Careful What You Wish For
DG32173

Sarah: an idea that would not stop bugging me until I got it down. I know how much some of you guys like time travel fanfics. Here's another one for the stack.

CREDIT
Credit goes to crzykittyfangirl for helping me make my stories the best they can be. Thanks so much for your help.

DISCLAIMER
I don't even own the theme as there are plenty of time travel fanfics in the TVD archives. I only own this story as it is written and anything I claim before the chapter it appears in. If a reviewer or my beta inspires me to write it, I will put a credit section like the above giving credit for who inspired the idea. Otherwise, it's safe to say it's owned by someone else.

WARNINGS
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE! Alters from the show in Season 3, Episode 1. The majority of this fanfic takes place 145 years before the start of Season 3, starting just a few months after Damon and Stefan first become vampires. Be warned that Elena will be spending a very long time in the past compared to most time travel fanfics I've come across. I plan on this story being mostly told from Elena's viewpoint though there will be snippets of past Damon's view on things. Be aware that this is rated M for a reason: there will be the usual smut you guys have come to expect from me. But there will also be dark themes as Ripper Stefan is still being trained for the first time by Lexi when the story first goes to the past. These are the warnings. Don't say you didn't know because they are right here. Starts with Elena.

SUMMARY
There's a reason they say be careful what you wish for. Elena finds that out the hard way when a wish she makes when blowing out the candles on her eighteenth birthday cake suddenly transports her 145 years into the past. What happens when she meets newborn Damon and Stefan? Will she be able to return to her own time and, if so, will her actions in the past affect the present? Damon/Elena

Chapter 1
The Wish

It's my eighteenth birthday. The hunt for Stefan is in full swing and I just know I'm being excluded for some reason. Caroline came up with the idea of throwing me a birthday party at the boarding house to try and take everyone's minds off of everything that's going on right now. Just this morning, when I came to pass a note to Damon from Sheriff Forbes, he had 'gifted' me with an eyeful of his body covered only in suds as he had just gotten out of the tub to come greet me when I walked into the boarding house without a knock, as I'm prone to do these days. He teased me about my refusal to knock on a house I consider just as much my home as my own house.

Over the past few weeks, I have steadily grown closer and closer to giving in to my feelings for Damon. But I feel like there's one big secret he's still keeping from me, a secret about what Stefan's really like on the human stuff. I feel that what I know about Stefan on human blood is only the very tip of the iceberg.

As it draws nearer to the time for me to blow out the candles on my birthday cake, I debate over just what I should wish for. Every year I make a big wish when blowing out the candles on my cake and usually it somehow comes true. But even as Caroline pulls me in front of the cake and lights the candles, I still haven't decided on my wish. It seems as if she had invited our entire high school class to my party.

I make a snap decision on what I'll wish for. 'I wish I knew what Damon and Stefan were like a hundred and forty-five years ago,' I think as I blow out the candles.

Suddenly, it feels like I'm grabbed by a giant invisible hand and pulled backwards. I hear screams of shock and horror, Damon yelling my name, then it's as if my senses are cut off because everything goes black and silent for the longest time. Just as suddenly as the invisible hand had grabbed me, it releases me. My senses return in an instant as well. And what I see has me realizing that there's a damned good reason everyone says 'be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.' I feel like I haven't moved an inch but I'm standing in the middle of an old forest clearing. The air I'm breathing I can tell is much purer than it should be, no hints of the various pollutions the air I'm accustomed to does.

And standing before me in the clearing, looking as startled as I feel, is Damon. Except instead of the designer clothes topped by a black leather jacket I'm so used to seeing him wear, he's wearing an outfit men would have worn in the middle of the nineteenth century! "Katherine?" he gasps.

"No," I say softly, realizing I had gotten my wish in a way I hadn't expected. "I'm Elena." Somehow, this scene feels familiar, as if those same words had been spoken from each of us in a time and place I can't recall.

This past Damon manages to gather his wits. "I'm Damon," he introduces himself.

"What is the date?" I ask him.

"June 28th, 1865," he replies.

It seems that newborn vampire Damon keeps track of dates much better than he does in my time. "I'm going to tell you something a little weird, Damon, but I swear it's the absolute truth," I start, deciding that if I'm going to ever get back to my own time, I'll need the help of this era's Damon. And to get his help, I need to tell him the truth.

He raises an eyebrow and I realize no matter how old he is, some things will always be the same. He will always be able to say whole paragraphs with just a small shift in his expression. "You just appeared quite literally out of thin air," he says. "I'm sure nothing you can tell me is weirder than that and the clothes you have on."

I look down to see I'm still in the t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers I was wearing when I blew out my birthday candles. Then I meet his eyes. "Yeah, well, what I have to say will make even all that seem normal," I say.

"Do tell," he invites.

Sarah: yeah, I know it's short. But I don't want to put Elena's story or Damon's reaction to it in this chapter. This chapter is mainly about Elena's wish and what happens when it comes true.