Ethan was almost a classic 'bad-by turned good'. Early on, he fell in with a bad crowd, and ended up missing a lot of school, more fights than he could count, dealing and sampling drugs. Every curfew his parents could set was broken, and caused them to lose hair and patience. He was in an out of juvenile court for vandalism and violence, and seemed to be headed down a short and dangerous path, until a veteran beat cop took a shine to the boy and took him under his wing. Ethan was defiant, but Officer Bodie Doyle was nothing if not a master of tough love. He knocked some sense into the boy through mentorship, good example, and his strong right hand, when necessary.

The young man shaped up, finishing his education via a GED and getting a job as a nightwatchman. Following in Doyle's footsteps as the old man retired from the force, Ethan began to study and train to sign up at the police academy. It was while looking up books at the university's law library he met Lorna, a legal secretary and his future wife. They dated for a few years, and rushed into marriage without a clear idea of what each other really wanted. Ethan wanted a family, perhaps to make up for the damage he'd done to the one he already had, and to prove to himself that he was no longer the reckless boy he had been; Lorna sought stability, wanted him to at least make sergeant before they settled down.

It was this dispute, in some ways, that caused the current crisis. Their birth control failed, and she became pregnant. Not wanting Ethan to find out or for it to show up on their medical bills, she went to back-street abortion provider to terminate the pregnancy. But something went wrong, and she developed blood poisoning and fell into a coma, where she has been for the last three months.

With the recent twists and turns in his life, Ethan's boy-next-door good looks were all but replaced by careworn worry. He was 26 years old, but could have passed for 36 on a bad night. His eyes were perpetually tired, from long nights on patrol and sleepless days. His short, sandy-blond hair was just long enough to run one's fingers through, and always messy. He stood 5'11” tall, with a fit frame but not over-muscled or obsessively gym-toned; healthy, strong and average.