Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms)

Mariah Maximilliana "Maxie" Jones (formerly Hunter) is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera General Hospital. She has been portrayed by Kirsten Storms since 2005, except for an eleven-month stint when she was temporarily portrayed by Jen Lilley when Storms went on medical leave. She is the daughter of supercouple Frisco and Felicia Jones, although she considered Mac Scorpio as her father. In 2009, Storms was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for the role.

Early years
The character was initially portrayed by child actors Chelsey and Kahley Cuff from 1990 to 1991, Ashley and Jessica Clark in 1992, and Elaine and Melanie Silver from December 1992 to 1993. Robyn Richards assumed the role in 1993, but the character was later aged and recast with Danica Stewart in March 2002. Fan disapproval resulted in the rehiring of Richards from August 2002 to July 16, 2004.

Storms/Lilley
Maxie was later recast again with Storms on May 23, 2005. Jen Lilley was cast as a temporary replacement while Kirsten Storms was recovering from endometriosis, starting September 28, 2011. This was only expecting to be for a couple months, but had to be extended when Storms was not ready to return. On January 9, 2012, it was announced that Kirsten Storms was expected to return to the screen in late February 2012. On January 20, however, it was announced that Storms would be unable to resume her role as expected, and that Lilley would continue in the role for the foreseeable future. On June 22, 2012, several reports surfaced saying that Storms was "in talks" to return to the show; and Storms' mother Karen told the Orlando Sentinel that Kirsten would return in late June 2012. On July 21, Lilley posted a YouTube video saying goodbye and thank you after confirming her exit at the General Hospital Fan Club weekend. Lilley last appeared on screen August 10; and Storms returned to the screen September 5, after nearly a year-long absence.

Early life and childhood
Maxie is born on Halloween night in 1990 and is named after her great-grandmother Mariah and her great-grandfather Maximillian. In 1994, she suffers from Kawasaki disease and requires a heart transplant. Seeing as her cousin B.J. Jones is brain-dead, she recieves the heart transplant from her.

Maxie and her sister Georgie are raised by their mother Felicia and their stepfather Mac Scorpio. Their father Frisco Jones has little involvement with them. Although they keep Frisco's last name, both Maxie and Georgie have always considered Mac to be their father.

Teenage years
Maxie's first crush is on Lucky Spencer, and she goes to extreme measures to get to him. He doesn't return her feelings and she is crushed. Maxie babysits for Lulu, Lucky's sister, as a way of getting his attention but soon begins pursuing Nikolas Cassadine and Zander Smith, and begins a relationship with Kyle Ratcliffe. Maxie and her sister begin to work as candy stripers. Kyle forces her to steal pills from the hospital and lies to Mac about their break-up.

Kyle tells everyone at school that they slept together and lures Maxie in and video-tapes the broadcast to the entire school. Maxie goes to prom with Dillon Quartermaine, but ends up kissing Lucas Jones so that they do not sleep together. Maxie befriends Zander and is devasted when he dies in the Port Charles Hotel fire.

Jesse and Lucky
Her first love and first serious relationship is with a cop, Jesse Beaudry. Jesse and Maxie are on the run when he is blamed for John Durant's murder. When Jesse is shot on a date at the carnival, Maxie is devastated. At his memorial service, she turns to Lucky Spencer as a way of comfort. Soon after, Maxie seduces Lucky by providing him pain pills during his marriage to Elizabeth Webber. She goes as far as to fake a pregnancy to keep him but this fails and he reconciles with his wife.

When getting over Lucky, she fakes a miscarriage and begins to pursue other men and befriends Sam McCall at the Metro Court. At a fundraiser at the hotel, armed gunman hold most of the citiy's famous residents hostage. While trapped inside the vault, Maxie meets the second man she shares a serious relationship with, Cooper Barrett.

Cooper Barrett and Georgie's murder
Maxie allows Coop to live with her and gets him a job at the Metro Court, although some suspect that he is untrustworthy. Maxie then sets out to ruin Lulu Spencer's love life, who hates Maxie because she feed her brother Lucky drugs, by seducing her boyfriend, Logan Hayes. Lulu breaks up with him and upon finding out, Coop breaks up with Maxie. This is when Maxie admits that she loves him. Maxie later faces a crisis at the Black and White ball, in which mobster Anthony Zacchara forces her to play Russian Roulette. Maxie escapes and finds comfort in Georgie and Coop.

After this incident, Port Charles is struck with a killer who texted his victims before murdering them. In this event, Georgie and Coop die and this causes Maxie grief. The only upside is that her mother returns and they repair their relationship. With the help of Damian Spinelli, she discovers that Diego Alcazar is the murderer and he is killed by Jason Morgan.

Maxie gets one last note from Coop at Valentine's Day saying that she will always carry his heart. Maxie begins a friendship with Spinelli, which puts her in danger of the mob due to the fact that he works for Jason Morgan, a mob enforcer.

Damian Spinelli
Maxie begins working for Kate Howard for her fashion magazine. Although this is her dream job, Carly Corinthos asks Lulu Spencer to take the job and they both become assistants. Although there is some friction between the two in the beginning, they work their differences. At this time, Lulu is dating Johnny Zacchara, Maxie's crush.

After Logan attacks Maxie, Lulu kills Logan in self-defense. Maxie and Lulu decide to stage an alibi at Kelly's while Johnny and his sister Claudia decide to dump the body. Johnny is put on trial and Maxie's past history comes to present and she has a break-down, leading her to sleep with Spinelli. They pull each other through the tough time and Spinelli decides he still wants to be her friend.

Despite their rivalry, Maxie starts to sympathize and show concern for the traumatized Lulu, afraid that she will lose her mind the same way Lulu's mother Laura did. Maxie breaks Lulu out of a mental hospital and after Johnny is proven innocent, the two girls decide they can trust each other and find an apartment together. After Spinelli is hit by a car during a stakeout, Maxie moves into Jason's penthouse to take care of him during his recovery from surgery. Jason confronts Maxie when he finds her looking for his gun; however, the subject of their conversation quickly turns to Spinelli. Maxie reveals how much he means to her and how he made her see herself as a better person. When Maxie is accosted by members of the Russian mafia in November 2008, Spinelli finds her and brings her to General Hospital. After the attack, Mac forbids her to see Spinelli, as he believes that Spinelli is indirectly responsible for having drawn Maxie into a dangerous lifestyle.

Maxie soon becomes threatened when Winifred Leeds becomes Spinelli's new friend. She feels that the two of them have too much in common, both being computer geeks. She seduces him but when Spinelli finds out that the seduction was due to Maxie's jealousy, they split up.

However, Winifred is secretly an FBI agent who enables federal agents to arrest Spinelli. Upon his arrest, Maxie and Spinelli repair their friendship; however, Maxie still feels incredibly guilty and remorseful. The guilt escalates on the night of a blizzard when she almost has a one night stand with Johnny while Spinelli is trapped in the hospital, saving people after a bio toxin is released. Maxie discovers her cousin, Robin Scorpio, hid her daughter Emma in a tree, and she and Johnny save her. They take Emma to Mercy. Upon discovering Spinelli is stuck at General Hospital, Maxie runs inside to save him and is trapped in the fire.

Soon after Maxie's escape from the hospital, Spinelli makes his way out of the burning building, and the two reunite with a passionate kiss. After the crisis at General Hospital, Maxie returns to work at Crimson. Kate hires Johnny to go on publicized dates with Maxie in order to stimulate press for Crimson that neither Spinelli nor Lulu liked. It is revealed that they had both been kissing and Johnny had cheated on Lulu. Spinelli leaves Maxie but they reconcile when Maxie and Sam save him from going to prison for hacking in to government computers.

Maxie and Spinelli patch up their relationship but are once again troubled when a murder mystery involving Spinelli's PI buisness arrives. Spinelli proposes to Maxie, who eventually agrees to marry him. Their wedding date is set for September 21, 2009. After realizing their relationship need not be complicated at the altar, they agree not to marry. They finish the ceremony, however, with Fr. Coates pronouncing them "not husband and wife." They call the wedding a "non-wedding" and begin to call each other their "non-husband" and "non-wife."

In November 2009, Maxie is seduced by Franco, an artist who is interested in death for art. Soon after discovering her infidelity, Spinelli forgives her and the two agree to move on. Maxie becomes friends with Lulu's boyfriend, Dante Falconeri, who is an undercover cop working to bust Sonny Corinthos. In February 2010, Sonny is revealed to be Dante's father. Showing her loyalty and the tight bind she formed with Lulu, Maxie confronted Dante to see if his feelings for Lulu were genuine.

Spinelli or Matt?
Then Maxie meets Doctor Matt Hunter. They slowly develop a relationship. One night, Maxie finds a ring in Matt's pants and begins to panic. Later it is revealed that the ring is for Robin and Patrick. Things start to go better, but when Spinelli wakes up from surgery a changed person, Maxie tries to save who he was and this leaves Matt feeling neglected. Overtime, Matt and Maxie grow apart. Then Matt and Elizabeth begin to grow close. Maxie notices this and is now trying to save her relationship with Matt, but there is one thing standing in her way, Spinelli. Maxie and Matt parted ways in early February due to irreconcilable differences but get back together soon after.

In Summer 2011, Maxie is taken hostage by her enemy Lisa Niles along with Steve, Robin, and Patrick. During this Spinelli breaks into the hostage room to save Maxie. In the end, Lisa goes into a coma and Spinelli gets shot. When Spinelli wakes up as his dream person Jackel P.I. Maxie and a lot of others are very upset by this. After months Spinelli goes back to normal which makes Maxie very happy even though she's dating Matt.

In Fall 2011, Matt asked Maxie to go to a party on a boat with him, but she says no. He then asks Liz and she says yes. Maxie is annoyed by Matt and Liz growing very closer, so in-order to get Liz fired from GH she turns her in for stealing drugs. Liz gets fired, and Matt breaks up with Maxie. In order to get Matt back she says she lied but it is unknown if Liz will get her job back.

Robin's "death"
In Febuary 2012, Maxie's best friend and cousin Robin dies in a fire caused by her carelessness while Robin was working. Mac was planning on telling her, but then asks Spinelli who at the time (moved out soon after) was living with her to tell her about Robin. Maxie, shocked, says he's lying because he's mad that she asked him to leave. When Spinelli shows Maxie the news online, she learns it's true and starts to scream and cry. In the end she hugs Spinelli. When Maxie learns that her carelessness played in a role in setting off the lab explosion, she is devastated and blames herself. Wanting to punish herself for Robin's death she confesses to murdering Lisa Niles and first mate Briggs. Her friends and family try to convince her to take back her confession but she is relentless in punishing herself and having no other option, they are forced to sit back and watch as Maxie went to trial with Alexis Davis as her defense. In May 2012, Maxie was sentenced to twenty years in prison without parole for the murder of Lisa Niles and first mate Briggs. Maxie takes the sentence as punishment for Robin's death, even though she confesses to Spinelli that it was actually Matt who murdered them and she is doing this to protect Patrick and Emma from losing anymore family. Against Maxie's wishes Spinelli then comes forward with the information and tells the courts that it was Matt and not Maxie that killed Lisa Niles in order to get her out of jail. Maxie is hurt by this and vows to never forgive Spinelli. Maxie is then released from prison, but only under the condition that she sign an affidavit, which would make her testify against Matt in exchange for her freedom. To get around this affidavit, Maxie marries Matt so that she does not have to testify against him. Matt however cannot live with what he did on his conscience when he remembers the night's events in full and he leaves Maxie on their uneventful wedding night to turn himself in.

Life with Matt in prison and assisting Patrick
After Matt turns himself in, Maxie refuses to get a divorce, and despite more pleas from concerned friends and loved ones such as Damian Spinelli, she devotes herself to waiting patiently for her husband's release. Maxie's friend Lulu Spencer-Falconeri helps Maxie adjust to her spouse's absence. Maxie forms a quick friendship with Dr. Patrick Drake and helps him care for his daughter Emma Scorpio-Drake in Robin's absence. On July 4, 2012, Maxie discovers that Patrick is addicted to prescription pills, which he has been taking to get high so he can cope with the death of Robin. On the night of the opening of The Haunted Star club which Lulu co owns with Johnny Zacchara Maxie and Lulu follow a drugged Patrick who is having hallucinations of Robin and still on pills although they believed he had stopped. Lulu later confides in Maxie that Patrick called her "Robin" and then kissed her. Maxie then realizes that Patrick is taking the pills to cope with the loss of his wife, and together she and Lulu convince Patrick to check himself into General Hospital to be treated for his drug use.

At the end of the August 8 episode, Maxie finds a seemingly very ill Lulu vomiting into a trashcan at General Hospital. On August 9, 2012, Lulu tries to pass the vomiting off as a coincidence or a 24 hour bug because she has been under so much recent stress with the club and Patrick and her own family issues, especially the fact that a recovering Olivia Falconeri just had a hallucination in which Lulu was seemingly nine months pregnant. Maxie, however, quickly assumes that Olivia's "hallucination" may be more of a premonition, and offers her cell phone as a calendar, jumping to the conclusion that Lulu may in fact be pregnant. She then buys a pregnancy test for her friend to take, and the results are positive. Maxie and Matt get divorced.

Heartbreak and surrogacy
Maxie finally tell Spinelli that she loves him but he chooses Ellie instead. Later on, She talks to Lulu and offers to be her surrogate but Lulu doesn't take her seriously. After some thought, Dante and Lulu talk to her and decide to take her up on her offer. They start the surrogacy process with hormone treatments, fertilization and then implantation. On Christmas Eve, Maxie starts cramping and Spinelli takes her to GH, where she finds out she's pregnant.

On December 26 episode, after several examples of Spinelli's continued need to be there for Maxie, Spinelli's girlfriend Ellie breaks up with Spinelli at Sonny's Christmas Party. When the puppy from Olivia's hallucinations arrives at Maxie's door and goes onto her counch, she trips and then goes to GH for testing. Dr. Westbourne then reveals to Maxie that she has miscarried Lulu's and Dante's baby. She tries to tell Lulu and Dante, but a drunken Spinelli makes that impossible. Maxie and Spinelli have sex on the January 2-4 2013 episode. Maxie goes back to GH to ask if Dr. Westbourne would be willing to implant another fertilized egg into Maxie, without Lulu and Dante knowing. Dr. Westbourne later reveals that she can not implant another egg, due to Maxie already being pregnant. She determines that the baby is Spinelli's. Maxie thinks that Olivia's dog vision since her miscarriage is because she is carrying the Jackal's baby. Maxie continues to let Lulu feel bad about being concerned about the baby. On March 22, Maxie has a dream sequence that Lulu is told the truth by Britt Westbourne and just as Spinelli walks in Maxie says something about Spinelli and the baby.

Maxie and Spinelli discuss his desires to have children. The new intregrated Connie Falconeri hires Maxie back to Crimson. However on her first day of work, she is more concerned with keeping her personal secrets hidden than going to work. She throws a fit when she finds lab technician Ellie Trout looking through confidential medical files and she spends a considerable amount of time at The Floating Rib discussing the situation involving Lulu Spencer-Falconeri running away from the hospital. She finally goes back to Crimson and is able to regain her job. She feels her first baby movement while talking to newly-fired replacement of Maxie. She tries to figure out what Ellie is doing on her laptop in their apartment's living room, but Ellie successfully makes up an excuse about Spinelli practicing for his Magic Milo act. Ellie finds out that she had a miscarriage and was confirmed to be pregnant a second time. Maxie confirms that she is carrying Spinelli's baby. Ellie decides not to tell Spinelli about Maxie carrying his baby. She starts bonding with her baby and has some doubt that she will want to hand over her biological daughter (gender revealed 6-27-13) to expecting surrogate parents Lulu and Dante. The secret that Ellie is hiding from her boyfriend (Maxie's on-off) Spinelli also causes Ellie to follow Dr. Britt Westbourne's signal to presumably lie about the true paternity of Britt's baby (who was her OBGYN until Britt went on "sick" leave).

Birth of her daughter
Dante and Lulu have trouble figuring what they want to name "their" daughter so Lulu asks Maxie to help her and she suggests Georgie (her deceased sister's name) but Lulu says that she needs to save that name for Maxie's own daughter. This is one of the many times she tries to Lulu that the baby isn't hers but Connie walked in and she didn't get the chance. After Lulu leaves she gets a visit from her dead sister Georgie, who tell Maxie that she needs to tell the truth so she goes over to Dante and Lulu's but Olivia walks in before she gets the chance to tell them. Maxie goes to child birth classes with Dante (Lulu was sick) but Dante had to leave so Spinelli filled in. Maxie starts planning Mac and Felicia's wedding where her water breaks. When they get to the hospital Maxie asks for Spinelli saying he should be there which sound weird to Lulu so she blames it on the pain. Later, the baby starts having heart decelerations and Maxie thinks she gave her daughter a bad heart but Lulu reassures her that it has nothing to do with her because the baby is not biologically hers. It turns out the umbilical cords is wrapped around her neck. Spinelli comes in and Lulu tells him that Maxie was asking for him. On August 21st Maxie tries to tell Spinelli the truth about the baby but can't because they have to deliver the baby right away. Maxie and Spinelli's little girl is born via emergency c-section with her real father watching from the gallery. Maxie gets to cut the cord but after the baby is taken away she starts to hemorage. She also gets another visit from Georgie who tells her to fight. She tells her that if she dies then the secret will die with her and maybe that's for the best but then we see Ellie about to tell Spinelli and later on she does. When Maxie finally wakes up after the c-section she asks her mom and stepdad where HER daughter is and they tell her that she is with her parents (Dante and Lulu) and that she was just the surrogate. Maxie insists that she is her biological mother and finally admits that the baby is her daughter with Spinelli but her parents think she's losing it so they have the doctor sedate her. Maxie wakes up and goes to visit her baby. The nurse suggests she feed the baby but Spinelli walks in and stops her and confronts her about hiding their baby from him. Maxie and Spinelli decide not to tell Dante and Lulu that the baby is theirs.

The truth comes out and custody battle
Dante and Lulu ask Maxie and Spinelli to be the godparents of their own daughter. After the christening, Brad Cooper tells Dante and Lulu the truth about the baby. Maxie tries to lie but has no choice but to tell them that what Brad said is true. The Falconeri's are crushed and want to know what happened so Maxie tells them. There is a lot of yelling and crying. Lulu also slaps Maxie and then leaves with Dante. Maxie and Spinelli talk about how they don't that Dante and Lulu will want to raise a child that isn't theirs but aren't sure about what to do. Later on Spixie decide that they want their daughter but at the same time Dante and Lulu decide they want to keep the baby. The four of them meet and the Falconeris want Maxie and Spinelli to give up their parental rights but Spinelli and Maxie say that they won't sign them because they want their daughter. Lante won't give them the baby so Spixie end up leaving in complete shock. They end up calling Diane Miller for help while Dante and Lulu call Alexis Davis for help. This very moment marks the start of a what is bound to be a very nasty custody battle.