9ABX17 William

Mr Van de Kamp: Easy there, hon. You're cleaning so hard I'm afraid you're going to stick the dog in the dishwasher. Hey. Come on, now. Quit it. This is what we dreamed about. What we prayed for.

Mrs Van de Kamp: I know. I'm sorry. I just can't stop wondering why. Why give up a child? Give it up to strangers?

Mr Van de Kamp: God has his reason and his ways. [A car arrives, two social workers with a child get out]

Older Social Worker: Mr and Mrs Van de Kamp. Hi. This was so hard to find. I'm so sorry, but there's a page here that didn't get signed. If I can just get you to do that now.

Mr Van de Kamp: Okay.

Older Social Worker: Here we go. Right there.

Mr Van de Kamp: Thanks.

Mrs Van de Kamp: I keep asking myself a question. I know there's been a medical exam... but are you sure he's okay?

Mr Van de Kamp: Now, honey.

Mrs Van de Kamp: Well, why would the mother give him up?

Older Social Worker: You should understand... this was a life choice by a single mother and a terribly difficult decision for her. But I can say; it was only for the good of the child.

Young Social Worker: I want you to meet William.

---

Doggett: 1,492... 1,493... 20. [He's reading a file and doing push ups on the office floor, he finishes and rolls on his back] They don't pay me enough.

---

Scully: Agent Reyes.

Reyes: Agent Scully.

Scully: Do we know who he is?

Reyes: He says his name is Miller, but he has no identification on him. Beyond that, we don't know a lot.

Scully: Why are the lights off?

Reyes: He wouldn't speak with them on.

Scully: What do you mean?

Reyes: If you saw him in the light, you'd understand. Something's wrong with his face. He's been severely burned — by fire or maybe acid.

Scully: And he says he knows me?

Reyes: And that he's afraid. A victim of what he calls the alien conspiracy.

---

Doggett: You won't talk to me. You going to talk to her, Mr Miller?

Jeffrey Spender: If she'll help me and protect me.

Doggett: You better hope she's feeling more charitable than I am, partner. [Scully enters the room] Agent Scully. He's under arrest for assaulting a federal officer. I've explained to him the penalties, but he still refuses a lawyer.

Scully: How did he get in the building?

Doggett: We found a card key on him. Says it was given to him by Fox Mulder.

Scully: His name is Miller?

Doggett: Daniel Miller of Fredericksburg. He gave us an address, but we're still working on the confirmation.

Scully: What are you doing here?

Jeffrey Spender: I came here to find answers.

Scully: Answers to what?

Jeffrey Spender: To this. What they did to me.

Scully: From your scarring, it appears that you've been burned. Are you claiming that someone burned you and that there is evidence here to incriminate them?

Jeffrey Spender: According to Fox Mulder, the men who did this are part of a government conspiracy.

Scully: Go on.

Jeffrey Spender: You know who these men are.

Scully: Did Mulder tell you that, too? When?

Jeffrey Spender: If I were to tell you that, you might use the information to find him. Mulder doesn't want to be found.

Doggett: When I searched him I found those X-Files stuffed inside his clothes. [Scully pulls out a photo] You know who that is?

Scully: It's his sister.

Doggett: Whose?

Jeffrey Spender: Mulder's. She was abducted from her home when she was a little girl — part of this same government conspiracy.

Scully: You seem to know a lot, Mr Miller. It gives an impression either that you are telling the truth or you just want us to believe that you are.

Jeffrey Spender: If I thought you'd believe me, I wouldn't have snuck in here.

Scully: Agent Doggett. Would you please arrange the transfer of this man to Quantico? I'd like to personally examine his injuries.

---

Scully: From the tissue quality, your scarring is fairly recent... the extent of it severe, but it's not from burning or chemicals.

Jeffrey Spender: No.

Scully: What is it, then?

Reyes: Mr Miller?

Jeffrey Spender: I was injected.

Scully: Injected with what?

Jeffrey Spender: I don't know. It burned. Throughout my whole body, inside and out. [Doggett enters the room]

Doggett: Agent Scully, Agent Reyes. I need to speak to you. [They leave the examining room]

Scully: What is it, Agent Doggett?

Doggett: I've been out running this man's supposed ID. There's seven Daniel Millers in Fredericksburg, but I can tell you he isn't one of them.

Reyes: Then who is he?

Doggett: I got an idea, but you're not going to believe it.

Scully: Well, who is he?

Doggett: You asked him how he got in the FBI — how he knows what he knows.

Scully: He said that he contacted Agent Mulder — that Mulder told him...

Doggett: I don't think so. I don't think Mulder told him anything. I think that how he got in here and the reason he knows what he knows is because that man in there is Mulder.

Scully: That's ridiculous. It's absurd.

Doggett: Is it? What is true and what we want to be true, aren't always the same.

Scully: I'm telling you, that's not Mulder.

Doggett: I hope you prove me wrong.

---

Scully: Can you open your mouth, Sir? I need to look at your dental work.

Jeffrey Spender: You're not going to tell me I need braces, are you?

Scully: Now your eyes.

Jeffrey Spender: Are you going to help me?

Scully: I don't know how I can.

Jeffrey Spender: Help me make them pay for this.

Scully: You... refer to them as if I know them or know where they are.

Jeffrey Spender: They did terrible things to you, too. When you were abducted.

Scully: Sir, you've given us a false name. We know that your name is not Daniel Miller.

Jeffrey Spender: No, it's not.

Scully: What is it?

Jeffrey Spender: I can't say.

Scully: Well, why lie to us, if you want us to help you?

Jeffrey Spender: Because there are people working here at the FBI who would kill me if they knew I was being held here. The same people who would kill Mulder.

Scully: You can put your clothes back on now.

Jeffrey Spender: I'm asking for your help, but I might be able to help you.

Scully: How can you help me?

Jeffrey Spender: You're looking for answers, too.

---

Scully: It's not him. It's not Mulder.

Doggett: You're absolutely sure of that?

Scully: Yes. And so will we all be once you bring me back his DNA tests.

Reyes: What do we do with him now?

Scully: Well, admittedly he's lying about who he is, but the danger to him may be real. I think we need to figure out what it is that he wants and then see if he lies about that, too.

Doggett: How are we going to do that?

Scully: Well, first, I think we need to quietly get him back to DC. To FBI headquarters.

---

Scully: You came here looking for something. What is it that you hope to find?

Jeffrey Spender: I didn't find it.

Reyes: You stole several files pertaining to the 1973 abduction of Mulder's sister. But yet you say there's danger to your life right now.

Jeffrey Spender: The conspiracy to keep the truth about aliens from the American public all but destroyed a few years ago, has given rise to a new conspiracy in the government now, by men who are alien themselves.

Scully: And what does this have to do with you?

Jeffrey Spender: What you can see they did to me, was a failed attempt to turn me into one of these alien men. I was a guinea pig — a test subject. And now I want to expose their evil plans.

Reyes: What plans are those?

Jeffrey Spender: To do this to you... to everyone. Mulder said there were files here — cases like mine. He gave me names and case numbers, but I don't see them. They're not here. Someone's already removed them.

Scully: Yes.

Reyes: Who?

---

[Scully opens her closet door and pulls out a file storage box]

Scully: This is what you're looking for.

Jeffrey Spender: You trust me? Thank you.

[Scully and Reyes walk into the kitchen]

Reyes: What are you doing?

Scully: Proving Agent Doggett wrong. That that's not Mulder in there.

Reyes: How? I don't understand.

Scully: Mulder and I agreed to take those files out of the X-Files office and leave them here for safekeeping. Mulder would have known where they were. And that man in there didn't. [William Scully begins crying, Scully and Reyes go to check on him and find Jeffrey Spender standing over the cot] What are you doing? Get away from the crib!

Jeffrey Spender: The baby was crying...

Scully: It's none of your business!

Jeffrey Spender: I'm sorry. I'd heard so much about William. Mulder told me how he missed him.

Scully: Well, if that's true, then where the hell is he? Just tell me where he is!

Jeffrey Spender: You don't want to know.

Scully: I have to know.

Jeffrey Spender: He's in pain. Terrible pain.

Scully: Then let me go to him.

Jeffrey Spender: There's nothing you can do.

Scully: That's not for you to decide.

Jeffrey Spender: You know as well as I, that's Mulder's decision. I... he begged me to honour it. For your safety... and William's.

Reyes: Here, Dana, let me take him for you.

Jeffrey Spender: No. Please. May I? I want to hold him.

Reyes: Mr Miller...

Jeffrey Spender: No, it's important I do this. I want to hold him for Mulder. [Scully hands him William Scully] He's so beautiful.

---

Doggett: Assistant Director. You said you've spoken to the lab.

Skinner: I got some advance info on the exam that Scully performed on the man.

Doggett: What?

Skinner: The blood type matches Mulder's, but there are aspects of the physiology that aren't a match.

Doggett: Such as?

Skinner: Well, the body mass, of course. He's shorter and weighs considerably less than Mulder did.

Doggett: You haven't seen this guy — what they've done to him. They way he's twisted, he's like an old man. He could be a hundred years old.

Skinner: Yeah, I'm just relaying the facts. And the fact is, he's not a hundred years old, is he? Not the way he attacked you. Well, whoever he is, he wants something.

Doggett: He says he wants revenge, against the people that burned him. And Mulder directed him to the place where he could find the files and the people who did it.

Skinner: That doesn't make any sense. Mulder knows those files inside out. Why would he direct him? Why not just tell him? [answering phone] Skinner. Yeah. You're sure about that? All right. [He hangs up]

Doggett: What?

Skinner: That was the lab. They were able to rush the PCR test and they came up with a definitive DNA result.

Doggett: What is it?

Skinner: Where is this man right now?

---

Scully: It's all been a good act.

Jeffrey Spender: I don't know what you mean.

Scully: I think you do. You knew those files were here. You just pretended not to, so that I'd bring you here to see William.

Jeffrey Spender: No.

Scully: I want the truth from you.

Jeffrey Spender: What truth?

Scully: The truth that you won't speak.

Jeffrey Spender: I want the same truth you do.

Scully: Don't do this to me. Not you.

Jeffrey Spender: I didn't come here to upset you. I didn't plan on being caught. I know you must have a hard life living alone raising a son not knowing whether you'll see Mulder again.

Scully: How do you know my life?

Jeffrey Spender: I know what Mulder knows. I know they used you to create the child. I know they continue to use you to take care of it and raise it.

Scully: What are you saying?

Jeffrey Spender: You know what I'm saying. Your son — your child is part alien.

Scully: Just tell me who you are. Come on, just say your name. Say it! Just say it!

Reyes: Agent Scully...

Scully: [to Reyes] Could you please leave? And close the door?

Reyes: [to Jeffrey Spender] Can you step out, please?

Scully: This was a private conversation.

Reyes: I understand. I'm sorry. [Jeffrey Spender leaves]

Scully: Do you know who that man is?

Reyes: Yes, I do.

Doggett: Agent Scully...

Scully: What is this? What?

Doggett: We got DNA results. A positive ID.

Scully: It's not him. He wouldn't say these things.

Doggett: The DNA's a match to Fox Mulder's.

Scully: It's not him.

---

Doggett: Can we get you anything?

Scully: No thank you. I just need a minute. [She goes to her bedroom, Doggett and Reyes enter the living room]

Doggett: Where'd he go?

Reyes: I don't know. I'll go check the nursery. [Doggett notices that the front door is ajar]

Doggett: Monica, stay with Scully.

---

Doggett: Hey! [He gives chase. Jeffrey Spender grabs a package secreted behind a dumpster before running again. Doggett runs him into a dead-end and tackles him when he tries to run out] No more running, Mulder. We're going to protect you now.

---

Reyes: Give him some time.

Doggett: You're going to live, buddy.

Jeffrey Spender: Think it's going to scar? [He has a graze on his chin]

Reyes: We're going to talk, but first you're going to get some sleep.

---

Scully: So, what now?

Reyes: What do you mean?

Scully: What do you want to do?

Doggett: Keep it a secret, for starters.

Scully: Well, that's not going to be hard. Nobody's ever going to believe that that's Mulder.

Reyes: Somebody did this to him. Whoever that is, is going to know it's him. I mean, that's what he's afraid of.

Scully: If he's so afraid, then why did he run?

Doggett: You still don't believe it's him.

Scully: You know a person in so many ways. Ways that a test can't even begin to know.

Doggett: Look, I'll be happy to run his DNA again for you, but I don't have to tell you what a long shot it is. I mean, it came up a perfect match.

Reyes: You asked why he'd run. Stop and think how hard this is for him. I mean, the way he looks.

Scully: If that was Mulder, I wouldn't care.

Reyes: But he cares. He has to.

Doggett: Maybe he's ashamed.

Scully: Of what?

Doggett: Not just the way he looks, but you let him go to protect him, only he couldn't protect himself.

Scully: You believe that?

Doggett: I don't know. We'll have a better sense when he wakes up.

---

Scully: [to William Scully] It's okay.

Reyes: Is he okay?

Scully: Oh, my god, there's blood! Oh, my god!

Reyes: There's blood on the sheets.

Scully: What'd he do to him? What'd he do to him?

---

Scully: Where's Dr Edwards?

Dr Newman: I'm Dr Newman. I'm going to take your baby.

Scully: He's been injected with something.

Dr Newman: We're taking him to trauma. Airways are open. Lungs are clear. Heart rate slightly elevated. Skin is warm. Nondiaphoretic.

Reyes: I spoke to another doctor, a woman — Dr Edwards.

Dr Edwards: I'm Whitney Edwards. Agent Reyes?

Reyes: Yes. This is Dana Scully.

Dr Edwards: Do we have any idea what he's been injected with?

Scully: I've no idea. I don't know. I don't know.

Dr Edwards: We're going to run some tests on him...

Scully: I'm a medical doctor, okay? Can I...

Dr Edwards: Good. Then you know what this is all about. You just need to sit tight for me and let us do our job.

---

Doggett: What'd you do to him? What'd you do? Where'd you put it? [He searches the room, finding the syringe beneath the mattress] Is this it? Is this what you used? Answer me!

Jeffrey Spender: Yes.

Doggett: Anything happens to that kid, I'm going to take you out personally. I don't care who the hell you are.

---

Reyes: Here she comes.

Scully: How is he? Is he all right?

Dr Edwards: He's good. He's doing fine.

Scully: Oh, god.

Reyes: Can she see him?

Dr Edwards: We have him in step down right now as a precaution, but I think he'll be going home in no time.

Scully: What did you find?

Dr Edwards: Nothing.

Reyes: How could you find nothing? There would have to be something.

Dr Edwards: There's some slight bruising on the head where something clearly broke the skin, but... he's fine.

Reyes: What about a tox screen?

Dr Edwards: There's an elevated amount of iron in his blood, but other than that, your son is completely normal.

Reyes: That doesn't make sense.

Scully: No... I think it does. It makes perfect sense now.

---

Scully: I have seen my share of the hideous, of the disgusting and the repellent, but you, Sir, are the most perfect expression I will ever see of all that is vile and hateful in life.

Jeffrey Spender: That may well be, but for a moment, you believed it — that I was him.

Scully: I never believed it.

Jeffrey Spender: You wanted to believe.

Scully: You are as false as your face. I bet you wish night and day that that bullet that was meant to kill you had succeeded.

---

Skinner: I don't believe this.

Doggett: What?

Skinner: Who this is.

---

Jeffrey Spender: You're wrong about that. When I look in the mirror I see something much different than the world sees. He could destroy my face and my dignity when he shot me in that office... but he couldn't destroy the one thing I love most — my hatred of him.

Scully: Your cigarette-smoking, son of a bitch of a father.

Jeffrey Spender: And Mulder's.

Scully: You counted on the DNA... that we'd buy it without question and not look any further. DNA's what Mulder shared with Jeffrey Spender.

Jeffrey Spender: Ah. Half brothers raised apart — that's about all that Mulder and I ever shared.

Scully: You haven't seen Mulder, have you? You haven't even talked to him. So, getting caught at the FBI... winning our trust was all towards one thing. It was only to get to William.

Jeffrey Spender: Sitting here, you'd wish me dead. Shortly, I'll do you the favour.

Scully: I had this checked. It's an unknown metal, that you injected into my son.

Jeffrey Spender: It's a form of magnetite. A gift.

Scully: A gift?

Jeffrey Spender: Having failed as a conspirator to control alien colonisation, my father wanted nothing more than to see the world fail, too.

Scully: So what, you've prevented it now? You've... prevented alien colonisation by injecting this metal into my son?

Jeffrey Spender: Your son is the one thing the aliens need. I took revenge on my father by taking William away from them.

Scully: So, he's all right now? I mean, just like that? [Jeffrey Spender nods] So it's over. They'll let him be.

Jeffrey Spender: It'll never be over. They'll always know what he was. They'll never accept what he is.

Scully: Well, I can protect him.

Jeffrey Spender: And if you can't? Look at me... what they did. Is this what you want for your son?

---

Reyes: Dana... the room's all fresh for you. I threw out all the old bedding and bought some brand-new stuff, okay?

Scully: Thank you.

Reyes: I know it's impossible to stop thinking about what he said, about William... but it's all lies, Dana, and you were the one who proved it.

Scully: And how should I prove it now? By insisting that I can protect him... only to learn too late that I can't?

Reyes: You say it as if you have a choice.

Scully: He didn't have a choice to come into this life. I don't have a choice about what he is or was... but I do have a choice about the life my son will have... And shouldn't I choose that he never have to be afraid of anyone or anything? And can I ever really even promise him that?

Reyes: But who can?