2003: On one of her trips to her old stomping grounds, Roxy and Nigel were hypnotized by her former boss, Mysterio, and they fell in love. Rex inadvertently broke the trance just as they were about to elope.

2004: After Kelly suffered a miscarriage, her unscrupulous brother, Paul, persuaded her to take baby Ace from Pine Valley and pass him off as Kevin's son, convincing her that Ace's mom didn't want the child. Paul repeatedly blackmailed her for money by threatening to reveal the truth about Ace. During a heated exchange in Atlantic City, Kelly wished him dead, and thought she got her wish when she woke up in her hotel room to find a seemingly lifeless Paul. Todd disposed of the body in a nearby landfill, but Paul turned up alive and persuaded girlfriend Natalie to help him blackmail Todd and Kelly. Natalie disguised her voice and called Kelly and instructed her to leave $20,000 behind a slot machine in Atlantic City, but John intervened when she went to give Paul the money.

2006: The cold case of who killed Thomas McBain was reopened and sent John and Natalie back and forth to Atlantic City. Three Llanviewers turned out to be involved: Spencer, for supplying his kid brother with a gun and sending him on a mission that went awry; David, for shooting Thomas in a panic (even though it turned out the gun was filled with blanks and Spencer shot him for real); and Paige, who was drunk but ended up operating on the dying cop. Natalie also met Vincent there during the investigation. She returned to Atlantic City later that year when she tried to dig up John's grave to prove that he wasn't dead.