Todd: (comes back to the door) I didn’t think you were awake.

Téa: (turns on the lamp beside her bed) Would you have stopped to look in if you did?

Todd: Is that your question?

Téa: (sitting up in bed) No. You and Blair got married....

Todd: That’s not a question.

Téa: It’s coming. You married because you obviously loved each other. Starr is the evidence of that. So why is it like pulling teeth for you to so much as admit you still have feelings for Blair, let alone admit how important they still are to you?

Todd: (gives her a ‘look’) Too bad you weren’t asleep.

Téa: I’m serious, Todd. I want an answer.

Todd: Look, the last thing I need is the third degree from some horizontal ambulance chaser (starts to back out of the door).

Téa: (raising her voice) Oh, that’s your response to every question, no matter.... no matter what. You don’t need anything from anyone. Well, I don’t buy that for a second, Todd.

Todd: (in a very low, detached voice tone) Have a nice night. (and He walks away from the door).

Téa: (raises her voice even MORE now so Todd can hear from the hallway) You practically had a meltdown today when Blair told you she was quitting her job at The Sun. (Todd walks back to the door, enters the room a little more) I wouldn’t exactly call that the hallmark of ‘detachment’.

Todd: (stares at her, directly in the eye) What do you want from me?

Téa: Like I said, I want an answer. Why are you so afraid to own up to what’s inside you? Is it because someone might find out that you’re actually human after all?

[This scene ends with this great closeup shot of both Ts staring at each other, hard. The look on Todd’s face is like he can’t believe anyone, much less Téa, would even CARE enough to go to all the trouble of trying to find out if he IS ‘human after all’..... but TnT were always about ‘connecting’ on a very emotional level, and this is one of the early TnT scenes that perfectly illustrates this essential quality of Todd and Téa’s relationship.]

Téa: All I want is one.

Todd: Boy, when you get on something, you just don’t let go, do you?

Téa: (not missing a beat) I’m in “good company” there.

Todd: Look, I know that it bugged you that I lost it when Blair left today. But that’s no reason for you to be lying in the dark obsessing about it.

Téa: Isn’t that what you do?

Todd: No. What happened today is history. Blair is history. I won’t lose it like that again, you’ll see.

Téa: Would you sit down for a second? (motions for him to sit down at the foot of the bed).

Todd: What, you’re gonna tell me a story? (not missing any beats either, he takes a seat in the “chair” at the foot of the bed and rests his feet up on the end of the bed).

Téa: (loud sigh) No. I am tired of “stories”. (in a soft, gentle voice) I’m not mad that you still care about Blair. In fact, it’s..... it’s reassuring. It let’s me know that you really are human.

Todd: Yeah, wait until the next full moon.

Téa: (exasperated now, raises her voice) Does every word out of your mouth always have to be negative? Do you know that you are not genetically incapable of being happy?

Todd: Well, being human is one thing, being happy is pushing it. Besides, what does it matter to you?

Téa: It matters to me because when you walk around in a cold rage, everyone around you gets frostbite, especially me. You are damned hard to live with!

Todd: Well, I would think that the $5 million dollars that I’m giving you ought to make it a little easier.

Téa: (giving up, makes a move to lay back down in the bed) It’s just a waste.

Todd: What, the money’s a waste?

Téa: (rises up and raises her voice AGAIN) No, your attitude! You act like you don’t deserve to be happy. And that DOES bug me..... because I happen to like you, you jerk!

Todd: (long 'dramatic' pause, then in a firm voice) Don’t!

Téa: (sarcastically) Oh, it’s wonderful when you get warm and fuzzy like that.

Todd: (rising to his feet) Look, I’m not kidding around, Ok? Liking me is stupid. It’s .... it’s like playing golf in a lightning storm.

Téa: That’s probably true, since you’re roughly as sociable as a wounded buffalo most of the time. (Todd reacts to that w/his body language, TnT still haven’t broken eye contact w/each other) BUT, you’ve also got the ultimate irreverent sense of humor, you’re a wizard with kids and animals, and you’re smart as hell. I just LIKE that. Ergo, I like YOU. (FL delivered this dialogue as though Téa was in a power suit, in the courtroom, doing the tough-as-nails “Delgado” defense attorney thing).

Todd: (starts to pace around the room) You don’t know me.

Téa: Well, whose fault is that?

Todd: (stops & turns and looks at her again) Look, we were just supposed to get married, okay? Nobody said anything about “liking” one another.

Téa: (small laugh under her breath) Oh, well, sorry to disappoint you.

Todd: (turns to leave the room) Whatever.

Téa: Where are you going?

Todd: I’m tired of this blabbing (leaves the room).

Téa: (in disbelief) We’re in the middle of a.... conversation?!

Todd: (comes back to the door) No, we WERE. The next time I want analysis, I will call a shrink (turns and leaves again).

Téa: (slams the pillow down on the bed in a snit, yelling) Don’t you walk out on me! I cannot STAND that! Aaarrgghhhh!

Todd: (enters the room again, says quietly) Why’s that? Because that’s what your mother did?

Téa: Why do you say that?

Todd: Well, Mama Delgado did that to little Téa, isn’t that right?

Téa: (low, pouty voice) You’re not my mother (the ‘analysis’ has turned around on HER now).

Todd: (determined voice) Your mother got angry and she split. You never saw her again. Isn’t that how the story goes?

Téa: (low voice still) Yes.

Todd: I know all about that.

[End of Scene.... I love this scene! It is very intense, and Todd’s edginess as he paced around as he spoke emphasized the intensive element in the scene, along with their exquisite banter that “never missed a beat” and TnT never breaking eye contact, that ‘sizzle’ they always had totally on full display. When Todd turns the tables on Téa, the music also intensifies, and what we had here was an intensely revealing, multi-layered, well-written AND performed TnT scene!]

Todd: Yep.

Téa: What happened?

Todd: I woke up one morning, and she was gone.

Téa: I know that one (she looks away from him, as though lost in that painful childhood memory).

Todd: Yeah. I kept thinking it was my fault, that I wasn’t worth sticking around for (sits down on the bed). But, you know, later I figured out that my adoptive father, Peter Manning, had done a real number on my Mom.

Téa: He was violent?

Todd: He was a bastard, and she split the first chance she got.

Téa: Let me guess..... he never forgave her.

Todd: No. She was the one who left. Left me behind with Peter the.... well, Peter the-not-so great.

Téa: (watching him closely, asks quietly) Did he hurt you?

Todd: (reluctant, tortured voicetone) He disciplined me. He would stand over me, well, ready to beat me for whatever I did or didn’t do. And I kept hearing the words over and over again in my head “He hates me, he hates me”.

Téa: (painful & compassionate look in her eyes, asks softly) Did you ever see your mother again?

Todd: Yeah. One summer. I found out where she was hiding. She was in a little cabin by a stream in the woods. Took me 20 hours to hitch there from the camp that I was in.

Téa: How old were you?

Todd: Ten.

Téa: Ten years old, and you’re hitchhiking by yourself?

Todd: Nobody would rent me a car (small laugh from Téa). We spent 6 days together.

[Todd turns his face away from Téa, and we see this very rare (for him) look in his eyes..... happiness.... now Todd is the one lost in his own childhood memory, one he cherished of the brief time he had spent with his mother.]

Téa: And you heard the whole story?

Todd: (turns to face her again) Oh yeah, I heard all the stories. Like the one that she had been writing to me since the day that she left, only my father had been hiding the letters.

Téa: Oh, my God. Well, at least you found out that it wasn’t your fault. She did love you.

[Téa looks away for a second, very sad..... in a manner which indicated that SHE never did “find out” it wasn’t her fault that her mother left cause she never saw her own mother again.]

Téa: (shaking her head, says to him quietly) You have to let go of this.

Todd: No. No, I’ll never let go of this. Peter is my role-model on how not to be a father, and I will never EVER treat Shorty the way he treated me. It’s going to be like night and day.

Téa: (reassuring voice) It already is.

Todd: She’s never going to feel like she’s a joke or a mistake or like she’s dirt (like his father made him feel). Cause I’m gonna tell her how special she is. That little girl is always gonna know how much her father loves her.

Téa: That’s another story we have in common.

Todd: What’s that supposed to mean?

Téa: I feel this.... push in me.... to take all the pain I had as a kid, and turn it into something really sweet for Starr, something safe.

Todd: Yeah?

Téa: Yeah. It.... it all makes sense to me now. That day the guy with the gun was here. He was ready to come after Starr, and I was ready to die.... before I would let him come up those stairs.

Todd: You were great.

Téa: So were you..... and for the same reason. You’re not going to become your father, the tyrant, and I’m not gonna become my mother, who’d abandon her little girl when the going got rough..... we’re on the same path together Todd.

Todd: So, that’s what you think, huh?

[End of Scene…. which again ends on a very sweet closeup of TnT looking deeply into each other’s eyes.... maybe realizing for the first time WHY they DID have so much in common, why (as Sam once said) TnT “just clicked” from the very beginning.... and why they “liked” each other, in spite of themselves.]

Todd: Well, life sucks and then you die. (small laugh from Téa). Well, it’s true.

Téa: Beat it, Mr Optimism.

Todd: Hmmm, and this is how you treat somebody you like (rises from the bed, heads towards the door, but stops at the foot of the bed and looks at her). Well, I guess I should give you something on the plus side. That little chat we had felt pretty good. I mean, the subject sucked, but I kinda dug it. So I guess it’s Ok. If you have to like me, it’s alright.

Téa: Gee, thanks.

Todd: I’m gonna warn you though. That junk that I went through with Blair before we broke up.....

Téa: Oh, the love “junk”?

Todd: Yeah, that was a king kong-sized mistake, and I’ll never make another one like it, because I’ll never be sucker enough to open up to somebody like that again, you got that?

Téa: (laughs) Relax. I don’t like you that much. So get going, out!

Todd: Gotcha.

[I think both Ts were “getting” each other and on a much deeper level than either of them knew, at this point. And these “Early TnT” scenes certainly seem to emphasize that.]

Téa tosses a pillow at Todd, he catches it, holds onto for a minute, before laying it back down on the bed and, finally, leaves the room. Téa picks up the pillow and clutches it close to her, as she smiles and continues to look in the direction of the door, in HIS direction, after he’s gone. Todd closes the door, and lingers outside the door for a few moments.

Todd turns off the lamp in the hallway outside, then turns to look towards Téa’s bedroom again….. lost in thought AND a revelation (I do believe). The revelation that, in spite of himself and no matter how resolved he was NOT to, he had indeed already began to “open himself up” to his wife. Todd had trusted Téa enough to very easily confide in her the emotional heartbreak and pain from his tortured childhood, Téa had done the same with him much early on into their relationship.

These sweet yet VERY intense scenes were about TnT already beginning to trust their emotions, one with the other, trusting their pasts as well as their “future”. They were about Todd’s determination to create the type of life and all-consuming love for his daughter that he never had as a child, and Téa acknowledging to herself and to Todd that SHE wanted to be a part of that “life” with this guy and the daughter she had grown to love as though she were her own…. “to turn it into something SWEET”…. for ALL of them. TnT were already trusting each other with their emotions, their dreams and wishes, and giving their hearts AND souls to each other was not very far behind. Yes, TnT definitely WERE….. “on the same path together.”

~ TnT Forever ~

****

*Original Snappies - Courtesy of Jules*
Please don't use without Permission

In these scenes, we heard Téa explaining to Todd "why" she likes him, and we're witnessing a growing "attraction" developing between Todd and Téa, emotionally as well as physically. When Todd finally got around to describing his feelings for Téa, it was a-w-e-s-o-m-e...