Home | Fiction | Poetry | References | Essays | Links | Recommendations | New
 |
The Tracy FAQ
by Amy R. original in 1997; |
Frequently Asked Questions about Tracy:
- Who is Tracy?
- Who plays Tracy?
- Is there a FORKNI-L affiliation for Tracy?
- In which episodes does she appear?
- What is her fate, in the final episode in which she appears?
- How old is Tracy?
- What do we know about Tracy's family?
- What are Tracy's other contacts and relationships?
- What does Tracy look like?
- What kind of personality is Tracy?
- What schooling and occupations has Tracy had?
- Special Notes
- Tracy-focused Episode Descriptions
-
Homicide detective Tracy Vetter is protagonist Nick Knight's partner in the third season of the syndicated fantasy television program Forever Knight (1992-1996).
-
Lisa Ryder is the actress who depicts Tracy. She currently costars in Andromeda and has appeared in Earth: Final Conflict and other projects.
Tracy's original followers call themselves "Perkulators," or "Perks," a name chosen early in the third season when the character appeared to be defined by her "perky" demeanor. The affiliation symbolizes itself with a happy face on a coffee pot. "Vetterans" is another name widely suggested, but unadopted, for this affiliation.
Circa 1997, a "Dark Perk" affiliation diverged in support of Tracy. This faction disagrees with what it sees as the prevailing view of Tracy, arguing that she has been unfairly trivialized by "perky" and air-headed depictions. Their interpretation of Tracy frequently stresses the vampiric side of the story.
Fans of the Tracy and Vachon romantic relationship call themselves "T+Vpackers." Fans of a Tracy and Lacroix romantic relationship call themselves "CERK Perks."
Tracy appears in every third-season episode:
- "Black Buddha, Part 1" (BB1)
- "Black Buddha, Part 2" (BB2)
- "Outside the Lines" (OtL or OtLines)
- "Blackwing" (BW)
- "Blind Faith" (BF)
- "My Boyfriend is a Vampire" (MBIAV)
- "Hearts of Darkness" (HoD)
- "Trophy Girl" (TG)
- "Let No Man Tear Asunder" (LNMTA)
- "Night In Question" (NiQ)
- "Sons of Belial" (SoB)
- "Strings"
- "Fever"
- "Dead of Night" (DoN)
- "The Games Vampires Play" (GVP)
- "The Human Factor" (HF)
- "Avenging Angel" (AA)
- "Fallen Idol" (FI)
- "Jane Doe" (JD)
- "Francesca" (Fran)
- "Ashes to Ashes" (AtA or A2A)
- "Last Knight" (LK)
(Actress Lisa Ryder also appears in the second-season episode "Beyond the Law," as a character in a flashback to 1968.)
Tracy dies in a hospital in "Last Knight," of the gunshot wounds and secondary-impact trauma inflicted by the criminal Delbert Dawkins. A sheet is pulled over her face, and her body is wheeled to the morgue.
Tracy's age is never specified on screen. At the beginning of the third season, the owners of Forever Knight described her character as 25 years old. We can calculate, however, from the facts that she has been both to college (BF, BW) and the Police Academy (MBIAV), and spent an additional five years in uniform (MBIAV), that Tracy absolutely must be at least 25 when third season begins and is more probably 27 or older. No upper limit on her age can be similarly fixed, except from physical appearance and the attitudes expressed by her coworkers about her youth and inexperience at the beginning of the third season. (An additional factor to consider is that Ontario high schools typically include one more year beyond the US twelfth grade.)
The Vetter family has a tradition of working for the police (BW, AA). Tracy's father, police Commissioner Richard Vetter, never appears on screen. Tracy resents the thought that her promotion (BB1) is due to her father's influence, but later allows herself to be temporarily coerced into accepting another he arranges (Strings). When she leaves that position to return to the homicide division, dialogue implies that she will have a lot of explaining to do for defying him. Apparently, as a child, Tracy idolized her father (AA) and usually let him make decisions for her (Strings). In 1996, her parents are divorcing. Tracy's mother, Barbara Vetter, is a blond woman somewhat shorter than Tracy (AA). She is an alcoholic, does not live in Toronto, and is not close to Tracy. She intimates that Tracy's father cheated on her, and that she and Tracy have a long-running argument over the family profession. Both parents accuse Tracy of taking the other's side (AA). In TG, Nick hears a message from Tracy's mother on her answering machine, claiming that "your father got all the dates and times wrong for next week. Give me a call and we'll figure it out."
Tracy's father very much wanted her to be a cop; her mother emphatically did not.
Tracy calls her mother "mom" and her father "dad." Her mom calls her "baby" and "honey" in addition to "Tracy."
Tracy also has an Uncle Sonny (retired police officer, no rank given) in need of a heart transplant (LNMTA). It is not known to which side of the family Sonny belongs; presumably he is her father's brother, judging from her mother's comments in AA. Barbara Vetter refers to the time her husband spent with his "brothers" (AA); though probably a description of his fellow policemen, this may imply more family. Tracy buys a puppy for a "nephew" (BF), which would imply a sibling, but as no further mention is made of that potential sibling, most viewers assume that Tracy meant the child of a friend or cousin.
Tracy has a journalist friend (female, unnamed) working at the Montreal Gazette on the police beat (HF). Tracy dated Gordon Fuller, an annoying reporter, once -- and only once (Francesca). Bruce Spencer, a long-time family friend, is an undercover cop in "Outside the Lines" before Tracy and Nick expose him as a murderer; he presumably goes to prison. She was in a sorority with Jody Fraser, "inseparable in college," but fell out of touch after Jody's Multiple Sclerosis emerged; Jody disappears after becoming a vampire, unknown to Tracy (BF). Tracy has an unnamed male friend who is "really into tattoos" (LNMTA). Tracy knows Nick, Natalie and Captain Reese through her job, but has never been seen in a social situation with any of them; however, she does confide somewhat in Natalie about Vachon, on two occasions (BB2, MBIAV). Tracy and Nick are notoriously distant as partners, and Natalie and Tracy often seem to be at odds early in their acquaintance, something that recurs as late as HF. Urs refers to Tracy as "Nick's partner," so it is unlikely she and Tracy had met (TG), but Tracy did encounter Screed (BB2, Fever) and knew where he was buried (AtA). In AtA, Tracy is present for the apprehension and interview of Lacroix, knows he is the proprietor of the Raven and wonders if he is a vampire. No indication exists that she had ever previously met Lacroix, though of course she heard the Nightcrawler on the radio in Nick's car on multiple occasions.
Tracy has an ambiguous relationship with Vachon. On the one hand, he is her "snitch" in numerous police cases, a very practical relationship. On the other hand, she is clearly attracted to him. She seems to enjoy being with him, but declares that a relationship between them could never work (AtA). After Vachon dies, Tracy says: "I never got the chance to tell you how I felt about you . . . I'll always love you for [having opened my eyes]" (AtA).
Tracy is 5'10" tall and slender (perhaps 130 lbs). She has straight, shoulder-length, pale blond hair, with bangs which are cut straight across her forehead, and a part which is either down the middle or on the left. Her eyes are barely hazel -- blue with a narrow brown ring around the iris (JD close-up). She has high cheekbones and a pointed chin. While on duty, Tracy's clothing can generally be classified as "business casual." Off-duty, she prefers jeans, sneakers and plain, knit t-shirts that she tucks into her jeans. She has worn a denim jacket more than once. Tracy has a black, leather, thigh-length coat which she wears more and more frequently as the season progresses, often accompanied by a light scarf. At the very beginning of third season, she often wears bright-patterned blouses, but patterns disappear from her wardrobe as she settles in. Tracy has pierced ears, and usually wears small, simple earrings; she rarely wears other jewelry, though she has been seen in unobtrusive chain necklaces and once with a ring on her right pinkie (Francesca).
Tracy's personality has apparently been dominantly shaped by her family. The only child of an alcoholic mother and an often-absent -- yet very demanding -- public-figure father, Tracy reacted by becoming a highly organized, fastidious overachiever, apparently in an attempt to live up to her father's expectations and distance herself from her mother. Tracy continually works to present a confident and cheerful image, yet finds herself plagued by doubts that she is being treated differently because she is a rookie (TG), a woman (MBIAV, TG) or, worst of all, her father's daughter (BB1, OtLines, TG, Strings, etc.). Tracy's need to prove herself as an individual (BB, OtLines, TG, NiQ, Strings, JD, LK) may be responsible for a certain recklessness in her on-the-job behavior. Asked if she had ever wanted to die, Tracy answers, "No" (HoD).
Tracy manifests a pattern of strong, stomach-heaving reactions to the corpses of those who have met gruesomely violent deaths, reactions which elicit comments from her coworkers in several episodes. She faces this in "Jane Doe." Her reactions may relate to having seen her friend Susan fatally hit by a train as a child (DoN), though she simultaneously seems quite casual about the idea of vampires killing (Francesca).
Tracy devotes herself to her job, and seems to derive most of her self-image from her profession. She appears to have a great number of friends and contacts, but is rarely seen with them on screen. Essentially, Tracy is a young woman breaking away from the domination of her overbearing and dysfunctional -- yet loved (MBIAV, Strings, AA) -- family for the first time. This especially burdens Tracy because the world of her family is the police force, the same world to which she has chosen to devote her own life.
Tracy graduated ninth in her class from the police academy (MBIAV). She was a member of a sorority in college (BF) and tried various majors -- "pre-med, pre-law, computers: anything but another Officer Vetter" (BW) -- before deciding destiny intended her for police work. Judging from her age, Tracy went directly from her undergraduate degree to the police academy to the police force, and then spent just five years in uniform (MBIAV) before making detective (BB1). Her father once had her transferred to the Forensic Accounting department of the Corporate Crime division (Strings); Tracy did not like it, and returned to work in homicide.
Webpages devoted to Tracy may be found at:
- http://www.geocities.com/~br1035/tracy/tracy.html and
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6801/dp.htmlVachon believes Tracy to be a resistor, a person who cannot be hypnotized by vampires, after he fails to mesmerize her in BB1. Nick apparently agrees with him, though he is never seen to test it. Screed, advising his friend to "boozle the girl," also takes Vachon at his word that Tracy "won't whammy" (BB2). In AtA, Nick says to Lacroix, "Vachon once told me she was a resister, but . . . I've seen you work around that."
Tracy alphabetizes the contents of her refrigerator (MBIAV).
Tracy drives a light-blue Ford Taurus with "dual airbags, ABS" and "great mileage." She "picked it out" herself (BB1). Its dark-blue-on-white Ontario license plate (TG) reads "123 OSA" over the provincial slogan: "Yours to Discover." Ford added the ABS option to the Taurus in 1990, so Tracy's car cannot be older than that model year. The 1990 Ford Taurus gets 20 mpg city/29 mpg highway. It has a foot brake rather than a hand brake, and dual cupholders under the central armrest.
When Nick asserts trunk space over fins in choosing a car, Vachon replies, "Pragmatist. Speaking of which, what's with your partner?" Vachon seems to be comparing Tracy with Nick, especially through his discussion of her car in BB1.
Growing up, Tracy had a dog named Sparky (BF).
Tracy's childhood nickname was "Button" (OtLines).
Tracy's locker in the precinct is the third from a wall with an anti-drug poster on it (TG). Worn, white sneakers (from BB2) sit on the top shelf, and her purse -- worn, brown leather with a flat top, rounded bottom and wide shoulder strap -- hangs from a hook (TG).
Tracy, like Schanke before her, has a computer on her desk where Nick has none, and gets stuck with the bulk of the partners' paperwork (GVP, OtLines).
Tracy's father, according to Tracy, "hates chocolate; thinks it acts like a germ-collector in the throat" (BB1).
In AA, Tracy tells her mother she has "satellite hook-up now, so you can watch lots of movies." The "now" may imply something very recent, or it may imply the length of time since her mother last visited.
While speaking to the cops doing surveillance in MBIAV, Tracy implies that the crust is her favorite part of a pizza.
Tracy may be psychically sensitive, as indicated by the physical chill she felt from the exorcism book (SoB), her receptivity to the memories of Faubert (Francesca), the ease with which Susan's ghost followed her (DoN), her sense of "evil" (AtA), and the ill feeling preceding her death in LK, which some have taken as a premonition.
Tracy was a Girl Guide -- a Canadian Girl Scout -- and earned a merit badge for knowledge of Native American cultures in the sixth grade (BW).
At the end of AtA, Nick asks Lacroix to hypnotize Tracy so she remembers only that, "Vachon was a good friend, a vampire who decided it was time to move on . . . The knowledge of our existence was his gift to her; we have no right to take that away." Lacroix consents, but there is no hard evidence as to whether this was carried out before her death in LK.
Joe Reese assigns rookie detective Tracy Vetter to Nick Knight as a temporary partner; the arrangement becomes permanent when Don Schanke's plane explodes, killing him. Tracy's first words on-screen are "I guess I'm just not much of a night person." She sees Vachon's apparently-dead body at the crash site, and later confronts him, gun drawn, in the hangar serving as a temporary morgue. She faints when she sees him casually holding his severed right arm in his left hand. He drives her back to her apartment and tries to mesmerize her; that fails, and so he bargains with her instead, offering information about the crash. When Nick resigns, Tracy tracks "J.D. Valdez" to an abandoned church, where she is threatened by the Inca; Vachon saves her from the Inca, reaffirms that she cannot be hypnotized, and then, for some reason, off-screen, she faints or is rendered unconscious. The final scene is her limp body in his arms.
Vachon takes Tracy to Screed's place. Vachon tells Screed "she's a resistor," and Screed says that then he should just kill her, rather than imposing on a friend. Vachon removes the gag from her mouth when she promises not to scream or shout; she demands to be let out of that rat- and germ-infested hell-hole immediately. Instead, Vachon tells her how he came across. Tracy seems fascinated, until he says that he defied his master's orders and tried to kill his vampire brother: "I don't think I like you anymore," she says. Tracy returns the investigation to a focus on the bomber's pattern of three, and then meets the bomber, unknown, at a cafe. He plants the trigger mechanism on her, and later gets her to come to him near the water under the pretense that he can help her find the bombs. Vachon arrives to save her, draining Vudu, while the Inca flies the trigger out of range of the other bombs. Nick arrives as Vudu is dying, and, for Tracy's benefit, Vachon mimes hypnotizing away Nick's memory of vampires.
Tracy and Nick meet Natalie over the victim of a rape and murder. Tracy reveals that she does not know that the tests which confirmed the rape cannot determine blood type. Tracy recognizes an old friend, an undercover cop, among the patrons giving statements. His cover secured by Nick, Bruce Spencer embraces "Button," as he calls Tracy. He asserts that the murderer is JT, one of the drug dealers he has been tracking for seven months. Nick and Tracy ask for evidence; Bruce gets hostile, and he and Nick yell at each other, Bruce insisting the supposed murderer will fold "like a towel" if Nick would just "slap him around a little," and Nick sticking to the law. Tracy breaks them up, telling Bruce that this is her and Nick's case now.
"We've got work to do, Button," Nick snaps at her as Bruce leaves, and Tracy sighs in frustration. Back at the precinct, Tracy feeds one form after another into a typewriter, Nick waiting until each one is out before telling her it is the wrong form. Tracy asks him why he was so hard on Bruce, saying that she has known him for over eighteen years. After speaking to Natalie in the morgue, Nick and Tracy return to the building, arguing about Bruce's mistake; Tracy wants to believe the best of her friend where Nick has already decided the worst. Tracy and Nick split up, and the vampire sees what his human partner cannot: Bruce throwing JT off the roof. Tracy arrives later than Nick and believes Bruce's explanation that JT fled legitimate arrest and jumped. Tracy and Nick argue again after Bruce's debriefing. Natalie informs them that while JT was the father of the victim's baby, he was not the murderer; the blood types don't match. "Maybe you made a mistake," Tracy protests.
"I don't think so," Natalie replies shortly. Asked about the murder, Natalie demonstrates the throat-cutting maneuver on Tracy. Tracy informs Reese and Nick that she has been through the "similar-crime files going back eight years" and "nothing shows." She smiles widely as Bruce leaves the precinct; the expression fades as she looks at Nick and Reese and realizes that they do not share her approval of Bruce. Later, Tracy meets up with Nick after questioning area prostitutes; she is extremely discomfited by the situation, especially because some of them thought she was a customer. Tracy begins to apologize for her attitude about Bruce; Nick interrupts with the information that Commissioner Vetter "has been covering for" Bruce, and Tracy gets mad again. Nick tells her that when she was assigned to be his partner, he had not liked it; but she is "a good cop" with "good instincts," and he wants her to look at Bruce with those instincts. Tracy is upset; "You don't know what it's like to doubt someone you've trusted all your life," she tells Nick.
At dawn, getting into her car, Tracy is surprised by Bruce, who demands "Button" get her partner off his back and promises to write her into his report to impress her father. Tracy tells him to "stop calling [her] that," and says that if she impresses her father, it will be for something she has done herself; however, she promises to talk to Nick. Tracy tails Bruce to an apartment where he threatens a woman with his gun and moves to strike her; Tracy pulls her gun on him and says, "Don't even think about it." Tracy tells the woman she can press charges, and snaps at Bruce to "shut up" when he says he didn't hurt her. The woman refuses, and Tracy leaves her card in case she changes her mind. Outside the building, Tracy says that she came there to prove his innocence to herself, and instead found out that all the charges of excess force were true. Bruce says that force is the only thing the "street trash" "respects;" Tracy counters, "No. It's what they get." Later, Tracy is decoyed into an alley by Bruce, who says he's thought about what she says, and will try it her way; "It's the right way," Tracy replies, and, perhaps as a gesture of trust, gives him the information Natalie uncovered.
When Tracy and Nick burst in on the original murderer where Bruce has also tracked him, Tracy goes in first and ends up with a razor to her throat. Nick talks to the assailant, distracting him slightly, and Tracy twists out of his grasp. Bruce then holds a gun to the man's head, and Tracy has to talk him out of killing. Finally, Bruce waits in holding at the precinct, and Tracy informs him that he will be charged with the murder of JT. Bruce says that he was wrong to play it her way, that those who play by the rules "get eaten up" and that his way is "justice." "No," Tracy says firmly, her back to him. "It's murder."
Tracy, watching the news as she gets dressed, is brought up short when Vachon appears on screen as a "concerned citizen" defending the claim of the Mississauga Indians to land destined for a mega-mall. Tracy is interrupted by a phone call from Reese sending her to catch up with Nick at the murder scene of a Gary Blackwing, who was the "main advocate" for the Mississauga in the "Robinson mega-mall case." Nick identifies the carving on a knife which may correspond to the murder weapon as a raven; Tracy identifies the raven as Iktomi and relates the appropriate mythology. "Sixth grade. Girl Guides. Merit badge in Native American cultures." Tracy and Nick interview Jess Nevins, a friend of the victim, and take Marian Blackwing to the precinct after she arrives at the scene mysteriously knowing her grandfather's throat had been cut, something she saw "on the spirit walk." Tracy asks if she can return to the spirit walk and bring them any clues; Jess and Marian react coldly. Tracy tells Nick she thinks Marian has a crush on him.
The next night, Tracy is going over her work at the crime scene to see if she missed anything, and speaks to Marian Blackwing, who tells her that she has thought about Tracy's idea, of using this "power [she] seem[s] to have inherited" to solve the case. As Tracy and Marian talk, Tracy reveals that when she was little, she "thought everyone was a cop." So when she went to college, she tried various majors -- "pre-med, pre-law, computers: anything but another Officer Vetter" -- but eventually she decided that perhaps people are simply meant to do "what we're meant to do." Marian agrees. Tracy goes to Vachon's church and tells him she saw him on television; "This is a side of you I was not aware of," she says.
"Let's just say I have a personal stake in the proceedings," Vachon replies, telling Tracy that the Mississauga claim is "100% valid" and that he saw the surveyor's letter during "Queen Anne's Campaign," the French and Indian Wars, something he followed for seventy-five years on the side of "whoever was losing." Vachon tells Tracy that he was at the signing of the land settlement treaty, and that their group was ambushed bringing the treaty back to the tribe. "Anyway," Vachon says. "It's not my fight anymore; never really was." At that, Tracy tells him that Gary Blackwing was murdered the night before.
Nick meets Tracy at the murder scene of Robinson's lawyer, where Natalie tries to discourage her from concluding that the murders are linked. At the precinct, Tracy and Jess observe Nick and Marian; they compare their respective friends as "loners" who seem to have found each other. Tracy calls Vachon; he assures her he isn't involved with the murder, and won't become involved. Tracy asks how she can trust him at all; "find the letter," he replies. In the morgue, Tracy and Natalie compare the differing knife technique used on the victims; Natalie tells Tracy she was "right about the ceremonial knife" as the murder weapon, which implies Tracy asserting something additional about that knife off-screen, as on-screen that idea was originally Nat's. When Nick has been out of contact for over an hour, Tracy goes to Nat; she doesn't know where he is either. Tracy uses a warrant to get into Roger Bland's office, where she finds a tape incriminating Mark Buckwater, who is at that moment killing Marian Blackwing. Finally, when Nick finds the map and surveyor's letter, Tracy sees Vachon's mark and signature on it.
Tracy looks at dog books at her desk; her "nephew wants a puppy for his birthday: one of those wrinkly, Chinese deals." She says she had a dog named Sparky as a girl. Nick and she argue over the proper route to take to a crime scene in the caddy; she recognizes the voice of the dispatcher as her old friend Jody Fraser. The next night, the body of an attempted rapist is found mutilated; Tracy says that the intended victim believes a dog saved her. Later, a bus driver with information about the rapist talks to Tracy at the precinct; this leads her to her friend Jody. They go "way back," were "sorority sisters," and Tracy calls Jody "Jode," but "it's been a while" since they've seen each other, at least since before Tracy made detective. Jody has become blind within the last year as a consequence of Multiple Sclerosis; she used to be a helicopter pilot, and her current job was obtained through Commissioner Vetter's influence.
Tracy asks for some of Jody's guide-dog's (Perry) fur; Jody resists, and Nick intervenes. Later, Tracy remarks that she talked "them" -- presumably her "nephew" and his family -- "into a mutt from the pound: no tail, much cheaper." Nick and Tracy talk over Tracy's fears about getting re-involved in Jody's life. When Perry attacks a policeman and has to be put down, Tracy takes Jody home. Tracy apologizes for getting out of touch, and the fear that caused it. She and Jody plan to try to "pick up where" they "left off." Trying the coffee Tracy has made, Jody comments, "You never did know how to mix a drink." The next day, Tracy is told that Jody suddenly left to be with "relatives in the States."
"My Boyfriend is a Vampire" --
Tracy sits in the studio audience for an episode of "The Jerry Show" on the subject of "supernatural lovers." As Maggie Dwyer tells the host her "boyfriend is a vampire," Tracy looks increasingly uncomfortable. When Jerry Tate moves into the audience and asks what she would say to someone who says she's in love with a vampire, Tracy offers, "They should get help?"
When Dwyer is murdered, Tracy informs Nick that this was a guest on the show, and that she "watch[es] it sometimes, okay. It's just fun." Returning to the set of the program, Tracy offers Nick the idea that Dwyer's boyfriend thought he was a vampire, and killed her "to shut her up." "So you don't believe in vampires?" Nick asks. "Of course not," Tracy lies. "Do you?" Nick does not answer. While unsuccessfully pressing Tate and his assistant for information on Dwyer's boyfriend, Tate suggests that Tracy should be in a future segment on women in dangerous jobs. Tracy tells Nick that she has to "swing by" her apartment and let a plumber in. She is next seen in a cafe with Vachon, asking his advice on the Dwyer case; he says that if she discovers a real vampire involved, she will be dead before she can tell anyone about it, and so there is no reason to worry. Tracy offers a seeming non sequitur about men who do not even recognize when they are in a relationship, and is very frustrated by Vachon's lack of reaction. She puts some money on the table and leaves.
Tracy checks in with cops doing surveillance, and enters Dwyer's apartment when someone is spotted, only to find Nick and Vachon apprehending Dwyer's boyfriend. Tracy asks Vachon what he is doing there, tells him not to say "vampire," and insists she is fine without his help. Tracy tells Nick that Vachon is "just a friend who's trying to help;" Nick, who knows better, pushes unmercifully at the lies which cover her knowledge of vampires. Interviewing Dwyer's boyfriend, Tracy indulges in a slicing gesture aimed at his groin. Reese orders her to appear on the show for the sake of the case. Jerry wants to film her doing something exciting on the job; his assistant suggests staging a meeting with a snitch. In Tracy's apartment, Vachon stares at Tracy's backside while she muses on the show wanting to dress her as a "babe cop." She asks him if he will appear as her snitch on the program, with his identity blocked; he agrees, and quotes lines from _The Maltese Falcon_ in front of the camera. Tracy apparently gets the joke. She is attacked, however, and Vachon, with the camera on him, can only pursue the knife-wielding assailant as "humanly possible." Nick tells Tracy and Reese that he knows Vachon, but only as a snitch he "used a few times last year."
At the scene of another murder of a guest from the Jerry Show, Tracy sees uncomfortable tension between Natalie and Nick, and tries to talk to Natalie about it, implicitly comparing Natalie and Nick to herself and Vachon. Discovering that either Jerry or his assistant is the culprit, Tracy is cornered by the assistant in the station, an insane woman who killed those she thought involved with Jerry. She holds Tracy at gun-point until she turns the gun on Jerry himself, freeing Nick and Tracy to call an ambulance and apprehend her. Tracy finally makes her appearance on "the new and improved Jerry Tate Show," discussing her work as a female detective in a serious and professional manner.
At a murder scene, Tracy notices that the victim has been bitten by a vampire. She goes to Vachon at the Raven to ask him about it, barely able to whisper the word "vampire." He assures her that it is highly unlikely that a vampire is involved. Nick also goes to the Raven, to ask Vachon about the same murder, and ducks out of Tracy's sight. Vachon tells him that Tracy is still obsessed by the "new wrinkle in her reality," seeing vampires under every rock. Tracy accompanies the girl found at the murder scene as police protection; she packs a large, embellished cross in her luggage, along with three garlic cloves and three or four wooden stakes. The girl, Ellen, asks Tracy, "Haven't you ever wanted to die?" Tracy replies, "No." Ellen, who is in fact the murderer, transforms into her Monika personality, and then her Jacqueline vampire-personality, knocking Tracy down and escaping. Nick had ordered Vachon to watch over Tracy; distracted by Urs, Vachon returns along with Nick as Jacqueline is escaping. Nick goes after Jacqueline and Vachon stays with Tracy, ordered by Nick to watch out for her but not be seen by her.
Repeatedly shot at, Tracy shoots and kills a "drug dealer." Taking her home, Nick and she are diverted to a crime scene near the wharf. Tracy reacts strongly to the decapitated victim; Natalie assumes it is a response to the gore, but Nick says, "It's more than that. She got in a shoot-out tonight. She won." Reese tells Tracy to take three days off; she is assured that this is just the "cooling off period" required by regulations, not a suspension, but Tracy is keyed-up and believes she is being treated differently because she is a rookie and/or a woman. Nick and Natalie both offer to be available if she wants to talk; she refuses. On her own initiative, wanting to prove herself, Tracy goes undercover at the Marr Escort Service, which employed the decapitation victim, posing as a former employee of a Blackburn Agency in Vancouver.
As she is given her first assignment, to meet a rich Jeffrey at the Raven and accompany him to the Commerce Awards dinner, she is observed by a man with a telescope. Her "date" with Jeffrey is short-circuited by Vachon, who sees them at the Raven and, despite Tracy hinting that something is up by calling him "Hav-ee-are," hypnotizes Jeffrey into leaving; upset by what she sees as more misplaced protectiveness, Tracy heads to her car, finding a flat tire. Fixing it, she is approached by a man who offers to help. She turns him down, but he insists, and eventually she acquiesces, admitting problems "loosening these things." He stabs her with a hypodermic needle and kidnaps her. "Ephram Sedrick," he introduces himself when she wakes, bound, in a stone-walled room; a murderer and taxidermist of his victims, he continually refers to her as a "pretty girl." Nick puts an APB out on her after hearing about her "undercover" plan from Vachon; her car is found.
Left to herself momentarily, Tracy frees her feet and retrieves her gun, depending on the one bullet left in the chamber which Sedrick did not remove. Tracy begins to escape, but, probably still affected by the drug, is distracted among Sedrick's preserved, human-body parts, when he feigns the voice of a fellow-captive. Knocked down, Tracy momentarily loses her gun; at that moment, Nick arrives and throws Sedrick against an electrical box which shocks him. Nick turns to Tracy, who has retrieved her gun; still handcuffed, she unerringly shoots Sedrick as he rises up behind Nick grasping a piece of wood that has somehow come to his hand. Natalie tells Nick that she gave Tracy a sedative for the ride to the hospital; "She fought me on it, but I convinced her." "You saved her life, Nick," Natalie says. "She saved mine," Nick replies. They agree that Tracy has proved she can handle the job; Nick hopes she never has a worse night than this has been.
"About half a block away" from the location of a dead body, Tracy finds a slipper which matches that on the dead woman's foot. Shown her tattoo in the morgue, Tracy volunteers that it is an Asian design, and she thinks she knows the place in Chinatown it was applied; she's "something of an expert on the subject," though she does not have a tattoo herself. Discussing the victim's stolen heart, Tracy reveals that her Uncle Sonny is waiting for a transplant and says the family is "praying for a miracle." At the tattoo parlor, Tracy struggles with a knife-wielding attacker; Nick intervenes vampirically without her knowledge, allowing her to retrieve her gun and take control of the situation. Reese, Nick and Tracy interrogate the attacker. Tracy tells Nick that if there is a black market for human organs, she knows someone who might know about it; asked if she trusts this person, Tracy says, "No. Not really, but it might save us some time."
In her apartment, Tracy asks Vachon what he knows about illegal organ transplants. He complains that every time she encounters something weird, she runs to her "supernatural chum" for the "inside dope." She grins that he's the only "supernatural friend" she has, and then admits that it is "not really just a police matter." She is concerned for her uncle. Vachon tells her that Screed told him that there are millions of dollars involved in such transactions by a group of doctors who travel between "here and Rio." Vachon emphasizes that he is just repeating what Screed told him. Tracy asks for names and places. Vachon asks if she is really that desperate; when she fails to respond, he sighs and says to tell a Dr. Walters that Enrique from the clinic in Rio sent her, and that she will pay whatever he asks. He writes down an address for her.
Tracy speaks to Walters, who initially tries to deny involvement in anything illegal, and then agrees to "take the matter under advisement." When he leaves his office, she walks stealthily through the clinic, and observes a dying child and her mother. She also observes Natalie about to become a victim of these organ thieves and immediately calls Nick: "Nick, It's Tracy. Listen, they've got Natalie." Walters pulls a gun on her and confines her, making clear that she will be used for her organs. When Walters moves to the door, Tracy kicks his gun out of his hand and knocks him out, also apprehending Natalie's doctor, the mother of the dying girl.
Nick is shot in the head by an informant whom he and Tracy were meeting. Nick is taken to the hospital, and as Tracy and Reese wait for news, Tracy tells Reese that she simply cannot recall the incident clearly. Reese assures her that this is normal for cops whose partners are down, and that it will come back to her. She is debriefed over the encounter, and describes the "normal, everyday meet" that ended in Nick's injury, though she simply cannot recall the shooter. The debriefing continues for many hours, and is the more intense because Nick has lost his memory and cannot help. Reese orders Tracy to go home and rest; she does not want to. The shooter calls her at her apartment, taunts her, and arranges a meeting at the cement plant at the harbor. The shooter, Leon Sharp, turns out to be out for revenge; Tracy's father is the cop who shot and killed Leon's brother, Jimmy Malik, during a drug bust years ago. At the cement plant, Tracy ducks gunfire until Nick arrives and accidentally causes Sharp to fall from a great height; the fall kills him.
Tracy and Nick arrive, on their own initiative, at the scene of Melanie Sawchuk's fatal car-crash, when the Slater homicide case seems unproductive. Tracy expresses particular distaste at Natalie's autopsy of the burned corpse; she and Nick interview Sawchuck's brother and inform him of her death. Tracy reacts to his lack of emotion at the news. At Sawchuck's apartment, Tracy discovers the blood on the broken window and feels a physical chill at the touch of the exorcism book. Tracy and Nick are present at an exorcism, at which time a demon flees into Nick; on the drive back to the station, Tracy says that though she has "had [her] eyes opened" to some pretty weird stuff recently, she "cannot accept" that Vanderwahl, who performed the exorcism, is anything but "a charlatan, and a very dangerous one at that." She and Nick stop a robbery with a hostage situation. At the station, Tracy and Reese talk about how everyone is sick that night; when Tracy cannot reach Nick by phone later, she and Reese conclude he needed sleep. When Natalie calls and asks after him, Tracy assures her that Nick probably "just stopped off at the drugstore." Tracy tells Natalie about Vanderwahl, and with that information Natalie arrives at the culmination of Nick's exorcism.
At a murder scene, Tracy is interrupted by a call from her father on her cellular phone. After investigating the scene, she asks for Nick's opinion on the Corporate Crime Division, where her father wants her to transfer. Tracy and Nick go to inform the victim's son, who flees. Tracy is again interrupted by a call from her father, who presses her to take the transfer; after hanging up, she finds a letter revealing that the victim's other child is Christie Black, a famous singer. Tracy and Nick try to interview her at the home of her therapist, but she is unresponsive and apparently drugged or mentally impaired; they interview her therapist instead. Reese tells Tracy that Commissioner Vetter is informing everyone of the transfer without Tracy's agreement; Tracy says that the more he pushes, the less she wants to move. In the caddy, Tracy tells Nick that there's no way to reason with someone, like her father, who always thinks he is right, and that if people do not feel in control of their own lives, a part of them goes crazy. Maybe that is why she always used to run to her father for advice, she speculates; she never learned how to make decisions because he always made them for her. Tracy and Nick interview the therapist again, and then interrogate the victim's son. Reese informs Tracy that her father has pushed through the transfer; she says she has accepted the inevitable. The next day, Tracy starts in Forensic Accounting under a Captain Forrest; she and Tracy do not get along, and Tracy quickly moves to open insubordination in continuing to work on the homicide case. Tracy finds records which explain the motive of the killings and gain Nick a warrant; Tracy and he return to the therapist's home, where Tracy cuffs the therapist while Nick rescues the singer. In the end, Tracy again receives a call from her father; she has yet to tell him that she is returning to work in homicide.
Tracy and Nick arrive at the scene of an apparently-accidental death at a scientific institution; Tracy goes through the victim's (Linda Wyatt) appointment calendar for people to interview. She enters Screed's sewer with Vachon, looking for a lead on the bitten, white rat Nick found at the crime scene. Screed attacks her, desperate for the "fruit in her veins." Vachon stops him, and Screed says "first kill, any kill." Tracy has the nature of first hunger explained to her. Vachon offers Screed his wrist; Screed is starving, sick. Tracy discovers that Calvin Tucker, Nat's friend, is in the control group of the study, and speculates that he's the murderer. He didn't know he was in the control group, but she continues to ponder the theory as Nick begins to exhibit signs of the same sickness affecting Screed. Tracy visits Vachon after Screed dies in his arms; Vachon hacks out, "I've been better." He begins to observe the "taste of apricots, scent of calla lilies" which radiates from her blood. Tracy is sensually enthralled, until Vachon throws her away from him and begs her to leave; he recognizes that it is like the first hunger, and when he says that, she dashes for the door.
Tracy asks Nat if there was anything "worth stealing, or killing for" in Linda Wyatt's work; there isn't. Tracy steals a bag of blood from the morgue, and promises to catch up with Nick later. She goes to Vachon, who is lying, weak and ill, in bed. She offers him the blood, but he says he isn't hungry anymore. At the precinct, Reese informs Nick that Tracy is staying with a sick friend. The next time she and Vachon are seen, Vachon seems to have slept, for he asks Tracy how long she's been there. When she replies that it is almost dawn, he tells her to go. She reminds him of how he once told her that his master committed suicide by stepping into the sun. He tells her, again, to go, and thanks her "for trying." She kisses him gently, and then flees the room.
A businessman is killed while looking at a property with a realtor at night. Nick and Tracy speak to the keeper of the property, who informs them that "it's not the house that's haunted, it's the people" who go in it. He supposes a ghost killed the man. Tracy says she doesn't suppose Nick believes in ghosts; he says he'll "take the fifth." They speak to the distraught realtor; Tracy informs both the keeper and the realtor that they will have to go to the precinct for questioning. Nick and Tracy split up to investigate, and she jokes that if she sees anything weird, she'll scream. Poking around in a disused room with a flashlight, Tracy picks up a pair of gloves, but fails to see the child's ghost behind her. As Tracy and Nick head to the caddy to go interview the owner of the property, Tracy informs him that she has covered the downstairs, and found nothing; then she sees the same little girl's ghost sitting next to Nick in the car. It vanishes before she can reach the caddy, and Nick claims to have seen nothing.
The owner of Kessel House is a confirmed believer in the occult, and informs Nick and Tracy that the site is a "reverse medium" through which ghosts come to the living for "closure." He has an alibi for the death. Back at the precinct, Reese chews out Nick and Tracy for not having checked out the realtor's alibi. With the only exterior view of Tracy's building, we move into her apartment and view her troubled dream, where she is again a pre-adolescent girl in a red snowsuit, pulling her sled along with her friend Susan in early spring. Susan's sled, and then her sweater, get caught in train tracks, and as a train whistle bears down on them, Susan screams for Tracy to help her; Tracy awakens, breathing heavily, and then hears Susan's plea repeated. She rushes to the window, and sees the girl's ghost on the street below. Tracy turns her back, her eyes wide and her breathing still labored.
Interviewing the dead man's business partner, Nick informs the annoying man that he will have to change his plans and stay in Toronto now that he is under investigation; Tracy suppresses a grin. At the precinct, Tracy makes herself some coffee, and Nick and she trade what little information they've uncovered. Tracy yawns and apologizes; Nick asks what's wrong. Tracy admits that she saw a ghost at Kessel House, and when Nick doesn't laugh, she continues to reveal that as a child she saw her friend Susan Feldman killed by a train, and that she blamed herself. She tells Nick about each time she has seen the ghost. When Tracy and Nick come on Natalie speaking to her grandmother's ghost in the morgue, Tracy tells Nat about Susan to reassure her that she's not going crazy, and Nick admits he, too, has seen a woman ghost.
In the caddy, Tracy turns off the Nightcrawler, telling Nick that the guy "gets under [her] skin." She asks Nick what he thinks Susan Feldman wants; he says to ask her. Tracy and Nick arrive at a new murder scene. As Nick disappears around back, Tracy is distracted by another appearance of Susan's ghost, and misses the murderer's escape. Tracy follows the ghost, calling after her; the ghost leads her into traffic. If Tracy had walked a little faster, a little further, she would have been hit by a mini-van. In the precinct, Tracy discovers that the two murdered men were not only business partners, but fraternity brothers. As Nick returns to Kessel House, Tracy uncovers a murder dating to 1974 which she thinks the dead men may be responsible for; Reese refuses to listen, again stating that he wants a solution that doesn't involve ghosts. Tracy goes to press her point, but is distracted by a faint train whistle that turns into a full-scale poltergeist display by Susan Feldman that only Tracy can see. She drops a cup of coffee, and Reese threatens to take her to the hospital. Instead, she goes to Kessel House, where Susan's ghost again leads her into traffic, saying she misses her. Nick saves her from being run down by a car, and Reese apprehends the real murderer. Tracy visits the place where Susan died, and lays a single red rose on the track.
On the way to a murder scene, Tracy informs Nick that for the past several weeks she has been saddled with all of their paperwork, and she's tired of it; she wants him to do his fair share. Nick barely hears a word she says. At the scene, Reese assigns Tracy to work with someone from "Massey, in Computer Ops." Nick's distraction continues. At the precinct, Tracy and detective Linda Fulford from Computer Ops examine the victim's virtual reality gear, and the vampire program it runs. "Frankly," Tracy says as Nick tries it out, "I prefer reality to computer games." Tracy and Fulford are amused as Nick is enthralled by the "pretty girl" in the game. Tracy and Fulford begin interrogating Rita, the victim's partner, before Nick arrives.
As Tracy follows the case with Fulford through Rita's files, Nick returns again and again to the game. Tracy tells Nick he's crazy to waste his time on the game as it can give him no solid proof. When Nick brings back a silver skull he found in a real place after seeing its counterpart in the game, Tracy and Fulford again object to Nick's obsession with the game; Nick hypnotizes Fulford into agreeing with his approach, right in front of Tracy. Tracy asks if he's all right; she thinks he "seems a little hyped." Nick finds more clues through the game, but Tracy and Reese object again. Nick storms out of the precinct and gets back on line; Tracy and the others reach a dead end with conventional police-work. Fulford proposes a reading of Rita's behavior which rationalizes Nick's approach; Tracy guesses that the clues add up to an anagram. Nick calls in to report two more clues he's found; he concurs that it's an anagram. Fulford feeds the clues into an RCMP decoding program, which eventually turns up "St. John." Tracy and the others arrive there, discovering that Nick has already arrested Rita and found the murder weapon.
While Nick is occupied with Janette, Tracy handles the Larouche murder investigation on her own, interviewing Janette's ward, Patrick, and his aunt. Having been given pictures of Janette and her "brother, "Uncle Nicholas" as Patrick calls him, Tracy discovers that Nick is involved and questions Natalie about it. In the end, Tracy decides not to bring her suspicions about Nick and their mysterious suspect (Janette) to Reese's attention. Nick assures her that the incident will not come back to "haunt" them, but cannot assure her that the "right thing" has been done.
Tracy's mother arrives unexpectedly; it's during the Film Festival, so she can't get a hotel room. They embrace awkwardly; Tracy offers to let her stay in her apartment, and says that if she's still there on Saturday, they can do something; in the meantime, she has to work. She answers the phone "Detective Vetter," and is called to the scene of a murder at a women's shelter, where she is responsible for putting out the APB on the victim's husband. Tracy takes the daughter, the only witness, to the ER and then to the precinct, where she takes her statement about the brutally abusive father.
Tracy gets a phone call from her father, and learns that her mother's "business" in town is a legal suit against him; Tracy says she "won't be around her that much" and will "try to keep a lid on it." The phone conversation reveals that Barbara Vetter is an alcoholic, that the "divorce" and "settlement" are contentious, and that Richard Vetter accuses his daughter of "taking sides." On the way to pick up the suspect, Tracy checks her gun repeatedly, and tells Nick that when it comes to her parents, she doesn't know whether she is supposed to be "their daughter or their referee." Tracy takes down the suspect in an alley and holds her gun to his head until Nick intervenes.
When Tracy returns home, she finds her mother drinking. This quickly escalates into an argument, with Tracy mentioning "how much trouble the drinking caused you and dad," and Barbara complaining of both Richard's infidelity and the difficulty of being married to a police officer. Tracy asserts that she is a cop because she wants to be; her mother complains that she "never considered anything else." At the height of the argument, Tracy says, "So you drank, and you made yourself sicker." Barbara snaps back, "Well, you just wait until you're as lonely as I am, and make no mistake, you are heading that way--" Tracy slaps her. There is a long moment of silence. "You like to think you're your own person, don't you Tracy? Well, you are not. And you never will be. You are your father's person. That's why you're a cop, Tracy. He made you what he wanted you to be. And you never had a choice." Tracy sits silently through this last, and Barbara leaves the apartment.
Later, Barbara sees Tracy at the precinct and declares that she's going home. Tracy asks her to stay, apologizes for what she did, and says she wants to work this out. "We will," her mother says. "In time." Tracy sits in on another interview with Julie, the daughter, who is revealed to be the real killer. As Julie admits to having "snapped" when she stabbed her mother, Tracy sees herself slapping her mother. The episode ends with Tracy pressing Julie to reveal what happened to the murder weapon.
A professional wrestler is murdered. Interviewing people at the scene, Tracy and Nick help Henry Ellis find his ward, Joey Martin, who witnessed the crime and identifies Ellis's wrestling alter-ego, the Bulldozer, as the murderer. Tracy and Nick interview Ellis, who is arrested. When Natalie insists Joey not be sent to a facility, Tracy concurs that "he is our only witness;" she does not, however, volunteer to take him in, leaving that to Nick and Natalie. Tracy and Nick interview the wrestling manager, and then confront Ellis again, over his steroid use. Tracy is present when Joey's testimony is recorded; Reese assigns Tracy to find proof of Ellis's steroid alibi. She calls in Nick's pursuit of the real killer, and arrives with back-up to handle the arrest while Nick helps Natalie with Joey; Tracy gets a full confession from the murderer.
Tracy, Nick and Reese view the disfigured and highly-decomposed body of Jane Doe #355 under Natalie's supervision in the morgue. She urges them all to take up surgical masks, and after a few moments Tracy says, "Captain, I need a minute," and leaves the room. Later, discussing the case in the precinct as the probable work of Jordan Manning, a racist ex-con with a best-selling book, _Killing Mind_, Reese assigns Tracy to work with Natalie until they identify the body. Tracy begins to object, but Reese's decision is final. "[You think] that I'm pushing her," Reese says to Nick after Tracy leaves. "But if she wants to cut the mustard as a homicide cop, she's going to have to get over this squeamishness." Nick acquiesces.
In the morgue, preparing to begin, Natalie offers Tracy something to suppress nausea. Tracy tells her that she knows her "internship" down there is "to deal with my own little problem," and that if she is going to do that, she can't "cheat." "Good for you," Nat approves. Tracy is upset by the external exam, but with Nat's help, settles to the job and finds fibers and dried blood under the fingernails. After the internal autopsy (not seen), Tracy and Natalie sit down against the wall, and Tracy, with an oxygen mask, apologizes for her lack of stamina. Natalie tells her that she has done better than she realizes; long-time veterans of the force have endured less, and the hair Tracy found is distinctly not the victim's hair. After illegal drugs and insulin are both ruled out, a puncture mark remains a puzzle; Tracy suggests immunizations, and Natalie realizes that a doctor might self-immunize.
Tracy goes to Toronto University General Hospital, and discovers that a Dr. Miriam Nyanda completed her residency six weeks before, and then was to return home to Kenya; reporting this to Reese, Tracy adds that Dr. Nyanda worked on a drug study in Millhaven prison, where she encountered Jordan Manning, and that while Nyanda was scheduled to return to Kenya, her plane ticket was never redeemed. Natalie confirms that the hair matches Manning's, and Reese, Tracy, Nick, and a number of uniformed officers all assist in the apprehension of Manning at his hotel.
Confronted with a body drained of blood by a throat-slashing, Tracy suggests a "cult ritual" as a possible motive, and then asks if either Natalie or Nick are feeling "deja vu" as she is. When a similar murder occurs in another precinct, an annoying reporter asks Tracy for information. "Put a sock in it, Fuller," Tracy responds. She tells Nick that this reporter has a habit of putting two and two together and getting five, and that she dated him once -- just once.
Tracy wakes up suddenly from a nightmare in which her throat is slit by Francesca, a vampire who has been appearing in Nick's flashbacks. She goes to Vachon's church. As they sit on opposite ends of his couch, him drinking blood and her sipping a red (or orange) can of pop, Vachon tells her that "it sounds like you have a connoisseur on your hands ... These days, with everyone being real careful," it's an expensive taste, but not unknown; there is always a market for a special vintage, a poet, a musician, "even an actor." Vachon says that the carelessness with which the bodies were left does not fit the profile of a vampire blood broker; Tracy says that she does not think this is a professional, that these murders are somehow personal. Vachon asks, "Trace, if it is a vampire ...?" Tracy admits she does not know what she will do, and Vachon gives her a concerned look.
A psychiatrist who has been treating a patient who may be involved in the killings (Frank LoPietro) brings her suspicions to Tracy, Reese and Nick. When Doctor Kadlec describes Frank's belief that he is the reincarnation of Francesca, Tracy concurs that if he thought he was a vampire, he would believe he had "permission to kill" as "part of his nature." Or so the myth says, she backtracks when Nick looks at her. Tracy takes the doctor to work with a sketch artist, and puts out an APB on Frank; she also asks for advice about troubling dreams, and the doctor gives her a business card. When Tracy discards the card, Gordon Fuller, the reporter, retrieves it.
Vachon re-strings his guitar as Tracy tells him about the case again. She asks if the name "Nicholas Chevalier," the name of the suspect's lover in his past life as Francesca, means anything to him, and proposes that this is the connoisseur they are looking for. Vachon, apparently recognizing the name as French for "Nick Knight," tries to deflect her, but the more he remains noncommittally silent, the more sure Tracy is that she is on to something. Doctor Kadlec is kidnapped by Frank the next day; Tracy and Nick interview Fuller as the last person to see her before that. When Kadlec is rescued, Tracy interviews her, but she remembers nothing since the kidnapping. Finally, Tracy goes to Kadlec as a patient, suggesting that "maybe [she] was one of the ones that [Francesca] killed." The doctor attempts to suggest that it is more likely that something in Tracy's present life is troubling her, but in Tracy's first brush with hypnotic regression, she flashes to Faubert, a violinist whom Francesca did indeed kill.
Tracy and Reese discuss "most deranged serial killers" until an anonymous call sends Tracy and Nick to the Raven in search of a body. A decapitated corpse is found, and Tracy is present with Nick and Reese at Lacroix's interrogation. Vachon meets Tracy at her car, and she thanks him for coming. Tracy asks if Lacroix is "one of you," and Vachon, wide-eyed, lies, "No." She discusses a feeling of evil she thinks she's picking up from Lacroix, and declares, "Evil's a part of you; maybe that's why we'd never work." Tracy is in the morgue with Nick and Natalie when Reese informs them that the body is that of an Egyptian national, last seen in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
Tracy gets a call from Vachon: "I know who's doing this. I know why that body was in the Raven." He breaks off in an agonizing scream, and Tracy hurries to the church. She finds him wounded and delirious. "It's okay," she embraces him. "Your wounds will heal." "I'm not healing," he tells her. "I'm dying." Vachon asks Tracy to kill him, declaring that he knows he will die anyway. She picks up the stake he indicates; Vachon kneels before her and she holds it to his chest. "I can't," she withdraws. "You have to," he says, and suddenly flies at her. Tracy brings up the stake in a defensive gesture, and Vachon impales himself on it. Tracy removes the stake from his body, and sits with it; Nick arrives and hears this speech: "I never got to tell you how I felt about you; maybe you knew. I hope you did. You changed me, opened my eyes, and I'll always ... always love you for that. I'll take you to Screed; you can be with your friend." Nick later asks Lacroix to hypnotize away Tracy's memory of Vachon's death, but to leave her memory of Vachon's friendship and his vampirism.
At the scene of the suicide of a friend of Natalie's, Nick asks Tracy to take over so that he can get Nat out of there. Back at the precinct, Tracy tells Reese that there is nothing to indicate it was not a suicide, and asks if she can go home early; she indicates a stomach ailment, and says she feels something coming on. Reese notes that the flu is going around, and agrees that she should head home. Dawkins, a restive prisoner being held for transfer, breaks loose and takes a hostage. Tracy, like most of the officers present, draws her gun. She then walks around the long way to the locker room toward which Dawkins is heading. In the dark, after Dawkins disrupts the electricity, Tracy approaches him slowly. When Nick comes through the door and begins to talk Dawkins down, Tracy stays hidden, moving around the outside of the room to back up Nick. Suddenly, the lights come back on, and Dawkins, who had been setting down his gun, spots Tracy and shoots her through the abdomen. Another shot is fired, the impact of which is not immediately apparent. Tracy recoils against the wall, hitting her head, and then slides down slowly, leaving a blood trail behind her. Nick throws Dawkins against the wall, and then rushes to Tracy; seeing him vamped out she manages to say, faintly, "You could have trusted me." The EMT who arrives shortly identifies the time as 23:45 -- 11:45 pm -- and says Tracy took two bullets: "abdominal -- and there's a really bad head wound." In the hospital, Nick waits at Tracy's bedside and flashes back to their first night as partners: the night Don Schanke died. Nick vamps out over her, intending to bring her across, but is interrupted by Natalie. Later, Nick arrives at his loft to be greeted by Natalie with the news that "Tracy Vetter passed away twenty minutes ago." A sheet is pulled over her face, and two orderlies wheel her body down a hall and off-screen.
Dedicated to Bonnie.
FAQ created and maintained by: Knightie Amy
R., a Perk Sympathizer.
Comments and constructive criticism are appreciated.
Home | Fiction | Poetry | References | Essays | Links | Recommendations | New