(Mr. LaPierre is lying on the couch watching Harsh Realm.)
Mr. LaPierre: This is great.
Skinner: Why are you here, Agent Mulder?
Mulder: I want this case.
Skinner: I'm fairly certain I've got more than enough competent Agents in here.
Mulder: Ooh, I can see that.
Mulder: Two, three, four hours -- this case is going to be a circus. Every starstruck attorney in America is going to want to represent these people for free. If somebody doesn't ask the right questions right now they may never get asked.
Skinner: You've got till noon. Mulder . . . the agents in my office . . . they have a pool going.
(Mulder starts walking toward the elevator.)
Mulder: They think she's dead. Don't bet on it.
Mulder: Mr. and Mrs. LaPierre, I want you to understand something because it's going to get very confusing from here on in. But whatever else the FBI says or does they're going to try their damnedest to find your little girl.
Mrs. LaPierre: Okay.
Mulder: Thank you.
(He starts to leave.)
Mrs. LaPierre: Agent Mulder . . . do you think they will? Find her?
Mulder: (softly) Oh, I hope so. Yeah . . . I really do.
Scully: Mind if I turn on a light?
Mulder: (softly) Yeah. I do.
Scully: You're personalizing this case. You're identifying with your sister.
Mulder: (with a soft smile at himself) My sister was taken by aliens. Did I say anything about aliens, Scully.
Mulder: What did I do? I provided a logical counterpoint.
Scully: You told them that they were wrong, Mulder.
Mulder: And they are.
Scully: You're personalizing this case.
Mulder: No, I'm going to solve this case. I am going to solve it.
Scully: How?
Mulder: I'm going to find those kids.
Mulder: (on video) . . . Federal investigation of the case will continue but will no longer focus on the LaPierres as primary suspects. We, uh, we will intensify our search for Amber Lynn and we remain hopeful of her eventual safe return.
Skinner: (pausing the video) Intensify our search where? The twilight zone?
Mulder: There's a material connection between these two women.
Skinner: The only connection, Agent Mulder, is you. I've got people busting their butts on this thing, Agent Mulder. Putting together hard evidence, real evidence while you're out gathering Grimm's Fairy Tales from convicted murderers.
Mulder: It doesn't make sense. It's incomprehensible in any kind of a real world way.
Skinner: I deal in the real world, Agent Mulder. You begged onto this case as part of the solution. All you've done is hand our only suspects the Twinkie Defense.
Scully: Sir?
Skinner: (very irritated) What? What is it, Agent Scully?
Scully: I need to have a word with Agent Mulder.
Skinner: It can wait.
Scully: No, it can't, sir.
Mulder: What is it, Scully?
Scully: (softly) Mulder, your mom's dead.
Mulder: (rationalizing, grasping) Look at this place. I mean, it's like . . . it's-it's all staged -- the pills, the oven, the tape. It's like a bad movie script. They would . . . they would have come here and they would have threatened her. She would be upset; they would have to sedate her. I would look for a, uh . . . a needle puncture mark or something else in her system besides these pills.
Scully: Oh, no, Mulder. Please don't ask me to do this.
Mulder: Scully, who else can I ask?
Scully: An autopsy, Mulder? I mean, it's one thing on a stranger but you're my friend, and she's your mother . . .
Mulder: I know, but if you don't do it, I might never know the truth.
(Mulder's apartment – he’s rewinding and listening to the message on his answering machine over and over. It's not easy for him.)
Teena Mulder: Fox, it's your mother. I'd hoped you'd call upon your return but I haven't heard from you. I'm sure you're busy. There are . . . so many emotions in me I wouldn't know where to start. So much that I've left unsaid, for reasons I hope one day you'll understand.
(He rewinds again and puts his head close to the machine)
Mrs. Mulder: There are . . . so many emotions in me I wouldn't know where to start. So much that I've left unsaid for reasons I hope one day you'll understand.
(He leans his head on the machine. There is a knock at the door. Mulder opens it for Scully. She looks sad and tired.)
Mulder: I'm glad you're here. My mother was trying to tell me something. I think I
figured it out. It's something about my sister that she was never able to tell me.
(He plays the tape for her.)
Mrs. Mulder: So much that I've left unsaid for reasons I hope one day you'll understand.
Mulder: She knew what I'd find with this case out in California.
Scully: How could she know that, Mulder?
Mulder: A child disappearing without a trace -- without evidence -- in defiance of all logical explanation? She knew because of what's driven me -- what I've always believed.
Scully: Mulder . . .
Mulder: Scully, these parents who've lost . . . (swallows painfully) . . . who've lost their children . . . They've had visions of their sons and daughters in scenarios that never happened but which they describe in notes that came through them as automatic writing and words that came through them psychically from old souls protecting the children. My mother must have written a note like that herself. Describing the scenario of my sister's disappearance of her, of her abduction by aliens. Don't you see, Scully? It never happened. All these visions that I've had have just been . . . they've been to help me cope, to help me deal with the loss but . . . I've been looking for my sister in the wrong place. That's . . . what my mother was trying to tell me. That's what she was trying to warn me about. That's why they killed her.
(Scully is sitting facing him.)
Scully: Your mother killed herself, Mulder. I conducted the autopsy. She was dying of an incurable disease. An untreatable and horribly disfiguring disease called Paget's Carcinoma. She knew it. There were doctor's records. She didn't want to live.
(Mulder stares at her a moment, then puts his face in his hands. Suddenly he stands and shakes the desk violently. Scully touches his arm to calm him down. He pulls away in agony, starting to break down.)
Scully: Mulder . . .
Mulder: She was trying to tell me something. She was . . . (voice breaking as he cries) . . . trying to tell me something.
(Scully is almost crying herself.)
Scully: Mulder, she was trying to tell you to stop. To stop looking for your sister. She was just trying to take away your pain.
(Mulder turns to her desperately and holds her tightly around her waist and cries. Scully holds him and puts her lips against his neck. She rocks him gently.)
Skinner: Hi.
Scully: Hi.
Skinner: How's he doing?
Scully: It's been a hard night for him.
Mulder: What is it?
Skinner: This case has heated up. I've booked two flights for us.
(Scully looks up at Mulder. Mulder nods and goes back into the apartment. Scully looks at Skinner.)
Scully: Well, then you better book three.
Skinner: You think their daughter's dead.
Scully: Well, what about the handwritten note?
Mulder: (sad, tired) I don't know what that means. I don't know what is the truth and what isn't anymore. I'm way too close to this case to make any kind of sound judgment. In fact, I would like to ask for you to let me off this case, please, and I'd like to take some time off.
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