When Natalie Met Nick

The circumstances in which Nick and Natalie first met were recounted in the flashback to the Season I episode, "Only the Lonely".

About a year before the start of the series, Nat­alie was in her office when a body bag was wheeled in by a morgue attendant named Eddie.   He told her that the corpse was that of a John Doe who had attempted to stop an armed robbery, and been blown up by a pipe bomb for his pains.   He warned Natalie that the body was a dreadful sight.   Eddie helped her lift the body bag onto the autopsy table, leaving the bloody gurney just beside it; and then he left quickly so that he wouldn't have to see the corpse again when Natalie opened the body bag.
        Natalie went to put on her gloves, preparatory to opening starting work.   However, just as she was coming back to the table, the phone rang.
        A bit relieved at being able to put off examining the mangled remains, Natalie re­mained on the phone for a while, talking to one of the detectives assigned to the armed robbery case.   Busy explaining that she had not yet had time to start the autopsy, she didn't notice that something odd was happening over at the autopsy table.   The puddle of blood that splat­tered the gurney was moving...shifting up the side of the autopsy table and into the body bag.   Inside the bag, the corpse was re­gen­er­at­ing.
        Thus, when Natalie got off the phone, and finally opened the body bag, she did not see the mangled bomb victim she expected.   The corpse was almost untouched.
        She turned away to call the detective to find out if there had been some mistake.   Unseen behind her on the table, the corpse finished regenerating—the last of its wounds healing in an astonishingly brief space of time.

Suddenly Natalie was startled by the sound of movement.   The bomb victim had got off the autopsy table, and was standing the other side of the room.   This was nothing she had ever encountered before.   She was shocked and terrified—and fascinated.   What was he?   She insisted on an explanation, and was told that he was a vampire.   It sounded impossible:   this was nothing in her ken:   but, in the circum­stances, she had little choice but to accept it.   After all, he had not only come back from the dead but healed himself of his wounds within minutes, right in her office.   Furthermore, desperate for sustenance, he was drinking blood, straight from a bag, right before her eyes.
        Of course, the only reason that Nick was ready to tell her the truth was because he assumed that he would be able to hypnotize her into forgetting everything.   But, a few days later, when he tested the success of this by walking past her in the street, she recognized him.   This was, she averred, because the hypnosis hadn't worked on her; she must be, she supposed, one of those people on whom his vampire powers simply didn't have an effect—a Resistor, as Forever Knight later called them.
        All was not lost:   he did not have to find some other way to deal with her.   She was intrigued by what he told her, and offered to help him in his search for a cure.   She was sure that there must be some scientific explanation for his condition, and a medical way to reverse it.

Swear or Affirm

When he realizes that LaCroix is going to be required to testify, Nick recalls his own situation in the Season I episode, "False Witness", in which he himself had to appear in court.
        Ordinarily, Nick is permitted to provide taped evidence, since he usually is only testifying as to the facts of the arrest.   In "False Witness", however, he found himself in a situation similar to that in which LaCroix is here:   as the only witness to crucial events, he had to be in court in person so that he could be cross-examined.   Quite apart from the problem of attending court during the day, Nick found it extremely difficult taking the oath, since the clerk presented him with a bible, on which he had to lay his hand; and, as we all know, Nick - being a vampire - cannot touch religious objects without being burned.   Indeed, the bible used in court had a gold cross em­bossed on the cover, which left an actual mark on his skin.
        It seems to have occurred to neither Nick nor the writer of "False Witness" (or anyone else associated with the production of the series) that he could simply have avoided the issue by affirming instead.   But perhaps it should be seen as an impropriety were Nick to do so, despite the convenience.   He is, after all, a devout Catholic still, even after almost eight hundred years as a vampire.   It would be in character for him to feel required to take a religious oath.
        LaCroix, of course, feels no such impulse.   He has no noticeable inclination towards religious belief - if anything, the contrary.   Quite rightly, then, in "Eyewitness" he makes an affirm­ation.   Of course, this nicely avoids the burning issue of bibles, as well.

Miscellaneous