When Nathan (Ryan Paevey) returned to General Hospital (and from the dead), his wife, Maxie (Kirsten Storms), was in a long-term care facility in Boston, lying in a coma, but he soon found himself bonding with her best friend, Lulu (Alexa Havins). The two have quite a bit in common now — in addition to their love for Maxie — but just how close are they going to get? And how would viewers react if Nathan and Lulu crossed the line and went from friends to lovers?
Friends in Need
Back in September, it was Lulu who came upon a crashed car and called 911 to summon help for injured man in the vehicle. That man turned out to be Nathan, whom everyone had believed dead since 2018. After he was released from the hospital, Nathan paid a visit to Lulu’s house on October 24 and opened up about his difficulties resuming his life and having no memories of the past seven years. Lulu had a special understanding of what he was going through, because in 2024, she woke up from a four-year coma to find that her children had grown into teenagers, her father (Anthony Geary’s Luke) had passed away, and it seemed like everything had changed around her.
Nathan also gave Lulu some advice about dealing with her son, Rocco (Finn Carr), who had been seeing Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) and Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) behind his mother’s back. Later, after Nathan was reinstated to the PCPD, Rocco found himself arrested for breaking and entering the PC University lab of Professor Henry Dalton (Daniel Goddard), and Lulu was grateful to have a friend on the inside.
When Dalton trumped up the charges against Rocco so he wouldn’t get away with a slap on the wrist, Lulu was horrified as her son was hauled off to a juvenile detention facility. But Nathan was by his side, promising Lulu that he would watch over the teen and make sure he would be okay. Unfortunately, when she later visited Rocco, she was horrified to find her son’s face beaten and bloody from being attacked.
Suspecting that Rocco was being targeted by the other inmates because his father, Dante (Dominic Zamprogna), is a cop, and his grandfather, Sonny (Maurice Benard), is a notorious mobster, Nathan decided that for the teen’s own protection, Rocco couldn’t stay there any longer. He pulled rank and ordered Rocco to be released into his custody, informing the guard to contact acting DA Justine Turner (Nazneen Contractor) if there were any problems. Soon, Rocco was back at the police station to await his bail hearing, and Lulu was grateful to Nathan for stepping up and hoped he hadn’t risked his job to do so. Nathan insisted he’d deal with it and stood up to Justine when she questioned why Rocco had been moved to a different location.
In Maxie’s absence, Lulu and Nathan seem to be growing closer and closer with each passing day, and on soaps, that usually means that a romance is brewing. But would either of them actually make a move? After all, not only is Lulu best friends with Maxie, but Nathan is tight with Lulu’s ex-husband, Dante, his former partner at the PCPD. Lulu and Dante were even the matron of honor and best man at Nathan and Maxie’s wedding! Would the Maxie factor stop Lulu from pursuing any flicker of attraction she may feel for Nathan, and would Nathan feel like making a play for Dante’s ex is off the table (especially since as acting police commissioner, Dante is now his boss)? And Nathan is also still holding out hope that his “widow,” Maxie, will make a miraculous recovery … even if there’s a good chance that if and when she regains consciousness, she will choose to be with Spinelli, with whom she had reconciled. On the other hand, if Lulu and Dante did catch feelings they found it impossible to resist, there would be a wealth of soapy complications for the writers to explore!
