Disclaimer: Guess what I still don't own? That's right! It's Back to the Future.
Author's Note: At last, over a year after I promised it, you get an update. Well, I did say it was going to take a while, didn't I? And yes, that does mean that I took down the original author's note/interlude chapter I had here for the past sixteen months. I'm not going to write down everything I wrote in there again so if you want to hear it feel free to send me a private message. Or maybe it's in Google cache.
Anyway, this is the new chapter. About a quarter of the way through, you might notice a distinct improvement in writing quality, which is because the first part was written in 2010 or so and the remainder in 2014. It's always good to be able to tell apart your older work and your newer material. I did attempt to rewrite and revise some versions of the first part, but the quality difference might still be noticeable.
As for the plot... well, you'll just wait and see. This is primarily a 'settling in' chapter, which is also good at recapping the background stories for both the visitors and the locals. But it's a start, and more will follow. For now, I wish you a very happy 2016, and ask you to please read and review!
Chapter Fourteen
Saturday, April 2, 1988
3:12 P.M.
Hill Valley, California
Never before in his life had Local Marty McFly felt more anxious to see something than when he arrived at the Brown's front porch on the second of April, 1988. Sure, he'd been anxious too when he was going back home after going through that experience in the alternate world, and coming home from the various other time trips gone wrong was also a lot of fun, more than staying there. While he understood what Doc and Chris liked about the past, he couldn't help but be anxious to get home again. Now, though, his anxiety was caused by something else entirely – there were people here, versions of himself and Doc, from another dimension.
The concept of other dimensions was one that Local Marty had been forced to get all too familiar with over the past years, given that Chris, Susan, Mike, Ann and Claudia all were from one. It nevertheless still baffled him that there were entire other worlds with other versions of himself, and although he knew it made no sense his first thought was still always of Biffs world. There was always a possibility that visitors from another dimension could turn out to be evil, and even if his current friends hadn't that didn't mean these new ones couldn't be Biff-like themselves. But Mike had assured him that they weren't, and Local Marty wanted to keep at least some faith in his counterpart.
Thinking about time travel and other worlds really brought back memories. It had been a while since their last time trip, but he still remembered all of them clearly – especially the first weekend, the journey he'd undertaken in part with his other self. The teenager winced as he thought of it. Being there at the lake with Jennifer, and then being phoned by someone who was, essentially, him. Since his experiences with other selves had been near zero at that point, the single exception being his encounter with his one-week-younger self at the parking lot of Lone Pine Mall, he'd freaked out, but somehow managed to stay calm enough to promise he'd come over. Then, he and Jennifer had met his other self, they had worked on the DeLorean with Doc, and then, they had gone off to the alternate world, and the rest was, as the commonly used phrase put it, history.
Ever since that time trip, his life had changed a lot – and not for the worse. Having a twin brother was an idea that he'd never really thought about, but it did change your life in a positive way, especially when this twin was someone you could relate to a lot, like he could with Calvin. It was a bit boring at times, since due to their almost identical characters, Local Marty could often tell what Calvin would think of a certain thing beforehand, but the Lone Pine part of Local Marty's mind and their different experiences fleshed out the differences between them, not enough to make them distanced from each other, or even enemies, but enough to develop separate characters and a unique friendship.
Of course, there was also the fact that his parents were now aware of his and Doc's biggest secret, the time machine. Local Marty smiled as he remembered how George and Lorraine had reacted to it when they heard it and had been completely filled with disbelief. When they had realized that it was, in fact, the truth, they had eventually adapted to it. His parents had had a much harder time with it than Jennifer's folks, especially since they had been so closely involved with someone that, after thirty years, turned out to be their own future son. They had grown accustomed to it over the next months, and had come to be casual friends with the Brown families, even going along on all-family trips when they were asked. While Local Marty still visited the Brown house much more often than his parents ever would, he was pleased to say that the McFly's were now good friends with the Docs and their families.
In this little mental round-up of how the people he knew had changed, Local Marty could scarcely leave out the wives the Docs had. Three years ago, he'd long given up the chance that Doc would ever get married. Now, there were two of them, and both had a wife they were very happy with from the way they always looked at Susan and Clara respectively. While both women had their odd character traits, they were otherwise perfectly normal, aside from the fact that they greatly resembled each other and were related through a bond other than the one that one that was not privy to the time machine might expect, seeing that they were roughly the same age. Local Marty figured that the Docs couldn't have found themselves any better wives in the whole world and in all of the space-time continuum. Also, they had given birth to kids, giving both Docs the family they'd always wanted. While Local Marty had never heard his friend say it aloud, his wish for a family was one that was pretty obvious, much more obvious than the more regular or work-related secrets that Doc had been keeping. And now he had one; Dr. Christopher Brown being the proud father of three, namely Martin, who was commonly named Calvin, as his real name could cause too much confusion – despite the fact that Calvin was of course also a confusing name. They often called him Martin Calvin to make it clearer (how Chris had come up with such a name Local Marty had no idea). Then there were Victoria and Herbert, and Doctor Emmett Brown himself had fathered Jules Eratosthenes Brown, and there was another child on the way. And there was, of course, the fact that Chris was also the adoptive father of Michael Emmett Klein/Brown and Claudia Marlene Wells/Brown, the new names of his and Jennifer's counterpart from the other, dystopian, Biff-ruled world.
Yes, his life sure had changed a lot since the invention of the time machine, and maybe this would change it too, giving him one more experience. Hopping off his skateboard, the nineteen-year-old walked up to the front door, twisted the door knob to try if it opened, and when it did, he entered. Smiling, he walked through the hallway, putting his jacket on the place it should be, and went on. Figuring that the Browns were most likely in the living room, which was the place they mostly were when something was going on which concerned all of, or most of both of the Brown families, the teenager decided to head there, hoping to find them on that spot.
He did, but as he entered, two things immediately came as a surprise. First of all, neither of the Doc's were around – it was just Mike, Claudia, Susan and Clara. That was something strange, since most of the time the inventors would have something to say of this. He could also conclude that there was just one person who looked like him, so both his and Doc's other self from this other dimension were not there. The second thing that came as a surprise was when he heard the door slam shut after him, which was very odd since he had already closed it himself. The teen took a few seconds to conclude that someone else had to have come in after him, which was proven right as said person ran right into him. As both of them fell down to the floor, attracting laughter from the other people in the room, Local Marty could immediately deduce from the visitor's looks and clothing that this had to be his adopted twin brother Calvin.
"Calvin!" he exclaimed. "You surprised me!"
"I guessed as much" the other teen agreed, smirking. "You surprised me too." He paused, then added: "I heard the news from Mike, so I thought I should come over, too. I suppose we came around the same time." He managed to get back on his feet, and turned his attention to the living room and its inhabitants. "So… what exactly is going on? Mike gave me some kind of explanation, but it was rather short and confusing, so I only got the gist of it. You said we're having visitors here from another dimension?"
"That's right" Clara confirmed, as Local Marty himself got back onto his feet as well. "Two of them – another version of Emmett and a version of you. From what we've been able to get out of them, they have only got one version of themselves in their dimension. That version is married to me, by the way." She looked over to Susan. "Susan, I'm sorry…"
"Not your fault" the twenty-eight-year-old argued. "I can't say I like this, but there are worse things that could happen, and it's by no means your fault, nor is it your counterpart's. And even if it was in some way, well, I guess that I should be used to seeing you and a version of Emmett together by now. My uncomfortable feelings were already dealt with when your Emmett and you first met, and it's been two years since then, so they're not going to come up again."
"Good point" Clara admitted. "Still, I can understand if you feel in any way uneasy around this."
"A bit, yes" Susan had to admit on her side. "Still, I think I'm coping with this rather well. If that changes, I'll notify you."
Clara chuckled, as she nodded. "Yes, by all means do that" she said, shifting her attention to the two teenagers still standing in the doorway. "Anyway, you wanted an explanation, didn't you? I suppose that either your other self or Susan could best tell the story– I only came in later. They actually got to speak to both Marty and Emmett from the other dimension."
Calvin frowned. "Then where are they now?" he asked. "Why would they go away?"
"They didn't" Mike said. "Other Marty fell asleep when we were away for just a minute or two – he must've been exhausted – and when Other Doc came in later, after checking on the train with Dad and… Emmett, I guess… Mom insisted on him going to bed, and after we all agreed with her, he caved in and went to sleep."
"Which is quite surprising, when you think about it" Susan said, thoughtfully. "The caving in part, I mean. After all, Other Emmett isn't even married to me, which might make him less likely to listen to me."
"Well, you and Clara do resemble each other a lot" Mike pointed out. "And I do think that he would trust the judgment of the wife of his other self. And with all of us agreeing with you…"
"Point made" Susan agreed. "Anyway, we wanted to tell you what happened. Apparently, Emmett's other self had, just like here, worked on a dimension-hopping device. Only, this Emmett had actually realized it already, and had gone off to test it. It worked fine, but when he wanted to go back home, the device failed, and took him to all kinds of dimensions, and if I can believe what he said, and I do believe it, then this is the fifty-second dimension he's visiting."
Local Marty's eyes widened. "The fifty-second?!" he exclaimed. "Really? Whoa! That's a lot!"
"Definitely" Mike confirmed. "Apparently, they have been travelling through dimensions for days by now, unable to stop. They were completely exhausted before they went to sleep, and they have trusted the task upon us to fix their time machine so that they can return back home."
"Heavy" Calvin muttered. "I guess that's what the Docs are busy with right now?"
"Exactly" Susan said. "They said they were going to give it a good thorough look again to examine some parts that their other self might've failed to show them, and then, they were planning to go to the closest hardware store to buy some components for the time machine's replacement. Seeing that they started working on the time machine almost an hour ago, they might be almost ready to come back, and then you'll be able to hear more details of what the other time machine is like. You can go and check it out yourself if you wish too, but that's up to you. I myself would prefer to wait 'till Emmett or Chris gets here, but that's probably just me."
"Yeah, patience has never been one of my virtues" Calvin admitted. "I can be so when needed, but, well, often I'd like to get on with it as soon as possible."
"Same here" Mike said. "I learned to be patient, though, whenever I had to hide as Biff was looking for me to beat me up. Impatience would have definitely caused me a great deal of pain then, so I gradually adjusted."
"Okay" Local Marty said, understanding. "You know, it's been three years and you've told us several times, but I think neither of us still quite gets what all you went through by Biff's hand."
"Yeah, I can imagine that, uh, you couldn't imagine it" Mike replied. "It was hell on earth, to my perspective. Biff was the worst stepfather you can imagine. He kept telling me that I'd never get anywhere in life as I was a McFly."
"To be fair, that's the same thing Mr. Strickland did to us" Calvin pointed out. "I can see that your situation is worse, though, as it came from someone you had to call your father, and had to live with – at least in your early youth – for most of the day. Not to mention him also beating you up regularly."
Whatever Mike wanted to say in response to that was lost as they all heard the front door slam shut. A few moments later, both versions of Doc entered the room, smiling as they saw that most of their friends were now here.
"Good afternoon!" Emmett spoke up. "Hi Marty, Calvin, nice to see you're here as well. I take it Susan or Clara told you where we went, and what kind of strange predicament we've entered this time around?"
"Yeah, they did" Calvin replied. "I have to admit that I still don't entirely get it, though. Did they really hop through fifty-two dimensions before getting here?"
"Technically fifty-one, excluding ours" Chris said. "But yeah, I agree that is a lot. Why don't you all sit down, and we'll get you something to drink and we can talk it over?"
"Way ahead of you" Clara replied chuckling, as she entered the room with snacks and a few containers of juice. "Emmett, I must confess that I still don't entirely get it myself so yes, an explanation would be nice."
"All right" her husband agreed. "Folks, these people are apparently an Emmett Brown and a Marty McFly from a reality without duplicates. Why this happened, I'm still not sure, but it must have something to do with the alternate reality Biff created."
"Obviously" Calvin agreed. "You know, shouldn't Ann and Jennifer really be here for this?"
"Jennifer is out shopping with her parents for the day" Local Marty recalled. He looked curiously at his twin brother. "Didn't Ann go with them?"
Calvin smirked. "You know as well as I do that shopping isn't exactly Ann's thing" he replied. "She should be at home for the entire day – which still doesn't explain why she wasn't called over. I can't recall her being too busy with something that would stop her from coming here – in fact, she even invited me to come over, but I declined since I was busy doing homework this afternoon." He shot a sly glance at Mike. "Which Mr. Brown here didn't consider a sufficient reason to stay at home – and I admittedly didn't either, all things considered. So, why didn't you invite Ann?"
Mike looked awkwardly at him. "Because Doc explicitly told me not to invite her" he finally said.
Calvin's eyes widened, and he turned to the inventor in question with a betrayed look on his face. "Doc, what the hell..."
"Calm down, Calvin" Doc said. "This wasn't anything personal – not against Ann, nor against you. It was because I realized that this might open new perspectives on a delicate matter that Ann would certainly speak her mind about – and don't get me wrong, I appreciate that in her, but I couldn't have that for the moment. Chris agreed with me on that."
"And what 'delicate matter' might that be?" Calvin asked sarcastically.
"Your... condition."
Well, Local Marty mused as his twin went silent, that did explain the matter. Calvin's condition, which they still hadn't found a permanent cure for, was something that Ann had been particularly outspoken about from the day it started. It was also one of the few things the cynical girl had been optimistic about, never giving up on hope to save Calvin's life even as he seemed doomed to everybody else.
The status of Calvin McFly's life had intertwined itself with their lives almost immediately after that whole mess in the alternate 1985 had happened, the one which had earned this reality three Marty's and three Doc Browns in the first place. After all, Chris and his extended family weren't from another timeline at all – they were from an entirely different dimension altogether, a duplicate of their own dimension which they had accidentally created by travelling with two time machines at the same time. Local Marty had often heard Mike wonder, in anticipation of finishing the DFS-thingy, whether the creation of a new dimension had been created simply by the two time machines travelling together or by 2.42 gigawatts being poured into the creation of a dimensional portal. He supposed that with this new situation, Mike might get to find out what really caused their situation back then sooner than he thought.
Anyway, they had created a duplicate of their own dimension, an alternate universe which included the alternate timeline where Biff had the sports almanac. As such, they could easily travel from the alternate timeline in the duplicated dimension to their own timeline in the regular dimension, and because Chris and his family were from another dimension they were not erased from existence despite the co-existence of two McFly and Brown families. That had been confusing enough for the teen who had no background in science besides the odd little snippets he'd picked up from Doc over the days, but then there had been Calvin's case, as Calvin had been from an alternate timeline in their own reality. As such, he was susceptible to erasure from existence, a fact that had been delayed – somehow – by his travels through duplicated dimensions but which had threatened to catch up to him in late December 1985.
To solve the problem, Mike had come up with the solution of further delaying Calvin's eventual erasure by taking him back and forwards in time – this would make it harder for the ripple effect to catch up to him through the time stream and 'follow' him through time, so to speak, thus allowing Calvin some breathing space. On one such journey gone wrong Doc had met Clara Clayton in 1885, and sometime thereafter she had managed to break the Gordian Knot where the others had failed by coming up with the solution to their problem – replace one of Calvin's organs with a donor organ from someone from the duplicate dimension, this giving him some of those duplicates' immunity. As such, Mike had volunteered for an operation, and Calvin had been given a new lease on life.
From the start, however, they had known that even this solution was a makeshift one. Over the past year, the occasional tests his twin brother had undergone had all had a grim outcome. Calvin's donor kidney was cracking under the erasing pressure of the rest of his body, possibly overstraining both, and if the kidney happened to break down there would be no spare one at hand. They were currently contemplating asking Mike for yet another donation (not a kidney, of course), something he was reluctant to agree to because of how little he would have left for his own body – which was perfectly understandable, of course. Also, there were some organs that simply couldn't be donated, so it was obvious this could hardly go on forever. They needed to come up with a solution within the next few months, or Calvin's life force would wither away to nothingness.
Even more frustrating yet hopeful at the same time was the fact that they knew they would (or at least they would have been) successful. When travelling to the future for the organ donation, Mike had let his curiosity get the better of him and looked up what would happen to them. He hadn't seen much and what he had seen Doc and Chris wouldn't allow him to tell anyone, except for one thing – that Calvin was, in fact, alive and well in the future, far beyond 1988. That might have been hopeful were it not for the fact that they had no idea how to get there, and with the future constantly changing, it wasn't assured that they were still on track towards a future where they would be successful. Doc had grimly wished more than once to be in a world where time travel operated like a closed loop, so that he could simply look up what happened to save Calvin and that could be the way to save him, without the need for that method to have an origin. But that, unfortunately, was not how time travel worked. At least not in their dimension, it might be different in that of the new Doc and Marty.
Anyway, recently Doc and Chris had come up with the best solution they could think of: building something – the DFSCUPCIF – that would allow them to travel to other dimensions. After all, if Calvin were to be brought to another dimension, he could be safe there for the same reason Chris and his family could co-exist with Doc and his family in this world. The problem with that solution was obvious – it would require Calvin leaving this universe. Ann had vehemently objected to it, and only agreed to the plan to build the machine on the condition that it would be used for experimenting only and not just for 'abandoning Cal in some other world' as she put it. The discussion had settled down, especially with the DFSCUPCIF still far from completion. Now, however, the issue had suddenly become acute. With access to other dimensions right there, it would be extremely tempting to ask if the other Marty and Doc could take Calvin with them.
"And what makes you think I would go along with that?"
The sharp voice of his twin tore Local Marty back from his reverie. He looked up at Calvin in surprise. In a rare moment, his brother actually looked angry, staring intensely at Doc and Chris. "You didn't invite Ann, but you did invite me. What makes you think I'd agree to just being dumped in some other reality?"
"The fact that you never raised this issue before" Mike spoke up. "And that it's the best, or at least the easiest, way to save your life."
"Still doesn't mean I'm going to go along with it" Calvin replied. "And I did bring it up before, once or twice. It just never mattered as much until now." He sighed. "Look, I understand you guys just want to get me to safety, but I can't leave this world. I care about Ann, I care about my parents, whom I've only just lived two and a half years with. Marty has known them for all his life, at least for part of his memories – they're still relatively fresh for me. I can't move away from all of them, from all of you, into a world to which the connection is extremely shaky. I'm sorry." He looked down, and Marty put an arm around his shoulder.
"We understand that, Calvin" Emmett eventually replied softly. "And I admit that it is a risk. But first of all, it won't happen right away – from what I've seen of the alternate time machine, our other selves are going to be here for a while yet – and secondly, like it or not, it is the best way to save you from almost-certain death. Beggars really can't be choosers there."
Calvin looked at him wryly. "And risk getting cut off permanently from all of you here? I think I would prefer erasure over that fate. Plus, we're not even sure if this will work. You've been going on basic theories with only superficial evidence hinting towards them for the past years and you haven't come an inch closer to proving for certain that such a dimensional trip would help me permanently."
"That's true," Chris admitted, "but..."
"And lastly," Calvin finished, "the evidence Mike found indicated that I was alive in this reality's future. Not in another dimension."
"Also true" Chris agreed. "But the future is constantly being rewritten. Maybe something Emmett or I did in the last two years would have been essential for creating that future, and now it's already being averted because we didn't do that. You can't go on that future as a basis. I suppose we could look it up and see if it's still there, but I'd hate to risk finding anything we don't want to know, and even then we can only use it for a brief window. This glimpse of the future compared to the actual future is like an opinion poll compared to an election result – constantly changing and absolutely unpredictable."
Calvin frowned, although his brother wasn't sure whether he was scoffing at the metaphor or at what Chris was trying to say. "I have faith in you. I'm sure that whatever you came up with, you can come up with again." He sighed. "I know I'm being obstructive here, but I'm sure Ann would agree with me. And I will tell her about this. Tonight."
"I curse the guy who came up with the idea that those two should be together" Mike murmured. Local Marty gave him a sheepish, apologetic smile.
Emmett finally nodded. "Fine" he muttered. "Can we just go on with our briefing on the matter at hand, then? As important as your problem is, Calvin, we need to get our counterparts home. They have been in this mess for far too long, and we have to help them to get out of it."
Calvin nodded. "There's just one thing – don't tell them about my problems" he said. "If they ask me to come along, and I turn them down, and they would keep pressing me for it... it just sounds like it would hinder our work."
Emmett frowned at that, but nodded. "If that's what you really want, we'll keep quiet" he agreed, almost inaudibly adding "for the time being". Calvin looked up at that and frowned, but before he could say any more Chris had launched into the explanation they wanted.
Apparently, their counterparts from the other dimension had come in a bus, one specifically designed to use a DFSCUPCIF and travel through dimensions. They had gone through two reality jumps which had gone perfectly fine, but then a third jump that was supposed to take them back home had landed them in trouble instead and had ended with them hopping from universe to universe, with this one as the latest. Chris also detailed the problem with the broken Fusion chip, and how it would have to be remedied in a universe with a working time machine and thus access to the necessary future technology. The basic explanation still left Local Marty with a lot of questions, but he figured that Chris and Doc didn't know everything either and that their visitors would be able to explain everything a lot better once they woke up.
With the basics down, they discussed the whole situation for another hour. Local Marty eventually figured that although this was the strangest crisis they had been in since the donor organ stuff, hands down, the presence of another him and another Doc also sounded thrilling. When he and Calvin finally went home, he even considered sneaking up the stairs and peeking a look at his counterpart, who would without a doubt be sound asleep and could thus not be bothered by Local Marty's visit. Unfortunately however, Doc had caught his looks towards the staircase and made it clear to him that this was out of the question. Their visitors needed their rest more than anything right now.
During the evening, there was the matter of Ann and Jennifer to be dealt with. While Calvin went over to the Parkers, Local Marty stayed at home and asked his girlfriend to come over – he didn't want to interfere when Calvin and Ann got mad about something together. He told Jennifer all he knew, and found out to his amusement that she actually wanted to meet the other Marty and Doc. As much as she was wary about time travel, the concept of yet another counterpart of her boyfriend and his best friend from a completely different dimension apparently did intrigue her. She stayed over the entire evening and they were able to discuss everything that happened in complete peace – thank heaven for Linda scheduling her birthday party for next week. Local Marty turned in right after Jennifer left, but couldn't sleep for at least another hour. He just kept pondering what the effects of this new situation would be – not just for Calvin, but also for everybody else involved. His final thoughts were of his 'new' counterpart and when he might wake up and what would happen when he and his Doc did. Then, he fell into a deep sleep.
oooooooo
Consciousness and alertness only gradually returned to Visiting Marty McFly after a long sleep filled with various dreams and nightmares that he fortunately recalled only vaguely. As he came to, he vaguely recalled joining Doc on a strange journey through dimensions... a journey that had apparently taken them through fifty-two different worlds. He remembered the exhaustion, the weariness, the despair. It felt much clearer than a dream, and where others might have dismissed such thoughts as just a really vivid dream, Visiting Marty had spent enough time with Dr. Emmett Brown to know that all this was very well possible.
That was confirmed when he opened his eyes and stared into a dark room. He didn't know where he was, but what little he could see did not look or feel familiar. This was not his bed, these pajamas felt vaguely unfamiliar and this room was almost certainly not his. It was a very disorienting realization.
Any doubts he still had about his situation was that, although he felt like he had slept for a long time, he found that he was still tired when he tried to sit up. In fact, the sudden maneuver alerted him to the real reason he had woken up in the first place – the pressure on his bladder. It was understandable, of course – he might not have properly eaten or slept in days before this, but he hadn't had the opportunity to visit the bathroom as often as he wanted either. It soon became fairly clear that he couldn't just go back to sleep, as tired as he was, without solving this problem. Which meant that he was going to have to find a toilet in an unknown house, at... how late would it even be?
Well, there was an easy answer to that. Visiting Marty carefully got up and made tentative steps towards the curtains. He still felt lightheaded, which was one clue that he hadn't slept as much as he would have wanted to. He also had to make sure that he wouldn't pee in his pants… especially considering the fact that these pajamas weren't his. Either his memory was really shorting out, or either local Doc – Emmett – or Clara had changed his clothes while he was already sound asleep. That thought made him blush, but he shook it off. These people were his best friends, after all, even if they happened to be different incarnations of them. He could feel comfortable even if they had done something like that. It wasn't like he was back in 1955, with his teenage mother waking at his bedside and having a crush on him.
As he peeked through the curtains, Visiting Marty realized that the night was indeed far from over. It was full moon, and the orb was shining brightly. Or actually it was reflecting, but who cared. The teen shrugged it off and felt tempted to just go back to bed until he remembered what he needed to do. He needed to find some kind of bathroom. Also, he needed something to drink – his throat was extremely dry. This dimension travelling hadn't been good for taking care of his daily functions.
Visiting Marty stumbled to the door of his room, carefully opening it. The hallway lacked light in the same way his own room had, and although he could try to fumble around for the light switch – it had to be around here somewhere – he didn't really want to be confronted with all that brightness until he had found what he was looking for. Not to mention he didn't want to inadvertently wake any of the others – this Emmett, Chris and Clara might be very light sleepers. And then there was Susan Clayton, whom he didn't know at all. Nah, for now, he would keep on fumbling.
He tried the door on the opposite side of the hallway compared to his room, and heard the familiar sound of Doc snoring lightly. He wasn't sure if there was just one person on the bed, but the room didn't appear big enough for two people. As he shuffled in, his bare feet touching scattered clothes confirmed the idea that this was probably his Doc, who hadn't been bold enough to stash his own garb in a cabinet (well, either that or he just hadn't bothered). Visiting Marty nodded and shuffled back out again, closing the door behind him.
The vague light coming from the other side of the hallway and the soft ticking he heard from behind the door on this end helped him determine for certain where he was – near the right end of the upper floor of the Brown mansion. Which meant that the room next to Doc's had to be the bathroom he was looking for.
More confident now, Visiting Marty went over and entered the bathroom after apparently touching some sensor on the door while he was looking for a knob. That should have tipped him off that something was wrong, but he nevertheless got in and fumbled around for the light switch.
The bright lights blinded him for a few moments, but nevertheless he realized he had made a mistake when the 'bathroom' started moving down, nearly knocking the poor nineteen-year-old off his feet. The elevator, which it obviously was, moved down a floor and opened its doors again to a view of the room Visiting Marty identified as the living room they had been in before. One difference, of course, that where this elevator was in this reality, there was no such thing in his own. He wondered why he hadn't noticed the living room being smaller that afternoon, but supposed it didn't really matter.
Visiting Marty exited and walked left, still searching for the bathroom. He knew the Browns had a toilet near the door, which should be to his left right now. Of course, since this was a wholly different house, that knowledge didn't mean anything. It might even mean the opposite. Perhaps he should try to find the bathroom on that assumption. It certainly couldn't hurt.
He carefully made his way over to the closest door on the right, where he knew the storage room (and the secret stairs down to the lab) to be in his own dimension. If it was the same in this world, then at least he could go down the stairs to the cellar – he knew there had to be a toilet there, which was necessary because Doc occasionally spent hours inside, and he could turn on the light there without having to worry about disturbing anyone. He shuffled carefully into the room...
...and then tripped over some shoes, landing face-first on someone's feet under a blanket. The next thing he heard was a familiar girlish scream. "Jennifer!"
The girl panted heavily before replying. "Marty? Other Marty?"
Visiting Marty nodded, before realizing she couldn't see that. "Yeah, that's me. And you're... Claudia?"
"That's right" Claudia replied, and then the lights in the room went on. Visiting Marty was again blinded for a few moments – and this time he was sure he'd peed in his pants at least a little, he really needed to find that bathroom quick – before looking her in the eye. It was stunning how much she looked like Jennifer, and yet parts of her general appearance still indicated that this wasn't her. For one, there was the way she was frowning at him. "Do you have a habit of falling on girls' beds in the middle of the night?"
Visiting Marty shook his head, reminded of the incident in the alternate 1985. "I didn't know you would be here" he said. "I was looking for the bathroom and I can't find anything anywhere in this house. I don't even know what time it is!"
Claudia gave him a wry smile. "It's half past twelve."
Half past twelve. That meant he had been asleep for nearly half a day, and he still felt tired. Visiting Marty would have marveled at that fact were it not for the need to find the toilet. Quickly. "Can you help me find the bathroom?"
Claudia nodded, getting off the bed. "By the way, you were really lucky you went into this bedroom rather than the next" she said. "That's Mike's, and he tends to hit the person facing him before coming to his senses and realizing who it is. Not to mention what would have happened if you would've encountered Ann."
"Ann?" Visiting Marty mumbled.
"Jennifer's twin sister, or actually originally mine but she was adopted by this reality's version of my biological parents" Claudia explained as she walked along with him out of her room. "She probably would have hit you too, but it would have been with her foot, and she might not have stopped immediately after realizing who you were. Unless she thought you were Calvin, of course – he's her boyfriend."
Visiting Marty shook his head. "I can't believe you have to distinguish everyone from each other on a regular basis. It's hard enough having to keep straight four versions of me and three of Doc while we're here, but you guys go through a condensed version of that every day."
"You get used to it" Claudia replied, shrugging. "Here you are. Do you want me to wait and guide you back to your room? There's an elevator, you know."
"I know" Visiting Marty replied grimly, not bothering to tell her the story. Instead he just entered the toilet, closed the door and pulled down his pants. "What's that thing for, anyway? There's a staircase right next to it."
"Beats me" Claudia said. "It does come in handy sometimes, especially when Dad and Doc are lugging heavy scientific equipment around. In terms of speed, though, the stairs are much more efficient."
"Yeah, I figured as much" Visiting Marty replied. He then let out a sigh of relief as he was finally able to relieve himself.
After finishing his business and saying goodbye to Claudia, the teen was finally able to return to his room, still mulling over the fact that it was half past midnight. That meant that he had been asleep for eleven hours or so and he still felt tired. Then again, it was probably for the best – hanging around all night for everyone else to wake up would have thrown his day and night pattern out of whack, and that was one thing they could not use in view of the time they would need to repair the bus.
As he got back to his bedroom and climbed back under the sheets, the thoughts of days, perhaps weeks of work were already haunting him. He really missed his real home, his parents, his girlfriend, and even the regular life of a college student. As much as he enjoyed hanging out with Doc, there were some levels of weirdness where Visiting Marty drew the line, and this was getting very close to that point. And now they would have to work together for at least several days to fix the time machine or more specifically, the DFSCUPCIF.
Visiting Marty pondered that for a few moments, then shrugged. There really was little he could do about all that right away, and worrying wouldn't help. Doc's words had come true on his prediction that they would find help eventually, and they would also come true on the prediction that they would find the way back home again. It would take some time, and some work would need to be done, but eventually, they would make it back to their own version of 1988. He was confident in that, confident enough to roll over and soon re-enter the realm of the sleeping.
oooooooo
When he came to, Dr. Emmett Brown's first instinct was to reach out for Clara, who was after all usually at his side. Her absence was already sending chills up his spine when he realized, at least partly from feeling the limitations of the bed, just why he wasn't lying next to his beloved wife. His test of the new dimension-hopping time machine had failed spectacularly, and now they were in another dimension, and probably the most promising one that they had encountered thus far.
Rolling over to his side, he found that the alarm clock whose absence he'd noticed yesterday was still not there. Well, it didn't matter anyway. Doc pulled his watch out of his sleeve – one out of many – and activated the light switch he'd installed on it.
6:11 AM.
If true, that message meant that he hadn't just had a good night's sleep, but that he had slept for the better part of the day, if he recalled correctly going to bed at 2 PM the afternoon before. He supposed that his body did need it, but... "Great Scott" he whispered. Sixteen hours was a lot of time to waste on just sleeping, especially when time machines needed to be repaired. Certainly, it would be a long and painstaking job regardless and his counterpart could probably do some work in advance, but... it just wouldn't feel right not to be personally involved. He had to get out of bed and find out what he could do to help.
As he got out of bed and got dressed, Doc was surprised how refreshed he felt. No longer tired or drowsy, no longer worn out yet stubbornly clinging to remaining awake. He felt much more eager and optimistic about work than he had in a long time. He supposed Susan had been right after all – sleep was good for him.
Susan Clayton. The thought that somewhere in this house another him would be in bed with that woman made Doc stop in his tracks towards the door for a moment. It was one thing to encounter a person you might have married had your life turned out differently – and not necessarily as different as the life of this version of him had, he remembered versions of himself married to Susan Clayton whose life had diverged from his own only during that crazy weekend back in 1985 – but it was yet another to spend what would at least be several days in the same house with her. The problem wasn't that he didn't like her – in fact, he found her incredibly charming. It was that she freaked him out.
Marty was lucky – offhand Doc couldn't remember his friend ending up with somebody besides Jennifer, except for Mary Parker in the world where he had been trapped in the 1950s and Clara Parker from the 'Smart Marty' world, as they had dubbed it, and although Doc hadn't met the former he was confident that they were both a lot like Jennifer anyway. Which wasn't the problem with Susan either – she seemed to be a lot like Clara, not just in appearance but also in character – it was just that he had always assumed that Clara was the only one for him. It wasn't the same romantic notion Clara herself seemed to have about it, but it was more of a hard realism that he wouldn't get anybody else to like him, so it was Clara Clayton or bust. Susan, though she resembled Clara a great deal, was not his wife, but had nevertheless still fallen for him. And so had several other women he'd encountered on his journey. Where other men might have considered that flattering, Doc Brown couldn't help but be unnerved at that.
Well, there was nothing he could do about that right now. Susan Clayton was a kind woman, and he was going to have to spend the next few days with her so he'd better get used to it. The inventor got out of his bedroom and wondered whether or not to reach for the light switch. It wasn't quite dawn yet – although at 6:13 by now it was obviously getting close – but he could already see much of the hallway fairly well. Turning on the switch would mean bothering everybody else, and the inventor was sure they'd still be asleep by this point.
It was remarkable, really, how much this situation was like the one he had ended up in in that 'Smart Marty' world. He had had an extremely long night's rest there, had protested against it every step of the way beforehand, and yet had ended up enjoying it. The fact that it had been almost exactly the same time of day when he'd woken up made it even more surreal and almost made him wonder whether he would run into that other dimension's version of him like he had last time. But no, that was unlikely. Where that house had been an incredible step into living and breathing history because it was an intact version of his mansion, never destroyed by a chemical experiment gone wrong because he had simply never pursued chemistry or anything scientific whatsoever, this house, though it had different touches here and there, was clearly the one he currently owned.
He headed over to the staircase and went down. He entered the living room, half-expecting to find Clara there, but his counterpart's wife was nowhere to be seen. The entire room was even pitch black before he turned on the light switch, and the boys from yesterday were gone from the box. They were probably still asleep as well.
Doc hadn't really expected to be the only one awake – Clara usually got up early, a tradition she'd carried over from their home in the Old West – and was now left pondering what to do. There might be a magazine around to read in or a book, but he figured that whatever his counterparts had would be the same to what he already owned, so reading it would be fairly pointless. He supposed he could try to locate his Jules Verne books, as he never got tired from them, but if this house was anything like his they would be in the library and that was far enough off from his current position that he felt uncomfortable going to explore the house without explicit permission. For the same reason, getting something to eat was right out.
After visiting the toilet and gulping down a great deal of water from the sink, Doc thus decided on the only other alternative besides returning to bed – going over to the garage and check on the time machine. That he knew for a fact where to find – he'd been involved in planning for bringing the bus in yesterday, after all. It was in the cellar, so all he had to do was going down the secret stairway that would lead him there.
Confidently, Doc opened the door to the stairway – and found himself standing in a girl's bedroom. Before he could do more than stand there being shocked, the girl, who looked like Jennifer, blinked and squinted at him. "Oh no, not you too?"
Doc just stared at her for a few moments. "What?" he finally asked.
"You're the Doc from the other dimension, right?" the girl – Claudia, he now remembered – said. "Your Marty came in here earlier this night looking for the bathroom. I woke up, had to give him directions on where to go, and have had trouble sleeping since. At least you didn't trip over the clothes on the floor and land right on me like he did."
Doc couldn't help but grin – that must have been embarrassing for poor Marty. "You left your clothes on the floor?"
Claudia blushed. "I was tired from discussing your situation with the rest of the guys all evening, and I just couldn't be bothered to put them anywhere else" she replied. "I thought it would be okay for just one occasion – figures. So, are you looking for the bathroom too?"
The inventor shook his head. "No, that's still in the same location as in my home. I was expecting to find a secret passageway down to the cellar here. I have it in this room in my house – or rather, in part of this room, because from what I can see your bedroom consists of what is the passageway and a storage room in my reality."
Claudia nodded. "There was a wall here that we demolished for more space when it was decided that this would be my bedroom" she replied. "So yeah, I could see that. What about Mike's room next door?"
"The library" Doc replied. "You know, this is really remarkable. It's like visiting different dimensions as a whole – if everything is different you can deal with it, but when you see so much that makes you feel like you're at home it's like a slap in the face when you come across something different."
Claudia nodded again. "I guess so" she said. "Anyway, the stairway down is the room next to Mike's – the one just before the one with the security controls. You can't miss it." She pondered something. "You know, with all those rooms, it is kind of silly how we have a small kitchen and only two bathrooms – one, because the other one has nothing more than a toilet."
Doc rolled his eyes. "That's what Clara keeps telling me – the stuff about the bathroom I mean, she's actually quite at home in a nice, small kitchen. I always say that it was her decision to allow me to design the house without her input – she's lucky I remembered to put in a bathroom at all. And there's another toilet down in the cellar, and one in the lab. That makes four."
Claudia chuckled. "You sound just as scatterbrained as Doc and Dad can be – no offense."
"None taken" Doc said. "I'll go find the stairway. You try to get some sleep. Thanks for your help."
"That's what interdimensional friends are for" Claudia replied grinning. Doc nodded, and headed over to the stairway she had directed him towards. As she had told him, he really couldn't miss it, and it looked almost exactly like the one in his own home – except, of course, that it was in a wholly different location, which became plainly obvious as he looked through the window in the door to the cellar. Fortunately the rest of the room looked more or less the same, which was natural for an area normally only used for storage.
The only thing that was different was the content. Where in his own world Doc would find the DeLorean there, accompanied by the train and since a few months the time bus, in this world he saw two DeLoreans – and that was about it. The inventor wondered why Chris and Emmett had ever figured they would need a cellar this big anyway, but then again, their families were growing. Perhaps they were anticipating the need to design a bigger time machine that would also fit the new additions to the Brown families. And in any case, an easy way to fly the time machine out of the house without having to put it in a normal garage or something like that was very convenient.
Another difference the inventor noted was the amount of security. When he tried to open the door, he found that it didn't just scan his thumbprint as he was used to, it scanned his entire body. Fortunately he didn't seem to have any scars or something like that which his counterparts didn't have, and the system let him in just fine. However, that wasn't the end of it. As he walked over to the DeLoreans, he could see they, too, were locked even tighter than he was used to, especially the second one. All kinds of technological curiosities were installed to the side of that car that could have no purpose besides security – well, unless they contained some miniature coffee maker, but somehow Doc doubted that.
Of course, the compulsive need to lock up time machines was very understandable, especially if the second time machine belonged to Chris, his counterpart from the Hell Valley world. Add to that the fact that in his own world he had to divide security costs and such over three machines, while in this world both scientists had just one machine to pay for and to pay attention to, he could see how this could have happened.
But never mind that. He had come here to take care of his own time bus, and Doc only cast the briefest of glances to the other time machines before tightening his resolve and heading to the bus. He stiffened on the final steps towards the door, wondering whether he had his key on him, then patted his pants' pocket and fortunately found it just where he'd left it – he really didn't want to get that thing lost. He opened the time machine door and headed inside before turning the time circuits on.
As expected, everything looked as frustratingly like it should, like it had done for the past five days now. And yet, Doc knew for a fact that if he took this bus in the air again, it would travel to another reality no matter what code he put in. It was just that stupid glitch which had overloaded, one with hypersensitive future technology that would take some time to repair. The time circuitry was the most complex part of the time machine, and he had spent several weeks on installing it into the bus last time, wanting it to be fully up to date. And now it was, but thanks to that up-to-date status, it was also almost irreplaceable. That thought made him curse his past self's deliberations. If he had just used 1980s equipment, it might take only a day or two to repair, especially if everyone was working together. But now, they would be stuck here at least a week, maybe two.
Although his hands itched to go to work, his brain knew there was nothing he could do right now besides run a preliminary check on the inside functions of the time bus and carefully writing down what needed to be replaced and bought. He also took a screwdriver and dismantled the panel covering the time circuitry, examining the wires all the while keeping a safe distance from the electricity. After he had written everything down that needed to be written down and collected everything from the time machine that he needed, it was nearing 7 AM. Time to go back to the main floor.
After going through another scan as he exited the cellar, Doc took the stairways and was about to walk over to the regular stairs leading back up when he noticed the kitchen light was on. Curious, he opened the door, leading Clara to shriek. "Emmett!"
"Sorry" her non-husband apologized. "I should have knocked, but I saw the lights and I just acted on impulse."
Clara nodded, taking in his clothes and probably assessing that this was not the Emmett Brown she spent every day with. "I didn't realize anybody was already up" she finally said.
Doc shrugged. "Considering the time I got to bed yesterday afternoon, I'd more than overslept, and I wanted to see whether there was anything I could do to prepare the time machine for its repairs" he replied. "You know, my Clara would usually be up by 6. Not that it's bad that you weren't, it's just... strange."
His counterpart's wife chuckled. "I guess that might be the influence of living with Chris and Susan" she said. "Back in the 19th Century I was an early riser as well, but since they weren't, I eventually adjusted to their pattern. This is still long before either of them would get out of bed, but it's late enough for me."
Doc nodded. Of course. Because in his own world he had been the only one living with Clara for a long time, and they had been living in her time period, he had been the one who'd had to adapt to the custom of getting up at daybreak, and he had barely noticed when they had carried that tradition into their new life in 1985. This Dr. Emmett Brown had never needed to adjust to the 1880s – or at least that was the assumption he was going under, he still knew only the vaguest details of their counterparts' past lives – and they had come to live with Chris and Susan, and thus the presence of three people from the late 20th Century with their habits had rubbed off on Clara in a way it never had in his own reality. He wondered if there were more examples like this, with this Clara adjusting quicker than his own Clara would have felt comfortable with.
"So," Clara continued, walking back and forth to get plates, "I hope you like bread and fried eggs for breakfast?"
"Yeah, that's all right" Doc replied. He suddenly became aware that he was just standing around here while his counterpart's wife was doing all the work, and blushed. "Excuse me, do you need me to do anything to help you out?"
Clara gave him a look. "Would your Clara appreciate you messing around in her kitchen?"
"No" the inventor admitted.
"Then you can understand that I wouldn't like it either" Clara replied. "Though there is something else you can do, if you don't mind me saying it – take a shower. From the scent coming from you, you need it. Not to mention you put on the same clothes again."
Doc shrugged. "Well, I didn't have any other clothes with me" he said. "I never anticipated that this journey would last so long – we were meant to be back after just a few hours. I suppose I should have taken precautions, given our track record, but I just didn't think of it."
"You could have asked my Emmett or Chris to lend you something" Clara said. "You do have the same taste from what I've seen, and you know they wouldn't mind."
"Considering that we're in another dimension which I'm completely unfamiliar with, I couldn't have been sure of that, and it just seemed easier to put on my own clothes again" Doc replied. "I guess you're right, though. I didn't really notice that I smelled badly. I knew I pretty much had to, considering that it has been several days and life in the bus has been pretty stressful, but Marty never said anything and so I paid little attention to it. Heaven knows I've gone for much longer periods without a shower back in my bachelor days. I guess that's something you never really notice about yourself before the smell becomes extremely bad."
Clara chuckled. "Well, I'd guess that if I were to ask either Chris or my Emmett… we have to come up with something to distinguish between you…"
"Marty and I have been going off the convention of calling the local me Emmett, where I would be Doc" Doc explained. "Then we call the local Marty 'Local Marty' and my Marty would be 'Visiting Marty'. It gets strange and confusing sometimes, but it mostly works, especially because our Clara isn't along. She definitely wouldn't like having to call me Doc. Anyway, proceed."
Clara nodded. "Like I was saying, if I asked Chris or Emmett – you're right, using your name in the third person while I'm looking at you is strange – to smell you, I'm sure they would be able to notice the stench of sweat. So from that perspective, it's not always true that you don't smell your own sweat."
Doc chuckled. "Good point, but not quite touché" he replied. "Although we talk about counterparts of ourselves in different dimensions as different versions of us, that's not actually true, especially in cases like this where I would presume this dimension is entirely separate from mine. It might be different in cases like the different ones your husband and Chris come from, the duplicated realities – which is a really fascinating story by the way. Anyway, this dimension is separate from our dimension, and these people who look like me and share my name and rough personality are merely the closest analogues to me, not other versions of me like past or future versions of me are. Your Emmett is 'him' to me, where my 1955 self would be 'me' if I ever had an encounter with him, er, me again. Of course, I wouldn't want to encounter him and I doubt I'd ever bring myself in that situation again, and in that case I would be calling me 'him' because that way he wouldn't get suspicious. The closest situation to this we've previously experienced was the Marty I met in an alternate 2016 back in my home dimension – he was the son of Biff Tannen and Lorraine Baines, so from that fact alone he clearly wasn't the Marty I knew. Yet, we referred to him as Marty's other self because he was the closest analogy, just like your Emmett – and Chris too, of course – is the closest analogy in this world to me."
"Not that all this isn't interesting, but what's your point?" Clara wondered.
"The point is that this universe is completely different from ours" Doc replied. "It might look similar to me, but looks can be deceiving. I really don't know your husband, the way I might know an alternate version of myself. From what I've witnessed, there are clear differences."
Clara nodded, taking it all in. "So does that mean that the Clara Clayton Brown from your world is an entirely different person from me?" she asked. "By the way, please sit down."
Doc did so and pondered the question. "Technically yes, but in practice not very much" he finally concluded. "Of course, like I just said I can't really tell yet because I have only known you for less than a day, but from what I've seen so far, it appears that your life in the Nineteenth Century took place long before the point where this universe took a different course than ours, thus making it likely that your lives were more or less the same until the moment that your life was saved by my counterpart. It was then that the real changes would have kicked in. Such as you probably adjusting slightly more to this Century because due to the presence of Chris and Susan, you were forced to adjust. Then again, you don't have kids of a school-going age yet unlike my timeline's Clara and I, so that could help balance the scales."
"So in overall appearance, you would say that I'm the same, more or less?" Clara said.
Doc nodded. "Yes. Of course, that's from observing you a little during the short time I've known you so far. In fact, I have to keep telling myself that you're not my wife, because although I know it intellectually, on an emotional level I keep wanting to embrace you because I miss your counterpart so much. I feel bad for leaving her behind. It's kind of silly, really, considering that she won't have a chance to miss me at all…"
Clara shook her head. "It's not silly. Of course you miss your wife, and even though you know she's fine and you'll be back before she even has a chance to notice you're gone, you still feel guilty. It's natural – it's just that time travel isn't, and that's probably why the fact that she won't miss you has a hard time sinking in."
"Maybe you're right" Doc conceded. "I occasionally felt the same way about Marty in the 1880s, as if he would feel hurt if I didn't hurry up with the time machine repairs, and it took me ten years to get out of there. And by the time I got ready, my life had become so distant from his that I actually hesitated for a while whether to move back." He chuckled wryly. "I can't imagine what Marty must have felt when I wrote him that one letter. I had been stuck in 1885 for eight months by that point and knew by then that I wasn't going to get home, but from Marty's perspective, it was like overnight I was telling him to give up on all this and go home without me. No wonder he came back to get me – he might even have done so if I hadn't been shot by Buford Tannen. Thinking fourth dimensionally sounds easier than it is in practice."
Clara blinked. "Wait, are you saying you spent ten years in the 1880s? I didn't catch that earlier…"
Doc nodded. "I guess I didn't tell you – I must have gotten too used to piecing together the background of other dimension mes on my own by now that I expect the locals to do the same for us. Yes, I got sent back to the period when the DeLorean got struck by lightning while flying over the Lyon Estates sign in 1955 – it's a long story – and ended up spending several months there before writing a letter to Marty. He went back because, like I said, I would have been shot by Buford Tannen, and though he succeeded in saving me he didn't succeed in getting me to come with him to the future because there was an incident with the time machine and we had to push it up with a steam train, so I ended up staying behind with my Clara, without a time machine, and had to spend years building a new one out of a steam train."
Clara shook her head in wonder. "Some parts of your story sound familiar, and yet others are so different" she marveled. "It's all so strange, these other dimensions, and I must confess I don't entirely understand the story yet."
"I don't blame you" Doc replied grinning. "It is convoluted. One of these days I should try to tell the whole story – you guys deserve it for letting us live here until the time machine is repaired. It's quite the tale, actually – with that in mind, it's no wonder they made a movie out of it… Great Scott, that's it! I could simply show you the movie trilogy!"
"What movie trilogy?" Clara wondered.
"That is yet another story" Doc replied, sighing. "Sometime during this dimension-hopping journey we came across a dimension where Marty and I were fictional characters in a movie trilogy called 'Back to the Future', centering around us, or from what I've seen around the time travels with the original DeLorean. I took it better than Marty did, but I have to admit that it sounded bizarre to me as well."
Clara nodded, speechless. "But how could that have happened?" she finally asked.
Doc shrugged. "I don't have a clue. Once we get back home I'll probably do some research on it and there might be some hints on the DVDs itself as well – we took the DVDs along from that dimension by mistake, they are like futuristic versions of VCRs… you know them, right?"
"I'm not an idiot, Emmett" Clara replied with a smile.
"Sorry, just checking. Anyway, we have those DVDs on the bus right now and would be happy to watch them with you given the chance. It might be interesting to see whether the events depicted align more with what we experienced or with the events that you experienced. My suspicion right now is on the former, from what we've seen, but I can't be really sure." He yawned and stood up. "And now I'll leave your kitchen as you told me to. I'm really long overdue to leave by now."
Clara rolled her eyes. "I didn't say you couldn't simply sit around and watch. In fact, I even offered you that chair."
"I know you did and it was kind of you to do so, but right now I need to find my counterpart" Doc replied. "Do you think he would mind me waking him up? It is after 7 by now…"
"For a matter this important, I don't think he would" Clara said. "Just be careful around the others – Mike and Claudia do tend to get a little cranky when they get woken up before they want to, and Chris and Susan aren't fans either. They enjoy this reality too much to let their lives be dictated by anything anymore… or at least, that's what Susan says."
"Fair enough" Doc said. "I'll see you at breakfast then." He left the kitchen and headed back up the stairs towards the room of his counterpart. This alternate Clara had certainly given him plenty of things to think about. Those DVDs, and the fascinating material they contained – perhaps there was even a clue on them for fixing the time machine, but somehow he doubted it. They might contain other new information on time travel, though. And then there was how everybody related to their counterparts in the dimension he was familiar with, as there were broad similarities yet surprising differences. He already knew that no matter how complicated all of this would end up being – and that it would be complex to fix the time machine he had no doubt of – this extended stay in an alternate reality would certainly not be boring.