Disclaimer: Nobody... calls me... the owner of the BTTF movies.

Author's Note: Okay, it's been a while. In fact, it's been a rather long while. I promised in the latest TDITW chapter that I would try to update sooner than before, and of course I didn't. I originally planned to update in April, then it was May, and then it was June, and then the date featured in this story (or at least, mentioned at the end of this chapter and featured in the next few) was coming up, and I knew I couldn't let that date pass by. And because I let myself run out of time again, I won't update TDITW until tomorrow. Unless I get lazy again. And I'm a pessimist, so I'm definitely taking that option into account.

Why did I post one chapter for this story, then cease updates? The reasons for that are multiple, first of all being that I wanted to upload TDITW first (and that worked out
so well) and that I simply wasn't satisfied with the story yet. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I suppose. I also had distractions, but those are lame excuses. Anyway, I reread IBBIT once in a while, revised something here and there, but in general saw no reason to let it slip out of my control by uploading a chapter. However, there will always be stuff to change. Always. And as a non-native English speaker, my stories will never attain the perfection I want them to. So, why not upload a chapter, wait for reviews, and perhaps somebody will even see something I missed? It's more productive than just staring at the story once a month and rephrasing random sentences, I'm sure. So anyway, there we are. This is the second (or more accurately, the first, as the other was a prologue) chapter of IBBIT. Enjoy. Oh, and please review.

PS: Sorry for the lame disclaimer. I had a cool one thought up some time ago but it slipped my mind in-between and I have no idea what it might have been.

Chapter One

Saturday, March 23, 1895
6:00 PM PST
Hill Valley, California

Dr. Emmett Brown felt on top of the world.

Here he was, twenty-five years before he was born, celebrating his sort-of-seventy-fifth birthday with a marvelous wife and two great sons. It was a fantastic position, one which he would have never imagined himself in just ten years ago. He knew he had mused about this idea several times, far too often in fact, but it never ceased to astound him.

He looked at Clara, who looked back. "Enjoying your birthday, Emmett?" she asked. "No wonder, you don't have to do any of the work."

Doc smirked. "You were the one to volunteer for taking all my house duties today, so I'm not going to ask if I can still do them anyway. I'm just happy you loved me enough to ask in the first place."

Clara stopped her dishwashing to smile at him. "Come on, Emmett" she said, embracing him. "I'll never stop being in love with the man who saved me from a nasty fall into the ravine. You saved my life, and even if that hadn't been enough to win me over, your handsomeness and your nice personality certainly were." She leaned in to kiss him.

"Mo-om" Verne said, in an annoyed tone of voice that indicated he'd seen this sort of thing happen far too often. "Weren't we going to unwrap Dad's packages now?"

"That's right, mo-mom" Jules said. Doc noticed that his hesitation at calling his mother wasn't annoyance, like with Verne, but a reluctance to call her 'mom' in the first place. Jules had adapted to calling his parents 'Mom' and 'Dad' rather than 'mother' and 'father', but he did have a tendency to slip back in his old ways.

Clara nodded at her sons, and pulled herself loose from their embrace. "You're right, boys. At least we have the time now. I can barely imagine anymore how hard it used to be back when we didn't have that dishwasher."

Doc smirked. "Yeah, you are definitely quick to adapt" he said. "I knew you would eventually come around to the inventions I made, since you're a smart, forward-thinking woman, but the introduction of so many future conveniences to our household might have made you nervous."

"Well, I'm glad it didn't in the end" Clara replied. "I know I had some adjustment problems, but I think I've gotten used to a daily life of time travel now. Or at least, to using future technology and hiding it from prying eyes."

Her husband nodded. "And the boys are good at that as well" he replied. "I'd worried about that – I know young kids can adapt easier, but I wasn't so sure whether they would understand why and how to hide the knowledge from their peers. Well, Jules I knew wouldn't pose a problem, but Verne…"

Verne frowned. "Hey!" he called out, aware that he was being placed below his brother but not really grasping what it was about.

Doc smiled. "Sorry, Vernie" he apologized. "Now, I heard you had some packages for me to unwrap?"

Clara nodded. "That's right. Whose do you want to open first?"

The inventor thought about that for a moment. "I'll take Verne's first" he said.

"But… Dad!" Jules exclaimed, disappointed. Verne's face, on the other hand, brightened.

"Sorry, Jules" Doc said. "It was your turn last time, and you'll be able to present your package in a minute as well. Now, Verne…"

"Here you go, Dad" Verne called out, as he gave his father a square package. Doc swiftly tore it open and took out a painting of him and Clara standing in front of the time machine. "Thank you, Vernie" he said. "That's a very nice drawing you made."

"Verne?" Clara reminded him.

"Oh!" Verne blushed. "Um, you're welcome, Dad."

"Good to hear" Doc said, winking. "Now, Jules, what did you get me?"

In response, his elder son gave him a small box. As Doc opened it, he could see it contained several small tubes and potions. "A chemic kit" he said. "Thanks, Jules."

"You're welcome, Dad."

"So." Doc looked around. "That's… it?"

Clara chuckled. "Don't try to hide your disappointment, Emmett. You know our sons can see through it."

"I suppose so" Doc said, blushing. "I'm just used to getting more presents – last year, the boys each gave me three. I suppose I'm getting spoiled, huh? Especially considering the fact that, before I ended up in the Nineteenth Century, I only ever got presents from Marty…"

"Perhaps" Clara contemplated. "But there's a reason for all this, Emmett. Why don't you come outside with us, and all your questions will be answered."

Doc grinned. "That sounds like something I could have said. Fine, lead the way."

As the boys – or at least, Verne – squealed with delight, the Brown family walked out of the house. To his surprise, Doc saw they were heading towards the garage. He wondered whatever Clara could want there – he practically spent half his life in the garage, so surely they couldn't have hidden a present for him there. Of course, there was the fact that a person rarely sees what's right under his nose, but Doc doubted he could have ever been that blind.

When they entered, Doc didn't see anything strange either, which made the situation even weirder. The garage looked the same as it had the day before, when he'd last spent time in it. He didn't begin to grasp what Clara was up to until the moment she headed over to the cabin of the train.

"You've got a present for me in the future?" he wondered. "But you can't fly the train!"

"Well, I could certainly try" Clara replied, smirking. "But you're right about that. I therefore had to prepare your surprise when you flew to the 21st Century. Remember that short trip we took in January?"

Doc nodded. "Of course" he stated. "To get Verne's medicine." Verne had suffered from a bad cold around the New Year, which had prompted him to make a short trip to 2016 to pick up some modern aspirin. Clara had expressed the wish to come along, a desire he'd never really understood… until now. "Did you do something while we were there?"

"That's right" Clara confirmed. "I had to get back really quick, but at least you bought my excuse that I wanted to visit a shop in the future."

Doc whistled. "To think I almost didn't want to let you go there on your own" he said. "That would have been a piece of cake compared to…to…"

Clara smirked again. "No, I'm not going to tell you, Emmett" she said. "You'll just have to wait and see. I think you'll be very happy."

"I hope so" Doc said. "I'm not sure what you could have afforded."

"We had some help" Clara said. "We're not the only ones who want you to have a nice birthday present, you know."

"You recruited Marty to help you?" Doc said, perplexed. Clara nodded. "All right, I think I've severely underestimated you thus far."

Clara tried to just smile, but couldn't keep a satisfied grin from appearing on her face. "It's all right, Emmett" she said. "We can talk about that after we've picked up your present."

Doc nodded, and they entered the train. Once more, he couldn't help but admire his own work. The current time machine was certainly a far cry from the old, abandoned steam train he had taken over from the railroad company over seven years ago. It had taken so many sleepless nights, long days, and a lot of money to turn this train into a working time machine. Even if he would abandon time travel all together again, like he had wanted to after his first trip to the future with Marty and Jennifer, he was sure he couldn't stomach destroying the train as easy as he had been able to destroy the DeLorean. That hadn't been an easy decision either, and he was glad he could have had the ultimate decision taken out of his hands by leaving it up to that freight train, but at least he hadn't been forced to all but rebuild that machine from the ground up.

He looked around to see Clara instructing the boys to put their seatbelts on. As usual on a time excursion, they were too enthusiastic to sit down, but they complied with their mother's wishes nevertheless – probably understanding that if they didn't, the departure for the future would be delayed. "Where are we going, Dad?" Jules asked.

"Ask your mother" Doc said, smiling. "She's come up with this plan, after all."

"June 5th, 2016" Clara said. "Four days after the visit for Verne's cold medicine."

Doc nodded, then twisted the appropriate gears to produce the new date. The scientific part of him secretly wanted to tear apart the time circuit display system and install an entirely modern keypad, possibly even more advanced than the one he had had in the DeLorean. However, every time he contemplated that, he was reminded of the nights he had spent to produce this system, which was cutting-edge for 1895 if not beyond it. He had spent so much time on every part of this train that he didn't dare to replace any of it. Even the hover conversion had been an addition mostly, and had left the old system largely in place.

He turned to Clara. "Any preferences for the time?"

"The time of date, you mean?" Her husband nodded. "Around now, preferably. Perhaps a little earlier… make that 5:30."

Doc smirked, as he added the new information. "You've really got this all planned out, haven't you?"

"You don't know the half of it" Clara replied, smirking back.

Doc smiled back at her and shook his head with wonder. It surprised him how much his wife could hide things from him, especially complicated presents like this. "One question, though" he said. "Are you going to lead me directly to whatever you've got in mind, or are you going to blindfold me in hopes that I won't notice what I'm heading towards?"

Clara chuckled. "I think I can do fine without a blindfold" she said. "But I wasn't planning on leading you directly to your target either. I'd thought that maybe we could go to that café in the Square first. The Café 80s, right?"

"That's right" Doc replied. "Yes, that sounds like an acceptable idea. We could at least use a snack there before heading over to… whatever you want to show me." He frowned. "There might be one issue you haven't thought of, though – what about our clothes?" He pulled on the fabric of his shirt. "They might be modern fashion for 1895, but they're definitely not for 2016."

Clara smiled sheepishly. "You're right, I forgot about that" she admitted. "Should I try to find something else?"

Doc shook his head. "No, I doubt anything we have might be acceptable for 2016" he said. "Now I regret buying clothes of other time periods just for me. At least it's now spring, and we're not wearing winter clothes anymore – wouldn't want to walk around in June with them on." Clara nodded. "I think we can manage with these for a few hours. And even if people are surprised, we could always tell them we're headed to a party. Though I doubt there will be anyone who asks – they'll just stare. People of the future are much more focused on their own affairs as opposed to those of others."

"You told me" Clara replied. "The future is certainly different from now. I couldn't imagine living there." She looked at Doc, hesitated a moment, and then cleared her throat. "Emmett… do you ever want to move back?"

Doc frowned. "That's too complicated a question to answer in just a few seconds" he replied. "Especially now that the boys are arguing again." He motioned over his shoulder, where Jules and Verne were having one of their usual squabbles. "All right, boys, break it up."

Verne looked up at him. "I thought we were going to leave!"

"We are" Doc confirmed. "Sorry for the delay. Clara, would you mind sitting down?"

"Of course" Clara said, taking her seat next to him. "But shouldn't you sit down?"

"I'm afraid that the position of the controls of this time machine make it rather hard for me to do so" Doc said, sighing wistfully. "It's at times like these when I miss the DeLorean. But there's no point in reminiscing about the past when you can't change it, not without creating all sorts of possible risks to the continuum. I'll just have to do with this machine."

Glancing at the boys and his wife, Doc then turned the switch for the engine. The train slowly chugged outside over the narrow spur out of the garage. When it was fully outside, he turned on the hover conversion, and the train lifted up. He smiled, enjoying the thrill of flying his train. The garage he had built for it in 1895 was primitively defended for 1980s standards, but he was sure there was no one who even suspected the slightest bit of what was going on at the Brown family garage. Their house was isolated from the outside world, and even the McFly family, who had become casual acquaintances of theirs over time, rarely came over. The system was primitive, but it worked. His secret was safe here.

The train accelerated through the sky and began chugging up to eighty-eight. He looked to his side to see Clara being taken aback by the speed. He couldn't blame her – she'd been used to 1880s trains with their slow speed and slow acceleration all her life, so the fact that the hover-converted train could go so fast so easy had come as a shock to her. Jules and Verne on the other hand seemed to be mostly enthusiastic, as they realized how much speed was needed for the trip to the 21st Century. Doc smiled fondly as he thought of his boys, and then noticed the train was going over seventy.

"Brace yourselves for temporal displacement!" he called out. Jules, Verne and Clara clung to their seats while Doc took a tighter grip on the controls of the train. Within seconds, the vehicle hit eighty-eight miles per hour and was transported into the future.