A/N: We're back! Sorry for the wait everyone. Unfortunately, exam season is upon us, and we need good grades to secure our university places. We're definitely going to keep this fic going, but updates will probably be about once a week for a while. Also, as we near the climax of this story, chapters will become more action packed and hard to write, so we'll need the extra time to perfect them. We hope to make it worth the wait :). Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Don't worry – we will eventually cover everyone's reactions in 2010. Finally, we loved the season finale! Not sure hoe we're going to survive until September though…what were your thoughts on it? Please keep the reviews coming everyone, and we hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: The standard. Not ours.

Damon took me back to the house – Katherine was nowhere to be seen - settled me in a chair, and wrapped my finger in a rag dipped in icy cold water, all the while keeping up his stream of concerned questions. I answered each one shortly, the pain from my finger and the guilt I felt at possibly implicating Damon mixing to create a churning sensation in my gut that occupied all of my attention.

'Elena? Are you OK? Tell me the whole story.' Damon's voice, gentle as I'd ever heard it, broke through my inner turmoil as he squeezed my shoulder gently.

There was nothing for it. I'd just have to tell him. I'd promised him honesty, after all.

'I'm sorry, Damon,' I blurted out. 'I didn't mean to, but I didn't realise what I'd done until I'd already done it, and then it was too late…'

'Woah, Elena.' Damon pressed down briefly on both my shoulders, dropping into a chair opposite me. 'You're not making any sense. I'm sure whatever it is you've done, it's nothing we can't fix. Start from the beginning.'

I took a deep breath, and tried again.

'Katherine left the diary in the road when she heard Jonathan Gilbert coming,' I began. 'He found me with it, and immediately accused me of breaking into his house last night.'

Fear was starting to mix with the concern on Damon's face. 'What did you say? Does he still think it's you?'

I shook my head frantically, quietening him. I needed to get this out quickly.

'You know he's suspected me of being a vampire for a while now, probably because of my resemblance to Katherine? Well, I told him I'd been with you since the apothecary yesterday, and got out that vervain perfume I bought,' I continued. I could feel myself starting to babble again.

'Good thinking,' Damon breathed. 'He can't possibly still think you're a vampire after seeing that.'

'I don't think he does – he sprayed some on my arm. I He was pretty surprised when nothing happened.' I smiled weakly at the memory, then continued. 'I gave the journal back, but I accidentally mentioned his drawings, and, well, I couldn't say how I knew about them, and I'd said I was with you all day yesterday, and then you turned up and…'

The colour had drained out of Damon's face. 'You think he suspects me, now.'

'I'm sorry, Damon!' I pleaded. 'I really didn't mean to let slip about the drawings. I'm sure we can fix it – we can definitely prove you're not a vampire for one, and we can think of some way to stop them thinking we broke in.'

'But we did break in, Elena,' Damon said quietly, staring straight into my eyes. 'How are we going to prove we didn't do something when actually we did do it?'

That silenced me. I thought furiously, trying to come up with something we could, but came up blank from every angle. It seemed Damon was right. We were indeed in a fairly bad position, and it was completely my fault.

I laid my hand gently on top of his, which was clenched on the arm of his chair.

'I really am sorry, Damon,' I said quietly. 'I never meant for you to be dragged into this. If you want, I'll confess to the council about the break-in. I don't want to make things harder for you.'

Damon had been staring at the floor, apparently without really seeing it, but his eyes jerked up when I offered to take the blame.

'No, Elena.' he said firmly, meeting my eyes with his own deep blue ones. 'We're in this together. And there's not too long to go, now. All we have to do is keep this up for another ten days.'

I felt the familiar stab in my gut at the thought of leaving him, but ignored it. 'That's true. The best thing we can do is probably ignore this situation and try to act normal for a few days. After the vampires are rounded up, no one will be worrying about a break-in. They'll blame everything on the vampires and leave it at that. I'll be gone, and you and Stefan will be fine – you'll be able to live normal, happy lives.' My voice cracked slightly on the last few words, surprising even me.

Damon squeezed my hand, leaning forward slightly in his chair. 'Elena, I'm not sure how happy I'll be able to be if you're not here,' he said, his voice so quiet I had to strain to hear him. There was something in his eyes I wasn't used to seeing – a sort of tenderness.

For a second, we stared at each other. Then, hardly able to believe what I was doing, I started to slowly lean towards him, closing the distance between us.

At that exact moment, the front door opened, and Stefan's voice filled the hall. 'I'm home!' he called. 'Anyone here?'

Damon and I jerked apart as if pulled by puppet strings.

'So our plan is just to act normal and do nothing?' He was obviously shaken, his voice flustered. He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up wildly. I wasn't much better, my heart pounding in my chest, and I wasn't sure whether I was grateful to Stefan or angry with him.

'Absolutely,' I said, nodding firmly and attempting to calm myself.

Surprisingly, our plan seemed to work. Four days passed calmly, with no drama from any angle. We barely saw Katherine, who seemed to be spending all her time with Pearl (while this didn't bode well for the future, there wasn't much we could do, so we ignored it). It seemed that she really did think it was only Damon keeping me here, and had decided to wait to deal with me until after the Council implemented their plan. I wondered occasionally how clever the mayor's decision to distribute vervain via the apothecary had been – all it seemed to have achieved was put the vampires on their guard.

Giuseppe was also frequently absent from the house, spending all his time at 'meetings', which had increased since the break-in, which the Council clearly thought had been done with vampire involvement.

Damon and I were able to spend most of our time together, and although the constant fear never left me completely, I was able to enjoy it. A slight tension sprung up between following the moment in the kitchen, but it soon melted away, although neither of us referred to it or brought up our relationship again.

Then, on the fifth day after our decision – five days before what I had begun to think of as D-Day – something happened that shattered our fragile peace.

Giuseppe had eaten breakfast with us – an unusual occurrence – and had disappeared into the study after the meal, taking both his sons with him. I loitered in the garden near the house, not wanting to go out of earshot in case Katherine took this opportunity to try and question me further, and didn't have to wait long before Damon came out. Although he seemed to be in control of himself, he was pale and looked slight shell-shocked.

He took my arm, pulling me around the side of the house, out of sight of the front door.

'Damon, what…?' I began, but he pressed a finger to his lips, stopping me. He was peering around the corner of the house, and I joined him, just in time to see the door open and Giuseppe come out, striding purposefully towards the gate.

Once his father was out of earshot, Damon turned to me.

'Father just told Stefan and I about the vampires and asked us to help fight them, when the time comes,' he said, without preamble. 'He said he knows it's hard for us to believe, but he needs our help.'

I leaned back against the house, feeling winded. I'd known this was coming, but somehow the implications were only hitting me now. This was really going to happen. It was less than a week away.

'Did he say anything else?' I asked urgently. 'Anything about Katherine, or me?'

'No,' Damon replied, and relief coursed through me. 'You're right though – he does suspect Katherine. Stefan started talking about how maybe not all vampires are evil, maybe we shouldn't just assume they're all the same, and Father wouldn't even hear him out. He kept trying to tell Stefan that anything a vampire says shouldn't be believed.'

'He'll spike both your drinks with vervain,' I reminded Damon. 'In a few days time. He'll use you for the Council's plan.'

Damon merely nodded, his face tightening at my reminder of his father's imminent betrayal. I felt a twinge of regret at bringing it up.

'There's nothing we can do about it, Damon,' I said gently. 'We can't stop the Council. They'd just destroy us along with the vampires. All we can do is try to protect you and your brother.'

'I know.' Damon exhaled heavily. 'It's just…I couldn't help thinking, what if Stefan's right? Isn't this wrong? Knowing what's going to happen, and not even trying to stop it?'

'We're protecting the town - doing what's best for the townspeople.' I said, trying to ignore my own prickling conscience, which showed signs of agreeing with Damon. I couldn't ignore the fact that I wasn't – and had never been - completely comfortable with standing by and allowing this to take place. The 2010 versions of Stefan and Damon were constantly on my mind. They were vampires. They were also my boyfriend and one of my best friends. Wasn't destroying 27 people just for being vampires wrong?

Damon looked like he wanted to agree with me, but still needed some convincing. 'Elena, I know that Katherine's evil, now that I can see – now that you've helped me see – how she's been manipulating me, but Pearl? The others? You haven't met them, I know, but…'

'I have met them,' I said quietly. 'In my time, Pearl's daughter Anna decided that she wanted to revive her mother using Gilbert blood. She befriended my brother, planning to kill him for her mother. In the end she used my blood. I only survived because your brother saved me. And when all the vampires got out, they killed more townspeople. Damon, we really are doing what's best for the town. '

I shuddered as I remembered how Anna had used my blood to help her mother, and Damon flinched as I mentioned it, reaching automatically for my hand.

'OK, Elena,' he said simply, giving in. 'We'll stick to our plan.'

And that was what we did – simply tried to act normal and deflect any suspicion away from ourselves. Giuseppe must have defended his son's integrity against any suspicion, because Jonathan Gilbert left us alone, not mentioning the break-in, even though we saw him around town a few times.

As the days slipped by, I tried hard not to think about what was going to happen, knowing that there wasn't much planning I could do. I knew improvisation was going to be our best hope in the end, but that didn't stop the nausea from increasing as the day approached.

It couldn't be that hard, I told myself. I knew how to use the watch. Damon, I knew, wouldn't leave me until he was sure I'd gotten safely away, but we had to somehow keep him and Stefan out of the firing line. And get the watch. Which I still had no idea how to do.

Still. We'd manage, somehow.

My fragile optimism lasted right up until the night before the Council's plan, when something happened that effectively destroyed it.

Giuseppe, although around for once, had – understandably – been tense all day, leading to Damon and I excusing ourselves after dinner to go for yet another walk around town. I was starting to sorely miss TV and other 2010 entertainments.

'Are you ready? For tomorrow, I mean?' Damon asked as we left. I could sense the effort it was taking him to keep his voice steady.

I leaned slightly closer to him, and he put his arm around me. We'd become incredibly comfortable with each other of late, both of us drawing strength from the other one.

'As ready as I'll ever be, I think,' I answered, resolutely ignoring the butterflies in my stomach that were contradicting my optimistic words. 'I promise I'll do my best to save your human life.'

'Elena.' Something in Damon's voice made me stop, turning towards him. 'There's something I need to talk to you about.' He was staring right at me, the intensity of his gaze burning holes in my skin. I swallowed, hard. We'd spent the past week purposefully not discussing what there was between us, and I'd been wondering how long it would last.

I didn't say anything, instead just waiting for Damon to work up the courage to say whatever it was he wanted to say.

'Elena….if you save my life….you and I will never meet in 2010.' He dropped his gaze, seemingly not able to meet my eyes. 'And I know that if we fail, you'll be with Stefan in 2010, not me, but….I think….I want to have the chance to know you.'

Something strong – something that I couldn't identify - welled up inside me. Unsure whether I was feeling despair or relief, I simply reached for him, pulling him towards me.

This time no one interrupted us. Damon twined his fingers through my hair as our lips finally touched, pulling me closer. Feeling his kiss in every inch of my body, I allowed myself to melt into him. How could I leave him behind? Was he right? Should we abandon the plan? Was I even capable of leaving?

Damon's lips moved against mine, driving all thoughts out of head as, for once, I simply allowed myself enjoy the moment.

And then, yet again, that familiar voice interrupted us.

'It seems you two still haven't got my message.'

Katherine's cool voice came from behind me, and Damon and I broke apart, turning to face her, although he didn't drop my hand.

'Katherine.' I was impressed at how steady his voice sounded. 'I think it's about time you stopped trying to control everyone around you.

'Damon…' I started, trying to stop him. Annoying Katherine was not what we wanted to do, especially today. Somehow though, he didn't stop. Something seemed to have snapped inside him – obviously Katherine had tried to come between us one too many times.

'I'm not going to play along anymore,' Damon announced, his voice strong, 'and neither is Elena.' He slipped his arm around my waist, staring at Katherine defiantly. I was shaking with fear by this point, although I was trying my best to hide it, to stand with Damon. We were completely alone. This time, there was no escape. Katherine could do whatever she wanted with us.

'Really?' Katherine asked, a grin spreading across her face. Then, without warning, she was right in front of us. She grabbed me, jerking me away from Damon. For a second, time seemed to stop. I was hyperaware of everything – of Katherine's smiling face right in front of me, her tight grip on my arm, the look of terror on Damon's face right behind her, my own pounding heart beat.

Then, somehow, I was lying on the ground ten feet away, doubled up in pain. I'd hit the ground hard, and every part of my body seemed to hurt.

'Elena!' Damon shouted, taking a step towards me.

A second later, he was up against a tree, Katherine's hand locked around his throat.

'I told you there would be consequences if you two kept defying me,' she said. Her voice was calm, almost lazy, which somehow made it all the more terrifying. 'You want a chance to meet her in the future? Let's see how you like eternity without her.'

She drew her own wrist across her mouth, opening the vein, then shoved it, now dripping with blood, into Damon's mouth.

So we've finally reached the big day! Sorry it jumped around a lot, but there wasn't much left to do before the Council's plan and the story was slowing down so much that we figured you'd all prefer one chapter that jumped around to several filler type ones. Please review!