Title: Forward From Here
Author: This is Da Vinci Speaking
Rating: PG
Pairings: None
Summary: Another take on how Doc and Marty met. He doesn't have to be the local nut job; he doesn't have to be an accidental visitor.
Disclaimer: I want you to take a moment and think about how dangerous it would be if I could claim possession to anything officially BTTF-related.
Chapter: 1 of ??
Notes: I can't even begin to tell you how this came about.

Darwin

The winter of 1971 was no big deal for Emmett Brown. He spent the more tolerable days in back of his garage/house, tinkering with his time machine, while he spent the colder afternoons working on the project indoors. The ritual was so ingrained into his lifestyle that he barely cared or noticed that he could've nearly worn a trough in the floor. He wasn't upset at the fact that he was alone—at least not anymore. That had dilapidated years ago and paved the way for indifference.

Instead, he could feel himself starting to get more excited at the thought that he was nearly finished with the flux capacitor. Sure, there would be several more years on the entire thing to go before he could properly use it in a test, but just the vision of it was enough motivation for the scientist to work harder.

That increased on Christmas morning, when a little mutt puppy decided to ambush Emmett's attempts at taking his garbage to the trash can outside his home. He'd barely gotten the black bags in the bins when he suddenly felt a small bit of pressure on the toe of his left shoe. He looked down and into the face of a small, furry creature, which was currently lying across the inventor's shoe and exposing his belly, begging to be petted.

That was the beginning of the friendship between Emmett and Darwin.

Emmett often found himself thinking how much of a resemblance Darwin had to his predecessor, Copernicus. The two dogs looked almost the exact same, which gave the inventor the thought that he was destined to own mutts for the rest of his life. They both were around the same color, though Darwin was much darker, and their fur was about the same length; at least, how he had remembered Copernicus's fur length to be. Copernicus had passed on five years prior to Darwin's appearance, and it had taken a full three months for Emmett to adjust to the emptiness of the house.

When winter of '72 rolled around, Emmett was in much better spirits. He and Darwin had grown very close, which was apparent in his treatment of the canine. At night Darwin would sprint into the inventor's room and leap onto his bed, which—Emmett remembered with a nauseating guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach—he wouldn't allow Copernicus to do. Darwin was a clean little fellow; he rarely went outside except to take care of his business and to occasionally play with his owner. This was different; Emmett's previous dogs were always playing in the dirt, whether it was bright and sunny or gloomy and rainy outside.

One particular night, the scientist had woken up from a particularly uncomfortable nightmare about the beagle he had owned before Copernicus, Bell, and when he opened his eyes he found himself gazing into Darwin's furry face. The dog had noticed his owner had been sleeping restlessly and curled up beside him to calm him down. It had worked.

Emmett had carefully hugged Darwin and for the first time in years—and hopefully the last—cried himself back to sleep, taking solace in the only friend he seemed to have.