Jesse Blue first came onto the Springfield scene when Michelle Bauer stumbled upon him living in one of the bad sections of town. She had twisted her ankle and the mysterious stranger helped her home and, in the process, stole her wallet! Nonetheless, Michelle was very attracted to Jesse and fantasized about him. Believing him to be a good person, Michelle invited Jesse to the Annual Bauer Barbecue, to the consternation of her brother, Rick, who saw Jesse as a common criminal and kicked him out. Although Jesse verified that he did in fact steal Michelle's wallet (since she refused to believe it), Michelle was certain that he was a good person and, when he was arrested for violating his parole, she arranged the court to drop the charges in exchange for her teaching Jesse how to read. Soon the pair became more and more attracted to each other. Unfortunately, Jesse's father, alcoholic Jack Blue, started causing problems because he blamed the Bauers for his wife's death when she gave birth to Jesse. However, the truth was Ed was under suspension then for drunkenness and wasn't able to treat her at all., Jack refused to believe that and decided to sue the Bauer family for causing his wife's death. Meanwhile, over the course of several weeks, Michelle and Rick sparred over his disapproval of Jesse. Unfortunately, Jesse started to believe Rick's arguments himself and bowed out of Michelle's life for her own good. However, Michelle refused to give up on him and convinced him that they should be together despite their families' disapproval. Finally, wanting to use the tension between Rick and Michelle, Rick's fiancée, Abby Blume, went to visit Jesse but was attacked and almost raped by his friend, Roy Meetchum.

The attack furthered strained Michelle's relationship with Rick since he initially believed that Jesse attacked Abby. Due to Rick's anger towards both of them, as well as Jack Blue's assertion that he'd drop the suit against the Bauers if Jesse stopped seeing Michelle the couple broke up. Not long after, Ed returned and asked Michelle to go back to Africa with him. Pining over Jesse, who was keeping his distance and encouraging her to go, Michelle decided to leave with Ed. However, her plans changed in an instant when she discovered that Jesse was the recipient of late stepmother's heart! Over a period of months, the Bauers became more accepting of Jesse. Meanwhile, in the fall, Abby shot and killed Roy Metchum when he was acquitted for the attack, so his friends wanted revenge on Abby. At the same time that Abby was receiving threats, Jesse and Michelle made plans to elope. Keeping her intentions a secret from her family, Michelle went to Reva Shayne's house to say goodbye to Abby. Unfortunately a fire started (thanks to Roy and his buddies) which almost cost the women their lives! Although the women were all rescued, Michelle's injuries had caused her to go blind. Not wanting to be a burden to anyone, she kept her blindness a secret from Ed and Jesse. Determined to become self-sufficient despite her handicap, Michelle enlisted the help of Rick and made plans to go away to a school for the blind. Believing it would be the last time she spent with Jesse, Michelle gave into Jesse's advances and lost her virginity to him at the lighthouse on New Year's Day 1998 before leaving for the blind school. Determined to find out what was going on, Jesse searched for her everywhere, finally getting a phone number (without knowing that number was at a blind school) Unfortunately, Michelle's doctor answered her phone, leaving Jesse to suspect that she was seeing another guy.

While Jesse was pining for Michelle, she was pining for him and with the help of her doctor, Dr. Dan, she snuck into town secretly. However, she too got the wrong impression when she overheard Jesse comment to his new friend, Drew Jacobs that he didn't miss Michelle (he was being sarcastic). Soon after, without her knowledge, Jesse spotted Michelle with another man and figuring that she'd moved on with her life, he tried to seduce Drew. It was at that time, that Michelle came to tell Jesse the truth, but after overhearing Jesse try to seduce Drew, Michelle was convinced that he'd moved on with his life and she ran out--leaving her ID bracelet behind. Shocked, Jesse went to the institute and finally figured out that Michelle was blind. After being confronted by Dan, who insisted that Michelle needed time away from him, Jesse went to see Michelle but disguised his voice. Wanting to be near her, he assumed the identity of a Spanish man named Carlos and got a job as a janitor. After weeks of befriending "Carlos", Michelle underwent experimental surgery in California. Luckily the surgery worked; Michelle's vision returned and she was shocked to see that Carlos was Jesse! Though angry with him for keeping his identity a secret, the pair renewed their love for each other. When they returned to Springfield, Jesse continued to build on his friendship with Drew Jacobs, the spoiled daughter of a recently deceased record producer. Drew had her eye on Jesse and did all she could to get him. She gave him a job as a manager at her club, Millennium, and an apartment above it...directly across from hers. But, even Drew's beauty and money couldn't come between Jesse and Michelle. Now pursuing his dream of being an artist, Jesse asked Michelle to marry him.

Things began to change for everyone when Mick Santos came into town. The eldest son of one of Springfield's most notorious crime families, Mick made enemies everywhere...including Millennium where he had gotten a job. When Mick tried to attack Drew at the beach, Michelle came to her defense and hit him over the head with a rock. When he went for Michelle, Drew hit him again and the two girls ran off. Later learning that Mick had died, they confided in Jesse and Michelle's best friend, Bill Lewis. The four friends moved into Drew's apartment together to keep an eye out for each other. When Danny Santos came into town to find out what had happened to his big brother, he came to the conclusion that is was Jesse who had killed him. He thought that Jesse must have caught Mick coming onto Michelle and lost his temper. Jesse decided to let Danny think this so as to take the heat off of Michelle. He decided to leave town and let Danny believe that Mick's killer was gone for good. When Danny threatened to go after him, Drew feared for Jesse's life and told Danny the truth (minus the fact that she was there) and he went after Michelle. Unable to kill the woman that he too had grown to love, Danny instead married Michelle so that his mother, Carmen, couldn't go after her. When Jesse came back to town, he was shocked to learn that Michelle had married Danny. She did her best to convince him that was what she wanted, even going so far as to stage a romantic scene with Danny at the lighthouse which was her special place with Jesse. When Jesse caught the newlyweds there, he was devastated and agreed to give up on Michelle and accept her new life.

As time went by, Michelle did all she could to free herself from Danny and the Santos family so that she could get back to Jesse. In the meantime, Jesse was spending more and more time with Drew. He eventually asked her out on a date, but she refused saying that she couldn't take advantage of the fact that he was hurting over losing Michelle. Michelle, on the other hand, was beginning to fall for Danny even though she wasn't about to admit it to anyone, especially herself. Later, Danny went to the Bauer house and told Michelle that he was setting her free to go back to her old life with Jesse. The next day, Michelle went and told Jesse the news. Despite the fact that they were both having feelings for other people, they decided to work on rebuilding their relationship. Meanwhile, Jesse found out that Drew had slept with Danny and decided not to tell Michelle since it would only cause her more pain. He was, however, very jealous. It wasn't long before Jesse and Michelle realized that everything had changed between them and they ended things on good terms. Michelle went on to get back together with Danny and Jesse declared his love to Drew.

Later, Jesse proposed to Drew and converted to Judaism for her. Things were looking good for the couple until Michelle was arrested for the murder of Drew's biological father, Ben Warren. Drew became convinced that her best friend was guilty of the crime, but Jesse chose to stand by his ex-girlfriend and declared her innocence. Drew viewed Jesse's loyalty to Michelle as a betrayal against her and asked him to move out. Although pained at the thought of losing Drew, Jesse had to stick by his convictions and agreed to go. Still determined to help free Michelle, Jesse agreed to help Danny break her out of prison. As she was being transferred out of county jail, he faked a heart attack so that everyone would be distracted as Danny snuck Michelle away. When Drew heard that he was ill, she rushed to the hospital to be by his side. The two were reunited and Jesse moved back into the apartment over Millennium. As Drew continued to dote on him, Jesse couldn't take it anymore and decided to tell her the truth-- that he had faked the heart attack to help Michelle. Although furious with him, Drew told Jesse that she would have to find a way to forgive since she loved him too much to let him go again. Jesse's only problem was that the police didn't believe that he really had a heart attack and was determined to bring the truth to the surface! Luckily, the truth never did come out and Michelle was exonerated for the crime that Carmen committed. Months later, Jesse was offered a job in New York and left with Drew to start an exciting new life.