"A Boy in a Bush"
[SCENE_BREAK]
[Fade in: Auditorium. From a podium on stage, Dr. Brennan is giving a lecture to a large group of anthropology students. Behind her shines a slide showing a variety of what look to be skull fragments.]
BRENNAN: As far back as 1938, the director of the F.B.I., J. Edgar Hoover, wrote to the then curator of the Jeffersonian Institution, Professor Daniel Payne, to aid in the evaluation of specimens who were thought to be irrefutably human. This was the result.
[She changes the slide, and a drawing of an ape appears. The students laugh.]
BRENNAN: Despite this early disagreement, the F.B.I. and the Jeffersonian have forged a mutually beneficial, if somewhat tense, relationship which survives to this day. Thank you.
[The students applaud and Goodman steps to the podium.]
GOODMAN: Thank you, Dr. Brennan. Are there any questions?
[A girl in the audience raises her hand.]
OS: GOODMAN: Yes?
[She stands.]
FEMALE STUDENT: How much money have you made from your book?
BRENNAN: I don't really know. I have an accountant and an agent-
GOODMAN (cutting her off): That's not really the kind of question we're looking for from an anthropology student.
[A boy in the hand is called on.]
OS: GOODMAN: Yes?
[He stands.]
MALE STUDENT: Did you get your agent before or after you wrote the book?
[Brennan moves toward the podium to answer, but Goodman speaks first.]
GOODMAN: People, Dr. Brennan is an accomplished forensic anthropologist who writes books on the side.
[In the audience, Booth stands from among the students.]
BOOTH: I have a question regarding role of the F.B.I. in your book: Who do you base the brilliant and insightful Special Agent Andy Lister on?
GOODMAN: Oh, for God's sake.
BOOTH: Because, you know, I'm pretty sure it was me.
BRENNAN: What are you doing here, Booth?
[Cut to: Outside the building, Brennan and Booth are walking side-by-side toward the parking lot.]
BOOTH: Local police got an anonymous call saying that there were human remains in a field behind a mall in the suburbs.
BRENNAN: I did an anthropological profile of the suburb as a grad student. The whole notion of a created community, a modern utopia with its own mores and rules... It's fascinating.
BOOTH: Fascinating to who?
BRENNAN: To "whom".
BOOTH: Whom. (He sees the shiny, silver sports car they've walked up to and laughs) You've got to be kidding.
BRENNAN: What? My publishers gave it to me.
BOOTH: Gave it to you?
BRENNAN: Book sales are pretty good. It's supposed to be a nice car.
BOOTH: Gave it to you?
BRENNAN: Yeah.
BOOTH: Well, why'd you park crooked?
BRENNAN: Well, the guy said to always park it like that.
BOOTH: He's wrong. It makes you look like an idiot.
BRENNAN: How about I drive for once?
BOOTH: No, I cannot show up at a crime scene in that.
BRENNAN: Why?
BOOTH: Because it would detract from the gravity of my F.B.I. presence. Especially if you parked crooked.
BRENNAN: Why is the F.B.I. involved in the search for human remains behind a suburban mall?
[Booth pulls a paper out of his jacket and hands it to her.]
BOOTH: Because this boy is missing.
[The paper is a missing person flier with a picture of a young boy on it.]
BRENNAN: Oh... A child.
BOOTH: Yeah.
[Cut to: The field behind Clayton Hills Mall. The parking lot is filled with vehicles, among them squad cars and a coroner's van. Booth, Brennan, and Zack are speaking with a police officer.]
POLICE OFFICER: Anonymous call came in a couple hours ago. No sign of him yet.
BOOTH: How do you know it wasn't a prank?
[The officer starts a recording of the call.]
GIRL (on cassette player): You have to come right away! There's, like, a dead kid here, all rotted away! It's in the field behind Clayton Hills Mall. You better come!
BOOTH: Well, that rings true.
BRENNAN: Why anonymous?
POLICE OFFICER: Kids come here to party, misbehave.
BRENNAN: Adolescents and preadolescents tend to seek out their own space to establish their own society, to counter parental influence.
POLICE OFFICER: You mind if I make an observation?
BRENNAN: No, of course not.
POLICE OFFICER: In your book, the cops come off as very one-dimensional. Why is that?
BRENNAN: You mean two-dimensional.
ZACK: One-dimensionality exists only in theory as a mathematical value.
POLICE OFFICER: Okay. Really looking forward to your next book.
[He exits.]
BRENNAN: Did you bring the thermal imager?
ZACK: I don't think we need it.
[Brennan gives him a look.]
ZACK: It makes me look like the Great Gazoo.
BRENNAN: I don't know what that means, but we definitely need it, Zack.
[He sighs and walks off.]
[Cut to: A bit later, in the field. Zack is wearing the thermal imager, which looks like a large orange and yellow helmet over his head. We see Booth and Brennan through his point of view, in yellows, greens, and reds based off of thermal heat.]
BOOTH: How's it going there, Darth? See anything on Saturn? (off of Brennan's look) Oh, please tell me you've seen at least one Star Wars movie.
BRENNAN: When I was seven, and leave Zack alone.
[Back to normal view.]
ZACK: Can we please hurry up? It's stuffy in here.
[They begin to walk.]
ZACK: I should be able to see any heat residue released from decomposing bodies.
[They happen upon a small area where there obviously used to be a fire. Some crates and various garbage surround it.]
OS: BOOTH: Party central.
BRENNAN: Because suburbs are so homogeneous, adolescents tend to rebel in predictable and uniform ways. Fire, illicit substances, wayward behavior.
BOOTH: Do you think that wayward behavior would include abducting a six-year-old child?
BRENNAN: It's pretty extreme. Adolescents are more likely to drink alcohol and listen to culturally inappropriate music at high volume.
ZACK: I'm picking something up.
[From his POV, we see mostly green as he walks through grass, but then a patch of yellow, signifying some heat, appears.]
[Back to normal view, Zack takes the imager off of his head.]
ZACK: Oh my God.
BOOTH: What? Why'd you stop?
ZACK: You can turn on your flashlight. Aim it over there.
[He pulls back some high grass and we see the mostly decomposed body of a young child.]
[SCENE_BREAK]
[TITLE CREDITS]
[Fade in: The Jeffersonian Medico-Legal Lab. The child's body is laid out on a table on the raised center platform.]
BRENNAN: Before proceeding with maceration, any general observations? Zack?
ZACK: Epiphyseal fusion puts the age at approximately six to ten years, though the stature suggest younger.
BRENNAN: Good. I concur. Cause of death?
ZACK: Blunt trauma to the chest.
[Brennan walks over to Angela, concerned.]
BRENNAN: Are you all right?
ANGELA: He's so small. That's all. Go on with your work. I'm okay.
[Brennan returns to the table.]
HODGINS: The remains were significantly degraded by insect and animal activity, mostly dog and rodent. Despite the condition of the body, he's been dead between only thirty-six to forty-eight hours.
BRENNAN (gesturing towards the victim's clothes): These were found a few yards from the body. Notice that they are in perfect condition. What does that tell you?
ZACK: The victim wasn't wearing them when he was killed.
BRENNAN: Which suggests he was sexually assaulted.
[Angela approaches the table and hands a sheet of paper to Brennan.]
ANGELA: I'm done.
[Brennan takes the sketch and walks to a computer screen, where the missing flier is displayed, to compare.]
BRENNAN: I think we have a match. The clothing matches. It's Charles Gregory Sanders.
[Cut to: The Sanders house.]
OS: BOOTH: On behalf of the F.B.I., we're extremely sorry for the loss of your son.
[Cut to: Inside. Booth is talking with Charles' mother, Margaret Sanders, and one of the Sanders' neighbors, Ellie Nelson.]
BOOTH: And I have a few questions, I mean, only if you're up to it.
[Margaret nods.]
BOOTH: You have two other sons?
MARGARET: Foster sons. Though I try not to make the distinction.
ELLIE: Shawn and David Cook. They are brothers. I live right next door.
BOOTH: Charlie was your own?
MARGARET (voice breaking): Yes. Charlie was mine.
BOOTH: What about Mr. Sanders?
MARGARET: We divorced shortly before Charlie was even born. He works overseas.
ELLIE: He doesn't even send child support.
BOOTH: You mind if I ask how you afford this nice neighborhood?
MARGARET: Child Services wouldn't allow a single mother to foster if she worked. I live off the proceeds of a generous trust fund my parents set up long ago.
BOOTH: And the day that Charlie disappeared - all three boys went to the park?
ELLIE: It's two blocks away. It's a very safe neighborhood. They walk farther to school.
MARGARET: We all keep an eye out for each other around here. People are good neighbors, take an interest.
[A door opens in the background.]
OS: SKYLER: Mom?
MARGARET: In here, Skyler.
[Skyler Nelson enters with Shawn and David Cook.]
ELLIE: This is my son, Skyler.
SKYLER: Dad told me to bring the boys back. We gotta go on a job.
DAVID: There's nothing to do here.
SHAWN: Our video game's broke.
MARGARET: Shawn, David, this is Agent Booth. He's gonna find out what happened to Charlie.
DAVID: How're you gonna figure it out?
BOOTH: Oh, I'm in the F.B.I. We always figure it out. Boys, I mean, if it's alright with your mother, maybe I could help you out with your video game.
[Margaret nods, and the boys head off with Booth following behind them.]
[Cut to: Brennan's office. All the squints are gathered there.]
GOODMAN: These are invitations to a banquet.
[He hands an envelope to Brennan.]
BRENNAN: You called a special meeting to invite us to a party?
GOODMAN: Don't this of it as an invitation, consider it a summons. It's for donors.
[He moves to Hodgins, who stands.]
HODGINS: Meet and greet, press the flesh, butt kiss...
GOODMAN: I don't like it any more than you do, but these people fund our research, and all they want in return is to rub elbows with a scientist every once in awhile.
[He walks toward Angela.]
HODGINS: I can't make it.
BRENNAN: Yeah, me neither.
ANGELA: I have a date that night.
GOODMAN (handing her an invitation): You don't even know when it is.
[Zack raises his hand.]
GOODMAN (passing him an envelope as well): Yes, Mr. Addy?
ZACK: What kind of food will there be?
GOODMAN: When I said you should think of this invitation as a summons, I understated. It's a subpoena. A grand-jury subpoena. Ignore it at your own peril.
BRENNAN: You're not gonna fire us if we don't go.
GOODMAN: No, not fire you, but I can move your parking spot to Lot M. Enjoy the shuttle ride.
ZACK: The shuttle smells like feet.
BRENNAN: I know when I'm beat. I'm in.
ANGELA: What the hell, it's a party.
ZACK: Do I have to wear a tie?
GOODMAN: Formal wear. I've arranged for a limo to pick us up here.
HODGINS: Not me. I'm not afraid of parking or feet.
ZACK: Wait, you drive me to work. You can't just think of yourself.
GOODMAN: Repercussions and consequences, Dr. Hodgins. I'm your boss, and you will go to this banquet.
[Hodgins snaps a rubberband that's around his wrist as Goodman exits, and Angela takes notice.]
[Cut to: The Sanders house. Booth is helping the kids with their video game.]
DAVID (as Booth puts a controller back together): Do you know what you're doing?
BOOTH: Yeah. I can fix anything.
DAVID: Cool.
BOOTH: You guys, uh, you guys have girlfriends?
DAVID: I do.
SHAWN: Her name's Leila.
BOOTH: Leila. Leila.
DAVID: I thought you were gonna ask us questions about Charlie.
BOOTH: Yeah, so which one of you puny mortals wants to challenge me first?
SHAWN: Oh, me!
[They start playing, and Shawn eyes Booth a bit suspiciously.]
[Cut to: The Jeffersonian, Zack's office.]
BRENNAN: You about to clean the bones?
ZACK: Yes. I'm warming up the boiler now.
BRENNAN: Something wrong?
ZACK: These are the smallest remains I've ever worked on.
BRENNAN: That's a valid observation, Zack, but it's not helpful to the investigation.
ZACK: Sorry, Dr. Brennan.
BRENNAN: I was at Waco, Branch Davidian compound. I helped identify children who had been killed in the fire. Seventeen of them.
ZACK: So, you're saying I'll get used to it?
BRENNAN: No, I'm saying you'll never get used to it. We're primates. Social creatures. It's coded into our DNA to protect our young. Even from each other.
ZACK: So, I'm always going to feel terrible?
BRENNAN: What helps me is to pull back emotionally. Just... put your heart in a box.
ZACK: I am not good with metaphor, Dr. Brennan.
BRENNAN: Focus on the details.
ZACK: Details. Yeah, I can do that.
[They walk over to where the bones are laid out on a table.]
ZACK: No trauma to the skull. No compound fractures. Charlie was not beaten to death or dismembered.
BRENNAN: It helps not to refer to the victim by name.
ZACK: Greenstick fractures on ribs four, five, six, and seven. And the sternum is snapped transversally from the tip to the xiphoid.
BRENNAN: Okay, what does that indicate?
ZACK: The victim's chest was struck by a heavy, blunt object.
BRENNAN: Are you completely certain we've learned everything we can from the body at this stage of decomposition?
ZACK: I've been over everything at least three times.
BRENNAN: Smell the mouth.
[He does so.]
BRENNAN: Anything behind the typical smells of decomposition?
ZACK: Some kind of chemical. Chloroform. Something used to render the boy unconscious.
BRENNAN: Take samples from the mouth, jaw, sinuses, and... what's left of the esophagus. Kids make it harder, Zack.
[She exits, and he looks down at the body for a moment.]
[Cut to: Outside the Sanders house, Booth exits with Shawn, David, and Margaret.]
BOOTH: All right, look, you beat me bad.
DAVID: No wonder you don't have a girlfriend.
MARGARET: David!
BOOTH: It's okay, Mrs. Sanders. It's alright. No, I do have a girlfriend.
SHAWN: Is she pretty?
BOOTH: Nah, she's butt ugly. Got a glass eye, snaggly back teeth. So, was Leila with you the day that Charlie disappeared?
DAVID: Uh, yeah, actually. We stopped and played some video games at the arcade.
BOOTH: That must've been before you and Charlie went to the park.
MARGARET: You didn't go to the mall that day, David.
[She looks at David, who looks away.]
MARGARET: Shawn?
DAVID: Don't ask Shawn, mom.
BOOTH: You met Leila at the mall, didn't you? You left Charlie with Shawn at the park.
DAVID: Well, just for a few minutes, and then they came back to the mall.
MARGARET: David!
DAVID: Shawn let go of his hand for a second, Charlie was gone like that!
[Across the street, Skyler and his father load up a truck to go off on an extermination job.]
DAVID: And then we came straight home.
BOOTH: Charlie wasn't taken from the park, he was snatched from the mall. We've been looking in the wrong place.
OS: MR. NELSON: Come on, son. Let's go.
[Cut to: Jeffersonian lab. Hodgins places the victim's jawbone into a plastic box and replaces the lid. Angela approaches.]
ANGELA: What's with the rubber band?
HODGINS: Methyl oxide vapor in this chamber will bind to whatever compound Charlie breathed in before he was killed.
[Angela reaches over and snaps the rubber band.]
HODGINS: Ouch!
ANGELA: It's an anger management technique, right?
HODGINS: The key there is management, which is what I'm doing. Managing my anger.
[The box fills with vapor.]
HODGINS: There'll be a color change. Red for pnictogens and chalcogens, and blue for halogens.
ANGELA: I get that you're a little off-kilter. Mad at the government, conspiracy of dunces, all that. Maybe even furious that you've had to mount a little boy's jawbone inside a box to find out what killed him. What I don't get is why going to a banquet makes you angry.
[The vapor starts to clear, and the bone glows blue in areas.]
HODGINS: Halogens it is. I'm gonna scrape off the particles and see if the mass spectrometer can identify what type of halogen.
ANGELA: Anger is only fear, turned inwards.
[She moves to leave, but stops to snap the rubber band against his wrist one more time. He flinches, and she exits.]
[Cut to: Angela's office. Brennan, Angela, and Booth are looking at her computer monitor.]
ANGELA: There are twenty surveillance cameras taking stills every two seconds throughout the mall, including access corridors and parking lots. I concentrated on the ones aimed at the public concourse.
BOOTH: Okay, ten thousand people a day go through that mall. How are we gonna find one small kid?
BRENNAN: Angela designed a mass recognition program to apply body types to skeletal remains.
ANGELA: Endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph, that sort of thing. I modified it to scan two dimensional images. In this case, we're looking for body masses roughly congruent with Charlie, Shawn, and David.
[She points at the screen.]
ANGELA: There's David.
BOOTH: You're actually one of them.
ANGELA: One of who?
BOOTH: A squint. I mean, you look normal and you act normal, but you're actually one of them.
ANGELA: This whole mass recognition program was Brennan's idea. I'm completely normal. Really.
BOOTH: Yeah, maybe before you got this job. But now... BRENNAN (pointing at the screen): I see Charlie.
BOOTH: Oh. That's him, all right.
ANGELA (whispering): Oh, God.
BRENNAN: Ange? Are you okay?
ANGELA: It's just... these are probably the last pictures of this little... guy alive. Why is he alone? Why isn't anybody with him? (pause) Sorry. Max resolution is X-40 by 480 pixels per square inch.
BOOTH: No, wait, he's not alone. Someone's calling him over. Can't you just zoom in?
[On the screen, we see Charlie walk over to a person, who's obscured by a banner.]
ANGELA: The fewer pixels that make up an image, the more the picture degrades once we zoom in on it. Did that sound too squinty?
BRENNAN: Any way to enhance it?
ANGELA: Well, I wouldn't bet a date with Colin Farrell on it.
BRENNAN: I know him. He's funny.
ANGELA: Funny is Will Ferrell, sweetie. Hot is Colin Farrell.
BOOTH: Now look, wait. The kid was definitely moving toward someone. He wasn't struggling. He wasn't trying to get away. You know, I want to add the neighborhood kid Skyler Nelson to the list of possible suspects.
ANGELA: I have one other angle, but our bad guy is still obstructed in it.
[They all look at the screen.]
BOOTH: Who the hell are you?
[Dissolve to: Jeffersonian hallway. Angela's sitting on a bench. Brennan approaches.]
BRENNAN: Are you thinking of leaving the Jeffersonian?
ANGELA: I'm not really this person.
[Brennan sits down.]
BRENNAN: What person?
ANGELA: I'm not like you. I'm not driven by the need for justice and all that. I'm a good-time girl.
BRENNAN: We have good times.
ANGELA: Cracking jokes over murdered skeletons is not good times.
BRENNAN: I know it's harder on you than it is for the rest of us.
ANGELA: No it's not. (pause) Why?
BRENNAN: Because you look at their faces. We look at everything else. It's more clinical for us. For you - it's personal. When we see a murdered child-
ANGELA: Honey I... I'm, no offense, I'm really not up for one of your 'it takes a village' anthropology lessons. This is the longest I've ever had a job. That's because of you.
BRENNAN: If this is about hours, or time to do your own art, then-
ANGELA: Just let me work on it, okay? I'm an artist. I used to draw naked guys. Now I draw dead guys.
BRENNAN: Just don't decide anything without talking to me.
ANGELA: Of course I won't.
[She leans back and sighs. Brennan leans back as well.]
[Cut to: Jeffersonian lab. Booth and Brennan walk down the corridor.]
BRENNAN: I'm afraid Angela might quit.
BOOTH: I'm amazed she stuck it out this long.
BRENNAN: Why?
BOOTH: Oh, because she's human.
[Brennan gives him look.]
BOOTH: I'm sorry, Bones, it's just that, you know, uh... Angela didn't get the same training that the rest of you got on, uh, planet Vulcan.
BRENNAN: I don't know what that means.
[They enter a room where the skeleton is laid out and Zack is waiting.]
BOOTH: She's more sensitive.
ZACK: Who's more sensitive?
BRENNAN: Angela.
BOOTH: She likes puppies and kitties and ducklings, and, you know, Jell-O shots and, you know, dancing on bars.
[He makes some music and dances a little.]
BRENNAN: I know that. She's my best friend. And Angela's not the only person in the world who likes baby animals.
ZACK: I never got the big attraction.
BOOTH: I rest my case. She's more sensitive.
ZACK: We cross-referenced the length and density of Charlie's leg bones with other children his age. The victim, I mean.
[Booth stares at the skeleton for a moment, and is obviously emotionally affected by it. Zack notices.]
ZACK: The thing to do is concentrate on the details.
[There's a pause.]
BOOTH: Let's do that.
[He clears his throat.]
BRENNAN: We found some abnormalities. They're bowed, and abnormally short.
ZACK: Also, the victim's show freezing of the joints at the hip and knee.
BOOTH: Are you saying Charlie was crippled?
BRENNAN: The victim was disabled, yes.
BOOTH: His mother never mentioned that.
ZACK: The ribs are broken in two places, which is not typical of blunt-force trauma.
BRENNAN: How do you explain that?
ZACK: I'd attribute it to his medical condition and the corresponding brittleness of his bones.
BRENNAN: I agree. What is that condition?
ZACK: It looks like scoliosis - a bend in the spine.
[Brennan walks over to the x-rays on the wall.]
BRENNAN: I think it's more than that, Zack. There are multiple calcified lesions on the posterior thoracic vertebrae. That, plus Charlie's short stature, and the asymmetric length of his legs... Margaret Sanders may not be Charlie's biological mother.
BOOTH: What?
BRENNAN (to Zack): Test the bones for X-linked hypophosphatemia and Coffin-Lowry Syndrome.
[They start to move away, but Booth stops them.]
BOOTH: Whoa, whoa. Okay, hold on. Simmer down, just back up to the part where she's not his mother.
ZACK: Dr. Brennan is having me check for hereditary genetic defects which are always passed from mother to child.
BRENNAN: If Charlie had one, then Margaret Sanders is not his mother.
[Cut to: Interrogation room. Booth and Brennan are questioning Margaret Sanders.]
MARGARET: How can you say that?
BRENNAN: Charlie suffered from a hereditary genetic disorder called hypophosphatemia.
BOOTH: Charlie's real mother would have the same disease.
BRENNAN: You do not.
MARGARET: Never say I wasn't Charlie's real mother, because I was.
BOOTH: Biological mother, then. Mrs. Sanders, you are not Charlie's biological mother. You want to explain that to us?
MARGARET: I can't have children. That's why my husband left me. So I took in foster kids.
BRENNAN: Like Shawn and David Cook.
MARGARET: And Charlie. Though is name was Nathan. I got him as a baby down in Pittsburgh. Ten days old. His mother was arrested on drug charges, and Child Services brought him to me. Three weeks I had him. Then the charges were dropped.
BOOTH: You kept him?
MARGARET: No. I gave him back. But it nearly killed me. I stayed in touch. I bought him things - formula, stroller. I wanted to make sure he was all right.
BOOTH: Nathan what, Mrs. Sanders?
MARGARET: Nathan Downey. His mother was a drug addict named Janine. Christmas Day I found her dead on her kitchen floor, a needle stuck in her arm. And I could hear Charlie, crying upstairs. So I went up.
BRENNAN: And you took him home.
MARGARET: I looked him in the eyes, and I promised him I would never leave him alone again. And he stopped crying. I expected every day for Child Services to come looking.
BRENNAN: He would've ended up back in the system anyway.
MARGARET (breaking down, crying): I meant to keep him safe... and love him. And now he's dead.
[Cut to: Booth's office. Booth enters, Brennan right behind.]
BOOTH: I had to arrest her.
BRENNAN: The story checked out. The overdose.
BOOTH: She confessed to kidnapping.
BRENNAN: Margaret Sanders did nothing more than respond to the anthropological imperative. She saw an orphan, and reacted.
BOOTH: This is not a National Geographic study, okay? This is the suburbs.
BRENNAN: Why would she kill the boy? She obviously loved him.
BOOTH: There are situations, right? The kid gets sick, he doesn't turn out to be what you wanted. I bet that you could give me a dozen examples of societies that have killed their own young.
BRENNAN: What about Shawn and David Cook? Where do they go now?
BOOTH: Back into the system.
BRENNAN: Do you have any idea how bad the foster care system is?
BOOTH: Do you? What do you want to do, hmm? Do you want to kidnap them, the way that she kidnapped Charlie?
BRENNAN: I want you to let them go home to Margaret Sanders.
BOOTH: It's not gonna happen.
[Brennan leaves.]
[SCENE_BREAK]
[Cut to: Angela's office. Angela and Zack are bent over the computer.]
ZACK: Try redigitizing and resizing.
ANGELA: I did. The extrapolation protocol got confused by the spread. Hey, you know Hodgins better than anybody else. So why is he so bent out of shape about this banquet?
ZACK: What makes you say that?
ANGELA: Because every time someone mentions it, he starts snapping that rubber band around his wrist.
ZACK: I mean, what makes you think I know Hodgins better than anyone else?
ANGELA: You're roommates.
ZACK: I live above his garage.
ANGELA: But you see a lot of each other.
ZACK: Not really.
ANGELA: He drives you to work.
ZACK: I've never been up to the main house.
ANGELA: The main house?
ZACK: It's at the opposite end of the driveway on the other side of the tennis courts across from pond.
[Booth enters.]
BOOTH: Okay, anything on the identity of Charlie's abductor?
ANGELA: I can't clear up this image any more than it is. Tell Booth what you told me about living in Hodgins' garage.
ZACK: There's a bedroom, living room, kitchen, another bedroom, a den, two bathrooms-
BOOTH: Great. Quite a garage. Can we focus on the case?
ANGELA: How many cars does he have in that garage?
ZACK: Including the antique ones, about twelve. And a boat.
ANGELA: Zack has never seen the main house because the tennis courts and the pond block the view.
BOOTH: Well, he must be one of those Hodgins.
ZACK: Who are 'those' Hodginses?
BOOTH: You know, the Cantilever Group Hodgins?
ANGELA: Oh my God.
ZACK: The same Cantilever Group that generates more G.N.P. than Europe?
ANGELA: Get this. They are the single biggest donors to the Jeffersonian Institution.
[Booth laughs.]
BOOTH: That makes Hodgins your boss.
ANGELA: What do you guys even talk about when he drives you to work?
ZACK: I mostly sleep. Hodgins mostly yells at the radio.
[On the computer screen, the abductor leads the child out of a glass door.]
BOOTH: Okay, if you can't see the guy's face, maybe you can grab a reflection.
ZACK: That's a workable idea.
BOOTH: Well, I'd say thanks, you know, if you didn't say it like it was some kind of a miracle.
[Cut to: Brennan's office. She's typing, looking very determined.
[Hodgins enters.]
HODGINS: Chem lab mass spectrometer identifies the particulates in Charlie Sanders' mouth as fluoride.
[He looks at Brennan.]
HODGINS: I recognize that look.
BRENNAN: What?
[He looks at the rolling board of notes.]
HODGINS: You're writing another book. When you write, you get this stunned look on your face like you stuck a fork in a toaster. Am I in this one too?
BRENNAN: You weren't in the last one. Fluoride? At what concentration?
HODGINS: It's too high for toothpaste.
BRENNAN: Put together a list of -
[She sees he's not listening and reading the notes. She pushes the board away from him a little.]
BRENNAN: Put together a list of anything that could conceivably contain fluoride at those levels.
HODGINS: All right. Do you have time for this?
BRENNAN: They gave me a car.
HODGINS: Nice. Who?
BRENNAN: My publisher. Now I feel like I have to earn it by writing another book.
HODGINS: Fight coercion in all its forms. You don't write the book, I don't go to the banquet. Solidarity.
[He leaves, Booth enters.]
BOOTH: Angela has a face for the abductor.
[She exits quickly. Booth sneaks a peek at the board of notes before following.]
[Cut to: Angela's office. Booth, Brennan, and Angela are crowded around the computer.]
ANGELA: I looked on both cameras. This one offered up more reflective surfaces.
BOOTH: Right at the door.
ANGELA: Check this out.
BOOTH: The abductor's face.
ANGELA: By polarizing the image, the computer can interpret the spaces between the white and the dark gaps and fill in the missing pieces.
BOOTH: Wait. That doesn't look like an adult.
ANGELA: When I repolarize the image...
[The blurry picture becomes clear.]
BOOTH: Shawn Cook.
BRENNAN: The victim's foster brother.
[Cut to: Interrogation room. Shawn Cook draws pictures in some spilled water on the table. Booth is questioning him as a child advocate sits nearby. Brennan and a juvenile prosecutor watch from outside.]
BOOTH: Where were you taking Charlie, Shawn?
SHAWN: I brought him to the mall to see David.
BOOTH: I know you brought him to the mall. But we got a picture of you... leading him out of the mall.
[He slides a printed image of the picture from Angela's computer screen in front of Shawn.]
BRENNAN: Have you seen much of this kind of thing?
PROSECUTOR: I'm a juvenile prosecutor. I wish I could say kids killing kids was rare.
BOOTH: Where were you taking him, Shawn?
SHAWN: When can I talk to Margaret?
BOOTH: After you answer my questions.
BRENNAN: Can he do that? Lie to a kid?
PROSECUTOR: We're after a child killer, Dr. Brennan. If the child advocate in there doesn't complain, I sure as hell won't.
BRENNAN: Well, what's the point of having a child advocate if he doesn't advocate for the child?
PROSECUTOR: I get the impression that you're a little confused as to what side you're on, Dr. Brennan.
BOOTH (lifting the hem of his shirt): Shawn, you know what that is?
SHAWN: A scar?
[Booth tucks his shirt back in.]
BOOTH: Yeah. Got it when I was playing soldier with my brother Jared.
SHAWN: Did it hurt?
BOOTH: Yeah, it hurt. But it was an accident. You got any scars?
[Shawn rolls up his sleeve show a few small, round marks on his arm.]
SHAWN: My dad did it with a cigarette.
BOOTH: He shouldn't have done that.
[Shawn slides his sleeve back down.]
SHAWN: Margaret didn't do anything like that. I love Margaret.
BOOTH: What I need to know is if Charlie had some kind of an accident.
[Shawn doesn't answer.]
BOOTH: Shawn?
ADVOCATE: Maybe we can just take a break.
BOOTH: Shawn?
PROSECUTOR: He's not being aggressive enough.
BRENNAN: Foster kids are powerless. They're treated like garbage. You're in a position to do something about it, and all you have to say is 'He's not being aggressive enough'?
PROSECUTOR: Dr. Brennan, you know this boy may very well have beaten a child to death with a rock?
[The prosecutor exits.]
[Cut to: Lab platform. Hodgins is working, and Angela walks up to him.]
ANGELA: How long have we known each other?
HODGINS: Do people really ever know each other?
ANGELA: How come you never invited me over to your house?
HODGINS: Oh, I didn't pick up that kind of vibe off you.
ANGELA: I thought we were close. All of us. What else don't I know? Is Zack from another planet?
HODGINS: Oh, come on. That one's obvious.
ANGELA: You're rich. You single-handedly own the Cantilever Group. Don't deny, I know.
HODGINS: Who else knows?
ANGELA: Zack, Booth.
HODGINS: Don't tell Brennan.
ANGELA: Why don't you want us to know that you're actually our boss?
HODGINS (harshly): I don't want to be anybody's boss. I never did. Please respect that.
[Angela leaves, and Brennan enters.]
BRENNAN: What's up with Angela?
HODGINS: It's... job pressure.
[There's a pause.]
HODGINS: Fluoride at lower concentrations is used in toothpaste, instant tea, and is added to our drinking water. Which, I might add, can cause a range of conditions, brain damage-
BRENNAN: Which has nothing to do with the case at hand.
[Hodgins pauses a moment before continuing.]
HODGINS: The concentrations found on our victim might come from wood preservatives, paint thinners, car wax, or various other industrial products.
[He hands Brennan a list, and she stick it on her clipboard.]
BRENNAN: Okay. Did Angela say anything about quitting her job?
HODGINS: No. But we hardly know anything about each other.
[Brennan exits.]
[Cut to: The room where the skeleton is laid out. Brennan is writing notes as Booth enters.]
BOOTH: Bones, I thought you'd like to know that Shawn and David are in emergency care. Pulled some strings, you know, to make sure they- they get to stay together.
BRENNAN: That's good, thanks.
BOOTH: It's the best I could do.
BRENNAN: Yeah, I understand.
BOOTH: No, you say you understand, but you don't. Not really. I mean, if you don't like the rule, you ignore it, right?
[He steps forward and leans on the table.]
BOOTH: I can't have that. And if you want to do this-
BRENNAN: Do what?
BOOTH: Work on cases, you know, with me. Outside the lab. If you wanna do that, I need to know that you will respect the law.
BRENNAN (voice breaking): Tell you what, if I can't respect the law, I can at least respect you.
BOOTH (a little surprised): Well- Yeah, that'll work, too. I mean it kind of comes out of nowhere, but-
[Brennan notices the pencil he broke when he leaned on the table. It now sits in three pieces.]
BRENNAN: Look what you did.
BOOTH: It's a pencil. I'll get you a new one.
BRENNAN: The victim was killed by trauma to the chest, but the ribs are broken in two places, not just one.
BOOTH: Uh, because of the, uh, brittle bones. Because of his disease.
BRENNAN: Well, that was my assumption, but there's another explanation.
[She moves to leave, but he blocks her.]
BOOTH: Yeah, whoa. What's the other explanation?
BRENNAN: Compression.
[She leaves, and he follows.]
BOOTH: Like Charlie Sanders was crushed to death?
BRENNAN: Yes. Greenstick fractures. Vertebral and sternal.
[She holds up the broken pencil.]
BRENNAN: See?
BOOTH: Hey, Shawn Cook outweighed Charlie Sanders by, what, thirty pounds? How could he have crushed him to death?
[They come across Angela as they enter the lab.]
BRENNAN: Angela, we need to run some scenarios through the Angelator.
[She walks off, and Booth and Angela move to follow. Hodgins enters from behind.]
HODGINS: Angela, Booth!
[They stop.]
HODGINS: Zack has been informed that if he tells anyone who I am, I will kick him out on the street like a stray dog. Sadly, there is nothing I can threaten you two with.
ANGELA: Yeah, that's a shame.
HODGINS: What I want out of my life is to come in here and sift through slime and bugs. Unfortunately, my family is one of those who secretly run the world.
BOOTH: Paranoia and delusions of grandeur all in one package.
[Booth and Angela start to walk away.]
HODGINS: You call it paranoia, I call it the family business. Please could you just stop!
[They do, and turn back.]
HODGINS: The reason that I do not want to go to that banquet is that the other members of the ruling elite will make a big fuss about seeing me. My secret will be out and my life, this life that I love, will be ruined. I'm asking you, please, please just let me be Jack Hodgins who works in the lab.
[He exits.]
[Cut to: Angela's office. Brennan, Booth, and Angela are around the Angelator where an image of Charlie Sanders is showing.]
ANGELA: Charlie was three feet, four inches tall and weighed fifty-eight pounds.
BRENNAN: And Shawn?
ANGELA: Shawn Cook is 1.4 meters tall and weighs 31 kilograms.
BOOTH: His brother David was 5'8", 150 pounds.
ANGELA: 1.75 meters, 68 kilograms.
BRENNAN: At first, I thought the break to Charlie's sternum was caused by blunt trauma because it only ran along one fault line. But when Booth broke my pencil, I realized there's another way to cause the same type of injury. Compression.
ANGELA: Hodgins found no particulates that suggested crushing.
BRENNAN: Body weight. There has to be enough weight on the victim to stop the abdomen from moving so no air can get into the lungs.
[On the Angelator, a pair of legs appears on top of Charlie's horizontal form, and the bones of both people are shown through their bodies.]
BRENNAN: Prolonged pressure caused the sternum to snap in half and the ribs to break.
[On the Angelator, the pressure of the body on top of Charlie causes the ribs to snap. Angela is obviously emotionally affected by this visual and turns away slightly. Brennan looks over at her.]
ANGELA: Sorry, sorry. I entered real-world variables, taking into account Charlie's size and the amount of pressure...
[The visual runs through again, and Angela pauses for a short moment.]
ANGELA: ...that was required to break Charlie's sternum in the way that it was broken.
BOOTH: What did you end up with?
ANGELA: 86.2 kilograms.
BOOTH: What's that in American?
BRENNAN: 190 pounds.
BOOTH: Yeah.
ANGELA: Way too much for either of the Cook kids or Margaret Sanders.
BOOTH: I'd put the neighborhood kid Skyler at about 160 pounds.
BRENNAN: It can't be him either.
BOOTH: We should be looking for a full-grown man.
BRENNAN: You have to get Shawn to tell you where he took Charlie when they left the mall.
BOOTH: He won't talk to me.
BRENNAN: Let me do it.
BOOTH: Uh, no. You know, people are not your strong point, Bones. And besides, he's not going to care how many facts you put in front of him.
BRENNAN: Could you just go with me on this one, Booth? We're trying to catch a killer. Let me help.
BOOTH: When's the last time you even talked to a kid?
BRENNAN: I know what to say.
[Cut to: The interrogation room. Booth and the juvenile prosecutor from before are watching from outside as Brennan talks to Shawn as the child advocate observes.]
BRENNAN: Do you remember me, Shawn?
SHAWN: The museum lady. The one who's so smart.
BRENNAN: Yeah, I'm pretty smart.
PROSECUTOR: And very modest.
BOOTH: Oh, believe me, she is being modest.
BRENNAN: Smart enough to know that you didn't kill Charlie. You don't have to say anything, Shawn. Just listen. They give you a garbage bag to carry all your stuff, like they're telling you everything you own is garbage. And then you have to go to a new school in clothes that smell like garbage bags.
SHAWN: All the regular kids know you're a foster kid. How do you know what it's like?
BRENNAN: They bounce you from place to place, and it's never home. Sometimes the foster parents are nice.
SHAWN: Like Margaret?
BRENNAN: Yeah. And sometimes they separate you from your brother. It must have been nice with Margaret, staying with David.
SHAWN (starting to cry): We got bunk beds. At night, I knew David was there. Like he was guarding me. Margaret's nice.
BRENNAN: You'd do almost anything to stay with Margaret, right?
[Shawn nods.]
BRENNAN: The man you took Charlie to, the man who hurt him, he knows that. You didn't know that he'd hurt Charlie, but he did. And then he told you that Margaret would blame you, that she'd hate you. But this man is lying to you, Shawn. I can make sure that you go back to Margaret.
SHAWN: How? You work at a museum.
BRENNAN (looking pointedly through the one-way mirror at Booth): I have a friend at the FBI. If I ask him to, he will make sure that you and David get to live with Margaret again.
ADVOCATE: Dr. Brennan, you can't make promises like that.
BRENNAN: Yes, I can. He will do it. My friend will make it happen.
BOOTH: Oh, man.
BRENNAN: But you have to tell me who hurt Charlie.
BOOTH: I'm gonna need your help to keep the promises she made to that boy.
PROSECUTOR: Hey, I- I can't promise-
BOOTH: Mrs. Johnson, my people and your people are gonna have to make this happen.
SHAWN: What if Margaret doesn't want me anymore? Charlie was her real son.
BRENNAN: Charlie wasn't her biological son either. Charlie was just like you: someone that Margaret chose to love. I don't think we should let that man take you and David and Charlie away from Margaret, do you?
[Shawn shakes his head.]
BRENNAN: We should stop him. You and I should stop him.
[Shawn sits in silence, crying for a moment, before wrapping Brennan in a hug. He whispers something into her ear.]
BOOTH: She did it. She got his name.
[Cut to: The street outside the Sanders house. Booth pulls up as Skyler and his father are loading up their vehicle to go off on a job. Starsailor's 'Some of Us' plays in the background as Booth arrests Mr. Nelson.]
BOOTH: Edward Nelson, you are under arrest for the sexual assault and murder of Charlie Sanders. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you free of charge...
[Cut to: Angela's office, the song still playing. She sets the missing poster and her sketch of Charlie side-by-side, and sighs.]
[Cut to: Lab platform. The song continues as Hodgins takes the jaw bone he had tested and puts it on a tray Zack holds. He looks away as Zack exits.]
[Cut to: The Sanders house, music still playing. Booth leads Edward Nelson to the FBI vehicle in handcuffs as Brennan watching Mrs. Nelson talk to her son. Both Booth and Brennan watching as Skyler hugs his crying mother. Their eyes meet before Booth exits.]
[Cut to: The Jeffersonian. Zack, with a shaking hand, places the jawbone in a coffin with the rest of Charlie's skeleton and shuts the lid. Two men in suits somberly take the casket out of the room as Zack watches, emotional.]
[Cut to: FBI building. Booth enters with Margaret Sanders.]
MARGARET: Boys.
[David and Shawn rush up and hug her.]
DAVID and SHAWN: Mom!
[Booth and Brennan lock eyes over the hugging family.]
OS: SHAWN: Are we gonna be a family again?
OS: MARGARET: Oh, you betcha.
[Cut to: Brennan's office. The song fades out. Booth enters.]
BOOTH: We have him cold. The insecticide he was using on the termites matches the fluoride concentration perfectly. Skyler's dad admitted everything.
BRENNAN: Don't tell me, he said crushing Charlie to death was a mistake.
BOOTH: He never abused Shawn Cook, he just used him to get near Charlie. It played out just like you said. He had Charlie out in that field. Some teenage kids, they come by, so he knelt on Charlie to keep him from crying out. Shawn got scared and ran back to his brother.
BRENNAN: Charlie was small and weak. His sternum collapsed. You think he abused any other kids.
BOOTH: Yeah, probably his own son.
BRENNAN: You report that to Child Services?
BOOTH: Mm-hmm. Try to get the kid some help.
[He pauses.]
BOOTH: Look, I'm sorry.
BRENNAN: For what?
BOOTH: You have personal experience in the system.
[Brennan pauses for a moment.]
BRENNAN: I was a foster child until my grandfather got me out.
BOOTH: Yeah, when you said 'They take you away from your brother,' I kind of had the feeling you weren't talking about David Cook.
BRENNAN: Booth, I'll tell you all about it one day, but tonight I have to get dressed for a party.
BOOTH: Oh. Okay, Bones.
[He moves to leave.]
BRENNAN: By the way, there's a huge ding in my passenger-side door because you told me not to park it at an angle.
BOOTH (laughing): What?
BRENNAN: Okay, that's just mean. You're mean.
BOOTH (still laughing as he exits): Sorry.
[Cut to: Lab. Goodman enters, where Angela, Zack, and Hodgins are already standing. With the exception of the latter, they are all dressed in formal attire.]
GOODMAN: That is not a tuxedo, Dr. Hodgins.
HODGINS: I am not going, Dr. Goodman.
GOODMAN: You are going.
[He sticks a nametag in Hodgins' lab coat pocket.]
GOODMAN: When we arrive, the donor's will all be wearing nametags.
[He hands a nametag to Zack.]
ZACK: What do we talk about?
GOODMAN: Your work, of course.
[He moves to Angela.]
ANGELA: Zack's work consists of removing flesh from corpses. Hodgins dissects bugs that have been eating people's eyeballs.
HODGINS: Leave me out of it. I'm not going.
GOODMAN: And how do you see your job?
ANGELA: I draw death masks.
GOODMAN: Is that really how you see it?
ANGELA: Don't you?
GOODMAN: You are the best of us, Miss Montenegro. You discern humanity in the wreck of a ruined human body. You give victims back their faces, their identities. You remind us all of why we're here in the first place. Because we treasure human life.
[She pauses for a moment before stepping forward and wrapping Dr. Goodman in a hug.]
GOODMAN: Oh, for God's sake.
[Brennan enters in a formal dress.]
BRENNAN: What happened?
ZACK: Apparently all Angela needed was to hear her job description in a deep, African-American tone.
GOODMAN (scolding): Mr. Addy.
[Booth enters.]
BOOTH: Dr. Goodman, we need Hodgins in the lab tonight.
[He hands an evidence bag of dirt to Hodgins.]
BOOTH: FBI needs this analyzed by morning.
HODGINS: Uh, I'll get right on it.
GOODMAN: Wait a minute, what case file is this?
BRENNAN: Am I supposed to know about it?
ANGELA: Booth mentioned it to me earlier today.
BRENNAN: That's good enough for me.
GOODMAN (conceding): Fine. You're off the hook, Dr. Hodgins. Let's not keep the limo waiting.
[He leaves, and Angela and Zack exit with him.]
HODGINS (to Booth): Thanks.
[Hodgins exits as well, and Starsailor's 'Some of Us' starts playing again.]
BOOTH: You look nice. Better than nice, you look, uh... very... BRENNAN: Thanks.
BOOTH: Bones, how did you know I was gonna keep your promise?
BRENNAN: What promise?
BOOTH: To get Shawn and David back with Margaret Sanders.
BRENNAN: Maybe I was lying. To catch the bad guy. I learned that trick from you. The end justifies the means.
[Booth moves to leave.]
BRENNAN: Booth.
[He stops, turns back.]
BRENNAN: I knew you'd back me up. I knew you wouldn't make me a liar.
BOOTH: Hmm. How did you know?
BRENNAN: Because you want to go to heaven.
BOOTH: But you don't believe in heaven.
BRENNAN: But you do.
[They smile at each other, and part ways.]
[Fade to black.]


Scene 1: Fangtasia - Longshadow, Eric, Pam, Bill, Sookie, Ginger
Longshadow tries to strangle Sookie. Ginger is shouting.
Pam: Ginger, enough.
Eric: Thank you.
Before Longshadow could bite Sookie, Bill kills him. Ginger screams and vomit.
Eric: Humans. Honestly, Bill, I don't know what you see in them.
Credit
Scene 2: In the toilets of Fangtasia - Sookie
Sookie cleans up.
Scene 3: Fangtasia - Pam, Ginger, Eric, Bill
Ginger is cleaning the floor.
Ginger: How did I end up with you people? Jesus. Mother Mary in heaven. I'm so sorry, Mama. I'm so sorry.
Eric: When Ginger is finished, glamour her for me.
Pam: Are you sure? She's been glamoured one too many times already. Who knows how much of her is left.
Eric: It's either that or turn her. You want her?
Pam: Please, I'm not that desperate. Glamour it is.
Eric: Excellent. (To Bill) Come. I'll buy you a Blood.
Scene 4: Fangtasia, in Eric's office - Eric, Bill
Eric gives a bottle of True Blood to Bill.
Bill: Thank you.
Eric: How do you stomach that stuff? Don't you find it metallic and vile?
Bill: I don't think about it. It's sustenance, that's all. (Eric laughs) What?
Eric: If you're their poster boy, the mainstreaming movement is in very deep trouble. Tru Blood. It keeps you alive, but it will bore you to death.
Bill: Let's cut to the chase, shall we?
Eric: You killed a vampire, Bill. For a human. What are we gonna do about this?
Bill: What do you have un mind?
Eric: I'll take the girl.
Bill: No. You can have anyone. Why do you want her?
Eric: Why do you want her? You're not in live with her, are you?
Bill: Sookie must be protected.
Eric: That sounds like an edict. But it couldn't be, because I would know about that. Admit it. You love her.
Bill: If I hadn't done what I did, would you have let his disloyalty stand?
Eric: Whatever I did to Longshadow, I would not have done in front of witnesses. Especially not vampire witnesses. Not smart, Bill. Not smart at all.
Scene 5: In Jason's truck - Jason, Amy, Eddie
Jason: All I'm saying is, Lafayette didn't have to kidnap him. And I'm pretty sure he left with some V.
Amy: Hey. If you wanna make the same arrangement with Eddie Lafayette's done, have at it. This is just the only thing I could think of to get you blowing your first vampire.
Jason: You done this before, haven't you?
Amy: Done what?
Jason: This. Kidnapping vampires. Jesus. I should have known something wasn't right the second you walked into my life carrying that big bag of crazy. Any woman with a purse that big's bound to have something in it I don't wanna know about.
Amy: Jason. Baby, you're sweet, but you've gotta mellow out.
She turns the radio on.
Jason: The f*ck is this hippie music?
Amy: Shh.
Scene 6: In the toilet of Fangtasia - Sookie, Pam, Ginger
Sookie continues to clean up. Pam arrives and gives her clothes.
Pam: Put these on.
Sookie: Oh, thank you, but I'm fine, really. I'm just gonna dry out my hair and be on my way.
Pam: You're not going anywhere. Eric and your boyfriend aren't nearly done talking just yet.
Sookie: Os Bill in some kind of trouble?
Pam: That's for the boys to figure out. Right now, what you need to do is change out of your clothes. There's vampire in your cleavage.
Sookie: Okay.
Pam: Allow me.
Pam removes the peace of vampire of Sookie's cleavage.
Sookie: Thank you.
Pam: I'm beginning to understand the fuss everyone's making over you.
Ginger enters.
Ginger: Oh, hey there, Pam. Oh, who's your new friend?
Pam: Ginger, Sookie. Sookie, Ginger.
Ginger: Nice to meet you, Sookie.
Sookie: Right. Nice to meet you too.
Ginger: Oh, you don't have to be so scared. They're really very nice here.
Scene 7: At Jason's basement - Jason, Amy, Eddie
Jason: You got him?
Amy: Yeah. Tape the windows shut. Here. Clear this out. We gotta clear all this sh1t out.
Jason: Lift his legs.
Amy: Ready?
Jason: How's this gonna go?
Amy: Tie his arm there. (She finds an oxygen masque) What?
Jason: I guess I got a little paranoid after 9/11.
Amy: No, because after New York and D.C., terrorists were gonna come to Bon Temps.
Jason: And I said I was paranoid.
Amy: Get his feet.
Eddie: What are you gonna do to me?
Jason: Yeah, I was kind of wondering that myself.
Amy: We're gonna drink from him.
Jason: And then what?
Eddie: Yeah?
Jason (to Eddie): Dude, I got this. (To Amy) What's the plan?
Amy: Jason, can you please try to live in the now with me.
Jason angry: I do live on the now. In fact, I've gone entire months without thinking about sh1t. But the truth is, right now, the now kind of sucks. And if we both can't admit that, then we are 100 percent f******.
Amy takes some blood from Eddie.
Amy (showing the blood she took): Who wants the first taste?
Jason: I ain't doing it. Not like this.
Eddie (whispering): Thank you.
Jason: I said, stop talking to me.
Amy: Come with me, baby. Don't let your fear get in your way.
Jason: Look, it ain't fear, all right? It's just... (low so that Eddie can't listen) He's looking me right in the eye. It ain't right. Look at him.
Amy: Fine. I'll see you when I get back.
Jason stops her before she can swallow some blood.
Jason: Wait, wait, wait. Ain't you supposed to cut it with aspirin?
Amy: No, there's no risk of clotting when the V's this fresh.
She swallows the blood that is in the plug.
Amy: My God.
Jason: You look... really happy.
Amy: Come on, baby. Come with me.
She gives him the plug.
Eddie (to Jason): Don't. Don't do it.
Jason: I said, don't talk to me.
He takes the plug and drinks the rest of the blood.
Scene 8: At Miss Jeanette - Miss Jeanette, Tara
Tara: What exactly did you do to my mama?
Miss Jeanette: You were here. You saw it.
Tara: Yeah, but I wanna know exactly how and why it worked. Cause I'm already taking a monster leap of faith even considering this demon crap.
Miss Jeanette: Fine, then. It's like this. Your mind, your body... it's just a physical manifestation of your soul. And your soul is sick.
Tara: My soul don't wanna get ripped off.
Miss Jeanette: How's your mama doing?
Tara: She's doing great. But she believes in sh1t like this. I don't.
Miss Jeanette: If you don't believe, then why did you come all the way here tonight?
Tara: How much it'll cost me?
Miss Jeanette: Seven-ninety-nine, ninety-five.
Tara (shocked): What?
Miss Jeanette: Seven-ninety-nine, ninety-five. Cup of rum's on the house.
Tara: Well, my mama paid less than half that.
Miss Jeanette: What I do takes varying amounts of energy and involves varying amounts of risk. Now, what you got inside you is much more powerful than what your mama had. Much more dangerous too.
Tara: I'm worse than her? I once found that woman on the ground, eating her own vomit because she didn't wanna waste the alcohol she lost bringing it all up.
Miss Jeanette: Think about it. But not for too long. You can't afford to keep pushing people away. Your loneliness is spreading to your eyes. It's becoming a part of who you are.
Tara: You're one hell of a saleswoman, aren't you?
Miss Jeanette: Next time you're alone, stand in the mirror and count backwards from 10. If you can get all the way down to zero, then I'm wrong. But if you can't stand your own company for 10 seconds, how you gonna expect to do it for the rest of your life?
Scene 9: In front of Sookie's house - Bill, Sookie
Sookie and Bill are walking from his car to Sookie's house.
Sookie: So you're not in any trouble?
Bill: A simple slap on the wrist, that's all.
Sookie: You swear? Pam made it sound like...
Bill (interrupting her): Pam was turned almost a hundred years ago and yet somehow still behaves as though every day were Halloween. She's all drama and theatrics. I assure you, everything's gonna be fine.
They enter Sookie's house.
Sookie: I'm gonna take a shower. I still feel like there's blood all over me.
She turns on the light and sees blood on the wall.
Bill: Don't look up.
Tina is on the ventilator, dead.
Sookie (shouting): Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Scene 10: At Jason's - Jason, Amy, Eddie
Jason and Amy are naked, kissing, under V.
Amy: Wait, wait, wait. First, we have to thank the vampire for the gifts that he's bestowed upon us. (To Eddie) We are grateful...
Eddie: F*** you.
Amy: ... for your gift to us. (To Jason) Ignore him.
Jason and Amy imagine their selves in a beautiful forest. They are swimming in the air, naked.
Amy: Can you see it?
Jason: Where are we?
Amy: Nowhere. Everywhere. Together.
Eddie look at them, and is crying blood.
Scene 10: At Sookie's - Bill, Sookie
They are on Sookie's bed.
Bill: Aren't you tired?
Sookie: Every time I close my eyes, I see her face.
Bill: Your cat?
Sookie: Gran. But now that you mention it, Tina's in there too.
Bill: You do know that I'm not gonna let anything happen to you? That I am here for you to protect you.
Sookie: And what if I don't wanna need to be protected? What if wanting to be protected makes me feel like the helpless little girls I used to be all over again?
Bill: Sookie. All of the things that you need to be protected from, all of the trouble you're in, you're in because of me. So you needing to be protected has nothing to de with you or who you are. All of it is my fault. So why don't you just go to sleep and let me be the one to worry about it?
Sookie: Bill, all the trouble I'm in, it's mine. I chose it. I chose it when I chose you.
Bill: Yes, but...
Sookie: Don't you think I wanna blame somebody else? But what I did to my Gran and now to poor Tina, it's my fault. And it's sweet of you to try to take it on for me, but if I let you, I'd be so mad at you, I'd never be able to look at you again. And right now your face is just about the only thing getting me by. So why don't you just leave it on me, okay?
Bill: Very well.
He kisses her.
Sookie: Night, Bill.
Bill: Night, Sookie.
She closes her eyes and sees her Gran on the kitchen's ground, dead in her blood. She opens her eyes suddenly.
Scene 11: At Jason's garden - Amy, Jason, Eddie
Amy is in the garden, and someone is watching her.
Someone: You're a f*cking dead woman.
Amy (screaming, fainting to be scared): Oh, my God!
Jason jumps and laughs.
Amy (smiling): Honestly, you are like a little boy.
Jason: Did I scare you?
He takes off the oxygen mask and put it on his head,
Jason (smiling): Yeah
Amy: Come here, lie down. I wanna show you something.
He lies down near her on a cover, near her,
Jason: What are we looking at?
Amy: The trees. But we're not just looking, we're listening too.
Jason: Listening to the trees?
Amy: Can you hear that?
Jason: It's like the leaves are talking!
Amy: They're laughing.
Jason: Yeah, because they're ticklish.
Amy: That's right.
Jason: Amy?
Amy: Yeah, baby.
Jason: We still high?
Amy: No, baby.
Jason: Because I don't normally talk like this. Plus, I'm feeling kind of lightheaded too.
Amy: You're talking like this because your mind is starting to open up. And you're lightheaded because you haven't eaten anything. So here. (She sits and gives him to eat) Have an almond, they're raw.
He eats the almond.
Jason: Oh, my God. These crazy good.
Amy: We gotta change the way you eat. Raw foods. Nothing processed. Because the cleaner the body, the cleaner the soul, the cleaner the experience.
Jason: Cleaner than last night?
Amy: Much cleaner.
They kiss.
Eddie (shouting from the house): Amy!
Amy: He'll stop. He'll stop.
Eddie (shouting): Jason!
Jason stops kissing Amy.
Jason: Ain't you worried somebody's gonna hear him?
Amy: You live in the middle of nowhere of the middle of nowhere.
Jason: Yeah, I guess but...
Amy (interrupting him): He isn't a person, Jason.
Jason: Did I say he was? All I'm saying is... My truck, for example. It ain't a person either. But I still fill it with gas and give it oil from time to time.
Amy: You're saying we should feed him now?
Jason: Ain't he gonna die if we don't?
Amy: Who cares?
Jason: I just... I still think we should have a plan, that's all.
Amy: I do have one.
Jason: Oh, yeah?
Amy: And here it is. Everything's gonna work out, because it has to.
Jason: That ain't a plan.
Amy: Because when I'm with you, what I feel... I've never felt that with anybody else ever before. And I'm a person that a lot of bad stuff has happened to in the past and so I deserve this. I love you. (Jason doesn't answer and drinks) Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I mean, why is it we all need to be loved but then when somebody finally says, "I love you", people just run scared. I love you, Jason Stackhouse, whether you like it or not. I'm not afraid to admit it.
Jason: Know what? You're right. F**** it. I love you too.
They kiss.
Amy: Say it again.
Jason: I love...
Amy: Come on.
Jason: You get it once, that's all.
Scene 12: At Tara's house - Tara, Letti Mae, Sam
Tara is in her bathroom, in front of the mirror.
Tara: Ten, nine, eight, s...
Letti Mae comes in.
Tara (shouting): Don't you knock? What if I was doing something private?
Letti Mae: I taught you that was a sin against God. If I walk in on you doing it, it's your problem.
Tara: What do you want?
Letti Mae: Sam Merlotte's here to see you. You ain't sleeping with him?
Tara get out of the bathroom and goes in the entrance, her mother follows her.
Tara: What makes you jump to that conclusion?
Letti Mae: He brung flowers. Men only bring flowers if they already slept with you and looking again. That especially goes for white men, as black men are less prone to grovel.
Tara opens the door.
Tara: What do you want, Sam?
Sam: To apologize for what I said that hurt your feelings and sort things out between you and me.
Letti Mae: That's a load. It's s*x he wants.
Tara: Mama.
Tara goes out.
Sam: She drinking again?
Tara: No. That's her, stone-cold sober. Look, you should go.
Sam: Why?
Tara: Because I'm just too f*****-up for this.
Sam: You're not even the most f*****-up person in this house, much less this town.
Tara: What do you think this is between us? We were clear from the beginning it was just gonna be us f******.
Sam: It's too late for that.
Tara: What are you, a masochist?
Sam: No, not at all. But I've spent my life running away from people or pinning my hopes on somebody I can't have. I'm done with that. Like it or not, you've reminded me that I'm a social animal. I'd rather deal with your f*****-up sh1t than be alone.
Tara: Here's some f*****-up sh1t for you. Do you know that right now I have myself thinking I have a demon inside me? The only way to get it out is have some lady who lives in a bus in a swamp perform 800$ exorcism on me that there's no way in hell I can afford?
Sam: Waw.
Tara: Yeah. So go ahead. Now tell me you still want something more with me.
Sam: Not if it's gonna be like this. But I'd like it if we could...
Tara: Well, we can't, all right? Look, just go, okay? Get out of here and save us both a lot of misery.
Sam: All right, I'll see you at work.
She goes back home and he throws the flowers on the ground.
Scene 13: At Merlotte's - Amy, Arlene, Sam
Amy is looking at Arlene's ring.
Amy: Oh, my God, it's beautiful.
Arlene: I know, right?
Amy: So you guys having an engagement party or what?
They are at the bar now.
Arlene (loud enough so that Sam could hear them): We'd like to, but I don't know where we'd throw it. You know, our place isn't big enough.
Sam: You could have it here, if you like.
Arlene: Oh, thanks. But I wouldn't wanna put you out.
Sam: You wouldn't be. It'd be like any night, except I'd close the place to the public for you and your dearest.
Arlene: Oh, wow, Sam, that would be amazing. Except I was thinking could we do it in the warehouse next door? Or even outside? Because if we did it in here, it'd feel like work, you know?
Sam: You were thinking, huh? About the party I only just now offered to throw for you?
Arlene: You are a spectacular man, Sam Merlotte.
Sam: And you are one hell of a conniving suck-up when you need to be. I'll cover the catering and the band. The alcohol and all the other incidentals are on you and Rene.
Arlene: Got it. And I may be conniving but I still mean it. You are gonna make some woman extremely happy one day.
Sam: Maybe someday I'll meet a woman willing to take that chance with me.
Sookie arrives, furious.
Sam: Morning, Sookie.
Sookie: Ain't nothing good about this morning.
Scene 14: On the road, at Jason's job - Jason, Lafayette, Rene, Hoyt
Jason is eating on his truck, listening to the trees.
Hoyt and Lafayette are on another truck, eating.
Lafayette: "Secret Sauce"? Who you f****** kidding? Since when is it right to call mayonnaise a f****** secret?
Hoyt: I don't know. I kind of like it, though.
Lafayette: You can like it all you want to. It's still mayonnaise.
Jason (shouting to Rene): What are you thinking?
Rene: Thinking f*cking roots should learn where to grow.
Jason removes his helmet.
Jason: What?
Rene begins to dig the root with the chain saw.
Jason: What? Rene. What? (He jumps from his truck and run to stop Rene) Hey! Hey! Rene!
Jason make Rene fall.
Rene (shouting): The f***, man?
Hoyt and Lafayette run to them.
Hoyt (shouting): Shut it down.
Rene: Get the f*** off me.
Lafayette pushes back Jason.
Lafayette (to Jason): What the f*** is wrong with you? You got a screw to loose?
Rene (shouting): You could've killed me.
Jason: I'm sorry, I know, but it ain't just some root growing out of nowhere. It's connected to that tree. Everything we see, man, it's all connected.
Rene: The f*** you talking about? You some kind of treehugger now? You gonna kill your buddy to save a tree?
Lafayette (to Rene): Chill, son.
Rene (shouting): I could give a f*** if you're sorry. I'm about to get married. There are people that count on me.
Lafayette (to Rene): Okay, come on, let's get you cleaned up.
Rene and Lafayette go.
Jason: S***.
Hoyt: Hey. Is everything all right, J?
Jason: t, were you on the football team?
Hoyt: No.
Jason (taking him by the shirt): Were you on the football team?
Hoyt: No, I wasn't.
Jason put him down.
Jason (shouting): Then you do not call me J. you got that?
Hoyt pushes him.
Hoyt: Yeah. Yeah. I'm... Yeah, I'm sorry.
Hoyt goes.
Jason: Goddamn it. Goddamn it.
Scene 15: At Merlotte's - Andy, Sookie, Amy
Sookie: What can I get for you today?
Andy: Your boss around?
Sookie: Tell him you're looking for him. What can I get you?
Andy: Don't know, I haven't decided yet.
Sookie sit in front of him.
Sookie: Then while you make up your mind how about I tell you what you can get for me? I would love whoever's killing off my family's head on a platter. Think you could arrange that for me?
Andy: I don't appreciate your tone, Miss Stackhouse.
Sookie: I don't appreciate officers of the law enjoying casual lunches while there's a killer trying to hunt me. Did you know he got into my house again last night?
Andy: He did?
Sookie: Yes, and he killed my cat. Cut her head off and took it with him.
Andy: Jesus. How come you didn't call the station?
Sookie: All the station would've done is send you. You'd still be here acting as though you don't know what you're gonna order even though you always wind up having the cheeseburger.
Amy: Hey there, detective Bellefleur, I'll take you order.
Sookie: No, it's my table.
Amy: I got it. Just take a break. It'll do you some good.
Sookie leaves.
Amy: What can I get for you?
Andy: Go with the goddamn cheeseburger and fries.
[SCENE_BREAK]
Scene 16: Outside the Merlotte's - Amy, Sookie
Sookie is on a bench when Amy joins her.
Amy: Hey, you. Listen, you all right?
Sookie: Sometimes I wish I smoked, you know? So you could sneak outside without anybody knowing something's wrong with you.
Amy: Okay. I'm really sorry about your cat.
Sookie: Maybe I shouldn't have come in today.
Amy: Yeah, I was gonna say, why did you?
Sookie: I don't know. Maybe because lately it seems like if I called in sick every time somebody I loved got murdered I'd never make it in for a day of work.
Amy: Don't you think Sam would understand?
Sookie: I guess. But if I went home, what would you do?
Amy: Me? What's it got to do with me?
Amy seats near Sookie.
Sookie: With Arlene doing nothing but showing off her ring you'd be the only one waiting tables.
Amy: Yeah, she is gonna be a handful, that one.
Sookie: Can you imagine what she was like the first time she got married? What about you? You ever been married?
Amy: Is this the part where the sister asks what the girl's intentions are with her brother?
Sookie: Because right now, I am all about protecting Jason.
Amy: He misses you, Sookie.
Sookie: Right.
Amy: No, he does. I mean, between your grandma passing and then what happened afterwards with you...
Sookie: He told you about that?
Amy: He couldn't not. I mean, he's a mess about it.
Sookie: Well, you wouldn't know it.
Amy: Look, I know what you must think of him. And I get why you're mad at him, I do. But he loves you. You still got people around you who love you. And all I can hope is that maybe one day, I can be counted in among those people.
Sookie: You are way too good for him. You know that, right?
Amy: Of course I know that. I'm not stupid.
Scene 17: At Jason's - Jason, Eddie
Jason arrives home and turns on the tv.
Tv Reverend Whitley: You can call me all the names you want, but I am confident in my position that when the day comes I meet my Maker, it is I would be allowed to pass through the gates into the glory of eternity.
Tv animator: Thank you, reverend Whitley. Miss Flanagan, would you like to turn the conversation back to the Vampire Rights Amendment?
Jason: Shut up, shut up.
TV Nan Flanagan: After the massacre of three of our kind in Louisiana this week, I think the world should take notice of the fact that we have not retaliated. And we will not. Which leaves us with the question of exactly who is hunting whom out there in America tonight?
TV animator: I applaud your rhetoric. That was very impressive.
Eddie shouts form the basement.
Jason (to Eddie): sh1t the f*** up!
TV Reverend Whitley: But I warn my fellow citizens that her message is false.
Jason goes sown in the basement.
Eddie: Thank you. Thank you. Please, I...
Jason (shouting): What is it?
Eddie: I need you to move me. Too much pain. This chair, it's digging into my skin.
Jason: Thought y'all couldn't feel pain.
Eddie: When you don't drink your body... Your whole body aches more than anything I ever felt when I was alive. Please?
Jason: Well, if I move you, will you shut up?
Eddie: I promise.
Jason: This better not be a trick.
Eddie: It's not.
Jason: And don't you f****** bite me.
Eddie: I don't event have the energy. Just, please?
Jason begins to move him.
Jason: Jesus. For a vampire, you sure are a doughy f***.
Eddie: I'm sorry. Aaaaah.
Jason: There. That any better?
Eddie: I think so, yeah.
Jason: Yeah, good, because now I'm all f*****-up.
Scene 18: Merlotte's - Tara, Sam
Tara enters and takes her clothes and sees an envelope full of money.
Tara: What the hell?
Sam is at the bar. Tara arrives.
Tara: I found an envelope full of cash in my cubby.
Sam: Yeah?
Tara: You know anything about it?
Sam: We'll talk after work.
Tara: Sam, you know I can't...
Sam: I said, after work, all right? Anyone needs me, I'll be in my office.
Scene 19: At Bill's house - Bill, Eric, Pam, Chow
Bill plays golf at the wii.
Wii voice: Yes, he's done it again. Another lovely shot. A hole in one.
The doorbell rings. Bill turns off the wii and goes to open the door. It's Eric, Pam and Chow.
Bill: Eric. Pam.
Eric: Bill, Chow. Chow, Bill.
They enter.
Chow (to Bill): Nice to meet you
Pam: Chow is Longshadoow's replacement.
Bill: I take it by your being here, there was no way around it, then?
Eric: I can't really say. Didn't exactly look into it.
Bill (to Pam): Tell me, do you enjoy living halfway up his backside the way you do?
Pam: Yes, it's nice. You should try it.
Bill (to Eric): We're gonna have to stop by the bar where Sookie works first. She needs to know that I'll be gone. Don't forget how this started. She came to Fangtasia to help you.
Eric: Fine. Go to the bar.
Pam: Might be smart to check out the competition.
Eric: Yes, indeed.
Chow (to Bill): What's your game?
Bill: Excuse me?
Chow: You were playing Wii. What's your game?
Bill: Golf.
Chow: What's your best score on Pebble Beach?
Bill: Seven under.
Chow: Mine's 11 under.
Bill (to Eric): I liked Longshadow better.
Scene 20: At Jason's basement - Jason, Eddie
Eddie: It still hurts?
Jason (doing stretching): No, that went right away. I guess that's a perk of me doing V. But this... this stretching just feels so goddamn f****** good.
Eddie: Another perk.
Jason: Yeah. What's with the weight, dude? I thought all you vampires were supposed to be in shape.
Eddie: We are what we were when we turned. I led a very sedentary life.
Jason: What's sedentary?
Eddie: Desk job. I was an accountant. Sat around a lot, ate a lot of junk food.
Jason: Well, how's someone go from being an accountant to being a vampire?
Eddie: It wasn't the straightest of lines. I always had this sense that it wasn't really my life I was leading. But I convinced myself it was the life I wanted. Then one day, about a year ago, I came home from work to find my wife crying like her whole family had just died. Turns out my son had had a fist fight at school. So one of the kids suggested to him that I might be a "f****** faggot".
Jason: Well, kids are m******.
Eddie: That's precisely the reaction my wife wanted me to have. And when I didn't...
Jason (putting his shoes): What, she never even had a clue?
Eddie: How could she, when even I didn't?
Jason: I'm sorry.
Eddie: Don't be. Comes a point is life when you realize everything you know about yourself, it's all just conditioning. It's the rare man who truly knows who he is. At least accomplished that.
Jason: I guess it helps that you don't look all that gay. Most of the gays I've come across they look like...
Eddie: You. You're what we're supposed to look like. Anyway, after she left me and took my kid I went to a gay bar, hit on a couple of men. Got laughed at. Or pitied. Then I saw this one guy. He was even less of a looker than me and he had beautiful young men all over him. Somebody told me he was a vampire. And I guess I just thought: "Well, that's for me." After that, it was just a matter of time before I found someone willing to turn me.
Jason: That's crazy.
Eddie: I told you it wasn't the straightest of lines.
Jason: So how did it work out for you? With the guys and everything?
Eddie: Well... you tell me.
Scene 21: At Merlotte's - Sookie, client, Bill, Eric, Pam, Chow, Tara, Amy
Sookie (taking an order): Okay.
Bill enters the bar.
Client: I'll have that on the side too.
Sookie: Okay, coming right up.
Sookie: Bill, what's going on?
Eric: This place is even more depressing than I thought it'd be.
Sookie (to Bill): What are they doing here?
Bill: Give me a minute, then we'll talk. Where's Sam?
Sookie: I don't know. Why?
Tara: He's in his office.
Bill (to Eric): Try to behave yourself.
Eric: Don't I always?
Scene 22: In Sam's office.
Sam is in his office when Bill knocks at the door.
Sam: Yeah?
Bill: Bill Compton. I need a minute of your time, if that's all right.
Sam: It's open.
Bill and Chow enter.
Sam: Who's this?
Bill: His name's Chow.
Sam: He need to be in my office too?
Bill: Yes. I have very little time, so I'll be brief. I've been called away. And I need you to watch over Sookie, protect her when I'm gone.
Sam: Well, that's just priceless.
Bill: Don't expect her to be too keen on the idea. Sookie hates feeling like she doesn't have independence.
Sam: I'm really starting to get fed up with you telling me who Sookie is.
Bill: I know. And I also know how you feel about her, and I don't like it. But I'm asking you because you're the only one I can ask. You're the only person I know of who can protect her in my absence. Will you do it?
Sam: Of course I will. But I'll be doing it for her, not for you.
Bill: Thank you.
Bill and Chow leave.
Scene 23: At Merlotte's - Eric, Pam, Sookie, Bill
Bill (to everyone): So simply present this card at the door when you get to Fangtasia (Pam distribute the card) and the first round is on me.
Pam: Also, Thursdays are ladies nights, so be sure to bring a date. (To a client) That is, if you can get one.
A friend of this client: She got you.
A client: Thanks, ma'am.
Eric: Not him. He doesn't get one.
Client: What gives, bro?
Eric comes near him.
Eric: What'd you do to your arm there... bro? (Bill comes. To Bill) I take it your business here is done?
Bill: I came to talk to Sookie.
Eric: I'll give you three minutes. We have a tribunal to get to.
Sookie: What?
Bill: Come with me.
He brings her outside.
Eric: Oh, before I go, a word of advice: We know when a human has wronged us. We can smell it. So do not make the mistake of letting the pretty vampire lady on television make you feel too comfortable. We may not have retaliated... yet... but we know who you are. Have a nice night.
Scene 24: Out of the Merlotte's - Sookie, Bill, Eric, Pam, Chow, Tara
Bill (to Sookie): I have no choice, I have to go.
Sookie: Why?
Bill: Because I killed a vampire.
Sookie: I know that, I was there, remember? He was gonna kill mw. You were defending me.
Bill: if one of you killed another one of you defending one of us, there would be a tribunal.
Sookie: I'll come with you then.
Bill: No.
Sookie: I can and I'm going to. I wanna testify for you.
Bill: Damn it, you can't. You can't come. And you can't testify. You will not be welcomed there.
Sookie: You lied to me. You said everything was gonna be okay but it's not, is it?
Bill: I honestly don't know.
Eric (a little far from them): Ticktock, Bill
Sookie: Bill...
Bill: Just look after yourself, all right? I've asked Sam to watch over you.
Sookie: Wish you hadn't have done that.
Bill: Be smart, Sookie, and just let him. There's still somebody out there who wants to kill you.
Sookie: Fine. I will.
Bill: Thank you.
Eric: And time.
Sookie and Bill kiss. Tara arrive and sees them from far.
Pam: If I had any feelings, I'd have the chills right about now.
Eric: Not me. (Loud) Bill. Now.
They stop kissing, and Bill goes to Eric. Sookie is crying. The vampires leave. Sookie goes to Tara.
Tara: You all right?
Sookie: No.
Tara: Look, I'm sorry about...
Sookie: Tara, right now I din't remember what it is I'm supposed to be mad at you for so why don't we just forget it, okay?
Tar: Hey, that's good to me.
They hug.
Scene 25: At Jason's basement - Jason, Eddie
Jason: It was in the flood.
Eddie: A flood? Oh, my.
Jason: Yep. It was the sh1ts. But you gotta play the hand you're dealt, I guess.
Eddie: And when you say you were living at your grandmother's I take it to mean your grandfather was already gone? I'm so sorry.
Jason: Why? It wasn't your fault.
Eddie: It's just that a boy needs a man in his life to teach him what it means to be a man.
Jason: Yeah, whatever.
Eddie: That's the hardest part of all this for me. My boy. He's got nothing but women around him now. He needs me. I'm not there.
Jason: Well, I'm sure he'll be all right. I mean, look at me, huh? Don't you glimmer me. Amy warned me about that.
Eddie: I'm too depleted to glamour you. That's something I haven't quite mastered yet, anyway.
Jason: Really? You can't just do it?
Eddie: Learning to be a vampire doesn't happen overnight any more than learning to be a man does. You gonna marry her?
Jason: Who, Amy? I don't know. We haven't been together that long. But... just between you and me? I could really see her being the one.
Eddie: She's not.
Jason: What?
Eddie: Don't do it. Don't marry her.
Jason" None of your business.
Eddie: She's a psychopath.
Jason: Hey, f*** you, Eddie.
Eddie: She is. She is fat more dangerous than I could ever be.
Jason (shouting): That's enough. (Calmer) Look, I gotta go out and get some more beer. But while I'm gone, keep your f****** howling to a minimum.
Jason leaves.
Scene 26: At Merlotte's - Sam Tara
Tara: Can we talk about it now?
Sam: Sure. (She gives him the envelope) That's not talking about it.
They go in Sam's office.
Tara: I can't take it, Sam. I appreciate it, I do. But...
Sam: You're keeping it.
Tara: You can't tell me I'm keeping it.
Sam: It's my money, so, yes, I can.
Tara: You're a stubborn son of a b****.
Sam: Well, that makes two of us. You really believe you have a demon in you?
Tara: I think I got something inside me that is scared and pissed off and mean and
Sam and Tara: F*****-up.
Tara: Think it's stupid, don't you?
Sam: Look, two years ago nobody even knew there was such a thing as vampires. Now we gotta deal with them every goddamn day. And who knows what else is out there?
Tara: 800 bucks? That's a lot of money, Sam.
Sam: Yeah, well people in this town drink a lot. Well I'm doing okay.
She takes back the envelope.
Tara: So I guess I'm having an exorcism.
Sam: You're welcome.
Tara: Oh, Sam. I don't know how to ever thank...
He kisses her.
Scene 27: At Merlotte's - Lafayette, Sookie, Amy, Sam, Tara
Lafayette is cooking in the kitchen when Sookie comes in.
Lafayette: Interesting night, huh, Sook?
Sookie: Yeah, I guess. Maybe a little too interesting.
Lafayette: S***, ain't no such a thing as too interesting, only too dull.
Sookie leaves.
Lafayette (to John): So, John, how big is your d***?
Sookie sees Tara and Sam kissing in Sam's office. She goes back in the kitchen.
Sookie: You know what? There is such a thing as too interesting.
Sookie goes at the bar.
Sookie (to Amy): Where's Arlene?
Amy: Well, she just left.
Sookie: Of course she did. I have to get out of here. Would you mind covering the rest of my side work for me?
Amy: Sure, but is that really the best idea, you going home by yourself?
Sookie: I'm not. I'm going to stay at Bill's. No one'll come looking for me there.
Amy: Okay, then.
Sookie: Thanks, I owe you one.
Sookie leaves.
Amy: No worries.
Sookie leaves on her car. Sam goes to the bar.
Sam: Oh, hey, Amy.
Amy: Hey.
Sam: Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for everything you've been doing. You're fitting in great around here. Really.
Amy: Well. I should be the one thanking you. Lord knows I needed this job. But you are welcome.
Sam: So where are the others?
Amy: Arlene had to get back to her kids and Sookie took off a couple of minutes ago.
Sam: What?
Amy: Yeah, I tried to stop her, but...
Sam: She say where she was headed?
Amy: She was going to Bill's.
Amy: Goddamn it, Sook.
Sam leaves, running.
Scene 28: Outside the Merlotte's - Sam, Andy
Sam is running to his car.
Andy: Hey there, Sam. Turns out that story you told me the other day about growing up in a nudist colony didn't exactly check out. We need to talk.
Sam: Sure, just... You know, I forgot something in the bar, but I'll be right back. Okay?
He goes back inside. The dog of Merlotte's passes in front of Andy.
Andy: Hey, dog. Well, screw you too.
Scene 29: At Bill's - Sookie, the dog
Sookie arrives at Bill's. She sees the dog in front of her.
Sookie: Oh, my God. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to sneak up on people like that? What are you doing so far away from home? Why don't you come spend the night with me and I'll take you back to Merlotte's tomorrow, okay? Come on. It's night-night time.
They enter Bill's house.
Sookie: Come on. Come on.
They are in Bill's room.
Sookie: You know, if we're gonna be sleeping together we're gonna need a name to call you by. What do you think of "Dean"? Yeah, I like it too. Dean. Dean the dog. Look at you, looking away. What a gentleman. Here, would it make you more comfortable if I got under the covers?
She goes under the covers.
Sookie: Come on. Hop up in the bed with me. You can't sleep on the floor all night. You're gonna catch a draft. Now, hop up here. (The dog goes on the bed.) Good boy, Dean. Sweet dreams.
She turns off the lights and sleeps.
Scene 29: At Jason's - Jason, Eddie
Jason arrives home. He goes down to the basement with Tru Blood bottles.
Jason: Eddie? Eddie, wake up. Wake up. Here.
Eddie: You brought me Tru Blood?
Jason gives him to drink.
Jason: Just drink.
Scene 30: At Bill's - Sookie, Sam
Sookie: Dean, you're on my feet. Dean.
She opens her eyes and seats.
Sookie: Sam?
Sam is naked, on the bed, at Dean's place. They both scream.