The Florencia Lozano Homepage - Fan Fiction
| REACHING OUT BY TIMA |
CHAPTER 19 |
PREVIOUSLY:
Tea: What about your family?
Todd: You're my family.
Tea: I mean it, Todd. Don't waste the chance that you have with them, because of me. You'll regret it.
Todd: I regret a lot. I regret a lot of stuff that I did, and that I didn't do, with you. Give me a chance to make it up to you. Give me a chance to show you why you want to keep feeling, even if it hurts.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
chapter 19:
[For several minutes, they sit quietly, each afraid of the future, but for different reasons. When Tea finally speaks again, she surprises Todd.]
Tea: Get me out of here?
Todd: You're not fighting it anymore?
Tea: I'm not agreeing to anything else beyond this moment. I'm not agreeing to live with you again, and I'm certainly not agreeing to go back to Llanview with you. I just need to get out of here. I need to think and it's so hard to do that here. Take me somewhere...anywhere. Just do it quickly, before I change my mind.
Todd: You want to go for a roll around the block? Because, it's kind of dark out, you know.
Tea: You have a car, don't you? We could go for a drive.
Todd: They'll let you leave?
Tea: I'm not a prisoner here.
Todd: They had the place locked down when I tried getting in earlier.
Tea: I can leave whenever I want to. I was only suggesting a brief drive. But, it was a stupid idea. You should leave.
Todd: I will, as soon as you're ready to go with me.
Tea: I changed my mind.
Todd: Well, change it back again...you're good at that. Besides, now you're stuck with me, because I'm not leaving unless you go with me. I want you to see the van I rented, anyway.
Tea: Why did you rent a van instead of a car?
Todd: You'll see. So, do you want to go dressed the way you are? Or, is there something I can help you change into? You said before that you didn't have your own stuff here, right?
Tea: I'm sure the staff can come up with something for me to wear. They'll help me get dressed, too.
Todd: I can do it.
Tea: I'd rather you didn't.
Todd: Why?
Tea: It's embarrassing.
Todd: What is?
Tea: Just go outside and bring your van to the front of the building. I'll be there as soon as I can. It might take a while. There isn't as much staff on duty this early in the morning.
Todd: If I leave, they'll lock the door again and I'll never get back in.
Tea: I promise, I'm not trying to get rid of you. Besides, we both know that if you really want to, you'd get in again, no matter how much I wanted you to stay away.
Todd: That's only because I know that you don't really want me to stay away.
Tea: I'm willing to go for a drive with you, just let me have some dignity, okay?
Todd: Why do you think my helping you would be undignified? If it were the other way around, you wouldn't think that, right?
Tea: If it was the other way around, you would have ensured that I never saw you at all.
Todd: But, you would have thought I was being a jerk.
Tea: If you want me to go for a drive with you, you need to leave right now, or I will change my mind again and, this time, I won't change it back.
Todd: So, you want me to trust that if I go outside, you'll show up? You want me to trust that you won't ditch me and have me sitting out there like a fool for hours?
Tea: You would wait for me for hours?
Todd: I've been waiting for you for years.
[Todd takes a chance and leans forward, placing a light kiss on her lips. Tea's hand instinctively rises and touches the side of his face. As he ends the kiss and pulls away, he looks into her eyes for several seconds before leaning toward her again. This time when he kisses her, she clearly kisses him back.
Moments later, when Todd pulls away, he immediately rises from her bed and leaves her room, a smile on his face, knowing that he's getting to her just as much as she's getting to him.
More than thirty minutes later...
Tea finally appears at the entrance to the building. As the guard opens the door for her, she sees Todd standing next to a van, leaning his body against it.
When Todd sees her, he rushes up the sidewalk, toward her. As she wheels herself out of the building, Todd moves behind her. Tea quickly speaks to him.]
Tea: I can do it myself.
[Todd removes his hands from her wheelchair and steps to the side. The guard converses with Tea, in Spanish, for several moments, before she addresses Todd again.]
Tea: Okay. You can push.
Todd: Are you sure?
Tea: Just do it!
Todd: You're so bossy.
[Todd again steps behind her wheelchair and slowly pushes her toward his rented van as the guard closes the door and watches them through the glass, with a smile on his face.]
Todd: That guy creeps me out.
Tea: Who?
Todd: The guard.
Tea: He's a sweet man. He's the reason you're pushing my chair.
Todd: Really? He does seem like a decent guy.
Tea: He's old fashioned. He thought I offended you by asking you not to push my chair for me.
Todd: Well, I am the guy.
Tea: I'm very capable.
Todd: I guess it's bad paraplegia etiquette to push someone's wheelchair without permission.
Tea: Yes, it is.
Todd: I never did care about etiquette.
Tea: I remember.
Todd: So, you're okay with it, right?
Tea: When we're in front of that particular guard, sure.
Todd: You have a crush on him?
Tea: He reminds me of my father.
Todd: Is that what your old man looked like?
Tea: I was thinking more of his male chauvinist attitude.
Todd: That's a quality you like in men, right?
Tea: Hardly. But, I always seem to find it.
[As they reach the end of the long sidewalk, Todd stops pushing Tea's chair. He opens the van's side door and activates the wheelchair lift.]
Tea: Todd, you didn't need to go to this much trouble. I would have been fine with a car. You could have just lifted me out of the chair and put me into the front seat. When I get better at it, I should be able to do it myself, but I don't think I'd trust myself doing that yet.
Todd: You would have let me carry you?
Tea: Why not?
Todd: Wait here. I'll go back to the rental place and get a car.
Tea: Very funny.
Todd: I'm serious. I thought I was being a sensitive guy getting you this thing for your wheelchair. I didn't realize I was missing out on grabbing a feel.
Tea: You should probably move out of the way and let me get into your van, before I storm back into the building in tears, thereby ensuring that the guard will no longer think you're a hopeless romantic and will go back to keeping you out of the building and away from me.
Todd: He thinks I'm a hopeless romantic? Hopeless, I'm okay with. But, romantic?
Tea: If he didn't think that, he never would have convinced me to let you in to see me.
Todd: That card didn't do it?
Tea: It touched me, I'll admit. Just the fact that you remember anything from our past surprises me. I still would have resisted, though, if he hadn't asked about the significance of it. After I briefly explained it to him, he said that I was beaming.
Todd: Beaming, huh?
Tea: There wasn't much light in the room. He was probably tired. He recently re-married his wife for the second time after several years of estrangement. He clearly adores her and missed her greatly while they were separated. I think he just liked the idea of being a part of reuniting another couple who had journeyed away from each other, only to find themselves back where they started...together.
Todd: You found out all that when he went to give you my gift?
Tea: Yes.
Todd: No wonder you had me waiting out here for hours. You were in there gabbing it up with another guy.
Tea: It wasn't hours.
Todd: Well, it wasn't thirty seconds, like it should have been.
Tea: You're lucky it took that long. Because, if it had only been thirty seconds I wouldn't be here with you now, ready to go wherever you take me.
Todd: Wherever?
Tea: As long as we don't leave this island, and we're back in time for my physical therapy later today.
Todd: Well, hurry up!
[Tea wheels herself onto the motorized ramp. Todd activates it and it lifts her into the van.]
to be continued...
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
2001 COPYRIGHT BY TIMA
FanFiction Home
Home
