The Bionic Woman Page #5

---

SECURITY CHIEF:

He's been at it for ten hours, sir.

JONAS:

Great. Just bloody fantastic. Why

didn't somebody stop him?

SECURITY CHIEF:

Um -- you gave him unrestricted

access. Sir.

JONAS:

I did, didn't I.

22.

JAE:

(sotto, to Jonas)

Told you.

INT. COMPLEX -- OPERATING ROOM -- DAY

ERIC and his TEAM OF DOCTORS work on Jaime. Eric is using a

ROBOTIC ARRAY with waldo-like hand controls, the "monitor" a

3D HOLOGRAM projected directly over Jaime's body.

ON THE HOLOGRAM, we can see the tiny, fine remote INSTRUMENTS

that Eric is controlling with the array, working at the pelvic

juncture of Jaime's RIGHT LEG.

ERIC looks totally THRASHED, but he's still utterly FOCUSED,

hands rock steady. He doesn't even look up as JONAS enters -

ERIC:

I expected you a lot sooner.

JONAS:

I was in China.

ERIC:

Lucky me.

JONAS:

I didn't give permission for this,

Eric.

ERIC:

Funny, I don't remember asking for

it.

(to the Nurses)

Someone mask Mr. Bledsoe, please.

THE MEDICAL TEAM is looking back and forth nervously between

Jonas and Eric, like schoolkids waiting for a FIGHT -

-- and Jonas gets a look at JAIME'S FACE.

JONAS:

(realizing)

Jesus, Eric -- it's your girlfriend?

The one works in a coffee shop?

ERIC:

Jaime. Her name is Jaime.

JONAS:

(furious)

You're out your damned mind, boy.

She's got no qualifications, no

training at all! She's just some

girl -

23.

Eric looks up at him for the first time -- and the look in

his eyes is SCARY.

ERIC:

Not to me.

Eric's eyes are BLAZING as he stares Jonas down:

ERIC (CONT'D)

And if you ever want me working in

this room for you again, you won't

try to stop me now.

A beat -- then:

JONAS:

You're gonna owe me for this one.

ERIC:

(right back to work)

Fine. Get out.

INT. OBSERVATION DECK OVER O.R. -- MORNING

JAE stands at the observation window, watching the operation.

JONAS enters, comes up to stand beside him, watching as well.

JONAS:

(it's not a question)

You think I should stop him.

(off Jae's silence)

It's important he feel there's debt

here. But -- truth is, I don't mind.

JAE:

You should.

JONAS:

Most studies have a baseline, a blind

control. We never did.

Jonas looks down at the OPERATION, strangely SATISFIED.

JONAS (CONT'D)

Until now.

POV JONAS, looking down at JAIME'S SLEEPING FACE; but through

the glass, her features are slightly DISTORTED, blurry.

In every way that matters, to him she is UNKNOWN.

INT. FACILITY -- HOSPITAL ROOM -- DAY

C.U. JAIME'S FACE, SLEEPING fitfully. Strangely, her FACE

doesn't show the GASHES and LACERATIONS we saw on her -instead,

there's only a few pale LINES of healing cuts and

light BRUISING. Her eyes DART, dreaming uneasily.

24.

ERIC (O.S.)

Jaime, can you hear me?

Her eyes FLUTTER OPEN, focusing SLOWLY to see ERIC, sitting

by her bed.

ERIC (CONT'D)

You've been out for three days.

(gently)

Come back to me.

She's in a hospital bed, sheets pulled up to her shoulders.

JAIME:

(a little groggy)

Hey...

Jaime's eyes suddenly WIDEN as she REMEMBERS -

FLASHBACK in split-second, fragmented images to JAIME'S POV

INSIDE THE CAR CRASH: SKIN covered with blood, DEAFENING

NOISE, shattering glass, CRUNCHING METAL -

BACK TO JAIME LYING IN THE BED as she looks up at Eric, the

monitors behind her BEEPING faster as her heart rate SPIKES.

ERIC:

(worried)

Is something wrong? Are you in pain?

JAIME:

(weak, bleary)

No, I... what happened? I thought...

(shakily)

I thought I was dead.

Eric looks DEEPLY UNCOMFORTABLE.

ERIC:

Jaime, there are some things I have

to tell you -

JAIME:

(sudden realization)

The baby. What about the baby?

Eric doesn't answer. And it's all the answer she needs.

JAIME (CONT'D)

(stricken)

Oh my god. Oh... oh god...

She turns her head away from him, closing her eyes as if

she's in TERRIBLE PAIN.

ERIC:

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I couldn't -

25.

FLASHBACK TO THE CRASH: the dash CRUSHING down on her legs,

the car ROLLING, glass EVERYWHERE, NOISE and HORROR -

BACK ON JAIME as she turns back to him, with sudden FEAR.

JAIME:

My legs, they -- they don't hurt.

They're just... numb.

(beginning to panic)

Why don't they hurt?

ERIC:

Ok, Jaime, wait, just stay calm -

ON JAIME, feeling anything but calm, remembering MORE:

FLASHBACK TO THE CRASH, more THUNDEROUS noise, images even

FASTER:
the car SPLATTERED with blood, her arm MANGLED at

her side, legs BURIED beneath twisted metal -

BACK TO JAIME, looking down at the sheets covering her body.

JAIME:

I can't feel my arm, either -

Jaime starts to throw off the sheet -- and Eric GRABS her by

the shoulders, gently but firmly HOLDING HER DOWN.

ERIC:

Just -- just listen for a second,

ok? There's this man, Jonas Bledsoe.

He owns this place. He owns a lot

of things. And I, I kind of moonlight

for him. Doing surgical work.

Very... experimental surgical work. *

Jaime looks up at him, beginning to be truly AFRAID.

JAIME:

(small voice)

Eric... ?

Eric is trying to be REASSURING, picking words carefully.

ERIC:

There are whole new areas of *

technology that he's been funding. *

I've developed a system to replace *

human body parts with biomechanical *

ones. It's called "bionics." *

JAIME:

Eric --what did you do to me?

Eric stops trying to soft-pedal it. He meets her eyes -

26.

ERIC:

(bare honesty)

Both your legs and your arm had to

be replaced, as well as your right

ear and right eye. Molecular machines

called nanocytes have been substituted

for one eighth of your blood cells -

And Jaime doesn't wait for another word, she SHOVES him away

as she RIPS the covering sheets off -

-- and the force of what should have been a little PUSH sends

Eric FLYING back, CLATTERING into a bank of EQUIPMENT that

FALLS all around him. He SCRAMBLES to his feet -- but -

JAIME is staring down at her right arm, FROZEN with SHOCK.

THE SKIN is TRANSPARENT, clear as plexiglass; beneath, we

can see the BIOMECHANICAL MACHINERY that is her new arm.

It's NOT wires and metal and electronics -- the structures

mimic human bones, muscles, tissues, but the colors and shapes

are wrong, different, familiar and disturbing at once.

BONES are black-silver TITANIUM CERAMICS;

MUSCLES are STARK WHITE, flexible, striated, connected by

GREEN TENDONS and LIGAMENTS, whipcord thin;

VEINS pulse in a NETWORK of pale BLUE-WHITE "blood"; and TINY

FLOWS OF MERCURY-LIKE QUICKSILVER race over everything,

DARTING like lightning everywhere, BIONIC NERVE IMPULSES.

Jaime looks like she's going to be SICK.

ERIC (CONT'D)

(desperately)

Listen to me, listen -- the nanocytes

are completing the graft, soon the

skin will look just like yours.

Jaime looks down at the rest of her body; she's wearing a

white tank top and loose white scrub pants. As Eric keeps

talking, she JERKS both pants legs UP to look at her legs -

Rate this script:3.3 / 3 votes