Ryan Paevey takes brief GH hiatus, is already back on set

General Hospital's Ryan Paevey (Nathan West) took a brief break from the ABC soap to film a new Hallmark movie. So where does that leave Naxie?

Talk about a slow, slow burn. After almost a year of waiting to see what's going to happen between Ryan Paevey's Nathan West and Kirsten Storms' Maxie Jones, General Hospital fans have to wait just a little longer.

Though the fictional couple wed earlier this year, they haven't had a chance for an on-screen happily ever after due to Storms's unexpected break to recover from severe depression. And now Soap Central has learned that Paevey recently took a brief leave of absence from the ABC drama series to film the Hallmark Channel movie Harvest Love with Days of our Lives' Jen Lilley (ex-Theresa Donovan).

Love General Hospital, B&B, DAYS or other soaps? Join the conversation on our SC boards! Click here to connect with fans and dive into discussions now

On-screen, Maxie has been hoping Nathan will join her in Portland -- and rumor has it, the character will try it out for a couple of weeks as a way to explain Paevey's on-screen absence.

But fans who worry about the future of the couple seemingly don't need to fret for long: Paevey tells Soap Central that he is already back at work -- and filming a lot of material.

"Got back a week and a half ago, shot a little over a hundred pages of GH this week," Paevey shared.

When asked by a fan how those 100-plus pages of material equates into on-screen time, Paevey responded, "No way to forecast that...the powers that be control how it's distributed."

As for Harvest Love, the film follows a widowed surgeon (Lilley) who visits her family's pear orchard in hopes of taking a break from her overbooked life and reconnecting with her distant son. She starts to fall for the farm manager, Will (Paevey), who is growing a new hybrid pear and teaches her the importance of her heritage. The film is scheduled to premiere on Saturday, September 30, at 9:00PM/8:00PM C.

What do you think about Paevey taking a short break from GH? Do you want to see Naxie have a happily ever after? Or do you think circumstances have made the couple old news? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.