shattering David. Later, he was thrilled to discover Anna was pregnant. But it wasn’t until after Vanessa’s ill-fated escape from custody, during which she and Leo tragically lost their lives, that David and Anna reconciled, making love with a steam heat that melted their barriers. David brokered a deal to plead guilty and perform free-clinic community service so Anna could resume Chief Cop status. David also reached out to Leo’s bereaved widow Greenlee and they bonded, David helping her through her crisis. The next winter, David and Anna’s beloved child Leora was born with heart defect. When she died at three months due to surgery Anna forced David to allow, their lives tumbled into the abyss. David blamed the Martins for not allowing him into the OR to save his daughter. He was about to take revenge by plying them with his amnesiac drug at a July 4 picnic until Anna stopped him. Tortured, David almost consumed his own drug to relieve his hell. In a heartbreaking scene, the loyal Anna convinced David to live again and take care of other people’s children.

Emotionally drained, Anna left David and PV when she realized he’d lied to her and was involved in Michael Cambias’s disappearance after Michael raped . Sick at heart, David poured his energy into helping Erica’s daughter cope with her pregnancy by Michael. He also worked a cover-up with Erica to protect those who had secretly served Michael justice, including Michael’s killer, Bianca. Sexy Krystal Carey and her nubile daughter Babe, who was married to JR, arrived in town and Bianca and a pregnant Babe became best friends. During a baby-delivery debacle, Paul from stole Babe’s son and insisted Bianca’s daughter was Babe’s, a lie Krystal perpetuated by mislabeling a DNA vial. David discovered the switch, but when he realized Babe was his child from a one- night drunken stand with Krystal at Stanford, David couldn’t bring himself to betray his new daughter. Babe became his reason for living, his Leora substitute. David and Krystal continued the deception, drawing closer. When the truth was finally exposed, Krystal went to prison and David lost his license, sentenced to PVH janitorial community service. Devoted to his daughter, David lured Dixie’s half-sister Di Henry to town to masquerade as Dixie and convince JR to soften towards Babe, allowing her time with her son. The scheme worked—until Krystal exposed David’s shenanigans and received a pardon, thanks to Adam. Babe turned on a tormented David for hurting so many people with his scam and his dear friend Greenlee fled PV when she miscarried, leaving David very alone. An explosion ripped Erica’s Mardi Gras Ball to shreds early the next year and David saved Palmer’s life in exchange for Palmer restoring his license and reinstating him at PVH. And in a shocking turn of events, David’s precious Dixie was back from the dead at the same time, frantically searching for her daughter Kate. David was overjoyed to find Dixie alive, pouring out his love to her. His new quest was to win Dixie back by finding Kate—at all costs.

Sadly, this story led to David’s exit from PV on November 28, 2006, the final straw that drained him of all hope. Dixie’s daughter had been taken from her at birth and given up for adoption by Dr. Greg Madden, now working as a fertility expert at PVH. In his mission to win back Dixie’s love no matter the method, David misled Dixie on her search for Kate. Shamelessly using David from the get-go, once Dixie discovered his machinations she threw him out of her life. Left running on empty, David was driven by two goals: protecting Babe and wreaking revenge on all of PV before he left. To that end, David sent Tad and Dixie on a wild-goose chase for their daughter with faked DNA. David spiraled into the depths during this dark period, gradually emptying his cabin of all furnishings, his home reflecting his barren spirit. David told Erica’s daughter the true identity of Emma McDermott’s real father—Ryan---news sure to cause trouble for Kendall and Ryan’s relationship. Finally, David struck back by letting Dixie know Adam’s new wife Krystal was pregnant with none other than Tad’s child. David warned Babe about JR, desperately trying to convince her that the damaged man was a danger to her well-being. After an uncaring Babe rejected David, he left to practice medicine in Indonesia, bereft. But first David paid a poignant visit to his beloved Leora’s grave, saying goodbye to her and to PV …