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Thomas Christopher Hughes. As most of you probably know, the character of Tom was born on ATWT--in May of 1961, to be exact. He was been aged and de-aged in the years since, so he seems to be in his early forties now, not 38 as he would be in real life. At any rate, Tom was, of course, the son of Bob Hughes, a baby-faced doctor (he didn't look much older than Chris does now), and his young wife, Lisa Miller Hughes.

Although Tom is pretty much a paragon of virtue these days (notwithstanding his slip with Emily), that was not always the case. Indeed, he was quite a troubled, alienated, and unhappy kid. His parents divorced when he was very young and he spent most of his childhood being alternately dumped on one parent or the other and much of the time being neglected by both (yes, even Dr. Bob wasn't such a good parent in those days). Tom did get a lot of love and support from his grandparents, Chris and Nancy (in whose home he was raised much of the time) and from Grandpa Hughes (who was Tom's great-grandfather). Nevertheless, it was his parent's love and attention that Tom wanted--and didn't always get.

At one point Lisa had custody of Tom and promptly shipped him off to military school. She had poisoned Tom's mind against Bob during this period to the point where Tom would beat up "father " dolls and destroy Bob's gifts to him--incidents that were all brought up a few years ago when Tom feared then 8 or 9 year old Adam's anger at him if told the truth about his paternity. When Chris and Bob first rescued Tom from the military school, he barely knew or liked his father's family and felt alienated from them. It was apparently Ellen Lowell (later Stewart and therefore Emily's grandmother) who got Tom to warm up to his father and the other Hugheses.

It's February of 1966 (yes, he's already been SORAS'd) and Lisa is off in Chicago married to John Eldridge (and probably pregnant with Scott), while Bob is a busy doctor with little time for his son: Tom tells Grandpa Hughes about a letter he just got from his mother. As the conversation progresses, Tom slips and Grandpa realizes that the letter wasn't written to Tom at all but to his father. In searching through his father's pockets for loose change (which he was stealing back in those days), he had found the letter and read it. Then, because he had wanted it to be for him, he had lied and said it was. All Tom ever got from Lisa at this point was money. Later, at Grandpa's prodding, Tom confesses what he did to Bob. Bob, however, doesn't have time to do much more than punish Tom before having to rush off on a house call. Tom is left by himself, unhappy and alone.

Lisa's return to Oakdale following her divorce from John Eldridge didn't improve matters much. She soon hooked up with schemer Michael Shea and when she gave birth to his son out of wedlock, she hid the truth from Tom, telling him that she had adopted the baby (Chuckie) from a friend. She was afraid Tom, who had grown close to her and was living with her again, would think her a tramp. That's pretty much exactly what he did do when he found out the truth. Once again, he wound up alienated from one of his parents. Tom was grown up very rapidly during this period. And along with a rapid maturation process came an increase in the bitterness and alienation he had felt as a youth. Bob was once again neglectful of his son (now in college) and Tom remained estranged from his mother, but it was Chris and Nancy who Tom was most obnoxious to. He saw being a straight arrow as a path to nowhere and instead became addicted to speed and even helped his roommate rob a pharmacy to get drugs. Bob threatened to cut off Tom's financial support if Tom didn't take Lisa back into his life, but Tom was little more than cordial to her at this point. When Tom's grades got really bad, he escaped by enlisting in the Army and going to Vietnam. It was hardly a life-changing or heroic experience for Tom, who soon ended up stateside again with self-inflicted wounds.

Back in Oakdale, Tom quickly hooked up with his old college pal again and went right back to doing drugs. When Michael Shea caught Tom trying to steal drugs from his office, he used this fact to blackmail Lisa into marrying him (Michael was Chuckie's father and while years earlier he had refused Lisa's pleas to marry him and legitimize the baby, he now wanted to do that while Lisa wasn't interested). When Michael Shea again caught Tom stealing drugs from him, he tried to use that fact to blackmail Lisa, now his wife, into handing over his son to his sole custody. He wound up dead a short time later and Tom was arrested and charged with the crime. Thinking Lisa had done it, Tom did nothing to defend himself and was convicted. It was Bob who finally found the real culprit and got Tom freed.

Some time after that, Tom was involved in a serious car accident while driving his little brother Chuckie home from camp. Chuckie was killed and it was touch and go for Tom as well before he finally recovered. Tom's plight almost led to the reconciliation of his parents. Tom seemed to begin to get his life together at this point, softening toward the Hugheses and his mother again and becoming involved with a young woman named Carol Deming who would eventually become his first wife. Tom also decided to follow his grandfather and uncle into the law, in large part because as a child of divorce he wanted to eliminate divorce from the planet. During this time (before he married Carol), Tom also briefly dated his step-sister-to-be, a young woman named Barbara Ryan. When he didn't show much interest in her, she briefly dated John Dixon before leaving Oakdale.

Despite Tom's hatred of divorce, Tom was soon headed for one himself. He was busy establishing his career and Carol found out she couldn't have kids and the marriage began to fall apart. When Tom fell for and had an affair with his first client, Natalie Bannon, Tom wound up divorced. His second marriage, to Natalie, didn't last very long either (ironically because he couldn't tolerate her infidelity). Thus in the span of a few short years, the little boy who had hated divorce had been divorced twice himself. Tom's next major relationship was with Barbara Ryan of all people. The two were even engaged, but Barbara dumped Tom at the altar to be with James Stenbeck, the father of her son. When it became clear that he could not win Barbara back, Tom left Oakdale for Europe. When he returned (now in the guise of actor Justin Deas), he was involved with fellow attorney Maggie Crawford. Maggie, of course, was related to several recent arrivals in Oakdale: her sister, Lyla Montgomery, and Lyla's two daughters, Cricket and Margo..... Margo Montgomery.