HUMAN FACTOR

*****

Mario Larouche: (Looking outside after there's knocking on the door) What the hell.... (Opens the door)
Killer (Janette): Hello Mario.
Larouche: What do you want?
Janette: You. (She shoots him)

Nancy: You say something Mario? Mario. Mario? (Sees a woman through the window and backs away)

Nancy: He was lonely, so was I. We came here after my shift. I took a chance, and this happens.
Tracy: You've never seen him in the bar before?
Nancy: Like I said, he was a one nighter. He's from Montreal.
Nick: The woman you saw in the window, was she at the bar?
Nancy: If she was there, I didn't see her.
Tracy: We'd like to set you down with a sketch artist back at the station, Miss Everest. We need you to give a description. Officer?
Nancy: Can I get dressed first? (The officer leads her off)
Tracy: Memo to Tracy--It's a jungle out there in Dateland.
(Tracy leaves, and Nick walks over to Natalie)
Natalie: Small caliber, silenced weapon.... Either he knew the killer, or he didn't have time to duck. Whoever she is, she meant business.

Nightcrawler: Cold, Barren, Bleak.... Winter is the kindest season. The heart will not melt in winter. Chilled by the cold, we are spared the grief, the sorrow, the messy emotion of life. Winter is solace for the lonely. It's cool touch soothes the tattered heart.

Janette: It's young. Here, a glass of my very best. I have been saving it for a special occasion. LaCroix: Indeed. Very nice. So, as to why you have asked me to meet you here....
Janette: I've had a wonderful few years here. This is my home. It has sheltered me and allowed me to shelter others who needed it. To be a mother to the strays, as it were.
LaCroix: Ah yes the joys of parenting strays. We really must compare notes one day.
(She passes him some papers)
LaCroix: And what is this?
Janette: The deed. I'm giving the Raven to you.
LaCroix: Why?
Janette: Because I'm leaving.
LaCroix: Really. Why?

Patrick: Janette, are you okay?
Nightcrawler: (on the radio) The sad tales are best for winter.
Janette: I'm fine, Patrick.
Patrick: When are we going home?
Janette: Soon. How would you like to spend a few days at Aunt Peggy's?
Patrick: Sure. I mean, it's got to be better than us being in this car all day.
Janette: Hmm... (She smiles, laughing slightly)

Reese: Montreal arson says Mario Larouche was booked off.
Nick: So he takes a vacation at a cheap motel in Toronto?
Reese: A midlife crises, who knows?

Reese: Okay, let's get this out right away and fax it to Montreal arson.

LaCroix: Not very flattering, is it...whoever she may be.
Nick: You don't think that's Janette?
LaCroix: Little boys and girls run away hiding in their parent's closet. Nicholas, when one of us decides to move on, we disappear. Are you asking me to accept that Janette has been in this city without my knowledge? I would have sensed her. So would you. And to shoot an arson investigator. Really, Nicholas, how much sense does that make to you?
Nick: There's something more than 'It was just her time' isn't there?
LaCroix: Is there? She did what she had to do. It's that simple.
Nick: Nothing is that simple.

Janette: You always told me that I would know when the time came.
LaCroix: And how do you know that your time has come?
Janette: Because the thing that you fear the most has happened to me. Doubt...in what I am.
LaCroix: What you are is a vampire. It's quite simple really.
Janette: No, it's not so simple anymore.
LaCroix: Nicholas.
Janette: I like what I am, and I don't want to change. I don't want to end up like him. Drawn to mortals, to humanity. I must get away from him to reaffirm what I am.
LaCroix: I agree. You go.
Janette: Nicolas must not know. He already has enough doubt in his mind. LaCroix, make sure that there is always a place where strays like us are welcome.

Nick: She never told you why?
LaCroix: I never asked.

Nightcrawler: Where has she gone, slipped away like a child at the fairground lost in the crowd. Does she wonder trough the noise searching for the hand that guides? Does she embrace the heavenly alchemy breathing fresh liberty like the spring flower that brings summer? But summer soon fades into forever, and she is left forsaken to face the chill of winter, alone.

Janette: Nicolas....

Nick: It's good to see you.
Janette: I'm glad you think so.
Nick: A man was murdered tonight. It's my case. We have a description. A composite of the killer. Tell me the resemblance is just a coincidence?
Janette: I killed Larouche. Nicolas, I'm aware of the position that I put you in by being here, but I need your help.
Nick: Why? You could have just gone away.
Janette: No. No, there is evidence that I must find before whoever shot at me tonight finds it.
Nick: Shot at you?
Janette: Nicolas, please. Arrest me or help me. You don't have to decide now. I need to rest.

Reese: Where is your partner?
Tracy: Not in yet.
Reese: You trying to nuke your coordinates?
Tracy: The 23rd posted this earlier today. An abandoned vehicle near the civic center. It was shot up pretty good. They gave me a call on it.
Reese: Why?
Tracy: The car had Quebec plates. It was registered to a Robert McDonagh. He was a Montreal arson investigator who was shot and killed there two weeks ago.
Reese: Hmmm. Do we think our Jane Doe is linked?
Tracy: Well, Montreal has no leads so far, but, maybe.
Reese: Well, find out for sure.

Janette: How did you sleep?
Nick: I didn't.
Janette: So, will you help?
Nick: Yeah, I'll book off work.
Janette: Oh....
Nick: I said I'd help. Janette, tell me--did you really intend never to see me again? No explanations.
Janette: I thought it was best.
Nick: You were wrong.
Janette: Oh...Nicolas. I left because of you. Because of your quest for humanity. A vampire's heart must be cold. Immortality makes this so. Death is always around us, but we must never allow it touch us, so we cannot allow the emotion of loss to infect us. LaCroix knew this, and I agreed with him.
Nick: But...?
Janette: But you, after eight hundred years could no longer live without your humanity, and I began to wonder if you might be right. Eight hundred years is a long time to live with a cold heart--only for yourself.
Nick: You should have come to me. I could have helped you.
Janette: Ah, but I didn't want to be helped. I was accustomed to my immortality, and I was afraid.
Nick: Of what?
Janette: Look at the suffering that your search has caused you. So, I went to Montreal. A taste of Paris, but not too far from the family. I thought I would reaffirm the vampire in me, but it seems that I got caught in the very dilemma I left to avoid.
Nick: Meaning?
Janette: Nicolas, we have to go.

Janette: This is a key to a locker at the civic center, and inside the locker there's fifty thousand dollars and the location of the next fire that Mario Larouche was to have set.
Nick: Where did the money come from?
Janette: From a Toronto real estate developer who was paying Larouche to set and then cover up a series of Montreal arson fires.
Nick: You left to reaffirm the vampire in you and you get involved in this?

Reese: Well, mystery solved on Knight. He just called in sick. You get anything on Robert McDonagh?
Tracy: Yeah, I have a call in to a friend working the police beat at the Montreal Gazette. She's asking around. One thing, though. She says he has a sister living in Oxbridge.
Reese: Hmm. You may want to pay her a visit.
Tracy: I'm on my way.

Nick: So, should I just go where you tell me to and guess at everything else?
Janette: Larouche framed a friend of mine for the arson cover up.
Nick: A friend of yours?
Janette: Whom he then murdered.
Nick: So, you kill Larouche in revenge and...the evidence in the locker clears your dead friend. Such a humanitarian gesture.
Janette: Nicolas, I don't need your sarcasm, I need your help. You are not unaccustomed to taking injustices into your own hands.
Nick: All right, all right. Meanwhile, someone's trying to kill you.

Peggy: How can I help you?
Tracy: Mrs. Bolger, we found your brother's car--abandoned. You have any idea who drove it to Toronto?
Peggy: Well, probably his girlfriend and his son Patrick are here for a few days. She was driving his car.
Tracy: Are they still in town?
Peggy: Patrick is staying here. Janette said something about visiting her brother in the city.
Tracy: Janette?
Peggy: Janette de Brabant. Has something happened to her?
Tracy: We're not sure. But we'd like to talk to her about something else we're working on. Do you know how I might contact her or her brother?
Peggy: I have no idea, but Patrick might. I could wake him, if you want?
Tracy: Actually, that would be helpful. Thank you.

Nick: You know I have to ask.
Janette: His name was Robert McDonagh, and I was in love with him more than you can ever imagine. Nicolas, he has a son, Patrick, and he is an innocent. He doesn't understand why Robert was killed, but when he grows up, he will be told that his father was a criminal, and I cannot allow that.
Nick: Where's his mother now?
Janette: She died five years ago. I'm his mother, his...official guardian.

Patrick: Is Janette okay?
Peggy: Of course. Just answer the detective's questions, and then you can go back to sleep.
Patrick: Okay.
Tracy: Did Janette tell you why you were coming to Toronto?
Patrick: To visit Uncle Nicholas.
Tracy: Is his last name de Brabant? Have you ever met him?
Peggy: Neither of us have. Frankly, I didn't even know she had a brother until she mentioned it when she dropped Patrick off last night.
Patrick: Got a picture of him she gave me.
Tracy: Really? Do you think it would be okay if you showed it to me?
(Patrick leaves to get the picture)
Peggy: What exactly is the problem here?
Tracy: Janette may be a material witness in a murder.
Peggy: Does that mean you think that she's the killer?
Patrick: (Coming back) That's them. There's her brother right there. (The man in the picture looks like Nick)

Nick: How did you meet him?
Janette: Well, I was living in a loft in ?Haimovere? and Robert just, uh, well he barged in and swept me off my feet.

Janette: By the time he got to me, he had already saved five others that night. His heroism was beyond my comprehension. A mortal risking his one short life to save others. I envied his courage, his mortality. He reminded me of you. It was through him that I realized your quest to become mortal again is right.
Nick: It's strange hearing that coming from you.
Janette: Strange that I would run from the truth that I saw in you only to find it again in Robert. He and I were together from the night of the fire. He had been injured that night so he was transferred to the arson squad, and that's where it all started with Larouche.
Nick: But, um...how could the two of you be together? Did you tell him what you were?

Janette: Napoleon would not listen to General Murat*** because Murat was married to Napoleon's sister, Caroline, whom Napoleon just hated.
Patrick: Hated her? He loved her?
Janette: Well, she was very mean to him, in fact, she used to beat him up. Yes. She smelled--too much herring.
Patrick: His own sister used to beat him up?
Janette: Um-hmm.
Patrick: No way.
Janette: Yes! Patrick, don't make the mistake that a lot of men make. Never underestimate a woman's strength. Anyway, because he didn't listen to his brother-in-law Napoleon lost at Waterloo. And then of course, Wellington's men had caterers and Napoleon's men had to eat rats and bugs.
Patrick: Yuck.
Janette: Yuck. (She laughs slightly) All right, it's time for you to go to bed, huh?
Patrick: Yeah.

(Murat*** I'm using the historical name here, as I am not sure what exactly is said...although could very well be Murat.)

Robert: Napoleon's sister smelled?
Janette: Auhf...it's true.
Robert: I don't know what it is, but when you tell these stories, it's like you were there.
Janette: What if I were to tell you that I was? Robert, if we are to be together, we can't have secrets, right?
Robert: Oh, the I have a deep dark past thing. Forget it, Janette, everybody has a past.
Janette: Yes, but there is a past, and there is a past.
Robert: What are you getting at?
Janette: In the time that we've been together, you've never seen me in the daylight, you've never seen me eating or drinking.
Robert: Well, no actually.
Janette: And we haven't made love.
Robert: That I've noticed. I figured you'd let me know when you were ready. Look, where's this going?
Janette: Come here. (He comes to sit next to her) All right. Put your hand on my heart. (He does so, and starts panicking a bit) It's all right, it's all right.
Robert: What the hell are you talking about. Your heart isn't beating.
Janette: Robert, I would never hurt you. But you have to listen to me, please. If you love me.
Robert: This is some kind of a joke, right?
Janette: No. No. I'm older and have seen more things than you can ever imagine. (She vamps out)

Nick: How'd he take it?
Janette: Well, um...it was a long night, but love, as they say, conquers all.
Nick How was Robert involved in the arson cover up?
Janette: He told Mario that he knew what was going on and he wanted to be a part of it.

Larouche: These Toronto real estate guys pay fifty grand a job. I torch the building and then I do the arsonry part. It's perfect.
Robert: They'll pay that much?
Larouche: You're kidding? I saved them twelve million last year. I speed up business for them. And nobody gets hurt.
Robert: Abandoned buildings, warehouses.... You make sure there's nobody living in them?
Larouche: So there's a few squatters now and then, but you guys always get them out.
(Janette, who's listening in, vamps out and then flashes back to when Robert had saved her in the fire.)
Larouche: You think I want to kill people? Look, Robert, you could retire in a few years tops. Spend the rest of your days with your lovely Janette, lying in the Florida sun. You know, she could use some sun, that one.
Robert: Let me think about it.

Janette: Of course, he never intended to go through with it. He just wanted to confirm the cover-up. His mistake was to underestimate how ruthless Larouche was.
Nick: It's a common mistake.

Man (Name is Roy Martin, perhaps): Let them open it first.

Nick: We're being watched. Let's come back another time. Come on.

Janette: (Getting shot) I forgot to tell you, um, I'm mortal.

Natalie: Hey, you just missed some of my best work, that is if you're into post-mortem cranial examinations.
Nick: Nat, I need a favor.
(Someone pushes a gurney through)
Natalie: Thanks Jill.
Jill: No problem.
Natalie: Makes me nervous, favors from you usually include a little more than 'Can I borrow your car'.
Nick: I'll need that, too. (He goes back to the door, and brings Janette in)
Janette: Hello Natalie.
Nick: She's been shot.
Natalie: What?
Nick: Nat? She needs something for the pain. Can you clean the wound and stitch it up? (He goes back to the door, locking it)
Natalie: Heart rate normal. You can't be.
Nick: She is.

Officer Griffin: What can I tell you, Cap. A lady looks like that, you remember her. And those two guys were definitely trying to kill her.
Reese: Okay. Thanks Griffin.
Griffin: Sure.
Reese: Anything on her friend?
Tracy: Um...tall, blonde, dark coat. Hustled her out after she was shot. Got the hospitals covered.
Reese: Okay, so we got a wounded murder suspect and an accomplice, both of them being shot at by persons unknown for reasons unknown. Kind of gives you the feeling this thing's a little more complicated than we thought.
Tracy: Oh yeah. (Tracy pulls the picture) Cap?
Reese: Yeah. What?
Tracy: Oh...nothing. Forget it

Natalie: Now I don't want anyone getting me wrong here. I think we all know that I'm not exactly against vampires regaining their mortality, but how the hell are we going to explain this? You are protecting a murder suspect--correction--confessed killer, and here I am sewing her up and what, forgetting to file a report?
Nick: Nat, take it easy.
Natalie: Oh, I would love to take it easy, Nick.
Janette: I'm sorry I got you both involved.
Natalie: How comforting. So, how?
Janette: I don't know.
Natalie: Don't you want to know?
Nick: Of course I do.
Janette: I fell in love with a mortal. I think I knew the change was possible the first time we made love.

Nick: What made you stop?
Janette: His blood was inside me. You know that feeling, Nicolas. It's unlike anything a mortal can experience. But there was something more. Blood calms our hunger, yes, but his blood calmed my heart. I felt warmth. And then each time we made love, he let me feed, and each time I needed less and less. I don't know, I don't...maybe we were simply meant to be.
Natalie: Wait a minute, wait a minute. That can't account for what happened, can it? I mean, fate? You're telling me that all it took for you to become mortal was love and a little restraint?
Janette: No, no. No. For that to happen there was a price to be paid.

Robert: Patrick.... Take care of my son.
Janette: No, Robert no. I can save you. I can bring you across, Robert. Robert! No!

Janette: I tried to bring him back. I tried. I don't know if it was our love making, or if somehow taking in his blood had changed me, but...it didn't work.

Janette: It was as though eight centuries of repressed emotion were being released. I thought was going to die, I hoped I would die.
Nick: Instead, you became mortal.
Janette: The vampire in me lingered, or should I say, the killer in me. But after I killed Larouche, I felt it vanish completely. I'm willing to confess and I'll accept whatever punishment I'm given.
Nick: What about Patrick?
Janette: He still has his Aunt and Uncle, and they love him deeply, as I do.
Natalie: (The phone rings) Lambert. Ah, yeah, sure. I can ready for pickup in a few minutes. (She hangs up) Well, the real world intrudes. I'm afraid that we won't have the place to ourselves for very much longer. That local anesthetic will wear off in about an hour. (Tosses a bottle of pills to Nick) Here, take one of these every four hours after that.
Janette: Natalie...thank you.
Natalie: You're welcome.
Janette: I would like to call Patrick's Aunt Peggy to make sure that he's all right.

Man: Hello?
Janette: Who is this?
Man: We decided that maybe there was something you value more than your own life. We propose an exchange. Auntie and nephew for the key. All we want, is the key.

Nick: I'll do it their way, don't worry. No surprises.
Janette: Those people will kill anyone if it suits them...the way we used to.

Tracy: Nat?
Natalie: Hey Trace, what I can do for you?
Tracy: Actually, I need your advice.
Natalie: Well, a pathologist's advice is freely given. Most of my patients don't pay up anyway.
Tracy: It's about Nick. I think he's involved with a woman who's a murder suspect.
Natalie: What makes you think that?
Tracy: I talked to her ward, a boy name Patrick. Here's a photo-copy of a picture he showed me. Recognize her?
Natalie: No, but then that isn't the best picture, is it? I mean the guy, I admit, looks a bit like Nick, but it's hard to tell from this.
Tracy: But the boy said he's her brother.
Natalie: Ah, well there you go, Nick has no family.
Tracy: But if it is him, and he's protecting a fugitive.... You know something, don't you?
Natalie: Yeah, I know Nick, and I know that he always tries to do the right thing.

Nick: Just try to stay calm, I won't let anything happen to him.

Man: Come in. Now, whoever you are, you shouldn't have gotten involved in this. Over there.
Nick: We have a deal--their lives for the key.
Man: That's the deal.
Nick: Untie them first.
Man: First the key.
Janette: Honey, it's okay. It's going to be over soon.
Nick: I'm just reaching into my pocket. (He pulls out the key)
Man: Could you....throw it on the table. (Nick does so while the man puts his jacket on and retrieves it) Cut them loose. (Him and the other guy shoot Janette and Nick)

Nick: Janette. Janette!
Janette: Get Patrick out, Nick. Let me go.
Peggy: Patrick!
Nick: Help me get her out of here.
Patrick: Mom...Mom!
Nick: Come here. Come here. I'll look after Janette. Listen, just help me get your aunt out of here, all right? Patrick! That's a good boy. Go on. Go on!
Janette: No.
Nick: Janette, I can bring you across.
Janette: No. No, no.
Nick: Janette!
Janette: No. Don't. Don't, Nic....
Nick: Aaghh!

Natalie: (In a dream) I just got the test results. What caused Janette to become mortal, was a massive dose of beta-blockers and nora-epanephrine caused by her emotional trauma. It means that we've been doing the right thing all along, and I've got proof positive. Nick, we're going to have a baby.
Reese: (on the phone) Knight, where the hell are you? We've got a double homicide our hands. Civic Center. (Nick wakes up) I want you there ASAP, Knight. (The answering machine beeps.)

Tracy: Hey, you okay?
Nick: Yeah.
Tracy: You look a little weird.
Nick: Yeah, I'm fine. I want to thank you for covering for me earlier.
Tracy: Look, I don't know what you were doing with this Janette person or why. Just please tell me it was the right thing and it's not going to come back and haunt us.
Nick: No, it's not going to come back to haunt us. But, as to whether or not it was the right thing...I don't know.
Tracy: So, we found this in the uh, locker. Looks like Mario Larouche was up to some pretty dirty business with a very prominent Toronto real estate developer.

Nick: Hi...
Natalie: So...everything uh, smoothed over?
Nick: As well as can be expected. Patrick will be fine with his Uncle and his Aunt.
Natalie: Okay...well, let's hope so. He's been through a lot.
Nick: Nat, what Janette said about how much she loved Robert, about what happened between them...I can't take that kind of chance with your life.
Natalie: I know. I keep repeating to myself--extraordinary circumstances, and I think I'm okay with that. How about you, are you okay?
Nick: So far.
Natalie: Good, because your day just got off to one hell of a lousy start. (Pulls open the body bag, and there's fang marks.)

LaCroix: Even Leonardo couldn't capture all of her beauty. Strange, how things turn out, isn't it? Through hellish circumstance, she obtains what has proven so elusive to you, only to have that one in a billion happenstance taken from her by you. I don't know whether to laugh, or to cry for you, Nicholas.
Nick: She must have left it here today. You haven't told me everything.
LaCroix: No. But then neither have you. It seems that I have lost a daughter, and regained a son. Plus a changé, Nicholas, plus a changé.