Sidney is accompanied in each film by news reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and town Deputy Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette). Sidney is initially hostile to Gale, because Gale has written a book about the murder of Sidney's mother, but they grow closer in each successive film as they survive Ghostface's murder attempts. In "Scream 2", Gale and Dewey initiate a relationship, which leads to a marriage proposal at the end of "Scream 3". In "Scream 4", ten years later, Sidney has written a self-help book about her experiences, while Dewey has become a Sheriff and is in a strained marriage with Gale, who is struggling to write a new novel.