(Slow zoom in on Scully, she is looking at skull x-ray)

SCULLY: I feel time like a heartbeat, the seconds pumping in my breast like a reckoning. The luminous mysteries that once seemed so distant and unreal, threatening clarity in the presence of a truth entertained not in youth, but only in it's passage. I feel these words as if their meaning were weight being lifted from me, knowing that you will read them and share my burden, as I have come to trust no other. That you should know my heart, look into it, finding there the memory and experience that belong to you, that are you, is a comfort to me now as I feel the tethers loose and the prospects darken for the continuance of a journey that began not so long ago, and which began again with a faith shakened and strengthened by your convictions, if not for which I might never have been so strong now. As I cross to face you and look at you incomplete, hoping that you will forgive me for not making the rest of the journey with you.

(Mulder with flower bouquet, walking down hallway)

MULDER: (in passing to nurse) Oncology? Thanks.

(in x-ray room, Scully is there)

MULDER: Scully? I uh, stole these from some guy with a broken leg down the hall. He uh, won't be able to catch me. (pause) How ya doing?

SCULLY: I guess that's the question. Actually I feel fine. (pause)

MULDER: What uh, what exactly are we looking at here?

SCULLY: It's what's called nasopharengeal mass. It's a small growth between the superior conchea and the sinoidal sinus.

MULDER: A growth?

SCULLY: A tumor. You're the only one I've called.

MULDER: Is it operable?

SCULLY: No.

MULDER: But it's treatable.

SCULLY: The truth is that the type and placement of the tumor make it difficult, to the extreme.

MULDER: I refuse to believe that, I..

SCULLY: For all times I have said that to you I am as certain of this as you have ever been. I have cancer. It is a mass on the wall between my sinus and cerebrum. If it pushes into my brain statistically there is about zero chance of survival.

MULDER: I don't accept that. Th..there must be some people who have received treatment for this, we..can....

SCULLY: Yes there are.

SKINNER: This news comes as the worst kind of surprise Agent Scully. I'm sorry, very sorry.

SCULLY: Thank you sir. I don't mean for this to be awkward and I would appreciate if we could keep this matter confidential.

MULDER: I understand. I assume you'll be taking a leave of absence.

SCULLY: No sir, actually I've asked my doctors to hold onto my medical records until Agent Mulder and I can exhaust a possible avenue of investigation.

SKINNER: Investigation?

MULDER: Last year agent Scully and I pursued a case in which a number of women, proported abductees, experienced similar symptoms after having implants removed from the base of their necks. A woman in Allentown, Pennsylvania, named Betsy Higopian was undergoing treatment for nasopharengeal tumor. We just haven't been able to contact her yet.

SKINNER: I'm sure you're aware we have contacts with the best physicians and medical facilities in the country.

SCULLY: Yes sir, but for my own reasons I'd like to like to pursue this through the justice department rather than a personal matter.

(Woman in house peeling MUFON sticker off window, we hear car stop, doors close, shot of Mulder and Scully walking towards house, woman opens the door)

RELATOR: I'm sorry, no early birds.

SCULLY: We're not here for the garage sale. We're looking for Betsy Higopian. No one's returning our messages.

RELATOR: Sorry, um, Betsy's passed away, just 2 and a half weeks ago. Are you a relation?

MULDER: No, we're with the FBI.

RELATOR: Some kind of trouble?

MULDER: Betsy was part of a MUFON group?

RELATOR: I don't know, I'm just the relator.

MULDER: Would mind if we come inside and take a look? (shows badge, woman stands aside, they enter, Scully has a flashback of the women she met last year, then touches the back of her neck)

MULDER: Hey Scully listen to this. (static in phone) There's two lines coming into this house. This one was lit.

SCULLY: Someone's sending a fax or computer modem.

MULDER: Ya but who and for what?

(Mulder and Scully go downstairs, find computer)

MULDER: Someone must have remote access to the system.

SCULLY: And downloading data.

MULDER: Copying files. Let's get a trace on this before whoever it is hangs up. (Scully dials phone)

SCULLY: Apartment 234 is listed under Kurt Crawford. (rings bell)

MULDER: I'm going to check around back. Why don't you see if you can get the manager.
(Mulder going behind building, walks up back stairs, man comes out of a door and
tries to escape towards the front, Scully points gun towards him)

SCULLY: (yelling, aiming gun) Stop! Federal agent! Hold it! Put your hands where we can see them. Is your name Kurt Crawford?
(Mulder knocks him down)

KURT CRAWFORD: Yes.

MULDER: Scully..

SCULLY: What?
(Scully dabs at blood on her nose)

SCULLY: I'm fine Mulder, quit staring at me I'm fine.

MULDER: (through door) You ok in there Scully?
(Scully in bathroom)

SCULLY: Ya I'm just washing up. (cleaning blood off her nose, she leaves bathroom, sees K freed)

SCULLY: You took his cuffs off.

MULDER: He says he's a member of the same Mutual UFO Network group that Betsy Higopian belonged to, that he was downloading files for safe keeping as Betsy had instructed him to.

SCULLY: Then why did he run?

MULDER: He thinks his life's in danger, he thinks there's a government conspiracy to suppress the information gathered in those files.

SCULLY: You think he's credible?

MULDER: Well he seems to know an awful lot about Betsy and the other women in the MUFON group you met in his house.

SCULLY: Well, that will have to be cross-checked.

MULDER: We can't.

SCULLY: Why not? (pause while Mulder and Scully look at eachother, S walks toward K, arms crossed)

SCULLY: How did they die?

KURT CRAWFORD: Brain cancer. All within the last year.

SCULLY: All of them?

KURT CRAWFORD: From the group you met there's only Penny Northern, and she's in the hospital and it doesn't look good.

SCULLY: What makes you think this is a conspiracy, that the government's involved?

KURT CRAWFORD: What makes you think it isn't. (pause) Eleven women are abducted, all with similar recollections of the experience, all developing identical brain tumors, and all refuse state or federal health care because of their insistence of the facts. And all dying within the space of a year.
(Mulder pulls Scully aside)

MULDER: I want you to listen to me.

SCULLY: About what?

MULDER: About what you won't to admit to yourself, what you're denying.

SCULLY: What am I denying?

MULDER: Where your cancer came from.

SCULLY: Mulder it doesn't matter.

MULDER: It does matter, if what you have is a result of your abduction and that abduction is something the government knows about then those are facts that should be brought to light.

SCULLY: (sharp) I don't know what happened to me. I have no clear recollection and I don't think these abductions are even abductions.

MULDER: But these women are dead.

SCULLY: No they are not. One woman isn't. There's Penny Northern.

MULDER: If you won't listen to me then I think you should go talk to her.

SCULLY: (angered) About what? What it feels like to be dying of cancer? What it's like to know that there's absolutely nothing you can do about it?

MULDER: If that's too hard for you then I think you should call an investigator. You have one remaining witness Agent Scully. I'd think you'd want to know what her story is.

(Penny in hospital bed, Scully enters her room)

PENNY: Dana, hello.

SCULLY: I'm..I'm sorry did someone tell you I was coming here to see you?

PENNY: No.

SCULLY: Then how did you know it was me?

PENNY: I recognized you. I told you when we met last year, I held you and comforted you in the place, after the tests.

SCULLY: I'm sorry I don't mean to be insensitive, but uh, I don't share those memories.

PENNY: It's alight.

SCULLY: I've come to ask you some questions.

PENNY: About Dr. Scanlon?

SCULLY: No. Who's Dr. Scanlon?

PENNY: He's treating the cancer. He treated Betsy too. He thinks he might have isolated the cause, and if he'd caught it earlier he might have been able to do more for her, and for me.

SCULLY: His name's Scanlon?

PENNY: Yes. (pause) What did you want to ask me?

(Mulder in apartment with Kurt, Scully calls him on cell phone)

MULDER: Mulder.

SCULLY: Mulder, it's me.

MULDER: Where are you Scully?

SCULLY: I'm at the hospital with Penny Northern. Where are you?

MULDER: I'm at Betsy Higopian's going through some of those hard files before stuff starts disappearing, and call me an early bird but I think I've found something. Now some of these women who have died, they're childless, and they've been treated for infertility at the clinic about 30 miles from here. Penny Northern and Betsy Higopian are among them.

SCULLY: Mulder that's..

MULDER: I've made some phone calls and I've tried to get some information but nobody is talking to me, so..

SCULLY: Mulder I need you to come up here.

MULDER: Why, did you find something there?

SCULLY: I need you to bring the overnight bag from the trunk of the car and I need you to call my mother and ask her to bring up some things at the hospital.

MULDER: Is there something I should know?

SCULLY: Mulder, whatever you found or whatever you might find I think that we both know that right now the truth is in me, and that's where I need to pursue it, as soon as possible.

MULDER: I will be right there.
(both hang up)

(Mulder leaves apartment, gets in car, leaves. A car behind his pulls up to apartment building)
(Kurt in apartment)

KURT CRAWFORD: Agent Mulder? (pause) Agent Mulder?
(man in dark overcoat attacks Kurt with needle instrument, we see the remains of Kurt dissolve into green slime)

(Scully in hospital bed, she sees white light, blurred figure, comes into focus)

DOCTOR SCANLON: Dana? I'm Dr. Scanlon. We spoke last night on the phone.

SCULLY: (waking) Ya hi, sorry sleeping.

DOCTOR SCANLON: I noticed. How's your energy level generally?

SCULLY: Oh you know. I don, I don't feel sick at all.

DOCTOR SCANLON: Your MRI's and your charts aren't here yet but I have an idea of what to expect, you probably do too from your medical training.

SCULLY: I know that the chemotherapy is going to make me sick.

DOCTOR SCANLON: And the radiation. They're both part of a high dose approach to knock your system down so we can attempt the gene therapy on P53. (pause) You're going to feel like dying.
(pause, Margaret Scully enters through door)

MARGARET SCULLY: Dana

SCULLY: Hi mom.

MARGARET SCULLY: Hi.

SCULLY: This is uh, this is Dr. Scanlon.

DOCTOR SCANLON: Hi.

MARGARET SCULLY: Hi. (pause, they shake hands) I uh, I drove. I was going to take the shuttle but it's only an hour more by car. Can you imagine?

SCULLY: Mom, I'm fine. I'm going to be fine, I'm just here for treatment

DOCTOR SCANLON: I'm gonna go. I've ordered some additional blood work and I'd like to start in this afternoon.

SCULLY: Thank you. (pause) Mom, I know what you're gonna say, but I don't have any experience being sick. I promise you, I feel fine, I feel..(sighs)

MARGARET SCULLY: I don't know why you didn't tell me. (angry) I don't know why you didn't tell me immediately.

SCULLY: I wanted to get all the answers first.

MARGARET SCULLY: And you found them here?

SCULLY: I have found some clarity, and maybe a way to fight back.

MARGARET SCULLY: I don't wanna be kept in the dark.

SCULLY: You'll know mom.
(Margaret Scully holds Scully)

MARGARET SCULLY: You have always been the strong one, but you are my only daughter now.

SCULLY: I know mom.

MARGARET SCULLY: (crying) Oh, Dana.

(Scully undergoing treatment, she is lying flat with plastic mask over her face, a large machine is rotating around her head)

SCULLY:
In med school I learned that cancer arrives in the body unannounced, a dark stranger who takes up residence, turning it's new home against itself. This is the evil of cancer, that is starts as an invader, but soon becomes one with the invaded, forcing you to destroy it, but only at the risk of destroying yourself. It is science's demon possession. My treatment, science has attempted exorcism. Mulder I hope that in these terms you might know it and know me, and accept this stranger that so many recognize but cannot ever completely cast out. And if the darkness should have swallowed me as you read this, you must never think there was the possibility of some secret intervention, something you might have done. And though we've traveled far together, this last distance must necessarily be traveled alone.

(Mulder is breaking into building, types on computer, sees Kurt breaking through a window, M follows)

MULDER: I've got a gun pointed at your head. Turn around very slowly. Kurt Crawford, we seem to be traveling in the same circles these days.

KURT CRAWFORD: You can put the gun away.

MULDER: You disappeared with those files from Betsy Hagopian's, I called you at least half a dozen times. I got to thinking you're a liar, now tell me I'm wrong.

KURT CRAWFORD: I'm looking for the same that thing you are. I've been trying to hack my way into that system but I can't seem to make it past the password protect.

MULDER: You think you can get access from here?

KURT CRAWFORD: I need to find that password.
(Mulder motions to Kurt, he sits at computer, Mulder picks up snowglobe with the word 'Vegreville' on it)

MULDER: Vegreville.
(Kurt types it)

KURT CRAWFORD: We're in. (both smile)

(Scully's face with spinning metal object approaching quickly)

PENNY: Dana, it's ok, it's ok Dana, you'll be ok.

(Scully wakes up, clasps Penny's hand)

SCULLY: (sleepily) Where am I?

PENNY: You're in you're own bed now Dana, you're safe.

SCULLY: I feel nauseous.

PENNY: It's the chemo. The chemo's always the worst.

SCULLY: I had a bad dream. Some..someone was doing something bad to me. You were there. I heard your voice.

PENNY: They let me come to you during the procedures. I don't know why, human compassion is not something that they have.

SCULLY: I'm sorry Penny. I ca..can't hear this right now.

PENNY: You've got to try to make sense of it Dana. It will help you through the pain to understand why this is..this is happening to you.

(Mulder in Skinner's office)

MULDER: I need you to set up a meeting for me.

SKINNER: (to aid) Hold up my calls.

SKINNER: Where's Agent Scully?

MULDER: She's at a hospital in Allentown beginning treatment.

SKINNER: What happened to your investigative avenues?

MULDER: They've taken a turn. A pretty big U-turn by the looks of it. (pulls out disk) This is a file directory from a federally operated fertility clinic. Agent Scully's name is on this file, although I'm pretty sure, pretty damn sure she's never undergone treatment for infertility.

SKINNER: What's in the file?

MULDER: I don't know. It's just a directory for a mainframe housed in the Lumbard Research Facility.

SKINNER: So you want to set a meeting, with whom?

MULDER: Cigarette man. (pause) I have no doubt in my mind he's behind this.

SKINNER: You've come to me before like this Mulder.

MULDER: Ya well this is different, this is different, I'm willing to deal now.

SKINNER: Find another way.

MULDER: No, no I need that meeting.

SKINNER: You deal with this man, you offer him anything and he will own you forever.

MULDER: (heated) He knows what they did to Agent Scully. He may very well know how to save her.

SKINNER: (sharp) If he knows, you can know too but you can't ask the truth of a man who trades in lies.
I won't let you.

MULDER: We are talking about Agent Scully's life.

SKINNER: Find another way.

(Mulder with Lone Gunman)

FROHIKE: The Lumbard system is a dedicated mainframe. Impossible to hack, so they say.

MULDER: How'd you guys get in?

BYERS: A modified clipper chip we cannibalized from a government surplus army field encoder.

FROHIKE: Bought it back from the Chinese.

LANGLY: But for all the work it took to get it, what we got on Agent Scully's file..I don't know how much help it's gonna be.

MULDER: What do you mean?

BYERS: It's a gene code we've seen before, detected in Scully's blood after her abduction.

MULDER: Does it tell us anything at all?

BYERS: Normal DNA is inactive in it's utical form. When it's unwound or branched like this one that's when it's active, when it can mutate.

LANGLY: It's probably what made her sick.

MULDER: Why store something like this and why keep it a secret?

BYERS: Scientists get funky about having their research poached.

LANGLY: Someone might be trying to find a cause.

MULDER: Or a cure.

FROHIKE: Theoretically.

MULDER: You guys ever been to the Lumbard Research Facility? (pause) Well pick out something black and sexy and prepare to do some funky poaching.

(Skinner in darkened Mulder and Scully office, CSM sitting in chair, smoking cigarette)

CANCER MAN: It's funny, I always thought of you as Fox Mulder's patron. You'd think under your eges that he wouldn't be consigned to a corner of the basement.

SKINNER: At least he doesn't take an elevator up to get to work.

CANCER MAN: You think I'm the devil Mr. Skinner.

SKINNER: I'm not here to talk about what I think about you.

CANCER MAN: Then why are you here? Is Mulder's partner under illness? (pause) Is it terminal, the cancer?

SKINNER: You tell me.

CANCER MAN: Modern medicine today, I hear they can perform miracles. (pause)

SKINNER: I need a miracle.

CANCER MAN: Well, you think a lot more of me than you let on Mr. Skinner.

SKINNER: What would it take?

CANCER MAN: For Agent Scully's life? What would you offer?

SKINNER: (sharp) What'll it take?

CANCER MAN: Well, I'll have to get back to you on that. (leaving) Oh Mr. Skinner, which way is the elevator?

(Frohike and Langly breaking into storm drain, Mulder and Byers in car near building)

BYERS: We'll double back in 50 seconds. (pause, speaking through communications device) Frohike, where are you guys?

FROHIKE: We're in the K section in a storm drain where the communication system links up to public power. Standby. Two minutes for a system check.

MULDER: We gots to go. (Byers and Mulder get out of car)

BYERS: (to Langly and Frohike) We're in motion.

FROHIKE: They're in.

LANGLY: Security cameras offline, patching in now.

FROHIKE: Smile Byers you're on candid camera.

LANGLY: Exterior security has been breached.
(Byers and Mulder inside, reach locked door)

BYERS: Langly are you reading this?

LANGLY: Redundant systems, triple shut bypass this is going to be a toughy.

MULDER: You guys couldn't spring for 2 of these? (pulls mic off Byers's ear) Langly what the hell is going on?

LANGLY: Mulder. This is going to take a moment.
(Mulder sees signs of doctors through window, Dr. Scanlon's is among them)

MULDER: Boys we have a problem. The doctor that's treating Scully's cancer's on staff here.

LANGLY: More mysteries await. Bypass is complete.

MULDER: (to Byers) Look I need someone to get to Scully to get her to stop treatment. Right now you're the only one who can do that.

(Scully in hospital bed, writing in journal)

SCULLY: I have not written to you in the last 24 hours because the treatment has weakened my spirit as well as my body. Mulder, it's difficult to describe to you the fear of facing and enemy which I can neither conquer nor escape. Penny Northern has taken a downturn. I now look at her with a respect that can only come from one who is about to walk the same dark path. Seeing her I can't help but see myself in a month or a year. I pray that I have her courage to face this journey. Mulder, I feel you close though I know you are now pursuing your own path. For that I am grateful, more than I could ever express. I need to know you're out there if I am ever to see through this.

(Mulder in hallway)

MULDER: Langly where the hell am I going?

LANGLY: Loosing you on the video feed Mulder. Mulder? Do anything Frohike?

FROHIKE: Nada I didn't touch a thing.

MULDER: Langly can you hear me? (static) Langley I can't hear you. (Mulder in front of a door) Open the door. Open the damn door!
(Door opens, Mulder sees multiple individuals identical to Kurt Crawford)

HYBRID: Agent Mulder, come in.

MULDER: You're hybrids.

HYBRID: Please come in so that we might explain.
(M looks around, sees multiple growing tanks with hybrids inside)

MULDER: You've been using me.

HYBRID: Not at all. You're arrival was only coincident with the execution of our objective.

MULDER: What objective?

HYBRID: Subvert the project. The project that created us.

MULDER: (rubs condensation off on of the tanks) I've seen this boy before. These boys were you.

HYBRID: We're among the end results.

MULDER: And you want to destroy them?

HYBRID: No. What we want is the same thing that you want.
(Hybrid and Mulder in vault with many metal compartments)

MULDER: What are these?

HYBRID: Human ova. (pause)

MULDER: Taken from whom?
(they see a drawer with Scully's name on it)

MULDER: (whispered) What? (opens drawer to reveal vials)

HYBRID: During her abduction, high application radiation procedure which caused superovulation.

MULDER: Why?

HYBRID: For fertilization. They constitute one half of the necessary raw materials.

MULDER: For genetic hybridization, or reproduction. These women, these women are your birth mothers.

HYBRID: Barren now, from the same procedure that caused their cancer. And now they're left to die, their conditions hastened by the men running this project.

MULDER: You're trying to save them.

HYBRID: They're our mothers.
(Mulder leaves with vial)

(Mulder walking down hallway)

LANGLY: (static) Mulder are you there?

MULDER: Langly I can't hear you.

LANGLY: We've got a security breach in section J14.

MULDER: You sure it's not Byers?

LANGLY: Nope I've got Byers right here on the screen.
(security men running down hall, Byers sees them)

MULDER: Langley help me out here, I don't know where I'm going.

LANGLY: You're in the bioquarenteen wing leading to an exit. At the end of the hall you'll access a door to a biosecure room. Working on the locks now.

MULDER: 'K Langly, Frohike I'm here open the door.

FROHIKE: The doors work on redundant systems, we're working fast.
(man approaches from opposite end of hall, shoots gun in Mulder's direction)

MULDER: Work faster. Langly open the door now! (Multiple shots) Get me outta here! Get me outta here now!

LANGLY: Almost there...go!

(Mulder checking Scully's room, she's not there, he sees her journal and reads the most recent entry beginning with 'Mulder, I feel you close')

MULDER: Nurse, nurse! Dana Scully is supposed to be in her room, where is she?

NURSE: She's not there?

MULDER: No what happened to her?

NURSE: I don't know.

MULDER: Well who the hell does know?

BYERS: Mulder.

MULDER: What happened to Scully?

BYERS: I got to her.

MULDER: Where is she now?
(Byers opens door to reveal Scully at by Penny's bedside, Scully and Mulder look at each other, Scully turns back to Penny)

PENNY: Dr. Scanlon isn't coming back?

SCULLY: No, I don't think so Penny.

PENNY: Dana, I want you to get well. You've been such a comfort. You've got to be the one. You can't give up hope.

SCULLY: I haven't. I won't
(Mulder closes the door leaving Penny and Scully alone)

(Nurse running into Penny's room, Scully exits, Mulder on bench)

MULDER: (stands) She gone?
(Scully nods yes, she is upset)

MULDER: I'm sorry. I know what she meant to you. (pause) When I came to find you, you weren't in your room I got scared that something had happened..and I read some of what you wrote.
(S sighs, walks closer to Mulder)

SCULLY: I didn't want you to read that. I had decided to throw it out. I decided tonight that um..that I'm not going to let this thing beat me. I came into this hospital able to work, and that's how I'm leaving.(M nods)

MULDER: Byers tell you about Dr. Scanlon?

SCULLY: Yes.

MULDER: He may very well have killed those women.

SCULLY: That will have to be proven, if we find him.

MULDER: When we find him. Scully something was done to you, something that you're just beginning to remember. You can't quite figure it out but it can be explained and it will be explained. And no matter what you think as a scientist or a doctor, there is a way, and you will find it, to save yourself.

SCULLY: Mulder I can't kid myself. People live with cancer. They carry on, and so will I. You know I've got things to finish, to prove to myself, to my family, but for my own reasons.
(they smile, then hug)

MULDER: Come on back. (pause) The truth will save you Scully. I think it'll save both of us.
(Mulder kisses Scully on the forehead, Scully exits down the hall, Mulder takes vial of Scully's ova out of pocket and looks at it thoughtfully)

(Skinner's office)
(phone rings)

SKINNER: Skinner.

MULDER: I was leaving you a voice mail. It's 5:30 what are y..

SKINNER: I'm working. How can I help you?

MULDER: I want you to know that Scully's doing ok. She says she's coming back to work actually.

SKINNER: Good, that's good to hear.

MULDER: I was calling to thank you for your advice about your chainsmoking friend. I think you were right. We have to know what he knows, we just have to find another way.

SKINNER: There's always another way.
(they hang up, we see Cancer Man sitting in front of Skinner's desk)

CANCER MAN: Yes I believe there is, if you're willing to pay the price.
(CSM puts his cigarette in coffee cup, leaves)

[THE END]