PREVIOUSLY

Viki: We'll talk more later, ok? Get some sleep. You look exhausted.

Todd/Tom: Ok.

Viki: Bye.

Todd/Tom: Bye, Viki.

Viki: (Leaves the room, closing the door behind her)

Todd: (Lies back on the bed, stretches himself out. He then pulls the covers over his head, holds them in place with his hands, and lies very still.)

[Scene ends.]

*****

[Scene: Todd's office at The Sun, later that morning.]

Briggs: (Carrying a layout board for Todd's approval.) Mr. Manning?

Todd: (Looks up from his work at his desk.) Yes?

Briggs: (Holds the layout board up for Todd to see as he crosses to Todd's desk.)

Todd: (Comes from around his desk, around the computer desk, and intercepts Briggs. Grabs it from Briggs.) Yuck! This is not going to work, Briggs.

Briggs: You were adamant that it be done this way, Mr. Manning.

Todd: It's not strong enough. (Grabs a marker off his desk, crosses out the printed headline, scribbles something over it.) There. Print that. (Hands the board back to Briggs.)

Briggs: (Reads it, horrified.) But, Mr. Manning!

Todd: (Angry:) Do you still want this job, Briggs?

Briggs: Yes, sir.

Todd: Then print that!

Briggs: (Not in agreement, but resigned.) Yes, sir.

Todd: (Still angry:) What are you waiting for?!

Briggs: Nothing, Mr. Manning. I'll get right on it. (Leaves with layout board.)

Todd: (Disgusted, angry:) You do that! (Rubs eyes and then face with his hands, looking very tired. Crosses back to sit behind desk again. Holds chin on fists and stares at work on desk.)

[Scene ends.]

===============================================================================================================

[Scene: Fourth night: Todd runs down the hallway. The camera dollies back so that we now see another, shorter, hallway to Todd's left. He makes the turn still running, only now we hear footsteps far away down the hallway. A series of wooden doors are visible, one on his left, another further down the hallway on his left, and slightly offset from this one is a doorway on the right side of the hallway. All doors are closed. Close-up of Young Todd's face, he is still terrified. He stops a moment to think about what his options are. He pants, he looks sweaty. The footsteps come nearer. He decides. He moves. Camera cuts away to Peter coming down the long hallway and then rounding the corner. The hallway is empty. (Interior shot of apparently empty closet as we hear a door open and Peter bellows:)

Peter: THOMAS!

(We hear the sound echo in what sounds like a large tiled bathroom.)

[Intercut with:

Todd: (Wimpering miserably out:) OH, NOOOOO........ (As he recognizes at last in his sleep the part of what happened that this flashback is about. He becomes very still in his bed, covering his head with his left arm.)]

Young Todd:(His eyes become visible in the back of the closet in the dark and under soft things stored there. He has climbed into a large storage/moving box and gotten under the old clothes stored there to hide. He is staring, motionless, expressionless, fixed as if frozen, towards the doorway.)

[Intercut with:

Todd: (Screaming:) No, Daddy! No! Don't come near me! No! Don't hurt me, Daddy! I'll be good! Don't hurt me, please, Daddy! [We see Tea awaken in her room, put on a robe, and make her way to Todd's room as we hear him screaming. She opens the door to his room and once again the hallway is dark. She stands and watches him from the doorway. He is panting raggedly in his sleep.]

(The door to the closet is whipped open, Peter Manning is visible in the doorway, the glare of the hallway light and the closet light illuminating Young Todd's hiding place around Peter's shadow. Peter grabs Todd by the arm and jerks him roughly out of the box and out of the closet. The teddy bear remains behind, safely hidden in the box. He half drags, half carries the boy down the hall and around the corner. About halfway around the corner, the boy pees his pants in his terror. Peter Manning goes berserk.)

[Todd screamings again.]

Peter: What's this?! You little BASTARD! You wet all over me! You worthless piece of garbage! Now, look what you've done! (Sets Todd on his feet and begins to slap the boy's face. The boy becomes hysterical and cries. Peter continues to berate and humiliate the boy in the hallway.) Sissy! Loser! Only girls cry! Only babies wet their pants! You're a crybaby-sissy and a loser! You're not my son! (Todd's knees buckle and he loses use of his legs. He lands on his knees in front of Peter Manning and has to look way up at him.) You're weak! You're a worthless loser! A pansy! You'll never amount to anything! You're nothing already! (The boy stops crying suddenly, and looks very angrily at Peter. Peter grabs Todd roughly and half-drags him down the hall the boy unable to struggle effectively but still kicking and squirming, to what turns out to be the boy's own room, and throws him roughly into his room onto the floor, very vocally still disgusted as he disappears down the hallway.)

Young Todd: (Sprawls all over the floor of his room, and then cowers on the floor near the foot of his bed, his left side to the doorway, his knees drawn to his chest, arms wrapped around his knees as if he's trying to hold himself together or make himself safe, and making himself as numb and small as he can. He stares off into space into the darkened room and begins to slowly rock.)

(After a few moments, there is a diaphanously robed figure in his doorway, mostly in shadow. The boy is unmoved.)

Woman: (Sits quietly on the floor next to the boy, and draws Todd to her. She holds him close, stroking his hair. He stares.)

(Todd awakes screaming bloody murder, there is at least one blood curdling incoherent scream. Obviously, this is now an incredible anguish, whereas before he had been screaming in terror again as all this unfolded.)

Todd: (Sits up suddenly in bed with a gasp as if coming to the surface after being deep underwater, eyes very wide, sweating, panting, and looking miserable. He puts his head in his hands.)

Tea: (Wordlessly rushes to the bed to comfort Todd. She holds him.)

Todd: (Very shaky, he just stares into space over Tea's shoulder, knees drawn up, the rest of his body just limp against her. She continues to hold him, and they begin to rock.)

[Scene ends.]

=================================================================================================================

[Two weeks later.]

Tea: (Enters Penthouse #2, drapes her coat over the chair at the desk to her left, puts her briefcase on the desk, looks around the livingroom. She is tired.)

Tea: Todd?

Todd: (Lying on his back on the sofa, feet on the opposite armrest from the door. The camera only shows us his shoes at the end of the couch, and maybe his long hair at the other end of the couch. He slowly sits up and lowers his feet to the floor, rests his back against the sofa back. The camera shows Tea watching him, then we see Todd from the front. He looks awful, as if he's been getting very little rest, and this is the first moment he may have had of peace in weeks. His voice is a little rough at first, like he has just been awakened.) Yeah? (Rubs his face in his hands.)

Tea: You look awful.

Todd: What's new?

Tea: (Walking to him and standing over him.) No, really, you look terrible. You're not sleeping at all are you?

Todd: (Looks up at her.) No, I'm not. Thanks so much for waking me up.

Tea: Another nightmare? (Sits next to Todd on the couch. He turns towards her.)

Todd: NOT NOW.

Tea: I wish you would talk about it. It's been a few weeks and it seems to be eating you alive. Neither of us is sleeping much.

Todd: I don't want to.

Tea: I wish you wouldn't shut me out.

Todd: (Looks away. Stares off into space.)

Tea: Todd?

Todd: What?!

Tea: Are you ok?

Todd: (Looks at her sharply.) No! If you were spending your nights being chased down a long hallway by your Dad, knowing he was going to beat you if he caught you would you be doing well by day?

Tea: Did he catch you this time?

Todd: (Shaken but trying to hide it. Nods. Looks away.) Sometimes I see it in the daytime, too.

Tea: (Very touched.) That sounds really awful. I'm sorry.

Todd: (Looks at Tea.) I don't want to talk about it!

Tea: (Concerned.) He did, didn't he?

Todd: (Deliberately staring into space, but beginning to seethe.)

Tea: He did. (Tries to touch him, but he bristles even more.)

Todd: (Stands up. Wheels on her, faces her.) YES!

Tea: (Gasps) And then he beat you?

Todd: YES!

Tea: I'm so sorry, Todd! (Tears in her eyes, her hand goes to her mouth. She stands and tries to touch his arm, but he avoids her now.)

Todd: I can't talk about it anymore! (Leaves the room and lopes upstairs.)

Tea: (Calling after him:) Todd! I'm sorry! (Thinking and absorbing all this.) Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I'm glad I never knew his Dad.

[Doorbell rings. Tea shakes herself alert, composes herself, answers the door. It's Blair.]

Blair: (Coolly.) Tea.

Tea: (Tensely:) Blair. (Pause while Blair enters to livingroom.) Blair?

Blair: (Demanding.) Where's Todd?

Tea: Blair, stop, ok? He's upstairs. We need to talk.

Blair: (Angrily:) What could we possibly have to talk about?

Tea: What, indeed.

Blair: (Impatiently:) Well? What is it?

Tea: Okaaay, I'll cut to the chase: Todd's been having really bad nightmares recently. He seems very shaken by them and very unwilling to talk about them.

Blair: (Skeptical.) So? What about?

Tea: We were just discussing them. I was thinking maybe you could talk with him about them. Maybe he'd tell you more than he told me.

Blair: And then what? Confide it in you? Not very likely. We're not exactly friends.

Tea: No, we're not. If you still care about him, maybe you will. He has to tell someone, it's been going on for weeks.

Blair: I see.

Tea: He just went upstairs before you came in, seeming pretty upset. I don't think he wanted me to see that.

Blair: Fine. (Wheels around. Goes upstairs to Todd's room.)

[Hallway in front of Todd's Room moments later.]

Blair: (Knocking on Todd's door.) Todd?

Todd: Go away! I said I don't want to talk about it!

Blair: Todd, it's Blair. Can I come in?

Todd: (Pause) It's not locked.

Blair: (Enters.) You look terrible. (Closes door behind her.)

Todd: (Sitting up on the bed against the headboard, arms crossed.) So Tea says.

Blair: Are you sleeping?

Todd: What? Now? No, I'm flying my Magic Carpet.

Blair: (Makes face, but otherwise ignores this.) Tea says you've been having nightmares?

Todd: I told you, I don't want to talk about it!

Blair: Todd, it's me, remember? (Sits on the bed next to him.)

Todd: Why should I trust you? You took that tape out of Shorty's recorder and gave it to Max!

Blair: Max TOOK it out of my HAND! (Sighs.) Look: I came to apologize.

Todd: Ha. What do you want? More money? The Sun? You're not getting Starr.

Blair: Can we call a truce?

Todd: This won't affect custody of Starr, you know.

Blair: Don't start. (Pause.) You look like hell.

Todd: Thanks. You don't look like heaven.

Blair: Fine. Are you going to talk to me or not?

Todd: Not.

Blair: (Ignoring that for the moment. Pause.) Was it about Peter Manning?

Todd: Yes.

Blair: Did he hurt you in the dream?

Todd: Yeah.

Blair: Was he chasing you?

Todd: Yeah. He was screaming at me and telling me I was a loser and weak and good-for-nothing. You know what he was like. I deserved it.

Blair: What did he do to you?

Todd: Hit me, screamed at me, dragged me, threw me. The usual.

Blair: (Sympathetic.) Oh, Todd........

Todd: (Tries to be casual, shrugs shoulders.)

Blair: Had you done anything wrong?

Todd: Just exist. (Pause. Quietly, staring into space:) Peed on his slippers.

Blair: (Laughs.)

Todd: Gee, thanks!

Blair: You're serious? You peed on his slippers? (Giggles.)

Todd: I was terrified of him! (Pause.) He beat me. I deserved it.

Blair: You did not deserve it. You've done some terrible things for which you deserve punishment, (like printing that story about Bo under my byline) --

Todd: I'm sorry I did that now. I really hurt Sam.

Blair: Yes, you did. And you hurt me, too. But what you did to Peter Manning was not worth you being beaten for. Would you do that to Starr?

Todd: NEVER! She doesn't deserve to be hit. I did.

Blair: You didn't either.

Todd: Yes, I did. I should never have been born.

Blair: I'm glad you were. We wouldn't have Starr.

Todd: (Leaning forward and getting in Blair's face.) Don't you breathe a word of this to anyone, Blair. Or I will take Starr for good.

Blair: You're that serious?

Todd: (Stares at her a moment longer. Quietly:) Deadly serious.

Blair: (Impressed, but not swayed.) He really hurt you.

Todd: (Slowly, quietly, intense:) Damn near killed me more than once. (Todd and Blair look at each other hard, him staring her down, her searching his eyes.)

[Scene ends.]

To Be Continued...