"That Ain't Love"

A cellar

FRANKIE: "Wake up, Mary Sunshine."

London rubs his eyes and lights a cigarette. Frankie brushes dirt off her pants.

LONDON: "You alright?"

FRANKIE: "I'm fine. Great. Really well rested."

London glares at nothing in particular.

LONDON: "How much do you remember about last night?"

FRANKIE: (almost cheerfully) "I remember a lot of blood. And putting some stuff together."

London sighs.

LONDON: "So, what next?"

FRANKIE: "I'd still like to find out where my sire went. I guess we don't have much of a clue."

LONDON: "What is it you think he can tell you?"

FRANKIE: "I don't know...I don't remember enough. What was he going to do with me? If I hadn't been shot, would he have turned me? Would he have killed me? Or would he have just left me here?" (pause) "I think everybody deserves some answers from the person who made them."

London grunts.

FRANKIE: "What do you remember about her?"

LONDON: "I don't. Or at least, if I don't think about her, maybe I'll stop."

There's a long silence.

FRANKIE: "What do we have waiting for us back in the city?"

LONDON: "A bunch of assholes. A few enemies."

FRANKIE: "Least we've got jobs. That's a bright spot."

Eventually, they climb out of the cellar and find the car. The trip back to the city is long, but they drive fast.

The old theatre

FRANKIE: "I don't want to spend another day here."

LONDON: "I don't like Brimstone knowing where we sleep, either. We don't really have much time before daylight, though."

FRANKIE: "And then what?"

LONDON: "I figure we go to work. Y'know, that one bright spot. Then maybe look for someplace new to stay."

Rose Red

London and Frankie work the early shift. Wednesday night, it's a good crowd, but it's mostly a drinking crowd, except for the lone girl who's climbed up in a cage.

Bones tells London they've got some kind of a live show coming in on Saturday and has him walk the perimeter trying out a rented walkie-talkie. London gets a weird feeling about that show, but Bones hasn't seen who's in the package deal, yet.

Meanwhile, Frankie serves drinks and looks around for somebody who hasn't had any yet. But a familiar face spots her first....

CARLOS: "Hey-hey, baby!"

FRANKIE: "Carlos! Great... to see you."

CARLOS: "Oh, man, I didn't think I'd see you again, yeah?

FRANKIE: (scanning the bar) "Your girlfriend doesn't happen to be around tonight, does she?"

CARLOS: "Her? No, she left me for....I mean, she was totally into me, right, but a guy like me needs to be free, you know what I'm saying?"

Frankie smiles, just a bit.

FRANKIE: "I think I do."

Frankie pulls Carlos to the dance floor, while London continues to test the radio system.

CARLOS: "So, Warren said you really were....something special, you know?"

FRANKIE: "That's nice."

CARLOS: "Could you...be special for me? I mean, I totally got other girls who want me, but...."

FRANKIE (with a smirk): "Come on, big boy."

Frankie leads Carlos to the fire escape, where in the cover of darkness she feeds.

BONES' VOICE (on walkie talkie): "How's it working?"

Below, London looks up at them.

LONDON: "... Just fine, Bones. Just fine."

New Home

After work, London and Frankie go cruising around abandoned buildings. They find a condemned warehouse in a crappy area across the river from some of the old stockyards. It's big enough for three or four yuppie loft conversions, and has a lot of nooks and crannies, as well as a partially equipped metal shop. There's even wiring for security cameras, although the cameras themselves are long gone.

FRANKIE: "This looks good."

LONDON: "Well, I had my heart set on bunk beds....."

As Frankie explores their new home, London finds a pay phone nearby and gives Vanessa a call.

VANESSA: "Haven't heard from you in a while."

LONDON: "I've been around."

VANESSA: "And Leon's been around here."

LONDON: "Oh? What's he looking for?"

VANESSA: "The usual. And he's been asking about you."

LONDON (tentatively): "What's he want to know?"

VANESSA: "When you came to town, when I met you, that sort of thing. I told him the truth; I met you last time at court."

They share one of those awkward silences - two people unsure of where they stand, or the words to say.

LONDON: "Look...you free tomorrow night?"

VANESSA: "I've got an embassy gig. Want me to put you on the list?"

LONDON: "Sure."

He goes back inside to help Frankie fortify what she can. Then they hit the sack.

Uptown

First thing the next night, they loot an upscale clothing store- one of those ones that seems to exist just in case a lawyer needs a new suit right after lunch. London gets himself a round-collared tux with a deep blue vest, and Frankie finds herself a few dresses, not to mention an opportunity to indulge her secret love of three-inch heels. On the way out, they steal the cameras and recorder that were watching them.

The Embassy

As promised, London's on the list. Frankie isn't, resulting in some minor bribery.

The reception is... quite a reception. Although not exactly huge, the ballroom sports mirrored walls, massive crystal chandeliers, and a marble dance floor. A buffet table offers only the best unidentifiable sea creatures. The crowd is mostly well-to-do and well-fed businessmen from the old countries, accompanied by women who don't look so much beautiful as they do designed. Frankie notes sourly that many of them are wearing four-inch heels.

After circling the bar and listening to a few war stories ("there Sergei and I were, surrounded by twenty Albanians"), Vanessa's set begins. London and Frankie take to the dance floor.

FRANKIE: "Do you know how to dance?"

LONDON: "Of course."

It's a nice moment, and they manage to stretch it a little longer than it should last. Unfortunately, they're interrupted by a familiar voice.

LEON: "Mind if I have this dance?"

LONDON: "Sorry, but you're not my type."

Leon's tuxedo is immaculate, and his shaved head has been covered with a hairpiece that looks very natural... but also very 1983.

FRANKIE: "Nice hair."

LEON: (smiling) "Thank you. Nice dress."

He frowns, reaches out to yang the price tag off her sleeve, and smiles again.

LEON: "I thought you might show up here."

LONDON: "Lucky guess. What do you want?"

LEON: "Man got killed in Chinatown the other day. Happens he was a ghoul."

FRANKIE: "A what?"

LEON: "A ghoul."

LONDON: "You're going to have to help me out here. I didn't exactly get a copy of the vampire handbook."

LEON: "I did."

He smirks and pulls out a pocket copy of the Testament of Longinus.

LEON: (enjoying himself far too much) "The good boy's Bible. I keep it right next to my heart."

LONDON: "Prince's orders."

LEON: "But of course. Gotta have religion in your assbeaters. Anyway, man got killed. Man testified for me against one of Brimstone's goons. Said goon bled to death after being busted out of the asylum the same night the Monk got killed."

LONDON: (innocently) "Sounds like revenge. What's that got to do with us?"

LEON: "Thought you could do a li'l job for me, find out where Brimstone hangs his hat."

LONDON: "What's in it for us?"

LEON: (handing him a wad of bills) "Two hundred up front. Four hundred when you get me the info."

LONDON: "This on the Prince's orders?"

LEON: "Discretionary funds." (leaning in, whispering loudly) "Took 'em off a guy out back."

LONDON: "Right. Condition is this: we get a letter of authority. Doesn't get shown to anybody, unless there's trouble. But if the prince's hammer falls, you're on the line too."

Leon rolls his eyes, but grabs a napkin off the buffet table. He starts writing on it with a chewed up ballpoint pen.

LEON: (as he writes, pronouncing each word deliberately) "Dear London and Frankie, pleez get Brimstone's four one one. Love and kisses, Leon."

He thrusts it at London.

LEON: "There. Now be a dear, take your silly letter, and get to it."

LONDON: (taking the letter) "Forgive me for not giving you a chance to set us up."

LEON: "Right, wouldn't want that to happen again..."

A pause, as Leon and London stare each other down.

LONDON: "I'm sorry, my innuendo detector is a little off this evening."

LEON: "You're not my type, anyway. Reminds me, though... I understand you've got a record of mine."

LONDON: (again, innocently) "Oh?"

LEON: "Sex Pistols. Greatest hits."

LONDON: "Nope, sorry."

LEON: (smirking) "Be seeing you, then."

He heads off into the crowd.

LONDON: (under his breath) "And Vanessa just got ever so slightly less attractive."

Later in the evening, after Vanessa has finished her set and received appropriate congratulations, hand kisses, and propositions, she comes over to see London.

VANESSA: (smiling) "You clean up nice." (to Frankie) "And you cleaned up."

Frankie forces a smile.

LONDON: "You do a lot of these?"

VANESSA: "A few. It's nice to play in front of warm bodies, and I got some phone numbers."

LONDON: "That makes it all worth it, huh?"

VANESSA: "A girl's got to eat."

LONDON: "We ran into a friend."

Vanessa rolls her eyes.

VANESSA: "Leon?"

LONDON: "Ex-boyfriends are a bitch, aren't they? I mean, so I've been told....."

VANESSA: "What did he want?"

LONDON: "To be a pain in my ass. You get any of our other friends at your shows?"

VANESSA: "Rarely. But enough that it pays to be seen; in a community as obsessed with scheming as ours, it helps to be hang around with important people. Lets the others think they've got you all figured out."

London nods.

VANESSA: "I'll see you around?"

LONDON: "Sure."

She walks out a side exit.

FRANKIE: (mocking) "You cleaned up."

LONDON: "Yeah, she's a bit of a bitch, isn't she?"

Frankie gives him a look.

LONDON: "Strange girl. She acts like she's got it all figured out, but... there's something there."

FRANKIE: "You think she set us up, knowing Leon would be here?"

LONDON: "Would it shock you if I said I'm not that good at reading women?"

There's a silence, after which London goes over to the bar to score a meal from a lonely girl. He finds a Soviette Barbie who's drinking her whiskey a little too fast. He gestures to the bartender that he'll buy her another. Doesn't take long for her to open up.

ILSA: "My date, he left with other woman. Plastic woman."

LONDON: "He walked out on you? Then he's a fool."

Soon enough, she's invited him to share her cab. London signals "five minutes" to Frankie, then looks at his catch and gestures "ten minutes."

The Hole in the Wall Restaurant and Bar

London and Frankie find a little dive in Redwood. After ordering drinks, they ask the bartender a few questions about Brimstone. He doesn't know anything, but Frankie sees they're getting looks from a sad-looking white guy over by the juke box. The one who keeps plunking in quarters to make it play REO Speedwagon songs. She saunters over.

FRANKIE: (watching him put in another quarter) "What you picking?"

SAD RICHARD: (glumly) "Only the greatest music ever recorded by man."

FRANKIE: "Speedwagon?"

SAD RICHARD: "Yeah. Saw 'em on tour back in '86."

FRANKIE: "C'mon, let me buy you a drink."

After casting a last, long look at the jukebox, the man follows them over to the bar. Frankie and London ply him with cold ones until he tells them his story: his baby left him for a mountain man name of Brimstone.

SAD RICHARD: "He thinks he's so great. With his big Cadillac, and his dreadlocks, and his obvious sexual potency."

FRANKIE: (dismissively) "Some girls like that kind of thing."

SAD RICHARD: "She sure did."

LONDON: "You've gotta pull yourself up, man. Would Speedwagon quit?"

SAD RICHARD: "No..."

FRANKIE: "...then let's dance."

After a few minutes of dancing at a rate far too slow for "One Lonely Night," Frankie gives London the signal that she needs a distraction. At the same time, an angry drunk has begun banging on the jukebox.

LONDON: "What're you doing, buddy?"

DRUNK: "Speedwagon sucks!"

LONDON: "I don't think you've given them a proper chance."

He puts his hand on the man's shoulder, and leans in.

LONDON: (slowly) "I mean, have you ever really listened to--"

--and then he punches the guy in the gut. Hard. The man pulls himself back up, and takes a swing at London, who dances out of the way and then kicks him in the face. And then starts to sing.

LONDON: "We’ve got to talk it over sometime" (wham) "these feelings won’t just disappear" (bam) "I’m just gonna keep telling you what’s on my mind" (slam) "Even if it’s not what you wanna hear" (thud)

While the rest of the bar is enthralled with the crazy singing guy beating the shit out of the crazy groaning guy, Frankie leads Richard out the back.

SAD RICHARD: "And I thought I liked Speedwagon."

FRANKIE: "Some people take their music seriously."

Richard flinches as he watches London do something nasty.

SAD RICHARD: (horrified) "How can he... do that... to this song?"

FRANKIE: "I have no idea. Why don't you look over here...."

She strokes his face, and draws him in, and takes a deep drink....

You keep tellin’ me, you know a place where your life would be better,

You’re makin’ plans long-range,

But I don’t know how you expect to get there, when you refuse to change.