When she was old enough, she headed to the big city, where she worked in a bar with some female friends for a year before applying to study for a 4 year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, receiving a very high GPA and happiness.
Since her brothers were in Starfleet and she wanted a change, Holly signed up for Starfleet. During her Starfleet Academy years, she upgraded her qualifications and became a doctor.
Late on in her second last year at Starfleet, Holly met a friendly young man, Joseph Sanchez, studying Engineering. Holly quickly developed feelings for him, and he seemed to be very nice, spoiling her a little.
Over time, they grew quite close and spent a lot of time together. Holly loved the attention, and began overlooking some signs that in hindsight, she wished she had not, such as his temper at times. She let him move in with her to a nice apartment that she was renting overlooking San Francisco bay in a fairly artistic area of the city. He was a very good artist, and one times, she let him do a portrait of her while she was nude. However, she was highly embarrassed the whole time. He gave it to her later on, and she hid it away.
By the end of the year, they had married. Two happy months later, Holly found that she was pregnant, and was overjoyed.
Unfortunately, Joseph had started to drink due to stress from his heavy course workload, becoming abusive and hitting Holly around. Campus Security even approached her a few times about bruises that were on her face or when someone mentioned about how she looked like she might be hurt.
One night after a particularly nasty incident where he slapped her around and even kicked her stomach, she called the police out of fear for her unborn child and he was arrested for assault. She had the locks changed that night and the next day when he was bailed, police officers watched with Holly as he packed up his stuff. She also took out a restraining order against him.
A few days later when she was getting home, she entered her apartment to find that Joseph had climbed up on to the balcony and jimmied the lock. He grabbed her and pushed her against a mirror, holding her arms against it as she struggled and screamed. He then forced a kiss from her, and she ended up biting his lip. It distracted him enough to let her knee him and race out.
A friendly neighbor racing up the stairs with a knife for protection found her in the stairs going down. She took the knife from him and headed back up. Joseph wisely slipped into the lift and left. Starfleet Security sent two beefy male officers to stay with her.
Joseph was arrested the next day, and by the end of the month, they were officially divorced, with Holly giving up any alimony in exchange for Joseph willingly giving up all rights to their child. While Starfleet wanted to boot him out on his backside, Holly convinced them not to, and to give him another chance. Last thing Holly heard after he agreed to give up rights was that he ended up flunking out of the academy, heading to New York to work in a bar. In an attempt to forget the sadness, Holly went back to using her maiden name and soon after, Lily Goodhead was born.
After finishing her degree, she requested a month off as special leave to relax & recover at her parent's home with Lily and also working at the Roswell Public Hospital's ER department.
After her leave finished, Holly was assigned to a Miranda-class medium cruiser named the USS Victorious. She made friends with the second officer, Lt Commander Claire Barnes, after Claire found Holly's young daughter playing in the Security Office & Holly found Claire playing with Lily. While Holly hadn't shown any earlier lesbian tendencies, her relationship with Claire blossomed over the space of a few months.
They moved into shared quarters eventually, and during an away mission, they were both captured. Spending two months in prison where Holly pined away for her daughter, Claire looked after her friend by sitting up to guard her at night.
At one point, Claire offered herself instead of Holly when one of the guards showed too much interest. Although Holly knew what Claire went through, she allowed Claire to hide the exact details out of love.
After the pair were rescued and the Victorious was attacked with loss of its captain, the ship headed back to a starbase to be decommissioned. Holly, Claire and Lily headed to Earth where Holly and Claire taught at the Academy. Holly delighted in the safety and comfort of Earth while Claire chaffed at the bit.
When Claire finally had to transfer out to a ship, Holly realized after awhile that she couldn't live without her lover, and has requested immediate transfer to the USS Galaxy as a medical officer.
Holly shows tendency to be moody and withdrawn, hiding her feelings and emotions from others until she gets to know them. This is commonly due to great emotional hurt, which her divorce clearly is an example of. Watching her with her young daughter Lily shows that she will open up when she knows people.
Underneath, Holly has a good sense of humor and is very dedicated to her job with a very compassionate and caring nature. She may be a workaholic at times though.
From the incident with her ex-husband, it is very obvious that Holly would do anything to protect her child.
Although Holly is quite private, she does allow Claire to sometimes take advantage and do stuff that would embarrass her, such as skinny-dipping or semi-nude modeling for Claire's art drawings.
Holly is fussy about keeping her quarters clean, and gets annoyed when Claire or Lily are not.
