Hayes' office, 27th July, 1999, 11:02a.m.

Mulder and Scully were sitting in Hayes' office, waiting for him to be done with his phone call. Scully looked at Mulder, who seemed to be half asleep, still. Before Scully could make a remark to him about that, Hayes was done with his phone call and turned towards the agents.

"Agent Scully, Agent Mulder," he started. "I heard the report from my men first thing this morning, but it looks like you'll be able to tell me way more than them. I also saw the reports from the hospital, regarding your injuries. I do hope you both feel alright."

"We're just fine, Sir," Scully confirmed.

"So, before I go into detail I would like to know if we should be expecting any more of these incidents," Hayes inquired.

"Sir, that we can only say for sure after another night," Mulder replied.

"Another night?" Hayes asked.

"Yeah. Yesterday afternoon, before we went to the moor, I checked to find as much information about what has and had been going on here regarding fen fires, and I found that every century, in the last third of it, to be exact, at a certain constellation of all the planets towards each other, for one whole month during summer, meaning June, July or August, the fen fire phenomenon has drawn their victims," Mulder elaborated.

"So the next time it will happen will be between 2066 and 2100?" Hayes queried.

"Well, the month isn't over, yet," Mulder stated flatly.

"But I thought you'd managed to destroy them all."

"Sir, we don't know if it has been all of them," Scully chimed in.

"And to make sure nothing more happens this time is to keep the moor closed at night for the rest of the month OR to send some men in, armed with hose pipes and water tanks to search and destroy whatever fen fire they still might encounter. That could then also mean, it won't happen again – ever," Mulder continued.

Hayes rested his head in his hands, pondering what the agents had said.

"The moor is big," he then just said.

"Yes, but this phenomenon has only been reported from the part of the moor close to your town. So I believe for whatever reasons it is restricted to this area," Mulder told Hayes. Hayes stayed quiet for another moment. Then he spoke again.

"I think I'll take your advice. This afternoon I'll start placing officers all over this part of the moor, armed with water," he had to chuckle a bit at his remark. "Will you be there, too?"

"I'm sorry, Sir," Scully picked up, "but we've been ordered back and our flight is at 7 a.m. in the morning. I don't think we'd make the flight if we joined in."

"I see," Hayes nodded.

"But Scully, nobody said we have to be there all the time," Mulder said, "I mean, last night the whole thing started so around midnight, so, if there's nothing going on by 2 a. m. I think it'd be safe to say it's over and we would have all the time in the world to catch our flight." He beamed at her with one of his disarming smiles, that always made it hard for her to resist or in this case to contradict him.

"So I can count on you?" Hayes voice was full of hope.

Not taking his eyes off Scully, Mulder replied. "Yeah, we'll be there, Sir."

The hotel, 12:38pm

The whole drive back to the hotel Scully hadn't talked to Mulder. She was slightly angry at him for calling the shots without her consent. When they got the keys to their rooms she finally broke her silence.

"Mulder, if you really wanna go through with it there's two things I have to say: firstly, next time, ask me before you decide something like that and secondly: I hope you'll try getting some sleep before that and don't forget to be packed, else I'll just leave you here alone. So go listen to your pillow, you look like a ghost already."

"Only if you tuck me in, Scully," he smirked at her.

Scully sighed and rolled her eyes. Then she just shook her head and disappeared in her room. Mulder couldn't wipe the grin off his face. He liked to tease her like that. But he also knew she was right. He needed more sleep. So he set his alarm and just took off his shoes, falling onto the bed being in dreamland almost in an instant.

The moor, 11:24pm

Their car came to a stop on the now familiar parking lot. Scully emerged from the passenger side and walked straight up to Hayes and his people.

"Good to see you, agents," Hayes greeted them. "Most of my men are in position. We're just about to take ours now. Are you ready?"

"Sure," Scully replied while Mulder joined them.

They walked into the moor for about 10 minutes, then Hayes told his men to spread around. He was in constant contact with them via the walkie-talkie.

The minutes passed and turned into hours without anything happening. Every ten minutes Hayes contacted his men to get an update on the situation on their side. Everything was quiet.

At 2 am Mulder went to stand next to Scully. She looked like she was about to fall asleep while standing.

"Scully, didn't you get a nap?" he asked in mock surprise.

"I did, Mulder, but this lack of action is making me drowsy. Do you think we can call it a day now?"

"More like calling it a night, but yes, I think we can leave. I still have to pack my stuff, you know."

Scully gasped. She opened her mouth to tell him off but closed it again when she saw him laughing.

"Gotcha, Scully..."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time you'd do it last minute," she growled. In her mind she was vowing to herself she'd get him back for it.

Hayes walked over to them to tell them he'd withdraw his men now and together they returned to the parking lot.

At the edge of the moor Mulder turned and looked back and for a split second he thought he'd seen something. He was about to get Scully's attention to it, but it was gone. I probably imagined it, he thought to himself. No wonder after last night's events.

When the cars left the lot a small figure with fiery hair emerged from behind some bushes, staring at the departing cars...

THE END

AN: As I said, I wrote this story about a decade ago. I've tried to reduce the typos and minor mistakes but I kept it mainly the way I wrote back then. As I said, I do think my writing has evolved, and maybe, with the X-Files revival coming soon, I will write another XF fanfic. For now I'm busy with Supernatural :)