A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who forgave us for the massive break and read the new chapter, and to everyone who's just found the story, especially those who took the time to review it (even though we barely deserve it). We love hearing your views, so please keep them coming, especially if you have this on Story Alert.

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1864
Elena POV

I stared at Damon, who looked utterly determined. I knew that look – he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Apparently the choice was made, then. We were going to work together to stop the horrible events that I knew were supposed to take place shortly.

'Wait a second,' said a voice in my head. 'If you stop Stefan and Damon from turning, you'll never meet them. So you'll never get the compass, and then you'll never travel back in time. Doesn't the fact that you're here mean this plan is destined to fail?'

I pushed the thought away. We would succeed somehow. Somehow, this would all work out. I'd get back….and somehow survive without the Salvatore brothers. I took a deep breath, reminding myself that it would be much better for them if they didn't turn. They'd had 145 years of pain and hating each other before I'd met them. And Damon appeared to agree, as it seemed he wanted to prevent his own transformation from happening.

'OK,' I said, realising Damon was waiting for an answer. 'How, exactly, are we going to do that?'

'Don't look at me,' he replied with a grin that made him look much more like the Damon I knew. 'You're the one with all the amazing knowledge of the future, what do you suggest?'

I racked my brains furiously, thinking that the reason this was all apparently destined to fail was because it seemed to be impossible. We wanted to save Stefan and Damon's human lives. That was a given. But what else? Did I want to stop the vampires from being exposed and trapped? What would happen to Mystic Falls over the next 145 years if I did? What was the right thing to do here? And was it even possible to change things?

It must be, I argued with myself. By being here, surely I'd changed the future already. The Stefan and Damon I knew would remember me turning up in their lives in 1864…except if we succeeded there wouldn't be a Stefan and Damon in 2010.

Time travel is a lot more complicated than it seems in books and movies.

'So,' Damon prompted. 'What's the plan?'

'Give me a minute,' I replied, slightly annoyed that he expected me to work so quickly. One look at his dancing eyes, however, made me realise he was joking, and I relaxed into a laugh. Strangely, I felt extremely comfortable with Damon, even though as far as he was concerned we'd known each other less than 24 hours. Still, I suppose he had helped me dress this morning. Something like that might speed a relationship along.

'How about I give you that tour of the town I promised?' he suggested. 'Might help you get some ideas.'

I nodded, smiling, and started following him down the road. After one step, I tripped over the hem of my ridiculous dress and went flying.

Before I could hit the ground, Damon caught me, his arms locking around me.

'Thanks,' I said, slightly breathless from the fall. 'I knew there was a reason these things went out of fashion.'

I looked up at him, and our eyes met. Suddenly I was very aware of how tightly he was holding me, and surprisingly, I liked it…I mentally shook myself. If I was having these thoughts about anyone, it should be Stefan. 1864 Stefan did not know the truth about me, nor had we become friends, so for the moment I should not be having these thoughts about anyone.

Abruptly, Damon cleared his throat, and set me gently on my feet. Looking around, I saw why. There was a man coming towards us. With a start, I recognised him as the man who'd seen me in my modern clothes shortly after I arrived. My instinct was to hide, but then I remembered that Emily had altered his memory.

'Calm down, Elena,' I told myself. 'You're going to have to be introduced to the townspeople at some point.'

'Jonathan!' Damon's overly cheerful voice gave away his embarrassment over the position we'd been found in. 'Good to see you! May I present Miss Elena Pierce, Miss Katherine's cousin, who's staying with us for a while? Miss Pierce, this is Jonathan Gilbert, one of our town's most respected members.'

I could see Damon was wondering why I'd visibly jumped at the name, but I pulled myself together and managed to keep calm and give some semblance of a curtsey – which I hoped was the correct thing to do upon being introduced to someone.

It seemed to have been, as Jonathan Gilbert – my ancestor - immediately stepped forward and kissed my hand, exclaiming 'A pleasure to meet you, Miss Pierce.'

'Likewise, Mr Gilbert,' I replied, smiling. Inwardly, my mind was racing. This was the inventor of the pocket watch that had brought me here.

Jonathan Gilbert was studying my face. 'I must remark upon your extraordinary resemblance to your cousin, Miss Pierce. The two of you could easily be twins.'

I had no idea how to respond to that, and it must have showed, as Damon jumped in with 'It's apparently an old joke in the Pierce family, these two and how they must have been twins separated at birth.'

Jonathan nodded absently, still staring at me. Suddenly he jumped, reaching into his pocket.

'I'd love to stay and further make you're your acquaintance, Miss Pierce, but I'm afraid I'm going to be late for a meeting with the mayor.'

He said something else, but I was no longer concentrating on the conversation, fully focused on the object he'd just pulled out of his pocket, obviously to check the time. The pocket watch. It was right there. The tool that we needed. If I could just steal it, I could get home and the townsfolk wouldn't have their vampire compass. The exposure of the vampires couldn't happen...and Stefan and Damon would be saved….well they wouldn't be killed by their own father anyway. What if Katherine turned them later so they could live out her idea of a perfect future? Would that be any better for them? And if I stole that watch, the vampires in Mystic Falls would never be captured, and who knows what I would go home to.

Slowly, I was beginning to realise what I had to do. I had to steal the watch and somehow work out how to use it, yes. But I had to wait until the night that Fell's Church burnt. I had to somehow save Stefan and Damon, then wait until the vampires were safely sealed in the tomb, and then steal the watch and get home.

This was truly going to be impossible.

2010

Damon POV

Stefan stared from me to Alaric. 'What did I miss?' he repeated when neither of us answered. 'You both look like hell.'

'That's because while you were off gallivanting round the woods when we know Elena probably isn't there, Isobel showed up and threatened to terrorise the town if we don't let her meet her daughter!' I snapped. Probably not entirely fair, as it did actually make sense to search the woods, but I wasn't in a rational mood.

'Isobel? Elena's mother?' Stefan looked stunned.

'The one and only.' I confirmed. Alaric only nodded, still looking shell shocked.

'Why would she want to meet Elena after all the trouble she took to avoid her? Elena's not here anyway, so they can't meet.' Stefan said reasonably.

'Well done, Sherlock.' Sarcasm was really dripping off my every word tonight.

Stefan looked exasperated. 'If you'd let me finish, Damon, I was going to suggest that if Isobel wants to meet Elena that badly, she might be willing to help us look. She might know something we don't. We don't know where she's been, what connections she might have. '

'Well, that's great, Stefan, but we're missing one piece of the puzzle. She isn't here.' I was getting more and more worried every second. We were wasting yet more time here.

'She'll come back. She'll have to, if she wants to know the details of the meeting with Elena she thinks we're setting up.' Stefan said, sounding much more confident than I felt.

I was prevented from replying by my phone ringing in my pocket. The screen read 'John Gilbert.'

I picked it up immediately. 'Tell me you've found something.'

'I think you'd better come back to the house right now, Damon.' John said not even bothering to insult me. Things must be serious. 'Bring Ric and your brother, if they're with you.'

'We'll be right there,' I said, snapping the phone shut. I looked at the other two. 'I think John found something in one of the old journals.'

'Let's go,' said Stefan immediately, and Alaric nodded his agreement, stumbling slightly. I sighed. Drunk. I'd forgotten.

We were back at the Gilbert house ten minutes later. John was waiting for us in the kitchen. Apparently Jeremy had yet to leave his room and discover what was going on. Probably for the best. Whiny kid brother would only slow us down.

John pushed one of Jonathan Gilbert's open journals towards us. 'I was looking for anything I could find on the pocket watch, and found this. It's one of his earliest diagrams of it. He does several more in other, more recent diaries, so I'd never really looked at this one before. Look at what he's written by the knob on the side.'

Alaric put down the glass of water he'd poured himself, leaning over to look at the diary. 'Could be used for travel – turn one direction for past, other for future.' He leaned back. 'But that implies….'

'Time travel,' John said. 'He meant this watch to be used for time travel, as well was finding vampires. No idea why, maybe he meant to travel to the past to kill the vampires before they could damage Mystic Falls at all?'

There was a silence as we all pondered the implications of this.

'What are we going to do?' Stefan asked. 'Even if this is true? How can we possibly find out where – when – Elena is?'

Alaric reached for the watch, which was lying on the table next to John, and indicated the face. 'Well, this isn't showing anything near to the correct time. Was it before? Maybe you set it to a certain time depending on when you want to go. Or maybe you set it back one hour for every day you want to go back. Or maybe…'

'It's going to take us ages to figure this out.' Stefan moaned. 'Anything could happen to Elena while we're doing it…'

'Actually, Stefan, it can't,' I said smugly, having just thought of something. 'If we work out when Elena is and how to use the watch, all we have to do is appear a second after she does and bring her back. Doesn't matter how long it takes us to do it.'

There was a silence as everyone stared at me.

'Oh come on. Basic time travel rules. Don't you guys ever watch TV?' Feeling a little better even though we still had a giant task ahead of us, I reached for the watch and examined it closely. At that moment, something started making a high pitched noise, loud enough to make me cover my ears. Everyone else had similar reactions.

'What is that?' Alaric yelled over the din.

The noise sounded slightly familiar, and I was just trying to work out where I had heard it before when it stopped, as suddenly as it had started. The silence was an incredible relief.

And then I looked up, hoping one of the others might know what the hell was happening now, only to drop the watch in shock.

Elena was standing in the kitchen, right in front of me.

Please review! And don't worry, even though Elena is back in the 2010 storyline, the story is far from over. 1864 has a lot of catching up to do!