during vaughan's tenure, lucky also made a drastic character change away from his previously known quick thinking and street smarts, seen both in his police work and personal life. by 2009, abby west of "entertainment weekly" wrote that lucky was "a character who's been written as earnest (he's johnny law to his father's rebel) if not the brightest bulb", while leslie gray streeter of "the palm beach post" called him "everybody's favorite cute punching bag." the character's misfortune escalates in 2006, when lucky becomes addicted to painkillers following the stress of a back injury, his medical bills and his guilt over the death of his partner. adding to his stress, his pride is often hurt when elizabeth is saved from peril by jason morgan (burton) rather than him, adding stress to their marriage. his addiction leads to an affair with maxie jones (storms), who supplies him pills and fakes a pregnancy in an attempt to make him stay with her. elizabeth finds out about the affair and sleeps with jason, becoming pregnant and telling lucky he is the father. the series of unfortunate storylines led steeler to state that the writers "made [lucky] a dull stooge whose woman would rather be with anyone else but him", while "tvsource magazine" called lucky "port charles' bumbling police detective who just can't catch a break".