Rick Webber attended medical school with Monica Baird and the young doctors fell in love and planned to marry. Early in their engagement, Rick went on a mission to Africa and was presumed deceased following an airplane accident. Before his presumed death, Rick had sent a letter to Monica and ended their engagement.

While Monica grieved for Rick, she sought comfort in the arms of Rick's half-brother Jeff and married him. Ten months after Rick's presumed death, he returned to Port Charles and confessed to Monica that he was still in love with her. Monica returned the feelings but Jeff refused to grant her a divorce. Rick and Monica struggled with their feelings for one another but decided it would be best if they each moved on.

Rick started dating another doctor named Lesley Williams. Their relationship became serious and Lesley accepted Rick's offer of marriage. However, Rick and Monica still cared for one another and slept together while under quarantine at the hospital. Afterwards, Rick and Monica planned to be together but Rick changed his mind after Lesley's daughter Laura was involved in a car accident. Rick chose a future with Lesley and married her. Shortly after Rick made his decision, Monica announced that she was pregnant with Rick's child.

Lesley ended her marriage to Rick so he could raise his son with Monica. Rick and Monica tried to make their relationship work until it was revealed that Rick was not the child's father. He and Lesley remarried and became adoptive parents to a young boy named Mike and a teenager named Blackie Parrish. As Rick and Lesley settled into their new roles as adoptive parents, a woman named Ginny Blake came to town and claimed to be Mike's mother. Around the same time, Lesley was presumed dead in a car accident.

In Lesley's absence, Rick and Ginny bonded and married. Rick legally adopted Mike and Rick and Ginny had a child of their own named Rick Webber, Jr. Rick and Ginny left town to raise their family. Their marriage was later revealed to be invalid when Lesley returned very much alive after being held by Stefan Cassadine.

In 2002 Rick returned to walk Laura down the aisle. Scott and Rick worried that Laura would remember that while she was a teenager, she had walked in Rick and his mistress Theresa Carter together. Theresa panicked and attacked Laura. When Laura made a move in self-defense, she accidentally killed Theresa but blocked out the memory. Rick injected Laura with a medication which blocked out her memory of the event. Laura's boyfriend at the time, Scott Baldwin, walked in shortly after. Rick and Scott covered up Theresa's death.

When Laura started to regain her memories, Rick and Scott dug up a grave in the Scorpios' yard so the body would not be discovered. Despite their efforts, Laura remembered the incident with Theresa. As Laura started to panic over what she had done, Rick prepared to inject her with the same medication that had caused her to block out the memory. Laura believed that Rick was attacking her and they engaged in a struggle. Scott Baldwin walked in and hit Rick over the head with a candlestick. The blow to Rick's head was fatal and Laura believed for several years that she was responsible for Rick's death and slipped into a catatonic state.

In 2013, Rick's ghost joined Alan and Emily Quartermaine when they visited Monica and Tracy Quartermaine. The women were in the midst of a feud and Alan and Rick demonstrated how to make peace. Tracy and Monica followed suit and agreed to a truce. Afterwards, the ghosts of Rick, Emily, and Alan disappeared.