The first time Arthur saw his daughter truly laughing was on the eighth day of her stay.
The morning of his visit, Maura was sitting in makeshift art studio with shelves filled with art supplies lining the room and colourful paint on the walls. Artist chalk was strewn around her desk as she attempted to fulfil the brief set forth by the group leader.
"What does your mind look or feel like on dark days?"
Various shades of blue stained Maura's hands as she focused on the thick cardstock in front of her. The edges of the paper were shaded in with a pale blue that bled into a darker blue, each layer growing darker and darker until the centre of the paper was nothing more than a black hole. The feeling of being trapped underwater as the outer corners of her mind closed in on her wasn't perfectly represented by the image, but Maura continued to use her fingers to blend the colours together as the radio played Christmas songs softly in the background.
"Psst."
Maura looked up from her artwork to see a young resident-Maura vaguely remembered her introducing herself as Izzy a few days earlier-smiling at her.
"I made this for you," the young redhead smiled as she nudged something towards Maura.
Chalk still held in her hands, Maura studied the young woman for a few moments before allowing her eyes to fall to the item on the table. Her head tilted sideways slightly as she studied the bracelet, made out of colourful strands of yard braided together. A small plastic charm was woven onto it, a bold J in black ink on the charm.
"It's a friendship bracelet, except it doesn't have my initials on it," Izzy explained. "I thought about making it say WWJD but thought that might only be funny to me," she chuckled. "So I stuck with just J. J for Jane."
"How do you know about Jane?"
"You talk about her in group sometimes," Izzy shrugged. "And when you do, it's really easy to see how important she is to you. So I thought I'd make you this as a way to remember her and who you're fighting for."
"J for Jane," Maura repeated softly, setting her chalk down and picking up the bracelet, passing it to and fro in her hands.
"If you don't like it, that's fine," Izzy said. "I just didn't feel like doing today's assignment so I've sort of become a rogue agent."
"No, love it," Maura quickly said as she held the bracelet out to the young girl. "Put it on me?"
Grinning, Izzy took the bracelet and tied it in a knot around Maura's wrist.
"Perfect fit," Izzy exclaimed as she looked down at her handiwork.
"To remember who I'm fighting for," Maura whispered as she looked at the bracelet on her wrist.
"Just like that Mulan song."
Maura looked at the girl with furrowed brows.
"Oh, I totally know what we're watching tonight!" Izzy laughed as she saw the look of confusion on Maura's face.
Later that evening, Maura and Izzy sat on opposite edges of the large sofa in the conservatory. Light snowflakes were falling and sticking to the windowed enclosure as the two women huddled under a large throw blanket each. A large plastic bowl of microwave popcorn sat in between them on the couch as Izzy tossed jelly beans into her mouth.
"Oh, oh, oh!" the young girl exclaimed , leaping up from the couch and laughing as the popcorn flew up and scattered around the room. "I'll clean that up later. This is the best song!"
"I gathered that based on your reaction," Maura chuckled as she brushed errant kernels from her shirt.
As the opening lines of I'll Make a Man Out of You played through the conservatory, Izzy began to kick and punch along to the beat, laughing as she moved around the room.
"Come on," Izzy said as she held her hand out to Maura. "You can't not dance along!"
"I don't know the words or even the beat," Maura tried to reason.
"And I don't know martial arts but I still try," Izzy stated. "Come on, come on, come on!"
Rolling her eyes at the childlike excitement that reminded her so much of Jane, Maura allowed the young girl to pull her into a standing position as she began to dance around the doctor.
"I don't think your moves would have blended in during the Wei dynasty," Maura laughed as Izzy continued to kick and leap around the room.
"Neither would your boring attitude," Izzy taunted with a grin.
"Boring attitude?!" Maura gasped, hand over her heart to feign insult.
"You heard me."
Shaking her head, Maura glanced around to ensure there weren't any others approaching before beginning to mimic Izzy's erratic dance moves.
"Look at you go!" the young girl cheered as they began to dance around the room, play fighting when they came into close contact with each other.
Maura started off stiff, her fencing training obvious as she moved with calculated motions and swift faux attacks that mimicked the fighting on the screen. But as the music faded and the story of the movie moved along, the two women continued to dance around the room with abandon. Maura's dance moves slowly loosened and she felt the ever present threat of drowning leave her mind for the first time since her kiss with Jane.
Though she knew Jane was her ultimate goal, Maura couldn't help the laughter that bubbled up inside of her at the hope that she was perhaps on the path to truly feeling like her old self. Like there was maybe even the smallest glimmer of hope that she wouldn't always feel as though she was drowning.
The light chuckles turned into full blown laughter as Izzy attempted to jump and kick at the same time, misjudging and immediately falling into the couch and causing popcorn to fly into the air.
"Okay, okay, I get the hint, Universe," Izzy laughed as popcorn rained down on her.
Maura couldn't stop her laughter as she stopped dancing and watched as Izzy picked kernels from her hair.
As Maura placed her hands on her knees to control her breathing, she missed the way Izzy's head spun to the doorway of the conservatory. It wasn't until several moments passed that Maura became cognizant of her surroundings yet again and looked up to see her father standing in the doorway.
"Dad," Maura gasped, her eyes widening with the realisation he had witnessed her uncontrollable laughter. Her eyes quickly furrowed as she realised the look on her father's face wasn't judgement but joy.
"I can't tell you how much I've missed that sound."