The Ides of March

Twin Pines

A/N: I've noticed that most of my fics have been centred around either Marty or Doc...this is understandable perhaps, given that they are the two central characters of BTTF. However, for a change, I decided to write a fic focusing on some of the other major characters in the trilogy...and that led to this fic. Each chapter will focus on the POV's of Lorraine McFly and Biff Tannen on the night of March 15th 1973 (the 'Ides of March', for those who don't know)...in a different timeline. The first chapter is set in the original 'Twin Pines' timeline (before any time travel has occurred).

Thursday, March 15th, 1973

Lorraine Baines McFly sat in the living room, in front of the television, at her house in Lyons Estates. It was late in the evening, about eight o'clock. She'd just got back from dropping her eldest son Dave at a friend's house for a sleepover. Her younger children, Marty and Linda were upstairs in their rooms...she would call them down for dinner once her husband George was back.

Lorraine was waiting impatiently for George...no, not just with impatience, but with a curious kind of anticipation. For today, there was a chance, just a tiny chance, that her husband would get a promotion at work. But not just a promotion, but recognition from his employers and colleagues...recognition of the fact that George McFly had it in him to be a success, to make others proud of him...that one McFly at least would amount to something in the history of Hill Valley...

Lorraine wanted that to happen. She needed that to happen! For as much as she loved George, had loved him since that fateful day her father had hit him with the car, deep down inside she knew that he lacked something. A lot of things actually. He lacked confidence, aggression...a drive to do. He was a nice person at heart, truly, and that was something Lorraine had always appreciated about her husband...but she also knew, sure enough, that the meek would not inherit the earth...

But tonight, there was a chance that George McFly would be proven to be not amongst the meek...

The doorbell rang and Lorraine made her way to the door, opening it and welcoming George in with a level of affection she'd seldom shown him in months.

"Well George", she said, once they'd settled themselves on the couch. "What happened? Did you get it?"

"What Lorraine?" George asked in his usual absent-minded way.

"The promotion, George", Lorraine said in a slightly exasperated tone. "Did you get it?"

"Oh", George said. His head sunk and he said in a low monotone, "I didn't get it, Lorraine. I'm sorry".

There was a stunned silence. "But George...you said you'd get it for sure...and after all the great work you've done in the past few months..."

"The management said I'd done a good job...but they said I wasn't exactly the kind of person they wanted for the job...they said they wanted someone more...assertive...like Biff", George said apologetically and shame-facedly.

"Biff", Lorraine spat out the name of George's old tormentor since high school. "Don't tell me he got the promotion!"

"He did Lorraine", George said.

"But how? Who in their right minds would recommend that slimy buffoon for such an important job?" Lorraine asked.

George's head sank even lower.

"George!", Lorraine shouted. "Don't tell me you..."

"I had to do it Lorraine...he was standing there, right across me when our boss was asking me if I would like to recommend someone else, someone more assertive...and he gave me a look and...well, I had to give his name...besides, he is assertive after all Lorraine...maybe...he is the right man for the job! It certainly isn't me..." George muttered.

Something welled up inside Lorraine. Deeply and powerfully. It wasn't anger and it certainly wasn't sorrow. It was something else entirely.

Disgust.

And she had to let it out...

"You IDIOT!" she shouted at George as though he was across the room, though he was in fact right before her. "Can't you just do one damn thing right? Can't you at least take advantage of one good opportunity? God knows, you've wasted enough in the last eighteen years. If you were a dumb blithering retard, I might have understood...but you know what the worst part is, George? You have intelligence...you have talent...and you just waste it away! Like you've wasted most of your life! Like you've wasted mine!"

"Please, Lorraine", George said. He was almost on the verge of tears. "Don't say that...I've tried..."

"Don't you dare say that George McFly! You've never tried anything in your useless life! You never even tried to kiss me at that stupid dance in high school...I was the one who threw myself onto you. I felt that all you needed was a little more confidence...well, after eighteen godforsaken years, I've realised that you just don't have any...and you never will!", Lorraine continued in a harsh tone. Tears were ringing down her face...tears of rage, of frustration...of despair...

George opened his mouth to speak, but he thought better and shut it. Lorraine, even further disgusted by his pathetic failure to even verbally defend himself, ran out of the living room up the stairs.

"Mom", she faintly heard a voice, which in her emotional turmoil, she recognised as that of her nearly five year old son, Marty.

She looked down at her youngest, who was standing there with a frightened expression on his face. "I heard someone shouting...is everything alright?"

Lorraine sighed, "Nothing's alright kiddo. Now just go back to your room. Dinner will be...late".

She then brushed past the even more frightened kid, ran into her bedroom, and slammed the door shut.

Then she threw herself onto the bed and cried her heart out.

For the first time in the almost eighteen years they'd been together...she sincerely wished, with all her heart, that she'd never fallen in love with George McFly...

She even began to wish she could go back in time and prevent it from even happening...

Perhaps then her life wouldn't have been such a waste...

Biff Tannen lay down on his couch, in front of the television, a tumbler of iced beer in his hands. Though he'd have much preferred it to be champagne. After all, there was cause for celebration today.

By God, it had worked! One look at the Irish Bug and he'd pulled through! And the promotion was Biff's now. He simply couldn't believe how easy it had been, even after all these years...he could scarcely believe how George McFly could be such a pushover.

He'd been getting George to do his work for him since high school. Even before that actually. The Irish Bug was clever, Biff had to hand it to him...and also not stupid. He knew that Biff was a lot bigger than him, and so what Biff wanted, Biff would get...

The one time Biff had not got what he had wanted was just plain bad luck for him...or extraordinary good luck for McFly. Lorraine Baines had been the prettiest girl in school, and Biff had wanted her so badly...but then she went and actually fell for the Irish Bug! And how exactly did George win the heart of Biff's dream girl? By getting hit by her old man's car! Biff had lost all respect for Lorraine after she'd actually married the loser and had three kids with him...in his more sadistic moments, he entertained fantasies of Lorraine coming to his door, begging him on her knees to save her from the drudgery of her life with McFly...and he would have his way with her and throw her back into the gutter she'd chosen eighteen years ago...Yes, that was what he'd do.

Well, for now, Biff reflected, he'd done enough work for a night. He'd gotten McFly's job...he'd worry about getting his wife later...