"Oubliette"

SCENE 1

VALLEY WOODS HIGH SCHOOL

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

(School gym. Picture day. High school student, AMY JACOBS, pretty, about 15, against blue screen. LARKEN is the photographer. She smiles, picture is snapped.)

LARKEN: Name please?

AMY: Amy Jacobs.

LARKEN: Fill out your address card. May I have the next on in line?

(AMY crosses to the table where her friends laughingly tease her about how she looked for the picture.)

LARKEN: Carl, I need a reload.

(The assistant, CARL WADE, early 40’s, stares at AMY as she fills out her address card.)

LARKEN: (trying to get WADE’s attention) Hey, Carl. Hey! I need more film.

WADE: I haven’t loaded it yet.

LARKEN: Why you even bother coming in if you’re not going to do your job?

(LARKEN goes to load the film himself. WADE keeps staring at AMY.)

(Later, alone in a darkroom, in an almost sexual experience, WADE caresses then cuts out AMY’s picture and puts it with his and takes another series of pictures as if they were together. Camera pans back and we see the flashes coming out of a trapdoor to a basement in a dark house.)

SCENE 2

(AMY’s bedroom, Night. 10:05 PM. She and her sister are asleep. WADE crawls in the window, places his hand over her mouth and pulls her out of bed.)

WADE: (whispering to AMY) Nobody’s going to spoil us.

(He pulls her out the window. AMY’s little sister wakes up in time to see them.)

SISTER: Amy? Amy! Mom!

SCENE 3

(Busy fast food restaurant. Same night. WAITRESS looks over to where LUCY HOUSEHOLDER, another waitress, THIN, early thirties, unkempt blonde hair, is pulling drinks.)

WAITRESS: Hurry up with those drinks, Lucy. We’re backing up. (Grabs the drinks LUCY has poured.) What are you doing? These are regular. They all ordered large. What …?

(WAITRESS notices blood pouring out of LUCY’s nose and down the front of her uniform. LUCY is in shock.)

WAITRESS: What happened?

(LUCY falls to the floor muttering over and over as if in a trance.)

LUCY: Nobody’s going to spoil us … Nobody’s going to spoil us … Nobody … Nobody’s going …. Nobody’s going to spoil us … Nobody’s going to spoil … Nobody’s going to spoil … Nobody’s going to spoil us …

(Camera pans to her watch. 10:05 PM.)

SCENE 4

(JACOB’s house. Next day. Crime scene. MULDER arrives and enters the house, finds a police officer.)

MULDER: I’m looking for the agent in charge.

OFFICER: And you are?

MULDER: (showing badge) Special Agent Mulder.

OFFICER: I’ll let him know you’re here.

(MULDER walks through the house, ending up in the girls’ bedroom. MYRA JACOBS stands staring out a window.)

MULDER: Mrs. Jacobs? I’m Fox Mulder. I’m with the FBI. I’m sorry about your daughter.

MRS. JACOBS: It’s her birthday on Tuesday.

MULDER: We’re going to do everything we can to find her.

MRS. JACOBS: Who could do such a thing? Who could take somebody who wasn’t theirs?

MULDER: I know you must be feeling …

MRS. JACOBS: I’m sorry … but how could you really know how I feel?

(MULDER stares off into space as she leaves. Then goes to look at blood drops on the carpet. AGENT EUBANKS, early fifties, no-nonsense guy, enters the room)

AGENT EUBANKS: It’s blood. Amy had a nosebleed. Her little sister said it happened when the kidnapper put his hand over her mouth. We’re running it anyway. Walt Eubanks, Special Agent in Charge.

MULDER: Fox Mulder. Any leads on a suspect?

AGENT EUBANKS: A vague description from the sister. Hair and fiber pulled some promising bits but he didn’t leave any prints here or in the flower beds out front.

MULDER: The neighbors?

AGENT EUBANKS: Nobody saw anything. Not a car – nothing. It was someone who knew her – that much we can figure. He knew right where he was going.

MULDER: No, I bet that he didn’t know her so well or else he wouldn’t have been so bold.

AGENT EUBANKS: Either way, we’re pretty much chasing our tails until something or someone turns on this.

MULDER: What about this woman at the restaurant?

AGENT EUBANKS: You heard?

MULDER: Yeah, that’s why I came down here.

AGENT EUBANKS: Seems like a pretty thin lead.

MULDER: Mind if I talk to her?

AGENT EUBANKS: Hey, save me the time.

MULDER: Great. Thanks.

SCENE 5

UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

10:31 AM

(Hospital. SCULLY, out of breath, comes up to MULDER who is reading a chart.)

SCULLY: Mulder.

MULDER: (surprised to see her) I thought you missed your flight.

SCULLY: We were delayed in DC. I tried you on your cell phone.

MULDER: I forgot it. I left in kind of a hurry.

SCULLY: Your message said something about a kidnapping?

MULDER: Yeah, 15 year old girl, Amy Jacobs was taken from her bedroom last night, 10:00.

SCULLY: Is she here?

MULDER: No. They haven’t found her.

SCULLY: What are we doing here?

MULDER: A 30-year-old woman named Lucy Householder was admitted here shortly after 10:00. She collapsed at work suffering from some kind of seizure and what her doctors are calling glossolalia.

SCULLY: Incoherent speech.

MULDER: (hitting elevator button) Technically, but whether she knew it or not, she was repeating the exact words spoken by Amy’s abductor the exact same time 20 miles across town.

SCULLY: Well, that’s spooky.

MULDER: That’s my name, isn’t it? Turns out, Lucy Householder knows a little something about kidnapping herself. When she was eight years old she was taken from her bedroom while her parents were asleep. She was missing for five years until she escaped and someone found her by the side of the road. Apparently, her abductor had kept her locked in a basement the entire time. They never caught him.

(They get in elevator. Later, LUCY’s room. LUCY is staring out the window. MULDER and SCULLY enter.)

MULDER: Lucy? I’m Fox Mulder. This is Dana Scully. We’re with the FBI. We’d like to ask you a few questions.

LUCY: I’d like a cigarette. They won’t let me smoke in here.

SCULLY: Are you feeling any better?

LUCY: Yeah, I’m fine. I’d just like a cigarette.

MULDER: A young girl was kidnapped last night. Have you heard anything about that?

LUCY: What are you asking me for?

MULDER: Do you remember what you were saying last night when you collapsed at work?

LUCY: What?

MULDER: You were saying "Nobody’s going to spoil us."

SCULLY: Does that mean anything to you?

LUCY: No.

SCULLY: Can you think of any reason why you might have said it?

LUCY: What did I just say?

MULDER: Those were the exact words spoken by the kidnapper to the little girl when he took her last night. So you can see, that under the circumstances, it might seem strange that you …

LUCY: So what’s your point? All of us kidnap victims gotta stick together?

MULDER: No. We just want to find the little girl any way we can, and if you know anything …

LUCY: Look, what I’ve been through all my life I wouldn’t wish on anybody. It doesn’t mean I can make it any better for me or anyone else.

MULDER: All right, well thanks for talking to us, Lucy.

LUCY: Yeah.

(MULDER and SCULLY start to leave.)

LUCY: Hey! When do I get out of here?

SCULLY: I’m sure as soon as your doctors feel it’s okay for you to go.

LUCY: No. They say it’s up to you.

MULDER: No, we can’t hold you here. You’re free to go.

(LUCY runs into the bathroom.)

SCULLY: (to MULDER) I guess she’s not too big on confined spaces.

MULDER: Yeah.

(MULDER and SCULLY exit. In bathroom, LUCY holds her hand under steaming hot water from the sink. She looks up slowly at herself in the mirror. Scene cuts to:)

SCENE 6

(POV from the trunk of a car, WADE looking down into the trunk. TOW TRUCK DRIVER pulls up behind him. WADE looks at the truck, then back to the trunk. Trunk POV as he closes the lid.)

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: You the one that called for a tow?

WADE: No. Not me.

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: Gary Mosier?

WADE: No. Wrong guy.

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: (friendly) While I’m out here I might as well give you a hand.

WADE: It’s okay. We’ll be fine.

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: (looking at WADE’s blown out tire) Hey, it looks like you’re in a world of hurt. Blown sidewall. You’re going to need a new tire.

WADE: Yeah. Looks that way.

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: Got a spare in the trunk?

WADE: Yeah.

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: Twenty bucks cash. My boss don’t gotta know about it. Have you on the road in five minutes.

WADE: I can’t pay you.

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: Make it ten. Pop the trunk. Take me five minutes, max.

(WADE picks up the tire iron and threatens the DRIVER.)

WADE: (yelling) Leave me alone!

(TOW TRUCK DRIVER runs and gets in his truck and begins to drive away.)

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: Hey, man, what the hell’s your problem?

WADE: Leave me alone! Get out of here!

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: Lunatic! Freak! (drives off)

SCENE 7

FBI REGIONAL FIELD OFFICE

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

1:53 PM

(Police office. AGENT EUBANKS stops MULDER.)

AGENT EUBANKS: Hold on a second. Agent Mulder. Lucy Householder --- you get anywhere on that?

MULDER: I’m working on it.

AGENT EUBANKS: One of my guys says she’s got a criminal record --- prostitution, narcotics convictions. She’s done some time.

MULDER: It doesn’t surprise me given her history.

AGENT EUBANKS: She’s also got a boyfriend doing time for assault and child endangerment. Used to live with him up in the hills. Pretty sketchy characters.

MULDER: I don’t think she’s involved.

AGENT EUBANKS: Closest thing I got right now to a lead. I can tell them to shift some men …

MULDER: (walking away) No. Let me follow up on that, okay? Thanks.

(SCULLY enters and goes to MULDER.)

SCULLY: Mulder… I got something – something weird.

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: I was going over Lucy Householder’s medical work-up and something hit me. Her blood type is O-positive.

MULDER: Yeah?

SCULLY: Forensics lifted two blood types off of her work clothes -- O-positive and B -positive. Two guesses as to what Amy Jacobs’ blood type is.

MULDER: How could it be Amy Jacobs’ blood? Lucy was all the way across town.

SCULLY: I don’t know, Mulder, but it begs the question.

MULDER: Why? Because it matches the victim’s blood type? How many people have B -positive blood, Scully? One in five? That’s got to be hundreds of thousands of people in the local population alone.

SCULLY: We’re not talking about the local population. We’re talking about a woman who is tied to this case who had somebody else’s blood on her uniform.

MULDER: (leans down close to SCULLY) Lucy is a victim, Scully, just like Amy Jacobs. If she’s got any connection to this case that’s the extent of it.

SCULLY: Well, we’ll know soon enough.

MULDER: What are you talking about?

SCULLY: I’m running a PCR on her blood to see if there’s a DNA match.

MULDER: (looks to see if anyone overheard) Will you do me a favor? Will you keep that under your hat?

SCULLY: Why?

MULDER: ‘Cause I don’t want Lucy Householder treated like a suspect in this case until it’s absolutely certain she is one, okay?

(SCULLY sighs as she watches MULDER leave.)

SCENE 8

BRIGHT ANGEL HALFWAY HOUSE

7:10 PM

(Halfway house where LUCY lives. HENRY, another resident, goes into LUCY’s room with a blanket, worried. LUCY is shivering in bed.)

HENRY: Lucy?

LUCY: I’m cold.

HENRY: (covering her tenderly) I brought you another blanket. We should call the doctor.

LUCY: No!

HENRY: Let me see your face. (LUCY’s face is covered with scratches) What did you do to yourself?

LUCY: It’s dark. Why is it dark? I can’t see.

HENRY: (really worried) You hold on now.

LUCY: I can’t see.

(Quick cut to AMY trembling in a dark basement. Her face is also cut and bleeding. There is a banging noise above. She sees WADE’s eyes watching her through a peephole. He slams it shut, leaving her in the dark. She cries softly, shaking from cold.)

SCENE 9

BRIGHT ANGEL HALFWAY HOUSE

8:03 PM

(Halfway house, later. MULDER drives up. Ambulance outside. EMS team is checking LUCY. MULDER enters LUCY’s room.)

MULDER: How’s she doing?

EMS: Fine. Blood pressure’s back to normal. Temperature’s back up. She must have gone down the rabbit hole for a while. (to LUCY) You should get something to eat soon. Get your blood sugar back up.

MULDER: Thanks.

(EMS leaves.)

MULDER: What do you say, Lucy? Can I take you to dinner?

(Later, at the restaurant, MULDER watches Lucy eat a bowl of soup.)

MULDER: You feeling better?

LUCY: Better than what?

MULDER: Better than Amy Jacobs?

LUCY: Wouldn’t know.

MULDER: If anybody knows, I’d say you do.

LUCY: I’ve got my own set of problems now, thank you.

MULDER: How’d you scratch your face?

LUCY: Must’ve done it in my sleep.

MULDER: (quietly) Are you using again, Lucy?

LUCY: I’m clean. Passed my test last week. You can ask Henry.

HENRY: (from the kitchen) With flying colors.

MULDER: Have you ever experienced temporary blindness before?

LUCY: I’ve probably experienced just about everything once or twice. It’s all been pretty temporary.

MULDER: That girl’s in trouble, Lucy.

LUCY: And there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. You understand? I can’t help you.

(LUCY gets up, takes her bowl to the sink, and pours the remainder of the soup down the drain. MULDER follows her.)

MULDER: I think you can, Lucy.

LUCY: How?

MULDER: Well, that’s something you have to tell me.

LUCY: What can I possibly do?

MULDER: Lead us to her.

LUCY: I don’t know where she is. I don’t care. I’m not interested.

MULDER: Well, that’s too bad, Lucy, because right now I think you’re her best hope.

LUCY: If I’m her best hope then that little girl’s in a hell of a lot more trouble than you think.

(LUCY leaves. MULDER sighs and leans back against the sink.)

SCENE 10

(Basement, AMY cowering in a corner. Red point of light focuses on her, then a flash. She runs to another part of the basement. Red light finds her again and flashes continue. She cries as picture after picture blinds her.)

AMY: (sobbing) Who are you? What do you want? Why are you doing this? Please … I want to go home. (cries)

(Flashes continue.)

SCENE 11

(Police office. MULDER is watching video of pitiful young girl writhing and crying and screaming on the floor. Woman in video is trying to get the girl to come to her. " You don’t want to talk to me, Lucy? You don’t want to come sit by me?" SCULLY enters.)

SCULLY: Mulder, I’ve got a ----

MULDER: Scully, take a look at this.

(SCULLY looks at the video.)

SCULLY: Is that Lucy?

MULDER: Yeah. Taken in 1978, the week she was found. She’d been held in the dark so long her eyes were hypersensitive to the light. Whoever held her captive wasn’t very big on conversation, either. She’s 13 years old and can barely string two words together. It’s amazing she’s gotten anywhere in life.

SCULLY: Well, by most yardsticks, she hasn’t, Mulder. (MULDER mutes the TV) Look, I think we’ve got a break in the case. A big one.

MULDER: What is it?

SCULLY: School pictures were mailed out this week to everyone in Amy’s class except Amy. One of Eubanks’s men discovered it.

MULDER: Who’s the photographer?

SCULLY: It’s an outfit called Larken Scholastic. Now, the photographer checked out but his assistant was fired the day after the shoot – a man named Carl Wade.

MULDER: What have you got on him?

SCULLY: DMVs, and old address, but he spent the good part of the past 15 years institutionalized for a bipolar condition. The only thing current we have on him is this photo taken by his employer trying out a new camera.

MULDER: Have you shown this picture to Amy’s little sister?

SCULLY: They’re doing it right now.

MULDER: I’m going to take it and show it to Lucy.

SCENE 12

(WADE’s house. WADE enters, checks the trapdoor to the basement, then goes out, gets in his car and leaves. In the basement, AMY fearfully listens to the car leave, then goes to a boarded up window and begins struggling to pull the boards free.)

SCENE 13

(Restaurant. LUCY is washing dishes at a sink. MULDER enters.)

MULDER: Lucy?

(LUCY quickly moves away from him.)

MULDER: Lucy, wait.

LUCY: No. I’m done with you.

MULDER: I just want to ask you a question. Lucy, wait a second. (reaches for her)

LUCY: Don’t touch me. I don’t like to be touched.

MULDER: I’m sorry.

LUCY: I was doing okay until this, you know? (short laugh) Figures.

MULDER: I just want to show you a photograph, okay?

(LUCY looks at the picture of WADE. It upsets her.)

MULDER: You recognize him don’t you?

(LUCY runs out of the restaurant as if she were being chased. MULDER follows.)

MULDER: Lucy.

(CUT TO: Back at WADE’s house, AMY almost finished tearing boards off the window. WADE drives up and enters the house with a bag from a photography store, Bilton’s Photo. Downstairs, AMY pulls herself through the window and begins running through the woods. WADE hears a noise, checks the trap door, and runs after her.)

(CUT TO: LUCY running down the street.)

(CUT TO: AMY running through the woods followed by WADE.)

(CUT TO: LUCY running down the street.)

(CUT TO: AMY running through the woods followed by WADE.)

(CUT TO: Lucy running, terrified. Then falling and holding her arm.)

(CUT TO: AMY running through the woods. She falls and holds her arm, sobbing in pain as WADE catches up with her. Breathing heavily he stares angrily at her.)

(CUT TO: LUCY, sobbing in pain. MULDER comes running up to her and holds her.)

MULDER: Lucy?

LUCY: (sobbing) What’s happening to me?

(MULDER holds her.)

SCENE 14

(Halfway house, later. MULDER and LUCY in LUCY’s room looking at the picture.)

MULDER: He’s probably changed a lot over the last 17 years. Did you even know his name? Carl Wade. He worked as a photographer’s assistant. School pictures mostly. That’s where he saw Amy Jacobs.

LUCY: So what do you want from me?

MULDER: I want you to tell me what you’re going through. It might feel good to tell somebody.

LUCY: I feel like it’s happening all over again.

MULDER: You can actually feel what she’s going through, can’t you?

LUCY: I don’t want to go through this again.

MULDER: Lucy, she needs your help.

LUCY: There’s nothing I can do.

MULDER: Lucy ….

(Car drives up. AGENT EUBANKS and SCULLY and another agent get out and approach the house. MULDER sees them out the window.)

MULDER: (to LUCY) Wait here a second, okay?

(MULDER meets SCULLY and AGENT EUBANKS downstairs.)

MULDER: What’s going on?

AGENT EUBANKS: We’re here to arrest Lucy Householder.

MULDER: Why?

AGENT EUBANKS: I think you know why, Agent Mulder. (goes to LUCY’s room)

MULDER: What the hell is happening?

SCULLY: Mulder, the blood on Lucy’s uniform was an exact DNA match. Lucy was covered in Amy Jacobs’ blood.

MULDER: She didn’t do it, Scully.

SCULLY: Mulder, it’s incontrovertible evidence.

AGENT EUBANKS: (coming out of LUCY’s empty room) Agent Mulder. Where is she?

MULDER: She was just here.

AGENT EUBANKS: Well, she’s gone now.

SCENE 15

(WADE’s basement. AMY again crying in the corner, WADE pacing in front of her.)

AMY: Please. I’m – I’m thirsty.

WADE: (barely containing his anger) You shouldn’t have run. I was taking care of you.. I thought you understood that. Why did you run away?

AMY: (crying) Please, Mister. I need some water.

WADE: You shouldn’t have run!

AMY: Please. I’m so thirsty.

(WADE fills a cheap 70’s looking glass with flowers on it with water from the sink and hold it to AMY’s mouths. She gulps it eagerly, then pulls away as she begins to choke.)

AMY: (coughing and crying) I want my mom. I don’t want to die here. Please. Please, Mister! Don’t let me die!

(Above the trap door slams as WADE angrily leaves the basement.)

SCENE 16

(Police station. MULDER, SCULLY, and AGENT EUBANKS watch as Wanted Posters of LUCY come off of the printer. MULDER is not happy.)

MULDER: You’re going to drive her away with this.

AGENT EUBANKS: She’s been driven away, Agent Mulder. I’m trying to find her.

MULDER: A half a dozen witnesses placed her across town at the time of the kidnapping.

AGENT EUBANKS: I’m well aware of the facts.

MULDER: Well, then trust me on this. She’s not working with Wade.

AGENT EUBANKS: How did she get the blood on her?

(MULDER looks to SCULLY, then back to AGENT EUBANKS.)

MULDER: She may have bled it.

AGENT EUBANKS: She bled Amy Jacobs’ blood?

MULDER: Yes. It may explain why there was so little of it on the carpet in Amy’s bedroom.

AGENT KRESGE: (holding up a phone) Agent Eubanks, line three.

AGENT EUBANKS: I don’t have time for this nonsense, Agent Mulder. We’ve got a young girl’s life at stake. (he goes to answer phone)

SCULLY: (quietly, to MUDLER) I hate to say this, Mulder, but I think you just ran out of credibility.

MULDER: (crumpling the poster and walking away) He’s wrong, Scully.

SCULLY: (following) You are protecting her beyond the point of reason.

MULDER: I’m protecting her because I think she’s connected to Amy Jacobs, just not the way everybody else thinks she is.

SCULLY: Did you consider for one minute that the person she’s connected to is Carl Wade?

MULDER: (stops and faces her) Carl Wade? Why would she be connected with Carl Wade?

SCULLY: For the same twisted reason that abused children crave their parents’ love or hostages develop sympathy for their captors. I mean, maybe Lucy developed some kind of emotional dependency.

MULDER: After five years in a dark pit, I’m sure she developed some kind of connection with Wade, just not the kind that you’re suggesting.

SCULLY: It makes a lot more sense than the notion that she’s bleeding Amy Jacobs’ blood.

MULDER: I don’t know how to explain it, but I think that Wade’s abduction of Amy triggered some kind of physical response in Lucy – some kind of empathic transference.

SCULLY: Mulder, you can’t ----

MULDER: That’s how I account for what Lucy’s going through. That’s how I account for the identical words that corresponded to Amy, and the spontaneous wounds and blood, as well.

SCULLY: Then why did she run? If she’s innocent, what was she running from?

MULDER: Because she’s afraid. (steps away from her and leans against a file cabinet.)

SCULLY: You don’t see what you’re doing, do you, Mulder? You are so close to this that you just don’t see it.

MULDER: (getting irritated) What don’t I see?

SCULLY: The extreme rationalization that’s going on. Your personal identification with the victim, or in this case, the suspect. You’re becoming an empath yourself, Mulder. You are so sympathetic to Lucy as a victim like *your sister* that you can’t see her as a person who’s capable of committing this crime.

MULDER: (hurt and angry) You don’t think I’ve thought of that? I have. And not everything I do, say, think, and feel goes back to my sister. You, of all people should realize that sometimes motivations for behavior can be more complex and mysterious than tracing them back to one single childhood experience.

AGENT EUBANKS: Agent Mulder. (MULDER and SCULLY look up) We’ve got a man on the way in who’s spotted Wade.

(Later. TOW TRUCK DRIVER is being questioned. They show him picture of WADE.)

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: Yeah, that’s the guy. I offered to fix his flat. Tried to do the guy a favor and he went wacko on me. Started freaking the minute I got out of my truck.

MULDER: What about the girl? Was she with him?

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: I didn’t see anyone else. Guess she could have been in the trunk.

AGENT EUBANKS: Can you give us an exact spot?

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: Yeah.

(TOW TRUCK DRIVER crosses to a map and points to a spot.)

AGENT EUBANKS: Right in the middle of nowhere.

MULDER: Which way was the car headed?

TOW TRUCK DRIVER: West.

MULDER: (looking at map) Okay, Interstate 12… county 15 north … 903…. look at this. Right off the 903.

AGENT EUBANKS: Easton?

MULDER: That’s where Lucy was found 17 years ago.

SCENE 17

EASTON, WASHINGTON

(Easton, small town. Bureau cars come squealing into town. WADE, in his car, sees them and drives away. MULDER and SCULLY are driving along Main Street behind the others. MULDER stops the car. SCULLY looks surprised.)

MULDER: It’s a small town, Scully. Somebody’s bound to know Wade’s face. Know where he lives.

SCULLY: But we already stick out like a sore thumb, Mulder. If we start canvassing Main Street somebody’s going to pick up the phone to him.

MULDER: (pointing to photography store) But he’s a photographer, right?

SCULLY: Yeah.

MULDER: He should have an account here.

SCENE 18

(Later, Bureau cars pull up to WADE’s house. Armed agents get out and head for the house. MULDER and SCULLY are first to arrive. The house is empty. MULDER goes into basement. Hears sobbing.)

MULDER: Amy? (he goes out of sight)

SCULLY: (from trapdoor) Mulder!

MULDER: Yeah.

SCULLY: What’s happening? Did you find her?

(MULDER comes into the light under the trapdoor holding a shaking LUCY, MULDER looks up at SCULLY.)

SCENE 19

(Later, interviewing LUCY. AGENT EUBANKS is harsh.)

AGENT EUBANKS: Where are they, Lucy? Tell us where Wade took Amy.

LUCY: (dead voice) I don’t know.

AGENT EUBANKS: Anything happens to that girl and you’ll be tried as an accomplice. Were they here when you arrived?

LUCY: No.

AGENT EUBANKS: You haven’t seen them? You haven’t spoken with them?

LUCY: I said no.

AGENT EUBANKS: Then why are you here?

LUCY: I don’t know.

AGENT EUBANKS: Just showed up for no reason in particular? That’s what you ask us to believe?

LUCY: I’ve been here before. A long time ago. That was where he kept me.

AGENT EUBANKS: So why are you here now? (no answer) Take her outside and place her in custody.

MULDER: No. I’ll take her. Come on, Lucy.

AGENT EUBANKS: Agent ---

SCULLY: (to AGENT EUBANKS) It’s all right.

(MULDER takes LUCY’s arm and leads her out and down the front steps. MULDER is about to put her in the car, but she stops.)

LUCY: He hasn’t touched her. Not yet. He wants to, but he can’t. That’s why he takes the pictures.

MULDER: What else, Lucy? Tell me what else?

LUCY: If he can’t have her all to himself that’s when he’s dangerous. That’s when he’ll start hurting her.

MULDER: Lucy, you came here to help her.

LUCY: No.

MULDER: Why else would you come back here if not for Amy? You’re sharing her pain.

LUCY: I can’t …

MULDER: You’re the survivor. You’re the strong one. Now Amy needs some of your strength.

LUCY: She’s not going to make it.

MULDER: She has to make it and you have to help her.

LUCY: (shaking) She’s cold. She’s cold and, and wet. (begins coughing)

MULDER: Lucy, Lucy, sit down. Sit down. (puts her in backseat of car)

SCULLY: (coming out of the house with other agents who get in cars) Mulder. They found Wade’s car north of here.

MULDER: They’re in the water.

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: There’s a river near here. I think that’s where they are.

SCULLY: But the river’s east and they found Wade’s car a mile north.

MULDER: Wade lives here. He knows these woods. He could be doubling back.

SCULLY: Did she tell you that?

MULDER: No, but I think that’s what she’s trying to do. (begins running)

SCULLY: Mulder, wait!

(MULDER is gone. AGENT KRESGE comes out of the house.)

SCULLY: (to AGENT KRESGE) Stay with her and get word to Eubanks that Wade may be heading towards the river.

(SCULLY runs after MULDER. Immediately, LUCY begins coughing again.)

(CUT TO: WADE and AMY. He is dragging her across the river. AMY is coughing, trying to get her breath.)

AMY: Please! Stop! I can’t!

(They hear sirens approaching.)

WADE: (desperate) Come on! They’re coming!

AMY: I can’t! Please!

WADE: (pauses, looks at her) Nobody …. Nobody’s going to spoil us.

AMY: (screams) No!

(WADE pushes her head below the surface of the water.)

(CUT TO: Back outside WADE’s house in the backseat, LUCY suddenly gasps for air and begins spitting out water. AGENT KRESGE, comes to her.)

AGENT KRESGE: Can you sit up? Can you breathe? Are you able to breathe?

(No response.)

AGENT KRESGE: (into radio) This is Agent Kresge. I’ve got what looks like an emergency situation. Requesting EMS, over.

(CUT TO: MULDER running through woods. SCULLY is behind him. MULDER reaches the river. WADE is holding AMY under the water. MULDER runs along the bank and aims his gun at WADE. SCULLY joins him.)

MULDER: Wade! Federal Officer! Hold it right there!

(WADE looks up in desperation at MULDER, then back to AMY trying to make her drown faster. MULDER shoots WADE. WADE falls, and AMY floats to the surface. MULDER and SCULLY run into the river and MULDER carries AMY to the shore.)

MULDER: She’s not breathing. No pulse either.

(SCULLY begins chest compressions while MULDER gives mouth-to-mouth.)

SCULLY: One … two… three…. four….

(As MULDER breathes into AMY’s mouth, CUT TO: LUCY lying in car, wet, staring blankly. Her chest suddenly rises. AGENT KRESGE is with her, also performing CPR, but LUCY is in sync with MULDER.)

SCULLY: One … two… three…. four….

MULDER: Come on, Amy, breathe. (breathes again)

(CUT TO: LUCY again, chest rising. Her lips are blue.)

SCULLY: …two… three…. four…five.

(After a moment, SCULLY stops and checks vitals again. MULDER continues, doing both compressions and breathing.)

SCULLY: There’s nothing. Mulder, it’s no good. I’m sorry.

MULDER: Damn it, Amy, come on!

SCULLY: Mulder, stop. You can’t help her. Mulder. It’s no use. Mulder. (puts her hands on his shoulders) Mulder, stop it. Stop it. Mulder, stop!

(MULDER violently smacks her arms away from him. They stare at each other for a moment, then MULDER softly touches AMY’s scratched cheek and walks a few steps away, on the verge of tears.)

(CUT TO: Outside WADE’s house. LUCY opens her eyes, relaxes and turns her head away.)

(CUT TO: River. Suddenly, SCULLY, turns to see AMY turning her head and coughing up water.)

SCULLY: Mulder. She’s breathing.

(Other AGENTS arrive.)

AGENT EUBANKS: Have you got her? Is that her?

SCULLY: Yeah, we got her. We have to get an EMS unit here right away with some heat and some oxygen.

AGENT EUBANKS: They’re close. We’ve got them up at Wade’s place right now. They’re working on Lucy Householder.

(MULDER begins running back to the house.)

AMY: I’m cold. I want to go home.

SCULLY: It’s getting dark. We have to get her off the river.

(AMY coughs as two agents help her stand and begin leading her back to the house. Another agent gets WADE’s body out of the river.)

(CUT TO: WADE’s house, night. Ambulances. MULDER runs over to a stretcher.)

AGENT KRESGE: I don’t know what happened. She just started coughing, then she couldn’t breathe. By the time the EMS guys got here she was already gone.

(MULDER slowly walks over to the gurney with LUCY’s sheet covered body. He pulls the sheet back and caresses her cheek. He kneels down beside her and cries. Camera pans up and over them.)

SCENE 20

BRIGHT ANGEL HALFWAY HOUSE

(Halfway house. Day. SCULLY walks down the hall and into LUCY’s room. MULDER sits on the bed looking at old school pictures of LUCY.)

MULDER: How’s Amy?

SCULLY: She’s exhausted, but it looks like she’s going to be fine. The doctors want to keep her for a day or two just to be sure.

MULDER: How serious were her injuries?

SCULLY: Wade must have left her alone. There were no injuries.

MULDER: He must have dragged her through the woods for at least a mile.

SCULLY: I know, Mulder. I can’t explain it. She didn’t have a cut on her and nobody wants to talk about that right now. Everyone’s just relieved to have her back again – to have her safe.

MULDER: Did they finish up on Lucy?

SCULLY: Yes. They, uh … they brought in the State Pathologist last night so I stopped by to get the autopsy reports on my way.

MULDER: She drowned, didn’t she?

SCULLY: They found five liters of water in her lungs.

MULDER: She saved Amy’s life.

SCULLY: Mulder …(sits beside him on the bed) Whatever there was between them, you were part of that connection. Did you think about that? Lucy may have died for Amy, but without you, they never would have found her.

MULDER: I think she died for more than Amy. (rises and crosses to window)

SCULLY: What do you mean?

MULDER: I think finally, it was … the only way she could escape. The only way she could forget what happened 17 years ago. Finally, the only way she could outrun Carl Wade.

(They look at each other. Camera pulls back showing SCULLY sitting quietly on the bed, MULDER standing behind her looking out the window through which the sunlight streams.)

[THE END]