ANNOUNCER (CHRIS CARTER): Previously on The X Files:

(Scenes are from the previous episode, This is Not Happening {8x14})

(SCULLY and DOGGETT are interviewing ABSALOM.)

ABSALOM: Their ships come in, drop the abductees. I go and get them so I can help them.

(Scenes of the spaceship, abductees being returned and TERESA being healed instantly.)

REYES: (voiceover) He goes by the name Absalom-- the nominal leader of a doomsday cult who believed aliens would take over the world at the Millennium.

(FBI raids the complex.)

SCULLY: Where's Mulder?

ABSALOM: When you came crashing in here I was trying to help him, too.

(SCULLY falls to her knees beside MULDER's lifeless scarred body in the field surrounded by other agents.)

SCULLY: No... no … (screams) No...!!!!!

(Old snow covered cemetery. [Ummm … CarriK lives in North Carolina and doesn't remember any late spring or early fall snow storms in the area this year, 2000-2001.] A minister is officiating at a closed casket graveside service. Only a few mourners are in attendance, KERSH, DOGGETT, THE LONE GUNMEN, two or three AGENT- LOOKING MEN. SCULLY stands at the grave's edge, her mother, MRS. SCULLY and SKINNER standing on either side of her.)

MINISTER: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We are here to deliver the body of Fox Mulder to its resting place. We pray to God to deliver his soul and to resolve the deep mysteries Fox Mulder sought so tirelessly to uncover. Let us pray now for his eternal peace.

(Camera closes in on SCULLY. She is dressed all in black, holding a white handkerchief. Her eyes are closed, her hands clutch her belly.)

MINISTER: "'I am the resurrection and the life,' saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.'"

(SCULLY opens her eyes and takes a breath.)

(Short time later, the FUNERAL DIRECTOR starts the motor that lowers the coffin into the grave. He and the MINISTER leave quietly. SCULLY and SKINNER are the only ones left at the grave.)

SCULLY: He was the last. His father and mother... his sister... all gone. I think the real tragedy... is that for all of his pain and searching... the truth that he worked so hard to find was never truly revealed to him.

(SKINNER looks down at her, listening.)

SCULLY: (her voice begins to break) I can't truly believe that I'm really standing here.

SKINNER: (softly) I know. And I don't truly believe that... Mulder's the last.

(SCULLY's face trembles with emotion. She kneels down and picks up a handful of dirt and crumbles it over the coffin, which is now at the bottom of the grave. She stands and turns her head into SKINNER's chest and cries silently. Her arms hang limply at her sides. He gently puts his arms around her.)

(KERSH's office. DOGGETT enters and sits down beside SKINNER in front of KERSH's desk. KERSH has a rather satisfied smirk on his face. SKINNER looks rather depressed and frustrated.)

KERSH: Smile, John. You look tense. I've asked you here to commend you.

(KERSH hands DOGGETT a letter.)

DOGGETT: What's this?

KERSH: A letter to the director citing your meritorious efforts in the recovery of Agent Fox Mulder. And a recommendation that you be considered for advancement.

(DOGGETT, uncomfortable with this honor looks to SKINNER who looks even more uncomfortable with the situation.)

DOGGETT: Sir, the Assistant Director here deserves more credit than I...

SKINNER: (tightly, avoiding eye contact) Deputy Director Kersh spoke to me at length before you came up. He thanked me and asked me to write you a letter, too.

(Pause.)

SKINNER: Officially transferring you off the X-Files to a division more suited to your talents.

(KERSH smiles at DOGGETT.)

KERSH: Man of my word, Agent Doggett.

(DOGGETT gives a small smile and stands.)

DOGGETT: Thank you for your support, sir. But all things being equal, I, uh... would like to give any transfer some thought.

(KERSH gives DOGGETT a warning look.)

KERSH: Fish while they're biting, John.

(DOGGETT nods his acceptance of the warning and leaves.)

(X-Files office. SCULLY is standing behind a file cabinet looking through folders. The "I Want to Believe" poster is seen behind her very pregnant belly. She is wearing a classy black maternity dress-suit. Great hair. DOGGETT enters.)

DOGGETT: Hey, good morning, Agent Scully. How you feeling today?

SCULLY: I'm fine. How are you feeling?

DOGGETT: Me? Good. But then I don't got a little J. Edgar to lug around.

(DOGGETT sits at his desk and looks through a folder.)

SCULLY: A.D. Skinner just called. He told me about your meeting with Kersh.

DOGGETT: Well, whatever he told you I'm still going to be here to drive you crazy with questions and nagging doubt.

SCULLY: You'd be crazy to stay, Agent Doggett. This is a huge career opportunity for you.

DOGGETT: It's not my career he's got in mind.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

(DOGGETT looks at her belly.)

DOGGETT: In six weeks, you go on maternity leave. Kersh transfers me out, guess what? He gets to lock that door over there for good.

SCULLY: You don't owe me anything, Agent Doggett.

DOGGETT: They put me down here to find Mulder. I found him. So what? We still got an open file on this case and I got big questions.

(SCULLY smiles and laughs softly.)

DOGGETT: What?

SCULLY: I heard the same speech come out of my mouth seven years ago.

(She lowers herself into MULDER's chair.)

SCULLY: Get out while you can, Agent Doggett... or you may never get out at all.

(Night, middle of the ocean. A fishing trawler is weathering a storm as they work to bring in a catch. The FIRST DECK HAND spots something in the water.)

FIRST DECK HAND: All stop! All stop! In the net! Get the light! Down there! Further out!

(We see that it is a bloated dead body floating on the water.)

FIRST DECK HAND: Get Coast Guard on the radio! Tell them to send a chopper out!

(In the searchlight, we see that the body is REALLY dead and bloated.)

FIRST DECK HAND: Doesn't look like there's any big reason to hurry.

(Autopsy bay light flicks on. The Coroner, DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ, is putting on his gloves as he enters.)

DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ: So, what's the deal here?

PATHOLOGY ASSISTANT: Body was found at sea. DA wants to know how it got there.

DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ: At 2:00 in the morning? I've once to see a DA down here in his jammies waiting for an answer.

(DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ gives a cursory visual exam of the body.)

DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ: I see a surgical cut or scar on the sternum, linear pattern scarring on each facial cheek. But for a certain enviable post-mortem intumescence this man is unremarkable. Short of this body sitting up and telling us what happened I'd say we've got a long night ahead.

(As DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ prepares his instruments, the PATHOLOGY ASSISTANT looks at the body. The lips move slightly, startling the ASSISTANT.)

PATHOLOGY ASSISTANT: Doctor... it moved.

(DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ smiles tolerantly.)

DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ: Joke's on me, right?

PATHOLOGY ASSISTANT: Its mouth... his lips... they moved...

DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ: Yeah, well, maybe he's trying to tell...

(DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ stops speaking as he also sees the lips of the "corpse" move.)

(DOGGETT's manly bedroom. Late night. Phone rings. DOGGETT, wearing a gray t- shirt, wakes turns on the light and answers the phone.)

DOGGETT: (on phone) Yeah.

(SKINNER is driving in the rain.)

SKINNER: (on phone) It's Skinner. I want you to meet me at the Bureau in about 20 minutes.

DOGGETT: (on phone) For what?

SKINNER: (on phone) I got a call from the police. Pathologist down in Wilmington, North Carolina. Fishermen pulled in a dead body 50 Miles offshore which they've now ID'd as Billy Miles.

DOGGETT: (on phone) Billy Miles?

SKINNER: (on phone) Kid from Oregon. He was abducted same time Mulder was last May.

DOGGETT: (on phone) So what's the big hurry now?

SKINNER: (on phone) Now he's alive.

(Short time later. FBI parking garage. SKINNER pulls up beside DOGGETT who gets in the car. SKINNER drives.)

DOGGETT: You told Agent Scully any of what you told me?

SKINNER: No.

DOGGETT: My strong recommendation, Sir: Don't. This thing pans out or not, you're going to reopen wounds that still need a lot of healing. Not to mention the fact that she's had a difficult pregnancy. You know that as well as anybody.

SKINNER: I appreciate your concern, Agent Doggett, but I wouldn't have told her anyway. Certainly not where we're going.

DOGGETT: Where are we going?

(SKINNER looks at him, but doesn't answer.)

(Still night. They pull up to a snowy graveyard and park. They get out and make their way across the cemetery.)

DOGGETT: I'll say it again. We're opening up more than a grave here.

SKINNER: I respect that, Agent Doggett, but under the circumstances I think not digging it up would be far more regrettable, don't you?

DOGGETT: No. I think this is insanity.

SKINNER: Yeah, well, personally, I couldn't live with the doubt.

DOGGETT: That what? That we buried a man alive? We found Mulder, you and me together. We saw the same body. Mulder wasn't just dead, he'd been dead for days. Had to have a closed casket. For crying out loud, the body was too far gone and that was three months ago.

(A backhoe is excavating one of the graves.)

SKINNER: The kid they pulled from the ocean, Billy Miles, from the extensive tissue necrosis, they think he could've been in the water for months. Heart beat, rate of metabolism-- it slowed to imperceptibility. I mean, the body had rigored. For all intents and purposes, he was dead. It's a fluke that the doctor even noticed.

DOGGETT: I don't believe it. I don't believe I'm even standing here.

(We see that it is MULDER's grave that is being excavated.)

(Morgue. MULDER's coffin is wheeled into the examining room, followed by SKINNER and DOGGETT. DOGGETT stares in surprise at the media circus inside the room. The room is full of cameramen and reporters. The county coroner, ARTHUR GAFFIN, comes to greet them.)

DOGGETT: What the hell is this?

CORONER GAFFIN: Assistant Director Skinner?

SKINNER: Yes.

CORONER GAFFIN: Arthur Gaffin, County Coroner.

SKINNER: I asked you to keep this thing low key.

CORONER GAFFIN: Word spreads. Exhumation's big news any day of the week and you had the body moved to another county to a specific pathologist. Well, that takes people and paperwork.

SKINNER: I want these people out of here.

(DOGGETT turns to the reporters.)

DOGGETT: All right, listen up, ladies and gentlemen. As much as you're here to see the horror show I'm not letting that casket open up until we get some privacy. It's a private matter.

(The reporters leave.)

DOGGETT: Thank you.

DR. FRANCIS OROVETZ: Agent Skinner, so no one's confused, this is a completely different scenario. I'm only here 'cause you asked for me. I don't expect to find anything in this box but a dead man. It's not going to be Curse of the Mummy, okay? No claw marks on the lid of the coffin.

DOGGETT: (Softly to SKINNER) I'll say it again: insanity.

(SKINNER is nervous. The coffin is opened. SKINNER walks forward for a closer look. MULDER was buried in one of his suits, blue oxford shirt. He looks pale but well preserved, three scars on each cheek.)

[Fade to black]

(Hospital corridor. SKINNER and others are talking quietly. SCULLY enters with great urgency.)

SCULLY: Is it true?

SKINNER: Slow down.

SCULLY: No. I want to see him.

SKINNER: I know you do...

SCULLY: (frenzied) No, I need to see him, damn it!

SKINNER: You're not going in there.

(He grabs her arms, stopping her.)

SKINNER: Scully, you can't.

SCULLY: (desperate, whisper) Tell me it's true. Tell me.

(Inside the room, DOGGETT is watching the DOCTOR examine MULDER. MULDER is now hooked up to several life support machines. He doesn't look too bad, a few scars on the cheeks.)

DR. LIM: It's so improbable... and I would have said impossible before this. The clinical fact he's alive when effectively this man, his tissue and I presume his neural and vascular systems are all in a state of decomposition.

DOGGETT: What does that mean?

DR. LIM: That effectively he's dead.

(DOGGETT sighs and leaves the room, #115. SCULLY and SKINNER are waiting. SCULLY, her hand on her belly, walks toward DOGGETT.)

SCULLY: What did they say?

(DOGGETT doesn't answer. SCULLY is on the verge of tears. She looks very small.)

SCULLY: I need to see him.

DOGGETT: I know... but I wish you wouldn't.

(SCULLY looks at DOGGETT a moment, biting her bottom lip, then enters the hospital room. She closes the door and goes to her partner. Tubes are coming out of every part of his body. She rests her hand for a moment on MULDER's body, feeling his heart beat. She then leans down and, embracing him, cries softly into his chest. Beautiful bookend to MULDER's bedside vigils in One Breath and Redux 2.)

(KERSH's office. KERSH is standing at the window looking at the dark city outside. DOGGETT enters the office.)

DOGGETT: You wanted to see me, sir?

KERSH: Yes, John. Please come in. I've been in this office just over six months and I haven't yet had to see a sunrise from it.

DOGGETT: (looks at his watch) I believe the sunrise isn't for another hour and six minutes, sir.

(Pause. KERSH turns for the first time and crosses to DOGGETT.)

KERSH: (softly threatening) It serves a man to have useful information, John. One never knows when he might find himself having to survive on his wits alone.

DOGGETT: Yes, sir.

KERSH: I know you look forward to a future at the FBI, John. You take your job seriously. I hope you took my job offer seriously, too.

DOGGETT: As I said, I'm thinking about it.

KERSH: I got a call about this... Mulder thing. I want you to drop it.

DOGGETT: Drop it?

KERSH: You know the tune: if it looks bad, it's bad for the FBI. I'm throwing you a rope. Don't go and hang yourself with it now.

(Later that morning. SCULLY enters a hospital room identical to MULDER's. Life support machines are beeping. She looks at the bloated and puffy body on the bed. She picks up the chart from the bed.

9429776 708/1
010411726 5 23124 01
BILLY MILES
078021 70 LIM/LIM
DIAGNOSIS: Acute Hypothermia

Suddenly, the monitors begin beeping rapidly. BILLY MILES body convulses. SCULLY stares at the heart monitor where she sees that it seems to be registering two heartbeats. Then everything returns to normal. The door opens and a NURSE enters.)

NURSE: Who-who are you, and what are you doing?

SCULLY: Nothing. I was just looking in on the patient and he started to go into grand mal seizure. I, uh, I-I think he's all right now. Um, it's okay. I'm, uh, sorry … (she shows her badge) ... I'm a doctor. My name is Scully, and I'm with the FBI.

NURSE: You're here to treat him?

SCULLY: No. No, I, uh... the man down the hall was my... is my partner and we knew Billy and I-I guess I was just hoping that there might be some indication that he was getting better... somehow. Anyway... um... you might want to tell the doctor about this. And, uh... and check those monitors carefully. I think I might have seen some kind of equipment malfunction.

(SCULLY slips out of the room leaving the confused NURSE to deal with the situation.)

(SKINNER comes out of his office. Without warning he stumbles against the wall in pain. Two AGENTS run to help him stand.)

FEMALE AGENT (SKINNER's ASSISTANT?): Oh, a-are you all right, sir?

SKINNER: I'm okay. I'm okay. Okay, thank you.

(The AGENTS go on down the hall. SKINNER catches his breath, holding his left shoulder. Pain strikes again, then eases off. Holding his heart, he goes to the elevator. The doors open revealing everyone's favourite RatBoy, ALEX KRYCEK. He is holding the Palm Pilot of Doom in one hand. [CarriK: It seems smaller than the last time we saw it. Technological improvements to the design, I suppose.] SKINNER glares at him.)

KRYCEK: All aboard.

SKINNER: I don't know how you got in this building, Krycek, but whatever it is you want... you can go to hell.

(The doors slide shut again. Outside in the hall, SKINNER grabs his arm again as he begins to sink to the floor in pain. Inside the elevator, we see KRYCEK increase the level on the screen of the PPOD. The elevator doors open again. SKINNER is breathing heavily. KRYCEK is smirking.)

SKINNER: What do you want from me?

KRYCEK: Let's take a ride.

(Later, SKINNER and KRYCEK are in the X-Files office. KRYCEK is sitting at MULDER's desk. He takes MULDER's nameplate out of the desk drawer, glances at it and tosses it nonchalantly on the desk.)

KRYCEK: The word on the street is he's back from the dead. He's a regular Houdini.

SKINNER: Tell me what you want.

KRYCEK: What I want is to give you the chance to save Mulder's life.

(SKIINER just stares at him.)

KRYCEK: You don't believe me?

SKINNER: No, I don't.

KRYCEK: I can push a little button and send thousands of nanobots lying dormant in your bloodstream sizzling to your brain stem and all I want to do with that power is save a man's life.

SKINNER: I don't think his life can be saved.

KRYCEK: I have a vial that contains a vaccine. Mulder knows of it. His father developed it to fight the alien virus.

SKINNER: There's no vaccine can help the man I found in that grave.

KRYCEK: You found him, and you don't even know what you got.

(SKINNER turns and starts to leave the office, but then turns quickly and grabs for the PPOD lying on the desk. KRYCEK grabs it first, though and smiles at SKINNER.)

KRYCEK: It's a push of a button, Walter.

(KRYCEK leaves SKINNER alone in the office.)

(BILLY MILES' hospital room. Machines are beeping. BILLY MILES opens his eyes. He removes the ventilation tube from his own mouth. Beeping speeds up as BILLY MILES stands up and walks away from the bed, putting strain on and dislodging the wires attached to him. Next shot is of BILLY MILES in the shower. We see him from the knees down. In a brand new contestant for the most disgusting scene ever on this show, we see blood beginning to flow, then huge hunks of putrid skin breaking off and sliding down onto the shower floor. CarriK does not envy the janitor who gets to clean this mess up. Although judging from the mildew buildup around the drain, janitors don't come in here very often.)

(MULDER's hospital room. DOGGETT enters. SCULLY calmly looks up at him, perhaps waking up. She is sitting beside the bed, one hand holding MULDER's, the other resting on her belly. DOGGETT looks at her with pity.)

DOGGETT: You can't do this to yourself.

SCULLY: You asked me not to come in here, Agent Doggett. I hope you're not asking me to leave.

DOGGETT: Concern's for your well-being, Agent Scully. That's all it's ever for. I felt this was a bad idea from the start. I told the Assistant Director so. Worrying about the effect it might have on you.

SCULLY: You mean finding Mulder alive?

DOGGETT: I know you came in here with the doctors. I'm sure you must have asked them what his chances are.

(SCULLY lets go of MULDER's hand and stands up, stepping toward DOGGETT angrily. She speaks softly.)

SCULLY: Agent Doggett... ...However I felt about you when we first met, you changed my opinion with the quality of your character and of your work. Now, I am thankful to know you and I am thankful for your concern... ...But no matter what Mulder's chances are the choice not to open up that grave was wrong. And not because of me personally but as my partner on the X-Files. Now, the truth may hurt but it's all that matters.

DOGGETT: What truth?

SCULLY: About what caused this.

(They stare at each other. The door opens and the NURSE enters.)

NURSE: You've got to come quickly! It's Billy Miles.

(SCULLY and DOGGETT follow the NURSE to the nurse's station. The NURSE points down the hall. BILLY MILES, wet and naked and confused, is slowly making his way up the corridor. He turns and sees SCULLY and DOGGETT staring at him. He looks lost.)

(Hospital examination room. SCULLY and DOGGETT are questioning BILLY MILES who is now wrapped in a blanket. He is staring at the floor.)

BILLY MILES: I don't really remember all that much of anything. SCULLY: Do you have any idea what you're doing here, Billy? Do you have any conscious memory at all?

BILLY MILES: I remember water. And I remember being on the ship.

DOGGETT: You were found by a fishing boat.

SCULLY: That's not what you mean... is it, Billy? You mean... a spacecraft.

(BILLY MILES focuses on SCULLY.)

BILLY MILES: They took so many this time. But now I understand. They're here to save us. (he smiles gently)

DOGGETT: (sarcastically) Well, that's great news. I'm going to let you two talk.

(DOGGETT leaves the room. SCULLY follows him into the hall.)

SCULLY: Agent Doggett... Where are you going?

DOGGETT: Back to the real world. Why?

SCULLY: You just won't believe it, will you? Not even for a minute. Not even with it staring you right in the face.

DOGGETT: Is that so important to you? What I believe or don't believe?

(SCULLY sighs.)

DOGGETT: I'm really not up to this assignment anyway as you so gently put it.

(DOGGETT starts to leave again. SCULLY's words stop him.)

SCULLY: Agent Doggett, you spoke with his doctors. He was lying on his deathbed.

DOGGETT: I'm with you, Agent Scully. It's a medical mystery, for sure. But don't ask me to take a load of horse crap for the gospel truth.

SCULLY: I underestimated you, Agent Doggett. I thought this was just simple... resistance to extreme possibilities... when, in fact, you're just downright bullheaded.

DOGGETT: Do you believe it, Agent Scully? I mean that stuff he said about aliens coming to save the world.

(SCULLY is not ready to answer that. DOGGETT leaves.)

(SCULLY is in a hospital image viewing room. She is looking at test results on BILLY MILES. SKINNER enters.)

SKINNER: Hi.

SCULLY: Hi.

SKINNER: Nobody called me about Billy.

SCULLY: I know. I'm sorry.

SKINNER: What, this is incredible.

SCULLY: It's too incredible. Sir, there isn't a piece of medical data on him that isn't 100% normal.

SKINNER: Why are you questioning that... when it could mean that the doctors are wrong about Mulder?

SCULLY: Because it doesn't make sense. I mean, there should be blood, fluid, electrolyte imbalances. Loss of brain function, but as it is, it's like he shed his skin and literally became a new person. And I don't mean the same person.

(Pause.)

SKINNER: What are the chances this could be due to an alien influence? Could it be a virus?

SCULLY: Why are you asking me this? Sir, if you know something... look, we-we're working against the clock here. This, this could happen to Mulder. And until we know what it is we have to do everything to control it.

SKINNER: There may be a vaccine.

SCULLY: Where?

SKINNER: It doesn't come without a price.

SCULLY: This is about saving a man's life.

(SKINNER looks at her sadly.)

SKINNER: Yes. It is.

(ABSALOM is escorted into an interrogation room. DOGGETT is waiting.)

ABSALOM: Brother... you aren't someone I expected to be... paying me a visit.

DOGGETT: How are they treating you?

ABSALOM: Treating me? Like a prophet.

DOGGETT: That's what I'm here about, your prophecies-- these preachings of yours.

ABSALOM: Oh... you misread me, is that it?

DOGGETT: I want to know about these men and woman you say you would find left for dead.

ABSALOM: You found someone yourself. Left for dead, but who's not dead?

DOGGETT: Yes.

ABSALOM: You're here to receive the word... and yet you can't bring yourself to say my name. Say it.

DOGGETT: Absalom.

ABSALOM: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believeth in me... though he were dead, yet shall he live." Do you know the words?

DOGGETT: They're from the bible.

ABSALOM: What is the bible? Preaching... Prophecy... Misread.

DOGGETT: Look, I'm not here to debate theology. I'm here because somehow you healed these people and I want to know how you did it. I need your help.

ABSALOM: You ask for my help... But you refuse to believe in me.

(SKINNER walks down the hospital corridor. He sees that the door to MULDER's hospital room is standing open. He enters and sees MULDER lying there, still unconscious. Monitors are beeping slowly. SKINNER is startled by KRYCEK who is standing in the shadows of the room.)

KRYCEK: It's hard to believe, isn't it... that Mulder could ever possibly get out of that bed?

SKINNER: I need the vaccine, Alex.

KRYCEK: Yeah? Time is wasting.

SKINNER: What do I have to do?

KRYCEK: Oh, it's simple, really. Make sure Scully doesn't come to term.

(SKINNER stares at him in shock.)

SKINNER: You're out of your mind.

KRYCEK: She can't have that baby.

(For SKINNER, there is no decision to make.)

SKINNER: No. The answer is no.

KRYCEK: We all have a life in our hands. I have yours... you have Mulder's... and Scully has her unborn child. It's who's willing to sacrifice.

(DOGGETT enters the hospital and passes a leather jacket-clad KRYCEK in the hall. KRYCEK is tucking the PPOD into his pocket. DOGGETT turns and watches him leave; perhaps sensing the threat the man poses. DOGGETT then looks into MULDER's room and sees SKINNER standing beside the bed. SCULLY comes out of a room up the hall. She is looking at a chart. DOGGETT goes to her.)

(Inside MULDER's room, SKINNER looks down at MULDER. The monitors beep.)

(Up the hall, DOGGETT joins SCULLY.)

DOGGETT: Where are you going?

SCULLY: Look, I don't have time to waste debating our differences, Agent Doggett. I strongly believe that Agent Mulder is infected with a virus.

DOGGETT: A virus?

SCULLY: A virus that seems to keep the body just alive enough to take it through a transformation...

DOGGETT: Into-- let me guess-- an alien.

SCULLY: Agent Doggett, I don't have time to argue.

DOGGETT: I'm not arguing, and for what it's worth that's what this guy that first found Mulder told me. This man that we put in prison— Absalom?

SCULLY: He told you this was a virus?

DOGGETT: No. He said the abductees were being returned and left for dead. That if he hadn't found them and done his hocus-pocus they would've been resurrected as aliens. It was all part of some big alien takeover of the world.

(SCULLY has a Mulder-like moment of realization.)

SCULLY: That's it.

DOGGETT: What's it?

SCULLY: How Billy Miles came back so perfectly. I stood there and watched his body go into seizure just moments before this happened. On the monitor, there were two heartbeats and I told the nurse that it was just a mechanical error.

DOGGETT: You think this kid has sloughed his skin and come back as an alien?

SCULLY: And it'll happen to Mulder if we don't stop it soon.

(She starts down the hall. DOGGETT stops her.)

DOGGETT: Where are you going?

SCULLY: I need a surgical bay, a team of doctors. I have to keep Mulder's body stabilized in order to administer the vaccine.

DOGGETT: What vaccine?

SCULLY: The one I asked AD Skinner to get me.

(SCULLY leaves. DOGGETT goes back to MULDER's room. The door is closed and locked in his face. DOGGETT sees SKINNER inside the room.)

DOGGETT: Assistant Director?

(DOGGETT bangs on the door.)

DOGGETT: Open up. It's John Doggett.

(SKINNER doesn't respond. Beeping from the monitors in the room increases. DOGGETT kicks the door open. High points on AutumnT's Manly Meter there. SKINNER has removed all the life support from MULDER.)

DOGGETT: What the hell are you doing?

SKINNER: You don't understand.

(DOGGETT slams SKINNER up against the wall. [CarriK: Oh the Manly Meter just went through the roof!!])

DOGGETT: You're killing him.

SKINNER: I had no choice. He wanted me to kill Scully's baby.

DOGGETT: Who?

(SKINNER is very upset.)

SKINNER: Alex Krycek-- for the vaccine. It's the only way he'd give it to me … but I couldn't trust him. I couldn't do that to her.

DOGGETT: Where is he?

(Hospital parking garage. DOGGETT enters and begins looking around. KRYCEK is sitting in his car. He sees DOGGETT in the rearview mirror. This is unexpected. KRYCEK starts the cars and whips it into reverse. DOGGETT fires at the car, but has to leap out of the way as KRYCEK's car smashes into another parked car. DOGGETT falls to the pavement and his gun skitters away. KRYCEK throws the car into drive. DOGGETT gets up and gets hold of the car by the open driver's window. He is barely holding on.)

DOGGETT: Stop the car!

(DOGGETT punches KRYCEK who is trying to drive the car and defend himself at the same time.)

DOGGETT: Stop the car!

(KRYCEK whips the car through the deck. DOGGETT is dangling out of the window. He gets another good punch on KRYCEK. KRYCEK aims the car for a line of parked cars. He hits DOGGETT in the face. To avoid getting smashed against the other cars, DOGGETT lets go and rolls away. He is in pain. KRYCEK starts to drive off, then reverses and stops the car a few yards away and gets out. He holds up a small vial of liquid.)

KRYCEK: You looking for this? It's the vaccine for Mulder.

(Standoff. DOGGETT starts toward KRYCEK. KRECEK smiles and drops the glass vial to the pavement. It shatters and the liquid splatters out onto the ground. DOGGETT, hatred in his eyes, runs for KRYCEK who calmly gets back in his car and drives away. DOGGETT looks down at the now ruined vaccine on the pavement. CarriK wonders why he doesn't try to salvage some of it, but, hey, it's the X-Files. We don't hold onto evidence. That would make things much too easy.)

(DOGGETT enters the hospital corridor again and is met by a hopeful SKINNER.)

SKINNER: Agent Doggett. Agent Mulder's in the O.R. Did you get the vaccine?

(DOGGETT's look says no. SKINNER is devastated.)

DOGGETT: Listen to me. You weren't wrong. He wasn't to be trusted.

(Small comfort to SKINNER. DOGGETT enters the OR. A team of doctors, including SCULLY, is working on MULDER. SCULLY looks up and sees DOGGETT. She comes over to him, lowering her mask. Great stance. This is an actress who knows how to be pregnant, lol. She is tired, but now also seems more hopeful.)

DOGGETT: He's going to make it?

SCULLY: I don't know. I... I really don't know how we could've known.

DOGGETT: What?

SCULLY: That by keeping him on life support we were incubating the virus. We were hastening it along.

DOGGETT: How'd you figure it out?

SCULLY: When Skinner pulled Mulder off of the machines, his temperature dropped rapidly without affecting his vital signs.

DOGGETT: You mean Skinner saved him.

(SCULLY nods.)

DOGGETT: What about the vaccine?

SCULLY: If we can stabilize him and his temperature we can give him courses of antivirals. I think it could work.

(DOGGETT's phone rings. Hospital staff looks at him. He looks at the caller ID and leaves the room.)

(KERSH's office. DOGGETT enters.)

KERSH: John.

DOGGETT: Sir. Morning rush hour. I got here as quickly as I could.

KERSH: Missed the sunrise.

DOGGETT: I was with Agent Scully.

(KERSH is exuding evil. The bruises on DOGGETT's face from his fight with KRYCEK are starting to show up.)

KERSH: I know. It's going to be awful crowded down in that X-Files office.

(Pause. KERSH sits at his desk, puts on his glasses, and looks at a file. DOGGETT doesn't move. KERSH looks up at him.)

KERSH: Maybe you didn't hear me. I said you're on the wrong floor.

DOGGETT: (bitterly) Yes, sir.

(DOGGETT stares at KERSH a moment, then leaves.)

(MULDER is back in his hospital room, still unconscious. His colour looks better, but his face and probably the rest of his body are still scarred. SCULLY is sitting next to him, holding his hand, rubbing his fingers. She looks tired. She looks up as his hand twitches. His head moves slightly.)

SCULLY: Mulder...

(MULDER slowly opens his eyes and looks over at her. SCULLY is on the verge of tears or laughter or both. Her lips quiver as she searches for the right words to say. What comes out is: )

SCULLY: Hi.

(She smiles at him. MULDER stares at her without recognition. His voice is scratchy.)

MULDER: Who are you?

(SCULLY's face falls, her second worst nightmare coming true. Then MULDER gives her a small smile, his eyes warm. He is teasing her. SCULLY sobs in relief, tears streaming down her face.)

SCULLY: Oh, my god. Don't do that to me.

(They look at each other. He smiles gently. CarriK: Oh, they love each other. Sorry noRomos.)

SCULLY: Do you know...? Do you have any idea what you've been through?

MULDER: Only what I see in your face.

(She strokes his hair, then presses her face to his chest and lays her head down on his shoulder and holds him.)

MULDER: Anybody miss me?

(SCULLY laughs through her tears and kisses his shoulder.. MULDER gazes down over the top of her head, his face away from the door. The door opens and DOGGETT enters silently. Without moving her head from its place on MULDER's chest, SCULLY looks up at DOGGETT. There is nothing to say. DOGGETT looks at the two of them for a moment, then leaves the room. MULDER closes his eyes again, resting his head near SCULLY's. SCULLY closes her eyes also, her head tucked into MULDER's shoulder.)

[THE END]