She's battling things her smile will never tell you about

 Frankie should have expected it. Tori would be full of doubts. Wasn't she always that way?

Still, he hoped she would stop bringing herself down. He didn't want to say it was a pity party, but it sort of felt like one that might have lasting effects. 

"You're just in a slump," he told her. She'd awoken with a lower backache and he knew it was her sciatic nerve.

"You've stopped taking your anti-depressants haven't you?" He sighed thinking usually less was more, but in Tori's case she needed to stick to a routine.

"What do you mean?" She winced with her hair in her face. It was true, she was far from being that girl who liked to dance in her underwear, singing Vive la Fete's Nuit Blanche. It made Frankie smile to think about her little farewell before he left. 

Honestly, he didn't see it coming, and ever since he'd always hoped to recapture that moment. Where ever he went he'd missed her. He knew he'd never meet another quite like Tori.

"You need to relax," Frankie knew it sounded simple. He put on the electric kettle. There were some herbal teas he got out that he hoped might help. As much as he loved Chinese medicines sometimes he thought it was best to see a real a doctor, but with things the way they were these days this might be the best remedy at the moment.

Once upon a time, he'd almost been a ballet dancer. Perhaps that's where the adventure started. Although, it didn't last long as much training he'd put into it, hoping for a life in Paris. It was there he'd met Tori at a party when she was younger. Oh, she was a sad little doll, he thought then, but it was a different time. She'd made it there to be trained in opera. Of course, the stakes had been high. And neither had much success.

He'd been injured, but began to study about those kinds of injuries and stayed on with the dance company to be more of the help instead.

And then they met again. He'd seen her on campus here in the states in the mid-west. He was supposed to stay with the dance company but decided to stay and study instead. It felt like the right decision. Maybe being a dancer was never his calling and he liked physical therapy and sports medicine instead.

Of course, there were family concerns and he was at the point he might never meet anyone's approval. Instead, he knew it was best to be away from them after all. And here he was again, happy to be back, and hoping she remembered why.