After the noise when the DeLorean left, everything suddenly seemed much more
quiet than before.

Much more lonely.

Marty was still staring at the place where the DeLorean had just
disappeared. He couldn't believe what Doc had done to him.

He had left him here in an alternate Hill Valley. He had nowhere to go, no
one to turn to. Biff would kill him if he went back to his mother.

An hour ago, Marty had believed that everything in the world was as awful as it was possible to get. He had been proved wrong. Even though his father was dead, his mother married to Biff, he was in a horrible world where nothing was the same…he had thought Doc would be with him, that they could bear it together. Doc had even told him the plan, the plan to try to set everything right…and then, totally unexpectedly, he'd completely flipped out and taken off into another time.

Leaving Marty behind.

Marty pressed his knuckles to his forehead. 'Jesus, Doc,' he whispered,
wanting to cry again. 'I didn't mean for this to happen… I'm sorry… Please
come back. Please…'

The full horror of the situation hit him, and he almost staggered backwards
from the shock. 'Doc,' he shouted into the silence. 'Doc, please!'

Doc couldn't hear him. Doc would never hear him again.

But before he could break down completely, he was alerted by the sound of a car drawing up near him. He nervously took a few steps away. He had seen
some of what kind of people now lived in Hill Valley, and wasn't willing to
experience it head-on.

He didn't have a choice. Not giving him a chance to run away or even to
prepare to defend himself, two men jumped out of the car and seized him by
the arms, digging their fingers painfully into him.

'Hey!' shouted Marty, struggling angrily; but they were stronger than him,
and he received a blow on the head for the second time that night. Dizzy
from pain, the strength went out of him. He let himself be dragged to the
car and thrown in. He heard the door slam and the engine rumble, and then
they were driving away.

0000000000000000000000

The blue flashes that were flickering across the windscreen of the DeLorean
disappeared, and Doc braked, wincing at the squeal of the tires on the road
that would surely alert anyone about. But the sonic booms would have been
louder; and besides, there was no one about to hear the noisy arrival. This
was Hill Valley, 1940, at three o'clock in the morning, and everyone was
asleep in bed.

Doc slumped back in the seat with a sigh, reaching out to rest his hand on
Einstein's head. It was raining, blurring the windows, but Doc didn't feel
the slightest inclination to get out of the car and see what the street he
lived on used to be like.

1940 had been an almost unconscious decision. Doc had just chosen a year
that was as yet untainted by Biff's tyranny.

It was all to come. And Doc had no way of knowing when it would all begin, when the old Biff would give young Biff the almanac, and events would spiral out of control, turning Hill Valley into some sort of hellhole.

Where he had left Marty.

Marty.

Doc closed his eyes and leaned his head back. He could barely remember what he had said to Marty; the shock had blinded him, filled him, obscured his thoughts; all he could think of was his other self, locked away from what
everything could have been and what should have been. He'd taken it all out
on Marty, and that…

That had been wrong.

He could remember what he'd said to his young friend now, and he could
hardly believe he'd acted that way. Marty was not to blame. Doc was. He had invented the time machine, he had caused all this. Marty was young, he just hadn't thought, he had never set out to cause any harm.

Oh, Marty!

His friend, his best friend in the world, the person who had always stood by
him…they'd talked together, laughed together, exploded experiments together…Doc had often felt that Marty was the only person in the world who had
understood him. Everyone else dismissed him as crazy.

And he had abandoned Marty, hadn't even let him come with him in the time
machine. He couldn't think about it anymore. Shame burned in his heart. He
saw Marty watching him as he drove away, the look on his face, in his eyes.

You're my best friend, Doc.

It hadn't been a plea for him to stay. It had been a goodbye.

Doc knew he hadn't really intended to leave Marty there like that. He had
needed some time to cool off, some time to collect his thoughts. Marty had
thought he was leaving for real; and even though he thought that, he still
told Doc that he was and always would be his best friend.

Doc would just have to go back and tell Marty how sorry he was, and hope that the boy could somehow forgive him. And then, together, they could try to fix this mess.

He slapped Einstein on the back and turned on the time circuits. He would go straight back to fetch Marty. Well, not straight back he amended silently. Doc didn't want to risk running into his other self. He set the time circuits for one minute after he left, even though he was sure that was a pretty wide margin for error. He felt bad for leaving Marty for that long, but he wanted to be safe rather
than sorry.

'Ready, Einie?' He fastened his seatbelt. 'Let's get back to the future!'

0000000000000000000000000

The DeLorean blasted into 1985 and skidded to a halt where Doc, in this
time, had left one minute before. Doc threw open the door and clambered out.
'Marty! Marty, I - '

Marty was nowhere to be seen. Confused, Doc spun around just in time to see a car's rear lights disappear around a corner.

Marty couldn't have been in that car; that was impossible. But where could
he have gotten?

He burst into the lab. The candles still flickered forlornly. The breeze
fluttered the edges of the newspapers they'd left on the bench. George McFly
smiled up at Doc; his own face stared at him in terror, his eyes shone fear. Yet, there was no sign of Marty.

Doc ran out onto the dark street again. Only Einstein and the DeLorean were
there. The dog tilted his head and looked curiously at his master, wondering what delusion he was under this time.

'Marty!' the Doc called again, but he knew it was hopeless.

Marty was gone.