lucky spencer first appears in october 1993, as a ten-year-old that has spent his life on the run from mobster frank smith (mitchell ryan) with his parents, luke and laura spencer (anthony geary and genie francis). smith finds them living in british columbia, canada, and lucky is sent ahead to port charles for safety. lucky is shot and almost paralyzed while following luke. in august 1994, his sister lesley lu "lulu" spencer is born, and in 1995, he becomes good friends with emily quartermaine (then amber tamblyn) and they briefly run away. lucky struggles with a gambling problem in early 1996 and accumulates a large debt playing poker. lulu is diagnosed with aplastic anemia, and lucky is shocked to learn about his half-brother nikolas cassadine (then tyler christopher), who arrives to donate bone marrow and becomes instant rivals with lucky. lucky helps luke investigate stefan cassadine's (stephen nichols) computer game "timoria", and they find his presumed dead grandmother lesley webber (denise alexander). on valentine's day 1998, lucky finds elizabeth webber (rebecca herbst) after she has been raped and takes care of her. he finds out from nikolas that luke raped laura years ago, and moves out. he lives in a boxcar and eventually in a room above jason morgan (steve burton)'s bike shop in exchange for work. lucky and elizabeth help nikolas and emily catch emily's blackmailer, found to be elizabeth's rapist, and in the process lucky and nikolas start to bond. meanwhile, lucky and elizabeth fall in love; they exchange vows in a church on valentine's day in 1999. in april, lucky is presumed dead in a fire, but it is revealed he is being held captive by cesar faison (anders hove), hired by helena cassadine (constance towers).