Disclaimer: I don't own BTTF, et cetera.

Author's Note: All right, a new update! Contains content. Which is of course obvious. But yeah, basically that's all.

Chapter Seventeen

Wednesday, March 24, 1920
08:10 AM PDT
Hill Valley, California

To say that Marty entirely knew what he was doing when he was walking in the direction of Hill Valley Hospital was an overstatement. However, he did have a general idea. Doc had told him where to go and what to do there, so all he had to do was get in the hospital, track down Biff, and prevent him from kidnapping young Doc – or rather, Emmett.

It almost sounded easy.

Of course, Marty knew it wouldn't be easy. When Doc Brown and time travel were involved, things were never easy. His first time trip had been accidental, and it had cost him a week to get back home again. Then the second time trip had started the morning thereafter, intended as just a quick jaunt to 2015 to rescue his son from going to prison. Yeah right. That journey had taken him to an alternate 1985, to 1955, to 1885, and now to 1920. He could barely keep track of everything. At least in 1885 he had had a good night's rest. He was feeling rather hungry, though…

The teen shook it off as he approached the hospital. Never mind that, he would have to do his job first. He tugged some at the vest Doc had given him. It itched slightly, but he couldn't change that either. He needed these clothes so that Biff would not immediately realize who he was. Marty had thought that Biff, if he ever saw him, might think he was a McFly ancestor and not pay any further attention, but Doc seemed convinced that this Biff was smarter than they would have otherwise expected him to be.

After turning around a corner, Marty suddenly found himself in front of Hill Valley Hospital 1920. It was still a small building in this time period, having only two floors – the one he knew in 1985 had five floors after a drastic remodeling in 1973. It was a different building, but this was the one he had been born in, or rather, the one he would be born in. It was also the building little Emmett was in right now.

After looking around to make sure Biff wasn't approaching, Marty headed into the hospital. There were various nurses around and the occasional doctor, and some fretting patients. Marty decided to ignore them and walked up to the reception. Only then he realized that he didn't know what to do. Certainly, he knew to wait for Biff, but maybe Biff was already there? Or he'd been here already? Marty knew that thought wasn't all that realistic – Doc had told him Biff had visited the Tannen home with baby Emmett at 9 AM, and an old man couldn't just walk around Hill Valley with a little baby for so long without getting strange looks. Of course, Biff would most likely be indifferent to whoever saw him, but… never mind. Marty was here now, and he could hardly go on a wild goose chase all over town. No, it was better to operate on the assumption that Biff had yet to come.

But if Biff had yet to come, then Marty knew he might as well have to spend ten to twenty minutes waiting for him. And he couldn't do that right here in the open – Biff would notice him right away. And that was one thing Marty preferred to avoid – after all, you always have an advantage when your adversary doesn't know you're there.

Instead of waiting, Marty headed up the stairs that were on the left side of the building. There was no escalator yet, but there was a clear sign reading 'Pregnancies Up'. The seventeen-year-old wasn't sure when this hospital dictated that pregnant women would have to leave their rooms, but he was sure it wasn't yet one morning after childbirth.

After encountering quite a few people on the way there, neither of whom paid him the slightest bit of attention, Marty finally arrived at the main pregnancy room. The women in it paid him curious glances, but Marty ignored them, instead focusing on the signs at their beds. Smith. Zemeckis. Lewis. Gale. Brown.

Marty turned to the last one and walked over cautiously. A woman was asleep in her bed, but a man was sitting next to her bed and staring at Marty with an unreadable expression. The teenager softly gasped. This man resembled Doc closely. The same eye color, the same face shape, a slightly darker hair color than young Doc's blonde but still similar… though the man was no duplicate, like his own father had been of his grandfather and his son would be of him, there was no doubt that this was Doc Brown's Dad.

"Uh, hi" Marty said, unsure what to do. "Um, you've become a father?"

"Well, obviously" Doc's father said, frowning. "What else do you think I'm doing here? Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm, uh, Harry Callahan" Marty replied. "And you're…"

"Fried-Frederick Brown" Doc's father said, correcting himself. "Sorry, we haven't changed our name too long ago and I'm still used to the one I had in the old country. What do you want?" The tone was still relatively cordial, but the words were anything but.

Marty took a step back. "Nothing!" he exclaimed. "I'm, uh, just looking around… for my mother… she's supposed to be in here somewhere, but I can't find her."

"Well, I haven't seen anyone named Callahan around today" Frederick said, shrugging. "But I've been here all night and have only been out occasionally to visit the toilet or have something to eat, so I really wouldn't know either." He looked at a small crib behind the bed and smiled proudly. "That's our Emmett. Our new son."

"Congratulations" Marty said, somewhat uncomfortable. "Is he your first?"

Frederick nodded, sighing. "Our first, and presumably our last" he said. "Sarah and I have been married for nine years now, and Emmett is our only child. We were lucky to have him at all." He sighed, then smiled faintly. "But now we've got a son, at last. An actual child. I still can't believe it."

"I guess" Marty said. "Must have been quite an experience for you."

"Oh, you bet" Frederick agreed, smiling. "Sarah went into labor just yesterday afternoon, and it took seven long hours before Emmett was born at 10:50 PM last night. For some time, we were afraid he wouldn't make it, but everything looks fine now." He yawned. "I should really get some sleep, but I promised Sarah that I would stay awake while she slept." He blinked. "Not to pry into your affairs, but shouldn't you be leaving? You won't find your mom if you keep talking to me."

"Um, yeah, you're probably right" Marty replied. "See you around." He awkwardly wandered off into the hallway, thinking about what he could possibly do. He knew there was no other option but to wait, but he didn't really like that idea. Well, at least a 1920s hospital was a different form of boring than the Old West was.

As he looked around for a good place to hide, he soon found a shut door. He put his eye against the key hole and was relieved to notice there was no one inside. He headed inside and discovered the room was, in fact, a storage room of some sorts. Well, nothing to do about that. With a little luck, this would be a place nobody would notice him. He made sure not to close the door entirely, leaving a little open area for light to come through and so that he could look out on the hallway. Then, he sat down on the ground, and leaned against the wall.

A doctor came by. A half minute later, a nurse walked past. Then, nobody came past anymore and Marty felt himself growing bored – and tired. Sure, he'd had a good night's rest last night, but Doc had woken him up at six-thirty. Not to mention the whole complicated time trip that was messing with his brain. He could at least try to catch some rest, couldn't he?

Marty leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He wasn't really going to sleep, he was just relaxing a bit. He still had his eyes half-open, so he could still see everyone coming past. That should be enough. However, his eyes kept slipping tighter and his brain was emptying. There was a lot to think about, yeah, but he couldn't figure much of that out right now. There was thus nothing to keep him from getting bored. He sighed, and resigned himself to the inevitable. Within a few moments, he was entering a light but steady sleep.

oooooooo

Marty wasn't sure how long he'd slept. He would guess it hadn't been much more than ten minutes, though, but eventually, when he woke up, he heard a familiar voice. Biff's voice. Startled, the teenager sat up and peeked out of the door.

Indeed, walking through the hallway carrying a small baby was none other than Biff Tannen. The elderly man looked slightly better than the last time Marty had seen him, no longer having that silly cane of his around. That didn't prevent the others in the hospital from giving Biff and the baby odd glares, which Biff rapidly silenced by simply glaring back. Marty tried to see who the baby was, but he couldn't decipher any characteristics. He was sure it wasn't Emmett, though.

After the old man had moved past, Marty found himself debating what to do. Could he go after him? Should he go after him? Or should he simply wait until Biff got back and then take the baby from him somehow? Marty shook his head. It was best not to risk on one chance – he'd have to follow Biff, stay on his trail and prevent his abduction of young Emmett. If Doc's father was still in the room, maybe he could help as well.

The seventeen-year-old stretched, yawned, and then opened the door and started cautiously following Biff, attracting odd glares. It didn't take long until he saw Tannen moving into the pregnancy room. As Marty looked past him, he could see it was empty – all of the women had left, and Doc's parents were also no longer there. The soft sound of wailing that was coming from the crib behind Doc's mom's bed made it obvious, though, that young Emmett was still around.

Marty slowly began to panic. He couldn't let this happen! For a moment, he considered rushing into the room and closing the door behind them. Then, he remembered what Doc had said – this Biff was smarter than the one they were familiar with. They couldn't know what he would do against them. Marty shook his head. There was a better option anyway. He would not stop Biff – he would make sure Biff was stopped.

With that in mind, he headed into the doctor's chamber, which was right next to the pregnancy room. Inside, however, was not just a doctor – with him were Frederick Brown and Sarah Lathrop Brown.