Hey, two story updates for the price of one! This is chapter two, but still in Part 1 of the story, if this is making any sense. Please read and enjoy!

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Part 1: ii) Mission: Improbable

Monday, 28th July 1986
10:19 a.m.
Brown residence

It hadn't taken Marty long to arrive at his mentor's home. Immediately he could sense the welcome the house radiated – the kept lawn, the colour of the exterior.

Leaving his truck in the driveway, Marty covered the pathway to the front door in less than five strides. He always felt good about visiting Doc and his family.

The door opened in response to Marty's knocks, revealing Jules as the responder. Jules, the eight-year-old boy whose interests lay in rock and punk, smiled at the visitor with warm delight. It didn't remain for long though. Doc stormed to the door almost immediately, making the young boy jump, startled. Doc towered over him, a certain look of disappointment in his eyes as he looked to Jules.

"Jules, how many times have I told you not to answer the door on your own?"

Jules obviously didn't realise the true fear Doc held for his family. The terrorists had only paid the family a visit six months previous – Doc didn't want to risk his family's lives again in such an extreme manner.

Looking up to his father, Jules' smile melted into a sulk as he headed off towards his bedroom.

Shaking his head, Doc lifted his eyes to Marty's for the first time, a small smile of welcome starting to appear. But the smile felt forced, as a cover up for things that were on the scientist's mind.

Marty noticed none too soon. "Hey Doc, what's up?"

Doc gestured for the teen to enter the house with a wave of his hand. The door lock clicked softly into place.

"So what's up Doc?" Marty repeated, folding his arms in seriousness.

Doc turned to focus on Marty's question, but then switched his gaze to the kitchen opposite as he moved over to close the kitchen door. Marty watched his movements closely, until his eyes landed upon Clara's figure sat at the kitchen table. She was crying softly in the distance, obviously shaken about something.

Marty's immediate reaction was that they had had a fight; though he hoped to God it wasn't that. To him Doc and Clara were the model marriage partners, putting other married couples to shame.

Marty couldn't wait for Doc to say it, so he did. "You and Clara haven't had an argument, have you? If you have then maybe I'd better leave you to it."

Doc frowned for a moment, wondering what on earth had given the youngster that idea. He waved his hand to dispel the comment. "No, no – nothing like that. No, I'm afraid it's something that happened on Saturday, while I was at the conference."

Marty mentally breathed a sigh of relief, but knew that wasn't the end of the story just yet.

Doc motioned for them to move over into the den, where they could talk in more privacy and avoid Clara overhearing them. Once again Doc prepared himself for the explanation as he always did.

"Clara told me this morning that she had been mugged on the way to the bank on Saturday morning. She's rather shook up about the situation, especially since she didn't report the matter to the police."

Marty shook his head in annoyance, as Doc continued. "She only told me this morning when I asked what was wrong, and why she seemed to be behaving oddly."

Marty could sense the trouble Doc's consciousness had to deal with, but something told him the scientist already had the solution at hand.

"Did they hurt her at all?" Marty asked in concern.

"No, thankfully, though she's still in a state of shock. They only took her handbag and the money she was taking to the bank -"

Doc stopped immediately as he heard the kitchen door open with a soft creak. He strode over to the hall, to be met by a tearful Clara walking towards him, clutching her handkerchief closely.

"Emmett…?" she called gently.

Doc approached her calmly, and placed his arms around her for comfort. He shushed her quietly whilst rocking gently, as though he were rocking a newborn baby to sleep. She eventually began to calm down – her sobs muting to just a small whimper.

"Why don't you go back to bed and relax? Forget that this has happened. No harm has been done – you'll be fine."

He kissed her forehead and rubbed her arms in reassurance, then stood to one side to allow Clara access to the stairs behind him. She smiled sweetly as best she could, then slowly retreated up the stairs to the comfort of her room.

Doc turned to see Marty's expression to the incident, lifting his eyebrows in a "see what I mean" face. Running his hand through his hair, Marty reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"What are you gonna do?"

By that question, Doc re-approached his friend to explain his thoughts. "That's the thing. I was going to call you just as you arrived to ask if you would help me. I'm planning to use the time machine to travel back to prevent the mugging from ever taking place."

Marty frowned, not expecting Doc to take such a direct approach to the problem. "Use the time machine? Doc, are you sure? Isn't there another way to solve this?"

"We can't take this to the police now, not two days after the mugging occurred. They wouldn't be able to do anything, and besides I don't want Clara to have to deal with such a shock again, not like this."

"Yeah but Doc you're the one who's always telling me that time travel has to be used with caution. I just don't want you to make a mistake – you know, especially if there's another way around this."

Doc nodded to take Marty's point, but his mind was already made up.

Marty soon added: "Why do you need me anyway?"

Doc lifted his head to answer. "I need you as support, in case something does go wrong. I'm not sure how to handle this…alone."

Marty understood. Doc needed a shoulder to support him from time to time himself, though Marty often forgot because he considered Doc the stronger of the two. Marty nodded, folding his arms and rubbing them anxiously.

"Right!" Doc exclaimed, taking Marty's nodding to be a sign he was willing to help him. "Let's go!"

Marty looked almost horrified. "What, now?"

"Yep."

"Hold on Doc, what's the hurry? Don't you need someone to look after Jules and Verne?"

Doc whipped his head around as he led the way to the back door. "Why not? I want to get this over with as soon as possible. And we shouldn't be that long. You keep forgetting that we can come back to the same moment in time we left! You're not thinking -"

"- fourth-dimensionally. I know, I know - I keep forgetting about that."

The duo quickly made their way to the back of the house, to the lab where the time machine was kept. The machine was unmistakeable. It was the very same time train that Doc had used to visit Marty only the year before, to introduce his family and to say his goodbyes. It had also returned him to the twentieth century with his family.

Doc manoeuvred himself to the door, and in a graceful style opened the door to access the interior of the machine. It still amazed Marty how magnificent it all looked.

"Come on then, climb aboard!" Doc called out from inside. Marty climbed the stairs until he reached the metallic floor of the train. Towards the front lay a mass of circuits and dials reading all sorts of data, along with numerous wires connecting them all together. At the opposite end sat the seating for the extra "travellers", whilst a single swivel chair sat before the time circuits for the driver – or rather, for Doc.

With a soft grinding of mechanisms the door closed to, enclosing the two time travellers. With a push of a button the control panels and displays roared to life, showing the current time and date along with the destination time Doc entered via the keypad.

"I gotta admit, Doc, this is roomier that the DeLorean ever was!" Marty admired, stretching out on the red seat behind to emphasise his point. He sat back ready for the ride as the machine lifted up out of the barn into the morning sky. Within a few seconds the train had disappeared from sight.