Liz married Sonny's brother, Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst), and Jason married Courtney. Under her nose, Ric had done some heinous things including imprisoning Sonny's wife, Carly Corinthos (then Tamara Braun), in a secret panic room in their house. Meanwhile, Courtney started taking painkillers because she was distraught after a miscarriage, and accidentally ran over Elizabeth causing temporary blindness. Needless to say, both couples got divorced. Despite great turmoil in their lives, including Liz being terrorized by crazed mobster Manny Ruiz (Robert LaSardo), she and Jason reconnected — although Liz and Lucky tried to make things work, and Jason fell in love with Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco). Unsurprisingly, Sam and Lucky cheated on their respective partners, so Jason and Liz had sex. She got pregnant, and Jason proposed to her, but she turned him down knowing they were each still in love with their estranged partners. Of course, Liz pretended Lucky was her baby's father, but eventually revealed that Jason was the baby daddy.

After a jealous Sam turned a blind eye when she spotted the baby, Jake, being kidnapped in the park, she and Liz became bitter rivals. Jason split with Sam and he and Liz admitted they loved each other. After their friend, Emily Quartermaine (Natalia Livingston), was killed by the Text Message Killer, the two started secretly dating because of his dangerous job. At one point, Jason proposed again, but quickly called it off due to more mob violence.