A/N: We are so amazingly sorry. We realise that nothing we can say can make up for the ten month wait, but, if it's any comfort, the last year has been insane with work and university applications and stuff. Most of that is over now (except final exams in June) and we promise to try and commit to this fic a little more – we do have plans for it. Thanks so much to everyone who's read this, especially those who've taken the time to review or message us. Sorry we haven't responded – we haven't even been checking the account. We really hope that at least some of you will forgive us and continue reading the story. Hope you all like the chapter!

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1864
Elena POV

I walked slowly back into the dining room, determined not to let my fear show. The Salvatore brothers didn't need to know anything about the confrontation that had just taken place. When I entered, I saw a look of surprise at my swift return flicker across Katherine's face and held my head a little higher. I was not going to be intimidated by her.

Damon appeared to have finished eating. 'Elena, why don't I show you around the town?' he asked, rising to his feet, clearly uncomfortable being in a room with just Katherine and Stefan. Apparently, seeing them together did hurt him.

I smiled at him, although out of the corner of my eye I was watching Katherine, who hadn't taken her eyes off me since I'd re-entered. There was a calculating look on her face, and I knew she was still trying to figure out how I'd avoided her compulsion. Resisting the urge to reach for my necklace, I nodded and thanked Damon. Getting away from this house with someone who knew the truth about where I had come from was exactly what I needed.

A few minutes later, Damon and I were strolling towards the gate of the huge Salvatore estate. It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny, and I felt better with every step away from Katherine.

I snuck a sideways look at Damon. He, too, looked much more relaxed than he at breakfast. Enough that I decided my question was worth another try.

'So…you never told me how you can be with Katherine, knowing that she's with your brother too,' I said, hesitating slightly. 'Doesn't it hurt, watching them together?'

Damon turned to me, and instantly I felt guilty for putting that sadness back in his eyes.

'I don't know,' he answered simply. 'I know Katherine's not perfect,' – I stifled a laugh at this – 'but all I can say is that I want to be with her, and I guess I just live in hope that one day she'll choose me over my brother.'

My heart breaking slightly, I stared at him, wondering how much, at this point, he knew. I knew that he had found out Katherine's true identity eventually and that he'd willingly drank her blood in an attempt to be with her forever, but I wasn't sure when that point had been. An idea on how to find out came to me, and I took a deep breath and tried it before I could talk myself out of it.

'You don't have to do it, you know,' I said softly, hating the advice I was giving him. If he even tried to break things off with Katherine, she'd likely just compel him to stop caring that she was with Stefan. At least at the moment the majority of his feelings were his own. 'You could just…end it. Let her be with Stefan.'

He looked away from me, staring resolutely at the gate, still a hundred metres ahead of us.

'I can't, Elena,' he sighed, and to my horror I felt more small shivers run through me as he said my name. Ignoring them, I focused on what he was saying. 'It's more…complicated than a normal relationship. Katherine can be…difficult when she doesn't get her way.'

Taking a calculated risk – I couldn't guarantee that Katherine wouldn't later compel Damon to tell her about any jewellery or suspicious objects on my person that could contain vervain – I reached for my necklace, pulling it out from under the neckline of my dress and began to fiddle with it as obviously as I could.

The effect was electric. As soon as he saw it, Damon's jaw dropped and he grabbed my wrist, roughly yanking me behind the nearest tree, out of sight of the house.

'Where did you get that?' he demanded, looking straight into my eyes. He hadn't let go of my wrist, and with his other hand he reached for my necklace. Not sure that I wanted him to see it up close just yet; I took a step back, only to feel my back press up against the tree. I jerked my wrist, pulling it from his grasp, and grabbed the necklace, preventing him from reaching it.

Immediately, as if a spell was broken, he stepped back. 'Elena, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you.' I could see the sincerity in his face. 'It's just…there's no way you could have that necklace….unless…'

'What is it, Damon?' I asked urgently. I had a feeling that this was important.

'Who gave you that necklace, Elena?' he asked, ignoring my question.

Likewise, I ignored his, and simply stared at him, refusing to break eye contact.

He sighed, apparently sensing that stubbornness ran in Pierce family. 'That necklace…looks a lot like one that was our mother's. She left it to Stefan when she died…he was always the favourite son.' Even now, I could hear bitterness in his voice. 'It's one of his most treasured possessions. If that's the same necklace….how did you get it?'

I took a deep breath, wondering what could possibly be the best thing to do here. Should I come clean, tell Damon about everything and let him make his own decision? Or should I lie until I had figured out what to do? How was I going to prevent Katherine from finding out anything that I'd said?

Apparently it was too late to back out even if I'd wanted to, as after a second Damon asked, sounding like he was struggling to get the words out 'Did….Stefan give it to you?'

Unable to think of anything to say, I gave a mute nod. Damon had always been good at putting the pieces together quickly. So he did know about Katherine. Knew and wasn't surprised by the idea that his brother was still alive 145 years in the future. He reached for the necklace, and this time I didn't stop him. He examined it closely, cradling it in the palm of his hand, and then gave a start, dropping it so that it once more rested against my dress.

'There's vervain inside it, isn't there?' he asked quietly. I took a deep breath. No point hiding anything now. 'Yes,' I answered, holding his gaze.

He took a step back. 'So you know.'

'Yes,' I said again, waiting for the impact of what I was saying to sink in on him.

'You know Stefan, in the future,' he said suddenly, once again meeting my gaze. 'Do you…know me?' I nodded. 'Katherine? Do you know her?'

Oh, God. This was it. Time to explain. 'No,' I said quietly, my voice coming out as a squeak. I hated the fact that what I was going to say was going to hurt him. 'I don't know her, Damon.' My voice was a little stronger now.

He looked stricken. 'Stefan and I….we're not with her? Where is she?'

'I don't know, Damon. None of us do.' I swallowed, hard. There was no easy way to do this. And at least by telling him, I could change things for the better. If it was possible to change things at all, that is. 'You…you've been looking for her, but we don't know where she is.'

He now looked completely stunned. 'How did we get separated from her?'

I could see that the idea of Katherine betraying him and his brother hadn't even occurred to him, and again I felt a flash of anger at Katherine for manipulating them like this. But this wasn't the time to think about that. I knew the story. Both brothers had told me it only hours before I had come to the past. 'Damon….a month from now all the vampires in Mystic Falls are going to be exposed and hunted by the Council. They'll be trapped in a tomb beneath the Church, but Katherine will escape and run away. You'll assume that she's in the tomb, and will spend 145 years trying to get her out. She'll know that you're looking for her, but she won't care. She betrays you, Damon.'

I stopped there. Stefan and Damon's death at the hands of their father….the details of them being turned into vampires… those weren't things I could tell Damon right now. I couldn't bring myself to add to the pain in his eyes.

For a second, Damon just stared at me. Then, so fast that it was hard to believe he wasn't a vampire, he grabbed my arms, pinning me against the tree.

'You're lying,' he hissed. 'Katherine wouldn't betray me, or Stefan.'

Somehow, even though he had me trapped, I wasn't afraid. I knew that Damon, even Damon as he was now, wouldn't hurt me. And that knowledge surprised me.

'I'm not lying, Damon, I swear it,' I said, looking him straight in the eye. 'I know you don't know me, but think about it. Are you really all that sure that Katherine wouldn't betray you? Do you really think she cares about you as much as you do about her? And If Stefan was still with Katherine, why would he give me one of his most prized possessions? One that he altered to protect me from vampires? He gave it to me to protect me from her, Damon, in case she ever showed up and expressed interest in me. And to protect me from…other vampires. I have no reason to lie to you.' I'd just come extremely close to telling Damon exactly what he'd become, what his relationship with his brother had been like. That was another thing I couldn't yet tell him.

Damon continued to hold me, staring at me, searching my face. Finally he released me, slumping down to the ground beside me, face in his hands. 'Damon? Do you believe me?' I asked quietly, laying a hand on his shoulder. 'Are you OK?'

His shoulder shook slightly. 'I don't know. I just…need a minute.'

We stayed there like that for a while, him collecting his thoughts while I considered the implications of what I had just told him. Surely, now that Damon knew what was going to happen, things couldn't go on as they had done before. Surely the two of us could prevent the carnage. I hadn't even realised that was what I'd decided to do, but knew that there was no way I could have just sat by and watched it happen. And there was no way I could get home before it happened either, as I needed the vampire compass.

Suddenly, I realised that I hadn't even considered the problem of getting home all morning, my mind occupied with more immediate problems. It was while I was mulling over this that I heard a rustle in above my head and looked up.

There, perched in the tree above my head, was a large black bird. It shifted slightly as the breeze blew the branch it was on, and I caught a glimpse of the red mark under its wing. I felt a chill down my spine. There was no longer any doubt. This was the same bird I'd seen this morning – and last night – and there was definitely something weird about it.

'Damon,' I said urgently, tapping his arm. 'Have you ever seen that bird before?'

He looked up briefly, then turned to me with a remnant of his usual cocky smile. 'It's just a blackbird, Elena. There are lots of them around here.'

'Lots with that same red mark under the wing?' I countered. 'I've seen that bird three times since I got here Damon, and I think it's something to do with Katherine.'

This time he actually managed a laugh. 'Again, Elena, it's just a bird. Not connected to Katherine.'

'Damon, in my time, the first few times I met you were preceded by the sight of a huge blackbird.' I said bluntly. 'You used it as a sort of….familiar I suppose, for lack of a better word. I never knew much about it, but I always assumed you compelled it to spy on things for you. And every appearance of the bird meant you were nearby.'

That had shocked him. He shot the bird another uncertain glance, no doubt considering what would happen if Katherine were to find out what I'd just told him, or even came across the two of us, sitting close together under a tree.

'Come on,' he said in a low voice. 'We should leave the grounds.'

We did so, hurriedly, me looking over my shoulder for Katherine every other second. Somehow, however, we made it outside.

Once we had safely shut the gate – not that that could prevent the bird from following us, now that I thought about it – Damon turned to me.

'Elena, if what you've told me is true, and I'm not saying I believe you yet, we have to stop it,' he said calmly. 'I won't let that happen to Stefan, to me.'

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