Name: Langleigh Christine Townsend, Ph.D. Nickname: Leigh Age: 30 Spouse: Children: Baby boy Townsend (location unknown) Occupation: Chief Psychologist

Physical Description

Height: 5'5"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Blue

Distinguishing Marks: None

Hobbies: Reading mysteries, going to the movies, and attending plays/musicals.

Psychological Background: Since graduating with her doctorate, Langleigh has regained much of the fire, confidence, and outgoing nature that she lost after witnessing her father's murder, although she is not as quick to smile as she once was. She is a true workaholic and saves most of her ire for people who are jeopardizing the health and well-being of those she cares about. Langleigh is extremely maternal and much more thin skinned than she'd care to admit.

Langleigh abhors violence of any kind and considers herself a healer first and foremost, something men and women from all walks of life respect. When she allows herself to think of life outside of work, she dreams of finding her son and getting married. She is far more competitive than most people realize and would some day like to establish her own private practice, but she is also keenly aware of what greed and vice can do to a person and is afraid to get what she wants for fear of losing it.

Personality Quirks: Langleigh's's true skill lies in her ability to listen and read people well. Having lived what sometimes feels like two lifetimes despite her young age, she tries to offer advice whenever she can, an ear, or at times a shoulder to cry on. As a work horse, most people don't know that she likes to develop her intellect by reading or conducting research.
She wishes she could go back in time and raise her son, and gets satisfaction from helping other young girls who become pregnant. She realizes her biological clock is ticking, and is secretly interested in having or adopting another child.

History: Langleigh Christine Townsend was born to Amelia and Zander Townsend in the area known as "Hell's Kitchen" in New Yok City. Long before Langleigh's birth, Amelia, who would become a successful psychologist, and Zander, who would become a prominent physician, grew up in the poorer neighborhood in Manhattan and fought long and hard to give themselves better lives. After years of devoting their energies to managing their own private practices and making names for themselves in New York's elite research community, Amelia and Zander eventually moved to the Upper East side and were finally confident they could support a child. Growing up, Langleigh wanted for nothing, and although her parents made sure she never turned into a spoiled rich girl, they were also committed to making sure their only daughter never knew what it was like to be without the creature comforts they had worked so hard for.

While Langleigh enjoyed the benefits of being one of the privileged, including the lavish apartment and top notch education geared toward preparing her for her own career as a psychologist, Amelia and Zander worked frantically to keep their own dark secrets under wraps. Never completely satisfied with what he'd accomplished, Zander had developed quite a taste for the finer things in life, along with an expensive gambling habit and a penchant for beautiful women. To this day, Langleigh isn't sure how much her mother knew about her father's illicit dealings, but she remembers her mother always managed to explain away his frequent "business trips" with a smile.

Eventually, Zander lost one too many times at the horse races and found himself owing a sizable amount to a man well-connected to organized crime. Langleigh does not know who this man is or whether he or his associates could still be lurking within New York City, but for reasons that remain unclear, rather than being murdered, her father was enlisted to treat wounded with "no questions asked," to launder money, and to use his research expertise to manufacture large quantities of heroin, which was both highly lucrative and helpful when it came to keeping the prostitutes and lowlifes involved in organized crime in line.

As a teenager, Langleigh could recall many times when her parents seemed tense and unhappy, but as a youth, she attributed the tension to her parents' hectic schedules, which often took both of them out of state and out of the country. Life as Langleigh knew it came to a grinding halt, however, when at age fifteen, she came home from school early to find her mother shot to death in the foyer of their apartment and her father arguing with a man dressed in black and carrying a pistol. In shock, but aware enough to preserve her own safety, Langleigh hid in the apartment's coat closet as she listened to her father being tortured in the master bedroom while the stranger in black demanded the money and heroin he was owed. Two hours later, the confrontation ended with a gun shot, but it would be another hour before Langleigh could convince herself to leave her hiding place and ultimately discover her father's body.

In what seemed like a heart beat later, the authorities had seized all of her family's criminally funded assets and given up on finding and prosecuting her parents' killers. Langleigh was left without family, money, or a place to live. Because she was only fifteen at the time, she was sent to several different foster homes, most of which were headed by adults who thought foster children made good slaves. Besides grieving the loss of her parents, Langleigh had to contend with the shame of being the daughter of once prominent people. It seemed everyone loved a good scandal, particularly when it involved a fall from grace of people who on the surface, were supposed to represent the best of what the Upper East Side had to offer.

Townsend became a chronic runaway who preferred living on the streets of Hell's Kitchen to being bounced around from home to home. For a year, Langleigh took on whatever menial jobs she could find to support herself, while also getting herself mixed up in all sorts of trouble, including drugs, drinking, and for a time, prostitution.

Living on her own was not easy by any means, and more often than not, the people she encountered were no better than the man who had killed her parents. Hell's Kitchen had earned every bit of its vile reputation and Langleigh saw her fair share of the violence firsthand. Townsend survived by switching loyalties as often as most people changed their clothing. However, besides the violence and criminal activity, Langleigh saw others who lived there, people who were simply down on their luck and unable to get out of the hells that surrounded them, people who were just trying to keep their heads down and stay out of harm's way, people who may have at one time been like herself. Deep in her heart of hearts, Langleigh still dreamed of becoming a psychologist and of helping the very people whom she struggled with from day to day.

That dream was quickly discarded when at the age of sixteen, Langleigh became pregnant. At the time, she believed she loved the father of her child, whom she knew to be married at the time, and she continued to believe he loved her right up until he took her to California and left her there with a handful of money. Unable to care for a child and left with nothing but what turned out to be the fictional identity of her lover, Langleigh gave birth to a son, and after holding him for a few moments, she gave him up for adoption, believing he was destined for a better life than she could provide. She was not permitted to know whom her son was going to and she has not seen him since his birth. Townsend used what little money she had to return to New York and Hell's Kitchen, this time determined to build a better life for herself.

Holding down at times three legitimate jobs, Langleigh commuted to the Upper East Side to return to school. Langleigh set her sights on becoming a psychologist and serving the less fortunate. Townsend had much to re-learn about what it took to be a respectable citizen and her eight years attending Columbia University threatened to get the best of her at times, but ultimately, her experiences gave her a better appreciation of what it meant to have compassion for others. School reawakened her passion for healing others as well as desire to succeed. While she had no desire to become the center of attention, she managed to earn a reputation as an intelligent and kind hearted professional and graduate with distinction with a Master's and then a doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

For four years, she worked as a staff psychologist at Bellvue Hospital Center, where she specialized in working with patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Her training was excellent and Langleigh was well-liked and well-regarded, but the pace of her work became overwhelming over time. Deciding New York held too many bad memories, Townsend decided to return to California, deep down hoping for a chance to find her son, but overall looking for a change of pace. Now thirty, she has just moved from New York to Ocean Cove, California and accepted the position of Chief Psychologist at the Ocean Cove Medical Center. Although not proud of her past, her son has never left her thoughts, and Langleigh dreams of making enough money to move into an apartment much like the one she grew up in.

Special Notes: None