Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine.
A/N: Second verse, same as the first.
"Hey, Mac," I call, tapping on her door frame. She still looks a little dejected, even though the sentence was much lighter than anyone had any reason to hope for. "C'mon, Marine, it's almost 1700."
"And?"
"Oh, come on!"
She gets up with a show of reluctance that I know is entirely for my benefit, and I pull her over to one of the TVs in the bullpen. I hear her groan when she realizes what's on. The lottery drawing is about to take place.
"Where's your ticket?"
I know I'm grinning like the Cheshire cat, but I'm proud of myself. I've managed to give her a distraction, if only for a few minutes, and gotten myself an excuse to chat with her at the same time. Two birds with one stone, and it only cost me three dollars. Works for me.
She produces the ticket, waving it slightly and rolling her eyes. I wonder if she's looked closely enough to realize I picked the first parts of our serial numbers as the numbers. Knowing her, she has. Not much gets by my partner.
"And the lucky numbers are..."
----------------------------------------
I hate to admit it, but I'm almost excited when the announcer gets ready to read off the numbers. I've never bought a lottery ticket, never entered the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes; never even gotten one of those scratch-off cards for fun. I'm not typically very lucky, and I hate to blow money on something that's never going to pay off. The anticipation is fun, though, and I let myself think about what I'd do with 60 million dollars. My mind immediately reduces that amount; taxes would probably take it down to about 20 million, and I promised Harm half. Half of a lot is still a lot, though, and 10 million dollars is a lot of money no matter how you look at it.
"Three!"
I look down, unable to believe it.
"Hey, Harm, we got a number."
He throws a companionable arm around my shoulder. "I told you, Mac, it's a lucky ticket."
"Seventeen!"
I look down at the card again.
"Two for two, flyboy."
He looks at the card as well. "That's what, six bucks? Not bad."
"Twenty-five!"
My eyes are now riveted to the card.
"Harm..."
"Thirty-three!"
Harm is staring at the little card as well, and I find I'm holding my breath. Two more to go...
"Forty-one!"
"Jesus, Harm, how'd you do that?"
He's as shocked as I am, and his hand clenches on mine as the last number pops up.
"And fifty-eight! Ladies and gentlemen, the winning numbers for tonight."
We stare at each other for a long moment.
"Mac," he says, sounding uncertain. "Did you just win the lottery?"
"We just won," I correct him automatically, and then what I've just said sinks in. "We just won. Harm, we won the lottery."
Neither of us is quite sure what to do, but Harm solves that problem nicely. He grabs me around the waist and spins me around as I start to laugh. Ten million dollars. I can't even imagine what ten million dollars looks like. We're both laughing now, but we stop at the noise of a familiar someone clearing his throat.
"Something funny, you two?"
We snap to attention, the lottery card still in my hand, and I try desperately to hold back my giggles. Marines don't giggle, especially not in front of their CO.
"No, sir," Harm replies. As Chegwidden gives us the evil eye, I can feel Harm start to shake beside me from the effort of holding in his laughter. I know if I look at him the game will be up, so I stand resolutely at attention.
"Major?"
Aw, man. I know I can't talk without giving myself away. I decide to go with the truth.
"Sorry, sir. We, ah...we won the lottery, sir. That is, the commander and myself. Sir."
The look Chegwidden is giving me says that I'm obviously insane and need to be treated with caution.
"The lottery, Major?"
"Yes, sir." I'm warming up to the topic. "I had a rough trial today, sir, and Harm bought me a card with a little cat on it and a lottery ticket for luck, and I lost the trial but the sentence was light so I guess it kind of worked, and we just watched the lottery drawing on TV and...and we won. Sir."
Harm is absolutely vibrating with laughter now, and I'm sure his lips must be white from the force he's applying to keep them shut.
"Major..." The admiral seems to be at a loss for words, which just makes Harm shake harder. I'm afraid he's literally going to explode. "You're serious?"
I extend the ticket to him, and he takes it with the same enthusiasm I would have for touching a rattlesnake.
"Yes, sir."
He looks at the ticket and then at the numbers still scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen. Shaking his head, he hands it back to me.
"Well, congratulations, Major. Of all the people in this office, I can honestly say this could only happen to the two of you."
"Thank you, sir," I reply, and Harm finally loses it.
-------------------------------------
I manage to keep quiet through Mac's absolutely embarrassing run-on sentence describing the events leading up to this, but when she thanks the admiral in that guileless tone, I can't control myself any longer. A great guffaw escapes me, and before I know it I'm doubled over with laughter, eyes streaming. I can't remember the last time I laughed like this. I can't remember the last time someone I know won the lottery, either, so maybe that's got something to do with it.
I hear the admiral say something to Mac, and then she's pulling me up straight as he walks away.
"Smooth, Harm," she scolds, and I give her a disbelieving look.
"Look who's talking!"
She shakes her head. "So what are we supposed to do now?"
I reach out and take the lotto card, flipping it over to the back to read the directions on cashing it in.
"Turn it in, I guess. Take the money and move to Cancun."
She's still shaking her head, but the look on her face has gone from amusement to wonder.
"Ten million dollars. What am I going to do with ten million dollars?"
I give her an odd look.
"The jackpot's sixty million, Mac."
She returns it with an odd look of her own.
"Yeah, so that's ten for me, ten for you, and forty for Uncle Sam by way of taxes."
It's my turn to shake my head. "Mac, you don't think I'm going to hold you to that, do you?"
She looks offended. "I sure as hell do, Commander. I told you we'd go halves. Besides, you're the one who paid for it. It ought to all go to you."
I don't really feel right about this – my partner won fair and square – but I'm not going to argue with her if she wants to give me ten million dollars.
"Okay, fair's fair," I agree, and she gives me that smile she gets when she thinks she's won an argument. I'm the real winner here, but I don't mind letting her think otherwise.