Disclaimer: I don't own Back to the Future.
Author's Note: And yes, we end on a final cliffhanger. Well, it's not really a cliffhanger so much as a final twist (which was probably predictable). Ah well! Please stay tuned for the final chapter after this one. But if you want to review in the meantime, nobody will really mind.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Wednesday, November 12, 1986
03:27 PM PST
Hill Valley, California
Marty McFly frowned, as he opened the door to Doc's house. He was absent-mindedly holding the key Doc had given him in his hand while staring into the hallway. He couldn't see the inventor anywhere near, but Doc had invited him. As to the why of his visit, however, he was still completely in the dark.
He walked through the hallway, cautiously, feeling like he was entering some kind of haunted mansion and had no way what to expect. Well, at least that latter part was true. "Clara?" he called out, uncertainly. "Jules? Verne?" It was probably best not to call for Doc – knowing the inventor, he was in his lab.
That suspicion was pretty much confirmed when it was Clara who walked into the hallway, having heard his call. "Oh, hi Marty" she greeted. "What are you doing here? I thought you and Jennifer wouldn't be over until 8."
"So did I" Marty muttered. "Doc didn't tell you then? That he asked me to come over?"
Clara shook her head. "Not besides tonight. What are you doing here, then?"
Marty shrugged. "Don't ask me" he mumbled. "It could be anything, knowing Doc. He's probably built some gizmo he wants to show me."
Clara nodded, smiling faintly. "Strange to see you're the first person he'll ask over for that now" she mused. "I'm used to being the first he called out whenever he built an invention, back when we were still living in the Old West. Of course, it was usually a practical appliance then, like a crude washing machine or indoor plumbing…"
Marty nodded. He always felt a little awkward whenever he was talking to Clara about the Old West, because he knew that, while she preferred 20th Century life, she was, like Doc, nostalgic about her previous home, a nostalgia Marty could not even begin to grasp. He'd thought five days in 1885 was long – Clara had lived out most of her life in the era.
"Where's Doc?" he asked, hoping to bring the conversation on another subject.
"I presume he's out in the lab" Clara said. "That's where he went early this morning, and he hasn't returned since. He gave me explicit instructions not to come over to get him for lunch, but I was planning to go there anyway if he's not back by 7. You know Emmett can get carried away sometimes…"
"That's an understatement" Marty said, chuckling. "Well, then I'd best go look for him."
"You know the way" Clara replied. She then winced. "Ouch!"
Marty frowned. "Are you okay?"
Clara smiled faintly, putting a hand on her stomach. "I think I am" she said. "Don't stare at me like that, Marty – this happens regularly these days."
Marty nodded, understanding. One drawback of being a youngest child was that he was totally unequipped on how to handle a pregnant woman. At least Jennifer shared that problem, since she'd been an only child… and well, it didn't come up often anyway. "Are you okay now?" he could help but asking anyway.
Clara nodded, which Marty figured was enough comfort for now. He walked through the maze of hallways and rooms that made up the house and headed over to the lab, knocking on the door. Doc hadn't installed his thumb pad yet, but it was a work in progress, and until then the regular key would be just fine. The problem was, he didn't have one.
"Is that you, Marty?" he heard Doc's voice ask.
"Yep" Marty said.
"Just wait one minute" Doc replied. "I just need to do something... won't be long."
Marty frowned, since his friend had been the one who had called him so impatiently, but shrugged. "Whatever you say, Doc" he called out, and then leaned against the wall to wait.
In the end, it ended up taking little over two minutes before Doc's familiar face appeared at the doorway, grinning broadly. "Marty, come in" he said. "Prepare to be surprised."
"I always tend to be surprised whenever I'm with you" Marty replied, rolling his eyes, but he nevertheless braced himself anyway as he walked into the lab. As a result, he was kind of disappointed when he walked in. Whatever it was Doc had made – it was prominently in the center of the lab, was covered with tarp. Marty was about to complain about that when he recognized the familiar shape of the tarp – and then he had to grip the walls for support.
"Holy shit!" he shouted, in a somewhat high-pitched voice. "Doc, that's… that's the…"
The inventor grinned, and pulled off the tarp, revealing a sleek DeLorean in all its glory. "Happy November 12th, Marty" he simply said.
"S-same to you" Marty stammered. "Doc, where did you get this? Did you go back and save the DeLorean before it got destroyed by that freight train?"
"Marty, you know as well as I do that such a course of action would be very risky" Doc scolded him. "Not only would I have no window of opportunity to do so without getting seen by your younger self, I would also have no easy way to get the car off the track before the train appeared. The real solution is much simpler – although it was rather more work. This DeLorean, although it has some of the car parts you saved for me after the original DeLorean's untimely demise, is mostly the car I built in the alternate 2016."
Marty blinked, trying to latch onto something familiar in all the surprises. "But how could you do that?" he asked. "I mean, you never converted that DeLorean into a time machine in our world…"
"No, but the car was still there" Doc pointed out. "I'd just received our reality's version of it as my birthday present when the whole mess started, after all. As for the parts that make it function as a time machine… well, there are a lot of mysteries that we weren't ever able to get a clear answer on. Like what happened to us after we left 2015 that first time. Yes, we went to Biff's alternate world, but what happened in this reality? Did we go straight from 2015 to 1955? Because there is no account of us being in 1985… and yet, Jennifer and Einstein are here…" He shrugged. "The best explanation I've been able to think of is that the space-time continuum must have sent the time machine and us from 2015 straight to 1955, with memories from the alternate world. Similarly, Einstein and Jennifer were taken out of the car and rippled to 1985. That, in itself, isn't anything out of the ordinary – for instance, when I was in 2016 and the world got transformed to 2016-A, I watched reality change around me. However, that implied that, from the perspective of a 2016-A native, I came into existence on that very moment. One might even speculate that in this version of the timeline, I…"
"Enough, Doc" Marty complained. "Save the theories for another day. So, basically, you put together this DeLorean with material from both the car that crashed into the ravine and some parts of the old DeLorean?"
"Well, I mostly used the car that fell in the ravine, since it was the most intact version" Doc said. "And I had to take the train to the future a few times for components that neither car could provide me with in working order. In the process, however, I also added a lot of future components that weren't present in either DeLorean. Items to enhance the vehicle's security, for the most part. I think you'll find them interesting."
Marty nodded, still somewhat numbly, as Doc walked over to the time machine and he followed. The inventor put his thumb to the plate, causing the car to unlock and Marty to frown. "That's the same thing you had on the old DeLorean" he pointed out. "Or at least, the second one… I mean this one…"
"I get what you mean" Doc ensured his friend. "Yes, it's mostly the same, but it's a bit more resistant to someone smashing the lock – not an unnecessary accessory, as you know. Now, take a look at the time circuits."
Marty looked down, and frowned to see that they had been replaced by… well, it looked most like some sort of flat computer screen. There was no keypad to be seen, nor a handle. "That looks neat" he admitted. "But how does it work?"
In response, the inventor pressed his thumb to the screen, and it lit up. The word 'PASSWORD REQUESTED' appeared.
"Clara" Doc said.
While Marty was surprised to see Doc talk to a car, he was even more surprised to hear it respond. "Access granted" the car computer said, and the screen was replaced by a display of sleeker, but still familiar-looking time circuits. "Welcome, Doctor Brown. Today is Wednesday, November 12th 1986. The time is 3:43 PM, Pacific Time Zone, standard time. The temperature is 62.3 degrees Fahrenheit, 16.8 degrees Celsius and 289.8 degrees Kelvin, expected to rise slowly over the next few days. Sunrise has occurred at…"
"Enough" Doc said, cutting the system off with the one single word. This gave Marty the time to recover just enough from his shock to notice that the display was, in fact, not as similar as he'd thought at first glance. The upper and lower readouts simply lacked any text (besides the familiar 'destination time' and 'last time departed' labels), which made the only readout filled completely the present time.
"You haven't time travelled yet?" Marty commented. "So, how do you put in the destination time? Just say it?"
Doc grinned mischievously. "Try it."
Marty nodded. "Uh, November 12th 1955, 10:04 PM" he said, more for humor than for an actual destination. However, he had barely finished his sentence when the entire screen flashed red and an alarm started blaring. It was so loud that Marty stepped back with horror. "Agh! Turn it off! Turn it off!"
Doc smirked, but didn't do anything, which seriously annoyed Marty but before the teen could do anything about it the alarm shut up on its own. "You're lucky" Doc said. "I had the switch turned off which automatically alerts the police whenever someone who hasn't got access tries to set a destination. It also causes the doors to shut and effectively traps the perpetrator in the vehicle, ensuring both that he can't get out and the police can't get in until I get back and ensure that neither leaves with any hint on my car's true purpose. It's very efficient."
"I can imagine" Marty muttered. "So, does that mean that I won't be able to set a destination anymore? What if we're on a trip together and I'm suggesting a date to you?"
"Well, for one, I'm planning to have you cleared sometime in the near future" Doc said. "Secondly, although the alarm will go off, it can't call the police unless the switch is turned on and we are in a time period where the police phone number can actually be dialed – you can imagine that if we'd go back to 1776 like I suggested during our first time travel test, calling 911 wouldn't get much of a response. Thirdly, I'm also capable of turning off the alarm sound, although whenever a non-cleared person tries to say a date, the time circuits will still flash red and not allow it to be put it in."
"That's a relief" Marty said, remembering the troubles they had had with time travel thus far. And then he remembered one particular incident, the one when he had been fleeing from the Libyans – and realized a potential flaw in Doc's plan. "Where's the switch?"
Doc pointed next to him, on the spot where the time circuit handle used to be and Marty could now see a small switch rest. "Right here."
The teen groaned. "As if that time circuit handle being there in the original car wasn't enough of an annoyance."
"Life can't be perfect, Marty – and I want to have it as close by as possible" Doc said. "You'll never know what might happen. If some person is pointing a gun at me while I'm sitting here in the car, pulling this switch would be much more inconspicuous than when it would be up at the ceiling. You can hardly be too careful."
"That's true" Marty agreed. "If all our adventures through time have taught us anything, it's that. It's nice to have the DeLorean back again, though."
"It certainly is" Doc said. "Let's hope we'll have a quieter life using this time machine than with its previous incarnation."
"I'll drink to that, Doc" Marty commented. "To a life of peace and quiet."
"To a life of peace and quiet… and the little adventure every now and then, of course" Doc said, grinning. "After all, we can't allow ourselves to-"
He was disrupted by a series of rapid knocks on the door. "Dad?" Jules called out, frantically. "Open up!"
Doc and Marty exchanged glances, confused, and the inventor went to open the door. His eldest son burst in, and paused to stare at his father. Jules' face was red and it was clear he was excited – whether positively or negatively, Marty could not tell. "Dad!" he repeated. "It's… it's mom! She…"
"She what?" Doc insisted.
"Dad, mom is going to… she's going to… she's going into labor!"
Doc froze instantly, allowing a deafening silence to fall in the lab. Only Marty dared to break it, even carrying a hint of a smile.
"Well, Doc," he quipped, "I think you've got your adventure…"