INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - EVENING

The camera follows SPECIAL AGENT JOHN DOGGETT walking along the hallway. He passes a man, we know as ALEX KRYCEK. Doggett doesn’t pay him much attention until he arrives at the door of Mulder’s hospital room and realizes, that’s where the man came from.

Doggett turns to look after him, the camera turns as well. We follow Doggett’s gaze, watching Krycek walking out the hospital doors.

We cut to Doggett’s face up close, turning to look into the hospital room. AD WALTER SKINNER, inside, meeting his eyes.

Then cut to Skinner’s perspective, we look back at Doggett, watch him turn to see:

SPECIAL AGENT DANA SCULLY. She exits another room, leafing through a notepad of medical records and stats. Doggett walks up to her, cuts off her path.

DOGGETT

Where are you goin’?

SCULLY

I don’t have time to debate our differences. I strongly believe Agent Mulder is infected with a virus.[...] 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

(exhausted)

Agent Doggett, I don’t have time to argue.

DOGGETT

(cutting in)

I’m not arguin’[...]

Scully raises a brow.

DOGGETT

(cont.)

This man that we put in prison, Absalom? [...] He said abductees were being returned and left for dead. And if he hadn’t had 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's eyes widen, suddenly seeing the big picture

SCULLY

(excited)

That’s it.

DOGGETT

What’s it?

SCULLY

[...] It’ll happen to Mulder if we don’t stop it soon.

Scully pushes past Doggett, suddenly animated.

DOGGETT

(with a mix of worry and confusion)

Where are you goin’?

She turns back to him, now in action mode

SCULLY

(hastily)

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.

Doggett stills, squints. He thinks of the man he has seen coming from Mulder’s room right before their conversation. Thinks of Skinner, alone in the room and the look that he has given him.

DOGGETT

(slowly, ominous)

Skinner...

SCULLY

What?

She reads Doggett’s expression, the sudden fear in his eyes.

SCULLY

(cont. louder, panicked)

What?

Without waiting for an answer, she whirls around and makes for Mulder’s room. Doggett is right behind her.

INT. FOX MULDER'S HOSPITAL ROOM

It is dark, the only light source is a fluorescent lamp above the bed in which SPECIAL AGENT FOX MULDER lies unconscious.

We see , standing over the bed, holding the intubation tube previously inserted into Mulder’s esophagus. He has pulled out the IV as well, along with various medical sensors. The life-support equipment is going crazy.

Skinner steps back from the bed. The look in his eyes pained.

As the beeping continues, we hear the door being thrown open and the camera pans to the right where we see Scully in the bright square of the open door. Her eyes are wide, her mouth open in shock at the picture in front of her. Doggett behind her, looks over her shoulder, his face just as horrified.

SCULLY

(almost screaming)

What the hell are you doing?

She rushes out to the left, towards Mulder.

We want to see what she sees, but the camera pans to the right, following Doggett who jumps Skinner. There is a short struggle, then Doggett has Skinner in a choke hold against the wall.

DOGGETT

(pressed)

Right, Sir, What the hell?

SKINNER

(choked)

Doggett, stop. You don’t understand.

Instead of letting go, Doggett gives him another shove

DOGGETT

(growling)

Then make me.

A beat. The two men staring at each other. The camera slowly moves around them. Finally Doggett takes half a step back and loosens his grip on Skinner.

SKINNER

It’s the vaccine. Krycek has it.

His face twists, uneasy.

He wanted me to kill Scully’s baby for it.

A beat and Doggett, face frozen in anger and horror, steps away as the camera pans right again to:

Scully standing still over Mulder, the life-support equipment around her is still blinking, but the sound is muted now.

We slowly pan in unto Scully and the still figure of Mulder in the bed. Is he still breathing? How long will he last? We can’t know. All we can see is Scully’s reaction. His limp hand in hers.

Scully has heard what Skinner said and looks up now, tears streaming down her face. She knows Skinner did the right thing, the thing Mulder would have wanted and yet the pain is too much for her to bare.

She sinks down on a waiting chair, placing her left hand on her belly. Building the bridge between father and child. It might be the last family moment they will ever share.

Scully hangs her head, face hidden behind her hair, but we can see from the sobs shaking her whole body how hard she is crying.

DOGGETT

(out off frame, to Skinner)

Where’s the bastard?

SKINNER

(defeated)

He’s gone.

Again the camera pans to the right. We see a couple of monitors, unfocused, on the left and Agent Doggett, rushing out, the door falling shut behind him. A beat, then:

The focus shifts to the monitors. From the right Skinner steps into frame, surveying the the monitors with furrowed brows, Mulder’s vital signs.

SKINNER

(surprised but hesitant)

Agent Scully? I think you need to take a look at this.

Skinner turns his head, looks directly into the camera and at us. There is something like hope in his expression.