Scully dresses in front of a bathroom mirror and quietly heads in to the bedroom to grab her jacket. She pauses for a brief moment, looking towards the bed, and heads out the door. Sound asleep in the bed is Mulder.

Sixty-three hours earlier: It's Saturday afternoon when Scully enters Mulder's office with lunch. He rambles on with a slide presentation of fractal crop circles and notices that she's only listening half-heartedly. When he says that he's booked two plane tickets to investigate the crop circles in England, Scully bemoans the fact that she has plenty of work to finish over the weekend. Mulder is annoyed, muttering that he can cancel her ticket. "Why can't you ever just stay still?" she asks. "I wouldn't know what I'd be missing," he answers as he leaves.

Scully waits at the nurse's station in the Washington National Hospital for autopsy results on a case, but when she's given a folder, she realizes it's for the wrong patient. Coincidentally, she recognizes the name on the x-ray -- Dr. Daniel Waterston, her former medical school teacher with whom she had a romantic relationship. She is drawn to check up on him in the coronary unit, and is intercepted by his doctor, Dr. Kopeikan, who tells Scully that Waterston mentioned her. She is briefed on his heart condition, but declines the doctor's offer to speak with Waterston.

She returns home to a phone call from Waterston's daughter Maggie, who has openly hostile feelings towards Scully's relationship with her father. Maggie reluctantly invites Scully to visit on her father's behalf. While Scully mulls over the invitation, Mulder beeps in to ask her to pick up a folder of crop circle information from a research facility near the hospital. She is flustered from Maggie's call, but agrees to help her partner. Scully goes to the hospital and accidentally walks into the wrong room. She notices a red-headed woman, and apologizes for her mistake. She visits Waterston next door, and he is quick to question her leaving medicine for the FBI. She says that he truly understands why she left. Waterston was married, and Scully refused to be responsible for breaking up his family.

As Scully drives away from the hospital, Mulder calls on her cell phone to inquire about his documents. As they speak, Scully slams on the brakes to avoid hitting a female pedestrian, and she narrowly avoids an even more catastrophic collision with a truck. The woman continues on without pause, but looks back and smiles serenely at a stunned Scully. Scully runs Mulder's errand and is startled to see the contact for the crop circle information is Colleen, the red-headed woman from the hospital. Scully is a little galled when Colleen tells her that her near-accident may have been a sign to slow down and pay attention to the larger picture of her life. She walks out of Colleen's house and drops the folder of information. As she picks up the papers, her eyes zero in on a heart chakra formation. Her phone rings; it is the hospital with news on Waterston's worsening heart condition.

Back at the hospital, Scully helps the doctors decide on a course of treatment, and she and Waterston have a heart-to-heart discussion. He tells her that his marriage broke up after she left him, which resulted in Maggie's anger toward her. He then admits that he has been in Washington for ten years, following her trail. Scully becomes emotional and reveals that she sometimes wonders if she chose the right course in her life. She rests her head on his chest as he comforts her. Suddenly, his heart monitor rings in alarm. Waterston goes into cardiac arrest, and Scully goes into emergency medical mode to revive him. He lapses into a coma.

With nowhere else to turn, Scully is compelled to visit Colleen again for more answers. She tells Scully, "You may be more open to things than you think." Colleen says that Waterston's condition is most likely caused by pain in need of healing. Later, Scully walks through the streets deep in thought. She notices the female pedestrian who prevented her car accident across the street. Scully follows the woman into a Buddhist temple, but inside finds herself alone. She falls to her knees before the Buddha statue, overwhelmed with sadness and confusion. Her life rushes before her eyes, ending abruptly at the dying body of Waterston. Scully snaps awake.

She returns to the hospital to conduct a holistic healing ritual in the hopes of bringing Waterston out of his coma. Although the process works, Waterston scoffs at the notion that anything other than practical medicine might have saved his life. Scully tells him that he should be more open to other possibilities, but when he suggests that the two of them discuss their future together, Scully cuts him off. She says that it's time he took responsibility for the hurt he caused in his family and that he should stop running from the truth. "I'm not the same person," she confesses. "I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't seen you again."

Outside the hospital, Scully sees the female pedestrian a third time. She runs up to the woman, but realizes the person is really Mulder. He has returned from England unsuccessful and was looking for Scully. Noting with a smile that "everything happens for a reason," Scully and Mulder return to his apartment. She recounts for him the past two days' events on his couch. Mulder is surprised and amused at Scully's epiphany in the Buddhist temple. She wonders aloud if all the choices in a person's life are simply random, or if there is a greater force at work. Mulder considers this, but before he can reply, he realizes that Scully has fallen asleep. He covers her gently with a blanket gets up from the couch to leave her sleeping. Coincidentally, under Mulder's fish tank, a small Buddah statue sits, smiling.