Rusty Shayne, the son of Hawk and Sarah Shayne, grew up in Tulsa and after Hawk left the family when Rusty was just a kid, Sarah worked as a housekeeper for the rich Lewis family. As a teenager, Rusty was rebellious and got into trouble but H.B. Lewis helped put him on the right track and also helped him to become a police officer. Rusty arrived in Springfield on the payroll of H.B., in late 1986, when he was hired to trap a saboteur at Lewis Oil who was member of an organization called Diamondhead that H.B. believed was plotting to take over Lewis Oil. Keeping his work a secret, Rusty alienated Josh and Mindy Lewis who both saw him as arrogant. Later, in 1987, Rusty was able to prove that HB was right when he discovered that a Lewis employee named Cat Brixton was the saboteur. When Cat escaped, he kidnapped Rusty's sister, Roxie, and Mindy but Rusty saved them both. However, before Cat was able to confess, he was found hung in prison—murdered by the organization that he was working for. In the end, the head of the organization was found to be a man named John Cutler and Rusty, Josh, Reva and H.B. were able to catch him. In the end, Rusty and the Lewises were able to bring the heads of the organization to justice.

With his job completed, Rusty decided to stay in town and began to work at the Springfield police department. He also formed a relationship with Mindy, who had always looked down at him in the past. At this time, Rusty investigated the murder of Paul Valère and, since all evidence pointed to Johnny Bauer, Rusty was convinced that he was guilty. When Johnny went into hiding, an obsessed Rusty tried to catch him despite the fact that almost everyone, especially Roxie, believed in his innocence. Later, Valère's partner shot Rusty during an operation. Rusty survived and soon reunited with his estranged father, Hawk. Eventually, it was discovered that Valère's real murderer was Warren Andrews. Later, Rusty arrested drug addict Rose McLaren for prostitution and, when Rose was hospitalized after a drug overdose, Rusty, along with Mindy, wanted to help her but didn't realize that he would incur the wrath of Rose's boyfriend, Nicky Sutton, who was a drug dealer. In 1988, Nicky planted cocaine in Rusty's car and Rusty was suspended from the police force. Later, when Nicky threatened Rose, Rusty escaped with her and, while protecting Rose, he fell in love with her and they made love while hiding out in the Country Club stables. Finally, with the help of Springfield's supportive chief of police, Captain Larry Wyatt, and Ross Marler, Rusty was able to catch Nicky but was forced to kill him in self-defense during a shoot-out in a warehouse. Nicky's boss turned out to be Springfield's police commissioner. He kidnapped Rose to save himself but, luckily, Rusty was able to save Rose and the commissioner was arrested. Meanwhile, Rusty and Mindy broke up because of Rose and, soon after, Rusty and Rose became engaged.

In 1989, Josh was charged for the attempted murder of Will Jeffries who was, by now, married to Mindy. When Josh's unstable wife, Sonni Carrera, went to Venezuela, Josh, Reva and Rusty followed her. Reva finally caught Sonni on a bridge, Will was about to cut the rope bridge with a knife but Rusty and Josh were able to save Sonni and Reva from falling to their deaths. Afterwards, Rusty and Rose married in April in a double private ceremony with Rusty's parents, Hawk and Sarah. At the same time, Will had briefly kidnapped Marah in the hopes that Mindy would return to him. While investigating the kidnapping, Rose discovered that Will was behind it, so, on a rainy night, she confronted him. Sadly, Rose hit her head on a rock and died when Will pushed her. To cover his involvement, Will plied a dead Rose with alcohol and pushed her car into the lake to make it look like Rose had crashed her car while drunk. However, a grieving Rusty didn't believe that since he knew that Rose was dry. He was sure that Will was the murderer, but since he had no evidence, Rusty quit the police force in order to nail Will himself. At this time, Mindy returned to town and helped Rusty by gaslighting Will while lying to Will that she still loved him. When Will figured it out, he drugged Mindy, held her at gunpoint in a hotel and threatened to kill her and himself. At that moment, Rusty, Sonni and Josh arrived to save her. Rusty shot and killed Will while Josh saved Mindy when she was about to go over a railing. Rusty and Mindy then became closer again but separated because she felt insecure about the dangers of his job. At the same time, Rusty was offered a job as chief of detective in Tulsa, so Rusty left Springfield to get on with his life. He only reappeared, in 1990, for his sister, Reva's funeral when Reva was falsely presumed dead.

In November 1996, Sarah, now living in Italy, became deathly ill, and Rusty rushed there to see his mother one last time. Later, Reva told Rusty how proud their mother had been of him being a cop. In 1997, Josh's wife Annie Dutton pretended to be Sarah's long lost daughter and claimed that she had proof in the form of a 25-year-old picture of Sarah. In April, Hawk came across said picture at Reva's and he told her that it was about 14 or 15 years old and had been taken at Rusty's graduation from High School. Since Reva was skeptical, she asked Rusty to visit her and he confirmed Hawk's claim that the photo wasn't older than 15 years. He even knew the exact date of the picture since he had the same photo in his wallet. It was then that Reva realized that Annie was scamming her and she finally told Rusty the secret that Sarah told her before she died—she had given birth to an illegitimate child and given her up for adoption. She then told him that Annie claimed to be that child. A shocked Rusty made some phone calls and confirmed to Reva that Annie's was lying. The child that Sarah gave up would turn out to be Cassie Layne. Later, in September, Rusty returned to town to attend H.B.'s funeral. In February 1998, Reva decided to send her and Cassie's kids to Oklahoma for an extended visit with Rusty, an idea that Cassie wasn't too fond of since she was afraid of her ex-husband, Rob, taking their daughter. Cassie's fears were validated when Rusty later called to tell her that Tammy was missing. Luckily both Rob and Tammy returned to Springfield. In July, Rusty brought the kids home to Reva, who shared a loving reunion with them.

In May 1999, Rusty attended Reva's second wedding to Josh in Springfield, as well as Cassie's wedding to Richard Winslow in San Cristobel , in July 2000. In June 2002, Rusty returned to Springfield briefly to attend Josh and Reva's third wedding. In 2005, both Rusty and Hawk paid Reva a Christmas visit. While there, they noticed the tension between Josh and Reva and were saddened to learn that they'd separated again. But the tension didn't end there, Cassie was also furious about Tammy's relationship with Reva's youngest son, Jonathan. Rusty and Hawk would end up having an awkward meeting with Jonathan when they came across him kissing Tammy. Later, a secretly drunk Billy dropped by, fueling the flames by insulting Jonathan. When Jonathan took a swing at Billy, Hawk and Rusty got into it and, finally, Jonathan and Josh ended up knocking down the Christmas tree. In the fall of 2006, Rusty and Hawk returned to town to attend a party thrown by Reva. By now, Reva and Josh were divorced and Josh was dating Cassie. The problem was that Josh had been gallivanting with Cassie before he even divorced Reva--a situation that infuriated Hawk. That evening, while Hawk fumed at seeing Josh and Cassie together, Rusty spent the evening trying to calm him down.