The X-Files

We call it the miracle of life.

Conception.

A union of perfect opposites.

Essence transforming into existence.

An act without which mankind would not exist and humanity cease to exist.

Or is this just nostalgia now?

An act of biology commandeered by modern science and technology.

Godlike, we extract, implant, inseminate, and we clone.

But has our ingenuity rendered the miracle into a simple trick?

In the artifice of replicating life, can we become the creator?

Then what of the soul? Can it, too, be replicated?

Does it live in this matter we call DNA?

Or is its placement the opposite of artifice, capable only by God?

How did this child come to be?

What set its heart beating?

Is it the product of a union?

Or the work of a divine hand?

An answered prayer? A true miracle?

Or is it a wonder of technology, the intervention of other hands?

What do I tell this child about to be born?

What do I tell Scully?

What do I tell myself?

You know, it'd be a lot easier for everyone if you would just tell us the sex, Dana.

- Did you hear me? - Yes, I heard you, Mom.

For the thousandth time, you can wait.

Didn't you have to wait with us?

I know it's a boy. I can tell by the way you're carrying. It's a boy.

You obviously don't need me to tell you because you already know.

Then it's a boy? It's the least you can tell me, considering everything you're keeping secret.

- (knocking) - We told people noon, right?

Hi. Your mom said to cover all the bases.

- I'm Lizzy Gill. - Let me give you a hand with that.

- I asked Lizzy to help out today. - Oh. Hi.

These are gonna need some water. Congratulations, by the way.

Mom...

- What do we need help with? - I don't know. It's just...

You shouldn't have to worry. You have to let people do for you.

She's a very highly recommended baby nurse, by the way.

Oh, Mom!

This has got to be a conspiracy.

AW!

Maybe it'll be twins.

Thank you, but I would settle for one very healthy boy.

OT girl!

- So many secrets, Margaret. - What do you expect? She works for the FBI.

- Oh, dear! - I got it. Here.

Moving in. The white tornado.

- Thank you, Lizzy. - No problem.

Just think about it.

- Excuse me, can I help you? - Dr Lev, isn't it?

I'm sorry. I don't know who you are or how you got in here but we don't allow visitors.

I won't be visiting long.

I've just come to verify it's true.

Verify that what's true?

That your work's been fruitful.

I can see that it has by the abomination you're holding in your hands.

You'll have to leave now.

Your work here is done.

Dale Jarrett right in the pack battling hard against Ricky Craven for seventh place. Jeff?

Yeah, Mike. I was down in the 88 car pit when Dale Jarrett came in. His car was just a little...

The last person I'd expect to see on a Saturday morning. Agent Mulder.

You can drop the Agent, Agent Doggett. It's just plain Fox Mulder now.

Right.

You want to come in, Fox? I'm just watching a race.

That's what I was doing. A slightly different race, though.

...a medical research clinic in Germantown, Maryland, which burned down last night,

in what firefighters characterise as an accelerated blaze.

Accelerated because of the intensity of the fire,

which officials say is a definite case of arson.

- Zeus Genetics. That ring a bell? - Yeah.

Scully believed they were putting alien babies in women against their will.

Wasn't ever completely explained.

Looks like an attempt to make sure it never will be.

That's more than an attempt. There's going to be nothing left.

I think that's the idea, to cover up the research going on there.

That's why I came to talk to you.

- What do you want from me? - How about a ride?

Hey, Gene.

Not the way I want to spend my Saturday. I had to leave my kid's ball game.

Sorry. I didn't say you had to come.

Fire Marshall thought I was kidding when I asked to sift all this. Seeing it?

I thought I was kidding too.

He put you on to this, didn't he?

What the hell are you doing? You don't have to answer to him. He's out of the Bureau.

- He thinks something's here. - There is.

Just nothing the FBI needs to be looking for.

Agent Doggett'?

I hope you don't mind me dropping your name with the local PD.

They've contacted everyone at Zeus Genetics except for one man, a Dr Lev.

- A founder, and head of clinical research. - You think we'll find him here in the ashes?

That would stand to reason.

What is it we're looking for, being I'm starting to piss a lot of people off, Mr Mulder?

Pissing people off comes with the territory. It's part of working on the X-Files.

At the risk of pissing you off, I've wasted enough of my weekend.

I told you Dr Lev was a founder of the clinic. Want to know who his cofounder was?

Dr Parenti. Agent Scully's obstetrician through the first two-thirds of her pregnancy.

- He burned down the clinic? - Don't know.

But if I'm the agent assigned to the X-Files, I sure as hell would want to ask him.

Worst it could do is piss him off.

Knock! Knock!

- We get caught, what you going to say then? - I'll just say I'm with you, Agent Doggett.

It's Saturday anyway, right? We're just having a look around.

Hey, Mulder.

- Who are you? - Me?

Yes, you. What do you think you're doing in this office?

I'm with an FBI agent who'd like to ask you the same question. Dr Parenti, isn't it?

I'm in the middle of a delicate procedure.

Whatever you want, you can't barge in here. I don't care who you are.

This medical procedure, it have anything to do with this?

Please...

Why don't you tell us what we're looking at here?

You have no right to be here. I want you to leave.

What is this? Some kind of showroom?

You know what I've been through in the past 24 hours?

Close friend and colleague is missing. Much of my life's work has been destroyed.

How about you explain what you are doing, what these things are?

They are what we are all working to prevent: children with non-survivable birth defects.

Including experiments with alien embryos? Work you'd destroy to hide such allegations?

- Where do you get these ideas? - From a former patient of yours. Dana Scully.

If I'm such a Dr Frankenstein, how is it that Ms Scully is carrying a healthy child?

- In her own medical opinion. - Is she?

I'd say this man's suitably pissed off. Why don't we let him get back to work?

- Let's go, Mulder. - Thank you.

Dana?

Sorry.

Horse pills.

I'm about to leave. Your dinner's in the oven.

I just wanted to say that I hope this is working out. It's important to your mom.

It is. And I appreciate your help.

I didn't quite realise how much I needed it.

I'll see you.

How's it going?

- You look unsure. - No. I think she trusts me.

Good. We're almost at the end.

You found something, didn't you?

- You still answering to him? - We found teeth and a porcelain bridge.

- We're waiting on Dr Lev's dental records. - Anything else?

Unidentifiable biological material fused with laboratory-grade silica.

I know. A lot here is unidentifiable. Doesn't mean it's alien.

Let's ask Dr Parenti, if it's OK with Agent Crane.

Hello?

Hello?

- Packing, Dr Parenti? - I'm sorry. This office is closed.

Yes, it is.

The man loves his work.

Dr Parenti?

Agent Doggett.

Look at this.

Dr Parenti?

Dr Parenti?

What the hell is that?

Mulder!

Mulder, better come see this.

Mulder?

Right there! Don't move! Stop!

Stop there!

Stop there or I'll shoot!

Hold still, Mulder. This should just about do it.

- Scully! - Sorry,

I see why you gave up a career in medicine for the FBI. You've got manos de piedra.

- Sorry. - Imagine if he'd really connected.

- Who? - Billy Miles.

Billy Miles?

- He did this? - Ask Agent Doggett. He saw him.

If you ask me, the kid was whacked out. Whatever it was, he was feeling no pain.

- Ask me, the kid isn't a kid. - Don't tell me he's an alien.

He is a type of alien.

A human replacement. Look at his strength, the way he took those slugs.

I've seen plenty of guys on chemicals keep on coming.

You're ignoring who he is. You, of all people, who's supposedly running the X-Files.

You're ignoring the fact he bled red blood.

Every single X-File I read, and I read them all, Mulder,

what you call aliens bleed green, right?

Well, Billy Miles is a whole new deal.

He's an alien abductee who was returned after hideous procedures were performed on him,

and who miraculously returns to so-called perfect health when his body sheds its skin.

- Same thing happened to you. - Would've happened if I'd been left alone.

If Scully hadn't treated me.

What was Billy Miles doing at that medical office?

Same as when he torched Zeus Genetics

and destroyed their experiments with aliens and the doctors performing them.

And what were you doing there, Mulder?

Looking for answers.

To what?

- One of those doctors was your doctor. - Mulder...

I need to know that this baby of yours is going to be all right.

My baby is fine, Mulder.

I've had it checked over and over again with my new doctor, that I trust implicitly.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't...