The Florencia Lozano Homepage - Fan Fiction
| REACHING OUT BY TIMA |
CHAPTER 13 |
PREVIOUSLY:
Tea: I don't want you here, Todd. I can't do this. I don't have the strength.
Todd: I'll be your strength. I'll be whatever you need me to be.
Tea: I need you to go back to Llanview. I need you to go back to your life there. I need you to leave me alone.
Todd: You need me. I'm not letting you down this time.
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chapter 13:
Tea: If you keep trying to see me, I'll leave. I'll go where you won't be able to find me.
Todd: There's no such place. I'll always find you. You know that. I'm not leaving. No matter what you say, Delgado, I'm not leaving you.
Tea: You don't have a choice.
Todd: You're the one that doesn't have a choice. You're stuck with me. Do you want me in there, helping you, holding your hand through whatever you need me to hold your hand through? Or, do you want me out here, doing everything I can to get in there to see you, to be with you?
Tea: I'm just not ready for this.
Todd: But, you will be? Because, I can wait. I can be patient.
Tea: Since when?
Todd: Since right now. I'll be patient. I'll let it happen slowly. I'll wait until tomorrow to see you again, if that's what you want.
Tea: A whole day? That's your idea of patiently waiting?
Todd: I'll bring breakfast.
Tea: Todd...
Todd: You know I won't give up, Tea. You can't tell me that you don't care about me, so you're not getting rid of me.
Tea: I don't care about you.
Todd: I don't believe you so it doesn't count.
Tea: There's nothing I can say to make you leave, is there?
Todd: No. So, tell them that they have to let me in.
Tea: No.
Todd: Fine. I really will wait...at least a few days, before I find a way in.
[Todd removes his body from her window and leans his head in to continue talking to her.]
Todd: We'll just do it this way until you're ready for me to come inside.
Tea: We won't do anything. You won't be coming back.
Todd: Yes, I will. You know I will. Tell them that it's okay for me to hang out in the bushes out here. It's either that or we spend time together at the local jail, because you know you'll come and do that lawyer thing for me if I get arrested because of your stubbornness.
Tea: It wouldn't be my fault.
Todd: Yes, it would. You called me.
Tea: You never got my messages.
Todd: It doesn't matter. You wouldn't have called me if you still hated my guts.
Tea: I never hated your guts.
Todd: I knew it! I'm never leaving you again.
Tea: Okay, fine. I hated your guts. Now, go away.
Todd: You're not a very good liar. Shouldn't they have taught you how to be a convincing liar in law school?
Tea: You would think my marriages to you would have taught me that, since I had a front row seat to watch the master.
Todd: That was a compliment, right?
Tea: We'll make a deal, okay?
Todd: I get to come in and you get to let me?
Tea: This deal will be on my terms and you will abide by my wishes.
Todd: As long as your wishes are that I come inside and hold your hand, I have no problem with that.
Tea: You will leave, right now.
Todd: This doesn't sound like much of a deal, so far.
Tea: You can come back tomorrow. I'll give you one hour. After that, if I want you to, you'll leave and never come back.
Todd: I'll leave now and go find a place for us to live. I'll come back tomorrow. I'll bring breakfast. I'll spend the entire day with you. I'll help you with your therapy.
Tea: I have people who do that, already. People who know what they're doing.
Todd: They can show me how to do it. That way when we move into our new place I'll know what to do.
Tea: It won't happen.
Todd: You need to think more positively.
Tea: Now you're a positive thinker?
Todd: I always have been.
Tea: You have always been positively morose.
Todd: Not always. In fact, I've been thinking of ways to brighten up your room. I know just having me near, brightens up any space, but I thought that maybe you'd wants some of those flower things. So, I'm having some delivered. When they get here, you'll feel better, because your room won't be so depressing anymore.
Tea: Filling my room with flowers won't make me feel any better.
Todd: I won't just be filling it with flowers. I'll also fill it with jewelry, and clothes, and...
Tea (interrupting): Don't. I don't want you sending anything. I told you before that I don't want you trying to buy this away. It can't be bought. The way I feel can't be fixed with any amount of money.
Todd: Are you sure? Because, I've got tons.
Tea: You don't have enough.
Todd: You feel that lousy?
Tea: Yes.
Todd: Okay, I won't buy you a lot of stuff. It would just be a hassle moving all of it when I find us a place, anyway.
Tea: We're not living together.
Todd: Either, I spend my days looking for a place for us, or I spend my days in there with you.
Tea: Tough choice.
Todd: Not really. As soon as I find us a place, I'll have nothing to do but spend every second with you.
Tea: It wouldn't work.
Todd: Sure it would.
Tea: It never has before.
Todd: Fine. We won't go back to Llanview. We'll live here.
Tea: Llanview isn't the reason our relationship has never worked in the past.
Todd: Trust me. You don't want to live there again. There's some freaky stuff going on back there. I'll just come inside and tell you all about it.
Tea: Seriously, Todd, I'm exhausted. I think I'll just try to get some sleep. You can come back tomorrow and I'll give you one hour of my time. We'll say good-bye. Then, you'll leave and never come back.
Todd: You've got that backwards. Tomorrow, I'll come back and I'll never leave. Or, I could just go ahead and stay here tonight.
Tea: In the bushes?
Todd: If that's as close as you'll let me get, I would do it, Delgado.
Tea: I don't want you to.
Todd: Because you want me inside with you?
Tea: I want you to go back to Llanview.
Todd: You hate me that much?
[There is a long pause. Tea is tempted to lie and say that she does hate him. She's tempted to truly try to sound sincere so he'll finally give up and leave her for good. She doubts that she could be convincing enough for him to believe her, though.
After a few silent moments, Tea speaks again.]
Tea: When did the staff leave?
Todd: Didn't you notice?
Tea: No. I guess I was...
Todd: So mesmerized by me that you couldn't see anything else going on around you?
Tea (smiling): I was so upset...
Todd: You were mesmerized. Don't even try denying it.
[Todd pauses for a few moments, uncertain if he should follow through on what he wants to say to her. Ultimately he decides to risk embarrassment and say it.]
Todd: You mesmerize me, too, Delgado.
[Tea is touched by the tenderness that she hears in his voice, and sees in his eyes. She knows that he's getting to her, the way that only he can.]
Tea: You should go.
Todd: Do you want a house? Or, an apartment?
Tea: I want neither.
Todd: We'll get a place with a great view and lots of huge windows. And, we'll get a place that has a swimming pool. I read that physical therapy in water can be a good thing after injuries.
Tea: When did you read that?
Todd: Recently.
Tea: I can't believe you did that.
Todd: I couldn't look up anything about your specific injuries because you still haven't told me what they are.
Tea: You don't need to know. You're leaving, remember?
Todd: I don't remember that.
Tea: Well, I do. I want you to leave me alone, Todd.
Todd: I'll leave, for now. But, I'm coming back. And, I'll keep coming back every day until you're finally ready to move into our new place.
[Tea looks away, feeling herself wanting more and more to believe what her heart is telling her to believe...that this time things will work out between them, that he would really love her the way that she needs him to, that she won't end up with another broken heart.]
Todd: I know that you feel lousy about what happened. I know that you feel lousy about losing people that you cared about. I know that you feel lousy about being here and whatever your injuries are. I know that you feel lousy about needing me and wanting me to stick around, because I let you down before. It won't happen again. I'll get it right this time. I'll do whatever it is that you need me to do so you don't have to feel so lousy anymore. I can do this, Tea. I can make you feel less lousy. And, you can make me feel less lousy, too, if you want to.
[They share an intense gaze for several more moments before Todd's head disappears from her window, leaving Tea even more torn between wanting to run from her feelings for him and wanting to give in to those feelings and take comfort in him.]
to be continued...
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2001 COPYRIGHT BY TIMA
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