[ WP ] Write a happy ending for a character that you feel really deserved it , but did n't get it .

Gary crumpled up the lottery ticket in his hand and dropped it down a drain. He watched dismally as it bounced back and forth between the metal grates until it finally slipped through into the dark depth beneath. Then he headed home. 
 
 It had been a long day and as he walked, Gary kneaded his sore shoulders with cold, numb fingers. Foundry work was hard work and the whole, `` It gets easier,'' optimism was actually just a polished line of shit. It had been fourteen long months since he started there, initially through a staffing company and eventually hired full time. Pay was for shit, but it was enough to afford an apartment. Gary's wife had started working too, just so they could eat dinner each night, usually in silence. It had n't always been this way. 
 
 Two years ago Gary had been making close to 100k annually, but with the recession and all there simply was n't a job market for realtors. His business degree meant nothing anymore. All potential employers just kind of scanned over the short man on their way to find more `` suitable candidates'' with `` higher credentials'' and `` better experience.'' Vague as ever, Gary was used to being told `` No.'' When he finally found work as basically a piece of living machinery, he discovered he no longer had time to search for something better. Gary and his wife had fallen into the jaws of poverty and they clenched down tight, grinding them slowly between calcified mandibles, unwilling to relinquish or offer relief. 
 
 He arrived home just in time, avoiding the cold flurry brewing outside. Up the elevator he rose to the third floor, *ding*, went the buzzer and out he stepped onto the tacky, piss covered, green carpet that lined the floor. Arriving at his door he inserted the key, *twist, click, shink*, and open it flew. Inside his apartment smelled of vanilla, emanating from candles his wife keeps constantly burning to fend off the eroding stench of the hallway. 
 
 `` Hello honey, how was your day?'' His wife started off cheerfully, until she rounded the corner and saw him, `` That bad?'' 
 
 `` Oh you know work...'' He replied through a yawn. Gary opened the small broom closet and hung his coat on the inside of the door. He noted the tear beneath the left sleeve had gotten larger exposing white insulation within. 
 
 `` What about the lottery?'' She asked a little less than hopeful. 
 
 `` Gale won.'' He said through tight lips. 
 
 `` Your boss!'' She exclaimed, `` but he makes triple what we make together! How's that fair!'' 
 
 `` It's not.'' He said pitifully, then after a moment added, `` Ya know I could've throttled him the way he accepted it, like he was in any sort of need. So *pious*. He'll probably buy a new truck with it.'' 
 
 His wife furrowed her brow. Gary recognized that look, she always was a silver linings kind of girl and when something like this happens there was always a bright side, `` Well you never know, his family may need it. You never know what other people are going through.'' Gary snorted at that. This whole situation had made him quite bitter. She saw that in him and in an effort to repair she swooped in and sat close to him on their couch. `` We'll make it through this and beside I have some good news.'' 
 
 Gary looked up at her and for half a heartbeat he froze, *No God, please not pregnant. Please do n't tell me you're pregnant. We ca n't support one now, we just ca n't. Not like this. * the thought raced unbidden. 
 
 `` I'm... Getting a promotion at my job. Gary I'll double my income.'' 
 
 `` Oh my God are you serious?'' He breathed relieved. This *was* good news 
 
 She smiled brightly, `` So I have a plan too. I want you to quit your job.'' He tried to protest but she spoke right through him, `` I know, I know, but listen. We'll make the same as we do now actually a small bit more. You can go out and find something better. We can survive this. We can find our way out.'' He kissed her and she happily kissed back. Then after a moment his wife stood and told him to make dinner then she flew off to their bedroom to complete other chores. 
 
 That night when Gary laid down next to his sleeping wife he could n't help but feel thankful. He had had it wrong all along. For so long he'd been searching for an easy way out of his current soul-sucking predicament, He had n't considered that the possibility of work. In that moment he discovered to fight, to survive, and not to climb up out of the pit they were so deep in, but to dig out another way. There was no going back to what he had and where he was, but he could find someplace new, someplace *better*. Dropped like that lottery ticket beneath the sewage grate, Gary felt trapped by the impenetrable bars above him. It took his wife to show him, to breath back life, and light the way. The grate was impassible, but all sewage leads out to somewhere and yea, there would be a lot of shit to sift through along the way, but he knew they could make it. 
 
 And for a moment as he closed his eyes, excited by the wind of hope, he saw it. The beautiful gleaming sun rising above the ocean, igniting the water in the fire and warmth of love. It was all he needed.
