Tell us about your first meeting. What did you learn about each other then and how did you feel?

LAUREN: The first time we met was at the network when they wanted to see how we looked together. Randall Batinkoff was also invited but was out of town doing "Touched By An Angel" and had not yet decided if he wanted to return as David. I was extremely nervous because I was not only reading for Jeff Sagansky, but I was doing a scene with the original Doctor MacNeill. As it turned out, Stewart was just as nervous as I was and we now joke about it because neither of us were acting like ourselves. There we were, total strangers, reading the passionate "I'm not a monk" scene in an office filled with producers and executives. It was really uncomfortable.

The next time I saw Stewart was at the script read-through in Vancouver many weeks later, and we both had a good laugh and apologized for our strange behavior.

STEWART: We were both under tremendous pressure at that meeting. In reality, the whole thing was mostly a blur to me. We were asked to do a reading together. We did the scene, and I knew that reading was really important. I knew basically for me that the job was at stake, and I felt it was going to come down to those two minutes of that reading. But once I was in Mac, I was fine and it was over before I knew it, but it was a very hard thing to do for both of us I feel.

I do know that we were both happy that it was all over. I think she said to me she finally got to do the scene with the person she felt like she should be doing it with. While doing the scene with her, I felt good about the experience because I knew there was someone on the other side of the room who could do this with me. Lauren did just fine. I felt an energy coming out of her. I was hopeful on many levels as I sensed that she definitely had the ability to play this character, and if I did get this job back that was important to me to know that. It was a very small opportunity for me to get to know her, but really what I saw at that meeting wasn't the Lauren I grew to know and love in Canada. We were both too traumatized at that moment.