It's the night of the first night that Téa has moved back into the penthouse, for the 4-Week Trial Reconciliation. Todd and Téa relax and find themselves having fun playing a game of "MoneyHungry"..... after which, Téa retires to her bedroom... to read "law books" [or so she told Todd] but we see that Téa is actually reading a romance novel, one that is very appropriately titled "Hidden Love". Thinking about what Todd had told her earlier, about his coming into her bedroom and taking pictures of her while she's sleeping, Téa gets out of bed, locks her bedroom door and gets back in the bed, retrieving her book. After a moment, she picks up the picture of her sleeping that she'd found earlier that night and confronted Todd about, looks at briefly, then gets out of bed again and places the picture in the drawer of the dresser across the room. Téa then goes back over to the door and unlocks it, when suddenly she hears Todd yelling downstairs. Grabbing her robe, Téa rushes down the stairs and finds Todd, yelling in his sleep and in the midst of a...... "nightmare".
Todd: Go away! Get away! Get away!Téa (coming down the stairs): Todd...Todd it's me...Téa!
Todd (still asleep): Get away...get away!
Téa (goes over to him on the couch, trying to calm him): You're okay...ssshhhh.
Todd (still having the nightmare): Get away....get away...get away!
Téa (leaning over him): Todd...it's okay...ssshhhh.
Todd (muttering in his sleep): Get away...get away.... GET AWAY!
[Todd suddenly flips over, throws his arms out wildly as he's in the process of waking up and accidentally knocks Téa to the floor.]
[Todd immediately rushes over to Téa, his voice anxious and concerned.]
Todd: Delgado....wake up.
Téa: I'm up... I'm up.
Todd: Want some ice?
Téa: No..... no, I'm......fine.
Todd: (still upset) You need ice, I'll go get ice. I got some ice.
[Todd rushes into the kitchen, returns with an ice pack, and hands it to Téa... still looking very concerned.]
Téa: Thanks...thank you. Serves me right, waking you up from a nightmare.
Todd: (edgy) Yeah...well.
Téa: What?
Todd: Ne...ne...nevermind...nothing.
Téa: You were calling out, like.... like you needed help.
Todd: No, I..... I don't need anything!
Téa: No ... course not. Good night. I hope...I hope..uh, I hope your next dream is sweeter.
[Téa heads for the stairs, but Todd calls out to her, she stops and turns around to face him.]
Téa: I know you didn't mean to hurt me.
Todd: (agitated) See, this is ..... this is..... this is why I don't sleep.
Téa: The nightmares?
Todd: No, this is why.
Téa: (confused) It's "why" what?
Todd: Well, some people, you know, they just... they just drop off for hours you know? I ... I can't imagine that.
Téa: (walking over to stand next to him) Todd? You do not look so good.
Todd: Well, what else is new?
Téa: No, I'm..... I'm serious, Todd. You look like you're having some trouble breathing.
Todd: No... I'm fine. This is just something that happens to me, you know, if I..... if I don't sleep for a while.
Téa: When's the last time you really slept?
Todd: Thursday.
Téa: (reaching to feel his forehead) Thursday?!
Todd: What are you doing?
Téa: Give me your hand.
Todd: No.
Téa: (grabs his hand) Todd!
Todd: No...what are you gonna do...you gonna read my palm?
Téa: I'm calling Larry Wolek.
Todd: (taking the phone out of her hands) No you're not, you're not calling anybody. No pills, no shots, nothing. I'm not gonna let one of those clowns take over my life.
Téa: (very concerned about him) Todd, you're sweating, you're pulse is racing, you need to see a doctor!
Todd: What I need is for you to leave me alone!
Téa: Todd, you have got to get some sleep. I want you to...
Todd: (interrupts, yelling) Sleep is what got me into this mess to begin with!
Téa: Listen to me! I want you to go upstairs. I want you to sleep in your own bed, you need to be comfortable. Todd.....go.... GO!
Todd: (gives her a look) What, you're sending me to my room? What'll you do next, huh? Take away my TV privileges?
[Todd goes up the stairs, as Téa stands there watching him, then rubs her bruised cheek.]
Téa: Come on.Todd: I wanted you to have this room.
Téa: I will use my own room I've always been perfectly comfortable there...come on.
Todd: I don't think you'll be comfortable there.
Téa: Why not?
Todd: Well, you know, um..... Moose has moved in there and he's not very tidy.
Téa: He always did have a thing for my room. Here, sit down.
Todd: I'll give you another shot at MoneyHungry.
Téa: Why? I won. Gee, you look really comfortable, Todd..... why don't you lie down? Come on.
Todd: (removes his shoes and tosses them across the room) This isn't gonna work, you know. I can't sleep and I can't breathe and everytime I think about either one of 'em, it just makes the whole thing worse.
Téa: Have you always had this much trouble sleeping?
Todd: Yes.
Todd: I remember stuff.
Téa: Stuff?
Todd: Stuff about my father.
Téa: Yes?
Todd: I would wake up sometimes...in midair hoisted up by the collar of my pajamas with my father's thumb and the second knuckle of his forefinger over my adam's apple.
Téa: Why did he do that to you?
Todd: "Why did he do that to me?"... What, you wanna make sense out of this? Life doesn't make sense. He did it...he did it because he ran out of women that he could yell at or he was bored or the Dow had dropped a few points...and he did it to me once because it was raining. He dragged me into the kitchen and he pulled me over to the counter and he grabbed a...a tin container filled with..with uncooked rice and he made a pile of uncooked rice in the center of the kitchen linoleum. And he pulled up the cuffs of my pajamas and he made me kneel in the pile of rice with my back straight holding my ankles...for... three.... hours..... while he watched. And then...at first light, he finally fell asleep so he fell out of his chair and I had to crawl by him... hand over hand over hand ...until I got to the next room. And you wanna know why? I did not know why. (His voice breaks) I was six... years... old. I don't know why. I...I will never know why.
Téa: (tears flowing down her cheeks) How long did he continue that, til you were how old?Todd: Until I was tall enough to look him in the eye and ... (stops in mid-sentence, flips back over on his side) Rice. (looks back at Téa.) Well, you asked..... happy homecoming.
[Téa stops and looks at him, surprised... but also, secretly thrilled that he wanted her near him, to stay with him.]
Téa: You want me to stay?
Todd: Yeah...stay and talk, huh? Talk to me.
Téa: About what?
Todd: Oh, I don't care. Anything, who cares? The more boring the better, you can bore me to sleep.
Téa: And that would be a first.
Todd: I don't know.... but it would be worth it.
Téa: Well, you do need to get some rest. (sits down in a chair next to the window) It's funny, I just remembered I used to have trouble sleeping when I was a little girl. But I had my brothers to help me out.
Todd: Brothers? With an "s"? Thought you just had one...José?
Téa: Uh, there were actually half brothers who lived with us when I was a little girl. See, my father was 13 years older than my mother. He had a whole other family before mine. Those boys were a lot older but um...they lived with us, me and Papi and José til they left home when I was about seven years old.
Todd: Sounds crowded.
Téa: But alive! And since I was a girl, I got to have my own room. Room.... it was more like a closet with just room for a bed and me on top of the bed. But uh.... after my mom left that room felt as big as a forest and I was petrified to be in there alone, you know? I was, uh..... I was scared of the thoughts running around in my brain and I was afraid of, um..... falling into the hole I felt inside my stomach. But you know me, I wouldn't tell anyone how terrified I was.
Todd: Probably a pretty good idea.
Téa: But one night, my older brother Del came into my room with a feather, it was a pigeon feather and uh, he told me...no...he convinced me that it was the feather from the wing of my guardian angel, and that if I slept with that feather under my pillow, that my guardian angel would protect me.
Todd: Did it work?
Téa: Yeah, I mean I'd dream about her, draw pictures of her. She's got hands like my Abuelita's, and she's got my mother's face. That angel was...was definitely there.
[Téa thinks Todd has fallen asleep, and gets up to leave... but sits back down at the sound of his voice.....]
Todd: You know, it's funny that your nightmare's about being left alone and my nightmare's about not being left alone. Cuz I'm never alone, you know, it's always there....that thing....waits for me under the bed...waits to catch me with my eyes closed so that it can rip me apart.Téa: (encouraging, comforting tone of voice) You're wrong...it's not there...it's not anywhere, Todd, it died... what you have to remember is not to give it new life inside yourself...it died...it died when your father died.
[Sensing that Todd is now asleep, Téa goes over and sits on the bed next to him, watches him for a moment.]
Téa (softly): Todd?
[Assured that Todd is now sleeping soundly, Téa starts to move off the bed when, in his sleep, Todd reaches out and grabs her hand, and doesn't let go.]
[Téa makes a few "half-hearted" attempts to remove her hand from Todd's without, but finally she lies down next to him..... her hand still in his.... and watches over him as he sleeps.]
These are some of the most "poignant" TnT scenes of all. Todd is trusting and opening himself up to Téa in a way that he never has before with anyone... he had never confided "details" of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father, Peter Manning, to this degree..... to anyone... and the same thing goes for Téa, all the details from her own childhood that she shared with Todd as she sat with him while he fell asleep. Athough TnT were not aware of it at the time themselves, sharing such intimate and painful details of their childhoods with each other had brought Téa much closer to Todd than she had ever been before.... and had brought Todd closer to Téa... Here we have yet another example of how and why the Ts fit together like a "hand in a glove" and completed one another because, as Todd noted, Téa's nightmare was "being left alone" and his was "not being left alone"... each had and provided to each other what the other one needed. This night was one of the most "special bonding" experiences that TnT ever shared.... and what they shared is what finally and truly brought Téa HOME. This night brought Téa closer to Todd's heart and Todd deeper into Téa's heart... what TnT had shared with each other brought each of them a little closer to home...closer to one another, where both Ts belonged.... forevermore!
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