Rain pattered against the ground relentlessly, forming puddles and squirmy rivulets of water against the cracked ground. Lightning flashed overhead, bringing a momentary flash of clarity to the canyon where Serenity sat silently. The shadows pounced upon the open dock door with the lightning's receding brilliance, attacking the warm glow of the waiting ship. The clean smell of the rain rode the misty winds into that warmth as the crew waited for Inara's shuttle to return so that they could leave the tired moon behind them.

Zoë sat just inside the dock door, the mist finding her as she watched the rain fall...letting her thoughts go where they would. It seemed they had more in common with the storm than she would have believed. They surfaced in recognizable words and phrases as quickly as the lightning flashed around her, floundering in dark clouds of confusion and the outpouring of the somewhat-expected grief otherwise. She watched the rain act as curtains for the canyon, keeping details from her line of vision; she recognized the familiarity of the sight. It seemed, not for the first time, that her mind was filled with similar pockets of emptiness surrounded by shrouds of emotional waterfalls. She listened to the thunder rumble in the distance; knew the storm was coming their way. Her thoughts turned, as they often did, to Wash and how she ached to have him near her again. Not for the first time, she wondered why worlds continued to spin, people continued to live and love and go forward after he'd left. It felt as though everything in nature should have been affected by his death. That rain should fall differently, slower, or with more care than it had when he had been by her side. She wanted everyone to be able to see that a good man had passed on, something so tangible and so real that no one could deny a loss had happened. Why didn't everyone know he was gone, and that a hole had opened up where he had once been? Why didn't everyone stop moving and sit down? Why did the rain insist on continuing t