(Mulder walks down the hall with a purpose, to find Scully. He meets up with a nurse)

MULDER: Can you help me? I'm looking for a woman... (Nurse, busy, walks away. He goes to the nurses station) Excuse me, I'm looking for a Dana Scully who was brought into ... (The nurse, on the phone, holds her hand up for him to be quiet. He continues down the desk to another nurse)

Excuse me, I'm looking for a patient, Dana Scully... (When she doesn't acknowledge his presence, he continues) Is there an admitting nurse here? (No response) Look! Can someone help me here? (An intern walks down the hall towards Mulder)

INTERN: Look, Sir. You're going to have to calm down.

MULDER: I will calm down when someone gives me a reason to calm down. Now I'm looking for a patient who was admitted to the ER!

INTERN: Dana Scully.

MULDER: Yes.

INTERN: I heard you the first time.

MULDER: Well, where is she?

INTERN: I have her in the ICU.

MULDER: Where is that?

INTERN: You have to tell me who you are first.

MULDER: Where is she?

SKINNER: Agent Mulder...

(Mulder turns to see Skinner and two suited men walking down the hall towards him. Mulder walks past where Skinner came from. Skinner walks with him)

Where you going?

MULDER: ICU.

SKINNER: You're looking pretty good for a dead man.

MULDER: I'm only half dead.

SKINNER: You have a lot to answer for, Agent Mulder!

(Mulder goes through a door, Skinner turns to the suits)

You guys hold here.

(Skinner goes through the door. Mulder walks through a hall with X Ray screens and a doctor examining them. He sees Scully laying in bed with a tube down her throat through a glass in the wall. He stops and looks and bends and the waist and grabs his knees. Skinner joins him)

MULDER: What happened to her?

SKINNER: She went into hypo vilemic shock.

MULDER: Due to what? (No answer) Do to what?!

SKINNER: She's dying! Let's go. (Skinner takes Mulder's arm. Mulder shakes him off)

MULDER: Let go of me. (They struggle)

SKINNER: There's nothing you can do. (Mulder punches at Skinner's chest)

MULDER: Get the hell off of me! (Skinner grabs him by the lapels)

SKINNER: Don't do this! Don't!

(A suited guy and Skinner push Mulder back and Mulder just looks at the sleeping Scully in bed)

(Mulder is escorted by Skinner into the office. Mulder sits in the chair, Skinner stands to Mulder's right)

BLEVINS: I'm still at a loss here in going forward. This situation developing unexpectantly during a formal inquiry into your reported death, Agent Mulder. The fact of your being here today, very much alive it gives the effect of reshaping this investigation into something all together different. As we're not put upon to verify the identity of this body found in your apartment and the circumstances which led to this. (The senior agent is sitting to Blevin's right)

SENIOR AGENT: Would you care to enlighten us on these circumstances?

MULDER: Are you suggesting that I can?

BLEVINS: Agent Mulder, we are here informally to give you the chance to help yourself.

MULDER: Help myself, how?

SENIOR AGENT: By allowing any fact or details which might serve to let us go forward with this inquiry in a more informed manner.

MULDER: That helps you, how doesn't that help me?

BLEVINS: Agent Mulder, this is going to quickly become a murder investigation. Criminal charges are going to be made.

SKINNER: We have only one other suspect. But she may no longer be able to testify on her own behalf.

BLEVINS: Agent Scully lied to us. Why? (Slight pause)

SENIOR AGENT: Who's protecting whom, Agent Mulder?

BLEVINS: Your choice is your own, but your failure to answer these questions will reflect poorly on the record of the formal inquiry.

MULDER: Are we finished then?

HALLWAY

(Skinner follows Mulder out of the office and through the hallway)

SKINNER: Word of advice from a friend, keep playing it the way you are.

MULDER: Thanks, buddy.

SKINNER: Hey, right now, you need a buddy, you need all the help you can get.

MULDER: You should have mentioned that at the hospital when you were hauling my ass off!

SKINNER: Hey, I saved your ass, Agent Mulder! I've been withholding forensic evidence about the body found on your apartment floor. Until you showed up last night, I was the one keeping your secret, I had no choice but to bring you in. Scully'll verify all that.

MULDER: That's a good place to lay it, considering her condition.

SKINNER: You want me to lay it where it belongs, Agent Mulder? Pathology turned up two gunshot wounds to the dead man in your apartment. One fired point-blank through the left temple with a handgun, the second a post-mortem wound to the face to remove the man's identity. Now, I'd be happy to verify the ballistics on that first shot.

MULDER: How can you help me?

SKINNER: Tell me why Scully lied for you.

(Mulder thinks, goes to the window, Skinner follows, there's no one listening to them)

MULDER: The disease she has was given to her by somebody connected to the FBI, to a mole working here.

SKINNER: Who?

MULDER: I failed to find that out, sir.

SKINNER: You don't want to forget who your friends are, Agent Mulder. To remember who you can trust.

RACETRACK - ON TV

(On WWN, there's a hearing going on about cloning)

MAN ON TV: I don't think there are any appropriate limits to human knowledge. As long as science is done openly, and with free will, then I don't think there are any limits.

CHAIRMAN: Senator Kennedy...

KENNEDY: Doctor... you've ah... stated that the ah... cloning humans would be ah... ill considered and technically ah... difficult to accomplish. Can you expand a little bit on what you see as the biggest ah... technical obstacle to human cloning.

(Sound drifts away as the camera pulls back to see the Elder is sitting at his box at the empty racetrack watching the TV. Cancerman walks up to him)

CSM: I trust you've heard.

ELDER: Mulder is alive.

CSM: As I said, he's not to be underestimated.

ELDER: Yes, as you said. Though I hear he has you to thank in some part for his new freedom.

CSM: Using a stolen ID, Mulder was able to get inside the Advanced Research Project Facility.

ELDER: And you allowed him to escape.

CSM: Yes.

ELDER: We're too vulnerable. Our man in the FBI is exposed, what Mulder may have seen could expose our plans.

CSM: What Mulder's seen only serves us. Serves to ensure our plans. Mulder's in trouble, he needs help, and we can give it to him.

ELDER: In exchange for?

CSM: His new loyalty. To us. As I've said all along, Mulder's much more valuable to us alive.

(Cancerman walks away with a little jaunt to his step. Elder turns to acknowledge the goon sitting a couple of rows behind him)

ELDER: You can proceed now. (The goon, assassin nods)

SCULLY'S ROOM

(Mulder walks in)

SCULLY: Mulder, what are you doing here?

MULDER: I heard you were being moved out of the ICU, that you were feeling better.

SCULLY: Mulder, somebody's going to see you here.

MULDER: It's okay. (He clutches her hand. He kisses her on the cheek) I'm officially among the undead.

SCULLY: What happened?

MULDER: I did not come here to talk about that.

SCULLY: Mulder, don't try and protect me. I need to know.

MULDER: Well, there's not much to talk about anyway, I'm going to testify to everything I know in front of the FBI assembly. The conspiracy, the men behind it, what I believe is its purpose.

SCULLY: Did you find out who in the FBI is involved?

MULDER: No. But that doesn't matter now.

SCULLY: Yes it does.

MULDER: Hey, Scully, how about those Yankees, huh?

SCULLY: Mulder, Skinner has evidence against you. He knows that you killed that man they found in your apartment.

MULDER: Yeah, Skinner's withholding it.

SCULLY: Mulder, Skinner's dirty. He's not your friend. I'm almost certain that he's the man inside on this.

MULDER: I don't believe that.

SCULLY: If you testify, he will use it to ruin you. (He puts his hand to her face)

MULDER: No, not Skinner.

SCULLY: He's been in a position to know everything from the beginning, everything that we've done over the past four years.

MULDER: But if I don't testify now they'll start to bury the truth.

SCULLY: Well then, you have to lay it on me. You have to tell them that I was the one who killed that man.

MULDER: I can.... (He smiles and shakes his head) I can't do that.

SCULLY: Yes, you can. Mulder, if I can save you, let me. Let me at least give some meaning to what's happened to me.

(Mrs. Scully and Bill enter)

MRS SCULLY: Dana?

SCULLY: Hi, Mom.

MULDER: Hi, Mrs. Scully.

MRS. SCULLY: I hope I'm not interrupting...

MULDER: No. I was just on my way out. (Mulder kisses Scully on the cheek. He stands and sees Bill) Hi, I'm Fox Mulder, I don't think we've ever met.

BILL: Bill Scully. (they shake hands)

MULDER: I'm sorry about your sister.

BILL: Mr. Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah?

BILL: I know something about you, about what Dana's been through with you, so let's leave the work away from here, okay? Let her die with dignity.

STAIRWELL

(Assassin walks up the stairs with a case. He sets it on the stairs and opens it. It's a shotgun in pieces.)

HALLWAY

(Mulder leaves Scully's room and walks down the hall. He sees Cancerman)

MULDER: Please tell me you're here with severe chest pains.

CSM: You should be glad for why I'm here, pay you some respect.

MULDER: Go to hell.

CSM: For your cleverness, and your resource, what you managed to do for Scully.

MULDER: What are you talking about?

CSM: Well, breaching the security at the Defense Department Facility. Finding the cure for her
disease.

MULDER: What I found was useless.

CSM: On the contrary, it's essential to her survival. If you like, we could step outside and I might explain myself? (Mulder hesitates) I'm here tonight as a friend, Agent Mulder. (Mulder follows him outside)

LONE GUNMAN'S OFFICE

(Mulder and the Gunmen are around a table)

MULDER: He promised me it would be in here.

(Byers taps the metal tube from last episode on a petri dish. Little splashes of the deionized water come out, and a little metal disk)

BYERS: I'll be damned. (They look at it through a microscope. It's a computer chip) It never occurred to me what the deionized water might be for.

LANGLEY: It was a microchip we were looking for.

FROHIKE: This is a cure for cancer?

MULDER: It may be for Scully's.

BYERS: How?

MULDER: Shortly after she was abducted she discovered a small metallic chip implanted subcutaneously in your neck... It was a short time after she had it removed that she developed cancer.

BYERS: It's unreal.

FROHIKE: Too freakin' amazing!

MULDER: Watch your language, Frohike, and grab me some tweezers.

FBI HEADQUARTERS

(Kritschgau is called in to the assembled meeting like Scully. Skinner and Blevins is there)

BLEVINS: Mr. Kritschgau, thank you for being here today and for cooperating with this investigation. We hope you can provide information that will allow us to make formal charges for the murder of Defense employee, Scott Ostlehoff. Mr. Kritschgau, we have learned that you were in contact with Agents Mulder and Scully just prior to this man's death.

KRITSCHGAU: That's correct.

BLEVINS: And that you may have given them classified information... What motivated this?

KRITSCHGAU: My knowledge of government involvement in a conspiracy against the American people.

SENIOR AGENT: Now before... before we go into any specifics on the subject, I'd like to ask you a more pointed question. Do you know who killed Scott Ostlehoff?

KRITSCHGAU: No I don't.

SENIOR AGENT: Do you know of any connection between his death and Agents Mulder or Scully?

KRITSCHGAU: No. (pause) I'm aware of one death in connection though... My son who died early this morning. (Long pause around the table)

SENIOR AGENT: Mr. Kritschgau, you're employed by the Department of Defense. Is that correct?

KRITSCHGAU: Technically. Part of my remuneration has come from another source. A Congressional lobbying firm. Something called 'Roush'.

SKINNER: Roush? You have any idea what that is?

KRITSCHGAU: No, sir. (Skinner writes Roush and underlines it in his notes)

SCULLY'S ROOM

(Mulder, Bill, Mrs. Scully and the doctor are standing around Scully's bed as she holds that metal tube in her hand)

BILL: Crazy. This is crazy.

MULDER: Crazy in what sense? In that it might save your sister's life?

BILL: You're not a doctor. You have no place in even suggesting this .. this science fiction...this

MULDER: This is not science fiction.

BILL: You've never heard of it!

MRS SCULLY: Bill... I think there's an obvious... difference of opinion.

BILL: Yeah.

SCULLY: I think ... that everybody here has their heart in the right place. But I need it to be my
decision.

BILL: Dana...

SCULLY: I know you're only looking out for me, Bill. But I don't think you have all the facts.

(Pause)

MRS SCULLY: Don't you think you should listen to your doctor?

SCULLY: Yes. I am.

MULDER: Would she have to stop her conventional treatment?

DOCTOR: To be honest, at this point... the only approach I have left... with her particular cancer is quite unconventional.

(Pause)

SCULLY: I'd like to try this.

(Assassin puts the gun together)

HALLWAY

(Mulder is sitting in a chair by Scully's door. Bill Jr. comes out of Scully's room and stands before Mulder)

BILL:MULDER: Yes, I do.

BILL: You see, she's your big defender, but I think the truth is, she just doesn't want to disappoint you.

MULDER: If it works, I don't care what you think she thinks.

BILL: You're a real piece of work, you know that, Mr. Mulder.

MULDER: Why is that, because I don't think the way you think? Because I won't just sit passively back and watch the family tragedy unfold?

BILL: You're the reason for it. And I've already lost one sister to this quest you're on, now I'm losing another. (Bill has to fight back tears) Has it been worth it? To you, I mean, have you found what you've been looking for?

MULDER: No...

BILL: No. (He nods) You know how that makes me feel?

MULDER: In a way, I think I do. I lost someone very close to me. I lost a sister, I lost my father, all because of this thing I'm looking for.

BILL:MULDER: Yeah. Little green aliens.
(Notice how he doesn't give his usual - no they're grey yada yada yada)

BILL: You're one sorry son of a bitch. Not a whole lot more to say.
(Bill leaves. Mulder sits. His cell phone rings and he answers it)

MULDER: One sorry son of a bitch speaking.

CSM: How's our patient? (Cancerman is in his apartment, I think) You did find the chip, didn't you Agent Mulder?

MULDER: Yes.

CSM: I can imagine there must have been a question as to it's medical value.

MULDER: There still is.

CSM: And so I have yet to earn your trust... in spite of my gesture.

MULDER: You could say that, yeah.

CSM: Well I have something else to offer you. I've arranged a meeting I think you'll want to attend, Mr. Mulder.

(Mulder is sitting at the counter. A waitress is putting condiments at all the places on the counter. She sets a tabasco sauce bottle by Mulder)

WAITRESS: Tabasco sauce. Cures anything.

MULDER: I'll keep that in mind.

(She walks on. Mulder looks at the clock. A car pulls up outside and the headlights shine on Mulder. He walks to the door. It's bright until the headlights are turned off. Cancerman is in the driver's seat. The waitress comes up behind Mulder and looks at the car)

WAITRESS: You know him or something?

(Mulder looks at the passenger seat. It's Samantha! Or the clone from Colony with better hair)

MULDER: I think that's my sister. (He goes outside. Samantha gets out of the car) Samantha?

SAMANTHA: I was afraid I'd never see you again. He always told me something had happened to you that night.

MULDER: Who? Who told you that?

SAMANTHA: My father.

(she turns, indicating Cancer Man in the car as he lights a cigarette, Mulder looks confused and upset)

SAMANTHA: I never really knew what happened. I could never put the memories all back together. But, as much as I tried to remember, I tried more to forget.

MULDER: Why?

SAMANTHA: I was 8 years old, and frightened to death. And they told me that I was an orphan.

MULDER: But you called that man your father?

SAMANTHA: Some time later, I don't know how long, my foster parents took me to a hotel room and said that I was gonna see my father.

MULDER: But you knew who your father was?

SAMANTHA: I thought I knew. But, he told me that it had all been a secret, and that he and Mom hadn't told anyone to protect the family.

MULDER: And you believed that.

SAMANTHA: He was so kind to me, and he was the only one I could remember from before what happened.

MULDER: You don't remember anything about that night?

SAMANTHA: I remember ... you ... I remember something ... men and ... and then nothing.

MULDER: I can help you. You were abducted, Samantha, I can help you to remember.

SAMANTHA: I don't want to, Fox. I don't.

MULDER: Then why come here at all?

SAMANTHA: My father told me that he'd found you, you wanted to see me very badly, that you'd been looking for me for a long time. Is that true? (Mulder begins to cry) I'm so sorry, Fox. And I wish that I'd known how to find you.

MULDER: What you've been told ... I want you to listen to me, okay? What you've been told by that man may not be true.

SAMANTHA: Why do you say that?

MULDER: Because the man that brought you here has known where I've been for a very long time.

SAMANTHA: I don't understand. Why wouldn't he tell me?

MULDER: I don't know, but I think he's kept a lot of things from you.

SAMANTHA: I don't believe you. He's been a good father to me. He's given me a life and he cared for me when there was no one else.

MULDER: Then I want you to come with me, come with me to see Mom.

SAMANTHA: Mom is alive?

MULDER: Yes. And I know she'd like to see you very much.

SAMANTHA: I can't.

(Side bar - there's a big discussion with friends wondering why she wouldn't want to see Mom. Is she only a clone and Mom would know that? My sister insists that if she saw her daughter after 25 years, she'd still be able to tell. I rebutted to her, well, Mom didn't figure it out in Colony-End Game, so is she really the sister or a clone and evil trick of CSM's? Questions, questions, questions.... Sorry to interrupt! Back to the show!)

MULDER: Why not?

SAMANTHA: It's too much. I didn't want to come here at all, Fox. I was afraid to see you. I have
another life now, I have children of my own. (She stands and Mulder grabs hold of her hand)

MULDER: No, please, don't go.

SAMANTHA: I can't stay here right now.

MULDER: Alright, just tell me how I can find you.

SAMANTHA: I need some time.

MULDER: Just ... just tell me where to find you.

SAMANTHA: Please don't, Fox!

MULDER: We will do this on your time, just...

SAMANTHA: Please? Please let me go. (He reluctantly lets her go) I promise you, I'll think about it.

(Samantha goes out to the car and gets in. Cancerman puts his hand through her hair. Mulder is stunned as they drive off)

(The doctor is giving Scully a shot)

DOCTOR: Doing okay?

SCULLY: Um... either it's my head or I'm a long way from med school but I can't remember what you're injecting me with.

DOCTOR: Flouro-dioxy-glucose. (Scully repeats that under her breath) If you're making any progress, it might show up first in the PET scan.

SCULLY: You're not holding your breath are you?

DOCTOR: I'm going after your cancer as aggressively as I know how, Dana. If I could just start your immune system... If I could get your cidalitic cells to recognize your tumor as something to
attack... Then there's a chance.

SCULLY: Have you ever witnessed a miracle, Dr. Zuckerman?

DOCTOR: I don't know that I have. But I have seen people make recoveries. Come back from so far back, I can't explain it.

SCULLY: Isn't that a miracle?

DOCTOR: Maybe there are miracles... But I don't dare call them that.

SCULLY: Thank you.

CITY STREET

(Mulder meets CSM and they walk and talk. The assassin's view from the shotgun is shown. He has the gun trained on them as they talk)

CSM: My apologies for the rather hasty departure last night.

MULDER: What do you want from me?

CSM: Want from you?

MULDER: You give me these things, the only things I ever wanted and I can't think of any reason for you to do so.

CSM: Well that's true, no act is completely selfless. But I've come today not to... not to ask, but to offer. To offer you the truth that you've so desperately sought. About the project, about the men who've conspired to protect it.

MULDER: I know the truth.

CSM: Do you?

MULDER: I spoke to one of your men.

CSM: And you know that he's not a liar.

MULDER: I've seen enough to know he's not a liar, yeah.

CSM: He's seen but scant pieces of the whole.

MULDER: What more can you show me?

CSM: This man you spoke to, Michael Kritschgau, he has deceived you with beautiful lies. He's told you that everything you've ever believed about the existence of extraterrestrial life is untrue.

MULDER: What are you saying?

CSM: As I said, I'm offering you a chance to know the truth.

MULDER: In exchange for what?

CSM: Quit the FBI, come work for me. I can make your problems go away.

MULDER: No deal.

CSM: After all I've given you?

MULDER: What have ... what have you given me? A claim of a cure for Scully, is she cured? You
show me my sister only to take her right back. You've given me nothing!

CSM: I intend to keep my promises, I just need something from you.

MULDER: You murdered my father, you killed Scully's sister, and if Scully dies, I will kill you. I don't care whose father you are, I will put you down.

CSM: Well, you're certainly capable, so I've been told. I understand you have a hearing tomorrow where you'll have to testify to these murderous impulses of yours. (Mulder looks shocked. Then nervous. Then walks away) When you reconsider, the offer still stands!

SCULLY'S ROOM

(Mrs. Scully walks in. Scully is laying in bed. She's been crying)

MRS SCULLY: Dana? (Scully turns to her) Dr. Zuckerman called. He ah... he said that you wanted to see me? (She sits on Scully's bed and they hug. Scully is crying)

SCULLY: I'm so sorry... I fight and I fight and I fight... But I'm so stupid.

MRS SCULLY: What? What is it?

SCULLY: I've come so far in my life on simple faith, and now when I need it the most I just push it away. I mean, why ... why do I wear this? (Scully holds up the cross necklace) Why do I wear this, Mom? I put something that I don't even know or understand under the skin of my neck. I will subject myself to these crazy treatments, and I keep telling myself that I'm doing everything I can, but it's a lie!

MRS SCULLY: You have not lost your faith, Dana.

SCULLY: But I have. In a way. And when you asked Father McCue to dinner to administer to my faith... I just closed off to him.

MRS SCULLY: What's important now is that you save your energy.

SCULLY: I'm not getting better, Mom.

MRS SCULLY: You don't know that...

SCULLY: Yeah. The PET scan shows no improvement.

(They hug again and both cry)

MRS SCULLY: I know you're afraid... I know your afraid to tell me, but you have to tell someone.

LOCATION UNKNOWN

(Elder is watching the conference on WWN)

MAN ON TV: I'll make a statement right here. Cloning will continue. The human mind will continue to inquire into this. Human cloning will take place in my lifetime. I think it's right and proper.

(Skinner walks in front of the camera in the hearing. Elder is not pleased and picks up the phone. Skinner sits behind the speaker to congress and talks to the man next to him)

ELDER: Turn on your television. Are you watching the hearings? Do you see who's there? He's
gathering information. For who? Our colleague was supposed to have fixed the FBI problem. You will fix it now. Do you understand me? Then I will fix it for good.

SCULLY'S ROOM - NIGHT

(Mulder enters her dark room. She's sleeping. He walks to her bed side. He touches her hair. He gets down on his knees and cries while holding her hand)

BLEVIN'S OFFICE

(Mulder enters. The senior agent is there along with Blevins)

BLEVINS: Agent Mulder, will you please take a seat. Something urgently important has come to the fore. (He does) As you're set to testify on your own behalf later today, I've received alarming forensic evidence from the man's body found in your apartment. I have here in my hand ballistic data matching your service weapon, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: Where did you get that?

BLEVINS: I'm not at liberty to say. But unless you can offer up someone else who might have fired the kill shot, everything points to you as this man's murderer. Are you prepared to give testimony about the man who fired the shot?

MULDER: Why am I here?

BLEVINS: The man worked for the Department of Defense, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: The man was spying on me.

BLEVINS: Do you know for whom? (Pause) Agent Scully was prepared to name the man at the FBI who was involved in this plot against you and her. We believe she was about to name Assistant Director Skinner, whom we have learned has been working inside the FBI with a secret agenda.

MULDER: I refuse to believe that.

BLEVINS: We've accumulated some substantial evidence against him.

MULDER: Can you show it to me?

BLEVINS: Agent Mulder, if you name this man today in your testimony... we can file charges against him. Charges which may very well exonerate you.

MULDER: Name Skinner and save myself?

BLEVINS: That's what I called you here to recommend. As a friend.
(Long pause)

MULDER: I'll see you at the hearing.
(They nod to each other)

(Scully is laying in bed, not looking very good. Mulder comes in and sits on her bed)

MULDER: Good morning.

SCULLY: What are you doing here? You have a hearing.

MULDER: Yeah. I came by last night, but I... I didn't have the heart to wake you.

SCULLY: Came by for what? Mulder, what is it?

MULDER: I was lost last night. But as I stood here, I thought I'd found my way. I've been ... ah .. I've been offered a deal, a deal that could save my life in a way. And though I'd refused the deal earlier, I left here last night with my mind made up to take it.

SCULLY: A deal with who?

MULDER: It doesn't matter, I'm not taking the deal, I'm not taking any deal. Not after what happened this morning.

SCULLY: What happened this morning?

MULDER: Section Chief Blevins directed me to implicate Skinner. To name him as the man inside in the FBI. Who may have deceived us both. And if I name him, they'll protect me.

SCULLY: Are you going to name him?

MULDER: No.

SCULLY: Then they'll prosecute you.

MULDER: Yeah, they have evidence against me, they know I killed that man.

SCULLY: Mulder, even with the ballistics evidence, I can still be the shoot...

MULDER: Scully, I can't let you take the blame. Because of your brother, because of your mother, and because I couldn't live with it. To live the lie, you have to believe it. Like these men who deceive us, who gave you this disease. We all have our faith, and mine is in the truth.

SCULLY: Then why'd you come here if you'd already made up your mind?

MULDER: (Huge heart- melting grin and laugh) Because I knew you'd talk me out of it if I was making a mistake. (The door opens and Scully's smile turns to kind of fear and she grabs Mulder's hand)

SCULLY: You'll be in my prayers. (Mulder leans in to her ear)

MULDER: Have the Father say a few Hail Mulders for me, okay? (He kisses her on the cheek and leaves. She looks at Father McCue with mixed emotions)

(Same meeting room, hot seat is open. Senior agent slams his file shut and stands)

SENIOR AGENT: He's a no show. I'm going to ask for a bench warrant.
(Mulder enters)

MULDER: Sorry I'm late.
(Senior agent sits. Mulder is now in the hot seat)

BLEVINS: Agent Mulder... the assembled members of this review panel first convened to address your reported death. Only to find shortly that this report had been a lie. That you were indeed very much alive... and that the body found in your apartment, believed to be yours was a murder victim. Killed with a weapon issued by the FBI and registered to you.

MULDER: Respectfully, Sir. I've come here today to set the record straight so that this process
you've begun came be completed and the guilty parties can be named.
(Blevins is happy)

SKINNER: Respectfully, Sir. I'd like to ask for a short break.

MULDER: I'm... ready to proceed please sir.
(Mulder looks at Skinner. Skinner squirms and his eyes dart back and forth between Mulder and Blevins)

BLEVINS: Go on, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: Four years ago, while working on an assignment outside the FBI mainstream, I was paired with Special Agent Dana Scully, who I believed was sent to spy on me. To debunk my investigations into the paranormal. That Agent Scully did not follow these orders is a testament to her integrity as an investigator, a scientist, and a human being. She has paid dearly for this integrity.

BLEVINS: Agent Mulder, Agent Scully lied straight face to this panel about your death.

MULDER: She did lied because I asked her to. Because I had evidence of a conspiracy. A conspiracy against the American people.

SENIOR AGENT: We've already heard testimony to these allegations, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: AND a conspiracy intended to destroy the lives of those who would reveal it's true purpose. To conduct experiments on unwitting victims to further their secret agenda for someone further into the government operating at levels without restraint or responsibility.
(Assassin has Cancerman in his sights as he walks through the courtyard)
Without morals or conscience... Men who pretend to honor as they deceive.. The price of this betrayal, the lives and reputations of those deceived. Agent Scully... is now in a hospital bed

[Father McCue holds a rosary]

right now diagnosed with terminal cancer. The victim of these same tests. Conducted without her knowledge or consent. By these same men who are trying to cover their tracks who suborn and persecute the same people they've used in their plot I will now call by name!

SENIOR AGENT: Agent Mulder, did you or did you not shoot the man found dead in your
apartment?

MULDER: I will answer

(Scully prays with the Father)

Sir.

SENIOR AGENT: Did you shoot Scott Ostlehoff? Employee of the Department of Defense?

MULDER: I will answer that question, Sir.

SENIOR AGENT: Answer the question asked, Agent Mulder!

MULDER: I will answer the question after I name the man!

SENIOR AGENT: AGENT MULDER!

MULDER: I will answer that question after I name the man who's responsible for Agent Scully! The same man who directed that my apartment be surveilled by the DoD. A man I want to see prosecuted for his crimes! Who's sitting in this very room as I speak!

SENIOR AGENT: Agent Mulder, the Section Chief asked you a question you are going to answer!

MULDER: I can't do that.

SENIOR AGENT: You can and you will!

MULDER: I can't do that sir, because the Section Chief is the man I'm about to name!

(Blevins eyes shoot wide open. All look at him. Skinner looks at Mulder. Mulder sits back in his chair, there, he's done it)

CANCERMAN'S APARTMENT

(He's standing in front of the window holding the picture from Mulder's apartment of Fox and Samantha. A shot is fired from across the street)

BLEVIN'S OFFICE

(Blevins rushes in and shuts the door behind him. There's a man in at his desk on the phone. He hangs up and stands. Blevins rushes to the desk to confront him, he's confronted with a bullet to the chest instead. The shooter puts the gun in Blevins hand and leaves.)

CANCERMAN'S APARTMENT

(Cancerman is on the floor with the photo on the floor next to him with a bullet hole through it. Cancerman shuts his eyes)

(Mulder is sitting in the chair outside Scully's hospital room again. Skinner walks down the hall and sits next to him)

SKINNER: The Smoking Man's dead.

MULDER: How?

SKINNER: Shot through his window. (He pulls out the blood-streaked picture of a young Fox and Samantha - BLOOPER ALERT!!! - No bullet hole - Skinner hands it to Mulder) Forensics found it at the scene. We're assuming it's his blood.

MULDER: Assuming?

SKINNER: Well... no body was found but there was too much blood loss for anyone to have survived. This afternoon when you named Blevins... how did you know?

MULDER: I didn't. I just guessed.

SKINNER: Well, it was a hell of a guess. Blevins had been on payroll for four years to a biotechnology company called Roush, which is somehow connected to all this.

MULDER: I'm sure whatever connections there were, they're being erased right now.

SKINNER: They're cleaning up, taking everything away.

MULDER: Not everything. (He smiles) Scully's cancer's gone into remission.

SKINNER: That's unbelievable news.

MULDER: It's the best news I could have ever heard.

SKINNER: What turned it around?

MULDER: I don't know. I don't think we'll ever know.

SKINNER: Can I see her?

MULDER: Yeah, she's in there with her family right now, but I'm sure she'd love to see you.

(Skinner gets up and opens the door to Scully's room. Her family is around her bed. She notices Skinner looking at her. She smiles cautiously as if to say thank you and I'm sorry I thought you were the one at the same time. He smiles back, relieved she's fine <Does he love her?> Back in the hallway, Mulder looks down at the picture and begins to cry)

[THE END]