Months of loneliness had steeled his resolve towards actively seeking out a wife. It had taken Winnie's leaving to realize just how right she was about the state of things, though if asked Dory would have still argued that what they had was enough for him. But, she hadn't been happy for a long time leading up to her leaving and he had been blind to it all.

Which meant finding someone else, a rather daunting prospect now that he could no longer dance as well as he once could. His injury meant finding other avenues that didn't involve a dancefloor, such as the flower show and the walk through the zoo.

He had chatted with a few other debutantes throughout his meandering and was preparing to head towards the ticket booths for a refreshment when he was knocked off balance.

It was a massive stroke of luck that Dory didn't fall. Instead, he landed heavily against one of the shrubs behind him and mouthed a wordless swear at the sudden flash of pain that went through his leg. He didn't even look to see who collided into him, his eyes still squeezed shut as he tried to contain the string of profanities he thought to scream, before asking, "are you alright?"

---