ANNOUNCER: Previously on The X-Files:

(SKINNER in his office directing the investigation.)

SKINNER: (on phone) Amber Lynn LaPierre. The kidnapping in Sacramento, California.

(SCULLY talking to MULDER in the X-Files office.)

SCULLY: You're personalizing this case. You're identifying with your sister.

(MRS. MULDER on the phone with MULDER.)

MRS. MULDER: (on phone) That little girl in California-- you're out there, aren't you?

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah. I am.

MRS. MULDER: (on phone) Call when you get back, Fox.

(SCULLY talking to MULDER in SKINNER's office.)

SCULLY: Mulder, your mom's dead.

(MULDER reacts.)

SCULLY: She killed herself.

(Women's prison. KATHY LEE TENCATE talking to MULDER.)

KATHY LEE TENCATE: Your mother knew, didn't she? She'd seen them. The walk-ins. Old souls looking for new homes. Your sister's among them.

(MULDER talking to SCULLY in his apartment right before he breaks down.)

MULDER: I've been looking for my sister in the wrong place. That's what my mother was trying to tell me.

(The Christmas Place from the last episode. SKINNER fires his gun into the air stopping the PAUNCHY MAN, ED TRUELOVE, so that SCULLY can arrest him.)

SCULLY: You're under arrest.

(MULDER, SCULLY and SKINNER look around them at all the mounds of earth. It looks like about two dozen very small graves.)

(Same mass grave site from the previous episode. Under MULDER's voiceover, many people are working to uncover the bodies of the children that have been murdered over the years. They carefully uncover the small plastic-wrapped bodies and zip them up into very small body bags. Close up of one of the men working shows tears streaming down his face as he works. Slow motion shots of the bodies being gently carried by the men. The surrounding area is now full of empty, gaping holes in the ground.)

MULDER: (voiceover) They said the birds refused to sing and the thermometer fell suddenly as if God Himself had His breath stolen away. No one there dared speak aloud, as much in shame as in sorrow. They uncovered the bodies one by one. The eyes of the dead were closed as if waiting for permission to open them. Were they still dreaming of ice cream and monkey bars? Of birthday cake and no future but the afternoon? Or had their innocence been taken along with their lives buried in the cold earth so long ago? These fates seemed too cruel, even for God to allow. Or are the tragic young born again when the world's not looking? I want to believe so badly; in a truth beyond our own hidden and obscured from all but the most sensitive eyes...

(The scene shifts, night falls, after the coroners and investigators have left. A LITTLE GIRL sits up and gets out of one of the graves. Her body is almost transparent and glowing, as if she is made of light. Other children like her get out of the other holes and join her. The song "My Weakness" by Moby plays in the background.)

MULDER: (voiceover) In the endless procession of souls... in what cannot and will not be destroyed. I want to believe we are unaware of God's eternal recompense and sadness. That we cannot see His truth. That that which is born still lives and cannot be buried in the cold earth. But only waits to be born again at God's behest... where in ancient starlight we lay in repose.

(The glowing children have joined hands and are standing in a circle. They look happy, gazing up to the starry sky above as they fade away and the camera drifts up towards the stars.)

TAGLINE: BELIEVE TO UNDERSTAND

(SCULLY enters the room where detectives are looking at the videotape of AMBER LYNN LAPIERRE. The DETECTIVES glance up at SCULLY, one of them gives her a sad smile. SCULLY looks over at MULDER who is using a magnifier to pore over details in some photos from the crime scene. He seems oblivious to everyone around him. SCULLY walks over to him. He looks up and they share the same sad smile. He goes back to his work.)

SCULLY: (deep breath) Ed Truelove was 19 when he committed his first murder. He was working as a janitor at an elementary school and they needed someone to play Santa Claus. He never got over the feelings it aroused. He's admitted to all of it, Mulder. 24 separate murders. (no response) But he refuses to take blame for Amber Lynn LaPierre. (she glances at the videtape image) I was just handed the preliminary forensics report. (she puts it on the desk) Her body was not one of those found in the graves. (MULDER continues looking at the pictures) Mulder, I know you wanted to find her out there.

MULDER: He's got hours of video of her.

SCULLY: I'm talking about your sister. (MULDER sits up and stretches his neck.) I know that's who you're looking for.

MULDER: Yeah. You don't know how badly I wanted her to be in one of those graves. As hard as it is to admit, I wanted to find her here riding her bike like all these other kids. I guess I just want it to be over.

(SCULLY looks at him sadly. A DEPUTY enters the room.)

DEPUTY: Agent Mulder, Scully, there's a Mr. Harold Piller here to see you.

(MULDER and SCULLY look at each other. Neither of them knows who it is. They go out into the hall. HAROLD PILLER, about 40, is waiting for them. He is looking at and touching some photos of missing persons on a bulletin board.)

MULDER: Mr. Piller?

HAROLD PILLER: Agent Mulder. Agent Scully.

(He shakes their hands.)

SCULLY: Do we know each other?

HAROLD PILLER: Not personally, but I'm happy to meet you. Hi. Harold Piller.

SCULLY: Mr. Piller, are you part of this investigation?

HAROLD PILLER: Yes, I hope to be.

(Pause.)

MULDER: How can we help you?

HAROLD PILLER: I was hoping to help you.

(HAROLD PILLER hands SCULLY his business card. She looks at it skeptically.)

SCULLY: You're a police psychic.

(MULDER give her the "eyebrow raise.")

HAROLD PILLER: My references are on the back. I've gotten some... strong hits off this case. You're looking for a little girl but she's not among the dead. Your suspect is going to say he didn't kill her.

MULDER: Did he?

HAROLD PILLER: No. I think I can help find her.

(SCULLY has been reading the back of the business card.)

SCULLY: Mr. Piller, you have some interesting references here. You've, uh, worked with law enforcements in Kashmir, India, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Khyber Pass...

HAROLD PILLER: That was a train wreck. A horrible tragedy. They called me in to locate the bodies of seven children who were unrecovered.

SCULLY: And did you recover them?

HAROLD PILLER: I didn't recover them, no. But I explained what happened.

MULDER: What happened?

HAROLD PILLER: The children's bodies... were transported from the accident site by a spiritual intervention-- what are known as "walk-ins."

(SCULLY is not impressed with this guy. MULDER is listening.)

SCULLY: Thank you, Mr. Piller, but we have real work to be done.

(SCULLY turns to go, but then stops when she realizes MULDER is not following her.)

HAROLD PILLER: I've studied this phenomenon the world over. It-it... Mudslides in Peru, earthquakes in Uzbekistan... Kids' bodies never found, never accounted for in any other way.

MULDER: What happened to them?

HAROLD PILLER: The bodies were transported from the various sites in starlight.

SCULLY: Please excuse us.

(SCULLY takes MULDER's arm and pulls a few feet away to speak privately.)

SCULLY: Mulder... Mulder, please.

MULDER: What is it?

SCULLY: Mulder, you have been through so much in such a short time -- the death of your mother and the feelings it's brought up for your sister -- you're vulnerable right now.

MULDER: We still have a missing body -- Amber Lynn LaPierre -- she may be alive -- we don't know.

SCULLY: Yes, but this man isn't going to help us find her by his own admission.

MULDER: It's not the first time I've heard what he's saying. About the intervention of these walk-in spirits? Kathy Lee Tencate mentioned it to me in prison. She said that's what took her son.

SCULLY: Because it's foolproof, Mulder. Nobody is going to disprove it if there's no body. I mean, that's exactly what this man does. He gives a, a comforting explanation that a train wreck or an earthquake that everyone can live with but the fact is the bodies are still buried.

MULDER: Or maybe they "are" somewhere else.

SCULLY: Like your sister. Mulder... You told me that all you wanted was for this to be over.

MULDER: (looks at her) I do. ... I do.

SCULLY: Well, then I'm going back to Washington. There's nothing more to be done here.

(SCULLY is calm, rational, and gentle. Perhaps she is expecting that he will follow her. MULDER nods. She walks down the hall.)

(MULDER holds up the crime scene tape for HAROLD PILLER as they approach the empty graves.)

(CLOSED CAPTIONED) HAROLD PILLER: Thank you.

MULDER: How long have you been doing this?

HAROLD PILLER: A few years. I have a son who disappeared... under strange circumstances. He's never been found. And then one day I just, uh... started to see them.

MULDER: These walk-ins-- you say they come and take the children. Why?

HAROLD PILLER: In almost every case the parents had a precognitive image of their child dead. Horrible visions. I believe what this is, is the work of good spirits. Foretelling their fates. The fate the child was about to meet. A particularly violent fate that wasn't meant to be ... which is why the spirits intervene transforming matter into pure energy. Starlight. (sighs) But it's not what happened here.

(PILLER walks among the graves, on the verge of tears.)

MULDER: How do you know that?

HAROLD PILLER: Because these children... all died suffering. Pleading innocently for their lives. These beautiful children, so... trusting and pure. I see them. (gasps sharply) My God, why? Why must some suffer and not others?

MULDER: You see them. Do you see Amber Lynn LaPierre?

HAROLD PILLER: She wasn't here. She never was. But I'm... I'm sensing a connection with her... to this place. It... No, it's a connection to... It's a connection to you.

(HAROLD PILLER is now looking at MULDER in wonder and amazement.)

MULDER: How's that?

(HAROLD PILLER puts his hand on MULDER's chest.)

HAROLD PILLER: You lost someone close to you. A young girl. It happened a ... a long time ago. A sister. There's a connection between these girls, isn't there? Between her and Amber Lynn.

MULDER: What is the connection?

HAROLD PILLER: (with joy) I don't know. But we're going to find them. I'm sure of it.

(FBI Headquarters. SCULLY is with AGENT SCHONIGER. They are watching the original videotape of MULDER's regression hypnosis about Samantha. Video date is 06/16/89. MULDER is being interviewed by DR. HEITZ WERBER. No shots of him.)

WERBER: (on video) I'm going to count backwards now, Fox. And you'll fall into a deep, relaxed state so that you remember all about your sister and what happened.

1989 MULDER: (on video, takes a deep breath)

1989 WERBER: (on video) 100... 99... 98... 97... 96... Where are you now, Fox?

1989 MULDER: (on video) I'm at home, at my Mom and Dad's. We're in the den playing a game.

1989 WERBER: (on video) Who are you there with?

1989 MULDER: (on video) Samantha.

1989 WERBER: (on video) Do you feel in any danger?

1989 MULDER: (on video) No. We're arguing, you know but not really-- just playing the game. You know, fooling around.

(The video continues as AGENT SCHONIGER and SCULLY talk.)

AGENT SCHONIGER: By what I can tell from the tape he seems to be in a legitimate hypnotic state.

1989 MULDER: (on video) ...a little afraid. The pieces on the board have fallen off and...

AGENT SCHONIGER: Here I became suspicious.

1989 MULDER: (on video, calling) Samantha?

SCULLY: Suspicious of what?

AGENT SCHONIGER: (turns off the video) In 30 years with the FBI, you'd think you've seen it all. I sometimes think I have. But this is just garden-variety compensatory abduction fantasy.

SCULLY: Compensatory for what?

AGENT SCHONIGER: His guilt, his fear... everything that's preventing Agent Mulder from remembering the truth about what really happened that night.

SCULLY: You mean his sister wasn't abducted.

AGENT SCHONIGER: No, the sister definitely went missing in 1973. That's not in dispute. Agent Mulder, however, wasn't regressed until 1989. See, his delusion is playing into his unconscious hope that his sister is still alive ...and if you think about it, his delusion has the effect of giving a reason to pursue her.

SCULLY: But why alien abduction?

AGENT SCHONIGER: Close Encounters, E.T., who knows? But there was probably a lot of imagery collecting in his head in those 16 years and then he comes down here and he finds the X-Files.

[TD NOTE: Just a thought. Remember "Unusual Suspects"? Those events took place in May, 1989, a month before Mulder's regression therapy. As was speculated at the time, perhaps the alien imagery came from the gas he was subjected to back then.]

SCULLY: So what do you think happened to his sister?

AGENT SCHONIGER: Well, in 1973, we were pretty damned unsophisticated about violent, predatory crime. My guess is she was kidnapped in the house, her body was disposed of, never found.

SCULLY: You think that his sister's dead?

(AGENT SCHONIGER gets up and pulls out the file on Samantha. Missing person's report for Samantha Mulder, RT6 Chilmark, MA. Age 14. 11/27/73.)

AGENT SCHONIGER: Have you seen this file? There was an extraordinary amount of effort put into finding his sister. Even the Treasury Department got involved. His father worked at a high level in the government. They found nothing. Why, Agent Scully? Why do you want to bring all this back up now?

SCULLY: Someone owes it to Mulder.

AGENT SCHONIGER: Word of advice, me to you: Let it be. You know, there's some wounds that are just too painful ever to be reopened.

SCULLY: Well, this particular wound has never healed. And Mulder deserves closure, just like anyone.

(MULDER's hotel room in California. The last scene of the movie, Planet of the Apes is on the television. Watch it. CHARLTON HESTON is on the horse with the woman. The APE is tied up on the beach.)

CHARLTON HESTON: (on TV) Apes evolved from men? There's got to be an answer.

APE: Don't look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find.

(There is a knock at the door. In the mirror behind the TV, we see a rumpled-looking MULDER sit up on the bed. He looks at the clock. 3:03 am. He rolls over and goes to answer the door for HAROLD PILLER who is looking very agitated.)

APE: (on TV) Untie me!

MULDER: What? What are you doing?

HAROLD PILLER: I'm picking up something.

MULDER: (Tired) It's 3:00 in the morning.

HAROLD PILLER: There's someone here.

MULDER: Yeah, the TV is on.

HAROLD PILLER: No. A visitor.

(HAROLD PILLER enters. MULDER closes the door behind him.)

APE: (on TV) Lieutenant! Fetch our explosives. We've got to seal off the cave.

APE LIEUTENANT: (on TV) Yes, sir!

HAROLD PILLER: They... they want to speak. They want to tell us something.

MULDER: What?

APE: (on TV) You will both stand trial for heresy.

HAROLD PILLER: Get a piece of paper.

APE: (on TV) In a few minutes there will be no...

(MULDER turns the TV off.)

HAROLD PILLER: And a pen.

(MULDER gets a pad of paper and a pen from the nightstand and holds them out to PILLER.)

HAROLD PILLER: No, you.

(MULDER, not convinced this is going anywhere, puts the pad on the dresser and holds the pen over it.)

MULDER: Shoot.

HAROLD PILLER: (trance-like) It's your mother. She's here in the room with us. She's trying to speak to you.

MULDER: (dryly) What does she say?

HAROLD PILLER: She wants to tell you about your sister. Where she is.

(MRS. MULDER is standing behind MULDER. She is transparent, ghostlike. Her lips move, but we hear no sound. MULDER is looking impatiently at PILLER.)

MULDER: What is she saying? Harold?

(In the next frame, she is gone.)

HAROLD PILLER: I don't know. I... She's gone.

MULDER: Come on, Harold.

HAROLD PILLER: I lost her.

MULDER: (angry) That's crap. You're full of crap.

HAROLD PILLER: No.

MULDER: Get out of here.

HAROLD PILLER: I'm telling you...

MULDER: No, I'm telling you. I never should have listened to you.

HAROLD PILLER: She was here. She had a message.

MULDER: Please go.

(MULDER starts toward the door.)

HAROLD PILLER: Look.

(PILLER notices the pad of paper and holds it up for MULDER. The words "APRIL BASE" have been written on it. Looks like Best Western stationary.)

MULDER: Who wrote that?

HAROLD PILLER: You did.

(SCULLY enters MRS. MULDER's house with a lockpick? and begins looking around again. She notices the empty picture frames on the shelves again. She goes into the bedroom and begins looking through drawers. The wastebasket still has burned fragments of the pictures that MRS. MULDER burned the night she killed herself. SCULLY finds a fragment of an official-looking document in the basket with the initials "C.G.B.S.")

(MULDER is in the car with PILLER. His phone rings.)

MULDER: (on phone) Mulder.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, it's me. I found something, and I'm standing here not quite believing what it is.

MULDER: (on phone) What is it?

SCULLY: (on phone) I don't know if you know this but there was a special Treasury Department investigation into Samantha's disappearance.

MULDER: (on phone) In 1973. I know all about that.

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, I'm in your mother's house and I found a piece of a document that she burned -- a document that matches one that I found in the treasury investigation file. But she had the original, Mulder.

MULDER: (on phone) I don't see where you're going with this, Scully.

SCULLY: (on phone) This is the document that effectively calls off the search for your sister, Mulder. And it's signed with the initials "C.G.B.S."

(SCULLY matches the burned fragment to the photocopied one she has.)

SCULLY: (on phone) C.G.B. Spender. The Smoking Man. He was involved with this back in '73.

MULDER: (on phone) Well, that's not exactly a revelation, Scully. He was a friend of my father's.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, you told me you believe that he's the man that killed your father. That he's the man who's done nothing but confound your work. Who's come close to killing you and here he's ordering people to stop looking for your sister.

MULDER: (on phone) I don't see what you think this proves or how you think it's gonna help me find her now.

SCULLY: (on phone, surprised) You don't want to press him?

(MULDER is impatient.)

MULDER: (on phone) It's a dead end. He's never been of any help and he's not going to be of any help now. Look, I'm pursuing this my own way, all right? I got to go.

(SCULLY sighs as MULDER hangs up. He and HAROLD PILLER pull up to a chain link fence surrounding a deserted military base. April Air Force Base. They get out of the car.)

MULDER: Not exactly the end of the rainbow, is it, Harold?

HAROLD PILLER: There's something here. I'm getting a strong sense of it. I think we should have a look.

MULDER: (heading back to the car) I've had a look.

HAROLD PILLER: What are you afraid of? That you'll really find her? That you'd have to deal with it?

MULDER: There's nothing here. It's a decommissioned base.

HAROLD PILLER: You wrote the name down yourself.

MULDER: Why do you care so much about what I feel? Why is it so important to you?

(A security car pulls up on the other side of the fence and a GUARD gets out.)

GUARD: You gentlemen need to move along. I have to ask you to turn around and get back in your car. There's nothing to see here.

(MULDER nods and he and PILLER get back in the car.)

HAROLD PILLER: There is something here to see, Agent Mulder. I'm sure of it.

(SCULLY's apartment. The phone is ringing as she enters. She picks it up.)

SCULLY: Hello?

(Too late. All she hears is a dial tone. She sighs and hangs up.)

MAN'S VOICE: I should've grabbed it for you.

(SCULLY looks up and sees the CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN, aka CGB SPENDER, sitting in her living room. He lights a cigarette.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I like to make myself useful.

SCULLY: (calmly) You can start by putting out that cigarette.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Got it all figured out, don't you, Agent Scully?

SCULLY: All but why you can't just come to the door and knock.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I did that. No one answered.

(He stands and walks toward her.)

SCULLY: You're sick.

(CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN chuckles softly. Indeed, he does not look well. Of course, when has he ever looked well. He seems especially sad and weak.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I had an operation.

SCULLY: What do you want?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I want you to stop looking.

SCULLY: You've wanted that since 1973... when you ordered an end to the search for Agent Mulder's sister. Your initials are on that document.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Yes, I signed that order because I knew then what I know now: No one's gonna find her.

SCULLY: Why not?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Because I believe she's dead. No reason to believe otherwise.

SCULLY: You're a liar. If you knew that she was dead why didn't you say something earlier? Why now?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: There was so much to protect before. It's all gone now.

SCULLY: So you just let Mulder believe that she was alive for all these years.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Out of kindness, Agent Scully. Allow him his ignorance. It's what gives him hope.

(He crosses to the door and closes it behind him as he leaves. SCULLY stands quietly in her apartment, thinking.)

(Night. MULDER and HAROLD PILLER pull up to the base again, headlights off. MULDER gives HAROLD PILLER a leg up, then they both climb over the fence and run to the residential section of the base. They get to a corner. One of the streets is "Albatross Street.")

MULDER: My sister was here?

HAROLD PILLER: Yes.

MULDER: In one of these houses? Where?

HAROLD PILLER: I've lost it, whatever it was.

MULDER: Which house, Harold? Come on, which house?

HAROLD PILLER: I don't know.

MULDER: Harold, we don't have all night. Come on, which house was it?

(Headlights from a GUARD's car approach. MULDER and HAROLD PILLER run. They hide behind stacks of old newspapers. The car passes.)

MULDER: Let's go, Harold.

(As they leave, MULDER looks down at the sidewalk and pauses.)

MULDER: You were right. This was the house.

HAROLD PILLER: How do you know?

MULDER: Look. (points down)

(HAROLD PILLER looks down at the sidewalk. There is a handprint in the cement with "SAMANTHA" written under it.)

HAROLD PILLER: I told you. What did I tell you?

MULDER: You told me she was here. You didn't say with who.

(Camera pans below her name. Beneath it is another handprint with the name "JEFFREY.")

(MULDER's hotel room. MULDER and SCULLY are arguing. In a good way.)

SCULLY: When did you come up with this story, Mulder? Because yesterday, when I spoke to you, you said that the Smoking Man wasn't involved.

MULDER: Well, it turns out you were right, Scully. He had every reason to call off the hunt for my sister. After her abduction, she was returned to him and he raised her at the military base along with his son, Jeffrey Spender.

SCULLY: Mulder ...

MULDER: Scully, I saw her name in the cement. Her handprints, right next to his.

(SCULLY goes to him, perhaps touching him.)

SCULLY: Mulder, I spoke to him. The Smoking Man, C.G.B. Spender, whatever his name is...

MULDER: (staring at her) You went to him?

SCULLY: He told me that she was dead.

MULDER: (sighs) Oh, well... he's a liar.

SCULLY: Mulder, why would he lie now? I mean, think about it. It hurts me to tell you this.

(MULDER is up, getting angry and defensive. SCULLY stays right with him.)

MULDER: (loudly) The handprints prove he's a liar! I saw her handprints in the cement. Her name, Samantha, right underneath them. How more obvious can it be? Harold Piller led me there. He led me right to them.

SCULLY: Oh, he led you, Mulder. He led you from the moment that he met you.

(Restaurant. HAROLD PILLER is drinking coffee at a table. MULDER and SCULLY enter. They are both glaring at him.)

HAROLD PILLER: (starting to rise) Something wrong?

MULDER: Sit down, Harold.

HAROLD PILLER: (to SCULLY) Hi. You're back.

(SCULLY nods tensely.)

MULDER: Agent Scully has informed me that you failed to mention something to me when we first met.

HAROLD PILLER: What?

MULDER: That you're currently the subject of a criminal investigation into the murder of your son.

HAROLD PILLER: My son was taken from me. The police need someone to blame.

SCULLY: That's not all, Harold. Your history of mental illness. You were institutionalized, diagnosed with schizophrenia.

HAROLD PILLER: I've got that under control. You wouldn't have believed me if I told you any of that. Look what I've shown you.

MULDER: You only tell me what you see.

HAROLD PILLER: I came to you because I want to help. You think I'm a fraud. What do I have to gain from this? How am I any different from you? All I want is to find my son. I... I just... I just want my little boy back.

(He holds back tears. SCULLY looks down.)

HAROLD PILLER: I see these things. I don't know how, but... there has got to be a reason and if it's not to help, what is it? I know your sister is out there. Maybe I can prove it to you.

(MULDER looks at SCULLY. So does HAROLD PILLER. She thinks.)

(Later that night. MULDER, SCULLY, and PILLER have sneaked onto the base again. They enter the same house that MULDER and PILLER found the night before. SCULLY pauses to look at the cement block with the names and handprints and then goes inside the house. It's deserted and stripped to the bare bones with no furnishings.)

SCULLY: Well, whoever's lived here hasn't lived here in a long time.

HAROLD PILLER: We're gonna need to hold hands.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

HAROLD PILLER: I'm going to try and summon their presence into the house.

SCULLY: (sarcastically) Oh, yay. A seance. I haven't done that since high school.

MULDER: (to SCULLY, taking her hand) Maybe afterwards we can play postman and spin the bottle.

HAROLD PILLER: I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to be very quiet and still. That's how it seems to work best. Um, you might experience a sudden chill or feel a... a pressure in your ears. That means they're here. And if they need to, they'll let themselves be seen. Close your eyes and let them come to you. They will come to you if you're ready to see.

(They all close their eyes. SCULLY is still skeptical.)

SCULLY: How will we know?

HAROLD PILLER: Shh. Stay quiet. You'll know.

(All around them are glowing, ghostly figures, just standing, watching them. There are several boys/men in what look like old military uniforms. All ages, dressed simply, perhaps from different eras. Some are closer, clearer than others. Some are standing alone, some are in pairs. One of the tall young military men has a smaller woman on his arm. They look as if they might have lived during WWII. MULDER looks down. A small boy, perhaps five, takes MULDER's hand from SCULLY's and leads him through the figures to another room. SCULLY's hand remains suspended in the air.)

(The light has changed. SCULLY "wakes up" and realizes MULDER is missing. She goes to find him in the other room.)

SCULLY: Mulder? What are you doing?

MULDER: It's here.

SCULLY: What is?

MULDER: There was a boy - he led me into this room.

(MULDER begins breaking through a built-in wall bookshelf. He finds a small book.)

SCULLY: Mulder?

(HAROLD PILLER has entered the room.)

HAROLD PILLER: It's a diary. It's your sister's.

(Restaurant. Later that night. MULDER and SCULLY are sitting at a table. MULDER is reading to SCULLY from the diary, written in blue pen. It is hard for him to read. Every once in a while, he will pause, then continue. SCULLY never takes her eyes off of him.)

MULDER: (reading) "They did more tests today, but not the horrible kind. I was awake and they made me lay still... while they shined lights in my eyes. They asked me questions, but I always lie now and tell them what they want to hear, just to make them stop. I hate them and I hate the way they treat me... like I'm an old suitcase they can just drag around and open up whenever they want to. They know I hate them, but they don't even care."

(SCULLY looks sad.)

MULDER: This is 1979. She's 14 years old here. 14 years old.

(MULDER turns the pages to later entries. SCULLY watches MULDER.)

MULDER: (reading) "Sometimes I think my memories were taken by the doctors but not all of them. I remember faces. I think I had a brother... with brown hair, who used to tease me. I hope someday he reads this and knows I wish I could see his face for real."

(MULDER turns a few more pages, skimming them.)

MULDER: And then, uh... she's, uh... talking about running away. She wants to run away so that they stop doing the tests. And then it just stops.

(Here's what it says on the final page which he doesn't read aloud)

"No more. No more tests. No more questions. I'm getting out of here and not turning back. Tonight. Tonight I'm going to run far, far away. I can't let them catch me. They'll kill me if they do. Running for my life, for the rest of my life."

(He looks at the book. SCULLY, almost crying, reaches over and gently holds his hand.)

SCULLY: Let's get out of here.

(SCULLY pays the bill then joins MULDER outside the restaurant where he is looking up at the stars.)

MULDER: You know, I never stop to think... that the light is billions of years old by the time we see it. From the beginning of time right past us into the future. Nothing is ancient in the universe. (glances at her) But, maybe they are souls, Scully. Traveling through time as starlight, looking for homes. I wonder what my mother saw. And I wonder what she was trying to tell me.

SCULLY: Go get some sleep.

(MULDER finds her words both funny and painful. He smiles, and bends over slightly, then straightens.)

MULDER: All right.

(SCULLY leaves.)

(Later that night. MULDER is sleeping peacefully in his hotel room, no TV on. The glowing figure of his mother appears and leans over and begins whispering in his ear. We cannot hear what she says.)

(Next morning. SCULLY knocks at MULDER's hotel door. He sleepily answers it. She holds out a document.)

SCULLY: I got it, Mulder. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. It was like it was looking for me. Sergeant's blotter, 1979.

(IT READS: "Approximately 14 year old girl picked up. Runaway claims she was held hostage ... hospital for exam." Other names on the document are Patrolman J. Poole and Detective J. Floyd)

MULDER: What are you talking about?

SCULLY: The description matches your sister.

MULDER: When did you find this?

(SCULLY stares at him.)

SCULLY: Mulder, it's almost noon.

(MULDER is surprised.)

(Later. MULDER and SCULLY are at the hospital looking through files.)

SCULLY: Maybe she went by another name. She could have given them a name other than her own.

MULDER: She didn't give a name at all. Read this. It's the medical report. The admittance notes say the E.R. nurses couldn't get her name out of her. Neither could the cops.

SCULLY: Her medical examination is normal. Her mental state -- it says here she was exhibiting signs of paranoia.

MULDER: (reading) "Evidence of probable self-inflicted abuse. Including small crescent-shaped scars on her knees, wrists and chest." Those were from the tests, Scully. That's her. She was here. 14 years old, in this hospital.

SCULLY: (reading) "Diagnosis of condition incomplete... tests unavailable."

MULDER: And he knew. He lied. He knew she was alive and the only reason he's lying now is because she's still alive.

(MULDER gets up, excited.)

SCULLY: Mulder, wait.

MULDER: I know. I know. You don't want me to get my hopes up. I understand that.

SCULLY: That was 1979. It was 21 years ago. I don't even know where to begin and .. and we don't even have a record here of a doctor signing her out.

MULDER: (pointing) We have an E.R. nurse who signed her in.

(Night. MULDER, SCULLY, and PILLER pull up in front of a house. They start walking toward it, but SCULLY senses when MULDER stops and she turns to him.)

SCULLY: What's wrong?

MULDER: I have this... powerful feeling and I can't explain it, but that... this is the end of the road. That I've been brought here to learn the truth.

SCULLY: Are you ready for it?

(MULDER nods slightly.)

SCULLY: Do you want me to go talk to her myself?

(MULDER nods again.)

SCULLY: Okay.

(MULDER stays by the car as SCULLY and PILLER go up to the door. SCULLY knocks twice on the screen door. A woman, ARBUTUS RAY, perhaps late 60's, answers the door.)

ARBUTUS RAY: I thought that was the door.

SCULLY: (holding out her badge) Arbutus Ray?

ARBUTUS RAY: Yes.

SCULLY: Are you the same Arbutus Ray that worked as a nurse at the Dominic Savio Memorial Hospital in 1979?

ARBUTUS RAY: Yes, I'm she.

SCULLY: I'd like to ask you about a patient you treated... a 14-year-old girl.

(SCULLY opens the screen door, hands her the file and closes the screen door again. MULDER listens.)

ARBUTUS RAY: I remember, yes. She was such a pretty young girl. You couldn't forget someone like her or how frightened she was. Scared for her sweet life. Deputy brought her in, she was shaking like a leaf. Wouldn't let anyone touch her but me. Then the strangest thing happened...

HAROLD PILLER: (interrupting) You had a vision of her... dead, like the parents of Amber Lynn LaPierre.

ARBUTUS RAY: (stares at him with amazement) No one believed me. Honestly you're the first person who...

SCULLY: So you saw her dead?

ARBUTUS RAY: That night, in her bed I blinked and it was gone. She was sleeping as sound as could be. I don't know why but it made some kind of strange sense.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

ARBUTUS RAY: There were men. They came to pick her up late that night. I assumed the one was her father but he gave me such a chill when he looked at me when I asked him would he please put out his cigarette.

(SCULLY reacts.)

SCULLY: So they took her?

ARBUTUS RAY: They meant to but when I took them to her room she was gone. Disappeared out of a locked room. Just vanished.

(SCULLY looks at HAROLD PILLER, then at the car. MULDER is missing.)

(MULDER is walking into the woods nearby. The song "My Weakness" by Moby starts to play again. He sees the ghostly image of the boy. The BOY holds his hand out to MULDER and leads him up a small hill. The rest of the scene takes place in slow motion. Lots of ghostly, glowing children are playing together, all ages. They are all happy. MULDER lets go of the BOY's hand. He sees AMBER LYNN LAPIERRE who looks up and smiles at him. MULDER smiles back. He sees a pretty young brown haired girl running toward him. He stares in amazement.)

MULDER: Samantha.

(The glowing 14-year-old girl embraces him warmly, touches his face as they gaze at each other, then holds him again as he holds her and strokes and kisses her hair. He is smiling. It's okay.)

(Back to regular speed. SCULLY and HAROLD PILLER are waiting by the car as MULDER comes back out of the woods. He is calm.)

SCULLY: Mulder, where did you go?

MULDER: End of the road.

(MULDER turns to HAROLD PILLER.)

MULDER: He's okay. It's okay.

HAROLD PILLER: My son? You saw my son?

MULDER: He's dead. They're all dead, Harold. Your son, Amber Lynn, and my sister.

HAROLD PILLER: No.

MULDER: Harold, you see so much but you refuse to see him. You refuse to let him go. But you have to let him go now, Harold. He's protected. He's in a better place. They're all in a better place. We both have to let go, Harold.

HAROLD PILLER: (desperate) You're wrong. I'm going to find him. I don't believe you.

(HAROLD PILLER walks away quickly. SCULLY walks up behind MULDER.)

SCULLY: Mulder, what happened? Are you sure you're all right?

MULDER: I'm fine.

(MULDER looks up at the starry sky, and sighs.)

MULDER: I'm free.

[THE END]