A.N - Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry multiplied by however many times you feel it necessary for me to apologise to you to make up for it. Blame my English teacher - Moondancing Millie can tell you how much she hates me - she gave us two pieces of coursework to do in a month because she was ill the first month of school. It's not like it was our fault!

Anyway, this is a pretty crappy update, but an update nonetheless. I love that word.

Hope you like it, and I'll try to update faster in future. xD

Suze Simon's To-Do List :

1. Ow, my head.

2. Demand answers from Paul Slater.

3. Hug Jesse. Hard.

Chapter Ten

When I came to, it was with my head pounding and the blare of a television in the background. My hair was matted to my forehead with the blood from a cut at my hairline and my head was groggy as I picked up words the television presenter was saying.

"High speed car chase … Ambulance reached the scene within minutes …Two cars involved."

It's a funny feeling when you realise that a stranger is broadcasting the recent events of your life to the nation at large, Well, funny enough to be found funny at least, considering the circumstances.

"No bodies found."

It was that fragment that forced me to snap my eyes painfully open and look around me, especially when I realised that I couldn't hear the beep of hospital monitors anywhere around me.

Wherever I was, it was dark. And silent. Save the sound of footsteps stopping in front of me.

I almost screamed when Paul Slater's face became level with mine.

"Ah!" He stated in surprise, placing a soft kiss on my cut. "Sleeping Beauty awakens."

I jolted backwards, away from him, ignoring the pain in my ribs as I did so.

"Now that's not nice," Paul chastised with a smirk as he looked at something over my shoulder.

I twisted painfully to see what had Paul's attention. My eyes widened.

"Jesse."

The name left my lips involuntarily and merely succeeded in annoying Paul Slater more. Jesse didn't hear me - he was out cold with cuts and bruises marring his face and his blood-soaked shirt clung to his chest.

The name left my lips … and Paul saw red, growling with rage as he turned and punched the wall behind him before swearing at the pain in his hand.

"What is it about him?" Paul demanded of me, causing me to cower away in fear. "Why him? Why not me?"

I opened my mouth to answer - though what that answer would've been, I couldn't have told you - but Paul cut me off.

"It couldn't have been because you met him first," he continued causing a frown to settle on my face. "Because you met me first."

Paul glanced over at me and froze when he saw my face.

"You don't remember." He stated more than asked me before breaking out into ironic laughter. "Of course you don't. It was only two years ago, after all."

It was only then that I realised there was nothing actually keeping me from running away. Well, besides the fact that Jesse was unconscious in the room. Slowly, trying not to hurt myself too much, I began to stand up.

"Do you remember," Paul began, talking to me yet not facing me, giving me an advantage over him. "Two years ago, when you were sixteen? And you were working at the Pebble Beach Resort?"

I said nothing, looking over at Paul slightly apprehensively. How did he know this? I hissed quietly in pain as I shifted my weight from one foot to another. Never again will I get into another car crash.

"Do you remember what families you worked for, Susannah?" I winced at the use of my full name. "Remember little Jack Slater?"

I froze as Paul continued.

"Yeah, he's my little brother." Paul glanced over at me from the corner of his eye, then turned away again unbothered by my attempts at movement. "He came home that summer and told me all about his babysitter Susannah Simon, so, of course, I had to find out about who had my little brother so enamoured. Imagine my surprise when I saw your picture." He paused, debating within himself for a second. "And became besotted myself."

Um, besotted? Besotted?! Paul Slater was in love with me?!

Ew.

And to make things worse, Jesse was coming to. He could probably hear every word that had been said.

"That's why you're here, you know." Paul continued as I rolled my eyes. I swear, this man just loved the sound of his own voice. "I researched you, and your life. You like to dance, I put you in a video. You miss your friend Gina, she comes too." He turned on me then and locked his piercing blue eyes with my own. "You want anything, I'll give it to you."

What do I say now without enraging my kidnapper?

"Um, thank you." My voice sounded horribly scratchy and not at all like my own. "But, I have a boyfriend."

Way to go Suze. That probably wasn't the best thing to say right now.

"Of course." His glare rounded on Jesse and stayed there. "Hector. So why is it that you like him more then? It couldn't have been that you met him first … perhaps it's his sob story?"

"Um, technically," I began, ever ignorant. "I did meet Jesse first."

Paul ignored me as he carried on.

"Oh, poor little Hector," Paul mock-sympathised. "His sister was killed in a hit-and-run and it was all his fault."

I held my breath as I realised Jesse was awake and listening to everything that Paul was saying.

"Not that he knew it, of course, but I was that driver two years ago." He grinned at me as if it was something to be proud of. "It was just after I found out about you, actually. I was heading back into Los Angeles after seeing for myself where it was you lived."

I felt cold rush through me.

It was my fault that Josefina had died. It didn't matter that Jesse had drove a different way home, that he'd bought her the ballet tickets. If Paul hadn't have heard about me, Josefina would still be alive, I'd still be in Carmel and I never would have met Jesse. Everything that had happened was my fault. Mine.

"No." Jesse's voice was barely a whisper. "Susannah, no."

He knew what it was that I was thinking.

"It's not your fault." He repeated, stronger. "It's like you told me, it's the driver's. It's Paul's fault."

Paul looked almost bored with the turn of events.

"Maybe," he glanced down at his fingernails. "But it's Jesse's fault that you are both here now. If he hadn't of heard Kelly and I talking, the car chase wouldn't have happened. Though, I have to say, it was quite exciting."

Jesse's face paled and he moved to stand up to comfort me, though he looked way worse then I felt.

"Ah-ah," Paul chastised, pushing Jesse back to the floor uncaring of his injuries. "You stay there."

Jesse hissed in pain and I felt tears rush to my eyes.

"Why even go to all this trouble?" I demanded of Paul. "Why couldn't you just ask me out like anybody else?"

"Because I wanted to keep you." Was his heated response. "Just 'asking you out' seemed a bit too temporary for my liking. I want you with me."

"And Jesse?" I asked. "Why did you get him involved?"

"He chose to involve himself." Paul shrugged. "I can't help that."

Glaring at Paul, I ran over to Jesse to do what I could to help him. My ribs screamed in protest as Paul grabbed me around the waist and stopped my progress, pulling me towards him.

"You don't go near him." Paul told me, fire burning in his eyes.

"Get him to hospital." I insisted. "He needs to be treated."

Paul looked hesitant to agree.

"Please."

I felt Jesse's horrified gaze on the back of my head.

"Okay." Paul agreed with a click of his fingers, and two men came to pick up Jesse and take him away.

"Susannah, I'm not leaving without you." He insisted digging his feet into the floor in protest, clenching his teeth at the pain it caused him.. "You need to be seen to just as much as I do. I can't leave you here. With him." He paused for a second. "I can't leave you with the man who killed my sister."

His words were doing nothing to stop the men escorting him out.

"I'm sorry, Jesse." I whispered, one tear falling from behind my closed eyelid.

"Yeah, Jesse." Paul wrapped his arms around me smugly, kissing the top of my head possessively. "She chose me."

I snapped my eyes open and found them locked with Jesse's pain-filled own eyes. With all my might, I tried to convey to him what I was thinking without letting Paul know.

I'll be fine, I tried to tell him. I'll find you.

The look in Jesse's eyes never changed and I knew, I just knew, that he didn't understand me. He thought I'd genuinely chosen Paul over him. I'd never felt so malicious before. Even if my intentions had been nothing but sincere.

He dropped his gaze a second before he was taken from the room and my heart dropped.

He'd given up on me.

I turned my face away.

"Well, now that he's gone," Paul broke into the war between my heart and my head. "We can get you seen to. It really was a stupid idea for him to try and get away from me. He hurt you in the process."

But I'd hurt him more.

There was an other-worldly glow out of the corner of my eye and I turned to see Josefina de Silva, glaring at me with hate in her eyes.

"How could you?" She shouted at me. "How could you do that to him? For Paul Slater?!"

I shook my head, silently asking her to leave it for now. I felt bad enough.

But again, Paul stopped me.

"Oh yeah." He turned and stared straight at Jesse's sister. "The ghost. I was wondering when you would turn up."