LA FEMME NIKITA
Choice

#110 "Choice"
Written by: Michael Loceff
Directed by: George Bloomfield
Edited by: Robert K. Sprogis
Transcript archived at TWIZ TV.COM
Originally posted at Flash Mission
Transcribed by: Christine

 

DRUG EXCHANGE

In a dark cellar, two opposing contingents make a heroin for money trade.  A man opens a suitcase full of heroin.

1st MAN:  Ooh.

He takes one of the packets and weighs it on a small scale.

2ND MAN:  We packed them a little heavy.  I’m sure you won’t complain.

The 1st man laughs.  Outside, another man is posted as a look out, making sure the dealers can leave without incident.

OUTSIDE MAN:  All right, it’s all clear out here.

2nd MAN:  Good, we’re coming.

They all exit to the outside of the building, one group going one way, the other group veering to the left.  Suddenly, armed men converge on both departing groups, and begin taking weapons from everyone.

PRICE:  Here’s what’s going to happen.  Everyone’s going to hand us their weapons.  You’re going to hand the heroin over to me, get in your cars and disappear.

The case containing the heroin is handed over to him.

PRICE:  Thank you.  The money, please?

The case containing the money is now handed over to him.

PRICE:  Thank you.  Excuse me.

He walks away.

MAN WHO HANDED OVER MONEY:  What the hell is going on?

From the rooftop, shooters take out all the dealers.

MADELINE'S OFFICE

Operations walks in; Madeline is upstairs in her loft.

OPERATIONS:  A heroin deal went bad two days ago.  Buyers and sellers were slaughtered.  We need to find the people who perpetrated the rip-off.

He stands looking up at her, his hands in his pockets.  Upstairs, Madeline stands looking down at him, her hands resting wide on the railing.

MADELINE:  We’re suddenly chasing street criminals?

OPERATIONS:  This is as serious as it gets.  They were CIA.

He walks out of the office.

NIKITA'S APARTMENT

Nikita and Gray lie naked in bed together.  She is lying on top of him, while he plays absently with her hair.

NIKITA:  You know, just seems a bit too soon.

GRAY:  You don’t feel the same way I do?

NIKITA:  No, I do.  Of course, I do, and, I really want to meet her.  I…  It’s just… she’s your daughter and… it’s going to be hard for her.

GRAY:  We’ve got to start somewhere.

NIKITA:  I don’t want to start something that I can’t finish.  If Casey gets attached to me, what if in six months it doesn’t work out?

GRAY:  No guarantees in life.  Is there guarantees in life?  Well, death and taxes are guarantees.

NIKITA:  Gray…

GRAY:  What’s up?  What’s holding you back?

She looks up at him, her chin on his chest.  Before she can answer, a knock sounds at the front door.

NIKITA:  Who’s that?

GRAY:  What is it?

NIKITA:  Nothing.

She hurriedly puts a long shirt on, as a louder knock sounds.

NIKITA:  Coming!

She hurries to the front door, peeking through the peephole.  She looks back at Gray, then slides the chain off and opens the door.  Michael stands there, staring at her, while working his chin with his fingertips.

Back in the bedroom, Gray is hurriedly putting on his clothes.

GRAY:  Who is it?

NIKITA:  It’s… uh…

MICHAEL:  It’s your cousin Michael.

NIKITA: (whispers) It’s not a good time, Michael.

MICHAEL: (hard) Since when do you decide when it’s a good time?

He slowly steps into the apartment, then turns to Nikita, speaking loudly for Gray’s benefit.

MICHAEL:  I missed you!

He kisses her on both cheeks, then looks to Nikita’s bedroom and points to Gray.

MICHAEL:  You must be Gray!

He goes over to the stairs, where Gray descends with empty wine bottles in hand.

MICHAEL:  Pleased to meet you.

GRAY:  (puzzled)  Who are you?

NIKITA:  This is my cousin, Michael.

MICHAEL:  I feel like I know you already.  You’re all Nikita talks about these days.

GRAY:  Really?

A loud beep sounds from the kitchen.

GRAY:  Oh, I’ll get that.

Gray  heads over to the kitchen.

MICHAEL:  I’m sorry to bust in.  It tried to call, but, uh, I couldn’t get through.

He moves to the counter where the phone is, making Nikita back up as he advances.  He sees that the cord is not inserted into the jack.

MICHAEL:  It’s disconnected.  I wonder how that happened?

He plugs it back in.

NIKITA:  I unplugged it.

MICHAEL:  And, your cell phone?

NIKITA:  It’s broken.

GRAY:  Uh, Michael?  Glass of wine?

MICHAEL:  Thank you.

He walks over to the counter, while Nikita follows unhappily, going to the other side of the counter to stand beside Gray.

GRAY:  Nikita, you never mentioned you had a cousin living in town.

NIKITA:  Oh, Michael works away a lot.  He’s rarely ever here.

GRAY:  What do you do?

MICHAEL:  Buy art for galleries.

Michael hands over a business card, while he and Nikita trade a look.

GRAY:  You know what’s weird?  We were just talking about meeting family today.

Michael smiles a bright phony smile.

MICHAEL:  That’s nice.

GRAY:  Yeah.

NIKITA:  So, uh, Michael, what brings you here?  It must be something very important to come all the way here.

MICHAEL:  Yeah, it’s your Aunt Josephine.  She’s, uh… she’s still not doing well.  So, I told her you’d drop by in the morning.

NIKITA:  Fine.

MICHAEL:  Good.

Michael holds up his glass to Gray.

MICHAEL:  Welcome to the family, Gray.

GRAY:  Cheers.

They click glasses, while Nikita looks down uncomfortably.

WAR ROOM

As Nikita makes her way to the War Room, she passes operatives in fight training, then Walter and operatives in Munitions.  She storms up to the conference table, where Michael is seated at the head of the table.  She bends to speak angrily.

NIKITA:  What gives you the right to barge in on my life?

MICHAEL:  You don’t unplug the phone, ever.

NIKITA:  All I wanted was one hour to myself.  Was that too much to ask?

MICHAEL:  Yes.

Nikita sits beside him, as Operations strides in and begins the briefing.

OPERATIONS:  Operation Rosewood is the name given to a covert task force operating within the CIA.  Their assignment is to stem distribution of heroin into North America and Europe.

BIRKOFF:  We’re constantly monitoring Langley.  I’ve never heard of these guys.

OPERATIONS:  They’re not out of Langley.  Rosewood operates outside the agency.  Three days ago, a group of heroin dealers were ambushed, ripped off and killed.  One of the dearly departed was identified as a member of the Rosewood group.  We now believe the perpetrators are a rogue element inside of Rosewood.

MICHAEL:  Why don’t they put their own internal affairs on it?

OPERATIONS:  The director wants to keep Rosewood invisible even to his own agency.  He asked us to clean house.

MICHAEL:  Where do we start?

OPERATIONS:  Here.  They’re headquartered on the third floor of this building under the pseudonym Pruett Distributors.  They’re a very well funded group.  Do not underestimate their security.

MISSION

It is night, as the van moves through the city.

MICHAEL:  Ted, when you get the signal, send a burst of EMF and knock out the power.  Nikita, you’ll have four seconds until the auxiliary power kicks in.

NIKITA:  Is that enough time?

MICHAEL:  It’ll have to be.

A security guard walks back and forth, patrolling on a building rooftop.  Nikita rappels down the side of a taller, adjacent building onto the rooftop.  Once she has landed in the shadows, she notifies the van with a remote signal.

BIRKOFF:  She’s on the roof.

Michael, inside the van with Birkoff, hits a key on his laptop, which activates the alarm of a parked car.  As the alarm sounds loudly, the security guard on the roof goes to the roof edge to peer over and see what the problem is.  This gives Nikita time to cross the open space without detection.  She removes a grate, which leads to the building’s ventilation system tunneling, and gets in, replacing the grate.  The guard looks through binoculars and sees that the alarm sound comes from the car.  He moves to continue his surveillance, again walking the rooftop.

Nikita crawls through the tunnels, coming to an area with a grated ceiling.  She looks down, seeing a well-secured room with lasers crisscrossing about the floor.  She removes her helmet and waits, as outside, an operative, dressed as a utility worker, sets a charge on a nearby power pole.

Back in the ventilation tunnel, Nikita prepares a long cord to drop inside the room below.  Slowly, she lowers down into the room, until she hovers just above the laser beams.

Outside, the operative presses a remote, which blows the utility box, taking out the building’s power.  The laser beams no longer are activated, and Nikita quickly cuts the cord she hangs from and falls to the floor below, flat on her back.  She yanks the cord down, which in turn slams the overhead ceiling grate shut, just moments before the auxiliary power kicks in and reinstates the laser beams, which now pass only inches from Nikita’s face.

NIKITA:  I’m in.

BIRKOFF:  She did it.  I hope you’re comfortable, Nikita.  See you in eight hours.

BUILDING

A security guard exits an elevator, goes to a door pad and presses some buttons.  The lasers inside the room Nikita is turn off, and she jumps up, going to the computer in the room and installing a disk to copy information.

Inside the mission van, Birkoff sees that Nikita is now copying information to him.

BIRKOFF:  Transponders on.  She’s booted up.

MICHAEL:  Are we receiving?

BIRKOFF:  Yep.

At the building’s entrance, people are just beginning to show up for work.  Nikita, in the room, types at computer rapidly.  The security guards makes his way to room, as Nikita hurriedly removes her outer clothes.  As the guard gets ever nearer, Nikita shoves the outer clothes into her bag.  She is now dressed in a neat, business outfit with heals.  The guard opens the door, sees her.

GUARD:  Who are you?

Nikita turns to face him.

NIKITA:  Mr. Price’s secretary.  Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but he has conference call in ten minutes, so I really should be going.  Thank you.

As she pushes past him and heads down the hallway with him watching her in shock, a voice calls to him from his radio, instructing him to go unlock “L-12”.

VAN ACCESS

Operations turns the wheel handles to Van Access, meeting Michael and Nikita and the team as they exit the mission van doors.  They head into the hallway.

OPERATIONS:  We downloaded everything you sent us.  Comm is putting it through analysis now.

NIKITA:  Michael, if it’s all the same to you, I’ll debrief in the morning.

MICHAEL:  No.  You’ll do it now like everybody else.

NIKITA:  Michael!  Please.  I have to get back.  It’s very important.

MICHAEL:  The sooner you get started, the sooner you get out of here.

He moves off, as she stares at him unhappily.

NIKITA'S APARTMENT

Nikita enters her dark apartment quietly.  As she enters, removing her coat, she looks about, seeing Gray and his daughter asleep on the living room floor.  She sees in the dining area, the table is laden with candles and dinnerware for the dinner that had been prepared for her.  She goes and lies on the couch next to where Gray lies on the floor and gazes past him to the sleeping child.  Bending, she kisses Gray’s ear to awaken him.

NIKITA:  Hi.

Gray mutters in his sleep as Nikita strokes his hair.  Awakening, he flips to his back and looks to her.

GRAY:  So, what happened to your aunt?

NIKITA:  She got dizzy.

GRAY:  Is she all right?

NIKITA:  Fine.

GRAY:  There’s a little person I want you to meet.  Meet Casey.

NIKITA:  Hi, Casey.

GRAY:  She’s a bit sleepy.

MADELINE'S OFFICE

Madeline sits at her desk, as Nikita enter.

MADELINE:  Thanks for coming in.  From what I’ve been reading, it appears to have been a letter-perfect operation.

Madeline stands and walks across the room to an area where a couch and chairs are positioned.

MADELINE:  Sit down.  Would you like some fresh fruit?

NIKITA:  No, thank you.

MADELINE:  For every one of us in here, there comes a time when we get confused.  When we think we’re living two separate lives.  We tear ourselves apart trying to reconcile them.

NIKITA:  I don’t need any advice today, Madeline.

MADELINE:  But, you do.  See, there aren’t two parts of your life anymore.  This isn’t a job.  You can’t go home at night and be someone else.  You’ve heard it all before, but now it’s real.  Gray doesn’t exist, not really.

Nikita doesn’t want to hear this.

NIKITA:  Isn’t it enough that I do what you ask?

MADELINE:  You will do what we ask.  You miss my point.  You can’t hide who you are from the people that you care about.

NIKITA:  (puzzled) What are you telling me?  That I can’t see?  That I can’t care about him?

MADELINE:  One or the other.  The choice is yours.

NIKITA:  Can I go now?

Madeline nods.  As Nikita begins to walk away, Madeline stands and follows.

MADELINE:  The world outside these walls is an illusion.

Nikita stops and looks back at Madeline.

MADELINE:  It’s not really there for us.  We’re ghosts.

COMM

Birkoff sits at his workstation, typing at his computer, while Michael stands over his shoulder.

BIRKOFF:  Rosewood’s targeted seven different drug lords.  When I started analyzing the data, I noticed that six out of the seven have been subjected to all kinds of infiltration.  This one guy here, Valery, hasn’t been touched.  They don’t even seem to be setting him up.

MICHAEL:  So, they’re ripping off the other six and selling to Valery.

BIRKOFF:  That’d be my guess.

MICHAEL:  Where do we find this guy Valery?

BIRKOFF:  Finding him’s not the problem.  Getting to him…  he’s heavily guarded.

MICHAEL:  We have to get Valery.  He’s linked to the dirty CIA agent.

RESTAURANT

Valery sits in a fancy restaurant at a table with a pretty, blonde woman, waiting.  A man, Price, sits down opposite Valery.  Valery immediately has an attitude.

VALERY:  I’m not crazy about the venue.

Price looks about the area.

PRICE:  My deal, my place.

VALERY:  Your place sucks.  You got the black?

Price gestures with a finger for Valery to come closer.  Valery leans forward.

PRICE:  The only reason you’re sitting here, and not doing twenty to life, is because of me.  I own your ass.  Let’s keep that straight.  I’m not one of your street slime homeys.  So, when you talk to me, you look me in the eye and you use complete sentences.  Are we cool, bro?

VALERY:  Do you the heroin, Mr. Price?

Price sits back, then stands.

PRICE:  Much better.

Price throws some keys on the table, then Valery throws keys on the table.  They pick them up.

PRICE:  Enjoy the food.

He walks off, leaving Valery and the blonde woman at the table.

RITZY HOTEL

We see the exterior of a ritzy hotel, as we hear Gray and Nikita’s voices speak.

NIKITA: (voice) So, what’s the occasion?

GRAY: (voice) Do we need a reason to get away for a couple of days?

A valet show them into a large, fancy suite.  As Gray takes the key from the valet and tips him, Nikita looks around the interior.

NIKITA:  Not bad.  Not bad.

She moves into the living room area.

GRAY:  Only not bad?

While she is checking out the interior, Gray lies down on the large bed and watches her.

GRAY:  So, you like it?

She slinks toward him, jumping on the bed and standing over him, one leg planted on either side of him.

NIKITA:  Like?  I love it!

She lies on top of him and they begin kissing.  The bedside phone rings loudly.  Nikita tries to reach for it, but Gray tries to stop her, though she continues to try and reach for it.  She finally picks up the phone.

NIKITA:  We’re not here.

MICHAEL:  (voice) Josephine.

Stunned, Nikita immediately sits up.

NIKITA: (false cheer) Yeah!

MICHAEL:  (voice) There’s a headset under the sink, on the left side.

As Nikita  listens, Gray slides his under her skirt, but she is distracted by Michael’s intrusion.

MICHAEL:  You’ll get instructions when it’s on.  Go.

NIKITA: (brightly) Okay!  Thank you.

Gray takes the phone from her and hangs it up.

GRAY:  Who is it?

NIKITA:  The front desk.  They want to know when they, uh, can come up and turn the bed down.  You know, I’m feeling a little sticky, I want to take a shower.  The train trip, you know.

Gray is trying to resume their love-making, but Nikita has to get into the bathroom.

NIKITA:  Gray…

GRAY:  After.

NIKITA:  No, now.

GRAY:  Together?

NIKITA:  No, alone.  I’ll be two minutes.

GRAY:  One minute.

Nikita gets up and goes to the bathroom, while from the bed, Gray starts a minute countdown.

GRAY:  Fifty-nine, fifty-eight…

Inside the bathroom, Nikita turns on the shower, then goes to the sink and removes the headset from its underside.

MICHAEL:  There’s a removable panel behind the blue towels.  Tell me when you’ve opened it.

Nikita begins quickly removing the folded blue towels, and removes the panel, where a gun is hiding.

NIKITA:  Okay, it’s open.

MICHAEL:  Pull out the unit and assemble.

She quickly assembles the rifle.

NIKITA:  Done.

MICHAEL:  There are six micro-cartridges in the packet.  Put in two tranq darts.

She slides two darts into the carriage.

NIKITA:  Done.

MICHAEL:  Go to the window and open it.

At the window, Nikita finds it jammed.

NIKITA:  It won’t open.

MICHAEL: (impatient)  Now, Nikita.

Grabbing the damask curtains in her fist, she punches out the window.  From the living room, Gray hears the breaking glass.

GRAY:  Everything all right?

Nikita calls out cheerfully.

NIKITA:  Fine!

Now she turns her attention back to her task at hand.

NIKITA:   Where’s the target?

MICHAEL:  He’ll be out in seconds.

Gray now stands outside the bathroom door.

GRAY:  We should go down to the wharf for dinner.

NIKITA:  That sounds great!

MICHAEL:  Be ready, they’re coming.

GRAY:  Good.  The art gallery here is supposed to be fantastic.

Nikita sees a group of men exit a building.

NIKITA:  Which one?

Gray hears her say this, but doesn’t quite hear her.

GRAY:  What?

MICHAEL:  Pink shirt.  Hit him in the back of the shoulder.

GRAY:  Hey, there’s this architectural exhibit at the museum, which you might find boring, but…

Nikita aims the rifle, and fires the tranq dart, which hits Valery.  He immediately slumps to the ground.

NIKITA:  Done.

MICHAEL:  All right, you’re done.  Clean up.

GRAY:  You decide.  Whatever you want.

Inside the bathroom, Nikita is hurriedly hiding any traces of the rifle, and is not responding to Gray.  He knocks on the door.

GRAY:  Nikita?

OUTSIDE HOTEL

Outside, an ambulance pulls up the scene.  Medics rush to the fallen Valery.

MEDIC:  What happened?

MAN:  I don’t know.  He just keeled over.  Is he dead?

MEDIC:  No, but will be if we don’t get him to a hospital right away.

MAN:  We’ll… we’ll take him.

MEDIC:  Not possible.  He’s had a massive coronary.  If he’s not treated in the next two minutes, you can take him to the morgue.

INSIDE HOTEL

Gray continues to knock at the door.

GRAY:  Nikita, what are you doing in there?

Nikita opens the door, wearing a bathrobe and towel-drying her damp hair.  She smiles at Gray, but he looks puzzled.

Outside, the Section medics load Valery and drive off.  We see Michael seated inside the ambulance.

GRAY: You all right?

NIKITA:  I’m not feeling very well.

GRAY:  Okay, look… I know you don’t like to talk about your past, but every now and then… (he whistles) I lose you.

NIKITA:  Gray, I’m sorry.  There’s just some things I have to work out myself.

GRAY:  Can I help?

She looks at him, conveying to him that he cannot help her.

GRAY: (disappointed) Yeah.

He takes a seat on a chair, sullenly.  Nikita sits on an adjacent couch.

NIKITA:  Why did we come here?

GRAY:  What do you mean?  What do you mean?  To be together.

NIKITA:  Why here?  Why this hotel?

GRAY:  Is that why you’re upset?  Did Michael tell you?

Nikita leans forward, interested to hear this.

NIKITA:  Michael?  Tell me what?

GRAY:  Michael called the other day when you were out.  I told him that we were going away for the weekend, and he said that you liked this place and that…

NIKITA:  Oh…

She laughs ruefully.

GRAY:  What is the big deal?  Like you’ve got some family thing or what?

NIKITA:  Yeah.  Yeah, it’s a family thing.

GRAY:  Okay, then we’ll go.

He stands, ready to leave.

NIKITA:  No!  I don’t want to go back!

She stands.

NIKITA:  I want us to stay.  I want us to have a good time.  I want us to laugh and drink, and I want to stay up all night long.

Gray comes over to her, his arms wide.  He doesn’t understand what is going on.  He kisses her.

NIKITA:  I’m not crazy,  I’m crazy… for you.

They kiss, and he holds her tightly.

MICHAEL’S OFFICE

Michael sits at his desk, working on his laptop, when Nikita comes in, leaning against his open door.

NIKITA:  Hi, Michael.

He doesn’t look up.

MICHAEL:  Hello.

NIKITA:  Is there any reason you had to involve Gray in our business?

MICHAEL:  There is a reason for everything we do.

He looks up at her.

MICHAEL:  Is there a problem?

NIKITA:  No.  Nothing I can’t handle.

She smiles at him, then leaves.

MUNITIONS

From Michael’s office, Nikita runs into Walter.

WALTER:  Were you impressed?

NIKITA:  Impressed?

WALTER:  With the dart gun in the hotel room.  Handled just like a TRG-21, right?

NIKITA:  Can I talk to you for a minute?

They have reached the Munitions area now.

WALTER: (playfully) You can do anything you want to me, and it can last for more than a minute.

NIKITA:  Have you ever been involved with anyone outside the Section?

WALTER: (lecherously) Once a week, if I’m lucky.

NIKITA: (not amused) That’s not what I meant.

Walter sobers, as he understands her meaning.

WALTER:  Oh, jeez.  Don’t tell me.  You didn’t fall in love, did you, Nikita?  That is not a good idea.

NIKITA:  Why not?

WALTER:  Paula Davenport.  Sweetest little speech pathologist you’d ever want to meet.  The only girl I ever had that I didn’t kick out as soon as the show was over.

NIKITA:  Oh, that’s romantic.

WALTER:  No, you know what I mean.  She had my number.  I mean, I… I still think about her.

NIKITA:  So, what happened?

WALTER:  Not that I was ever that big on honesty, but when you have to lie to someone every minute of every day…

NIKITA:  What if I didn’t?  What if I told him the truth?

WALTER:  Oh, then, just take a gun and shoot him yourself.

NIKITA:  So, that’s it?

WALTER:  You can’t dwell on what you can’t have.  Hey, look… if you lost an arm, you could spend the rest of your life depressed because you can’t play the piano, or… or…

NIKITA:  Or?

WALTER:  Or, you could learn to sing.  Do this guy a favor, Sugar… learn-to-sing.

WHITE ROOM

Valery is strapped to a plain chair in the center of the room, as he regains consciousness.  He sees an operative in the room.

VALERY:  Who… who are you?  What the hell is going on?  My legs!  I can’t move my legs!  I can’t feel anything!  What the hell did you do to me?

The White Room door swings open, and Madeline enters.

VALERY:  Who are you?  What is this place?  What the hell did you do to me?  I can’t feel anything!  What the hell is going on!

The operative duct tapes Valery’s mouth, as Madeline takes a stand before him.

VALERY:  (muffled)  Who are you?

MADELINE:  Hello, Mr. Valery.  I understand your confusion.  It’s not important where you are or who we are.  If you ever want to have the use of your legs again, you’ll listen to me carefully.  We need some information from you.  Because we knew that you’d be reluctant in advance to give us this information, we’ve had to resort to some rather drastic measures.  You have no feeling below your waist.  The reason for this is we’ve injected you with a nerve agent that will permanently paralyze you from the waist down, if you don’t receive an antidote with the next ninety seconds.

She inserts a syringe needle tip into Valery’s IV, but doesn’t depress the contents into the IV.

MADELINE:  You’re doing business with someone in the CIA.  We want his name, time and place of your next meeting.  Are you prepared to give us that information?

Valery glances over at the syringe/antidote in his IV.

MADELINE:  Take your time, I know it’s a difficult decision.  You have twenty-eight seconds.

He tries to speak, but can’t against the tape.  Madeline nods for the operative to remove the duct tape.

VALERY:  Oliver Price.  I’m meeting him in two hours.

MADELINE:  Where?

VALERY: (panicked) Give me the stuff.  The iron works at Fifth and Grand.  Now give me the stuff!  Come on!

Madeline takes the syringe in hand, as though she’s going to depress the plunger.

MADELINE:  The iron works at the corner of Fifth and Grand?

VALERY:  Give me the stuff!  Yes!

MADELINE:  And, his name is Oliver Price?

VALERY:  Yeah, that’s right, now gimme..

Madeline yanks the syringe out and walks away.  Valery becomes hysterical.

VALERY:  That’s the truth!  Come on!  We had a deal!  We had a deal!  Come on!

At the door, Madeline turns back.

MADELINE:  The feeling will return to your legs with a few hours.  There’s no need for an antidote.

WATERFRONT RESTAURANT

Gray, Nikita and Casey sit beside a window in a restaurant at the waterfront.  Boats are both docked and moving in the nearby waters.  Casey colors on a place mat.

CASEY:  This is cool.  Daddy never lets me eat French fries.  He wants me to eat salad.

NIKITA:  You’re daddy’s a very smart daddy.  That’s really pretty now, Casey.  I like it.

GRAY:  Where do you go when you go away?

Nikita ignores him, and continues to watch Casey drawing.

NIKITA:  What are we going to draw now?

GRAY:  Where do you go?

She continues to ignore him.

NIKITA:  Shall we draw a big bumblebee?

GRAY:  Who’s Aunt Josephine, Nikita?

Without looking at him, she responds.

NIKITA:  Please, not now.  Not now, please.

Now she drops the subject and speaks to Casey.

NIKITA:  Can you draw…

GRAY:  Whatever the truth is, it can’t be worse than what I imagine.

NIKITA:  I’m not seeing anybody else, Gray.

CASEY:  This is for you.

Casey hands Nikita her coloring.

NIKITA:  You made this for me?  This picture?  It’s very beautiful.  I’m going to stick this beside my bed tonight and when I wake up in the morning, it’s going to be sitting right there, so the first thing that I see when I open my eyes is this picture, and I’m going to think about your face.

GRAY:  Listen, we don’t have to talk about it now, but we do have to talk about it.

NIKITA:  Yes, and we will.

She turns back to Casey.

NIKITA:  It’s very nice.  Thank you.

GRAY:  Sweetheart?  You’ll go back with Nikita, okay?

SHOPPING MALL

Nikita and Casey are walking through a mall, Nikita holds Casey’s hand, bags in her other.  Nikita’s cell phone rings.

NIKITA:  Casey, look at the fish for me, darling.  Just for a few minutes.

Nikita leaves Casey at the fish tank, while she turns to speak on the phone.

MICHAEL: (voice) Josephine.

NIKITA:  I’m here.

MICHAEL: (voice) Be here in twenty minutes.

NIKITA:  Yeah, I’ll be right there.

She turns to retrieve Casey.

NIKITA:  Casey, we’re going to have to …

Casey is nowhere in sight.

NIKITA:  Casey?  Casey?  Casey?

Panicked, Nikita begins running through the mall, looking for the little girl.

NIKITA:  Casey!

She goes to the mall entrance doors, turning to woman standing there.

NIKITA:  Excuse me, did you see a little girl go out the door?

WOMAN:  No.

In the distance, Nikita sees a little girl’s blonde hair, and she rushes to the child.

NIKITA:  Casey?

The child turns around, but it isn’t Casey.  Nikita apologizes to the child’s mother.

NIKITA:  Sorry terribly.

She runs off, frantically searching for Casey.

NIKITA:  Casey?

Now she runs up an escalator, shoving people aside as she runs to the next level of the mall.  Upstairs, she goes to the Information Desk, where a dense clerk mans to the counter, and is talking to a man.

NIKITA:  (interrupts) Excuse me?

CLERK:  I’m helping…

NIKITA:  I’ve lost my little girl.  She’s five years old.  Can we close the exits?

CLERK:  I don’t know how to do that!

NIKITA:  Can you call someone who can help me?  You’ve got to find her.

A man calls from behind Nikita.

MAN:  Excuse me, ma’am?

Nikita turns and sees an elderly man holding Casey’s hand.

NIKITA:  Oh!

Nikita rushes up and grabs Casey into her arms.

CASEY:  I was so scared.

NIKITA:  Oh, I was scared, too.

Nikita turns to the man who brought Casey to her.

NIKITA:  Thank you so much!  Thank you.

He smiles and leaves.  Nikita turns to Casey.

NIKITA:  Are you okay?

VAN ACCESS

Michael and Valery stand in the hallway at Van Access waiting for Nikita.

VALERY:  Where’s the girl?  I can’t go in without the girl.

Walter walks up to Michael.

MICHAEL:  Have you heard from Nikita?

WALTER:  Not yet.

MICHAEL:  We go without her.

VALERY:  Bad idea.  Everybody knows I’m superstitious.  I take a girl all the time to the buys.

MICHAEL:  Forget it.  It’s going to go down too fast to matter.

VALERY:  It’s your party.  Price is going to know something’s wrong.

MICHAEL:  It won’t matter.  He’ll be surrounded.

VALERY:  Just remember I’m not the target.

MICHAEL:  Duck.

PRICE MEETING

From his laptop in Comm, Michael watches as Price pulls up to an abandoned warehouse and gets out of his Mercedes.  Inside the warehouse, Valery waits with one of his men, leaning against another Mercedes.  Price walks up.

PRICE:  What’s wrong with this picture?

Ignoring Price’s meaning, Valery changes the subject.

VALERY:  Whaddaya got for me today?

PRICE:  Every time we meet, you got a bimbo hanging off of your arm.  What’s going on?

VALERY:  We here to talk about my love life or do business?

PRICE:  What’s going on?

VALERY:  Nothing’s going on yet.

Price looks suspicious, but nods for his man to proceed.  A briefcase is taken to the hood of Valery’s Mercedes and opened.  It’s full of money.

MICHAEL:  (from Section) All right.  Outside teams take him down now.  Blue Team, neutralize the shooters on both sides.

Nikita suddenly rushes up to Comm and looks at the monitors where the mission is in progress and for which she is late.

MICHAEL:  Exterior’s clean; let’s move in.  Shooters first.  Everyone, but Price, is expendable.  Go.

As a shootout engages, Nikita watches the monitors apprehensively, knowing she is in trouble.

MADELINE'S OFFICE

Nikita stands, while Operations tells her off.  Madeline stands beside him.

OPERATIONS:  You have cultivated an extremely dangerous situation, not only to yourself, but to the Section.  If you think we just played an impersonal game of global espionage… The fact is, what we do here is try to ensure the safety of every man, woman, and child in this so-called civilized world.  There is such a thing as evil.  It exists.  It’s an insidious force that trickles down to innocent people.  Now when we fight that force, we help save those innocent people.

MADELINE:  You’re going to have to let him go.

NIKITA:  Well, no, I don’t.  I can make it work.

Madeline merely stares at her, while Operations fixes her with an angry glare, but Nikita persists.

NIKITA:  I can.

MADELINE:  I’m sorry, Nikita.

NIKITA:  (resistant) You don’t own my soul.  I’m not afraid to die.

Operations looks at her icily.

NIKITA'S APARTMENT

Nikita stands at her balcony windows, looking out, when Gray enters the apartment.  He is distracted and acting stunned.

GRAY:  Uh… sorry, I’m late.  The… weirdest thing happened.  I’m crossing the street and a car comes out of nowhere, almost runs me down.  It was like he was trying to hit me.  I didn’t get the license number, but I think I should call the police anyway.

Hearing this, Nikita immediately know what has happened.  She goes over to him and takes the phone from his hand, hanging it up.

NIKITA:  We’ve got to talk.

GRAY:  Okay.  What?

Nikita walks away from him and keeping her back to him.

NIKITA:  I’m not who you think I am.

GRAY:  Okay, we talked about this before.  Sometimes I don’t know what to think, but, uh… I love you.

NIKITA:  Don’t say that!  I…

Gray comes up to her.

GRAY:  Why not?

NIKITA:  It’s not going to work.  Because… I don’t… love you.

GRAY:  Right.

He smiles, not believing her, and coming to stand in front of her.

NIKITA:   I don’t.  You don’t know me.

Her manner toward him is very cold now, as she must get her point across to him.

NIKITA:  You don’t know anything about me.

GRAY:  Nobody asked you to be perfect.

NIKITA:  Gray, I don’t have time for you anymore.  Or, Casey.

GRAY:  (confused) What happened to you?

NIKITA:  (smirks) Get out.

She turns from him and goes upstairs to her bedroom, leaning her forehead against the wall.  Gray throws his key to her apartment on her counter, then walks out.

MICHAEL'S OFFICE

Nikita storms into Michael office, throwing her gun down to his desk.

NIKITA:  I don’t want it anymore.  Cancel me.  I can’t live like this.  I’m done.

She turns to leave his office.

MICHAEL:  Nikita.

He stands, and she turns back to vent, while he closes the door to his office.  Nikita begins yelling.

NIKITA:  This place, the Section – is full of lies!  They talk about all the innocent people they save, well, what about the innocent people we hurt!  Like the four year-old girls just wondering why they’ve been abandoned?

Michael stands close to her, chiding her and reminding her of what she had know all along.

MICHAEL:  You were warned.  You should have never gotten involved.  You still believe in free will.  In here, there’s no such thing.

NIKITA:  You keep telling me that, Michael, but I don’t believe you anymore.  You couldn’t handle it, could you?

Michael steps away from her, but Nikita follows, talking to his back.

NIKITA:  You’re jealous of Gray, because I love him and not you.

Michael now turns to face her.

MICHAEL:  You don’t love me?

Ignoring him, she continues with her tirade.

NIKITA:  Oh, you came up with a brilliant idea – almost kill Gray.  Come on, Michael, at least have the decency to admit it!

MICHAEL:  Yes, it was my idea.

NIKITA:  You’re sick.

She moves to the door.

MICHAEL:  I only proposed it after I heard theirs.

Nikita stops to hear what ‘their’ idea was.

MICHAEL:  They wanted to kill him.

Nikita looks to him in shock.  Michael takes her gun from his desk and hold it out for her to take.

MICHAEL:  Gray will heal, his daughter will grow up, and they’ll have the life they deserve.

Nikita snatches the gun out of his hand and stares at him angrily.  Then she leaves, while Michael closes his door, and goes back to his work.

END OF EPISODE