This is it. My final update. Because the next part is the epilogue, I wanted to post the two together. I'd kind of rather leave the epilogue to speak for itself, so I don't think I'll put any author notes there.

I wanted to say thank you for anyone who read it and was able to get past my own fixation with poker to see the story behind it. This is the first thing I've put out in public in a very long time, and it seems to have gone over well, and that really means a lot to me.
If y'allz ever want to contact me in the interim between this story and whatever I do next, send all the love to

A. Nonny Mouse - I considered just calling you "Nonny," but I didn't know if that would be too familiar. Don't worry, the cards are all gone now. Oh, wait...er... anyway, I'm glad you didn't let that stop you and I'm always glad for your comments. :)

Vilja - I'd have to disagree as I don't think it was filler, but I'm still glad that you liked it, and have generally liked it overall. I'm sorry that I only have this update to give you, but I hope to have something else soon. Maybe you'll get your happy ending....maaaaybe...;)p

Houshi Lover - I read your comment and my immediate thought was that I wanted to make out with you. Um, then I reeled myself back in. Thank you for being so thoughtful and supportive, and also in a weird way for being so...emotionally affected by Miroku's plight. And Sango's reasoning will be revealed. Hearing that you love my story makes me happier than you could ever now. I kiss you. Mwah.

And into the abyss!

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13 - Winner Take All

"It's all because of you." - Bic Runga

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It's a lovely dream - someone softly stroking my hair, brushing at my bangs, playing gently with my earrings. My body is stiff, and I slowly feel that whatever version of unconsciousness I'm beginning to recover from, I went into it lying half on the naked mattress and half on the floor. It's dark in my room again. But the dream is still happening, and as I begin to wonder just how drunk I might be, I hear the soft sigh of another person.

I am no longer alone in my house.

The house that I just trashed.

This will be fun to explain.

"Um." I start, bringing my hand up to rub my sweaty and tear-stained face. I need to take a shower.

"I thought maybe we'd gotten robbed, but then I realized a burglar probably wouldn't have spent so much time tearing up our couch."

People talk about a feeling like a bucket of ice water has been dumped on their heads. I've always thought it was a hyperbole, but now, suddenly, hearing Sango's voice in the darkness of our ruined bedroom, I realize that it is the gospel truth.

I want to ask her who the hell she thinks she is that she can walk into my house and just pretend like nothing happened. But it is her house too, and I did wreck some of her belongings. It's fair of her to come back and pack her things so she can leave me and break my heart again.

I want to shout. Or scream. Or push her off the mattress. Or at the very least tell her to stop touching me. But there's nothing left inside me. Just knowing she's there has drained me of blood, bile and breath, and now I'm just a shell.

"Why are you here?"is what I finally, quietly muster.

"It is my house too, isn't it?" She laughs, more than a little bitterly.

"It was your house. I'm going to fight you for it if I have to." I slap her hand away and sit up, pressing my face into my palms - it's strange to me to feel raw skin on both instead of beads on the right side. How odd that I've barely thought about what I won until just now.

"I dont know if I'd want to leave my house in the hands of such a terrible decorator." Sango's voice is soft. "But then again, I don't plan on leaving."

Moving my hands from my face, I turn to look at her. It's dark, so I wait for my eyes to adjust to the light filtering in from the moon outside. She's sitting on the edge of the mattress, one hand on her stomach, one on the patterned fabric now that it's not on my head. Her coat is slipping off her shoulders, her hair is down and mussed, and her dim profile looks...I can't read it.

"And why dont you plan on leaving?" I cant keep the sneer out of my voice. "I seem to recall you divorcing me in Las Vegas."

"Funny, huh? Most people go to Las Vegas to get married."

"I'm not laughing, Sango."

"Neither am I."

"I'm keeping the house."

"Im not leaving, Miroku!" Her head snaps toward me, and somehow I know, I just know, that if the light was turned on, her eyes would be as red as mine. "Cut the crap and let me talk!"

"What do you have to say? That you're sorry you had to come and take away my one moment of glory? That you were so angry you couldn't let me be there alone? That you didn't trust that I would be faithful? That you had to come and jeopardize my chances without telling me? I kept calling and calling, Sango, I didn't know where you were or what I was supposed to do..." My voice is hoarse and breaking, and I can't help but inwardly berate myself for sounding so pathetic when I'm supposed to be making a stand.

"I couldn't let you know. I didnt want to ruin your concen-"

"What did you care?! You didn't want me to go and then you came to try and sabotage me! Do you think it helped my concentration at all to have no clue where my hugely pregnant wife was? To be afraid I'd ruined our marriage?" I clench my hands on my knees." But I guess I did ruin it, didn't I? Because you had to come all the way to Las Vegas, to Spiderwebs to divorce me. To show the whole world that you don't love-"

"I did it because I love you!" My Sango is crying again. How many times have we both bawled these past few days? I don't want to think about it.

"You love me, so you divorced me?"

"Did you even look at the papers?" She slams her hand onto the mattress.

"I did, Sango Hunter McHoushi. And I saw that you signed them."

She brushes her hand across her eyes and then puts both hands on her middle, looking down at it.

"My mother was a notary, Miroku, you stupid, horrible jerk. If you ever listened to me, you'd know that. When she died, I inherited a bunch of her stuff, not the least of which was some of her seals and notes for proper documentation."

Her words don't register at first, but slowly they begin to make more and more sense.

"You needed something of equal value to your life to wager, and I knew you'd forgotten. So I...I made my own gamble and took the chance that our marriage, that you and me together meant as much to you as your life." Sango is gasping on sobs now, and I don't know whether to comfort her or jump out the window I wanted to throw the crib through. "So I put my mothers seal on it! The document is null, but Naraku wont know! I was going to tell you that afterwards, but I couldn't find you...I couldnt find you and thats when I realized you thought...you thought..."

I thought you didnt love me anymore, Sango.

I thought you came and betrayed me, when you came to save my life. My desperate gamble forced you to make your own out of cleverness and love, and all I could see was myself losing you.

I want to say all these things to her, but I can't. I'm held in place, not breathing, not moving, just hearing...just hearing...

"So we got on the next plane we could which wasn't soon enough, and I didnt get home until just now and I found everything wrecked and I knew how angry you were...Miroku.."

And at that moment, we are of one mind, flinging ourselves into each others arms, working around her pregnant belly to grip one another like drowning.

"Oh Sango." Its lame, but its all I can say. "Oh Sango..."

Her hair is soft and smooth under my touch, her back is warm, shaking just slightly with leftover tears. She smells of sweat and soap and detergent, and just a little bit like the desert. I catch a faint hint of smoke in the tufts of hair next to her cheek.

"Miroku, I might have been angry when you left, but I never...I never didn't love you..."

I should tell her I'm sorry. She should tell me she's sorry. But there are no apologies here. They're not welcome.

I pull away and cup her face in my hands.

"You scared me, baby. You sat down at that table like you weren't going to take any prisoners. There was nothing in your eyes. How was I supposed to know?"

She laughs, wet and tired and grateful.

"You of all people should know what my best poker face looks like."

And I kiss her again for the first time.

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$1.5 million dollars goes a hell of a long way, even when you tack on all the frills.

Add to that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Sango won for taking second, and you can have a lot of ridiculous and extravagant things.

But what's first on the list is to repair and replace what I broke in my blind sorrowful rage. We piss off a lot of furniture store employees by having to snuggle together in different positions on each couch we try. They're lucky that Sango is too far along for me to make love to her, or they might have had to close early.

Once we find the perfect couch, we put our bed back together and buy brand new sheets.

The King and Queen get a new frame and go back up on the wall.

And just to be really decadent, we pay off the entire mortgage on our house, buy a new car, a spiffy carseat, and the most luxurious stroller we can find.

And then we treat our friends to dinner after dinner after dinner, and remember every reason that we've ever loved each other from the first to the last and back again.

Sango is radiant when she is nine months pregnant, and goes into labor while we play lazy slapjack on our new bedspread. From start to finish, she is two hours, because Sango never does anything half-assed, even in the face of ridiculous difficulty and a husband who wishes that sometimes she would take it easy on herself and him.

But it doesn't end without her grabbing my collar and punching me in the face while she pushes.

I expected and hoped for nothing less.

Our son Kicho "Ace" McHoushi is born one month to the day after I won the Spiderwebs WPS in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has his mother's eyes, and because she is more to me than life itself, I am alive to see him.