Hello! Man, 11th hour with this fic...
Happy Back to the Future day! Eh, I wrote a slightly angsty fic but that's alright. It's what the muse wanted from me. I am still proud of this fic.
Enjoy! And comment!
When Marty rolled out of bed that morning, he knew it was going to be a difficult day. He started with a headache, a dull throbbing in the back of his head. He knew it was a good thing not to schedule any gigs that day, or anything that matter. Being home, with Jennifer, his kids. That's what he wanted. Really that's what he needed really. Today of all days. He had been both looking forward to and dreading for thirty years.
October 21st. Of this time line. It's date he and Doc Brown traveled to, way back when.
It seemed like a lifetime ago, when he had raced to the future to save his son from making a huge mistake. That had started a snowball effect, with Marty's life. Well, Doc's life changed as result too. That one day, that one trip, set in motion everything. Marty remembered, Doc had told him, had theorized that November 12th 1955 was a some cosmic, temporal focal point. But Marty had the feeling that this date did. It had the date that changed his destiny.
Nothing was like it was when he visited the first time. Cars hadn't started flying, they were getting smaller but safer. He was upset that no one had developed hoverboards yet or could predict exactly when the rain was going to stop. That would have been useful. He did have the whole world in his pocket, that was something. But no, the future was different with a few exceptions.
Jennifer was still his wife but their marriage was stronger, and no they hadn't gotten married in the "Chapel o' Love". His rock star money had paid for a beautiful ceremony in Rio.
That was one major difference too. After the near accident with the Roll Royce, Marty had sent in his demo tape. And was signed to a contract within the month. His life shot off like a rocket then, faster then the Delorean shooting through time. That alone had changed this time line dramatically. If he was a rock star, he would have never have double cross his boss with Needles. Therefore he wouldn't be fired. That changed a lot. For the better, everything had always been for better since that day.
But there was one major draw back to time travel.
He could barely remember anything about his friend Doc.
Even the time they spent traveling through time was mostly a blur. It blended together in places and Marty couldn't tell what time was which. What had happened the first time in 1955 or the second. The west seemed no more then dream, a vague, non-detailed dream. And his partner in that dream, nothing more then a blur at best. A blur of wild, eccentric energy. Marty couldn't remember a face, or anything that he had ever said. Besides what he had told Marty about the temporal time point. That had stuck out but other then that nothing.
And it was painful to think about Doc. Not just emotional pain, physical pain.
It started one night, he was on the road, one the way to another city to play another gig, and he was looking at the photograph. The one of he and Doc standing at the clock back in the old west. He had done it dozens of times before, he missed his friend. It had been five years. Marty was touching the old photo when a splitting head ache hit him. It hit so fast and so hard that Marty passed out on his tour bus.
When he came to, he was groggy and his memories were a mess. Everything was scrambled around, he couldn't remember things that had been clear the day before. Like his trip to the past, both times. And even his trip to the future was hazy. Though certain details he did remember, flying cars and hoverboards are hard to forget. But everything else, it hurt to think about. A dull throbbing pain whenever he tried bring something up. He didn't think anything of it, he just started focusing on his present and his future. Not the past.
It seemed to work for the most part. Until he looked at the photo again.
This time he was backstage before a show when he blacked out. Roadies had to wake him up and he was able to preform but it was the worst show the Pinheads had ever put on. Marty was off his game and everyone could tell. His band mates reamed him out good when the show was over.
When he woke up, his memories were scrambled again, even harder to remember and then worst part was, his memories of Doc were nearly gone. The man was a blur of energy in his life. Nothing more. He could barely remember what he looked like, or sounded like. Doc was being erased from his life. Slowly, painfully.
That's why he had been dreading October 21st. He was going to avoid going into town at all possible cost. He knew this time line was different. Doc wouldn't have to come back and save his son. Marty had the feeling that was why Doc was being erased from his memory.
Doc Emmett Brown was now living outside the bounds of time and space. He existed but didn't. Just like Clara. She was meant to have died. But, she belonged with Doc. They were different.
And Marty wasn't allowed to remember them as a result.
By the end of that day, Marty was lying in bed with an unimaginable headache. He hadn't blacked out yet but he knew it was coming. Everything. Every single memory of time travel and his past with Doc was being scrambled and rewritten. Like it never happened. Like it had meant to happen all along. He had loving, great parents from the start and never needed to travel back in time at all to fix anything.
He blacked out that night. Marty didn't wake up until the next day. Thursday, October 22nd 2015.
And he had no memory Doctor Emmett L. Brown at all.