The weight of the ring feels weird. It's not cold, having long since warmed against his skin, but the feel of it is still unfamiliar and he's hyper aware that it's there. It's not a bad feeling, just… different. In a good way. A way that makes him smile to himself when no one is looking.

Marriage isn't something he'd ever considered for himself. He hasn't ever been opposed to commitment, thought for a while he and Scottie would work out. And he tried so hard with Paula. Harder than he should have, maybe- it almost cost him Donna, and without her he knows he's lost. Maybe that's why marrying her went from being a hypothetical eventuality on his periphery to something he needed more than air.

The ring clinks against the glass in his hand, and he feels the corner of his mouth lift of its own accord. He wishes his mother was there to see it, and how happy he is. He knows her death is part of why he felt he needed to do this, and the thought of everything that's happened so quickly ought to scare him but it doesn't. Donna's been part of him for thirteen years, and even as he worries at the new weight with his thumb, turning it round and round, he knows it's something he will only ever regret not doing sooner. He thinks back on their lives together and moments jump out at him: the night he told her he loved her, the day she told him. The night before Mike went to jail. The Other Time. Sitting in his office sharing drinks. Sitting in hers doing the same. The ache in his chest as he realized what that letter on his desk was telling him. The emptiness when she wasn't there for the first time in their relationship. The realization of what had been sitting in front of him all this time.

It chafes a little, the skin feeling bruised along the edges where the ring sits as his body gets used to it. Maybe it's best it happened like this. He knows they would have lasted, they were always going to. But now the way is so much easier; they've weathered so much already and still managed to find their way to each other. He smiles again as he thumbs the unfamiliar weight and rubs the skin around it.

The only thing better than seeing his grandmother's ring on Donna's finger, he thinks, is to know that he's wearing hers.