Schwicky.net - The X-Files

Terms Of Endearment

6.06 Terms Of Endearment

US Airdate: January 3, 1999

writer: David Amann

director: Rob Bowman

(Hollins, Virginia. Doctors office. The obstetrician, DR COUVILLION is talking to LAURA and WAYNE WEINSIDER. They both look slightly nervous about what they are hearing and seeing on the sonogram that he has handed them. LAURA is very pregnant.)

DR COUVILLION: It's important that you realize sonograms are by no means an exact science. I don't want to alarm you or have you jump to conclusions because honestly, it's not something that we're perfectly able to explain.

LAURA: But I-I don't see anything.

DR COUVILLION: As I said, we may be premature in a diagnosis. It may simply be... An intermediate stage of growth.

WAYNE: But there's a problem.

DR COUVILLION: We see a development-- an abnormal bony formation involving the upper vertebrae and something growing here-- on the plates of the skull.

(WAYNE stand and crosses away.)

LAURA: Wayne...

(DR COUVILLION leaves them alone.)

WAYNE: Sweetness?

LAURA: It might be nothing. I'm serious. Dr. Couvillion really just wants to wait and see.

WAYNE: I just... want it to be normal.

LAURA: Oh, Wayne... let's go home, okay? Come on.

<HOLLINS, VIRGINIA>

(Later, they are home getting ready for bed. WAYNE brings LAURA a glass of milk and she drinks it and takes a pill from her bedside table.)

LAURA: Thank you.

(They turn off the light and cuddle. He caresses her stomach.)

WAYNE: I love you, Laura... no matter what. You know that? Poopydoo?

LAURA: I know. Good night, Wayne.

WAYNE: Good night, Laura. Sweet dreams.

(She turns on her side, and he holds her close to him.)

(Later that night, LAURA wakes up suddenly. She looks over to the side of the bed and sees that WAYNE is missing.)

LAURA: Wayne! Wayne!

(She hears a growling noise She sees a demonic figure standing at the foot of her bed amid flames. She begins screaming in terror.)

LAURA: Wayne! Please, what are you doing?! No...

(The growling continues and the figure grabs her by her legs and drags her to the foot of the bed and holds her legs apart. Camera angle moves to just show her face as she screams in terror, then pain. The demon works frantically between LAURA's legs. She leans up and bites his neck, but he pushes her down.)

LAURA: Stop it! Wayne! Where are you?! Stop him!

(We hear a baby crying. The demon figure holds a baby up. It has tiny horns.)

LAURA: Please, don't take my baby! Please, don't take my baby! Wayne! Wayne!

(She wakes up crying. It was a dream. Wayne is beside her trying to comfort her.)

WAYNE: Laura?

LAURA: My baby!

WAYNE: Laura, it's okay. Laurie, you're having a dream.

LAURA: Oh, it was terrible.

WAYNE: It's okay. Shh.

LAURA: Oh... it was... Trying to steal our baby.

(WAYNE reaches under the sheet to stroke her stomach. He pulls his hand back and it is covered in blood. They stare at it in shock. He pulls the sheet down. Her stomach is much smaller and her nightgown is covered in blood. LAURA begins screaming.)

Opening Credits. Mulder….Whooo. Scully Rocks.

(X-Files Office. AGENT SPENDER is interviewing DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS.)

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: It's not the kind of case where I quite know where to turn, you understand. Down in Hollins we do get our share of the oddball. On the whole, though, we're pretty much like any other little town. You got your home break-ins, your smash and grabs... nothing too wild. But given the victim's statement, the unusually vivid detail... Well, I just had to take Laura's word about her baby being abducted. I hear you specialize in these kind of cases.

AGENT SPENDER: You've come to the right place, Deputy, uh... (checks the report in his hand) Stevens. Now this woman making these claims she's your sister?

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Yes, sir. Laura Weinsider.

AGENT SPENDER: Mm-hmm.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: I've heard about the things people been saying about her, not to my face, of course, but... real mean and awful things about what Laura's part is in all this.

AGENT SPENDER: Now it says here, a doctor's report the day before revealed to her ah... abnormalities in the ultrasound.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Yes, sir, that is true, but nothing conclusive, mind you.

AGENT SPENDER: I see. Okay, Deputy. We're going to put this right into our priority caseload.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Boy... I really want to thank you. I know Laura's really itching to talk to somebody who will really listen to her.

(DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS leaves the room. AGENT SPENDER glances at the report again, then reaches behind him and feeds the report into the paper shredder.)

(Hollins, Virginia. Average small town. DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS is sitting in his squad car #1223 talking to his passenger.)

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: I know this went right into your caseload but I never imagined you would get here so soon, Agent, uh...

(The passenger is, of course, MULDER. He is holding the report from the last scene that has been taped back together.)

MULDER: Oh, Mulder. Fox Mulder. Though I ask you not to make that known to anybody. The FBI likes to keep our work on these cases very hush-hush.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Sure, of course but I would like to thank Agent Spender.

MULDER: Oh. No, no, no. I'll thank him for you because I have to call in my, uh, progress report.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: I hope you have something to call in.

MULDER: Oh, me, too. All right.

(They get out of the car and go inside the WEINSIDER house. Later, MULDER interviews LAURA WEINSIDER. She is very upset. WAYNE has his arm around her.)

LAURA: I kept calling it a nightmare... But how many people's nightmare's come true?

MULDER: Not many. Certainly not in the way yours did, Mrs. Weinsider.

LAURA: When I was having it... it just seemed so real.

MULDER: You mentioned a fire in the room, in your account and a, uh... a devil that held your legs...

LAURA: So that he could take the baby.

MULDER: But according to your statement … your baby... was not a normal baby.

LAURA: No. It was some kind of monster. With, um...horns and a tail. (begins crying) Can you excuse me?

(She leaves the room.)

WAYNE: My wife appears so resilient, but I know she's suffered ever since the doctor told us about the complications.

MULDER: Um... You were right there in bed with your wife the whole time, Mr. Weinsider?

WAYNE: Yes. I woke her up.

MULDER: But according to... your wife's statement, at one point she... she reached over for you in the bed and you weren't there.

WAYNE: Well, it was a dream.

MULDER: (suspicious) Yeah. Mind if I use your phone... Wayne?

WAYNE: Sure, of course.

US DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON, DC 11:17 AM

(A TINY closet of an interviewing room. SCULLY is interviewing MR GINSBERG. She sounds very bored.)

SCULLY: Remember your truthfulness is important, Mr. Ginsberg and as a prospective federal employee, I will remind you to answer as honestly as possible. Okay?

MR GINSBERG: Sure. Fire away.

SCULLY: (reading) "Do you, or have you ever smoked marijuana?"

(MR GINSBERG looks like Jerry Garcia. Total hippie. The man knows his way around a joint.)

MR GINSBERG: Nope. No, siree.

(SCULLY just stares at him for a moment.)

SCULLY: (reading) "Have you consorted with people who have now or in the past?"

MR GINSBERG: (thinking carefully) No... I really don't think so.

(SCULLY's cell phone rings to her great relief.)

SCULLY: Ah. (on phone) Scully.

MULDER: (on phone) Hey, Scully, it's me.

(SCULLY looks over at MR GINSBERG and mouths "Would you mind." He nods and steps out of the room.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, where are you? I waited 45 minutes for you this morning.

MULDER: (on phone) I, uh... Before I tell you I-I'm going to ask you to keep an open mind.

SCULLY: (on phone, knowing exactly what he's up to) This isn't an X-File?

MULDER: (on phone) Call it what you like. Here in Roanoke they're calling it a demon baby snatching.

SCULLY: (on phone) You're in Virginia?

MULDER: (on phone) Look, I want you to look at this woman's charts. Strange in utero deformities were detected. I'm going to courier them to you, all right?

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, we are supposed to be doing background checks not chasing X-Files.

MULDER: (on phone) Scully, Spender just round filed this case-- it's unconscionable.

SCULLY: (on phone) And what do you call rooting through his trash?

MULDER: (on phone) Like that's any different from the assignment we're stuck with.

SCULLY: (on phone) "We," Mulder? I'm stuck with it. You're not here.

MULDER: (on phone) Scully, this is a classic case of demon fetal harvest - what they called in the middle ages atum nocturnem-- the impregnation of an unwitting woman by a dark lord of the underworld...

SCULLY: (on phone) As host for his demon seed.

MULDER: (on phone) Exactly.

SCULLY: (on phone) I saw Rosemary's Baby on cable the other night.

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah, but this is the real deal. You check that woman's charts, you'll get hard evidence. Check her prenatal ultrasound.

(We see WAYNE standing in another room listening to the baby monitor which is picking up MULDER and SCULLY's conversation.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder...

MULDER: (on phone) Just humor me, Scully. Take a look at those medical records. I think they'll prove my theory.

<10:56 PM>

(WEINSIDER's bedroom. LAURA is looking for something.)

LAURA: Wayne, have you seen my nightgown?

(No answer. The bedroom is empty.)

LAURA: I can't find...

(She goes downstairs.)

LAURA: Wayne Wayne? Wayne!

(Outside, the trash/leaf incinerator is burning. WAYNE is digging for something in a pile of leaves. LAURA goes outside and sees the fire. WAYNE pulls a small wrapped bundle out of the leaves.)

LAURA: (crossing the yard) Wayne?

(LAURA slowly approaches the incinerator and sees a small figure burning. WAYNE touches her back. Startled, she turns to him.)

WAYNE: (concerned) Laura? What are you doing?

LAURA: What are you doing?

WAYNE: Burning leaves.

LAURA: As this time of night?

WAYNE: Well, you asked me to rake up the yard. It was in the job jar. Hey, come on. You're making me feel weird.

LAURA: Come to bed, Wayne. Please.

WAYNE: I will, honey. I just wanted... I just wanted everything to look perfect when you woke up. I'll be right in.

(She slowly goes back to the house. WAYNE looks back at the now visible tiny skeleton in the incinerator and tears begin falling down his cheeks.)

<6:57 AM>

(Next morning. MULDER is sleeping in his car outside the WEINSIDER house. His cell phone rings.)

MULDER: (on phone) Mulder.

(SCULLY is sitting in front of her office computer. She looks very tired.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I think I found what you're looking for. I've been up all night going over the medical charts on the Weinsider baby.

MULDER: (on phone) What'd you find?

SCULLY: (on phone) The prenatal birth defects that you spoke of? They're all here, but they're subtle.

MULDER: (on phone) Describe them to me.

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, they look to be discrete bony deformities. There are spurs on the superior aspect of the scapula and small protuberances on the skull adjacent to the coronal suture.

MULDER: (on phone) "Protuberances?" You mean, like horns?

(MULDER looks down at a portrait of LAURA and WAYNE in his file and sketches a pair of horns on WAYNE's head.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, they could be recessive characteristics expressed as vestiges of primitive morphology or a developmental anomaly like craniosynostosis.

MULDER: (on phone) Do you think this is something that could be passed along by the father?

SCULLY: (on phone) No, I wouldn't look to the father as any kind of dark force here, Mulder. I think it's the mother and Virginia law on third-trimester abortions requires you to put her under arrest.

MULDER: (on phone) What are you talking about?

SCULLY: (on phone) Labor was induced, Mulder. In the mother's blood, there was found a significant trace of an herb called mandrake. It's a poison that's been known to facilitate self-abortion.

MULDER: (on phone) "Mandrake?"

SCULLY: (on phone) It's also been known to be used as an hallucinogenic.

MULDER: (on phone) You think Mrs. Weinsider self-prescribed?

SCULLY: (on phone) Well, I called the doctor on a hunch and he said that the father was very upset about the news while the mother was quite the opposite. Look, Mulder, I'm going to fax this information to you so that you can present it to the commonwealth attorney for the county of Roanoke but I think we have your baby snatcher here.

(MULDER watches as WAYNE drives away in a red convertible sports car. WAYNE sees MULDER also.)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder?

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah? What? Yes?

SCULLY: (on phone) I suggest that you proceed very carefully. This could be very emotional for everybody concerned.

MULDER: (on phone) All right, thank you.

(MULDER hangs up and goes up to the house.)

(Different house. WAYNE knocks at the door. BETSY, very pregnant, opens the door for him. Where LAURA was mousy, this woman is Glamour!Pregnant.)

BETSY: What are you doing?

WAYNE: Sorry. I forgot my key.

BETSY: Well, where have you been?

WAYNE: I told you I was going to be on the road until Tuesday... Poopydoo.

BETSY: I was just so worried, Wayne. We're getting so close now.

WAYNE: Honey... (kisses her forehead) I wouldn't let anything happen not to our little bundle of joy.

(He gently strokes her belly.)

Commercial 1.

<SCENE 7> (Weinsider house. MULDER, LAURA, and DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS and some OFFICERS are inside the kitchen. DEPUTY STEVENS is very upset.)

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: I'll tell you who's been taking hallucinogenics. She didn't take poison. My sister had never even heard of... whatever it is.

MULDER: Mandrake.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: "Mandrake." Where would she even get such a thing?

LAURA: All I took were some herbal sleep aids.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: You don't need to say anything, Laura.

MULDER: Hey, why don't you just let your sister talk? It might clear things up.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Not without a lawyer.

MULDER: She's not under arrest.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: You're damned right she's not and I didn't call you down here to tell me rumors that I've already heard. My sister's no baby killer!

(WAYNE enters the house and looks around in surprise.)

WAYNE: What's going on?

LAURA: They're accusing me of taking the life of our baby.

WAYNE: Who's accusing you?

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS : Who do you think? I don't know where you been, Wayne, but I'm the only one keeping the dogs from the door.

WAYNE: Well, a man's got to make a living.

MULDER: Wayne-- Mr. Weinsider-I-I don't want to arrest Laura. I'm sure you'd hate like the devil for that to happen as well.

(Emphasis on the word "devil". MULDER and WAYNE stare at each other.)

WAYNE: I should say so.

MULDER: So why don't you tell Deputy Stevens that it's okay to search the premises so we can clear up any misunderstanding about who's responsible for what happened here?

WAYNE: Of course.

(DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS and the OFFICERS go outside and begin looking around. Inside, WAYNE watches them search the area around the incinerator.)

WAYNE: Laura, could you come here?

(MULDER comes out of the kitchen with a large jar of fiber dietary supplement.)

MULDER: Whatever else we find I know everybody in this house is regular.

(MULDER goes out to the incinerator.)

LAURA: (inside, to WAYNE) I know there's nothing they're going to find but why do I feel guilty anyway?

WAYNE: Laura, there's something I need to tell you about that... Something that I've kept secret for reasons that I think will explain for themselves.

LAURA: What? What are you talking about?

WAYNE: Well, I don't exactly know how to say this. I'm sure that you might find it painful, as I do.

LAURA: Wayne, what?

WAYNE: On the night... the night that you lost the baby I had gotten up because I couldn't sleep and when I came back to bed, you were... you had... our little baby in your hands. You were in some kind of trance. I couldn't get you to wake up. You keep chanting over and over "zazas, zazas, nastanada zazas and..."

LAURA: (horrified) Wayne...

WAYNE: All I could do was take our little boy, our little baby and wrap him up so I could make sure that no one could ever learn the truth.

LAURA: Oh, my God.

WAYNE: And the other night when you saw me outside... when I was burning the leaves?

LAURA: No! No.

WAYNE: Laura, I was just doing it to protect you. I knew that I could never bring back our little boy, our precious little Wayne, Junior but I couldn't bear losing you.

(LAURA is sobbing in his arms.)

OFFICER: (outside) Hey! Take a look at this!

(MULDER and the OFFICERS look in the incinerator then look up to the house.)

(Later, LAURA still crying is sitting at the table with DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS. He looks at her sympathetically. MULDER stands in the doorway watching both LAURA and WAYNE who is in the room, his head in his hands.)

LAURA: (still crying) I don't know what to tell you. All I can think... when they told me that something was wrong... that there was a problem, was that this thing that was growing inside me was evil. I kept thinking that maybe it was something I did wrong and that this was my punishment. I told Wayne that everything was going to be okay... but I lied, but you have to believe me, Arky! I didn't mean to kill it. (crying louder) I didn't know what I was doing. It was the herbal medication. That's all I can think.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: (reluctanly) Laura, Laura... I don't think you should say any more. I'm going to have to read you your rights. We're going to have to go down to the station and do all that. I'm sorry.

(DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS leads her out the door.)

WAYNE: (calling after her) You're going to be okay. I'm going to get the best attorney.

(The door closes. MULDER looks at WAYNE suspiciously.)

MULDER: I know what you are.

(MULDER also leaves.)

(WAYNE is driving very fast in his convertible red sports car. The radio is playing loudly "I'm Only Happy When It Rains" by Garbage. He dials his cell phone.)

RADIO: I'm only happy when it rains I'm only happy when it's complicated And though I know you can't appreciate it I'm only happy when it rains...

(BETSY, at home, answers her phone.)

BETSY: (on phone) Hello?

WAYNE: (on phone) Hi, Betsy, it's me.

BETSY: (on phone) Wayne, where are you?

WAYNE: (on phone) I'm on my way.

BETSY: (on phone) You're late, Wayne.

WAYNE: (on phone) I want to be there, honey. I don't want to be the kind of husband who isn't there every step of the way.

BETSY: (on phone) You've already missed a lot of steps. Anyway, it's just a sonogram.

WAYNE: (on phone) No, it's not just a sonogram, honey, it's a picture of the expression of our beautiful love.

BETSY: (on phone) Wayne, what have you been smoking?

WAYNE: (on phone) I'm three blocks away, Betsy. I'm going to be pulling up in front of the house in less than five minutes.

BETSY: (on phone) Okay. I'll wait for you.

WAYNE: (on phone) Okay. Five minutes.

(Another car pulls up beside WAYNE at a stoplight. MULDER is driving.)

MULDER: Hey, Wayne. Where you going?

WAYNE: What?

BETSY: (on phone) Who you talking to? Who are you talking to?

MULDER: You seem like you're in an awful big hurry.

BETSY: (on phone) Wayne.

WAYNE: I'm late for an appointment.

MULDER: Really? An appointment? Appointment with who?

WAYNE: A business client.

BETSY: (on phone) Wayne, I'm hanging up now. (she does)

MULDER: Right, you're in the insurance business. That must take you out on the road an awful lot, huh?

WAYNE: Look, I'm an insurance medical technician, not that it's any of your business.

MULDER: So where is our appointment? How far do we have to go?

WAYNE: What?

MULDER: Come on, Wayne, I'll race you.

(WAYNE floors the gas pedal as the light changes, but MULDER stays right with him.)

RADIO: I only smile in the dark...

(Short time later, BRITTON house. MS BRITTON, mid-thirties, opens the door for WAYNE. MULDER is waiting at the curb beside their cars.)

WAYNE: Oh, hi, Ms. Britton. Wayne Weinsider. Remember me? Harmony Mutual Insurance? You had an appointment to have some blood taken.

MS BRITTON: It's for next Tuesday.

WAYNE: I know that, Kim. Can I call you Kim? I was in the neighborhood and... well, insurance isn't something you want to be without, even for just a week.

(Later, he is taking a sample of blood from MS BRITTON's arm.)

MS BRITTON: What do you do with that?

WAYNE: Oh, they check it out, make sure you're not a policy risk.

(Three young boys run loudly through the room.)

MS BRITTON: Slow down, monsters.

(Kids run out of the house.)

WAYNE: Those your kids?

MS BRITTON: Why, yes.

WAYNE: I love kids. Got a baby on the way myself. Seems like I've been trying forever. Hold that. (he puts gauze on her arm to stop the bleeding) Those are fine-looking boys. You don't know how lucky you are. Two cells, with all that can go wrong, and there they are...perfect.

(When he leans over to place the sample into his tray, MS BRITTON sees two little protuberances on the back of his neck. When he sits back up, she looks sympathetically at him.)

WAYNE: You okay? You're not feeling faint, are you?

MS BRITTON: No. I'm okay.

(They hear a horn honking. Looking out the window, WAYNE sees that MULDER is leaning against the convertible watching them. He looks up at the house and waves and smiles at WAYNE.)

WAYNE: (to MS BRITTON) Can I use your phone?

(Later, WAYNE comes out of the house. Kids are laughing and playing with the car with plenty of encouragement from MULDER.)

WAYNE: I want those kids out of my car.

MULDER: Okay, speed racers. That's enough driver's education for today.

(Kids get out of the car and run off.)

WAYNE: (to MULDER) Having your fun?

(MULDER's cell phone rings.)

MULDER: (on phone) Yeah.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, you're busted.

MULDER: (on phone) What?

SCULLY: (on phone) I just got an earful from Assistant Director Kersh who got a call from Mr. Weinsider who says that you're harassing him.

WAYNE: Leave me alone. (drives off - license DNJ 534)

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder...Mulder, I have to tell him something. What do you want me to say?

MULDER: (on phone) Tell him I'm down here doing a background check on somebody. (hangs up)

(SCULLY sighs and hangs up)

ROANOKE COUNTY JAIL

(Prison. WAYNE joins LAURA in her cell.)

WAYNE: I got a message you needed to see me, Laura. What is it?

LAURA: I'm afraid.

WAYNE: Well, I've been meeting with attorneys and... given the circumstances and your emotional state they feel confident of an acquittal if that's what you're worried about, Laura.

LAURA: No, Wayne. I've been thinking.

WAYNE: Thinking. About what?

LAURA: About your story. About how it doesn't make sense. You said you... wrapped the baby up to hide it but what they found in the fire was wrapped in the nightgown I had on when I woke up from my nightmare.

WAYNE: But that's not possible, Laura. You must be mistaken.

LAURA: And I keep thinking about... the face of that terrible creature at the end of the bed. And I remember something that I didn't tell anybody. Not even you.

WAYNE: Laura, you're scaring me. No matter what you believe I only have one desire: to protect you. To put this all behind us.

(As WAYNE embraces her, she pulls his collar down slightly, exposing the bite mark she put there the night she lost the baby.)

WAYNE: (sighing, resigned) Why'd you go and do that, Laura? You've got to know that I love you. And I just wish... you could've been the one.

(Laura gasps as he grabs her wrist.)

LAURA: Let me go, Wayne.

(WAYNE begins inhaling. We see the breath come out of LAURA and flow into WAYNE's mouth. LAURA collapses.)

Commercial 2.

(Prison. Short time later. EMTs are trying to resuscitate LAURA.)

EMT 1: What's her rhythm?

EMT 2: She's still in v-fib. Charge the paddles to 200.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: What happened?

EMT 1: I'll start an IV

WAYNE: She just collapsed.

EMT 2: Clear. Paddles are charged. Stand by to defib.

WAYNE: It was like...

EMT 2: Clear.

WAYNE: It was like she died right in my arms.

EMT 2: Charging to 300. Going again. Clear.

(Monitor begins beeping.)

EMT 2: We got a heartbeat.

WAYNE: What?

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Laura, can you hear me? Laura, can you hear me?

(MULDER comes over to see and he and WAYNE exchange a glance.)

EMT2: I need to get this woman to the hospital right away. I need a neurologist consult down at the ER hang an IV of lidocaine, and let's get her out of here.

EMT 1: Okay.

EMT 2: Got it?

(WAYNE, very surprised, watches as they take her out.)

(Night. BETSY's house. WAYNE parks his car in the garage and ducks under the door as it closes. He runs in the front door [CarriK: What a wreath. Rather fluffy autumn-leaf thing] and finds BETSY sitting on the couch.)

BETSY: That was a long five minutes.

WAYNE: I can explain.

BETSY: Oh, please, Wayne. I've heard all your excuses. Besides, everything went fine without you. It always does.

WAYNE: Did you get the sonogram?

BETSY: Yes.

WAYNE: Bring it back home?

(BETSY picks up a folder and looks uncomfortable)

WAYNE: Is there a problem?

BETSY: The doctor found something. She doesn't know yet but there's some kind of bony growths on the baby's spine and skull. It may just be a stage of development. She really just wants to wait and see.

WAYNE: (sad, looking at the sonogram image, knowing what he will have to do) Okay. Sure. Whatever happens, you know I love you. No matter what.

BETSY: Do you, Wayne? 'Cause sometimes I wonder what's going on inside your head.

WAYNE: Nothing but good thoughts. You and this baby are my hopes and dreams.

BETSY: Mine, too.

WAYNE: Why don't I get you a warm glass of milk and we'll go to bed.

BETSY: Okay.

ROANOKE COUNTY MEDICAL CENTER 10:02 PM

(Hospital. SCULLY stares at MULDER as he walks in.)

SCULLY: Mulder, you asked me to come down here and then you're nowhere to be found.

MULDER: I was down in the basement at county records doing a background check.

SCULLY: Mulder... It's me. That's your cover story, remember?

MULDER: That's where I was. I was piecing together the history of the man that did this to her.

(They look over to where LAURA is lying in a coma.)

SCULLY: That's why I was looking for you because, in fact, nobody did anything to her. Mulder, there is absolutely no evidence of bodily injury of overdose, of suffocation, of anything that would explain why she was in a coma.

MULDER: Perfect.

SCULLY: No, Mulder, I don't think you heard what I said. I did a complete medical review, just as you asked. What I'm saying is that there is not a shred of evidence to implicate the husband or anyone.

MULDER: Not a shred of evidence is exactly the evidence I'd hoped you'd find. Check this out.

SCULLY: (reading file MULDER hands her) Ivan Veles, born Czechoslovakia in 1956. Married twice, widowed twice, no children. Prosecuted twice for murder of wives Gisele and Helga. Acquitted twice on lack of evidence. Who is Ivan Veles?

MULDER: Wayne Weinsider. He's a Czech national, emigrated in 1994. He's also known as Bud Hasselhoff, also known as Gordy Boitano.

SCULLY: Gordy Boitano.

MULDER: There's more. Read on.

SCULLY: (reading) In Slavic societies the name Veles was synonymous with... the Devil. From the Lithuanian root "Vele"-- a horned demon who sucks the souls of the innocent. Mulder, you're not suggesting that he is himself... a devil, are you?

MULDER: I'm not suggesting anything. I think the facts speak for themselves.

SCULLY: Mulder, I will accept that a man can be demonic that he may have demon-like attributes but why would a demon-- if there were such a thing-- bother with a 9:00-to-5:00 "Make Room For Daddy"-routine just so he can off his wife and unborn child?

MULDER: I don't know why; I'm not a psychologist [CarriK: Excuse me? Pilot episode? TD: Hear, hear!] but this is the best explanation for how that I've heard.

(BETSY's house. WAYNE fixes a glass of warm milk. The milk is glowing [CarriK: Homage to what movie? TD: Rosemary's Baby maybe?] as he carries it upstairs into the bedroom. BETSY is already in bed.)

WAYNE: This will put you to sleep on a cloud. Where troubles melt away.

(BESTY sighs and drinks the milk.)

BETSY: Sometimes I remember why I married you.

(Night. An excavation team is at work in the Weinsider's yard digging and using explosives.)

OFFICER 1: All the way down?

OFFICER 2: Yeah.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: All right. They're checking it out now.

(MULDER and SCULLY drive up and get out of their car.)

OFFICER 1: It's pretty hard. Get me the pick.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: (to MULDER and SCULLY) We got technology out here. Subterranean mapping equipment out from Richmond P.D. Still can't find a damn thing.

OFFICER: Over here! We got something. Daniel, bring that light over here.

(DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS, MULDER, and SCULLY run over to where the OFFICER is digging.)

MULDER: You're going to find discrete osteopathic deformities to the upper vertebrae, two bony protrusions between the parietal and occipital lobes of the skull.

(SCULLY reaches into the excavated hole and brushes dirt off of a tiny ribcage.)

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Good Lord.

MULDER: Put out an APB for your brother-in-law. He's not going to come back here.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: What are you talking...?

MULDER: Just find him.

(MULDER and SCULLY go back to their car.) [CarriK: They've got the BIG flashlights!]

SCULLY: Mulder, what are you talking about?

MULDER: He's done this to other women here, Scully, just like in Czechoslovakia. My guess is that baby we just dug up belonged to one of Wayne's other wives.

SCULLY: What are you saying, that he's trying to propagate? He's trying to breed?

MULDER: He's exercising his biological imperative and he'll do anything or say anything he has to to succeed.

SCULLY: But it doesn't make sense, Mulder. If he's trying to breed then why would he be snatching his own babies and burying them in his backyard?

MULDER: Because they're demons and he wants a normal child.

(BETSY's bedroom, later that night. BETSY wakes up alone in bed to the same vision that LAURA did earlier, flames reflected on the wall and headboard, growling sounds. BETSY screams as the demon figure at the foot of the bed grabs her legs and spreads them as he pulls her to the foot of the bed.)

BETSY: No! No! Wayne! Wayne! What are you doing?!

(BETSY suddenly sits up, fully in control, and grabs the demon by it's chin. The demon, no longer in shadow, is a very startled WAYNE.)

BETSY: (warning) Maybe you didn't hear me! I said, what are you doing, Wayne?

Commercial 3.

(Night. MULDER and SCULLY driving. MULDER is on his cell phone. SCULLY is writing down the information he is getting.)

MULDER: (on phone) 15527 Leahy. That's in Cave Spring. It's West Roanoke. Cave Spring. Thank you. Thank you very much for your help.

(MULDER hangs up.)

MULDER: Scully, hold on.

(MULDER quickly turns the car around, tires screeching.)

SCULLY: (sighing) Mulder, where are we going?

MULDER: Harmony Mutual Insurance has a second address for Wayne Weinsider all the way across the other side of Roanoke County.

SCULLY: Do you think he's got a second wife?

MULDER: Well, think about it, Scully. He meets or screens prospective women through work. That's probably why he came to this country in the first place-- bigger gene pool more women-- then he plants as many seeds as he can. Let's just hope he hasn't been able to harvest many more of them.

SCULLY: Mulder.

(Suddenly, another car approaches. They barely avoid crashing into each other. BETSY gets out of the car crying. She is covered in blood and no longer pregnant. She runs to MULDER and SCULLY who have also gotten out of their car.)

BETSY: Please! Please. He took my baby! He took my baby!

SCULLY: It's okay, ma'am.

BETSY: Wayne. Wayne. He took my baby.

(MULDER and SCULLY arrive at BETSY's house. Television is showing an old movie. ? on the movie.) (TD NOTE: I thought it might be "To Kill A Mockingbird". Definitely Gregory Peck talking.)

TELEVISION: Man: How are you, sweetheart? Child: Is he going to die? Man: Of course not. People don't die from chicken pox. Woman: Did you ever have chicken pox? Man: I've had everything. How about you? Woman: I've been trying to remember. Man: You won't have to try long. You'll know in a day or two. Woman: That's what's worrying me. You can go on down. I'll be down in a minute. Child: I bet she's going to die. Man: Will you stop talking like that?

(MULDER and SCULLY find WAYNE outside with a shovel. He is crying as he digs in the ground. They hold guns on him.)

MULDER: Wayne! It's over.

WAYNE: A normal life. A family. That's all I ever wanted.

MULDER: Where's the baby, Wayne?

WAYNE: How could she do this to them?

MULDER: Put the shovel down. Your lies won't work anymore.

WAYNE: My lies? What about her lies?

SCULLY: Whatever the truth, Mr. Weinsider, you can't hope to bury it now.

WAYNE: I'm not burying anything. I'm digging it up.

MULDER: Where's the baby?

WAYNE: Don't you understand? She took it. Betsy took it!

MULDER: You can't blame anyone else like you did with Laura.

WAYNE: Don't you see? Betsy isn't like Laura. Betsy is...

(WAYNE collapses as bullets rip through his body. Shots came from DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS. OFFICERS converge on the scene.)

SCULLY: Get the paramedics!

WAYNE: I just wanted what everyone wants.

(Hospital Emergency Room. WAYNE, unconscious, is placed on a gurney next to LAURA who is also unconscious.)

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Hey! Don't even think about it! You put that guy someplace else! I don't want him in sight of my sister.

NURSE: Sir, he just got out of surgery.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Give me this. (grabs the gurney)

MULDER: (pulling him back) Hey, cut it out! Come on. You're in enough trouble as it is. You don't want to complicate your situation further by endangering his life again, do you?

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: That son of a bitch better live so I can beat the truth out of him. Find out why he did it... and how the hell he did it.

MULDER: I think the why is directly related to the how.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: What do you mean? What do you mean by that?

MULDER: We should just go talk to this other wife of his. This woman Betsy. Come on.

DEPUTY ARKY STEVENS: Wait a minute.

(They leave the room. WAYNE wakes up and looks over to LAURA. We see breath rising out of WAYNE and flowing across and into LAURA's mouth. WAYNE's monitor flatlines. LAURA begins breathing hard.)

NURSE: Mrs. Weinsider?

NURSE 2: Flat line.

NURSE: I can't believe it. Page Dr. Nyland up here. Just breathe deep, Mrs. Weinsider. Can you breathe for me?

(Outside BETSY's house. A team is excavating some very small graves. SCULLY is examining the remains. MULDER joins SCULLY.)

OFFICER: Going to get a couple of more shots over here.

MULDER: (to SCULLY) How many?

SCULLY: Four total. All here for some time. Maybe years. All normal, though, Mulder. No osteological deformities. And Betsy's baby isn't here. There are no fresh graves.

MULDER: I know.

SCULLY: What do you think he did with it?

MULDER: I don't think he did anything with it.

SCULLY: But she was recently pregnant. I mean, I-I saw her records. There are sonograms in the house. Showing the same defects.

MULDER: These weren't Wayne's babies, Scully.

SCULLY: Well, whose babies were they?

MULDER: I think Wayne realized something last night. That's why he was out here digging. He realized that he'd met someone even more evil than he was-- who would sacrifice what he desperately wanted for himself.

SCULLY: Betsy?

MULDER: It was no coincidence that she ran into us last night. We were taken in by her just like Wayne was-- by a woman who would say anything or do anything to get what she wanted-- who was even more driven than he was.

SCULLY: To what?

MULDER: To have what only Wayne could give her.

(Red convertible again on the road. BETSY is driving, music playing. There is a baby carrier on the seat beside her. She smiles down at its occupant. We see the hand of the infant which is scaly and demonic. BETSY's eyes glow red.)

RADIO: I'm only happy when it rains You know I love it when the news is bad Why I feel so good to feel so sad I'm only happy when it rains Pour your misery down Pour your misery down on me Pour your misery down Pour your misery down on me...

Guest Cast:

· Bruce Campbell as Wayne Weinsider · Chris Owens as Jeffrey Spender · Lisa Jane Persky as Laura Weinsider · Michael Milhoan as Dep. Arky Stevens · Grace Phillips as Betsy Monroe · Michael Rothhaar as Dr. Couvillion · Lenora May as Ms. Britton · Jimmy Staszkiel as Mr. Ginsberg

The X-Files - 2.