Jessica Lockwood
Jessica Lockwood (2013; 2014)
Georgia Chara
Episodes: 5807; 5910–5925
Children: Harley Braxton
Occupation: Bartender
Jessica was a bartender in Melbourne, who Heath Braxton and his brothers met while attending the club where she worked on his bucks night. Heath got talking to her about Bianca and she reluctantly lent him the bar’s phone to call her. However, Zac answered, leading Heath to wrongly assume Bianca had cheated on him. Jessica found him slumped outside and offered to give him a lift or take him back to her place to talk. Instead, he kissed her and they slept together. Heath slipped away the next morning, ignoring Jessica’s calls.
The following year, Jessica turned up on Heath’s doorstep, heavily pregnant with his child. Heath quickly ushered her out of the way, telling her they’d speak later. Jessica later saw him with Bianca and learned from Kyle that they had got married after all. After Heath had filled Bianca in, the three of them met up. Although Bianca had known about their one-night stand since the previous year, she was thrown to learn Heath had told Jessica about their late son Rocco and that the encounter hadn’t been solely physical.
Bianca was increasingly uncomfortable with Jessica’s presence in town, intercepting her when she was meant to be meeting Heath. Heath began to feel he should keep his distance from her, but his resolve was tested when he felt the baby kick and learned the child was a boy. He was with Jessica when she went into labour on the beach and helped deliver their son. Jessica named the baby Harley, with Heath with them at the hospital.
She and Harley stopped off in Summer Bay after being discharged so Heath could talk to Bianca. There, Jess met Brax for the first time since Melbourne, getting him to watch Harley. She fainted in front of him and Ricky, but refused to let Nate examine her. While she was waiting for Heath to give her a lift, Nate approached her and she admitted she had terminal cancer, having refused treatment while she was pregnant.
Jess didn’t visit Summer Bay again, but over the next few weeks Heath would pay visits to her and Harley in Melbourne, as well as taking their son back to Summer Bay. When he tried to call her in Episode 5955, he learned she had just died.