Dr. Melena Tanner, AKA Lee Jones

Due to the lack of good pictures of Jenny Mollen that aren't of her hanging all over her boyfriend, I'm switching to Iyari Limon. Enjoy (As a side note, I think I found a Luk Weihan picture in my image search.Also Oliver Phelps)

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Melena Tanner grew up with every luxury being the child of prominent artists on Londinum could grant her. Her parents were well meaning, if a little eclectic in their parenting methods, and she grew up a confused but more or less happy child. As she grew older her interests turned more and more towards the scientific, instead of the arts as her parents encouraged, and although she remained active in the local theater she and her parents grew distant when they no longer had the common ground.

It would not be fair to say that they pressured her to become an artist, they were firm believers in finding one's own path. They simply could not understand their scientifically minded daughter, nor she them. They financed all her schooling and remained friendly enough, but by the time she moved to Ariel for medical school they were more like casual acquaintences than like family.

It didn't bother Melena much, it felt to her like the natural progression. She was at that point too busy with her work to keep up with the few friends she had, much less a family she didn't understand. Over those years she grew very close to Nicholas Bartlett, a politician's son from Bernadette. He was very different from Melena, not at all serious about his studies and barely passing. As she was the top of her class, the two were unlikely friends, but it worked well for them. The two of them were close as could be, sticking together all the way through their residencies.

Being a politician's son, Nick was expected to make an appearance at a great deal of high society functions, and though he claimed study time whenever he could to beg off, he spent an unfortunate amount of time at such things. At first he convinced Melena to come with him, but as rumors grew about the two of them being romantically involved, she started begging off.

Nick's parents decided after a few such events occurred with their son unescorted that they would secure a Companion to be his parnter. They hired a relatively new companion named Amelia. Nick's family tended to get Amelia for an extra few days, as a bribe to convince him to show up and behave, and so it happened that Amelia and Melena met. Melena fell hard and fast for the woman, and as time went on Nick encouraged them to spend time together. Over their last couple years as residents Melena worked tirelessly with what time she had to charm the Companion, and Amelia did seem fairly responsive, as far as flirtations went, though whether she considered it part of the job or was honestly interested no one could really tell.

All in all it was an exercise in frustration that everyone involved was relieved to see end when Nick and Melena graduated. Nick went off to Persephone to start up a clinic, and Melena was hired to work at Companion House on Sihnon, a post she was honored to accept. Dealing with Companions was a change she relished after a residency spent in busy hospitals-most of them were well mannered and polite, and they all were very cooperative.

Melena spent several happy years on Sihnon with only minimal contact with Amelia, until one day the Companion came to her for help. She'd spent her entire career barely passing the psych requirement, and in a fit of depression she'd descended into self harm. She knew Melena could help her cover it up.
Melena was hesitant, but Amelia took the opportunity to admit to having some feelings she'd refused to acknowledge, and Melena melted under the confession

She helped the other woman, and the two embarked on an illicit romance.
It wasn't difficult to manipulate things so that Amelia was her patient, and the two of them had a few blissful months before things turned sour while they were both stationed on a cruise ship. One of the more senior companions saw the two of them together in a fairly compromising position and turned them in.

Melena took the opportunity to make plans for the two of them on another planet, assuming they'd both lose their jobs.

Instead, Amelia decided her position was far more important than the doctor who'd helped her. She claimed that she was being blackmailed and raped by Melena, and with the extensive measures they'd taken to prevent discovery it wasn't hard for her to spin it in a way that looked really bad for Melena.

It was amazing how fast the legal system could move when influenced by powerful people with lots of money. Melena was convicted faster than she thought ought to have been possible, and she saw no choice but to run.

She adopted the name Lee Jones and headed to Persephone, where she could lose herself without much fuss among the locals. When she got in touch with Nick, he gave her a job in his clinic. She worked there for just under six months before the Alliance caught up with her, though last she heard Nick's family was managing to keep him out of trouble.

Contacts

Nicholas Bartlett


Nick has been Lee's best friend since college. They've stuck together through everything from finals to Lee's recent trouble with the law. Lee met Amelia through him, and he helped her hide out on Persephone when she needed it.
Nick is quite brilliant, although he's kind of a slacker. The one thing he's really put serious work into is his clinic. The clinic has been a dream of his for almost as long as he can remember. It's located in a shadier, poorer part of Persephone and is free to those who can't afford to go elsewhere. It started out with just him in an office in an abandoned warehouse but has since taken off, with various companies and wealthy families sponsoring him as a form of charitable work. As of present he has twelve doctors on staff and is working on converting a series of old buildings into proper medical facilities.
Though his recent legal troubles resulting from his efforts to hide her have made it hard for him to do anything to assist, suffice it to say that there are few things he would not do for his friend.

Indira Tarleton


Indira was a friend and sometimes girlfriend of Lee's from her undergraduate days. They were never quite as close as Lee and Tom were, but they still knew each other fairly intimately. Dira's feelings for Melena were a lot deeper than Melena's were for Dira, and there was some relief on both sides when she went to medical school on Osiris instead of staying following Melena and Nick. They kept in touch, however, and the feelings never quite went away. She's now a neurologist at the biggest hospital on Osiris, and if approached properly might be persuaded to lend a hand.


Emily Gray


Emily is Lee's cousin, though for most of their lives the two have been more like siblings. She is five years older than Lee, but the two were always close. Emily always hated city life and considered simple things like cooking and gardening to be the highest sorts of joy. She never quite had the brains of her younger cousin, but she had dreams large enough to make up for that. When she was twenty she started seriously looking into settling on another world, one with less city and more room for growing things. Her parents were confused but supportive of their daughter's endeavors, and two years later she'd managed to secure fifty acres or so on Hera and everything she'd need to make it grow and earn her a living. Once there she met a local named Jack. They fell in love and got married right as things were heating up politically . Jack, being a proud and honorable man enlisted as a Browncoat. He died in the battle of Du Khang, but not before getting Emily pregnant. She now maintains their farm with their daughter, Marie.
Through all of the chaos of the war, Emily still kept close contact with Lee, though Lee's refusal to take the side of the independants put a strain on their relationship. She hates the alliance and would do anything in her power to oppose them. If it helps her cousin out, so much the better.


Thomas Schofield



Thomas Schofield was Melena's favorite professor in medical school. She took one of his classes her first semester there and he quickly became her mentor. He doesn't exactly have a classroom manner, his work is mainly in his lab and he does not teach often, maybe one section of one class a semester. He did hire his best and brightest to be research assistants, and Melena held that post her entire time at school.
He's kind of an eccentric man, prone to sudden silence and just as sudden outbursts of conversation that tends to revolve around whatever work he's doing at the time. That being said, if you can follow the discussion it is generally fascinating-he's one of the top researchers on environmentally caused disease in the Verse. A little less than a year ago he moved to Three Hills to study Bowden's Malady and hopefully start the process of formulating a cure-or at the very least a more effective treatment.
He and Lee do not consistently keep in touch but they don't let themselves fall out of touch for more than a month or two. He doesn't follow news that doesn't relate to science, and so he's not horribly concerned about Lee's legal trouble-it is uncertain if he even realizes that she has any.
He would be sympathetic, but wary of doing anything that would get him in trouble with the Alliance for fear of losing his(very generous) grant.

Question: Which, if any, of those hairstyles does Melena have now?

At the moment she looks like the picture I'm using in my avatar.