Chapter 4 ~ May You Find Some Comfort...

Miguel responds with a maddening smirk, one that only deepens as Téa winces at the pain caused by swinging her arm at him.

"You can't keep me here," she spits.

"Si, corazon. I can. You belong here. You have always belonged here. I'm just correcting your mistake."

"Mistake?"

"Thinking you could ever be with anyone else but me. We are bonded for life. Our child bonds us for life."

His mention of 'child' immediately causes Téa to move her hands to her belly. Worrying that her baby was hurt, shielding it from Miguel. She watched him carefully, seeing something...different than she had remembered. It was subtle, but there. Before, he had been angry but confident, larger than life to her. Now, in his deep brown eyes, there was....a hint of madness. Taking a deep breath, she decides to try a calmer approach.

"Miguel, I know you were upset when I decided to...to not have our baby. But you know why I couldn't, you were there."

"For life, he binds us Téa, for life."

A cold chill sweeps over Téa as she realizes he barely heard her. Her hands press lightly on her abdomen, trying to push her baby, her and Todd's baby, away from him. Keeping him or her safe. She watches Miguel's eyes focus in on her again, a sudden worried look darkening his features.

"You are injured. I'm sorry about that, I didn't mean for you to be hurt. But it had to be done quickly," he says, matter of factly. He stands up. "I will get someone to come look at you, make sure you are alright," he says, turning to leave the room.

As the door closes behind him, tears spring to Téa's eyes. She brings her arms up and wraps them around herself, trying to comprehend what exactly was happening. Where Todd was. What he was thinking. She sinks lower into the bed, hugging herself. Her eyes fall on the newspaper, boldly claiming her death. Her mind searches frantically for the events that led her to this awful place, but the aches in her body combined with the fuzzy gray fog in her brain make it nearly impossible for her to get any kind of grasp on the situation.

She curls up on her side, trying to desperately to comfort the confusion and fear raging inside of her. Trying, in her analytical brain, to figure out how to get out of this mess. Trying to keep her stress at a minimum, for their baby.

She clenches her fist tightly at the thought of Todd thinking she's dead. Thinking he had lost her and their baby. Wondering where he is. Would he go back to Llanview? To Starr and Viki? She hoped so. At least until she could figure out some way to contact him, she hoped he was at least with people who loved him, who would help take care of him.

Glancing down at her left hand, she notices sadly that her wedding ring is gone. Not that she's surprised. The sight of it no doubt angered Miguel to no end. But without it, she felt like she was missing such a part of her. Yeah, it was just a ring, but it meant so much to her. It was like the physical representation of everything that she and Todd shared, everything they had overcome and would still have to overcome to be together. A perfect, shining, neverending circle. And that's what they were really. A never ending circle, perfect in its imperfections. Always coming back to each other, no matter the hardships, no matter the struggles. Shining gold like the Starr that had first brought them together, so long ago now.

Exhausted, she closes her eyes. She knew she needed to come up with some kind of plan, but her body was too physically and emotionally exhausted. Normally, she would have tried to work through it, but she was terrified of putting her baby in jeopardy. Lightly stroking her left ring finger, she allows visions of only a week ago to flood her mind, comforting her...

"We're getting married."

His simple statement had shocked Téa. She had told him the day before of her pregnancy, but his suggestion of marriage was the last thing she had expected. And, honestly, she wasn't sure how to react.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Todd..."

"Don't even bother arguing Delgado, we're getting married. Deal with it."

"Deal with it? Wow, the proposal of every girl's dream," she replies wryly.

"Aw, come on, give me a break huh? It's not like we haven't done this a few times before."

She tilts her head, taking him in. "And what if I don't want to?"

He blinks quickly, taken aback by her words. "You don't wanna marry me?"

"No, I mean, I do. It's not that."

"Sounds like it to me," he answers bitterly.

"Todd, I just...I don't want us to get married because I'm pregnant. I want us to get married because we want to get married."

"Wait, you think I'm just marrying you because you're knocked up? Come on Delgado, when have you ever known me to be noble?"

"Oh you are Manning, more than you realize."

Todd rolls his eyes. "If this is your way of trying to get me to get all mushy, you can forget it Delgado."

"Todd, I just don't want you to feel like you have to marry me, okay? Because you don't, I don't want you to feel trapped."

"You are blowing this completely out of proportion. I mean come on Téa, you know we were gonna get married again eventually. So, we're doing it a little sooner, big deal. Besides," he pauses, looking down at his hands, "I never really thought of us as not married."

His quiet voice brings tears to Téa's eyes. She walks towards him, reaching out to gently stroke his chin.

"Okay," she says softly, "let's get married."

A tear slips out of her closed eyes as she remembers the feeling of Todd's arms surrounding her at her saying she would marry him. Unconsciously, she squeezes her arms tighter around herself, trying to recreate the feeling of his warm skin, of his soft hair against her cheek.

Unaware of the cold brown eyes watching her from the doorway.

To Be Continued