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1864

Elena POV

The journal would have looked completely innocent lying on the table, if not for those two initials emblazoned on the cover. JG. For a second, those letters seemed to be all I could see.

I took a deep breath, blinking hard, and the room settled back into focus. Unfortunately, the journal was still there.

We needed to get rid of it before anyone else saw it. Mr Salvatore and Stefan both knew that Damon and I had been out for a walk last night. If either of them saw it, they would immediately suspect us. The stolen journal would probably confirm the council's suspicion that I was a vampire, and Damon – I swallowed hard – would be taken down as my accomplice. Somehow, we had to move that journal, but I had no idea how.

Damon, judging by the tension radiating off him, seemed to be going through the same turmoil of fear, panic and desperation that I currently was. I only hoped that he would be able to formulate a plan, seeing as I was coming up blank.

'Elena?' Mr Salvatore asked, sound slightly puzzled.

'Oh! Sorry!' I replied, starting slightly as I realised he was still waiting for an answer to his question. 'No, we didn't see anyone last night, but I hope Mr Gilbert finds his property soon.'

'I hope so too,' said Mr Salvatore seriously. 'This town will not be tolerating break-ins – the mayor has promised to do everything he can to find the culprit.'

Fear constricted my chest. What if we hadn't been careful enough to hide our tracks? I studiously avoided Damon's eyes, somehow sensing that he was doing the same to me.

Before anyone could say anything else, the door opened to reveal Katherine.

For a second, shock froze me to my chair, but the moment passed. As subtly as I could, I reached under the table to the pocket of my dress, feeling the small bulge of the vervain perfume. My only weapon.

It didn't look like I would need it for the moment, however. Katherine waltzed in, all smiles, greeting us all cheerily.

'Mr Salvatore,' she said warmly, curtseying before him. I noticed her eyes flick quickly over to the table in the corner, and a truly evil smile lit her face. 'How are you? I'm sorry I missed dinner last night.'

'That's no problem, Katherine, I did too,' Mr Salvatore answered. His tone was warm enough to match hers, but I was certain I saw a flicker of distaste in his eyes. Of course, if the Council had progressed to suspecting me, they must already be fairly sure of Katherine's being a vampire. Unless it was my presence in Mystic Falls that had thrown suspicion on the two of us? I supposed people who looked as alike as we did must seem something of a supernatural occurrence. The thought that Katherine and I might be in this together wasn't pleasant, but I pushed it away. There would be time to puzzle over this later.

Katherine had by this time taken her seat, throwing Damon and I a sweet yet somehow poisonous smile. I wondered why she hadn't pointed out the journal the second she'd walked in, and realised it was probably because she enjoyed watching us squirm. Enjoyed having all the power. Hatred rose up in me, fuelling my desire to thwart her plan by hiding the journal.

I met Damon's eyes for the first time since his father had mentioned the break-in, and was surprised to see a similar emotion in them. Apparently Katherine's recent behaviour had destroyed any residual feelings he had for her. Something deep inside me was glad that he no longer cared about Katherine, but I ignored it for the moment, focusing on my incredibly vague plan.

I stayed silent as Mr Salvatore told Katherine about the break-in, looking for any opening I could use. It came less than a minute later.

'Elena, could you pass me the eggs, please?' Stefan asked politely, having waited until Katherine had finished expressing her disbelief that anyone in this town could be so dishonest (whilst shooting knowing looks at Damon and I, of course). I lifted the plate, noting that there wasn't much egg left on it.

I leaned over to Stefan, mentally cursing the utter ridiculousness of this plan, which was going to make me look like a complete idiot. However, it was the only option that I could see, and Damon didn't appear to have any brilliant ideas.

With a flick of my wrist – I meant it to be subtle but it probably looked more like I was being electrocuted (not that anyone present would even know what that was) – I tilted the plate so that all the eggs on it slid neatly onto Stefan's plate, purposefully not looking at Damon as I did so. I knew he would probably see exactly what I was doing, and sure enough, I felt a kick under the table that expressed his disbelief at the stupidity of my plan.

'Sorry, Stefan!' I said, giving him my best smile. 'The plate must have slipped.'

'No problem, Elena,' he replied good naturedly. I said a silent thanks for the apparent inability of 1864 Stefan to notice when anything out of the ordinary was occurring.

'I was just planning on having another egg,' I said, attempting to frown. My heart was pounding in my chest. This was it. 'I'll go and see if there's any more in the kitchen.' To get to the kitchen door I'd have to walk straight round the table, going behind Mr Salvatore. From there, it should be a simple enough matter to grab the journal as I passed.

I was half out of my seat when Katherine put out a hand to stop me. 'Don't worry, cousin, I'll go.' she said. Her tone was light, but I could detect both the threat and her amusement at my attempt to thwart her plan that lay under the surface.

I opened my mouth to argue, not caring how strange it would look that we were having an argument about getting a plate of eggs, but Damon was already on his feet.

'Ladies, please,' he said with an easy grin. 'You're guests here. What are we gentlemen for? I'll go and ask the cook to make more.'

Ignoring Katherine's furious look, he was around the table before she could stop him, heading for the kitchen door. I held my breath as he passed the corner, letting his hand slide casually across the table with the journal on it, but let it out in a rush of relief as he pulled the door open. The table was empty, and he'd pulled it off gracefully – no one who hadn't specifically known what he was doing would have noticed. He'd done it much better, I grudgingly conceded, than I would have done.

'Seriously? That was your entire plan? Dump a load of eggs on Stefan's plate?' Now that we'd successfully retrieved the journal - now safely in his pocket– Damon's sense of humour seemed to have come back. We were, once again, out in the grounds, a safe distance from the house.

'It worked, didn't it?' I asked, pretending to be annoyed. In reality, I knew exactly how much my plan had sucked.

'Only because I saved it at the last minute,' Damon grinned. 'If it hadn't been for me, Katherine would probably have 'accidentally' discovered the journal on her way to the kitchen and my father would probably still be questioning us now.'

'I didn't see you having any better ideas!' I retorted, unable to hold back a smile.

'You're right there,' he conceded, laughing, then his face turned serious, his hand going to his pocket. 'Now that we have this back, what are we going to do with it? If we try and hide it, Katherine'll find it. Should we destroy it?'

'Then they won't stop looking…'I said slowly. 'We have to…put it back.'

'What?' Damon's look of shock turned quickly to anger. 'No, Elena. I'm not setting foot in that house, and you aren't either. You think Jonathan Gilbert's going to just sit by and let someone else break in? The whole Council's going to be on guard.'

'I don't mean go back into the actual house.' I said impatiently. 'But couldn't we leave it somewhere nearby where he could find it? That way he at least won't come here looking for it.'

Damon considered this. 'That would be a good idea,' he said finally. 'But where would we leave it? And shouldn't we wait a little before going anywhere near that house?'

'Probably,' I agreed. 'Maybe we should leave it for today….try and find somewhere tomorrow.'

'That should work,' Damon agreed. 'What do you want to do in the meantime?'

I took a deep breath. The time had come to fulfil my end of the bargain. 'Well….' I said slowly, not sure how to start this. 'I promised to tell you everything I know about what happened – will happen – here.' All I could think about was how much I didn't want to see the look on his face when he heard that his own brother forced him to turn.

Damon looked straight into my eyes. 'Elena, I can see that….it hurts you to tell me all of this. You don't have to. I shouldn't have been so angry at you for trying to protect me.'

A few days ago, his letting me off the hook would've been all I could've asked for. Now, however, after what he'd risked to help me last night, things were different.

'No, Damon,' I said, meeting his gaze. 'You deserve to know whatever I can tell you.'

Bracing myself for what I knew was going to be very hard for both of us, I told him. What would happen after his father killed him and Stefan. How Stefan would force him to turn. How they'd spend almost 150 years hating each other – until they returned to Mystic Falls and finally managed to reconcile. How hard he'd work to get Katherine out of the tomb, only to discover that she wasn't in there. And all the details of our relationship in 2010. How, although I was with Stefan, there was always something that seemed to exist between us.

By the time I'd finished, the whole story finally told, Damon was slumped down against the tree he was leaning against, eyes closed. My heart went out to him. How must it feel to hear that almost everyone you cared about would eventually betray you?

'It might not happen, Damon.' I finished earnestly, laying a hand on his arm. 'I'm going to do my best to make sure it doesn't.'

'To make sure my brother and I live out our human lives together?' Damon said quietly. 'Even if you manage to change things, how can I do that, knowing what he would have done to me if things had gone differently?'

I had no answer to that, instead leaning in towards him, letting my head drop onto his shoulder. He moved under me, and for a second I thought he was throwing me off, but then I felt his arm reach around my shoulders.

'I'm sorry, Damon,' I whispered, so quietly I wasn't sure he heard me. We stayed there, like that, for a long time.

Finally, I felt Damon straighten up, releasing me. I sat up too, trying not to think about how much I missed his arm around me.

'We have something else to do today.' His voice was quiet but steady, and I knew he was trying not to show me how much he was hurting. 'Before we work out what to do about the journal, I mean. I need to tell you how the watch works.'

In the wake of everything that had happened since last night, I'd completely forgotten the reason we'd broken into Jonathan Gilbert's house in the first place. I'd also forgotten that, by some miracle, we'd actually managed to achieve our goal.

'OK. How does it work?' I asked, determined to go along with Damon's everything-is-fine act.

'The knob on the side,' Damon indicated the knob on his own watch 'the one you said you turned to come here, that controls how far you move in time and in which direction. To go back to your own time, you move it forwards. One turn per year.'

'That's it?' I was stunned. This seemed like something we could have easily worked out without the break-in.

'Not quite,' said Damon, smiling ruefully. 'This is where it gets more complicated. The time shown controls the date. The hour hand corresponds to the month and the minute hand, the day.'

'OK…'I committed this information to memory. 'That seems straightforward enough…' On any other occasion, I knew, we would have discussed this further, working out the exact time we'd have to set it to to get me back to the right day, but Damon didn't seem to have the energy for that kind of discussion. I didn't blame him, but that didn't alter the fact that we did have other important matters to discuss.

'This journal.' I said flatly. Not point beating around the bush. 'We have to find a way to get it back to Jonathan Gilbert. If we keep it around, who knows what Katherine will do with it? And where is she, anyway?'

'I'm right behind you, cousin.' The voice came from behind me.

I turned slowly, dreading what I would see. We hadn't been careful enough, carried away by our success in getting the journal back. We should have left the grounds before talking so freely.

Katherine was standing there, hand on her hip, devious grin on her face. I wondered how long she'd been listening. How much had she heard? Had she only heard us discussing the watch, or – my breath caught in my throat – had she heard me telling Damon what I knew was soon going to happen?

'Katherine…' Damon stuttered. 'We were just…'

'I know what you were doing.' She cut him off smoothly. 'But it's about time my dear cousin and I spent some time together, don't you think?' She shot me a smile that made my skin crawl. 'I think the two of us should take a walk around town together. Coming, Elena?' She turned around, one finger beckoning me in a fashion that reminded me vaguely of some sort of horror film.

Damon stepped forward. 'She's not going anywhere alone with you –'

Knowing that his protests were futile – much as I appreciated them – I stepped up next to him, putting a hand on his arm to quiet him. I faced Katherine, staring her right in the eyes.

'I'd love to take a walk with you, cousin.' I made sure the sarcasm in my voice matched hers.

'Good,' she replied coolly. She took my arm – holding tight enough to hurt me, although I didn't flinch – and started leading me towards the gates. Shooting Damon a helpless glance, I had no choice but to follow, stumbling along in her wake.

'Oh,' Katherine said suddenly, stopping in her tracks, so that I almost fell over. 'And bring that journal.'

She turned around, pulling me with her, and held her hand out to Damon. His eyes on her hand, still clamped around my arm, he had no choice but to pull it from his pocket and put it in her hand.

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