2002: James took Carly, Emily and Rose to a creepy spa against their will, where they were given a serum to severely age their skin. Lucinda, Lily and Craig went to pick up Rose, but Paul stayed behind after his father had Babs kidnapped. Barbara ended up stabbing James in Singapore to help save Emily. When Rose got home, she had been aged to look like an old woman and felt ugly around Paul, who assured her that he loved her and wanted to marry her anyway. Not long after Rose was healed, she and Paul went to the island nation of Avanya with Katie, Simon, Henry, Lucinda and Joe as part of an adventure related to a diamond that belonged to Rose. After a hurricane, she left for Italy to help her ailing father recover.

With Rose gone, Paul refocused his attention on the parental units: His fugitive father was in cahoots with newcomer T. Marshall Travers, who was running for D.A.; Barbara was getting scarily possessive of Will. Paul's first step was to unite with Bonnie to bring down Marshall. They hired Simon and Henry to bug the candidate's room, which led to information about Jessica and Marshall's affair. He then blackmailed Jess by threatening to expose her indiscretion if she didn't agree to use Travers to get info on James's whereabouts. She instead admitted to the affair herself, while Marshall, on orders from James, hired a scheming college student/waitress named Brandy to lure Paul to a hotel room on Halloween. That night, James framed Paul for Brandy's murder. Stenbeck surprised everyone by surrendering soon after, revealing that he had remarried Barbara in Singapore. In an adjacent cell to his son, James promised to leave Paul alone if he would get Babs to run away with him. Paul refused, and though Bonnie worked hard to get him exonerated, it was Marshall who finally cleared Paul's name.