A/N: 300 REVIEWS! We never, ever thought we'd get this many when we started. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, especially our regular reviewers, and please keep the reviews coming! They make our days, especially with exam season approaching…in other news, LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE! OMG! They better not kill Damon…that is all we will say. Also, hope everyone who watched the Royal Wedding had fun! (We're from the UK, so massive celebrations everywhere). Oh and thanks especially to everyone who answered our question! An Elijah/Katherine story is not definite, but we wanted to put the idea out there. Don't worry, this story is definitely our priority right now! Enjoy the chapter and please review!

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There was dead silence. It rang in my ears, broken only by the sound of my own heartbeat. I couldn't believe I'd just suggested that. What had I been thinking?

'You're insane,' said Damon flatly. 'We'll never pull that off. We'll have to find another way.'

Somehow, even though his words mirrored what I'd just been thinking, his refusal to even consider my idea got me angry and I automatically began to defend myself.

'There is no other way, Damon,' I said calmly. 'He'll never bring that journal out of the house. And he's not exactly going to invite me in, seeing as he thinks I'm a vampire.'

'Then I'll go in and get it.' Damon replied through gritted teeth. 'We are not breaking into that house, Elena.'

'Right, so he's going to let you in?' I asked sarcastically. 'Everyone in this town knew how close you and Katherine were, plus they've all seen us go to the Ball together. You're no more likely to get an invite than I am.'

'We can work out how the watch works another way,' was his next argument, although I could tell that he was beginning to give in.

'How else could we possibly figure that out?' I asked, exasperated. 'Unless you want to assault Jonathan Gilbert and steal the watch, breaking in is the only possible thing we can do.'

'It's too risky!' he exploded. 'I would've thought you'd see that, considering what you've just told me. The Council already suspects you, Elena! What do you think they're going to do if they discover you breaking into the house of one of the town's founding fathers?' He was breathing hard, gesticulating wildly with his hands to illustrate his points.

'Damon, you need to calm down,' I said gently, grabbing his wrists to try and steady him. After a second, his breathing slowed and he stopped struggling against my hands.

'I'm sorry,' he said quietly. 'I just…don't want you to put yourself at risk more than you have already.'

'I have to do this,' I said, my voice as quiet as his. 'Otherwise, I'll never be able to get home. If you don't help me, I'll do it on my own.'

For a second, we stared at each other, but he didn't reply. Defeated, I dropped his wrists and made to walk away, but he stopped me with a hand on my face, gently cupping my cheek.

'I'll help you.'

We stood frozen for a moment that seemed to last eternity, then he let go.

'When do you want to do this?' His matter-of-fact, businesslike tone made it perfectly clear that even if we were working together again, we were not going to be having a relationship. Things between us were not going to be how they'd been, and deep down, I knew that was probably for the best.

I briefly considered his question, even though I already knew the answer. We had to get on with this. It didn't make sense to waste anymore time. Plus, if we waited too long, I had a feeling I might chicken out.

'Tonight.' I said, attempting to inject a note of confidence into my voice. Judging by Damon's raised eyebrows, it hadn't worked.

He did agree in the end, although, as he let me know every five minutes, he felt that the decision was against his better judgement. We spent the rest of the morning trying to come up with a plan, but unfortunately lunchtime rolled around and we had nothing specific. We were going to have to rely on improvisation.

'This is never going to work,' groaned Damon, as we headed back to the Salvatore house. We'd timed our arrival, making sure that we entered just as lunch was served in order to avoid any alone time with Katherine.

'We'll have to make it work,' I said firmly. 'We can't plan anything, we don't know where the journal is or even what kind of lock there'll be on the door. We'll figure it out when we get there.'

He didn't reply until we'd reached the house, where, to our surprise, we were greeted by only Stefan.

'Where's Katherine?' Damon asked as we sat down.

'She's with Pearl and some other friends,' said Stefan lightly, serving himself some salad. I met Damon's eyes across the table, knowing he was thinking the same thing I was. Pearl, the apothecary, would likely know all about the vervain in her latest shipment of products and was undoubtedly sharing the knowledge with Katherine. From now on, every vampire in this town would be on their guard.

'Father should be here soon, though,' Stefan continued. 'He said something about coming to eat with us before his meeting.'

'What meeting?' I asked carefully. With just under two weeks to go until the big night, it appeared things were finally starting to be set in motion.

'He's meeting with the rest of the town's founding members at the Lockwood mansion tonight,' Stefan replied casually. 'I'm not sure why, but I think he said something about discussing the possibility of more Founder's Events.'

Stefan clearly believed his father, having no reason to suspect him of lying, but I knew better. Tonight would be a major Council meeting. Maybe the meeting in which they set a date for their plan to expose and round up the vampires. Not for the first time, I wondered how much had already happened. I was fairly certain that Stefan, by this point, knew the truth of what Katherine was and was under her compulsion. However, I was equally certain that his father had not yet told him about the Council. That would happen soon, then.

Tonight's meeting, I realised, could most definitely benefit us. I turned to Stefan, but Damon asked the question first.

'So, Father's going to be out late tonight, then?' Damon, I could tell, was attempting to sound as casual as Stefan had. He almost managed, but the attempt was spoilt at the last second by a throb of excitement in his voice. He, like me, knew that if Mr Salvatore was out late, planning, Jonathan Gilbert would be too. And our job would hopefully get a whole lot easier.

'I think so,' Stefan replied. 'So we're on our own for the afternoon. You can ask him yourself though – I think that's him now.'

Sure enough, a few minutes later Mr Salvatore entered the room, greeted Stefan and I courteously, and nodded to Damon. Apparently, his disappointment at his son deserting the Confederate Army hadn't yet disappeared. Their relationship wasn't helped by the icy glance I saw Damon throw his father the second his back was turned. My heart went out to him. What must he be feeling, knowing now that his father was going to end up killing him?

That reminded me that I'd promised to tell him the rest of the story, and I felt slightly nauseated at the thought of having to tell him how Stefan had completed his transition by feeding on their father's blood – the blood of the man now sitting next to – and then forced his brother to change too. Still, a promise was a promise, and I had no intention of lying to Damon again. I owed him that.

Mr Salvatore confirmed that he would be out late at the mayor's, his eyes sweeping the table. I wondered what he was looking for, and my question was answered a moment later.

'Where's Katherine today?' he inquired, in the same tone of forced casualness Damon had used a few minutes earlier. 'It doesn't look like she's been here.'

'She's eating lunch with some friends,' Stefan replied, and I watched his father's face tighten slightly, obviously suspecting that the vampires of the town were meeting. He wasn't careless enough to display any suspicion of me, but I could feel a distinct tension in him that hadn't been there when we'd first met.

Suddenly feeling that I'd had enough of being suspected for one day, I excused myself and went up to my room. I'd only been in there for thirty seconds, however, when there was a knock on the door and Damon came in.

'So, definitely tonight, then?' he asked without preamble, sitting on the foot of my bed. I nodded.

'The only thing we need to work out is when we should leave,' I said, getting into the spirit of doing what little planning we could. 'We could either go out straight after dinner, saying we're going for a walk, and just stay out, or we could pretend to go to bed and sneak out. But if we do that, Katherine's likely to hear us…Damon?'

His eyes had slid from my face to an object lying beside me, a smile slowly spreading across his face. His jacket. It lay across my pillow and I wished I'd remembered to put it on the dresser or something before going downstairs this morning – leaving it on the pillows seemed to advertise the fact that I'd slept with it around my shoulders, keeping me warm.

He started, and seemed to snap out of his reverie. 'Sorry, Elena. I'm listening. I don't think sneaking out would work. Katherine's sure to hear us. We should go immediately after dinner.'

'OK,' I agreed, shifting slightly to block the jacket from view, although this seemed slightly pointless given that he'd already seen it.

'We may even be able to get back fairly quickly,' he pointed out. 'It gets dark early. Most of the men in this town will be at the Council meeting and everyone else will probably be inside their own homes. Jonathan Gilbert lives alone. We'll just go in, take a quick look through the journal and leave. If he's not in, this could be an easy job.'

I groaned. 'Don't say that.'

'Why not?' he asked, looking confused.

'You'll jinx it,' I replied sheepishly, embarrassed at my superstitions.

He laughed. 'Elena, don't tell me you believe-' His expression changed and he got up, creeping silently over to the door, one finger pressed to his lips.

Fear welled up in my chest, but I pushed it away firmly, silently following him. He pressed his ear to the door, then, with the air of someone bracing himself for the worst, threw it open.

There was no one there.

Damon went out into the hallway, checking up and down it briefly while I stood, frozen, in my room.

'Sorry,' he said, coming back in. 'I thought I heard something…someone stepping on that floorboard.' He indicated the one outside my room. 'It always squeaks.'

I stared at him in horror. 'You don't think it could have been…?'

'She's with Pearl,' Damon said firmly. 'Not here. She wouldn't spy on us. If she wanted to know something, she'd try and compel us.'

'She knows I'm on vervain, Damon, and she'll probably have figured out that I gave you some, too. Maybe we should postpone.' I whispered, still horror-struck. If Katherine had heard our plans, I was willing to bet she wouldn't just let us do something like this.

'Elena, she's not here.' Damon took my hand, squeezing it tightly. Despite his confident air, I could tell that he, too, was worried. 'It was probably nothing. We know that Jonathan Gilbert isn't in his house tonight. We may not get another chance.' He paused. 'Strange. An hour ago I never would have thought I'd end up talking you into this.'

I gave a shaky laugh. 'Why don't we ask Stefan if he's seen Katherine? Just to be sure that he doesn't think she's been here?'

'Good idea,' Damon smiled, heading for the stairs. 'Let's go ask him right now.'

Stefan hadn't seen Katherine, and seemed to be under the impression that she would be spending all day with Pearl, which made me slightly better about our plans. On the other hand, I was worried about she and Pearl would be discussing. Would it be just the new vervain products? Or would there also be some plan on how to deal with me?

I pushed these thoughts away, focusing on the task at hand. I spent the afternoon with Stefan and Damon, not wanting to leave them in case Emily took this opportunity to try and find out what I was up to out of Katherine's hearing.

At dinner, Damon seemed slightly tense, jumping at every small noise, and I knew that, like me, he was nervous about what we were about to do. Maybe this wasn't the best idea after all….

'No.' I told myself firmly. 'You have to see that journal. Otherwise you won't find out how the watch works.'

The second dinner was over, Damon jumped to his feet, apparently having decided that the best thing to do was get this over with.

'Elena, would you like to take a walk with me?' he asked politely, for Stefan's benefit.

'I'd love to,' I smiled.

'We'll see you later, brother.' Damon said, taking my hand and leading me outside into the dusk.

We walked through the grounds as quickly as we could. Although it wasn't completely dark yet, it soon would be, and like Damon, I just wanted to get this over with and go to bed, perhaps after liberally coating my door in vervain perfume in an attempt to protect against night time visits from Katherine. I shivered at the thought, and Damon pulled me slightly closer to him.

'Are you sure you want to do this?' he asked quietly.

I nodded. 'It's the only way I can think of.'

'OK,' he replied. 'And then, tomorrow, when this is all over…'

I cut him off, guessing what he was going to ask. 'Yes, Damon. I'll tell you everything I know, from start to finish. I promise.'

'Thank you, Elena,' he said softly, and the way he said my name reminded me of the way he'd said it when he'd first seen me in my Founder's Ball dress. The thought made me feel as if a warm glow was spreading across my skin.

After that we didn't talk much, focusing on the short walk across town. In what seemed like no time at all, Jonathan Gilbert's house loomed up in front of us, seeming much bigger than it did in the day time. There was no sign of anyone around.

Damon snapped into action. 'No point trying to force the door open yet, we want to see if we can get in without damaging anything. Let's try a window.'

We circled the house, checking for open windows, but came up blank.

'There's nothing for it,' I said, sounding much braver than I thought. 'We'll have to force our way in.'

Damon merely grunted in agreement, already studying a pair of shutters on the side wall of the house. He gave them an experimental tug, then turned to me.

'If you help me, I think we can get these open,' he whispered, and I hurried over to help.

A minute later, with a crash that I felt must have woken the entire town, we had the shutters open, and Damon, a look of mixed guilt and apprehension on his face, smashed the glass by hitting it repeatedly with a tree branch. Breaking in was turning out to be a lot noisier than we'd hoped, but by some miracle, no one came out to stop us. I repressed my guilt at what we were doing to Jonathan Gilbert's house. There was truly no other option.

Damon nimbly climbed through the window frame, then held out his hand to me. 'Careful, Elena, there's broken glass everywhere,' he warned.

I, however, was barely listening, too engaged in searching the yard behind us for traces of movement. This time, it had been my turn to hear a noise. However, the yard seemed completely deserted.

'Elena! Come on!' Damon hissed, and I reluctantly turned around, took his hand and allowed him to help me in.

Once inside, we took a quick look around the room. By some stroke of good luck, we were in what looked like Jonathan Gilbert's study – a place where his journal was likely to be hidden.

'Let's find it fast,' Damon muttered. 'You stay here, I'll go and search in another room.'

I grabbed his arm. 'No! We should stay together.' I wasn't entirely sure why the idea of staying here alone filled me with so much dread, but after thinking I'd heard something in the yard, no way was I going to be separated from him.

The fear in my voice made him agree, and we started to quickly search the bookshelves.

'There's a load of journals here!' Damon whispered triumphantly from across the room, indicating a row of leather bound books.

'Brilliant!' I replied, going to join him. 'Will the most recent one be here, though?'

Damon grabbed the journal on the far right, which also seemed to be the newest, and quickly flicked through it. A second later, he put it back, grabbing another.

'Nope, last year's.' he said, looking disappointed. 'And they seem to be in chronological order.'

'OK, we don't know when he invented the watch.' I whispered. 'I'll look through this one and see if there's anything helpful. You check the desk for the current one.'

Damon nodded silently, moving over to the desk. I flipped though the most recent journal we'd found feverishly, wanting badly to get out.

Nothing. No diagrams, no indications that Jonathan Gilbert had invented anything in the time span covered by this journal. I flicked through to the very back and read an entry that sent a chill coursing through my body.

'Five more bodies found this week in the woods, drained of blood. As impossible as it is, we must begin to accept that perhaps these attacks are caused by something beyond the normal. Something supernatural.'

'Elena!' Damon called in a low voice, interrupting my reading. 'It's here! And I've found what looks like a diagram of the watch!'

I looked up immediately, making to go over to him. However, at that moment, I saw something through the open window that made my blood run cold.

Outside the window, in the very tree we'd taken a branch from to break in, was a blackbird with a red mark on its wing.

'Damon!' I hissed, indicating the bird. 'Look!'

He looked up from the journal, and despite the fact that he'd never before believed the bird was in any way linked to Katherine, the sight of it drained all the colour from his face.

For a second, we stood there, frozen.

Then we heard the unmistakeable sound of footsteps on the patio, and a second later, the sound of a key in the front door.

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