Elizabeth Webber Baldwin (Rebecca Herbst)

Elizabeth Imogene Webber (formerly Lansing and Spencer) is a fictional character on the popular ABC soap opera General Hospital and has appeared on its SOAPnet spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift. Elizabeth has been portrayed by actress Rebecca Herbst since 1997. The role has brought Rebecca a Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Younger Lead Actress, as well as two Emmy Award nominations in 1999 and 2007.

Storylines
General Hospital writers brought the character of Elizabeth Webber to Port Charles at the age of fourteen. She is the granddaughter of Dr. Steve Hardy, one of General Hospital's original characters, and the daughter of Dr. Jeff Webber. She is said to have lived in Boulder, Colorado with her parents and her older sister, Sarah Webber. While growing up in Boulder, Elizabeth said that she never received as much attention as her sister did and always rebelled and got into trouble. Her parents ended up moving to Russia to work as doctors there, leaving Elizabeth no choice but to go to her grandmother's house in Port Charles, New York. Elizabeth developed a crush on Lucky Spencer, but Lucky chose to date Sarah.

Teenage romances and first marriage
On Valentine's Day 1998, Elizabeth was raped. Lucky found her, and the Spencer family helped her through her ordeal. Lucky moved in with Liz for a short while before camping out in a boxcar and then moving into his own apartment. As teens, Liz and Lucky fell in love. In April 1999, Liz was grief-stricken when Lucky was presumed dead after his apartment caught fire. In the months ahead, Liz became close friends with Jason Morgan, who helped her deal with the loss of her first love. In 2000, Luke and Laura discovered that Lucky was alive. He had been held captive by Helena Cassadine and brainwashed into believing that he did not love Elizabeth. Lucky pretended to love Elizabeth because he still cared about her happiness, and they became engaged. The wedding was called off after she realized this.

Elizabeth moved on and quickly fell in love with and married Ric Lansing. Elizabeth discovers she is pregnant but she miscarries, leading Ric to blame it on his brother, Sonny Corinthos. Elizabeth divorces Ric after she discovers he was planning on stealing Sonny and Carly Corinthos' unborn child. When Elizabeth is blinded temporarily, she sleeps with Zander Smith, who dies soon after. Ric agrees to raise the child as his own and the couple renew their vows but she divorces him after she notices his obsession with Sonny.

Second marriage to Lucky and finding love with Jason
In 2005, Lucky and Elizabeth began their romance again. Elizabeth was now a nurse at General Hospital and had a son, Cameron Webber, fathered by Zander Smith. Before Lucky and Elizabeth married, Elizabeth chose to become a surrogate mother for Jasper and Courtney Jacks. Lucky did not approve and took a break from their relationship. After a car accident, Elizabeth miscarried. Lucky helped her through her pain, and they began a rocky marriage. Elizabeth was kidnapped by Manny Ruiz in 2006, and Jason rescued her once again. In 2006, Lucky became addicted to painkillers and began an affair with Maxie Jones, his pill supplier. Elizabeth discovered Lucky's infidelity, sought comfort from Jason Morgan, and became pregnant. Lucky, believing the baby was his, went to rehab while he and Elizabeth divorced. A paternity test revealed that Jason fathered her unborn child. Elizabeth kept the truth a secret to protect the child from Jason's dangerous lifestyle and to keep Lucky from suffering devastation that she believed would cause him to relapse. After Lucky completed rehab, Elizabeth remarried him.

In May 2007, Elizabeth gave birth to another son, Jacob Martin Spencer. Emily Quartermaine (Elizabeth's best friend and Jake's godmother) knew that Jason was Jake's dad and she also knew that Jake was her biological nephew. When Jake is kidnapped, Lucky blamed Elizabeth, thinking she harmed the boy. Jason is the only one who believed her when she said she didn't. While Jake is missing, Elizabeth is tormented by Sam McCall, and it is later revealed that she saw the kidnapping and kept quiet about it. Jason finds Jake and returns him to Elizabeth. Lucky is bitter and has Jason arrested. Lucky and Elizabeth's marriage is strained. Knowing that Sam wants to seduce him, Lucky takes a job as her boyguard. On the day Jason admits his love to Elizabeth, Sam hired men from her TV studio set to threaten Elizabeth and her boys in the park. Jason thinks it's best if no one knows he is Jake's father. Sam and Lucky begin an affair to get back at Jason and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Lucky divorced again. In November 2007, during the Black and White Ball, Lucky discovered the truth about Jake's paternity and agreed to keep the paternity a secret to protect Jake.

After Emily Quartermaine's death and funeral, Jason and Elizabeth began a brief secret relationship. They became engaged, but Jason later decided that his job was too dangerous for Elizabeth and her children, and he called off their relationship. Elizabeth decided to fight to be in Jason's life, but he was adamant that he could not give her what she deserves. Jason invited Elizabeth to go with him to Italy, but after he witnessed the shooting of Sonny's fiancee, Kate Howard, Jason once again feared for Elizabeth's safety and tried to use this incident to scare her into abandoning a relationship with him. In November 2008, a mob war began heating up in Port Charles. Lucky asked Jason to agree to send Elizabeth and the boys, along with Sam, to hide in a cabin. During a shootout between Sam and Elizabeth with Russian mobsters, Jake was kidnapped for a second time. Jason ended up safely returning Jake after he was saved by Sam. After this close call, Jason and Elizabeth agreed that they must stay apart to protect the boys.

Nikolas and Lucky
On January 15, 2009, Elizabeth was poisoned while assisting in surgery. Lucky stayed by her bedside and promised to be there for her boys if she did not make it. An explosion that caused a fire led to an evacuation of the hospital. Although Elizabeth wanted him to leave with her, Lucky stayed behind to help. They kissed goodbye before Elizabeth was put on the helicopter. Lucky was later reunited with Elizabeth at Mercy hospital. When Emily's twin sister, Rebecca Shaw arrives in town, Nikolas begins to get infatuated with her. Rebecca pursues Lucky but the two end their relationship after a request from Nikolas. Elizabeth and Nikolas begin drinking at Jake's and their dates eventually led to one-night-stands, despite Elizabeth dating Lucky. Lucky and Elizabeth get engaged in September 2009, after Jake was nearly run over by Edward Quartermaine. Elizabeth tries to end things with Nikolas, but they soon are having an affair. Lucky's father, Luke, finds out though, and tries to convince Elizabeth to be truthful with Lucky. Rebecca also finds out, and tries to blackmail Elizabeth into breaking up with Lucky. When she refuses, Rebecca goes to Lucky's house to tell him, only to get hit by Nikolas on accident. When Elizabeth comes to the hospital, trying to stop Rebecca from saying anything to Lucky, she finds out that her brother, Steven Webber, is the new Chief of Staff at General Hospital. Steven tries to help her deal with Lucky and Nikolas, and so does her friend, Robin Scorpio.

Nikolas decides to leave town, but Elizabeth stops him. When he makes plans again, he and Elizabeth end up sleeping together while saying goodbye, and Lucky walks in on them. He starts drinking and when Elizabeth confronts him about this, he tells Elizabeth that he knows about her and Nikolas. He breaks off the engagement, and Elizabeth is devastated and becomes depressed. Elizabeth has two meltdowns at the hospital, which eventually lead to her being suspended by Nikolas. One night, Elizabeth goes back to the church where she and Lucky made their vows as teenagers, wanting to get back the happy times of her life. She falls asleep there, and ends up passing out. Lucky finds her there and brings her into the hospital, where she is treated for hypothermia.

At the hospital, Elizabeth finds out she is pregnant, but doesn't know who the father is. She ends up on the roof of the hospital, trying to kill herself. Lucky, though, manages to find her and convinces her to not punish herself forever. However, this incident makes Lucky, Nikolas, and Steven realize that Elizabeth's in serious trouble, and they end up sending her to Shadybrook for treatment. There, she confides to Steven that she believes Nikolas is her unborn baby's father. Nikolas' evil grandmother, Helena Cassadine, finds out and comes to Shadybrook to claim the "Cassadine heir." When she makes a scene to have Helena evicted, she finds out Helena made a donation to Shadybrook to have the doctors on her side. She comes back later and threatens to take Elizabeth's sons away from her to deem her an unfit mother. Fortunately, Lucky appears, gun in hand, and tells Helena to leave Elizabeth alone. He decides to be Elizabeth's protector against Helena. Elizabeth is visibly hurt by the way she abused Lucky's trust, and he decides to tell her he forgives her to help her get better.

Nikolas comes over after Lucky leaves, and tells Elizabeth he loves her and wants a future with her. Elizabeth refuses, because she wants Lucky back. Nikolas tells her that it may not happen, because there is a very good chance she is carrying Nikolas's baby. Elizabeth then claims that he's trying to get her back by using this baby, and points out the fact that he hardly pays attention to the child he has. Nikolas doesn't deny this, but says he'll change that and maybe she can help him. He later shows Elizabeth a paternity test that can be done early in the pregnancy. Elizabeth tells him she'll consider it. Lucky comes back and is honest with her, tellig her why he forgave her and that he knows their relationship is over for good. Elizabeth decides then to take the early paternity test. Unknown to all three, Helena has arranged for the tests to be tampered with in case Nikolas is proven not to be the father.

Nikolas brings Cameron and Jake over to to visit Elizabeth on March 1, 2010. After taking them home, he comes back and tells Elizabeth that he brought them over to Wyndemere to play with Spencer and he's been trying to make an effort as a father by spending time with the three kids. Elizabeth has a therapy session with her friend, Dr. Lainey Winters, which Nikolas and Lucky attend. When left alone, Elizabeth admits to Lainey she wasn't sure what she wanted before, but now she knows she wants Lucky back. However, outside her room, Lucky tells Nikolas he hopes that Nikolas is the father of the baby, because he realizes that his and Elizabeth's relationship is over.

The paternity results reveal that Nikolas is the father of Elizabeth's baby, but unknown to anybody, Helena had the results switched and Lucky is the biological father of the baby. Elizabeth goes back to work, but has trouble concentrating, so Steven assigns her to the Oncology wing, where she meets Shirley Smith, a terminal cancer patient who wishes to spend the remaining few months of her life enjoying herself. Elizabeth cannot seem to find anything happy in her life at the time, and gets a new perspective on life from Shirley.

The next few months is a battle with both Nikolas and Helena, who both threaten to take the baby away from her when it's born and try to convince her to move to Wyndemere. Lucky comes to her rescue with Helena, and later Nikolas kicks her out of Wyndemere. Elizabeth gets jealous when she sees Maxie hanging out with Lucky, but Lucky later sets her straight about the two of them and how they will not be together again. With some coaxing from Shirley and this firm declaration, Elizabeth resolves her differences with Nikolas and agrees to let him be a part of their baby's life. Nikolas is happy that she has come around and also acknowledged her mistakes in their affair, assuring her she's not the only one to blame.

On July 15, 2010, Elizabeth goes into labor a month early while at Wyndemere with Cameron, Jake, Nikolas, and Spencer. Despite medication, Elizabeth's labor doesn't stop. Unknown to Nikolas or Elizabeth, Lucky is outside the delivery room after Maxie informs him that Elizabeth was admitted. She gives birth to a baby boy with Nikolas by her side. They name the baby Aiden Cassadine and both parents happily bond with their son.

The truth about Aiden and losing Jake
On March 8, 2011, Elizabeth sends in DNA papers to see who Aiden's real father is. She gets the results back on the 17th, but before she finishes reading the results, she realizes that her other son Jake, is missing. Jake had run out of the house and got hit by a car. Elizabeth finds him and he is rushed to the hospital. She immediately calls Lucky and he comes rushing to her side to comfort her. Patrick and Robin operate on Jake to try and save his life, while Lucky, Elizabeth, Jason, Siobhan, Steve, and Lulu wait for news on his condition. Patrick and Robin work hard to save him, but the injuries Jake sustained are too great and he loses all brain function on the operating table, while his biological father, Jason, watches from the observation window. Jason breaks the news to Lucky, who then went and broke the news to a devastated Elizabeth.