He kept his distance so he could draw some conclusions about how she worked. His first impression was the same he had gotten from her dossier - she seemed like a nice person, but she wasn't going to be able to find a solution for TK if the big guns had already failed. He was slightly impressed, though, at her candor when Coach asked her about her education - he hadn't known she was accepted to better schools (that didn't seem relevant, so he'd made a judgment call about looking into it ), but her reasons for going to Hofstra were neither self-aggrandizing or self-pitying.
She was feisty, but he'd seen a lot of people who talked tough but didn't deliver, so that didn't impress him. Donnally seemed charmed by her, though; if it hadn't already been clear that he had slept with her before, his silly smile around her pretty much spelled it out. Normally Donnally went for willowy All-American types, so the tiny, curvaceous Dr. Santino really was a change in pace for him. TK seemed much less charmed, though. It seemed pretty clear that he had thought that he might add Dr. Santino to his list of conquests and she had shut that down quickly.
She had noticed that he had been doing surveillance on her house after her first meeting with Terrence. He watched as she spotted him and walked over to his car. He wondered to himself how tall she was. It seemed like it would be hard to take someone like that seriously. She was just too...cute. (For once, he didn't mean that as a character defect - he wasn't typically a big fan of cute.) She just was cute, no two ways about it. He wasn't trying to stake out her house, either. It was nothing personal, he just wanted to see how much privacy TK would have during his sessions. She confronted him about it, politely but firmly, saying that these sessions require complete confidentiality, and he had to admit, he had a little bit of fun pointing out to her that her kids seemed to be doing their best to violate that confidentiality. The way the two scurried away when they realized their mother was on to them suggested that she was not a pushover in the parenting department.
She seemed to take her professional responsibilities very seriously, but he was having a hard time getting a read on her work communication style. She didn't hide how she felt about anything, it seemed. Her face was incredibly expressive. Was that the way she was in sessions? Therapy was a completely unfamiliar concept to him, by choice, but now he was wondering what it entailed, exactly.
He was wondering how she would handle the unusual hours her job would require, and he realized that if they worked together again, she would probably have some overlap with him in that area: people who find themselves in trouble in the early hours of the morning typically had some sort of emotional response. He woke her up at 3:00 to get her to come to a strip club with him; she objected, but for practical reasons - she was in the middle of a custody battle, and her husband was having her watched - not because she resented doing it. He could handle that particular problem. He found himself enjoying the surprise on her face when she learned they would be taking a helicopter to the strip club.
She seemed to be having no more success with TK than anyone else, unfortunately. He almost felt like he should comfort her when he saw her dejected face after she left the strip club; she must have that effect on people. However, that wasn't his place and it looked like his intersection with Dr. Santino was going to be quite limited.
He was surprised when, the next day, he learned that TK had gotten a ride from a friend to Dr. Dani's son's football game. He was going to confront them, but he was again surprised to see TK get into Dr. Santino's car. The two drove away to Newark, where they ended up at an overgrown graveyard. He assumed it was where TK's mother, who he knew had died in Newark many years ago, was buried. He kept a respectful distance, but he could see that Dr. Santino was comforting TK, who appeared to be quite emotional. He watched them for a long time, impressed. TK seemed calmer, and there was no mistaking the kindness and concern shown by Dr. Santino's body language.
When TK caught the pass that weekend, he was happy for the team, and for Dr. Santino. He honored his promise to shut down the private investigator, which he would have done whether Dr. Santino succeeded or not, of course. He glanced over to where she was laughing with her friend and kids outside of the stadium. She seemed like a good mother, and he was glad she wouldn't have to worry about this jerk.