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1985—Hill Valley

October 26, 11:45 pm

Amelia couldn't sleep. She lay curled up on the armchair, staring at the light that was filtering in through the broken windows and listening to car alarms wail in the distance. On the moth eaten couch next to her, her father snored loudly and turned over. She looked at him and then at the floor where Marty lay sprawled out, face down.

"Are you asleep?" Amelia whispered.

"Are you kidding?" Came the muffled reply. "Every time he breaths it's like someone put a jackhammer in my brain." Marty rolled onto his back and winced as Emmett fired off a particularly obnoxious snort. "Can't he take something for that?"

"What do you think is going on, Marty?" Amelia asked softly.

"I'm not sure."

"I can't believe we're lying around like this," she said irritably. "We should be trying to figure out how to get home!"

"Aims, it's almost midnight," he said squinting at his watch. "We can't walk around out there, we'll be shot! What are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know," she snapped. "Something…anything… Turn on the T.V., I can't sleep."

Marty sat up and was about to flip on the dial when he paused. "What about him?"

"He can sleep through a hurricane," Amelia said, uncoiling herself in the chair.

She was right. Even with the television glowing and chatting away, Emmett continued snoring like nothing was going on. Amelia sank on to the floor next to Marty and leaned her head on his shoulder. They flipped through the channels and landed on a repeat news broadcast in the hopes that it could tell them what was happening outside of the garage. For a while the anchor droned on about rising health care costs and air pollution. Then, just as Amelia's eyes had begun to droop, the broadcaster said something that caused both of them to sit bolt upright.

"In other news: Biff Tannen, founder of Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise and Hill Valley's most affluent citizen, is due in court tomorrow morning to face allegations of fraud, tax evasion, and manslaughter. The charges, which were brought around by one David McFly (son of Tannen's latest wife, Lorraine Baines McFly Tannen) and the state of California are expected to be dropped. Now to our seven day forecast…"

"What!" Marty yelled, causing Emmett to snort on the couch and flip onto his tummy. "Aims, did you hear that?"

"Yeah," Amelia said, gaping at the television screen. "No wonder the whole town's destroyed, Biff's running the operation!"

"No, not that," Marty shook his head and lowered the volume on the T.V. "Didn't you hear what they said about my brother and my mom?" Amelia looked at him. She had missed that evidently. "Amelia, the anchor said 'Lorraine Baines McFly Tannen'. Tannen! That means she's married to him, Aims! My mom's married to that—that—asshole!" He flopped against the couch and stared blankly ahead of him, breathing heavily. "How could my mom leave Dad for him."

"You don't know that for sure, Marty," Amelia said softly, squeezing his shoulder. "I mean, what if the news caster got his information wrong? It happens all the time."

Marty was shaking now and his fists were clenched. His jaw was set in an uncharacteristically hard line. Amelia had never seen him so angry before, it scared her a little bit. She shifted away from him slightly. A tense moment passed.

"Put your shoes on, Aims," he said quietly, standing up. His tone was cold and flat and Amelia could tell that he was trying to work something out in his head…something that might lead to trouble. She wasn't sure if leaving was a good idea anymore.

"But…but what about…we can't just walk around in that mess. You said so yourself. What are you planning on doing, anyway?"

Marty glanced at her but didn't answer. He slipped his feet into his shoes and started toward the door. All of her previous desire to run out and find the source of the problem had vanished now that Marty was acting so rashly. What if he did something stupid and dangerous? The door clicked behind him and Amelia had no choice. Throwing on her shoes and scrawling a slopping note to her father, she ran after Marty.

**

"Marty, I don't think this is a good idea anymore. Can we please go back to the garage?"

"No. You wanted to do this in the first place."

"I know…but now I want to go back."

"Then go back."

"Not without you."

"Then it looks like you're coming with me."

Amelia bit her lip. She just knew that running around in the middle of the night (as much as she had been all for it before) was not going to turn out well. She had been trying to talk Marty out of it since they had left the safety of the garage. So far, she had had no such luck. He was dead set on finding Biff and his mother. Not that she could blame him; she just wanted to do it in the daylight and maybe with some form of protection.

They were near the center of town. Marty had decided that that would be the most logical place to start looking for Biff, and he was right. They had no sooner turned down Main Street then did they stop in their tracks, frozen at what they saw before them. Towering above what had been the town square (it was now an enormous parking lot) was a 28 story tall building. Above the glittering entrance was a large likeness of Biff Tannen lighting a cigar with a wad of cash, and the words Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise glowed bright neon blue and pink. Marty made a sound next to her that was a cross between a snort and the spitting noise a cat makes when it's angry. Then he grabbed her hand a little rougher than usual and started pulling her across the crowded parking lot. Amelia jogged to keep up with him.

"Marty, you're hurting me," she said.

Marty didn't say anything but his grip loosened.

The closer they got to the entrance the more and more people they encountered, none of who looked like they would have fit into the Hill Valley Marty and Amelia remembered. The great majority of them, men and women, were dressed entirely in leather and tattooed, pierced, or both. They were sprawled out on the steps of the casino or lounging on their motorcycles, obviously drunk and growing increasingly hostile as the seconds ticked by. When the mob spotted Marty and Amelia they erupted with excited whoops and several of them got to their feet, nasty grins on their faces. Amelia moved closer to Marty. As they passed through the heart of the crowd they were bombarded with a shower of insults and catcalls. Marty's grip tightened again and he pulled Amelia quickly up the casino steps and through the automatic sliding doors.

The vestibule was very tall and completely done over in white marble. At one end was an enormous staircase that wound its way up the wall like a vine, at the other were the elevators and what they took to be the check-in desk. The hall was flooded with people talking noisily, wheeling luggage around, and waiting for the elevators to reach the bottom again. Directly in front of them, two large gilded doors were propped open and Marty and Amelia could see into the smoke filled room beyond: the gambling hall.

"Come on," Marty said.

They strode across the floor and entered through the gilded doors. They hadn't taken more than ten steps inside the gambling hall when Amelia gasped and grasped the sleeve of Marty's shirt, making him stop. He turned in the direction Amelia was staring and his eyes went wide. Dancing on top of an elevated platform in the middle of the room was Jennifer. She was dressed in a black leotard and a man's pinstriped jacket and was writhing around on a folding chair. A crowd had gathered around the platform and they were whooping and hollering for more, brandishing dollar bills as encouragement. As Jennifer made a sweep around the edges she caught sight of them, or rather Marty, and gave him a wink. Marty looked at Amelia and shrugged.

"What should we do?" He whispered.

"Well she's already seen us…and she obviously knows what's going on…"

The two pushed their way over to the platform and waited for Jennifer's music to stop. As soon as it did, she waved away the gathering of men hoping that she would continue her act and slid gracefully to the floor. Then she wrapped her arms around Marty's neck and thrust her mouth on top of his. Amelia shifted awkwardly…apparently Jennifer hadn't seen her after all.

"You're home!" Jennifer squealed when she finally came up for air. She hugged him to her chest (her spike heels made her several inches taller than him). "You're home, I can't believe it! You weren't supposed to be home for another two months! What happened, you weren't kicked out again were you? Biff'll be pissed. He doesn't know yet does he? Oh, who cares," she purred suddenly, grinding herself against his pelvis. "You're home now and we are gonna have us some fun tonight."

"Um, Jennifer," Marty chuckled nervously, "w-what are you doing?"

"What do you mean 'what am I doing'?" Jennifer giggled, nibbling his ear. "Come on, let's go snag an empty room before Biff realizes you're not in Switzerland anymore."

She grabbed Marty's hand with the intention of dragging him off to the staircase, but nearly ran into Amelia as she turned around.

"Ah!" Jennifer screamed, startled. "What the hell are you doing in here?! Marty, you didn't drag her in here again did you? You know how Biff feels about…her family…"

"Jennifer, it's ok. I—" Marty started. Jennifer cut him off.

"No, it's not!" Jennifer snapped. "She's been warned before. Security! Security, we need you now!"