"I suspect you wouldn't hold still for the portraiture if you were awake." Bella sighs. "Look, I - I can't tell you all the stuff, I've explained why I can't do that. But I also don't have to tell you anything that I do happen to be allowed. She says I may tell you that she loves you, and I know you don't believe her, but can you believe that I wouldn't relay it if I didn't believe her?"
"That's because the only times I am around your mother is when she is having private therapy appointments and otherwise I have to avoid being anywhere nearby. I absolutely believe that she is doing a very ineffective job at looking like it."
"Why do you think she'd be effective at looking like it?" murmurs Bella. "- and I don't think practicing a skill like pottery is how you lose days, you'll still be better at pottery after doing more of it. If you don't want to wind up having invested a lot of time into being good at pottery that's a separate, but possibly related problem."
"There you go, then, I still practice teekay, it's like that."
"...I really don't think that would have helped in the long run."