Special Agent Chesty Short, an FBI auditor, is going over Mulder and Scully's books.

Mulder is there, and responds to the auditor's cost-cutting fervor by saying the two agents "could start sharing rooms."

Tunisia. A penal colony. Raucous prisoners watch an attractive woman walk down the aisle. She's Marita Covarubbias, known to some fans as the Uniblonde thanks to her tireless UN work.

Seemingly unaware of all these machinations, Chesty asks Scully about her views on the various alleged conspiracies she and Mulder have fought. She says she was kidnapped, given cancer and made barren.

"I've seen things that I cannot deny," she sums up.

Marita tells Krycek the Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM) sent her because he is dying -- in effect, CSM may soon be RIP.

Chesty tells Mulder he could be doing his work cheaply, over the internet. Even space exploration is done from an office, the auditor helpfully points out.

Oregon. Some local young people are searching for a rumored plane crash in the woods when the sheriff arrives, forehead scarred, and tells them there's nothing much to see there.

Billy Miles, an Oregon deputy who had some abduction experiences back in the first episode of The X-Files, calls Mulder. The agents sarcastically discuss with each other whether their budget would cover an Oregon trip.

The conspirators bicker.

CSM says he was worried about Alex, while Krycek bristles that CSM consigned him to that "hellhole."

However, the Smoking Man indicates that even though Krycek was stealing from him, they can now put all that behind them. A military plane has crashed into an alien spacecraft and there is a chance to rebuild the project.

CSM smokes by placing the cigarette to a hole in his throat. His nurse assists him.

Mulder and Scully drive up to Deputy Billy's house. His father is the sheriff seen earlier in the episode.

Billy says he's had a tough time of it, since neither Dad nor many others believe in alien abductions. But now there's been a crash, and while the military recovered its jet, the other craft remains missing.

The sheriff shows up and says there is no craft. In fact, there was no crash at all. As we will later see, he has a corpse in his car trunk.

Mulder and Scully drive off to see the wife of Ray, the deputy who's missing. She turns out to be Teresa, someone they met 7 years ago. Another abductee, now a mother.

Scully spends some time bouncing the baby. Mulder looks on, lost in thought.

That night at the motel, Mulder and Scully have separate rooms despite their apparently high burn rate.

Scully's feeling sick -- dizziness, chills -- so Mulder tucks her in and wraps his arms around her.

He says he wants her to go home. She's sacrificed too much for their investigations, including her ability to have a baby. There's so much more to life than this. There are gentle tears.

Krycek's in Oregon, talking to the Smoking Man on the phone. CSM reassures him there's a spacecraft to be found.

Teresa answers a knock on the door. It's Ray! Or is it? No She runs from the silent stranger who looks like her husband. She stabs him, and the ooze burns her eyes. He carries her off while the baby cries.

Daylight, outside the house. Cops and agents drive up. There's a smudge on the ground. It's the result of a biotoxin gas emitted from the bloodstream of someone who is arguably an alien, says Scully. She has seen a lot in the last few years.

She swoons, and Billy props her up.

Back at the Smoking Man's, the nurse, Greta, helps her charge with the innovative smoking technique.

Marita asks about Alex and the spaceship. CSM says the spaceship is rebuilding itself, and to possess it is to possess real power. Moreover, he helpfully continues, there is no God; what we call God is an alien with intelligence beyond our own, he raves.

Blissfully unaware of all this, Mulder talks to Richie, the youthful Oregonian who had the flashlight problem. The agents then go into the woods. They get slightly separated -- and Scully is in the air, arms and legs flailing at super-speed.

Mulder finds the flashlight, then finds Scully lying on the ground. She's understandably tired. Mulder says there's more than ordinary abductions going on around here. The latest abductees aren't coming back.

Billy enters a house, pulls a gun on his father, whom he suspects is an impostor. He's then convinced to hand over the gun. That's a mistake, because his "father" now looks like Mr. Alien Bounty Hunter. Moments later, Mulder and Scully arrive. Billy's gone.

FBI headquarters. Mulder is back in his basement office, playing with a basketball. Skinner enters and then -- to Mulder's shock -- Krycek and Marita follow. Mulder starts to lunge at the hated Krycek, but Skinner keeps them apart. Krycek says he wants to damn the soul of that cigarette-smoking S.O.B.

Scully enters. She too is startled to find a bitter enemy conversing with her colleagues.

Later, the Lone Gunmen are consulting with all these people. They analyze satellite imagery of the Oregon woods, and are starting to gain an understanding of how the UFO cloaks its presence.

Scully walks out into the hallway. Mulder follows. He says he won’t let her go back to Oregon. She was an abductee, and "they're taking abductees." He won't risk losing her. They hug. Then she says: "I won't let you go alone."

Oregon. Mulder is entering the woods. Skinner is with him.

Meanwhile, Scully is with the Lone Gunmen, analyzing data. She notes that the abductees seem to have had some sort of electro-encephalitic trauma, or something. Moreover, there was something in the woods that knocked her back. It didn’t want her. She realizes: Mulder is the one who's in danger.

Night in Oregon. Mulder and Skinner are setting up an array of red laser beams in the dark woods. Mulder follows one beam and finds it ends abruptly. He sticks his hand forward -- and his hand moves super-fast.

Skinner looks over. Mulder is gone.

Mulder is visible to us, but not to his supervisor. The agent stands just outside a shaft of light. Inside, a huddled mass of abductees.

Mulder steps into the light. The abductees welcome him warmly. Mulder looks up, and sees the bright lighting source.

The alien bounty hunter walks up. He smirks at Mulder. They stare at each other. There is a blaze of light. The spaceship is leaving. Skinner watches it go. "Mulder," he says, dismayed.

Krycek and Marita visit CSM. Krycek admits failure. CSM says they may have never meant to succeed.

"Anyway the hour is at hand, I presume," he says.

Krycek wheels him over to the edge of the stairs. He says he's going to send the devil back to hell. CSM retorts that whatever Alex does to him and to Mulder, he does to all mankind. Alex pushes CSM down the stairs. He and Marita step over the apparently dead body and walk out.

Scully is in the hospital. Skinner visits. Eyes downcast, fighting back tears, Skinner says he "lost" Mulder. Moreover, he can't deny what he saw. He won't.

"We will find him," says Scully, her voice breaking. Skinner's about to leave, but there's something else she needs to tell him. Something he must keep to himself. Something she's having trouble explaining.

She's pregnant.