This was written off of the 'A Weather Event' prompt from the Mass Effect Facebook group. Hope you guys like it. I'm sure you will get the idea of the timing once you start reading it. Please let me know what you think.

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Shepard stood quiet by the window. It felt good to be on his own two feet again, well his feet again. It was a little hard to call the things he was standing on his own feet, but he was getting use to them.

When the Citadel was destroyed, he had been flung from the wreckage. Cortez had managed to catch him in a shuttle he had commandeered from another landing party to evacuate wounded, but the damage had ultimately been done. Shepard's legs and left hand had been all but blown off. He had spent nearly six months on operating tables before waking up again, and now another year trying to relearn how to walk on his new, neuro-prosthetic legs.

Outside, the clouds rolled past and started dropping every ounce of rain they could, almost like they were trying to wash the world clean of the ash, blood, and death that covered it. Damned if he didn't understand that hope.

He'd been fighting, killing, and sacrificing for so long to save this galaxy, it was hard to separate the battlefield from the simple life.

"How are they working out?" Dr. Chawkwas asked.

"They're gonna take some getting used to, but thanks Karen," Shepard responded keeping his eyes on the rain as it splashed against the window.

"You know, Admiral Hackett was asking about you," the doctor started.

"And?" Shepard responded.

"I told him you were still recovering and not ready for a public announcement of any kind," Karen replied.

Shepard smiled and lifted his left hand to examine it. Leading up to his forearm the mechanical prosthetic appeared to be just plain flesh and blood, but the circuit work that ran under his skin gave away the truth. It was fake.

"Not even happy one's," someone asked from the door. Shepard turned to see Ashley a standing in the door way with her arms crossed. "You're standing. That's good right?" Chawkwas smiled and nodded as she left patting Ashley on the shoulder.

Shepard looked back out the window for a moment before turning back to Ashley. "I missed rain. Of all the planets I was on for the past six years, there was only rain one two of them that I got to see. But here…"

"It's different. Peaceful," Ashley finished.

"Yeah…"

Ashley stepped to his side and he put his arm around her. His real arm. He might have been able to feel a little with his new mechanical hand, but there was something about feeling the warmth of the woman he loved with his real skin that made him believe in a bright future, not just hope for one.

"So Skipper, when are you going to ask me?" Ashley asked looking up at him.

"Ask what?" Shepard smart off innocently. He knew what she was implying. She had been the one that brought his belongings to him in the hospital. "Is this about that little box in my nightstand?"

"You know what the answer's gonna be, just ask," Ashley growled.

"Maybe I want you to ask me?" Shepard joked.

"Skipper, I have no problem kicking you crippled ass from here to Omega," Ashley threatened. Shepard laughed heartily. There was that fire he loved. The warrior and soldier that stood by his side through everything and wouldn't let him get away with anything.

"I will Ash, I promise, but for now, let's just enjoy the rain," Shepard promised. He smiled as he felt Ashley lay her head on his shoulder and her hair tickled his cheek and ear. This was happiness. This was peace.