Brian wants Mac to put 2 people undercover as foster parents to a girl whose father is an escaped-armed robber, and whose mother has just died.
Brian: I have a feeling you’re about to get serious.
Mac: Deadly. You’ve forgotten about the girl, now can I just briefly describe Bill’s daughter’s mental state? It is a dreadful, vulnerable mess. And she’s older and she’s gotta be better equipped than this kid.
Brian: We kicked it around
Mac: We?
Brian: The welfare people. They agree that in a regular foster situation stokes would have no trouble just grabbing her. A life on the run isn’t exactly desirable for a kid is it.
Mac: Yeah but your not even sure he’s gunna try.
Brian: (laughs) the motors running the girl won’t be exposed to any danger
Mac: Physically, yeah we can take care of that. But mentally and emotionally?
Brian: Well I am guided by qualified people.
Mac: Well I’m relatively qualified in criminal behavior and the chances of this working are remote.
Brian: Come on Mac, would you willingly give up something really precious to you, you wouldn’t I wouldn’t Stokes won’t.
OPENING CREDITS
Danni: I still don’t agree with it!
Pete: Kids are tough, she’ll bounce back.
Danni: Based on your long experience as a parent!
Pete: I caught this kid right, bending the aerial on my car, I booted him up the bum, very next week the same kid snaps off my aerial and swipes my mirror. They bounce back!
AT THE HOUSE
Danni and Peter are putting away the shopping.
Danni: I just saying there’s a lot more to parenting than booting bums.
Pete: I know that I was a kid once
Danni: Was!
(The doorbell rings.)
Pete: Let’s do it mummy!
(They walk out and Pete hits Danni on the ass, she gives him a dirty look.)
Danni and Pete take Zoe out to the trampoline they have for her in the Backyard. She bounces a few times and then just sits there.
Danni: Strike two coach.
Pete: It’s not easy losing your mum at that age.
Danni: (looks at him, then changes the subject) Did the welfare women have any suggestions?
Pete: Oh yeah she likes macaroni and cheese and chocolate milk.
Danni: Is that all she said?
Pete: Apparently she spent all last week listening to that Walkman.
Mac: Zoe goes back to school tomorrow so I've put one of my operatives in there as well.
Brian: What, as a nine-year-old?
Mac: No Brian. If I'd wanted a convincing nine-year-old, I would've sent you in.
Brian: Woohoo! Very good, you think of everything don’t you!
Danni: Can’t you eat just a little bit more? That’s okay I don’t like Nick's cooking much either.
Pete: Yeah Jo’s much better at cooking than I am, she’ll do all the cooking from now on. (Looks at Danni.) I promise!
Danni walks in after reading Zoe a story, she’s in p.j’s. Peter is lying in bed reading a book with nothing on (the bed covers are over him.)
Danni: Oh No! No way! (Pete looks up and smiles! She gives him an amusing look back.)
Pete: Weren’t you the fraudulent analysist of toilet training?
Danni: We’re not sleeping together?
Pete: Where are you going to sleep?
Danni: Your sleeping on the couch.
Pete: Won’t work, she’s gunna wonder if she finds me sleeping in another room.
Danni: Maybe you’ve got a point!
Pete: Thank god, some maturity.
(She throws him p.j’s.)
Pete: I don’t wear pajamas.
Danni: You do now! Or you’re sleeping on floor!
Pete: Alright!
(She pushes the dresser draw in and walks over to the bed as Peter gets out and begins to put the pajamas on.)
Danni: Oh Please!! Do you mind? (She turns to face the window.)
Pete: (laughs!) I’ve gotta warn you, I spread out during the night. And apparently I snore.
Danni: I wish I brought my service revolver.
Pete: Mines on top of the wardrobe, be my guest.
Danni: You brought a gun into a house with a child?
Pete: That crazy bastard on the loose, yeah!
(Shakes her head.)
Danni: Your unbelievable!
Pete: Most women don’t tell me that till the end of the night! (He pats the bed motioning for her to join him.)
Danni: (She smiles, then lies down in bed.) Pity your overwhelming charm isn’t working on Zoe.
Pete: Yeah, I’m running out of things to say to her.
Danni: Your trying too hard.
Pete: I don’t think anything we do, is gunna fix it.
Danni: You speaking from experience.
Pete: What makes you say that.
Danni: Just something you said earlier.
Pete: My mother died when I was 8.
Danni: I’m sorry.
Pete: I’m over it.
Danni: Yeah right, your so tough.
(They look into each other eyes and smile.)
Zoe: (from the other room) JO!
Danni spends the rest of the night in Zoe’s bed, comforting her. Peter comes in, in the morning to say that he is going out to get some milk. The surveillance people are watching him, but not closely, as the girl is their priority. Pete walks out of a tunnel with shopping in his hands and a man sticks a gun in his back.
Pete: Hey, hey.
Stokes: You’ve got my daughter and I want her back.
Pete: Listen Mate.
Stokes: No you listen. Since your lovely suburban street is crawling with cops I’m gunna need your help. So your gunna do exactly what I say unless you wanna wind up a widower, like me. Are we clear?
Pete: Crystal
Stokes: I don’t want any agro…
A police car drives past and Stokes is distracted for a moment. Pete thumps him in the chest to try and get him off him but he whacks him in the balls, sending him to the ground in pain. Stokes then gets away.
HEADQUARTERS
Brian: He got away. Mac that’s pathetic.
Mac: Stokes had a gun, Church didn’t.
Brian: Well why didn’t Church try to dis-arm him. He had him in reach.
Mac: Well I’ll knee you very hard in the balls and you can experience first hand, the difficulties Church had in the tunnel! Not to mention my feelings about this whole operation.
Brian: I think you’ve already recorded your feelings.
Mac: (very dry but serious tone) Do I need to underline them?
Meanwhile Oscar has opened his compensation check.
Oscar: It’s a bloody insult!
Mac: Yeah, twelve thousand doesn’t seem like much.
Oscar: Well not considering what I went through!
Mac: On the other hand the compensation tribunal can only act on the evidence in front of them.
Oscar: Well they saw the medical reports.
Mac: They saw you too Oscar, Gung Ho remember from the moment you woke up, I mean nothing was going to stop you from getting back on the job.
Oscar: Yeah but I…-
Mac: I’m sorry, but I think that’s worked against you.
Oscar: It’s unacceptable, I… I want to appeal.
Mac: I don’t think its gunna do you any good.
Oscar: Can’t you say something to them on my behalf?
Mac: It says in the letter that they made a judgement based on long term effects of the shooting, and you assured them that there weren’t going to be any!
Oscar: And you think that’s fair?
Mac: No no, it’s just that once the tribunal has made a decision I think…
Oscar: Yeah yeah thanks.
(He walks off angrily)
A ‘hey Mac’ is heard from somewhere. She starts after Oscar but decides against it and goes to the person who called her.
GYM
Assist. Commissioner: Good place to work off frustration.
Stone: Yeah.
Assist. Commissioner: Your really going for it there.
Stone: If you don’t mind mate I’m not really in the mood for a chat.
Assist. Commissioner: Yeah. Understood. I just wanted to say keep up the good work Oscar.
Stone: Sorry sir. I didn’t recognise you there at first.
Jim: Well you know who I am?
Stone: Well I know the face; your Assistant Commissioner Sir.
Jim: Jim Courtney (they shake hands) and you’re Oscar Stone.
Oscar: Yeah, how’d you know my name?
Jim: Well let’s just say good cops come to my attention it’s all part of the job you know.
Stone: Right.
Jim: Looks like you recovered well from the shooting incident?
Stone: Yeah. Too well.
Jim: Sorry?
Stone: Well I felt pretty good till I got the compensation check. It was a bit light on.
Jim: Yes hardly surprising, of course if the desk jockeys at the tribunal ever felt the breeze of a bullet it would be a different story.
Stone: You’ve been in the line of fire yourself sir?
Jim: Yeah, once as head of the drug squad and twice as police negotiator. You mind if I ask what you got?
Stone: Lousy 12 grand.
Jim: Should have been at least 75, minimum!
Stone: Well what’ve you gotta do? Get your head blown off?
Jim: That’s the way of the service these days Oscar, wrong people in wrong positions.
Stone: I’m starting to wonder.
Jim: Don’t give up, we need your kind!
Stone: Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, it’s just they make it hard.
Jim: I’m aware of the problems. We should kick this around some more some time.
(Oscar looks at him as he walks away, confused and surprised!)
Zoe gets home from school.
Pete: Got much homework?
Zoe: (Shakes her head and gets out her colouring book and Texas.)
Danni: umm-chocolate milk?
Zoe: Uhuh.
Pete: Please?
Zoe: Please.
(Danni goes to the fridge.)
Zoe: How long have you two been married?
Pete: (looks at Danni!) Ohhh it seems…just like yesterday! Doesn’t it sweet cakes? (He kisses her head.)
Zoe: How come you don’t have any kids.
Danni: Just one of those things I guess. But we both love kids. That’s why you’re staying with us.
Danni puts the chocolate milk on the table, accidentally knocking the Texas on the floor.
Danni: Opps!
Pete: Opps!
Danni: Sorry!
Pete: So what’s for dinner honey?
Danni: Always thinking about your tummy aren’t you?
Pete: Hmm! Hey Zoe After this my macaroni’s gunna taste like a 5 star meal!
(Zoe crawls under the table to retrieve her Texas. She finds the bug.)
Pete: Whatcha got there?
Zoe: It’s a bug. (She dunks it in the chocolate milk as she says so.)
Danni: Are you sure?
Zoe: I seen one before. Mum found it; the police use them for listening in.
Danni: To what?
Zoe: Everything you say, mum was really angry.
Pete: Oh well, they can’t hear us anymore.
(Zoe looks up at them.)
FACTORY
(Oscar gets off his motor bike as Mac approaches him.)
Mac: I’ve been trying to call you for two hours.
Stone: Sorry, phone’s been off.
Mac: Yeah, I figured that.
Stone: What’s so urgent?
Mac: I need you to be at the foster house at 8 in the morning. As soon as the brady bunch head off to school I want you to go in there and re-postion your bugs so that our small friend Zoe can’t find them! (Oscar frowns and runs his hand through his hair.) And, while your there, fish out the one she dropped in the chocolate milk and write me a report on why a piece of sensitive equipment was so carelessly positioned.
Stone: How was I supposed to know she’d find it?
Mac: (Gets in her car.) Night Oscar!
(She drives off and he walks off looking very annoyed.)
HOUSE
(They are both lying in bed.)
Pete: You think we got away with it?
Danni: Yeah I do. It’s not doing my concious the world of good.
Pete: I hate having to lie to her.
Danni: Mm, Remind me why we’re doing this again?
Pete: Jeremy Edward Stokes; 9 counts of robbery with violence. Multiple fire arm offences, serious assult la la la.
Danni: Yes, yes I remember.
(long pause them Pete turns to look at Danni.)
Pete: Zoe..umm.. sees us as a couple.
Danni: Well she is only 9!
Pete: (Grabs her hand and rubs it inbetween his.) I rekon we match up pretty well hey!
Danni: Your on you way to sleeping on the floor! (she gets her hand back.)
Pete: Oh, don’t dismiss it out of hand!
Danni: How are your balls?
Pete: Huh! Much better... thanks!!
Danni: Yeah? Well their on their way to a relapse! Now shut up and go to sleep!
Pete: Nothing sadder than a closed mind!
Danni: Almost nothing! (She turns off the light and rolls on her side, facing away from Peter.)
Peter: At least think about it! (He turns off his light.)
Danni: Even if I did think about it, I wouldn’t think about doing it with you! So why don’t you just settle down, okay stud?
Pete: I think I’ll take that as a yes!
Danni: In your dreams! Ahh! (he hits her with a pillow and she kicks him under the covers.)
Pete: Night.
Danni. Night.
AT A CAFÉ
Oscar walks past and sees Jim.
Stone: Hello Sir!
Jim: Oscar! Please call me Jim! Can I ah, get you a coffee or something?
Stone: Thanks but, I’m trying to cut down.
Jim: Oh well, sit anyway. I was thinking about our conversation yesterday. Your unit did a lot of work with Bill Hollister didn’t it?
Stone: Yeh I guess.
Jim: Did you know him well?
Stone: Not really, not personally.
Jim: Tragic business. I really feel for MacKenzie.
Stone: Mmm I think she’s holding up okay. She keeps things pretty close.
Jim: I’m sure she’d love to see his murderer brought to justice.
Stone: It’d help. (he gets a drink from his bag and drinks it.)
Jim: You know what’s most outrageous. It’ll never happen.
Stone: What?
Jim: Plain as day who whacked him, but whats anyone doing about it? Friends in powerful places.
Stone: Are you saying?
Jim: Enough said. Wrong people in wrong positions.