Springfield's Sweetheart

Abigail Blume, portrayed by the fabulously talented Amy Ecklund, appeared on Guiding Light before she appeared in Springfield. She and her family took in an amnesiac Reva when she appeared in their small Amish community of Goshen. Abby had a childhood accident which left her deaf, and she'd been sheltered by her parents her whole life. When Rick Bauer rushed to Goshen with the trauma team to care for an injured Alan, he met Abby for the first time. Reva convinced her to come to Springfield for treatment of her headaches. Once in Springfield, Abby realized how much she'd been missing in life. She also began to fall in love with Rick.

Rick, having been recently rejected by Annie, appealed to Abby's mother to let her stay in Springfield to let her study sign language. Mrs. Blume agreed when Ed offered to let Abigail stay with them. Rick was still hung up on Abby, though, and when he ran into a distraught Blake at a bar, he took her home and one thing led to another, resulting in his fathering one of her twins, Kevin. Meanwhile, Abigail was working for Alan, who sent her to New York for a makeover and speech therapy. She returned to Springfield even more beautiful and able to speak and lip-read. A smitten Rick asked her how she felt about him but she told him she didn't love him.

Abby started working at Cedars while she studied to be a physician's assistant, and she and Rick grew closer. They were sharing a roof and a workplace, so naturally they ran into each other a lot. They fell in love and got engaged, but the night of their engagement party Blake got into a terrible car accident with the twins and Rick rushed out of the party to save his son Kevin's life. At the hospital he blurted out to Ross that Kevin was really his, and then he dragged himself back to the country club, where Abby was waiting for him. He told her about his one-night stand with Blake and about Kevin (spawning the now-famous line "Doctors aren't supposed to operate on their patients"). Abby couldn't get past the fact that Rick hadn't told her about Kevin and they broke up. He worked hard to get her back, and finally she forgave him. They were back on the road to happiness when Abby was attacked by Roy Meechum, one of Jesse Blue's friends.

She was nearly raped and left for dead at Jesse's garage, where he found her and called the police. Rick arrived and assumed Jesse attacked her and Jesse was arrested. Abby remembered what her attacker looked like and set the record straight, however. Roy disappeared, but eventually Jesse found him lurking around the Bauers' and had him arrested. The attack drove a wedge between Abby and Rick; she couldn't stand to have him touch her, and she moved in with Reva to recover. When Roy was arrested Ross prosecuted, and Holly helped Abby get over her fears enough to let Rick back into her life. He stood by her through the trial, going so far as to threaten Roy if he kept stalking Abby. When Roy was aquitted on a technicality, Abby lost control and grabbed the bailiff's gun and shot him. Rick tried to save his life but he couldn't. Abby is about to face murder charges, and Roy's friends set Reva's house on fire in retaliation. Michelle and Reva were both injured in the fire, and now Michelle is dealing with her blindness.

Abby's currently in jail for the next 18 months for the murder of Roy. Blake got the WSPR tape that could prove Abby's state of mind at the time of the murder, however. She got it from Ben Warren. Abby and Rick got married just before she went to prison, so now he's waiting for her to get released.