Niki Smith made her presence known in Llanview.

Stick was taken by surprise when Viki turned back into Niki and joined in her own kidnapping. She couldn�t wait to split the million-dollar reward with him. Niki saw this as her one chance to be free of Clint, free of Tina, and free to finally just be herself. Slick and Niki�s plot was soon discovered by a streetwise fugitive from justice named Bobby Blue. Realizing that Mrs. Buchanan was in on her own kidnapping, Bobby demanded a piece of the action.

Stick had other ideas. He planned to kill Niki and keep her share of the money. Before he could cut Niki�s throat, however, Clint, Bo and Rafe arrived on the scene and shot and killed Stick. In the aftermath, Tina learned from Bobby that Niki was in cahoots with her kidnapper. Armed with the news, Tina approached Niki and issued an ultimatum: either she divorce Clint now, or she would tell all!

Niki was able to get a quick divorce just as Clint figured out that she had been pretending to be Viki. Clint shamed her into confessing, and agreed to keep the secret that the person everyone believed was Viki Buchanan was, in truth, Niki Smith. Tina saw this divorce situation as the perfect time to try to snare Clint, and attempted to get him to marry her by claiming to be pregnant with his baby!