The X-Files - 4.

4.14 Leonard Betts

German title: Leonard Betts

SCENE 1 PITTSBURGH, PA

(Ambulance on route to Hospital. EMT MICHELLE is driving, EMT LEONARD BETTS is working on a patient in the back.)

MICHELLE: (on radio) Monogehela. We’re en route with a male cardiac, age 62. ETA in 12.

HOSPITAL DISPATCH: (voice) Copy. ETA in 12. Crash unit standing by.

MICHELLE: How’s he looking, Leonard?

LEONARD: Up to his ass in alligators.

(Patient is wheezing. MICHELLE keeps glancing over her shoulder to watch LEONARD work.)

MICHELLE: Is he going into arrest?

LEONARD: No, he’s not.

(LEONARD sticks a needle into the patient’s chest. Vital signs on monitor jump back to normal.)

MICHELLE: What did you do?

LEONARD: Aspirated his chest. He has a tension pneumothorax pressing on his heart. It just looked like a cardiac.

MICHELLE: Nice catch. How did you know?

LEONARD: Because he’s dying of cancer. It’s already eaten through one lung.

MICHELLE: That’s amazing. How did you know, Leonard?

(Because MICHELLE is looking over her shoulder, she doesn’t see streetlight signal change from yellow to red. A pickup truck broadsides the left side of the ambulance, completely crushing the back. When the ambulance comes to a skidding halt, MICHELLE, groggy and bleeding from a cut on her forehead, gets out and begins looking for LEONARD.)

MICHELLE: Leonard? Leonard? Leonard?

(She sees LEONARD’S decapitated body lying near the crushed ambulance, then sees his head a few feet away.)

MICHELLE: Oh, God. Leonard.

SCENE 2 (Morgue. MORGUE BOY closes the drawer containing the dead patient. We also see a drawer labeled LEONARD BETTS. MICHELLE, head now bandaged, looks in the morgue sadly. She closes the door and leaves.)

(Later, MORGUE BOY has his headphones on and is reading. There is a metallic rattling sound. MORGUE BOY listens for a moment, then goes back to reading. He listens again as there is a thumping sound.)

MORGUE BOY: Hello?

(MORGUE BOY goes to investigate. He sees LEONARD’S head lying on the floor. When he bends down to investigate, a figure standing behind him hits him on the head with a long metal object. MORGUE BOY passes out. In the reflection of the metal drawers, we see the naked figure walking through the morgue. The image is very distorted.)

Opening credits. Mulder … Whooo. Scully rocks.

SCENE 3 MONGHEHELA GENERAL HOSPITAL PITTSBURGH, PA

(Next day. Morgue. MULDER and SCULLY are looking inside LEONARD’S now empty drawer. Camera angle is from inside the drawer. CarriK: Very cool shot.)

MULDER: Pretty cozy. Who’d ever want to leave.

SCULLY: Well, whoever happened to get locked in here last night, I guess.

MULDER: That would be one Leonard Morris Betts, age 34. But it should probably be noted that when Mr. Betts arrived here last night he was sans head. He was decapitated when his ambulance crashed. He was an emergency medical technician for this hospital – a very good one, apparently. Slew of commendations, write-ups in the local paper.

SCULLY: What about the morgue attendant?

MULDER: Somebody cold-cocked him and stole his clothes. He didn’t see who. No alarms tripped, no sign of a break in. It’s weird, huh?

SCULLY; Mulder, what are we doing here?

MULDER: Did I mention that Mr. Betts had no head?

SCULLY: Yes. So? I mean, you’re not suggesting that a headless body kicked his way out of a latched morgue freezer, are you? Are you? Because I think it’s obvious this is some kind of bizarre attempt at a cover-up.

MULDER: Meant to conceal what?

SCULLY: My guess would be body snatching for profit. There’s a shortage of - of teaching cadavers at medical schools. An unscrupulous medical supplier might pay top dollar, no questions asked.

MULDER: Yeah, but why take a headless one and leave so many top-dollar bodies behind?

SECURITY GUARD: Sir? Those video grabs you asked for? We found something. These are from the emergency room camera taken at 4:13 this morning.

SCULLY: There’s your perpetrator wearing a stolen uniform.

(Images on video are fuzzy. Where the head should be is just static.)

MULDER: Unfortunately, you can’t see very much on these. What - what’s all this stuff here?

SECURITY GUARD: Bad video. The security system isn’t exactly state-of-the-art.

MULDER: Well, if this is our guy, what did he do with the corpse he stole?

SCULLY: Well, maybe he got spooked and was forced to abandon it.

MULDER: They combed the facility. Where could he hide an adult body where it wouldn’t be found?

SCULLY: I’ll show you.

(Later in front of the hospital disposal unit. MULDER looks sick throughout the scene.)

SCULLY: All hospitals operate some form of medical waste processing. This unit disposes of surgical remains – amputations, excised tumors. They’re ground up and heated with microwaves and the result is a uh, sterile soot that’s used as road fill. (She is putting on a face shield and full arm gloves.)

MULDER: Well, then there’s probably nothing there for us to find.

SCULLY: Well, that depends on how often they dispose of their waste. Hopefully, only once every few days. (Holds out hand. MULDER gives her flashlight. Opens door of unit. It is full of disgusting stuff.) We’re in luck.

MULDER: Are you sure about this, Scully? Because if you’re not sure I don’t see that there’s any reason to disturb all this stuff, just …

SCULLY: (reaching in unit, squishing sounds) Mulder, I think I’m going to need your help. Your arms are longer.

(MULDER’S registers many things, none of them pleasure at the idea of helping.)

(Later, MULDER and SCULLY in face shield and protective sleeves are digging through the container of human remains.)

MULDER: Oh….. I think I got the toy surprise.

(Pulls up a slimy head.)

SCULLY: Leonard Betts.

MULDER: (still disgusted) That’s his head. Where’s his body? There’s not enough room in here. Maybe he didn’t dispose of the body. Maybe he got it out of here somehow.

SCULLY: Why did he take the time to dispose of the head?

MULDER: I don’t know. Maybe there’s an answer here. Something we should check out.

SCULLY: Well, we already know how he died. In an automobile accident. What more is there to know?

MULDER: Maybe nothing, but it’s all we’ve got to go on right now. You should see if you can find a place where you can examine Betts’ head.

SCULLY: While you do what?

MULDER: Check out his house. I know how he died. I want to see how he lives.

SCULLY: Lived.

MULDER: Lived.

SCENE 4 (Examination room. SCULLY places BETTS’ head on a scale. It reads 10.9 pounds. She carries it to an autopsy table and picks up a tape recorder.)

SCULLY: Case number 226897, Leonard Betts. As remains are incomplete all observations refer to a decapitated head. Weight: 10.9 pounds. Remains show no signs of rigor mortis or fixed lividity. Nor do the corneas appear clouded which would seem inconsistent with the witnessed time of death now … (checks wall clock) 19 hours ago. I’ll begin with the intermastoid incision and frontal craniotomy then make my examination of the brain.

(As SCULLY begins to make the incision, BETTS’ eyes open and the mouth slowly opens, startling SCULLY.)

SCULLY: Oh, God!

(SCULLY is shocked and drops scalpel.)

SCULLY: Mmm.

SCENE 5 (Interior of BETTS’ apartment. Voices and a key in the lock are heard outside. Figure runs past camera and out of sight.)

LANDLORD: (voice) This one here?

MULDER: (voice) This one here. (MULDER enters.) Thanks, I’ll lock up.

LANDLORD: Okay.

(MULDER walks through apartment. He sees framed newspaper article naming LEONARD EMT of the year. In the bathroom the tub is filled with dark liquid, clothes strewn about on floor. There are prints on the open window. MULDER dips his fingers in the liquid and smells it. He finds two large empty bottles of iodine under the sink. His cell phone rings.)

MULDER: (on phone) Mulder.

SCULLY: (on phone, voice) It’s me. Um, I’ve run into kind of a unique situation, here.

MULDER: (on phone) What did you find?

SCULLY: (on phone) Uh, so far, not much. I uh, did a PET scan on Leonard Betts’ remains actually four times now, and each time the image has come out degraded uh, like it’s fogged somehow.

MULDER: (on phone) Like the security footage.

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, this is cutting edge technology here, Mulder. The technicians say the machine is working perfectly. They also say that the only thing that could account for this kind of image distortion is some form of radiation, but I don’t see how or - or where it could be emanating from.

MULDER: (on phone) What did your examination uncover?

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, I … I haven’t exactly performed an examination yet.

MULDER: (on phone) Why not?

SCULLY: (on phone) Well. Because I, uh … I experienced an unusual degree of postmortem galvanic response.

MULDER: (on phone) The head moved.

SCULLY: (on phone) It blinked at me. I mean, I - I know exactly what it is. It’s residual electrical activity stored chemically in- in the dead cells.

MULDER: (on phone) Blinked or winked?

SCULLY: (on phone, sighs)

MULDER: (on phone) You’re afraid to cut into it. Scully, you’re not saying that … that - that it’s alive, are you?

SCULLY: (on phone) No, I am certainly not saying that at all.

MULDER: (on phone) But has it crossed your mind that that it’s not quite dead, either?

SCULLY: (on phone) What do you mean?

MULDER: (on phone) I’m standing here in Leonard Betts’ apartment. Whoever we saw in those video grabs, his clothes are strewn all over the floor. He made himself at home. Maybe he was home.

SCULLY: (on phone) Leonard Betts?

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah.

SCULLY: (on phone) Without his head.

MULDER: (on phone, embarrassed) Yeah.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I don’t even know how to respond to that.

MULDER: (on phone) Well, I’m gonna call the local PD and have them put the building under surveillance just in case whoever it is comes back. I’ll be in touch.

(MULDER hangs up and leaves. A moment later, LEONARD, with a new head, sits up in the tub on iodine where he had been submerged. He gently blows iodine out of his nose.)

(Commercial.)

SCENE 7 (Exterior of hospital. MICHELLE is walking to her ambulance. MULDER approaches her.)

MULDER: Michelle? Michelle Wilkes? (shows badge)

MICHELLE: Yes?

MULDER: I’m Fox Mulder with the FBI. You’re the person on record who’s responsible for the disposition of Leonard Betts’ remains.

MICHELLE: He didn’t have any family. No friends, either, as far as I could tell.

MULDER: Except you?

MICHELLE: I liked him, but I wasn’t really his friend. He didn’t let people get that close. I’m not sure I could even call myself his partner. Mostly, I just stayed out of his way.

MULDER: What do you mean?

MICHELLE: Leonard was an amazing medical technician. He could diagnose illness better than any doctor I’ve ever seen. You know how they say some people can just look at you and tell you what’s wrong?

MULDER: Mm-hm.

MICHELLE: Leonard could do that. Especially with cancer. I always told him he should have been an oncologist or something. He used to volunteer at the cancer ward – read to patients, stuff like that.

MULDER: Did you ever notice anything about him – anything odd?

MICHELLE: No. Well, he never got sick. That was pretty amazing – doing what we do. He was the picture of health.

MULDER: Was he ever injured on the job?

MICHELLE: No. Never. I mean … until …

MULDER: Oh, yeah.

MICHELLE: I’m sorry. I don’t know what all this has to do with someone stealing Leonard’s body. I mean, it almost sounds like you’re investigating Leonard.

MULDER: No, no. Thanks for bearing with my questions. I appreciate your time. (leaves)

SCENE 8 (Hospital lab. MULDER and SCULLY watch as LEONARD’S head is lifted dripping from a vat of epoxy.)

SCULLY: This procedure is called biopolymerization. It’s basically a high-tech mummification process. The remains are dipped in the epoxy and once it’s cured the specimen can be sliced for examination.

MULDER: Or you’ve got yourself a nice paperweight. (MULDER laughs at his own joke.)

SCULLY: (NOT laughing) At any rate .. we should have some autopsy answers for you soon.

(Later, a PATHOLOGIST holds up a thin slice of head and places it under a microscope.)

PATHOLOGIST: I’m starting with an anterior slice from your Mr. Betts – one favoring the frontal lobe. (puts it under microscope) Well, this is certainly strange.

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: Is something wrong with the image?

PATHOLOGIST: In a manner of speaking. Here, see for yourself.

SCULLY: (looking at monitor) Oh, my God. His entire brain looks like one giant glioma.

MULDER: He had cancer?

SCULLY: He was riddled with it – I mean every - every cell in this sample. Every cell, essentially, in his entire head and in his brain was … was all cancerous. It’s completely pervasive.

MULDER: Could you live in this condition?

PATHOLOGIST: Live? This man would have been long dead before reaching such an extreme metastatic stage.

MULDER: Well, how do you explain it?

PATHOLOGIST: Maybe the polymerization distorted the sample. Maybe we’re not really seeing what we think we’re seeing.

MULDER: Mmmm. Mm. Maybe we’re just seeing it clearly for the first time.

SCULLY: What are you suggesting?

MULDER: Let’s get a slice to go.

SCENE 9 (MICHELLE is driving in her new ambulance with her new partner. She listens to radio exchange.)

EMT 1: (female voice) Monongahela, 136 en route with male, age 20 not responding to CPR. Please advise. Dispatch, somebody pick up please.

EMT 2 (voice, sounds like LEONARD) Mobile Catholic 208 to base. I know you’re up to your ass in alligators but it sounds like your patient may be in …

MICHELLE’S PARTNER: (getting her attention) Michelle?

EMT 2: (voice, sounds like LEONARD) … anaphylactic shock …

MICHELLE: Leonard?

EMT 2: (voice, sounds like LEONARD) … epinephrine ….

MICHELLE’S PARTNER: (wants her to help him unload their patient) Michelle, come on.

EMT 1: (female voice) Ah, hold 208. Hey, that seems to be working. Good call, 208. Thanks for the tip.

EMT 2: (voice, sounds like LEONARD) No problem. Glad I could help.

SCENE 10 DR. CHARLES BURKS’ LAB UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK

(DR. CHARLES BURKS’ lab. MULDER and SCULLY show him the slice of LEONARD’S head.)

BURKS: Oh, wow! I’ve never worked with a sample of human tissue before. What exactly were you looking to find?

MULDER: I’ll tell you if we find it.

BURKS: Excellent.

SCULLY: Are you ever asked to defend this as a legitimate scientific process, Dr. Burks?

BURKS: Only if you’re not happy with the results.

MULDER: Chuck did some of the pioneering work in Kirilian photography in the US.

BURKS: Although I prefer the umbrella term "aura photography." Basically, by applying high frequency electricity I am able to photograph an organism’s coronal discharge.

SCULLY: (skeptical) "Coronal discharge?"

MULDER: Coronal discharge, life force – the Chinese call it Chi. It’s an accepted fact in most eastern cultures.

SCULLY: And the theoretical basis of holistic medicine, of acupuncture, but what is its application here?

MULDER: It may account for the fogging of your PET scan of Leonard Betts’ head.

(BURKS is developing photo.)

BURKS: You know, with this equipment I have been able to capture phantom images of whole leaves that were cut in half or the vestigial image of a lizard’s tail long after it’s been cut off … which, you have to admit is pretty cool.

(BURKS places developed negative on lighted wall. The image shows the faint outline of shoulders under the head.)

BURKS: Ah, looks like we got something here. Oh, yeah. Now I don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, but …. Oh, yeah. There’s definitely some kind of energy happening here.

MULDER: (pointing at picture for SCULLY) Chuck, would you believe that this man’s head had been decapitated?

BURKS: (laughing) Oh, come on. No way.

MULDER: Way. (to SCULLY) Are we happy with the results?

(Later, MULDER and SCULLY leave the lab.)

MULDER: I don’t know about you, Scully, but those sure as hell looked like shoulders to me.

SCULLY: I don’t even know how to explain that photo or even what it proves.

MULDER: What if it proves that Leonard Betts is alive, somehow?

SCULLY: Mulder …

MULDER: You said that Betts’ tissue was riddled with cancer. Now, what is cancer but normal cells growing rapidly out of control usually caused by some damage to their DNA.

SCULLY: I don’t know where you’re going with this?

MULDER: Well, let me tell you. What if there was a case where the cancer was not caused by damaged DNA – where the cancer was not a destructive or an aggressive factor, but was rather the normal state of being?

SCULLY: Well, even if that were possible, he’s been decapitated.

MULDER: What if this man’s life force – his Chi, whatever you want to call it, somehow retained a blueprint of the actual man himself?> Guiding rapid growth not as cancer, but as regeneration?

SCULLY: You think that Leonard Betts regrew his head?

MULDER: The fluid that I found in Betts’ bathtub was povidone iodine. It’s often used by lab researchers on reptiles and amphibians to aid regeneration. We both know salamanders have grown entirely new limbs – regenerated.

SCULLY: Salamanders are one thing, but no mammal possesses that kind of regenerative power. I mean, there isn’t a creature walking this earth that can regrow its head.

MULDER: Worms. You cut a worm in half, you get two.

SCULLY: Mulder, they’re worms.

MULDER: I’m just saying it’s not unheard of in nature, that’s all.

SCULLY: Well, unheard of or not, someone is going to great lengths to dispose of the evidence.

MULDER: Well, maybe Betts is trying to protect his secret.

(SCULLY’S cell phone rings.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Scully … Yeah … Okay ..Great. Thanks. (hangs up) Well, apparently, Leonard Betts did have some secrets -- one of them being that he had an alter ego named Albert Tanner.

MULDER: Who?

SCULLY: I had Danny run the fingerprints. Two names came up. The second one was Albert Tanner. But, unlike Leonard Betts, Albert Tanner has a living relative – Elaine Tanner, his mother, who just happens to live here in Pittsburgh.. (TD NOTE: ummm ... you're in Maryland, Scully!)

MULDER: (thinking) Huh.

SCENE 11 (TANNER house. Doorbell. ELAINE opens door for MULDER and SCULLY.)

SCULLY: Elaine Tanner?

ELAINE: Yes.

SCULLY: I’m Agent Scully. This is Agent Mulder, we’re with the FBI.

ELAINE: Oh, what can I do for you?

SCULLY: Is your son Albert Tanner? (ELAINE nods.) We’d like to ask you some questions. (They enter.)

ELAINE: (leaving the room) Please excuse me for a second. I’ve got something on the stove.

(MULDER finds a picture of a younger Betts on a coffee table.)

MULDER: Scully.

(ELAINE reenters.)

SCULLY: Mrs. Tanner, is this your son?

ELAINE: Yes, that’s Albert.

SCULLY: We know this man as Leonard Morris Betts. Are you familiar with that name?

ELAINE: No.

MULDER: Do you know if your son ever used any other names for himself?

ELAINE: Why are you asking me about him?

SCULLY: Mrs. Tanner, are you aware that your son has recently died?

ELAINE: What do you mean "recently?"

MULDER: When did your son die?

ELAINE: Six years ago. He was killed in an automobile accident. Why?

SCULLY: Would it be possible to get a copy of the death certificate or some form of verification?

ELAINE: Of course. (leaves the room again)

MULDER: (to SCULLY) Confused yet?

SCULLY: (quietly) Yeah.

SCENE 12 ALLEGHENY CATHOLIC HOSPITAL PITTSBURGH, PA (Night. MICHELLE approaches an EMT.)

MICHELLE: Excuse me. Um, I’m looking for an EMT, the man driving unit 208?

EMT: The new guy. Yeah. 208’s over there. He just went off shift, but you might catch him.

MICHELLE: Thanks. (She follows a figure toward grassy area near dark parking lot.) Leonard? Leonard?

(LEONARD reluctantly turns to face her.)

MICHELLE: Oh, my God! It can’t be. How can it be?> Leonard, is it you?

LEONARD: Hey, Michelle. (Opens his arms. She cautiously steps into his embrace.) It’s okay. It’s okay. I just wish you hadn’t found me, that’s all.

MICHELLE: What are you talking about? Leonard?

(He stabs her in the back with an autoinjector. She begins convulsing in his arms.)

LEONARD: I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

(LEONARD lets MICHELLE, now dead slide gently to the ground.)

(SECURITY GUARD sees them.)

GUARD: Hey! You, there! Hold it! Stop! Stop where you are!

(LEONARD runs toward parking lot. GUARD pursues, tackles LEONARD, and cuffs him to a car door handle.)

GUARD: (getting out radio) Stay there … Son of a bitch. (to radio) Ronnie? Oh, pick up, man.

RONNIE: (voice) Go ahead.

GUARD: (walking away to check on MICHELLE) We got a situation in the parking lot. This guy just attacked some woman. She’s up in the ambulance parking area.

(LEONARD begins to pull at his thumb. It’s obviously very painful. Tearing sound.)

GUARD: (voice) Better get a doc down here right away. I’ll check on that guy.

(GUARD returns to where he left LEONARD. Cuffs are bloody, LEONARD is gone, a thumb lies on the ground.)

(Commercial.)

SCENE 13 (Parking lot. Day. Light sleet. MULDER and SCULLY at crime scene. MULDER puts thumb in an evidence bag.)

MULDER: (holding up the thumb bag) Siskel or Ebert?> What’s the story?

SCULLY: Michelle Wilkes was murdered, but, uh, we wouldn’t know that if the security guard hadn’t witnessed it.

MULDER: Why is that?

SCULLY: I found a spent autoinjector in the grass. She was given a lethal dose of potassium chloride. It’s an electrolyte found naturally in the body and a coroner doesn’t usually check for it.

MULDER: Betts was here, Scully. She must have discovered that and then he had to kill her to protect his secret.

SCULLY: Well, the security guard did ID him as her attacker. He worked as an EMT, but his coworkers said his name was Truelove.

MULDER: Do you know how this man escaped? He tore off his thumb because he knew he could re-grow another one.

SCULLY: Mulder, it just doesn’t work that way.

MULDER: But is it unimaginable? Is Betts’ ability to regenerate any greater a leap forward than our ancestors’ ability to communicate with language or to walk upright?

SCULLY: But, but language, evolution – I - it’s a process of steps, not leaps.

MULDER: Recent evolutionary theory would disagree. What scientists call "punctualism" or "punctual equilibrium" – it theorizes that evolutionary advances are cataclysmic, not gradual. That evolution occurs not along a straight, graphable line, but in huge fits and starts and that the unimaginable happens in the gaps – the gap between what we are and what Leonard Betts has become.

SCULLY: What you’re describing is someone so radically evolved that you wouldn’t even call him human.

MULDER: On the other hand, how evolved can a man be who drives a Dodge Dart?

(MULDER and SCULLY open the hatchback of the Dart and find a cooler filled with bags of medical waste. Plaque says human organs for transplant. SCULLY reads some of them.)

SCULLY: Oh, my God. Myeloid Sarcoma, Epithelial Carcinoma – these are all cancerous tumors. This is surgical waste that’s been tagged for disposal. What do you think he wanted with them?

MULDER: (looking a little sick) You may not want to know. Scully, there’s a great possibility that Leonard Betts not only is cancer …

SCULLY: But that he needs it for survival? (MULDER nods) So you’re saying that this is …?

MULDER: Snack food. Wouldn’t it make sense that evolution or natural selection would incorporate cancer – the greatest health threat to our species as part of our genetic makeup?

SCULLY: Why do I think that Charles Darwin is rolling in his grave right now.

MULDER: Ask yourself: Why is Leonard Betts an EMT? Why does he regularly visit cancer wards? Access.

POLICEMAN: The car’s registered to one Elaine Tanner, 3108 Old Bank Road.

SCULLY: Betts’ mom.

MULDER: Do you think Mom knows her dead son is tooling around in her car?

SCENE 14 (TANNER house. MULDER and SCULLY and a group of police greet ELAINE TANNER when she opens the door.)

SCULLY: Elaine Tanner? We have a warrant to search the premises.

(They enter and begin searching.)

SCULLY: Mrs. Tanner, we know that your son is alive and that you’re in contact with him. You need to tell us where we can find him. Last night, he murdered a woman in cold blood. By lying to protect him, you are considered an accessory to murder.

MULDER: (entering with large empty bottle of iodine) Can you tell me what you use this for? It’s a pretty big bottle. Do you get a lot of cuts?

ELAINE: When my son was eight years old, there were two boys who picked on him because he was different. (CarriK: I’ll say. Just think what would have been in his lunch box.) He just ignored them. He knew he was better than they were. One day, they cornered him walking home. Beat him up. He didn’t even try to fight back – just lay there taking the blows. So, I don’t believe you when you tell me he killed anyone. But if he did, he had his reasons.

SCULLY: What reasons, Mrs. Tanner?

ELAINE: God put him here for a purpose. God means for him to stay, even if people don’t understand. And that’s all I’ve got to say.

SCENE 15 (Seedy bar. BEARDED MAN sits at bar drinking, smoking and coughing. LEONARD watches him. He hides his thumb which is now a little bud. BEARDED MAN gets up and goes outside to his car. LEONARD follows, holding a scalpel. Outside, LEONARD approaches BEARDED MAN.)

LEONARD: Excuse me. I’m sorry, but you’ve got something I need.

SCENE 16 (TANNER house.)

MULDER: Scully?

SCULLY: Did you find something?

MULDER: No sign of him, not even a stray sock. Just this.

SCULLY: Receipt for a storage locker.

MULDER: Yeah, and the key on his key ring with the number 112 engraved on it.

SCULLY: Let’s check it out.

SCENE17 (Storage locker 112. LEONARD has pulled the BEARDED MAN’S car in to the locker. LEONARD is naked, obviously very uncomfortable, blood on his mouth. He proceeds to give birth to another fully formed LEONARD out of his mouth. Ewww. The New LEONARD screams in agony.)

SCENE 18 (MULDER and SCULLY arrive at the U Keep It storage locker. They see blood seeping out from under the door.)

MULDER: Scully.

(They draw their guns and roll open the door. Dead BEARDED MAN falls out. Then LEONARD speeds the car straight at them. MULDER pushes SCULLY out of the way, then they stand and fire at the car. The car violently explodes.)

(Commercial)

SCENE 19 (Hospital autopsy bay. SCULLY examines BEARDED MAN.)

SCULLY: Mr. John Gilnitz. Death from massive blood loss due to what I can only describe as a skillful removal of his left lung.

MULDER: It’s Betts.

SCULLY: Doing what?

MULDER: I guarantee, Scully, this man’s medical records will show he had lung cancer and Leonard Betts was in need of what he had.

SCULLY: How would he have known that?

MULDER: His partner said he had an ability to diagnose cancer. Maybe his need provided a heightened sense.

SCULLY: Well, whatever he was doing he is taking the secret to his grave.

MULDER: Yeah, for the second time.

(They walk over to LEONARD’S burned body on another table.)

SCULLY: Mulder, Leonard Betts is dead. Of that I am absolutely certain. And he is not coming back.

MULDER: You would have said the same thing about Albert Tanner.

SCULLY: I don’t understand.

MULDER: Six years ago. Albert Tanner dies in a car accident. His mother buries him. Several days ago, the same man shows up as Leonard Betts. Explain that to me.

SCULLY: Obviously, someone is lying. Maybe the first death was staged.

MULDER: You want to bet on that?

(Later, MULDER and SCULLY stand between LEONARD’S body and an unopened coffin. SCULLY covers her nose as the coffin is cranked open revealing a corpse identical to that of LEONARD.)

MULDER: Will the real Leonard Betts please stand up?

SCULLY: Mulder, these men may be no more than monozygotic twins.

MULDER: I don’t think so, Scully. I think that what we’re standing witness to here goes way beyond the regeneration of a thumb or a limb or even a new head.

SCULLY: Mulder, I don’t know what you’re getting at here. Regeneration of an entire body? I don’t know why I’m standing here listening to this.

MULDER: Because I think that the fiery crash that killed this man was a ruse, a decoy and that this man lying here is actually still at large.

SCENE 20 (A trembling, whimpering LEONARD sits in the bathtub at the TANNER house. The tub is filled with iodine and ELAINE gently sponges him.)

ELAINE: I’m scared. The FBI. They seem to know all about you. They dug up the coffin. They found your friend. I don’t think they’re ever going to leave you alone, and you’re weak. You have to restore your strength. You know what you have to do.

LEONARD: (moans softly)

ELAINE: I’m your mother and it’s a mother’s duty to provide.

SCENE 21 ELAINE TANNER RESIDENCE 11:32 PM (Exterior TANNER house. MULDER and SCULLY are in car on stakeout.)

SCULLY: If this man really exists, what makes you think he’d come back here?

MULDER: The only person connected with Betts who knows his secret is his mom. If we’re going to get him, it’ll be through her.

(Sound of siren approaching. MULDER and SCULLY get out and pull guns on EMT’s getting out of ambulance.)

MULDER: Get out of the truck!

SCULLY: Federal agents!

MULDER: Get out of the truck!

EMT: Whoa! Whoa! What the hell?

SCULLY: What are you doing here?

EMT2: We-we got a call – elderly woman, massive chest trauma and blood loss – 3108 Old Bank.

EMT: Believe me. That’s all we know.

SCULLY: Stay here.

(MULDER kicks in door. SCULLY goes upstairs to ELAINE’S bedroom.)

SCULLY: Mulder, get the EMTs up here.

MULDER: (calling to EMTs) You guys get in here.

(ELAINE is unconscious on the bed, bandage on her chest. MULDER joins SCULLY.)

SCULLY: She has an open wound, a surgical cut.

MULDER: Three guesses what was removed. He did this to her and then he called an ambulance.

(EMTs enter and care for ELAINE.)

SCULLY: Judging by the response time, he might still be here. (MULDER leaves.)

(Later, outside. ELAINE is being loaded into ambulance. MULDER comes from behind house.)

MULDER: Betts is gone. He must have taken off on foot.

SCULLY: She’s gonna be okay, Mulder. She’s not out of the woods, but I think we might be able to get where he went out of her.

MULDER: You stay with her. (pulls out cell phone) I’ll call local PD and have them cordon off the area.

SCULLY: Okay. (She gets in the ambulance and it leaves.)

MULDER: (on phone) This is Special Agent Mulder with the FBI. I’ve got an emergency situation in progress. I need all available units to 3108 Old Bank Road. I’m searching for a murder suspect.

SCENE 22 (ER entrance at hospital. ELAINE is taken out of ambulance. SCULLY calls MULDER.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, it’s me. We’ve got Mrs. Tanner going into the ER, but she took a downturn en route. They defibrillated her to try and get her to try and get her heart back, but there’s no chance of getting anything cogent from her. Not tonight, anyway. What about on your end?

MULDER: (on phone) We’re going house-to-house, here. That’s the only thing I can think to do. We got a chopper coming in, but until then I’d say Betts has got a pretty good chance of getting away. If he steals a car or gets a ride, he could get away for good.

(SCULLY notices dark fluid has dripped onto her head from top of ambulance.)

MULDER: (on phone, voice) I mean, he obviously worked this thing out pretty well, Scully, so if there’s anything you can get out of Mrs. Tanner tonight, anything at all, at this point we don’t have much else to go on.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, get over here right now.

MULDER: (on phone) What?

SCULLY: (on phone) Get over here now.

(MULDER hangs up and runs to his car.)

(SCULLY draws her gun and climbs up ladder on side of ambulance to look on top., LEONARD grabs her foot and pushes her in the vehicle.)

SCULLY: Ahh!

LEONARD: I’m sorry … but you’ve got something I need.

(SCULLY stares at him in shock for a moment. LEONARD comes at her with a scalpel, and she fights him off. Then when he comes at her again, she turns the power on the defibrillators to full and zaps him on the head. LEONARD flies out the back of the ambulance and lies twitching on the pavement. SCULLY pants heavily as people begin running out from the ER.)

EMT: Oh, my God.

EMT2: Let’s get a crash cart.

(SCULLY stares at LEONARD.)

SCENE 23

(SCULLY is sitting quietly in passenger side of car. MULDER comes out of the hospital and leans over to talk to her.)

MULDER: They pronounced Betts ten minutes ago.

SCULLY: He’s dead?

MULDER: As near as anyone can tell. His mom’s alive though, mainly due to the fact that Betts dressed her wounds so carefully. She’s going to pull through, at least for the present.

SCULLY: (quietly) Cancer?

MULDER: Yeah. It’s uh …(checks his notepad) metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma, to be precise. She was treated for it previously but got a clean bill of health about three months ago.

SCULLY: (no answer)

MULDER: (gently) You did a good job, Scully. You should be proud.

SCULLY: I want to go home.

(MULDER nods and closes her door, goes around to drivers side and gets in. He drives her away from the hospital.)

SCENE 24

(SCULLY’S bedroom. 2:08 am. SCULLY wakes up coughing. She finds a spot of blood on her pillow. She realizes her nose is bleeding.)

The End

US Airdate: January 26, 1997

writers: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz director: Kim Manners

STARRING: David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast: JENNIFER CLEMENT as Michele Wilkes PAUL MCCRANE as Leonard Betts LUCIA WALTERS as EMT MARJORIE LOVETT as Elaine Tanner KEN JONES as the Bearded Man SEAN CAMPBELL as the Local Cop GREG NEWMEYER as the New Partner DAVE HURTUBISE as the Pathologist BILL DOW as Dr. Charles Burks BRAD LOREE as the Security Guard PETER BRYANT as the Uniformed Cop DON ACKERMAN as the Night Attendant LAARA SADIQ as the Female EMT J. DOUGLAS STEWART as the Male EMT