It's a problem that parents never want to face: the serious illness of their child. But during the week of May 24, it's a problem that DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Jack and Jennifer Deveraux must face head on. While attending a party, the couple receive the frantic news that baby Abigail's temperature has spiked. The nervous parents race Abby to University Hospital, the first of several trips during the infant's serious illness.

"It's going to be a very realistic story, a very personal story that's going to cause strain and be a time of bonding for Jack and Jennifer," promises headwriter Jim Reilly. "Abby will seem to be well for awhile and then sick again, back to the hospital for a few more days. It's going to be like a rollercoaster."

Reilly adds that the storyline will delve into each of the characters and how they respond to the crisis. Jack and Jennifer both have been fighting to get their careers on track the past few months, but their efforts may have to be put on hold because of Abby's illness.

"I think that we have to examine where they came from in their past lives," says Reilly. "Jennifer is someone who was brought up in the warm Horton family. She has a very strong family that she could always rely on. Jack was the adopted son of a powerful man, he lost his brother Patch, both of his fathers and his sister left town. Basically he's a man alone, and I think the way that Jack deals with a crisis and the fear that he's going to lose Abby is to almost go into denial. When he's faced with something that he can't control, he denies that it's going to happen. In order for him not to be hurt, he withdraws and builds layers of protection over him."

Actor Matthew Ashford perhaps knows Jack inside and out, and says that denial is really the character's modus operandi. "The idea of losing something and not being able to control the situation is very frightening to him. We never really played through the thing of him losing Patch. So here's the chance of another blood relation that could just go away like everyone else. I think that this will bring out in Jack something other than protecting and making sure that someone has something. Finally there's the chance of losing something that you can't buy or put a dollar sign on."

While Jack has been known to run from his problems, Jennifer is the exact opposite and chooses to delve into the problem. "I think that she will stop the career and everything else to help Abby," surmises Melissa Reeves. "She's been able to work and have a career because she knows that Abby is healthy and being taken care of by good people. But once a tragedy like this happens, I think that the career will just stop. Having a baby makes you a mother bar and the baby will come first."

The sadness of Abigail's illness is thankfully not mirrored in reality by Ashford and Reeves, who both have very healthy toddlers at home. Reeves, though, shares a real-life experience from which she hopes to draw her motivation: "When Emily was three weeks old, we were at Scott's work and she choked on some liquid vitamins. Her whole body went limp. We ran out of the dressing room, ran down to the lobby and called an ambulance. I was completely freaked out. I was shaking, crying. Maybe I freaked out because Scott was there, and I think that Jennifer will be really scared because she knows that Jack's there as well. If he wasn't there, Jennifer would probably really have to keep a handle on things. But I think that she's going to be very upset."

"You are going to find both Jack and Jennifer facing this in different ways, and we'll see how their marriage and relationship makes it through this conflict," says Reilly. "Sometimes when the crisis is over, the marriage is stronger because of the bond between them. Sometimes the bond has gotten weaker. Whatever happens, it's going to happen in a very realistic way with these two."

Reeves, however, believes that adversity will only bring the couple closer together. "I think that maybe in a situation like that, Jack and Jennifer would put aside their selfish differences and really think of the baby more than anything," she says. "I know that there's tension created by the whole situation and that could cause some problems, but hopefully we can put that aside."

DAYS OF OUR LIVES fans are hoping that the couple can withstand this new obstacle as well, but Reilly teases that shocking developments are ahead: "The story is going to have a definite effect on what they do and what happens to them individual and together. There are twists and turns and surprises which will affect their careers. At the end of the line there will be two major reveals that will affect the Hortons as a family, Jennifer personally. . .and we'll also see a big growth and maturation of Jack."