Alexandra: "You are a very strong man."

Dimitri: "Oh?"

Alexandra: "Most of you. Which is why the symptoms were so subtle. It's a good job you were paying attention because..." (she puts her glasses back on) "...what is happening is a confusion in your brain, in the actual brain cells. The shedding part is on overdrive and the replenishing part -- it isn't happening."

Dimitri: "Yeah. Well, that was elegantly put, but it's not anything I haven't heard before."

Alexandra: "You didn't come to me for a diagnosis. You came to me for a cure. Now, I have a theory. I'm not alone." (She flips pages over on her clipboard) "What I want to do is I want to target these rogue cells, the ones that aren't cooperating, and eliminate them. And then I want to jump-start the others to help themselves replenish."

Dimitri: "And you can do this?"

Alexandra (smiles at him): "Wouldn't you like to try?"

Dimitri (shakes his head): "That's not what I asked you."

Alexandra (pausing before answering, she takes off her glasses): "Mr. Marick, your condition is extremely rare. I dare say it's unique. Now, there have been test cases with similar disease patterns. It's all here. I believe this can work. But I need you to believe it. You said to me that you knew what you were asking. What... what it would cost me to treat you, emotionally and spiritually. Well, I know what I'm asking of you. I'm asking you to hope." (She pauses to let the words sink in.) "You must. You have to hope if you're going to believe. And you have to believe if you're going to live." (She holds out one of her hands. He pauses, takes a deep breath, then takes her hand.) "Good, now we begin."

Back to the present, Alex looks upward, tormented by her deception. She hasn't noticed that Edmund is standing in the doorway, listening to her.
Alexandra (to the air): "Oh, dear God. Have I done the right thing?"

Edmund: "Alex? I guess we both had the same idea."

Alexandra:   "What?"

Edmund: "To be close to Dimitri."

Alexandra: "Oh, yes."

Edmund: "And Maria for me."

Alexandra: "Mm-hmm."

Edmund: "I miss her every day."

Alexandra: "She sounded like a remarkable woman. Dimitri said she was the heart of your family."

Edmund: "Yeah. Sometimes I think she was a little too sensitive, though, to be a neurosurgeon."

Alexandra: "Why do you say that?"

Edmund: "Because she took the loss of her patients so personally. But you know how often that happens in your business."

Alexandra: "All too often, I'm afraid."

Edmund: "As a doctor, it must have been especially hard on you to lose my brother."

Alexandra: "As a doctor? No, as a wife. As a woman, it was incredibly hard. Still is."

Edmund: "Is that why you stopped practicing medicine? The high mortality rate?"

Alexandra: "No."

Edmund: "You know, Maria used to tell me about the toll that it took on her. You know, losing people that... there was no hope. People she cared for."

Alexandra: "Yeah. It's never easy."

Edmund: "Some people actually would ask her to help speed up their demise. Did that ever happen to you?"
Scene fades out...

Alexandra: "All physicians deal with the issue of euthanasia. You have to question the patient's
quality of life."

Edmund: "So does the patient, I would imagine. I mean, we're talking human beings. It's not
like it's just a sick cat or a dog."

Alexandra: "Well, if an animal is sick and can't be saved, the kindest thing to do is to put it down."

Edmund: With a human being, you know -- well, animals, they... they can't tell you if they want to fight what's killing them or not. Patients have that choice. And they should."

Alexandra: "They can tell you how frightened they are. They can beg you to go to extreme measures to save their lives. Or they can do the opposite."

Edmund: "What did Dimitri want? What did he want you to do? You were his doctor and the woman he loved."

Alexandra: "You're asking me if I helped your brother to die. Well, the answer is no."

Scene fades out, then back.
Alexandra: "Do you really think I killed your brother?"

Edmund: "I think you'd end his suffering if he asked you."

Alexandra: "I loved him. I would have moved heaven and earth to save him. Why can't you understand that?"

Edmund: "I'm sorry. I had to ask because you're his doctor."

Alexandra: "I've tried over and over to explain how I felt about him, that my feelings for him were real, deep, and passionate."