*****

A strange situation presents itself...a standoff in the open doorway, in the middle of the night. Minutes pass as they stare each other down. Todd notices his wife's obvious physical exhaustion...her labored breathing, her sweat-soaked hair... but still, he finds it almost impossible to stay calm, knowing where she's been.

On the other side, Tea looks back at his face, darkened more by anger than by the lack of light in the hallway. It's a scary sight...one that she's seen more often than she wants to remember. She swallows hard, trying to wet her dry throat...feeling more sweat starting to pour down from her hairline...

...wait a minute...why am I still sweating...?

Suddenly, in her mind, she distances herself from her body...as she starts to worry that something might be wrong with her. Todd's eyes widen in disbelief as she pushes past him, walking through the door like he wasn't even there. He turns with her, watching as she makes her way over to the couch and practically collapses on it. He turns back toward the door for a second, thisclose to putting one of his clenched fists through the wall...but instead, he grabs a hold of the door and slams it shut.

He whirls back around and is over to the couch in a couple of strides. He stares down at her...her head resting against the back of the couch, eyes closed, still sweating, still breathing hard. He shakes his head, not buying it. He turns and starts pacing, back and forth across the living room. Finally, he stops in front of the window, his back to her.

"Better start talkin', Delgado," he says, calmly.

Silence is his response...it fills the room, hanging in the air like a huge weight , as Tea concentrates on herself, listening to her body closely. She feels her heart rate finally starting to slow down...gradually, the sweat stops forming and falling. After another minute, she raises her head, and sits up, wiping her face with the back of her hand...the worst seemingly over. She looks over at Todd, silhouetted against the window...then sighs.

"Sorry..." she says, in a low, hoarse voice. She swallows to wet her throat, then continues.

"...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you...but I had to go."

Todd whirls around. "What?! You HAD to---"

He storms back over to the couch, pointing down at her.

"No. No-no-no-no-no...only thing you HAD to do, was what the doc TOLD you to---which, in case you forgot, is stay home and rest. The hell is the matter with you?!"

Tea opens her mouth, stammering ...realizing she has no good excuse...no excuse at all.

"I...I just---"

"Don't! Don't do that...don't gimme anymore of this 'I just had to go' crap. Who do you think you're talking to here?!"

Tea's voice comes out weak and muffled, as she buries her face in her hands.

"Todd, please...just stop."

Todd's face twists up with anger and hurt. He doesn't want to upset her, but at the same time, he grows angrier watching her retreating into herself, pushing him away again, blocking him out. He drops down to his knees, bringing them to the same level...then he takes a second to get a grip on his temper as best he can.

"Look at me," he whispers.

Tea keeps her face hidden, refusing to comply. Todd gives her a minute, then sighs, heavily. He hesitates to speak to her like this...but knows in his gut that that is EXACTLY what she wants him to do. He knows because he used to do the same thing...push people away, avoid interaction so that he wouldn't have to deal.

He decides to call her bluff. "Okay, y'know what? That is NOT gonna work...not on me, not now. You don't wanna face me? Fine. I'm gonna say what I wanna say anyhow."

Tea's fingers find their way into her own damp hair, grabbing on, clenching...bracing for impact.

"I told you before, I know where you are. I've tried to help you, and you rejected it. Fine. I went about it all wrong anyway...and besides, you offered to help ME plenty of times and I told YOU to get lost, so, okay. YOU get to do that now."

Todd pauses to see if she'll look up. She won't...but behind her arms, Tea's eyes open...listening.

He sighs again. "Tea...I'm not trying to...bully you, or anything like that. I'm really not. I just...I dunno what else to do here. And the only thing I DO know...is that...it's gotta stop."

He pauses...and finally, Tea drops her hands, slowly revealing her face.

"What?" she asks, softly.

Todd lets out a relieved breath as she looks at him...for a moment, he loses his train of thought.

"What?" he asks back.

"What's gotta stop? What're you talking about?"

"Oh. That," he says, almost to himself. He inches a little closer to her.

"This," he continues, making a sweeping motion between them with his arm, up and down.

Tea looks back at him strangely. "And what exactly is THIS?" she asks, mimicking the gesture.

Todd sits back on his knees, running a hand through his hair. He makes the gesture again, more emphatically.

"THIS, this WALL...this big, fat wall that's between us. It's been there since you got back, and every day it gets bigger and fatter, and I'm sick of it, I can't deal with it anymore."

Tea stares at him for a moment, completely taken aback...and not sure how to react. Todd sees this, and continues on while he has the floor.

"I mean, let's just forget about the fact that you shouldn't even be outta bed...that you're doing EXACTLY what doc told you NOT to do, and that you're putting the twins at risk because of it. Let's just forget about that for a second..."

Tea rolls her eyes slightly at being chastised...she looks away for a second, then back at him.

"...this is about YOU AND ME...and we're gonna do this, right now, whether you want to or not. 'Cause I'm not putting up with it anymore...I can't just stand back, and be quiet, and keep everything to myself, and pretend like it's all gonna be okay in the end. And don't sit there looking at me like I'm some kind of idiot. YOU KNOW what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm not saying it right or whatever, but YOU KNOW."

He takes a breather, gauging her response. Tea's lips part...she tries to form some kind of response...but it's not happening. She's utterly dumbfounded. All she can do is stare back at him, blinking her acknowledgment. Todd runs a hand over his hair, then continues...but quieter now, calmer.

"Now you TELL me...what the hell is going on, and you tell me NOW."

Eerie silence fills the room again. Unconsciously, Tea starts to move back, inching away from him...her body trying to retreat from what feels like an attack. She can feel every part of her tensing up. Todd sees it, and senses her fear. He moves forward to match her, and jumps in quick...not knowing what the hell he's doing, really...but knowing only that he has to get her to open up, somehow.

"See? See? Look at you...just stop. Look at what you're doing."

Tea stops, as if on command. She looks at herself...and suddenly realizes how tensed up she is. She looks down at her trembling hands...then up at him. Todd's shoulders sink...he falls back on his butt and sits down on the floor, looking up at her now.

Todd shrugs, then points between them. "You see what I mean? This is us now...me moving toward you, and you moving away from me, endlessly..."

He speaks without much strength left in his voice...so softly that Tea's eyes mist up. She bites her lip...remaining quiet. Todd hangs his head down for a moment, his hair falling down from behind his ears, swinging in front of his face like a curtain. He takes a few slow, deep breaths...each one seeming to take more of his energy with it. Finally, he looks up at her again, his own eyes glossed over.

"This is a nightmare, Tea...and it's never gonna end if we keep going on like this. You KNOW that, you MUST know that..."

Tea's brow tightens, as she squeezes her eyes shut...letting the tears fall. She listens to Todd's voice, like a rope stretching out to her, trying to pull her back...growing thinner, weaker...

"...please...don't shut me out. You were the one...the one who was always saying that to me...the one who told me that if...if we couldn't be honest with each other, that we had no future...remember that?"

Tea lets out a short, muffled sob at that...having her own words repeated back to her...words stinging with harsh truth. She buries her face again...Todd shakes his head, refusing to take that for an answer. She gasps as he grabs her wrists and shakes her, uncovering her eyes, forcing her to look at him.

"No...no! We've fought too hard and too damned long to get to where we are. I love you, Tea...and I refuse to let this destroy us..."

He loosens his grip on her wrists...but she doesn't pull away. Instead, she just looks back at him, eyes wide...pleading silently...

...help me, Todd...YOU do it...YOU pull me back...get me outta here...

Todd's eyes soften. "...Delgado, please...I know you've been through hell, believe me, nobody knows it better than me...but I feel like we're on a...a runaway train or a sinking ship or something now...it's all outta control, and it's gonna destroy us both. I'm trying to stop it, but I CAN'T stop it...not without you, I...I CAN'T do this without you...YOU'RE the strong one, you're stronger than this whole thing...stronger than me. So you gotta help me here...please, HELP me!"

Tea feels his words like a punch in the gut. She also feels completely surrounded, boxed in, trapped...but ever so slowly, she realizes it's the wakeup call she was so desperately in need of. Todd has finally gotten up enough nerve to call her on everything she's been doing...consciously, unconsciously...everything that, she knows, is building and reinforcing the wall between them, sealing their fate...

...and now it's up to her...and ONLY her...to tear it down, before it's too late.

Tea's mouth parts with realization...finally REALLY realizing, as she sees her life, her future, starting to move away from her. If she doesn't take the chance now, if she doesn't reach out for it, reach out to him now...she'll never do it. She'll disappear behind that wall, retreat into herself for good...

...and when she goes...she'll take him, and the children she hasn't had yet, with her...never to be seen again...and how could she allow that to happen?

Todd feels his stomach tying itself up in knots as he looks at her, knowing she's making the biggest decision of her life. Seconds pass like hours...

...suddenly, Tea pulls out of his grasp. Todd holds his breath, bracing for the worst...

...oh no...I pushed her too hard...I've lost her...

But just as suddenly, she reaches out and throws both arms around his neck. Todd lets the breath out as she holds him tightly, burying her head in his shoulder...much like she did when he and RJ rescued her. He holds her just as tightly...protectively, as she trembles, listening to her whispers, muffled between tears...

"...please...don't be angry with me...I'm so scared...please don't leave me..."

Todd falls back on the floor, pulling Tea with him, like he was pulling them away from the edge of a cliff. He buries his face in her hair, rocking them back and forth, whispering back to her...

"...shhhhh...it's alright, I gotcha...I gotcha..."

As the minutes pass, Tea grows quiet. Todd feels her body relaxing in his arms for the first time in weeks...and sighs, relieved...knowing he's gotten her back. He hears her breathing evenly, falling asleep...he gathers her up, closer to him, and closes his eyes as he keeps on rocking her gently. Silence falls again over the dimly lit room...but its tone has changed from unnerving to comforting, as it surrounds them, covering them like a blanket...protecting them from everything, at least for a while.