Disclaimer: Back to the Future is not mine.
Uh, short chapter compared to the first one, which was unnaturally long... I would have written more, but I needed to study for my Biology exam and I still wanted to post something. So here goes... ;)
Verne hesitantly put his foot on Marty's skateboard and took a deep breath. He'd never ridden one before...
Cautiously, he kicked off with his other foot, and the skateboard slid out from under him, throwing him off-balance. Verne yelled in shock and hopped off just in time to prevent a painful meeting with the road. Stumbling back upright, he stared warily at the skateboard lying innocently before him and ran his fingers through his brown hair.
You're Marty McFly now, he told himself, placing his left foot firmly on the board again. You've spent half your life skateboarding. You can do this. Just follow your instinct...
Verne closed his eyes and tried to remember, tried to recall from Marty's memories what it felt like to be whizzing down the road on a skateboard and seeing the world zoom by... remembered the feel of the moving board beneath his feet...
Just do it.
"Right," Verne said softly to himself, voice shaking slightly. He took another deep breath and kicked off strongly. His right foot joined his left on the board, and suddenly, Verne knew...
Marty's skateboarding instincts and years of practice had taken over. Now, they directed Verne, subconsciously telling him how to adjust his balance, when to kick off again, how to turn, how to speed up, how to slow down...
A wave of exhilaration swept over Verne, and a grin of pure bliss spread across his face as he grabbed hold of a passing car. The way to 9303 Lyon Estates laid itself out in his mind, clear and familiar. Trained legs pushed off from the car, and Verne turned the corner into the next road, effortlessly manoeuvring the skateboard with a skill he'd never had.
The streets started looking more familiar; this was a route often traversed by Marty. Minutes later, Verne turned into Lyon Estates, cruising past the two pillars with the lion statues on top. The teenager came to a halt right outside the McFly residence, and without needing to think automatically flipped the skateboard up into his right hand. Verne dug into Marty's jeans for the keys he knew were there, and let himself into the house.
By the time the door clicked shut, he'd almost forgotten who he really was.
"Verne?"
Fuzzily, Marty opened his eyes, and Emmett's face swam gradually into focus, looking concernedly down at him.
"Dad?" he heard himself say without thinking, when a little voice somewhere in his head hesitantly tried to correct him.
No, that's Doc, that's not your father, your father's that... that other guy... whatsisname... John... Jor... George, yeah, that's it...
"W... what happened?" Marty struggled to sit up on the sofa, legs barely touching the floor. His head throbbed with a dull pain, and he grimaced.
"You fainted," Emmett informed him. "Are you feeling all right now?"
Marty's seriously messed up mind was still trying to figure out what was going on. "Yeah... I think so..."
"You must have been really tired," Clara cut in gently. "We've got dinner for you. Are you hungry?"
He was.
"Yeah..." Still feeling in a daze, Marty made his way to the table and sat down. His head still ached... Vaguely, he recalled flashes of memory about Emmett's mind-reader device... it had been altered or something... yeah, it had, he remembered Jules and him accidentally swapping minds that time, and then after they swapped back he'd wiped Jules' memory because he didn't want him remembering all that stuff about him...
And he remembered something about wanting to watch Star Wars, only the DVDs weren't there yet, and Marty didn't want to watch Matrix Reloaded because he had told him it wasn't too good, then Marty had...
Wait... I thought I was Marty... am I?
Marty tried to think, but his brain felt half dead.
From the bedroom of Marty McFly that night came a hesitant version of Johnny B. Goode being plucked out on an electric guitar. Some time into the more confident second chorus, the door opened and Lorraine McFly stepped in.
"Marty, we were thi..."
Verne stopped playing with a start, noticing for the first time Lorraine's presence, as well as the queer look she was now giving him.
"That's... that's the song you played, right, in 1955?" she asked quietly.
He gave her a nervous smile. "Uh... yeah..."
Lorraine appeared to be staring off into some faraway place or time. "Yeah, I remember it now," she said distantly. "That time at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance, where your father and I kissed for the first time..."
Verne was starting to feel uncomfortable. "Uh..."
Lorraine didn't really hear him. "Calvin Klein played it," she continued in the same dreamy tone. "I still can't believe he was actually you... We used to wonder what became of him... he just turned up one day, and one week later he was gone..."
"Ah... Mom?"
Marty's mother gave a slight jump, as thought realising suddenly where she really was. "Oh... sorry," she said, looking back at the teen. "Anyway, your father and I were wondering if you'd like to invite Doctor Brown and his family over to dinner at seven tomorrow night. You know, since they'll be leaving soon... It'll be a chance for the rest of the family to get to know them better. What d'you think?"
Verne hesitated. He wasn't too keen to get into a situation where he'd have to interact with his real family, just in case something slipped out... and if Marty was there too...
Then again, he couldn't deny that it would be a very interesting experience to have dinner with his family as Marty McFly, for once... and besides, what was the worst thing that could happen? If Marty decided to blurt out the truth, what were the chances that anyone would believe him? And surely Verne wasn't going to be afraid of some seven-year-old kid...
"Yeah," he decided aloud. "I... I think it'd be a great idea," he said with what he hoped was a convincing smile. "Thanks... I'll go call Doc now and tell him."
About a minute or so later, the telephone was ringing in the Brown household. Emmett answered it. "Hello?"
"Hi, Doc," Verne said, feeling a slight thrill at being able to call his father that.
"Marty? Is something wrong?"
"No, no. Everything's fine, Doc. Um, my parents were just wondering if you and Clara and, uh, Verne would like to come over for dinner tomorrow night." Verne's pulse was starting to race. He was talking to his father and his father didn't know it was him... He grinned.
"Of course we'll come," Emmett replied. "What time?"
"Seven."
"Seven... all right. We'll be there."
"See you then, Doc."
"You too, Marty."
Verne hung up with an odd mixture of emotions churning around inside him: part guilty, part apprehensive, part excited... He gave the strings on Marty's favourite guitar a strum, only half-listening as the chord resonated around the room.
The teen glanced at the clock. It was almost midnight; he should go to bed. Tomorrow awaited him: his first day in Marty's life. Placing the guitar to a side, he left for the bathroom to wash up for the night.
Another thrill ran down his spine as he looked into the mirror above the sink, Marty's reflection staring back at him. An unsuccessfully restrained grin spread across the teen's face, and it stayed there as he later stretched out comfortably on Marty's bed.
Outside, the moonlight shone through the window onto a scene it had shone down on for many years: Marty McFly, turning in for the night.
Verne gave the pillow a cheerful hug. This was his pillow now, his bed, his room, his house, his family, his life, and no one could prove otherwise. A great feeling of security came over Verne. No one would ever know... no one but him and Marty, and what could Marty do about it?
Nothing.
Verne rolled over and flicked off the light.
He was Marty McFly now.
TO BE CONTINUED...
All right... Uh, I had a review from someone who hadn't read They've Got Mail, so here's a quick explanation which I hope will clear things up a bit for anyone else who hasn't read it; I should have put this in the first chapter, but I forgot.
INSERTED PARAGRAPHS FOR FIRST CHAPTER WHICH I SHOULD HAVE INSERTED AT THE BEGINNING:
"Want to watch Back to the Future?" Verne asked with a mischievous grin.
Marty cringed. "No."
Silence passed between them for several moments, as they sat and remembered the events of four months ago. At least, it had been four months for Marty. For Verne, December 1985 had been barely more than a week ago.
The year before, Doc had invented a device that allowed him and Marty to communicate through e-mail across the barriers of time. There had been a computer in Emmett's home in the nineteenth century, and one in his garage in 1985 for Marty to use. Everything had gone fine... until it turned out that the device was placing too much stress on the space-time continuum. Portals to other dimensions opened, and in the end Marty found himself transported into a world where he, Doc, and their adventures were just part of a fictional movie trilogy known as Back to the Future.
It had been one of the weirdest times of Marty's life, and one of the most traumatising. He didn't want to remember any more of it than was necessary, though he sometimes missed the three friends he had made on his interdimensional trip - Neo, Frank Bannister, and Ted Logan.
END OF INSERT
Anonymous-cat: Yep, this is sort of a sequel to TGM. And nice to know that it's not as random. ;) I like those kind of stories too. That's why I'm writing one, ya? Actually, the original idea was Marty switching with Keith, but then no one who hadn't read They've Got Mail would have any idea as to what was going on. I actually wrote about 2000 words of that before scrapping it. Wasn't very good. It's now rotting away under my desk.
frozonedude12: Uh... sorry, but you did not break the record for the shortest review ever, which was '...', by Ectodude I think. But nice try. Thanks for reviewing!
The Hobbit Lass: Nope, I'm not chicken. Ergo here's the next chapter. ;P
Fellowship of the Band Geeks: Well, TGM is finished now. Thanks for reviewing! I might be shifting 'Restaurant at the End of the Space-Time Continuum' over to my brother's account. He wants it, and it's not getting many reviews over here, so there's no harm in doing so.
Eternal Density: Okay, I've continued. Hey, you should write that:D ...What's so weird about it? Lorraine falling for herself... heheh. Um. :whistles innocently and walks away:
flux capacitor...fluxing: Right. I'm continuing!
Ally C.: Thanks for pointing that out... Hope that inserted bit clears things up a little, and any possible future references to They've Got Mail, considering that this story sort of takes over where that ends. Sorry. I shouldn't have assumed that people would know what I was talking about, but I hadn't expected many new readers because the BTTF fanfic community is kind of small and we don't get newcomers often. So... welcome to the section, and thanks for your review! ;)