Moonlight

Interviewer:
So, what's it like being a vampire?

Mick:
Being a vampire sucks. It's a bad joke, I know, but it's the truth.

Mick:
And while we're on the subject. Garlic - is tasty on pizza.

Interviewer:
Does it repel you?

Mick:
It repels my dates - sometimes. Toss holy water on me I get wet. Crucifixes? Okay - if you like that kind of a thing. Oh and I definitely can't turn into a bat - that'd be cool though, wouldn't it?

Interviewer:
What about daylight?

Mick:
Daylight's not good. Daylight's not good. The longer I'm in the sun the worse I feel.

Interviewer:
But you don't burst into flames?

Mick:
Not if I can help it.

Interviewer:
How do you kill a vampire. Wooden stake I'm guessing?

Mick:
No, a wooden stake won't kill a vampire - flame thrower will kill a vampire or we can lose our head - I mean literally - other than that we heal.

Interviewer:
You seem like a very nice guy. [Mick smiles] But don't vampires kill people?

Mick:
Well, most vampires don't have bounderies or rules, but I do. I don't hunt women, I don't hunt children, I don't hunt innocents, but there're predators out there that need to be dealt with.

Interviewer:
Is that why you became a private investigator?

Mick:
[nods slightly] It's a way to use my special abilities.

Interviewer:
Any advice for the vampire wannabes out there?

Mick:
Yeah, stay out of my way.

Beth:
[to herself, as she walks barefoot] Murder on Melrose.... no. Southland Student Slaying. Ehh. Vampire... something with vampire in it. [sees Mick, walks to him] Do.. do I know you?

Mick:
[shrugs] You tell me.

Beth:
You're a cop, right?

Mick:
No.

Beth:
Reporter?

Mick:
Nope.

Beth:
We've met before, you look very familiar.

Mick:
Well, maybe I've just got one of those faces.

Beth:
Okay... so tell me. Which do you like better: "Vampire Slaying Rocks L.A."...

Mick:
There's no such thing as vampires.

Beth:
I don't think the woman in the fountain would agree. [turns to look at body] I mean... [Turns back, but Mick has vanished]

Steve:
What are we still doing here?

Beth:
Looking for her car.

Steve:
Right, and how do we know she didn't just walk?

Beth:
Nobody walks in L.A.

Mick:
[narrating] My buddy, Josef. One of the oldest vampires in L.A. 400, going on thirty. Living, well, un-living proof that paranoia never goes out of style.

Josef:
Ahh, you look good. Been working out? [nodding to himself] yeah, you look good. Uhh, have you seen the news? This terrible thing in West Hollywood? It's everywhere, "Vampire Slaying Rocks L.A."

Mick:
Yeah, I know, it doesn't look good for us.

Josef:
It's a threat to our secrecy, what is this the 1720s? We're discreet, we don't leave bodies lying around! We have to be extra-vigilent, we live in the age of fingerprint scans, DNA tests, genome mapping.

Mick:
Josef! Relax.

Josef:
I am relaxed. This is relaxed [tugging at his tie] You're only ninety, you've never been chased by a torch-bearing mob, hungry!

Josef:
[A young woman approaches Josef] She's delicious. '82 was a good year.

Mick:
Oh, we went to the Super Bowl in '82, right? Lost a million bucks on Cincinnati that year, right?

Josef:
Except for that, yeah.

[Mick surprises Beth as she searches the dead girl's apartment and she hits him over the head with a bottle which shatters]

Mick:
Ouch. [Beth pulls out her Mace]

Beth:
You were at the crime scene.

Mick:
Easy with the Mace, okay?

Beth:
Stay back.

Mick:
I'm not going to hurt you.

Beth:
You're not going to hurt me? How do I know you're not the killer?

Mick:
Well, because I'm not killing you.

Beth:
Okay, if you not the killer - and let's go with that - cause that's comforting. What are you doing here?

Beth:
A girl's dead, I'm not letting this go.

Mick:
You're kinda pushy, aren't you?

Beth:
You'll get used to it.

Professor:
I am a vampire.

Mick:
Really?

Professor:
Well, not in the way most commonly portrayed in dime store novels. When most people hear the word vampire, they immediately conjour up an image of some undead monstrosity running round at night trying to drink human blood.

Mick:
Hate that.

Carl:
Come on, threesomes never end well.

Beth:
Huh?

Carl:
Don't ask.

Josef:
It's about time you got back.

Mick:
Make yourself at home.

Josef:
Already did. Poured myself a drink. [waves a glass of blood] You seriously drink this stuff? What is it, like non-fat soy Vegan blood?

Mick:
If you don't like it... [reaches to take glass]

Josef:
[holding glass closer] I didn't say that.

Mick:
Are you sure?

Josef:
Get out of here. I assume you don't have any freshies around. Nah, of course not.

Mick:
Am I supposed to know why you're here, Josef?

Josef:
[clicks on tv]

Expert on TV:
It is possible that there is some truth behind the vampire myth. Perhaps there are some individuals with genetic dispositions that could consume and digest, blood.

Josef:
Vampire experts. Beautiful - now we have the food mouthing off about the farmer. The whole city is talking. Wanna know what they're talking about? Us.

Mick:
So it's a slow newsday.

Josef:
No, that's not it. It's this reporter from Buzzwire, Beth somebody. She started the whole thing.

Mick:
Beth Turner.

Josef:
Oh, you know her?

Mick:
We did some breaking and entering together.

Josef:
Then you, my friend, must get her to stop.

Mick:
Like what, she's driving along, and suddenly, her car explodes?

Josef:
I was thinking you ask her nicely, but, fielder's choice.

Mick:
Killer's not a vampire.

Josef:
There were bite-marks.

Mick:
[angry] Two stab-wounds.

Josef:
And the blood?

Mick:
Well, you hit an artery, you're bound to get some of that.

Josef:
So you're telling me some poser wanna-be drinking blood out of a Snoop Dog chalice is behind this?

Mick:
Yeah, something like that.

Josef:
Why haven't you killed him?

Mick:
There's more than one suspect.

Josef:
So kill them all. That's what I would do. Hey, look I know you have morals and scruples and that's fine, sort of. But you are not the man I on occasion pretend to respect if you don't get this under control. Hey, you have a soft spot for the mortals. A charming fascination with all of the things they do while listening to the tick-tick-tick of their own looming demise. That's fine that's good, everyone needs a hobby.

Josef:
Vampire solidarity. Rah rah rah.

Mick:
And, don't forget, I'm the only friend you got that doesn't like you for your money.

Josef:
That's true, sad, but true.

Mick:
Forever is a long time with an ex-wife like mine.

Mick:
The last time I held her in my arms she was only a child. Over the years I tried to stay close just of sight in case she needed me and tonight she did.

Mick:
Sixty years is a long time to deny yourself the touch of another, but you do it because you can't stand the thought of seeing yourself as a monster in someone else's eyes.

Mick:
There's no such thing as vampires.

Mick:
Holding her in my arms it almost seems like it could work between us, but monsters don't get happily ever after.

Josef:
Look, humans don't properly know how to deal with their bad guys. What else is new? You want to take matters into your own hands. Come on [Josef smiles] I got a few hours to kill.

Josef:
You absolutely gotta waste this guy.

Mick:
It's not that simple.

Josef:
Yeah it is..And what if decides to go all Van Helsing and come after you?

Beth:
Do you have any idea how hard it is to come up with a gift that says "thanks"for saving me from a psycho serial killer"?

Mick:
Miss Manners doesn't cover that?

Beth:
Surprisingly, no.

Mick:
When you live forever, it's disappointing how little humans change. Technology, though, that always gets better. If I hadn't become a vampire I would have missed out on the Internet, TIVO, World of Warcraft and GPS.

Beth:
Very nice, is that your party personality?

Mick:
I didn't do anything.

Beth:
I'd hate to see what you call something.

Josef:
[As a blonde and a red head approach Josef and Mick in a club] Red or white?

Mick:
I will take the red. [Mick bites the red head as Josef stands to do the same to the blonde as he's tapped on the shoulder]

Josef:
I've told you, not while I'm eating!

Beth:
Why did you run? Why didn't you stay there and tell the police what happened?

Mick:
[Reciting in his head] Because I'm a vampire. Because I'm a vampire. Because I'm...there's no good way to say it. [Finally out loud] I guess I panicked.

Beth:
What did he mean, "I know what you are"? Mick, what did he mean?

Mick:
I don't know.

Beth:
I don't believe you.

Mick:
How 'bout we get Julia first?

Beth:
How 'bout you finally answer a question without evading or disappearing?

Mick:
Hours almost up.

Beth:
Like that.

Mick:
We all have secrets, Beth and that's not evading.

Beth:
Why does the girl always have to wait in the car?

[Mick drinks blood to try and recover from the fight with Lee Jay]

Beth:
Mick? You ran off again. One second you were there and then you were gone. Are you okay?

Mick:
Please leave.

Beth:
Not without answers. [She walks in] I keep dreaming about you. Why?

Mick:
Please don't look at me. [Beth sees Mick's vampiric state]

Beth:
Oh my god. What are you?

Mick:
I'm a vampire.

[Beth is knocking on Mick's door]

Mick:
Beth.

Beth:
Okay, I'm here to talk to you about...ehm.. you.

Mick:
Maybe you should come in.

Beth:
I really need you to tell me that I didn't see what I saw or what I think I saw the other night. The blood, the fangs. I heard what you said.

Mick:
That I'm a vampire.

Beth:
How am I supposed... Are you the only one or are there other vampires?

Mick:
A few hundred here in L.A.

Beth:
How can people not know you exist?

Mick:
We're extremely careful. Sometimes people see things but they dismissed.

Beth:
How can they?

Mick:
No one believes them. [Mick gets up] People have been hunting us for thousands of years. So, it's extremely important that no one knows we exist. You understand?

[Beth nods to show she understand]

Beth:
So, do you bite people's necks and suck the blood out?

Mick:
Actually I.. I get most of my blood from the blood bank.

Beth:
Oh. The red cross does not mention that in their literature.

Mick:
I don't think they know.

Beth:
Do you know how crazy this is? I trying really hard to wrap my mind around what you just said and what I saw.

Mick:
Hey, I get it. It's a lot to get.

Beth:
So, how does a person even become a vampire? How did you become a vampire?

Mick:
A newly turned vampire is like a feral kitten, if you don't socialize it within the first few days, it will never be able to interact with humans.

Mick:
That goes against every rule we have. A sire has to be responsible for whoever they turn, to help them through the transition.

[After Mick captures the vampire]

Beth:
Should we call the police?

Mick:
Suggestions like that are why you shouldn't be here.

The Cleaner:
Mr. Sloppy and Mr. Stupid over there got a little carried away off their midnight snack.

[gestures to two vampires and the clean-up who are carrying a headless body]

Mick:
These two?

The Cleaner:
Accidents happen. Everyone feels bad, but at least they called the clean up.

Josef:
[talking about the rogue vampire] Well, the blood lust can be pretty heavy when you're first turned. And you could really lose it. I know I did. Damn, those were good times!

[Talking to Mick about Coraline]

Josef:
You can't change the past, and you can't let it stop you from going forward.

Mick:
You wanna know how I became a vampire?

Beth:
Yes.

Mick:
Okay. I told you I was married, right? Well, she was a vampire. I didn't know. And on our wedding night she turned me. I went to bed a happily married man and I woke up a monster.

Beth:
Were you married?

Mick:
Once.

Beth:
What happened?

Mick:
She died.

Beth:
Did you try and turn her into a ...

Mick:
She's dead. Period.

Beth:
Okay. Sorry.

Mick:
You're not. Trust me.

Josef:
The incinerator?! Damn. Remind me to never piss you off.

Mick:
I didn't have a choice.

Josef:
Well, like I'm judging you. I would have done the same thing. Except, I would have enjoyed it more.

Beth:
Can you fly?

Mick:
Just like Superman.

Beth:
Really?

Mick:
No. [pauses] It would be pretty cool, wouldn't it?

Beth:
Yeah.

Mick:
I need you to use your police contacts to see if anybody has filed any kind of reports in the last couple of days.

Beth:
You're a private investigator. You don't have any contacts in the department?

Mick:
It takes time to develop a contact. Years. People age. I don't. Cops especially tend to pick up on those kind of details.

Beth:
I'll go through the wild reports. See if the cause of death matches any other recent murder victims.

Mick:
Beth.

Beth:
And you will ask the other vampires if they know anything.

Mick:
There's not like a big club house where we all hang out.

Beth:
Word is, something slashed him open and drained all his blood out.

Mick:
Something? What, as in something like me?

Beth:
I didn't say that.

Mick:
Whatever did this is nothing like me, okay?

Mick:
What have you done to me?

Coraline:
Don't be scared. It's my wedding gift. I freed you, I freed you from death.

Mick:
Tell me what you did to me?

Coraline:
I joined us, forever.

Mick:
Where were you coming from?

Gerald Stovsky:
The Empress Pavillion, I love their pork buns.

Mick:
But we don't eat.

Gerald Stovsky:
I know, but I sure used to love those buns.

Mick:
Anyway, last night, after your pork bun, what did you eat, and by what I mean who?

[Mick and Beth whispering]

Mick:
And wait in the car means?

Beth:
Yeah, cause that worked out so well last time.

Mick:
Hey.

Beth:
Mick. Do you wanna come in?

Mick:
No. I mean... uhm... You wanna know how I became a vampire?

Beth:
Yes.

Mick:
Okay. I told you I was married. Well, she was a vampire. I didn't know. And on our wedding night she turned me. I went to bed a very happily married man, I woke up a monster.

Beth:
You're not a monster.

Mick:
Believe me, I was.

Beth:
You must find it hard to trust anyone now.

Mick:
You asked me if I trusted you. You're the first human that I've told any of this, too. About who I am and what I am. So yeah, I trust you.

Beth:
How long can you stay outside? How much is too much?

Mick:
Any is too much.

Beth:
You're a delicate flower Mick St. John.

[Mick smiles and turns away]

Mick:
[Voiceover] When I was still human, I survived the Battle of the Bulge. Six weeks in a trench in the Ardennes - coldest winter I'd ever felt. My buddy lost a foot to frostbite. I thought that was hell... I was wrong.

[Mick has fled to the desert in a bid to protect Leni Hayes, a witness in a court case, and is lying in a bathtub, the life slowly sapping away from him.]

Leni:
We have to get you to a hospital. This is not just regular dehydration. Something is seriously wrong.

Mick:
[delirious] No hospitals. Just keep trying to get a signal. Call the number I gave you. Ask for Beth. Just talk to her. Only Beth.

Leni:
Who is she?

Mick:
I trust her.

Leni:
Hey, is she your girlfriend?

Mick:
No! It's... complicated.

Mick:
[Voiceover] What do you get when you put a vampire in the desert? Maybe no more vampire.

Beth:
Mick. Mick. MICK. Stay with me. Stay with me! Mick. You burning up.

Mick:
I better.. I die before I feed on her.

Beth:
Mick, Leni is in the other room. She's fine.

Mick:
I guess... I guess I'm a delicate flower.

Beth:
I guess you are.

Mick:
Take Leni back. Get her out of here. He's coming.

Beth:
I'm not leaving.

Mick:
You have to protect her now.

Beth:
You're dying. [She's dropping the coat and bares her neck.] I don't know how to do this. But I know you need it, so...

Mick:
No! Get out! Get out!

Beth:
You need blood!

Mick:
No, not yours!

Beth:
Look...

Mick:
Not like this!

Beth:
...I want to do this.

Mick:
[Voiceover] What would you do when the one thing you need to save your life is the one thing that would make life unbearable? [Both look to each other]

Beth:
I know you won't kill me and I know you won't try to turn me either. I've got this vampire friend who has been explaining this stuff.

Mick:
[Takes her forearm] At some point you're gonna have to stop me. [Sinks his teeth into her arm]

[Beth has been knocking on Mick's door. He won't open up. She rests her head against the door, and so does he.]

Mick:
[Voiceover] Maybe it was her blood in my veins that let me feel her, the beating of her very living heart. Or maybe we've always been connected. Either way, being near me puts her in danger. So it has to stop.

[She pauses and leaves. So does he.]

Mick:
[narrating] If there's one thing I've learned in 85 years, it's that what you want, doesn't really matter. You can want to get from here to there, you can want to be on time. You can want to avoid someone, 'cause, say you drank their blood out in the desert. You can want all of these things, but if the universe wants something different, you can run, but you can't hide.

Josef:
So, what's her name...

Mick:
You know her name.

Josef:
Yeah, so how's that going after.. happy hour?

Mick:
Fine.

Josef:
Well, knowing you, that means you're avoiding her. You're a romantic in the abstract, my friend, but the reality of fang on flesh...

Mick:
Look, you said you could help me find the missing girl.

Josef:
Did I?

Mick:
Yes, you did.

Mick:
Josef, Ryder, meet Beth Turner.

Josef:
Beth Turner, Buzzwire. Such a beautiful woman on the internet.

Beth:
Thank you... I guess. So, are you going to tell me what I'm doing here?

Ryder:
Mick said you had a great voice.

Mick:
Ryder, here, has a got a list of all of the incoming calls from the dead escort's website in the last 24 hours of her life. One of them is probably the killer.

Beth:
So you want me to call the numbers?

Josef:
Eh. Quick study.

Beth:
What should I say? I've never spoken to a serial killer before.

Josef:
Well, be polite. Please, thank you.

Mick:
Just do....

Ryder:
Whatever escorts do... [holding out an earpiece]

Mick:
[narrating] Maybe it's the sum of a million coincidences we don't quite control that brings us to a particular place at a particular time. [he drops his keys, they roll under his car. He bends down to get them.]

Beth:
[can't see Mick, walks beside his car]

Mick:
[narrating] Or maybe it's the choices we make, the actions we take. If there's one thing I've learned in 85 years, it's that what we want doesn't always matter. [He stands with his keys, coming face to face with Beth. They both gasp]

Beth:
You just took off.

Mick:
Well, you were kinda tied up with your editor.

Beth:
You could at least have said goodbye.

Mick:
Good- [Beth stands on her toes to kiss him] bye.

Mick:
[They kiss again] [narrating] What we want, doesn't always matter... but then again, sometimes it's the only thing that does.

Mick:
[narrating] There's a question I ask myself that I don't know how to answer. All these questions surround one uncertainty; how does an immortal handle mortal feelings?

Beth:
so, why did you take Coraline's blood?

Mick:
Answers. I think it might be the key to the cure.

Beth:
You really hate being a vampire, don't you?

Mick:
Hate is a strong word, so ye s, that works.

Beth:
It can't be all that bad to live forever. You will see things when I'm gone, when everyone is gone that.....we can't even imagine now.

Mick:
Like what?

Beth:
Cars that can fly, diet soda that doesn't suck.

Mick:
Yeah, but it is not so fun when you experience things alone.

Beth:
So, take a vampire wife then.

Beth:
Tried that one, it didn't work out so well.

Beth:
I know I haven't been here for you.

Josh:
You are here now. It's all that matters.

Mick:
[to Beth] For a vampire, the best possible blood to consume is fresh human blood from a child, that matches the vampire's blood type.

Beth:
You can save him.

Mick:
No. I can't do that.

Beth:
Yes, you can. Turn him. He'll live.

Mick:
That's not living, Beth.

Beth:
Save him, please, for me......PLEASE

Mick:
He is human, Beth, okay? This is what happens.

Beth:
Please, could you just leave?

Mick:
Just give me a minute. I know that you are angry that I didn't turn Josh but I didn't kill him. Beth, his job killed him. You can't blame me for him being gone. Turning someone into a vampire isn't saving a life, it is taking one...

Beth:
..because it's such a curse. I know. You tell me all the time.

Mick:
You don't know, Beth. How could you know?

Beth:
If you hate what you are so much, then why you go on living?

Mick:
[thinking] You want me to.

Mick:
I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure. I did a lot of bad things after I was turned, Beth. Things that you can never imagine. Things I carry tremendous amounts of guilt about. I wanna make up for them.

Beth:
I just can't stop thinking about him. If you had done it, he'd still be here. What if it were me lying there instead of Josh, seconds before death, would you have saved me?

Mick:
I would have done the same thing.

Mick:
[narrating] She asked me something I have asked myself over and over again. The truth is; I don't know what I would do. What I do know is that by the end of the day not a lot separates life and death. Only one thing; eternity.

Mick:
Beth. [She looks at him and walks away] Beth, hey come on, Beth. This is ridiculous. I did everything possible to save him.

Beth:
You did everything humanly possible.

Mick:
I live everyday regretting what I am. I am not about to subject Josh or anyone else to that fate.

Beth:
I'm trying really hard to understand, okay? [She walks away]

Mick:
Beth, I'll see you, okay? [she looks at him and nods]

Celeste:
Is Josh coming?

Beth:
No, he is not coming. How long has this been going on?

Celeste:
How long was what going on?

Beth:
You and Josh.

Celeste:
Oh, you are the girlfriend..Beth.

Beth:
He told you about me ?!

Celeste:
Listen, Beth....

Beth:
No..no, you listen..... Josh is dead.

Celeste:
Oh my god...oh my god...Beth, it isn't what you think. I have been meeting with Josh because resetting his grandmother's stone. He was planning on proposing. I am a jeweler. I was helping him. He loved you so much. He was so excited about proposing. I am sorry.

Beth:
No..no, I am sorry. I was looking at his calender and I saw...

Celeste:
It's okay. Here. [Celeste gave Beth the ring]

Mick:
You once told me you are giving me the greatest gift by turning me.

Coraline:
That was a long time ago, Mick.

Mick:
Yeah, but what happened? Why is this sudden interest in becoming mortal?

Coraline:
I wanted to feel life again. And maybe....love can't exist without mortality.

Mick:
[narrating] I avoided to feel human for a long time, but I forgot how painful it could be. With Coraline and what's left of the cure gone, my blood is the only link I have left. For the first time in many years, I can sleep in a bed.

Mick:
[narrating] No matter how close we start to get, there's always been an eternal wall between us. She...a mortal, and me...a vampire. But with everything that has happened, maybe there is still hope that things could be different.

Beth:
Oh my god, what happened to your face?

Mick:
It's a long story, that ended in a big fight. Coraline is gone. It's not meant to be. Never was.

Beth:
Yeah, I.....I kinda know how that feels. Wait a second.....Are you human?

Mic:
For now....yeah.

Beth:
How does it feel?

Mick:
The pain, the sun, the mortality. It feels amazing.

Priest:
[at Josh's funeral] We are all mortal. Our time is limited. It's part of what allows us to love and hurt. And in the end, it inspires us to make the most of the time we are given.

Mick:
[narrating] It's been fifty five years since I slept in a bed, felt the softness and warmth of pillows and blankets. Do I miss sleeping in an industrial freezer? Would you?

Mick:
At the funeral, you were wearing his ring.

Beth:
Yes. Yes, I was, but I realized that even if he had proposed to me, I wouldn't have been able to say "Yes".

Mick:
Why not?

Beth:
There's someone else.

[Beth and Mick went to Maureen's house to see if they could find her USB drive]

Beth:
Breaking and entering was much more fun when you were a vampire. It's a shame you can't still do that sexy vampire jumping thing.

Mick:
Yeah, well, the jumping was kind of tied with the whole bloodsucking thing.

Beth:
We gotta narrow down the hiding places.

Mick:
It's all about psychology, all right? People hide things in the last place they think anyone else is gonna look.

Beth:
Tampons!

Mick:
Excuse me?

Beth:
I always hide my nice jewelry in a box of tampons.

Mick:
Yeah, ok. I'll admit that's the last place I would look.

[After finding the USB drive Beth goes to see Mick]

Beth:
Uh, if my jewelry goes missing, I'll know who took it.

Mick:
[Sounds surprised] You gotta be kidding.

[Mick goes to see Logan so he can take the password protection from the USB drive]

Logan:
[Playing guitar] Just in time for my solo, man!

Mick:
Is that all you do?

Logan:
No, Tuesdays and Thursdays I rule "World of Warcraft".

Beth:
Did you know my editor was investigating your involvement in a bogus charity scheme?

Josef:
Nice to see you, Beth, me I'm doin' great, thanks. Except for the drywall dust. It gets everywhere.

Mick:
Beth's editor was killed a few hours ago.

Josef:
I'm sorry. So. Am I a suspect? [they nod] Cool! It's like roleplaying, but without the leather.

Mick:
Your name came up in connection with a story Maureen was working on.

Josef:
Was her body found in the La Brea Tar Pits?

Mick:
No.

Josef:
That was the only person I killed this week.

Mick:
Josef, this is serious.

Josef:
No, this is stupid. Look I'm on the board of dozens of charities. I had no idea that this one was bogus until Maureen told me.

Mick:
Ok, we'll talk to your PR man.

Josef:
Remember the Tar Pits?

Bonnie:
Living everyday with a secret that you wanna tell someone.

Mick:
Listen to me. Secrets are like a disease, and if we don't share them, they will eat us up on the inside, until there's nothing left, until it feels that we are already dead.

Bonnie:
You do have a secret, don't you?

Mick:
Yeah, I do. And it ate me up until I finally told somebody.

[Mick is at home, pulling vampire-hunting weapons from hidden cubbies behind his books.]

Josef:
[Appears behind Mick and startles him] What are you doing?

Mick:
Don't do that!

Josef:
What? Use my crafty vampire abilities to sneak up on you?

Mick:
Why are you here?

Josef:
Guillermo called me. Said you were about to do something extremely stupid. I said, "Wait, that can't be the Mick that I know.”

Mick:
You should come, you love a challenge.

Josef:
No, see, I'm a lover, not a fighter. No, besides, I'd just get dead trying to protect you; the human liability.

Mick:
I can take care of myself.

Josef:
[snarls, attacks, pinning Mick against the wall] Is this how you're gonna fight them? This is how you want it to end!?!

Mick:
Get off me! Get off me! [Josef suddenly focuses on Mick's throat, leaning closer, before tearing himself away]

Josef:
Well, I hope I've made my point.

Mick:
Yeah, you did.

Josef:
What?

Mick:
You were right. I can't save Beth as a human. But I can save her as a vampire. You have to turn me back.

Josef:
Whoa, uh-uh. You hold on. This is not-

Mick:
You have to turn me back, right now.

Josef:
Mick, you’re human again. After all you went through to get the cure, you're gonna give it up this easy?

Mick:
You think this is easy for me? This is not easy, okay? I don't have a choice.

Josef:
What you're asking me to do-

Mick:
Listen to me, all right? He has Beth. He has my Beth. So please. Please, brother.

Josef:
Mick, forgive me. [Mick nods and offers his neck. Josef bites him, drains him, and lays him gently on the table. Then takes off his own jacket, bites his own wrist, then holds it in the air, above Mick’s mouth and squeezes out drops of blood that land on Mick’s lips. Mick then starts to lick the blood off his lips.] Come on, Mick. Rise and shine. [Mick’s head raises to Josef’s wrist, which he takes hold of and drinks. Mick then rests his head back on the table and releases Josef’s wrist, then all his wounds start to heal, he sits up slowly, and roars]

Mick:
[smiling] Don't worry, dad. I'll be careful.

Josef:
Don't call me that.

Mick:
Well, you did turn me.

Josef:
Returned you. Returned. You were gonna become a vampire again anyway. I'm not your sire.

Mick:
You're kinda my step-sire.

Beth:
You started over with Layla.

Mick:
I know how it sounds, but it just...kinda happened. It just happened.

Beth:
So you think Robert ..... how could you not know you had a son?

Mick:
When I left Layla, I had no idea she was pregnant. I checked Robert's birthday, it's possible.

Beth:
Why did you leave her?

Mick:
Because Ray survived. He was in a coma for months, lost his tags, the doctors didn't know who he was.

Beth:
The DA's office will narrow it down. Ben's got a good team.

Mick:
Ben...wow.....should I be jealous?

Beth:
Of course. Even if I have no romantic interest in him, jealousy makes me desirable.

Mick:
So, about what Josef said?

Beth:
What? that we can't have a baby?

Mick:
You wanna have my baby?

Beth:
What do you think of "Elliot" for a boy? [Mick looks at her]

Beth:
I'm kidding, relax. But I mean, children are the prior of most normal human relationships.

Mick:
Our relationship being neither normal nor human, but Josef was right; vampires can't have kids, so, I mean that if it is a deal breaker.....

Beth:
Wow...I think we are getting ahead of ourselves. I mean that we haven't slept with each other yet. Look, let's just focus on getting Jacob back and we can worry about our children when the time comes.

Mick:
[after reading the DNA test] Robert is not my son. Good for you Ray.

Beth:
I'm sorry.

Mick:
No. No. This is the way it was supposed to be.I just didn't know how much I wanted family until I almost had one.

Beth:
Hey..family is not only about DNA.

Simone:
We should go.

Josef:
Aw, but this is so awkward. I love awkward.

Beth:
You okay?

Mick:
Yeah, except I just got hit in the face with the sacred ass paddle.

Beth:
Karma.

Logan:
Uh-oh. They've got a secondary firewall. They must have updated the system. I'm gonna need a minute.

Mick:
You've got ten seconds.

Logan:
Yeah. Thanks. Yeah, that's really going to make me work faster!

Beth:
When we first met...or met again, whatever...what was I wearing?

Mick:
Blue jeans, white striped shirt, cream jacket.

Beth:
And my shoes?

Mick:
You were barefoot.

Beth:
How do you even remember that?

Mick:
Because I love you.

(They begin to kiss, the door to Beth's apartment closes.)

Mick:
[Voiceover] At the oddest time,you might find yourself feeling lucky, like maybe you found somebody... Then bam! That's exactly when the ex-wife shows up.