Disclaimer: I don't own BttF, and neither do you so there.

This chapter is freakin' long.  I was going to split it up into three parts, but then it would be too short; I can't split it into two, because then it wouldn't make sense. 

I FINISHED MINESWEEPER EXPERT LEVEL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE! WOOHOO! 170 SECONDS! *jumps up and down in excitement* What's this got to do with anything? Dunno.

Anyway, read on. ^_^

Chapter Five

19 December 2015, 8:05 a.m.

Hill Valley, California

Martha McFly, the youngest of three kids, crouched by the side of her house behind a rosebush and waited, heart thumping as she watched her father carry him into the house.  She let her hoverboard fall from her hand onto the grass, where it bobbed a few metres above the ground as she tried to make some sense out of everything.

It all started a few days ago.  Feeling bored, the 14-year-old had been going through her parents' stuff when she came across this old black and white photograph which had her father, 30 years ago, and the now deceased Dr. Brown standing next to the huge clock that now hung on the Clocktower.  She had wondered about it, when Marlene had entered and scolded her younger sister upside down for looking at her parents' private things.

Martha had supposed that the picture could have been taken against some kind of backdrop or something, and tried to forget about it… only she couldn't.  There was just something about the photograph that kept nagging at her mind.

And then, just the day before, Marty had taken his family over to their grandparents' house for dinner.  Over there, Lorraine had decided that her granddaughter looked like she could do with some entertaining and took her to the room where the family kept their old photographs and stuff.  She then proceeded, for the umpteenth time, to tell Martha all about how she and George had got together, chucking the girl the 1955 Hill Valley High yearbook as she did so.

Trying to remain polite, Martha had flipped through the pages, only stopping when a certain photo caught her eye; one of the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance ones.  It was not so much the photograph that took her attention, though, but rather the guy in the picture up there on the stage, playing the guitar.

He looked exactly as her father had in that clock photograph; although it would have taken a closer shot of the guy's face to be certain for sure.

Grandma Lorraine had looked over Martha's shoulder at the photo, and apparently noticed the same thing, for she had suddenly stopped talking.

"Who's that?" Martha had asked.

"Oh, that was Marty," – the girl stiffened at the name – "Martin Klein.  Without him, your grandpa and I would have never met."  Lorraine had smiled at the memory, the looked back thoughtfully at the picture.  "Funny… he looks a lot like your father did when he was young.  I wonder…"

Martha had looked up, watching her grandmother intently as she waited for her to continue.  Lorraine, however, had just laughed.

"Nah, it couldn't be him," she had said with a small chuckle.  "Not unless he had a time machine," she had added, not knowing just how close she had come to the truth.

Martha had smiled along at the joke; but she wasn't so sure that it wasn't true.

For today, barely moments ago, she had seen him, standing outside the Café 80's looking lost.  The guy from the photos.  He had stared back at her… and she was almost completely certain that it was the same person.  Marty.  But how could he be here?

Not unless he had a time machine… but what if he did? It was not possible, but what if? And what if that guy was actually her father, on a trip from the past…

Martha had watched as he saved her brother from the car accident.  She had watched, unnoticed, as her father had arrived and taken him away.  And then she had skated to the car and climbed onto it's back, staying low and trying to ignore the curious glances from passers-by as she clung on, undetected, all the way home.  She had jumped down a little way off to decrease her chances of being seen by her father, and then skated on her hoverboard over to where she was now, waiting.

She didn't know what she was waiting for, exactly.  All she knew was that that guy was now inside her house, and all she had to do was wait for her father to leave so that she could get in there and confirm his identity.

Just then, the sound of an approaching hover car filled the air.  It was like none Martha had ever seen, but before she could wonder about it any further the door of her house flew open and her father ran out towards the vehicle.

Now was her only chance.  Leaving her hoverboard there on the ground, Martha move as quickly and as quietly as she could to the front of her house, then scooted in through the open door unseen.  She ran to her brother's room and pulled open a drawer, rummaged in it and emerged victorious with the fingerprint identification device she knew was there.  Marty Jr. knew the son of a police officer, and had somehow got hold of the thing.

A quick search of the house revealed that the guy was in her parents' bedroom.  Martha entered the room cautiously, and crept down to his side to get a good look at his face, turning on the device as she did so. 

It was him, she was certain of that now.  And he also bore an uncanny resemblance to both her father and her brother.

Slowly, Martha reached over for one of his hands, gently placing his thumb on the scanner.

Fingers trembling, she hit the activator button.

And the screen flashed, displaying a name.

Martin Seamus McFly.

"No…" Martha whispered, her voice barely audible as her eyes stared at the unconscious form on the bed, so strange and yet so familiar.

Her father…

The sound of approaching footsteps and two voices snapped the girl back to her senses.  The door was opening.

With nowhere else to go, Martha dived under the bed, clinging onto the device.  Face down, she tried to keep silent, trying not to sneeze at the dust there.  Strategically placing the gadget at an angle to the floor, she tried to see what was going on through the reflection on the screen.

The local Marty entered the room and sat down on the bed next to his unconscious younger self.  Doc followed behind, taking up a standing position by the doorway.

"Are you sure no one else knows we're here?" Emmett asked.  "If someone were to come in now, you'd have a lot of explaining to do."

Marty smiled, playing with the fingers on his other self's hand, interlocking them with his own.  It gave him the strangest of feelings.  "Nah, no one knows.  Jen won't be home till lunch, Junior's out with friends, Marlene's got extra classes at school or something and Martha's out too…"

"Martha?"

Marty grinned.  "Yeah.  She's our youngest.  Jen and I weren't really expecting her… but as you said, Doc, the future's always changing."  Marty paused, still playing with his younger self's hand.  He found it strangely fascinating. 

"Doc… I've got to tell you something about the future," he continued, in a quieter tone tinged with sadness.  Marty looked up to see the scientist staring sternly back at him.

"Marty, you can't. You know the consequences of that," the latter replied.

"Yeah, but…"

"Nothing is worth that, Marty.  I'll find out what happened in the natural course of time."

Two equally stubborn pairs of eyes met.  Marty shrugged, turning his gaze away to stare at the floor.  "Then… maybe I'll just write you a letter," he said slowly, looking back up at his friend.  "Like I did that time in 1955."

"Are you implying something?"

Marty was silent for a moment before speaking.  "Maybe."

For a while, neither of them said anything. Then, Marty gave a wan smile, as if he had thought of some other way to solve his problem.  He released his hand and got up from the bed.  "Are you hungry? I think there's still some food leftover from breakfast…"

Emmett eyed his friend suspiciously, and then consented.  The two walked out of the room, Marty closing the door behind him.

Neither noticed Martha sliding cautiously out from under the bed, trembling as she got to her feet.

For she had just discovered her father's greatest secret.

And she was scared.  Very scared.

~8~8~8~

19 December 2015, 8:34 p.m.

Hill Valley, California

Marty did not know how long he had been knocked out.  Opening his eyes slowly, painfully, he found himself in a half-sitting half-lying position in the front seat of the DeLorean.  It was night outside; but the car's interior lights hurt his eyes and he shut them again.

"Doc?" Marty asked weakly.  There was no response, but the faint voices of two people in conversation reached his ears, too faint for him to make out the words or the speakers.

The teen figured he had been hit on the head; that's where most of the pain was, though his whole body ached all over.  Vaguely, he recalled the accident; he remembered the car coming towards him, finally hitting him…

Wincing, Marty tried to stand up and pushed open the gull-wing door of the time machine.  A blast of the cold outside air hit him as he staggered out, raising up a hand to close the door as he did so.

The voices had stopped.  Marty squinted in the dark, trying to see ahead, and walked towards a nearby streetlamp.

"Doc?" he asked again.  He knew the scientist couldn't be far off; he would never leave the DeLorean unattended like that.  So he had to be around here somewhere…

"You're finally awake, huh?" an all-too-familiar voice said, just as he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

Marty swivelled around on instinct, letting out a short scream and stumbling a few steps back as he saw his local counterpart standing barely a metre away from him, a weird yet somewhat amused look on his face. 

The latter removed his hand.  "Hey, it's just me.  I'm not going to do anything…"

Trying to calm himself down, Marty looked back up at his future self's face.  Their eyes met, and he flinched, turning his gaze down to the floor.  The feeling of having eye contact with himself was just too weird for his liking.

He would have fainted, had it not been for the fact that he had just recovered from one.   As it was, all Marty felt was totally freaked out.  "Uh… hi?" the teenager managed to croak out.  "Just… don't do that to me… I didn't even know you were there…"

The local Marty smiled wryly at his younger self's uneasiness.  "Don't worry.  After a few years of time travel, you'll almost get used to seeing yourself." He paused.  "Almost."

The teen didn't know how to respond to that.  One hand on the streetlamp for support, he just stared.

"How's your head?" the older Marty asked, looking somewhat concerned.

The visitor touched his head and winced.  "Uh… it's okay, I guess… it still hurts a little though."

"Sorry… but I couldn't do much.  If I'd brought you to a hospital or something it wouldn't have been easy to explain who you were."  The local then became serious again, his voice lowering in volume.  "Listen, I've got to tell you something really important.  Later…"

Before he could continue, however, Doc's voice suddenly came out of the shadows.  "And what do you think you're doing?"

Both Martys jumped, the older one suddenly looking guilty as they noticed the inventor there.  "I was just… uh… can't I even say hello?"

Doc started muttering something about paradoxes and the end of the universe.  "You said you needed the toilet."

"Ah… yeah.  I do.  In fact, I think I'll go now.  Uh… bye."  Local Marty smiled awkwardly and turned to go, then stopped and looked back.  "You know, you really look a lot like my son," he added as an afterthought.

"Marty…" Doc warned, visibly gritting his teeth.

"Okay, okay, I'm going! Uh… the toilet.  Yeah.  Bye."

The teenage Marty grinned nervously as he watched his future self run off.  Doc, however, seemed far from pleased at the whole meeting.  The only thing that seemed to be preventing him from going totally nuts was his confidence that thirty years later, Marty was unlikely to remember much of the incident.  That and the fact that he was already nuts, to a certain extent.  Just joking.

"Thirty years from now, remind me to come after you once you reach home," he said as the two of them walked back to the time machine.

"Well, you talked to him, so why can't I?" Marty asked.

Doc gave him a strange look in return.  "That was… different."

Marty shrugged and climbed into the DeLorean.  Noting the temperature difference, he threw his jacket off onto the floor.  He had to change clothes sooner or later, anyway.  Swinging the door shut, Marty sat back and waited for his friend to get in the other end of the car and program the time circuits.

"It's going to be hard to sleep after this," the boy commented, more to himself than anything.  "I mean, I just got up.  I suppose I could try counting sheep, but after the fiftieth one or so the sheep always seem to get into weird accidents, fall off the fence and die."

"You'll find a way," Doc replied, sending the time machine into the sky.  They sped up to 88 mph, killed a few dumb birds on the way, and headed home… or so they thought.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Irish Bug: 'Interesting and thoughtful?' Since when was anything I wrote interesting and thoughtful?  'Pics of MJF and brains'? 0.0 Uh… you sure you don't need psychiatric help? No, wait, you do… um… never mind.

Stoko: Thanks for reviewing! ^_^

Diego Mejia: Okay, Chap 5 is here… =D

Imogen262: Three? 0.0 There're only two… well, okay, so there WILL be three later… argh! Plot spoiler! Uh, forget that. ^_^

Fallen Hawk: It made your day? Okay… want me to review your fic a third time and say it's sick again?