Who Was Taggert's Sister Gia On General Hospital?

Back in 1996, Detective Marcus Taggert (Réal Andrews) came to Port Charles with a vendetta against Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) on "General Hospital." Taggert believed that Sonny had killed his mentor, Officer Deke Woods. What he didn't know was that when Deke was Sonny's stepfather, he severely abused him and his mother, and Sonny's then-boss, mobster Joe Scully (Robert Miano), had Deke eliminated. 

While Sonny and Taggert's animosity grew, Taggert's sister Gia came to town in 2000 and was played by Marisa Ramirez until 2002. The part was then recast with Andrea C. Pearson in the role until October 2003. Gia started off on a bad note when she tried blackmailing the wealthy Emily Quartermaine (then Amber Tamblyn) but ended up helping Emily and her friends catch a killer. She also grew close with Nikolas Cassadine (then Colton Scott), residing in a room in his cottage, and the two subsequently became lovers. At the time, Laura Spencer (Genie Francis) and Carly Corinthos (then Sarah Brown) were running the cosmetics company called Deception. 

They were looking for a new woman to be the face of it, and Gia and Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) were both in the running. In an attempt to ensure that Gia would garner the position, Carly had glamorous photos taken of her and arranged for Laura to be locked out on the building's roof. When Liz backed out of the running, and once Laura realized that Gia's pictures were amazing, she gave her the job.

Because his villainous grandmother, Helena Cassadine (Constance Towers), brainwashed his brother, Lucky Spencer (then Jacob Young), Nikolas pretended to leave Gia for Elizabeth to trick Helena. Lucky also had feelings for Liz, and Gia was surprised when he kissed her. Helena had removed Lucky's memories of loving Liz, so Gia did the honorable thing by helping Liz use the Ice Princess — then the world's largest uncut diamond — to restore Lucky's memories and deprogram him.

Nikolas had given Gia mixed signals by kissing her and then pushing her away again. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Gia eventually learned about his plan after overhearing Helena ordering him to kill Liz. Nik's father, Stavros Cassadine (Robert Kelker-Kelly) had been released from a cryogenic chamber and was working with Helena on a nefarious scheme. Finally, the villains were defeated and incarcerated. 

The couple got engaged, and when Gia drove after having some celebratory champagne, she accidentally hit Courtney Matthews (Alicia Leigh Willis). Nik covered it up, making it seem like Courtney was at fault. Helena had escaped from jail and used the accident to blackmail Gia into getting her some money. Nikolas let Helena escape to protect Gia, but ultimately once the truth got out, Courtney dropped the charges. Taggert tried breaking up Gia and Nikolas, but that plan failed, and they stayed together. 

After Gia quit her job at Deception, Nikolas financed Gia's new modeling career, but she was concerned about a rift between him and Lucky. They happened upon Rick Webber's (Chris Robinson) corpse and thought Lucky's father, Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary), had killed him. So, they sent the dead Rick off a cliff in a car, making it look like an accident. Although their secret got out, a skull was found in Rick's locker, exonerating them.

Gia next worked with Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn) as her legal assistant. As Alexis and Scott faced each other in a race to be District Attorney, Nikolas and Gia found a recording of Laura confessing to murdering Rick. Alexis used it as leverage over Scott, and nobody ever learned the truth. When Gia started to get close to troublemaker Zander Smith (Chad Brannon), Nik attempted to pay him to leave Port Charles. She found out about this and dumped him.

Zander was still hung up on Emily, but she eventually broke up with him because she was dying from breast cancer. Emily asked Gia not to reveal her affliction, but she was also interested in Nikolas, so Zander officially broke things off with her and slept with Gia. He then got back with Emily, and Gia helped him prepare for their deathbed wedding, but ultimately the marriage failed. Gia left Port Charles to go to law school and hasn't been seen on the show since.