A/N: I'd like to say thank you to all the people who have favourited my story and who follow the story. I also very much appreciate those who review the story and I am glad you are enjoying it.

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Ella!"

"Ella, are you all right?"

"Ella can you hear me?"

As Ella began coming too she could hear several voices calling her name around her and she could feel their worry. She was lying on something cold and hard and realised what had happened, she had passed out. Embarrassment quickly flooded her and she didn't want to open her eyes.

Everyone would have seen her fall and she couldn't face them, especially not Jamie. They were on a date and she had fainted in front of him. It was all too mortifying. But then something broke through the embarrassment, strong, warm hands were plucking her up from the ground.

She gasped and her eyes flew open as she felt herself being lifted and cradled against a warm chest. It was Jeremy, not that she had needed to see his face to know it had been him. She'd known the second he'd touched her that it was him who had come to her rescue.

Jeremy didn't speak as he carried her through the crowd and back toward where the cars were parked. Ella didn't mind, she didn't need him to speak, she just didn't want him to ever let her go. At that moment every other feeling went out of her head, all she felt was love for the man holding her.

Tears sprang to Ella's eyes, in that moment as he carried her away she realised just how stupid she had been. She had thought that by staying away from Jeremy she was giving him the best chance, she was giving him a choice. That hadn't been what she'd done at all. All she had done was lie to him.

She hid the truth about what was happening to them, to him and he had a right to know the truth. In keeping things from him she'd been selfish and cowardly. Her feelings for him terrified her, and the prospect that he might have feelings for her too scared her even more so she'd hid from him instead of facing their feelings head on.

"Jeremy," she whispered, the tears she felt burning the back of her eyes were now freefalling down her cheeks.

"Are you all right?" he asked, she could feel his concern, but his voice was cold and hard.

"Yes," she answered breathlessly.

"Good." Jeremy nodded then set her back on her feet. "Take a few minutes to get yourself together then you can go back to you date."

Then he was gone. He turned his back on her and walked away without a backward glance. The same pain she had felt that day at the Grill filled Ella's chest so that she felt like she couldn't breathe again. Ice flooded her veins and she sank to her knees, her arms wrapped around her middle.

Hysterical sobs were ripping from her chest and out her mouth but she couldn't stop them. Her heart was breaking again, every time Jeremy turned away from her it was like a knife to the heart, like a small piece of her soul was dying.

Crying out Ella fell forward. She threw out her hands to brace herself, so that her face didn't smash into the ground. Her fingers dug into the earth beneath her as she cried. She couldn't stand, she couldn't think, she couldn't move, all that she could do was cry.

"Ella!" Someone screamed, she heard feet pounding against the ground and then someone was grabbing her again and pulling her to her feet.

Through her tears she could see the blurry outline of someone standing in front of her. She was vaguely aware of being shaken, but still there was only her pain. Nothing else mattered anymore, no one mattered anymore.

"Ella, honey, calm down," the voice insisted, but Ella wasn't listening.

"What do we do?" someone else asked. They sounded scared.

"I don't know," a third voice answered.

"Ella? Can you hear me?"

"Maybe we should take her to the hospital?"

After that Ella heard nothing, she wasn't even sure if she was crying anymore. All she felt was numb, all she saw was darkness and she was alone. Alone in the dark, the one person she had loved more than anything in the world, the only person she'd ever be capable of loving had walked away from her.

It felt like a long time that she was surrounded by the dark. She didn't know if she was truly alone or if she just felt that way. She didn't know if she was still standing, kneeling, sitting or lying down. But eventually things began to come back to her.

The first thing she became aware of was that she was lying on something soft and warm. Then something itched the back of her right hand, and a consistent beeping somewhere beside her head. The last thing she became aware of was that she wasn't alone. People were whispering near her, wherever she was.

"What happened?"

"We found her at the party, hysterical. We don't really know what happened."

"What did the Doctor say?"

"There was nothing physically wrong with her; he said that it seemed to be psychological. He asked if she'd suffered any kind of trauma and gave her a sedative to calm her down. She fell asleep and that was three hours ago."

"Did the Doctor call her dad?"

"He tried, but he couldn't get through. I don't know if he's spoken to Mr D'Angelo yet."

"Do we have any ideas about what might have caused a breakdown like that?"

"It's my fault."

"Jer, don't say that. It's not your fault; you couldn't have known this would happen. None of us could have known."

"She's right Jeremy, we're all in unfamiliar territory when it comes to Ella, even she isn't sure what to expect from herself."

"But she knew about this! She knew about us and she chose to keep it from me!"

"She thought she was doing what was right for you. She wanted you to have a choice."

"But she didn't give me a choice did she?! She made the choice herself anyway when she chose not to tell me the truth! What ever her being a Fae means for us is happening to me too and she had no right to keep it from me! It's the Vicky thing all over again!"

"Jeremy calm down."

"Calm down? Because she lied to me, because I didn't know what was really going on, I walked away from her tonight. Now Damon's telling me that I might have been the reason she had some sort of mental breakdown and you want me to be calm?"

"Yes. We're in a hospital Jeremy, and this isn't really the kind of subject matter we want other people to hear."

"Fine."

Everyone was quiet then, but Ella didn't dare open her eyes yet. She'd already realised that keeping the truth from Jeremy was a mistake, but knowing that Damon had told him the truth and what Jeremy now thought of her made her feel worse.

Slowly the sedative took hold of Ella again and she drifted back into a dreamless sleep.

TBC…