Cards

They were watching him, and he pretended not to care. Instead he shuffled the deck of cards and began to place them slowly, one after the other, and face up on the table. When he was finished, he collected them, reshuffled them, and repeated the process.

When he finished with that, he again shuffled the cards and placed the deck before him. He drew a card, the three of spades, and placed it face down by the deck. A second card, the ace of diamonds, soon joined it. As Neil studied the cards quietly, Jane began to wish someone had given him the cards sooner. If she could only figure out what he was doing with them… but not to temp fate.

Ryan was less surreptitious in his curiosity, and openly watched from across the table. The cards were dealt and reshuffled many times before either of Neil's colleagues would start to lose interest, and it was then that he tried to entice them further.

"Hey, where ya goin'?" he asked, startling Jane from the doorway, "Nothin's even happened yet." He smiled to himself as she tried to regain her composure. He had them both tonight, "Sit down," he said, "I wanna try something."

Jane hesitated behind the chair. She looked to Ryan, who only shrugged. It couldn't hurt…

"All right," the tech spread the cards out in a fan over the table and looked at Ryan, "All right, Serge, pick out three cards and I'll guess what they are before you show me 'em.

"That's it?" Jane asked doubtfully, and sat down. There were definitely better things she could do in her spare time.

"Yep," Neil replied, "That's all."

Ryan pulled three cards from their formation and looked at Neil. The younger man looked thoughtful for a minute.

"Two of spades," he grinned as the card was overturned, "King of diamonds, two of diamonds."

"Not bad," Ryan commented, inspecting one of the cards.

"That's not impressive if you know where the cards are," Jane stated.

"Fine," Neil said, "If you think that's the case." He collected the cards together and offered them to her. She refused and he handed them to Ryan instead. "Shuffle them however you like," Neil instructed carefully, "And draw four."

"You're not going to guess this time?" Ryan asked as he started to draw the cards. Neil shook his head and folded his hands in his lap. He watched carefully as his friend lay the cards face up on the table; ace of spades, three of clubs, seven of diamonds, queen of hearts.

"What do you suppose," Neil asked, "the probability of getting those exact cards in the exact order as they are now if you were to draw four cards after shuffling them back into the other cards?" He didn't wait for an answer, but continued, "One in six million, that's the chance."

"So, Jane, take the cards and shuffle 'em 'til you're sure they're all mixed up," he directed, watching her carefully. She stared at him while calmly taking the deck Ryan placed in front of her and neatly shuffling it.

"Wait," Neil said as she started to draw the first card, "I'll bet you that those four cards'll be the same cards that he," he motioned to Ryan, "got just now."

"You're willing to bet on, what was it?" Ryan asked skeptically, "One in six million?"

"Yeah," Neil looked at Jane, "What do you say?"

"Fifty credits a card," she offered suspiciously. Something had to be up…. He couldn't be that confident about it without there being a better chance, could he?

"No, that's not what I meant," he grinned again, making her feel uneasy, "If these cards're right, then... you'd... go out with me Friday evening."

Ryan chuckled and Jane simply continued her stare.

"This is stupid," she scoffed.

"There's nothin' to be afraid of," Neil said, "One in six million. Take a chance."

Jane mumbled something inaudible before asking, "What do I get if the cards aren't the same?"

"I won't bother you for a week."

He had to be playing at something, and she tried to figure out what. Part of her argued that he was just trying to be cute, but….

"I haven't even touched the cards since you had 'em," Neil said when she started examining the cards.

She sighed and shuffled the cards. A six million to one chance said that she wouldn't have to deal with him for a week, and the sooner she got this over with, the sooner she could just leave.

"Ace of spades," Neil announced, and the first card was drawn and laid down on the table. A one in fifty-two chance. No big deal.

"Three of clubs," and the second card was drawn.

"Seven of diamonds," Jane paled as she placed the third card. She long hesitated in drawing the fourth.

"You know, you don't have to do this if you don't want to," Neil said, dispirited from the silence that had drawn far too long. She looked at him, and he smiled warmly in response. She abruptly drew the last card and placed it with the others.

Jane smirked. Ryan smiled and shook his head.

"Queen of spades," Neil laughed at his own defeat, "You win." He got up and started towards the door, barely pausing to call over his shoulder, "See you in a week."

Jane tapped the last card with her finger and watched until he was gone. When she was sure he wasn't returning, she slid the fifth card away and examined the one below it.

"I'll be damned," Ryan said quietly.

Jane could only shrug in response.

The End


Working Title: Cards

Inspiration: ... Too much Sting?

Noteworthy: My first song-fic. I was, at once, fond of it and not so fond of it. But anyhow, according to policy, we can't have song-fic here anymore, so... if you wanted to look them up, the lyrics were from Shape of Your Heart.

Disambiguation: I don't have an intrinsic explanation for the card trick thing. I have some potential stand-bys... Hero Luck or Predestination. Magic cards? The slight explanation is that the cards are telling the truth, even if the cardholders are sidestepping it. But... hey, pick and choose!

Derivative work of material © Square Pictures, Squaresoft. Reformatted to abide by 'site standards. None of the original text has been modified, 'cept in case of typo.