Maia arrived in Ferndale in with travel companion Jay Copeland (Jaime Passier-Armstrong) and she gets a job at Shortland Street Hospital. It soon became clear the two were more than friends and were really lesbian lovers. The two moved into El Rancho with Li Mei Chen (Li Ming Hu), Jesse George (Hannah Tolich), Nelson Copeland (Quinton Hita) and Vinnie Kruse (Pua Magasiva). Maia struggled to deal with the realization her father Ian Jeffries (Jeffrey Thomas) was deathly ill and he, alongside Maia's mother Yvonne (Alison Quigan) moved to Ferndale to be closer to Maia.