Todd slams his glass down and leans forward, his eyes icy. "I would be VERY careful Delgado. This is one place you do NOT want to go."

*****

Téa shrugs, undaunted by the icy stare. "I'm brave."

Todd's eyes narrow slightly, both confused and impressed by her fearlessness of him. Either that or she was just fuckin' crazy, he couldn't decide which. Leaning back in his seat, he eyes her carefully.

"What the fuck do you care, huh? Looking for tips on how to get your hooks into Todd Manning the millionaire?"

She chuckles dryly. "Believe me, I don't need any tips. If I wanted to get my hooks into you, I could."

"But you don't want to?"

"Nah, I kinda like you, don't ask me why. So, is that what happened? Some woman get her hooks into you, bleed you dry?"

He grins darkly. "Hooks, yeah. Bleed...no. The dead don't bleed, didn't you know that?"

She squints, then nods knowingly, taking a sip of her drink. "I get it, the Dracula syndrome."

"Excuse me?"

"The Dracula Syndrome. You think you're a vampire, the living dead, that kind of thing."

"I don't think, I know."

"Whatever, look, it's a huge self fulfilling prophecy, take it from me."

"Oh, you're so fuckin' smart, aren't you. Tell me, the ever brilliant Delgado, tell me how I'm not a god damn monster."

She leans forward. "I don't know what happened to you. But I do know how you feel, and quite frankly it's easier to shut yourself down than to actually feel the pain. So you 'deaden' yourself, you 'numb' yourself. Nothingness beats pain everyday of the fucking week. The only problem is," she pauses, her mind flashing back to Jake's shabby treatment of her the night before, "something always happens, and it always reminds you of just how alive you are. And how real the pain is."

Todd shakes his head, hearing her, but not wanting to hear her...to hear her truth. Freaked him the fuck out, because she understood. He takes a gulp of his drink, feeling it warm his throat.

"That guy's not worth it. A yuppie scumbag wanna be, you can do better."

"Hey, I thought we were talking about you. So, what did this woman do to you? Try and roll you for all you're worth?"

He studies her closely. "Maybe."

"And let me guess, you fell for her, before you found out she was just using you."

"You're a fuckin' genius," he mutters.

"So, what happened?"

"Why the hell are you so interested?"

"Call it morbid curiousity. Look if you don't wanna tell me just say so."

He's about to tell her just that, when inexplicably, the words spill out of him.

"She pretended to be my friend," he says quietly. Téa is immediately struck by the sadness in his voice. "Convicted rapists don't have many of those, so I was pretty grateful. Anyway, so she tells me she's pregnant. I decide to be noble for once in my goddamn life and actually marry her. Only it turns out, she wasn't really pregnant. She was however, greedy as hell, and having found out before I did that I was the heir to a fortune, decided to get herself in on the ground floor."

Téa eyes widen as she listens to him. "Wow...that's ...that's cold."

"Oh we haven't even scratched the surface. See, as it turns out, she did end up getting pregnant along the way. Then she lost it," he finishes quietly, taking a healthy gulp of his drink. He raises his eyes, seeing the shocked by sympathetic look on her face. "Whatsa matter? Speechless?"

"I'm...I'm sorry," she says quietly.

"Don't be. Learned a very important lesson. I don't get a family, a 'happy ever after'. Blair, she taught me that. Made sure I stayed as low in the gutter as she did, and made damn sure I would stay there for the rest of my life."

"Why are you giving her that much power?"

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means exactly what I said! You are letting her determine the rest of your life for you, just because she screwed you over. I'm not saying you shouldn't be hurt, but this thought that your whole life is predetermined to suck because of this incident is letting her win, in my opinion."

"Oh, and I should just take the opinion of someone I don't know?"

"Well, they're usually the most objective. Look, all I'm saying is that this notion that you don't get to be happy is garbage."

"You think you get to be happy?"

Téa looks away, avoiding his eyes. "We're not talking about me."

"I think that's called avoiding, Counselor in training. I mean, what about you? How you think you have to measure up to some perfect standard to please everyone else, even rich hypocritical country club idiots? That's happiness to you?"

"Maybe," she says softly, "maybe being accepted, just once, would make me happy."

Todd's about to come back with a quick retort, when he sees the pain on her face. A familiar pain, because, not that he would ever admit it outloud, but he wanted the same thing she did. For someone, anyone, to accept him.

"I hear ya, Delgado," he says quietly. They lapse into a comfortable, sad silence as the bluesy jazz continues to wash over them.