"Y'know if I'd known all you needed was a hard floor, I'd have gotten rid of that bed a long time ago."

Tea cracks up...and Todd feels a grin crossing his own face...for the first time in weeks. It's as if all the horrible things that had been consuming them both, had suddenly disappeared...allowing them to be comfortable with each other again. Instinctively, she bites her lip...glancing at him guiltily.

He squints at her. "Hey. Quit with the happy stuff right now. Nobody laughs in here."

She laughs a little as she pushes herself up to a sitting position...then covers her mouth.

"Oh...sorry," she replies, rubbing her face. She shakes her head around, mussing her hair, letting out a long breath...then she looks back at him.

"Yeah, I forgot. All we are is ANGST...and TORTURE," she says, super-dramatically, clutching her hands to her chest.

Todd chuckles at her, shaking his head. Another moment of silence passes easily between them, before Tea speaks again.

"I AM sorry though," she says, quietly...dipping her head down.

Todd sits up quickly, pulling his hair back. "Why, what'd you do now?"

Tea smiles at that, in spite of herself...almost losing her concentration. She sighs as she looks at him...then glances down at the floor again.

"You've been so...patient...with me, since I got back, and...I've been really awful to you...so self-involved. I'm sorry."

Todd says nothing at first...then he reaches out, tentatively...gently touching her chin. She looks up at him, and his face softens...not smiling, but just a gentle look.

"You don't have to apologize to me for anything."

Tea sniffles a little. She hesitates to speak, wanting the moment between them to last...but she knows what she has to say.

"Y'know there's so much I want to tell you, I dunno where to start...and I'm afraid of what you're gonna think of me."

Todd sighs, knowing where this conversation was finally going...he inches forward, until their knees touch in their Indian-style sitting positions. Tea watches as he leans in toward her, resting his elbows on his knees, bringing their faces close.

"Don't worry about what I think...just talk."

Tea nods, swallowing hard...stumbling over her words at first. "I, um...well, he..."

She stops, shutting her eyes, taking another long, deep breath...then she tries again.

"He called me. That's why I went to see him."

"Yeah, I know. It was all on the answering machine."

Tea nods. "Y'know he actually asked me to defend him at the trial?"

Todd raises an eyebrow at that...but he doesn't say anything. She swallows again, continuing.

"Well, I told him no, of course. But then he told me that Hank is trying to charge him with attempted rape too...which is ridiculous, so...I told him that I would talk to Hank, and straighten it out."

They stare at each other for a moment, not saying anything. Then Todd sits back, looking at her questioningly.

"Why would you do that?" he asks, calmly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why would you go through all that for HIM?"

"Because...he didn't do it."

"Yeah, you said that already. But that's not the real reason, is it?"

Tea bites her lip, looking away for a moment. She wants to lie...but before she knows what she's doing, she shakes her head no. Todd nods...then he leans back in toward her. Reaching out, he turns her face back to look at him.

"Then why?"

There's a silence, as she tries to put all of her mixed up feelings into words...wanting to be honest with him...but knowing he probably won't fully understand, no matter HOW she explains it. Todd waits...but after a moment, impatience gets the better of him. He pushes her, thinking he already knows the answer anyway.

"You like him, don't you?"

"No!" Tea fires back, immediately. "No, I don't."

"Well then WHY...why would you even CARE what charges they hit him with?"

"Because, I---" she starts, raising her voice defensively...but she stops, realizing there isn't a need.

"I...owe him. That's the only way I can explain it."

"You don't OWE that guy ANYTHING. What happened to you is HIS fault, don't you understand that?"

"No. YOU don't understand...you weren't there. I'd probably be dead now, if it wasn't for him."

Todd backs off a little, stung by her remark. Tea sighs, realizing her words aren't coming out like she wants them to.

"Todd...I'm not blaming YOU, I just...I just mean that you didn't SEE what happened, that's all."

"Well then...tell me."

A long silence follows. Tea stares deeply into his eyes, trying to find the strength to go back to that awful night in her mind. She WANTS to tell him what happened, she can feel the earnest effort in every part of her, pushing to open up...but she finds she still can't. It's almost as if a roadblock has come down in her mind, preventing her from going any further.

Finally, she shakes her head. "No...I can't."

Todd can see she's trying...so much so that she's trembling now, as she struggles just to get those few words out. His shoulders sink a little...they had made so much progress in the last few hours...only to come to this screeching halt.

But it was a start...a good enough one for him. Without another word, he pulls her to him... rocking her again gently, kissing her hair. Gradually, Tea calms down, and makes herself small in his arms...feeling safe again, she drifts off to sleep.

*****

A faint sound wakes Tea up...her eyes flutter open. She furrows her brow at the funny shapes she sees...but as they come into focus, she realizes it's just the fireplace...sideways. She sits up, quickly at first...then a sudden stab of back pain stops her. She clenches her teeth until it subsides...then pushes herself the rest of the way up. Scratching her head, she looks around, getting her bearings...she squints, trying to make everything out.

She furrows her brow again. Wait...where's Todd? Why'd he leave me down here? Why are all the lights out?

Then suddenly, the noise again...louder this time, cutting through the dark. Tea's head whips around, as she looks toward the sound...

...sounded like crying...like a kid...

The crying calls to her again, wafting down from upstairs. Tea heaves herself up, using the couch for support. She walks to the bottom of the stairs, listening...the sound is constant now, no breaks or pauses. She looks up into the dark, strangely...

...no...that's not even a kid...that's a baby...

She walks up the stairs, cautiously...she gets to the hallway, looking around. The crying lures her toward the master bedroom, where the door stands ajar...with just a tiny bit of light peeking through. She goes to open the door...and stops. A shudder of fear runs through her as her hand hovers over the doorknob, trembling. After a few seconds, Tea bites her lip and clenches her fists as tightly as she can, trying to squeeze the fear away. She takes a deep breath...and pushes on the door.

Light pours into the hallway, illuminating her. She looks over at the bed...empty. Then she looks the other way, and sees a crib...where the crying is coming from. Tea feels her heart racing as she walks toward it...she has to swallow hard before peering over the top.

She looks down at the crying infant...

Her eyes widen in horror...then suddenly, something across from her catches her eye...she looks...and sees Roseanne looking right back at her, a frightening gleam in her eye...and a huge grin on her face.

Tea staggers back, the wind knocked out of her...

Roseanne's lips move. "Tea...Tea..."

Tea gasps, barely able to breathe...then Roseanne starts speaking with Todd's voice...

"Tea! Tea wake up!!"

Just like that, the dream disappears...leaving Tea sitting up in bed, struggling for air. Todd sits in front of her, hands on her shoulders, shaking her awake. When she finally opens her eyes, he grabs her face and makes her look at him.

"Hey...HEY!"

She stares at him, blankly at first. Swallowing, she finally gets some air in her lungs...she focuses on him, gradually coming out of it. Todd sighs, pushing some hair off her damp forehead.

"It's okay...it's just a dream, you're alright."

*****

About a half hour later, Tea sits in bed, leaning against the headboard...taking sips from a glass of water. Todd sits on the edge of the bed, facing her. She looks up at him...he stares back...

...and suddenly, she realizes it's different between them now. Before tonight, any time she caught him looking at her, it made her uncomfortable. But as she holds his gaze now, it feels better, somehow...more like it used to be.

"Same dream?" Todd asks, quietly.

Normally, she'd never even think of telling him about Roseanne, and the supposed "curse" on the twins. But this was the first time she had ever had this dream, and it scared her...having to entertain the notion that there might actually be any truth in it...

...but if there was, he had to know about it. She shakes her head no.

Todd tips his head slightly. "Hmm," is all he can think of to say, not expecting her to say anything else.

Tea sighs, finishing off the water. She puts the glass on the nightstand, then, taking a deep breath, she inches a little closer to him. Todd's eyes widen a little at her gesture.

She runs a hand through her hair. "Todd, I, uh...I gotta tell you about...something."

He just waits, letting her take the lead.

"You know about...Roseanne being involved in all this, right?"

He nods...his eyes darkening at just the mention of that woman's name. Tea nods too, to herself, chewing on her lip.

"She, uh...god, I can't believe I'm gonna say this, it sounds so stupid."

"What?"

She sighs again, heavily. "Well, when I saw her at the courthouse, she told me...that she put a 'curse' on the twins. I guess that's what that voodoo doll and cutting my arm was all about."

There's a silence as Todd cocks an eyebrow, his tongue flicking against his teeth.

"Serious?"

Tea nods, shrugging. "Yeah. I know, it's...it's...crazy."

"So...what's supposed to happen, exactly?"

"I don't know. All she said was...that if I somehow manage to carry to term, the babies wouldn't live to see two."

Todd glances away, letting out a humorless laugh. "And she had the nerve to call ME schitzoid."

Tea looks down, fingers playing with the blanket. "Well, I certainly don't believe in any of her crap...but..."

He looks back at her. "What?"

"That dream I just had...I never had it before..." she starts, meeting his gaze.

"...and it was horrible..." she whispers, as her eyes mist up.

Todd gets all the way up on the bed, moving in closer, listening intently.

"...I was...downstairs, alone...I heard this crying coming from up here, a baby. I came in here and saw a crib, over there...and when I...when I walked over to it and saw the baby inside, it..."

Tea suddenly reaches out, grabbing onto his arm for support. Todd is taken aback by her willingness to touch him again...but he wastes no time responding, sliding his hand over hers and clasping it, tightly.

"Todd, it...the baby, had no eyes...and no ears...just these awful, scarred-up holes...and then I...I saw Roseanne...and she was just staring at me...smiling."

Todd makes a face...gaping slightly, not knowing what to make of any of this. But he can see that Tea is scared to death of what she saw, as she lets go of his hand to cover her eyes.

"Ohgod...I must be going nuts."

He shakes his head...and reaches out, wrapping his arms around her, not really knowing what else to do.

"You're not nuts, Delgado, y'just...had a REALLY bad dream, is all."

She moves her hands away from her face and grabs onto him, crying into his shirt.

"But what if it's true...what if this means something really IS wrong?"

Todd shuts his eyes...he had to admit to himself, that the horrific image she described sent chills down HIS spine too. He swallows hard to clear it from his head...and as it disappears, the thought of Roseanne standing by gleefully watching it all sparks his rage. He didn't know what her game was, but he wasn't about to buy into that voodoo BS...and he couldn't let Tea do that, either. Knowing he has to keep her calm, he holds her away from him, looking her straight in the eye.

"Hey...hey. Don't do that. It was JUST A DREAM...that's all. She's just trying to scare you."

Tea looks back at him, questioningly...he wipes her wet face.

"Only thing Roseanne wants is to make you miserable...and this is easiest way to do it. If she saw you crying right now, she'd be cackling like the witch she is. You CAN'T buy into this stuff, Delgado, not even a little. The minute you do, she wins."

Tea takes all of that in, and doesn't say much for a while. She glances down at her belly, running a hand over it, trying to soothe herself...then she nods, mostly to herself. On his end, Todd finds himself just wanting to touch her. He hesitates, still trained to hold back...but it only lasts a second or two...as he realizes the tension between them is all but gone. Feeling more at ease, he reaches out, gently resting a hand on her tummy.

Tea looks up at him, surprised at first. She glances down at his hand, feeling the warmth of it spreading out over her. Then suddenly, her eyes widen with that funny feeling of her insides shifting around. Todd's eyes do the same thing, feeling it too. She gasps, looking back up at him.

"Whoa...did you feel that?"

He's too shocked to respond...he just keeps staring at his own hand, gaping somewhat now...feeling the twins' movements through her. Tea keeps her eyes on him, as they continue to squirm. It doesn't last long...but even after they settle down, Todd keeps his hand where it is, hoping they'll move again, so he can feel that incredible, indescribable feeling one more time. After another moment, Tea places her hand on top of his. He looks up at her, finally...and her face softens into a tiny, quiet smile.

"Y'know it's so late it's early. I think they want us to shut up and go to sleep already."

Without another word, Todd crawls into bed with her. She slides over to make room, as he lies down next to her, keeping a hand on her belly. Tea settles into the pillows, turning on her side to face him. They stay like that for a while, just looking at each other...both of them drifting off as the sun starts to come up.