On the fifth, both feet.

On the seventh, she laughed as she splashed me with her hand.

I had never heard a sound quite so beautiful.

We celebrated afterward with hot chocolate.

Piper insisted on paying for mine using coins from her small allowance.

Watching her place them carefully on the counter, I realized how much had changed since that freezing October night.

She still had fears.

But she also had choices, routines, people she trusted, and the growing certainty that her voice mattered.