Emilio Garza's sweet-natured sister, Gabriela, was befriended by Joe Scanlon on her first day of nursing duties at General Hospital. Gabriela agreed to attend the Nurse's Ball with Joe, but was upset when he refused to see her again. Gaby soon learned that Joe had been exposed to HIV and helped him overcome his fear and they agreed to abstain from sex, but both were constantly tempted by each other. Earlier this year, Gabriela and Joe were making plans to move to Bounds Corner in Appalachia and set up shop there. They were worried awaiting Joe's next HIV test results. Gaby left to get ready for her performance at the Nurses Ball, and ran into the mysterious Caleb (a vampire). Through flashbacks, it was revealed that Caleb bit Gabriela's neck and during her performance at the Nurses Ball, she wound up performing a strip tease and she and Joe made love after Joe's HIV test came back negative. Gaby then dumped Joe for another man (Caleb) not knowing his name. Joe went to say goodbye to Gaby, and Gaby didn't even want to see him. She wound up accidentally scratching him and Joe was freaked when Gaby tried to lick the blood from his gash. Gabriela soon awaited Caleb's return, Caleb did come to her and share an erotic moment, but Caleb said there was someone else (Livvie) and Caleb forced Gaby to do his bidding and go visit Livvie. Gabriela visited Livvie and began talking about her new man, making Livvie think of Caleb, Livvie ran right to Caleb. Later on, Gaby caught Jamal stealing blood from the blood bank at GH and acted strange when Jamal had blood drawn...

Gabriela continued under seductive vampire Caleb's thrall, even after being locked up in the psych ward. Only Caleb's death freed her from his spell. Guilt-ridden over her actions (which included attacking and marking a biker for Caleb to kill), Gaby was further tormented by Caleb during the book ' Tempted.' Gabriela's entire upbringing was also thrown into turmoil. After she attacked her brother Emilio, but couldn't do the same to Jamal, Jamal discovered through records that she was his half-sister. She had been adopted by the Garza family, who never told her. She soon forgave them. When Caleb was gone for good, Gabriela began trying to rebuild her life, working at the hospital again. When Jamal's daughter Hope needed a kidney transplant to survive, Gaby gladly donated a kidney. She also tried to cope with rebel brother Ricky, the black sheep of the family.

Jamal's life spun out of control, and in her attempt to help him in an alley, Gaby fell to the ground and injured her one kidney. She recovered, and to her surprise, Joe returned to town. He'd heard she had recovered from her strange behavior, and wanted a second try. Gabriela accepted Joe's offer of a new life together and a job at his clinic in Appalachia. She told her feuding brothers Jamal and Ricky to start acting like brothers, because she wouldn't be there to look out for them. Gaby was released from the hospital, and after a goodbye party thrown by Joe's family, she and Joe departed to live happily ever after.