Ryan Lavery first appeared in Pine Valley after a bus accident sent numerous victims to Pine Valley Hospital. He hadn’t been involved in the crash, but tried to pose as a whiplash victim. Nurse Gloria Marsh saw through his act, however, but agreed not to turn him in to the authorities as long as he agreed to donate blood to save Dimitri Marick’s life.

Ryan conned Liza into giving him a job at WRCW in the advertising department, but this fell apart when a second scheme to get kickbacks from Erica’s Enchantment company failed. Erica threatened Liza with FCC repercussions unless Ryan were punished, and Liza came up with the perfect idea. Ryan had posed as Kelsey’s boyfriend to make Scott Chandler jealous and get him away from Gillian Andrassy, and Liza discovered that Scott was about to marry Gillian to keep her from being deported. Liza forced Ryan to marry Gillian by threatening him with jail for the kickback scheme, and suggesting to him that there were worse fates than being married to the beautiful, supposedly wealthy princess. She meanwhile convinced Gillian that Ryan was extremely wealthy, and when Ryan came bursting into Scott and Gillian’s wedding and literally swept the bride off her feet, Gillian agreed to marry him instead.

Gillian and Ryan had a week or so of wedded bliss before the truth came out – neither one had a dime. Gillian’s grandmother Eugenia, Dimitri and Edmund convinced the couple to stay at Wildwind and remain married for the year demanded by Immigration, and they began to fall for each other, but kept their feelings hidden as neither believed the other cared.

The situation deteriorated rapidly as Gillian had an affair with Dr. David Hayward. Ryan had decided to admit his love to Gillian, then found her in bed with Hayward and, devastated, went to a bar and met Jack’s sister, Kit Fisher, aka Christine Montgomery. Kit accused Ryan of rape, and he was arrested at the Crystal Ball in front of all of Pine Valley. Gillian stood by Ryan during the ordeal, and she and Hayley devised a plan to get Ryan and Gillian out of town. Hayley was jailed for refusing to give away Ryan’s whereabouts, and Gillian, desperate for bail for Ryan, agreed to sleep with David Hayward again. David followed Gillian to the hideout, told the police the location, and told Ryan how his wife had gotten the money.

Ryan was jailed, and received a visit from his brother Braden. Ryan realized that Braden had committed the rape, but confessed anyway, feeling that he owed his brother for protecting him from their abusive father. Tad and Dixie figured it out, however, and Ryan was cleared of all charges.

All this proved too much for the marriage, and Ryan and Gillian were divorced. He went to work at Sounds of Salsa, and was there for Hayley when her relationship with Mateo fell apart. They grew close, but eventually Hayley returned to Mateo. Gillian had meanwhile married Jake Martin as part of his plan to win custody of his daughter Colby, but the baby proved to be Adam’s, and Jake left for Chechnya.

As a result of his attraction to Hayley, Ryan lost his job at SOS and went on to found an Internet company, IncredibleDreams.com with Greenlee Smythe, who was carrying a very big torch for him. He and Gillian managed to find their way back to one another, and met at a secret rendezvous at Wildwind. They were about to announce their relationship when she got the news that Jake’s helicopter was lost.  Determined to find Jake and tell him the truth about their relationship, Gillian (who wound up stowing away on the plane) and Ryan, together with Adrian, decided to go to Chechnya. Ryan "borrowed" $3 million from IncredibleDreams.com to fund the rescue mission and off they went.  They found Jake, he took a bullet for Ryan and Ryan killed Jake's shooter, then, after a brief time in a German hospital, everyone returned to Pine Valley.  Ryan got quite a surprise when he discovered that Greenlee had trashed his loft while he was gone, in a rage over Ryan's relationship with Gillian and the fact that she'd borrowed the $3M from mobster Wade Randall in an attempt to cover Ryan's backside.  Ryan told Greenlee that no matter what she did there was no hope for them as a couple, then spent time in jail  - gee, the SEC just didn't  understand that he was only "borrowing" the money, and for a good cause at that!  Jackson got him out of prison and Ryan went back to meeting Gillian in the turret, still waiting for her to tell Jake the truth.