Emmett was waiting in the courtyard, pacing up and down. It was getting very late - too late. That kid needed to be here so the lightning bolt could send him home. The thought that Marty had not got his parents together did not occur to Emmett - he wholeheartedly believed that Marty could, and would, do it. He checked his watch. And the time on the clocktower.

Dammit - it was quarter to. 'Where is that kid?' Emmett asked himself.

Emmett's car arrived in the town square and Marty bolted out. He came running to Emmett, wearing a suit and tie - the one he wore for the dance. 'Doc!' Marty screamed. 'Doc!'

'What's the matter, Marty?' asked Emmett. The teen was clearly distressed.

'Doc, it's my parents!' Marty put his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

'What about them?'

'They… they didn't get together at the dance,' said Marty. 'George. He - he…' What could he say? George couldn't stand up for himself or Lorraine against Biff so Biff had ended up…

'We gotta use the lighting to go back to earlier tonight, Doc, I gotta - Doc, I gotta fix this!'

Emmett grabbed Marty by the shoulders. 'We can't Marty! If you do this, you will be stranded in 1955. There is a chance you would bump into yourself which would open another can of worms - potentially, it could open up a wormhole that could destroy the world!'

'Heavy, Doc,' said Marty. 'Why aren't I disappearing though?' he asked. 'I've disappeared from the photo -'

'Let me see,' said Emmett.

Marty handed Emmett the photo.

Yes, Marty was gone from the photo. But he was tangible and right in front of Emmett. 'Maybe the time ripple hasn't caught up to you yet,' He reasoned. 'Even if this is the case, we still have to get the time machine back to 1985 - we cannot risk it being here where the technology hasn't been invented yet. Where could fall into the wrong hands.'

Marty sighed and nodded. 'You're right,' he said. 'You're right.'

Emmett leaned into the car and got in. 'Alright, let's set your destination time.' He looked at the display; OCT 26 1985 01 35. 'This is the time you left, so we should send you back to the exact same time. So it'll be as though the time machine never left.'

Marty felt a lump in his throat. 'Yeah,' was all he could say.

Emmett got out of the car and ran down the street. 'I painted a white start line way over there - you will start from there!' he shouted, pointing further down the street. 'I've calculated the precise distance, taking into account acceleration speed and wind resistance retroactive from the moment the lighting strikes… Marty, are you listening?'

'Uh… yeah,' Marty lied. He was not listening. He was too concerned about disappearing from existence. Was it painful? Or instantaneous? Would he feel it? Or would he just never know?

'Forget it. Forget it.' Emmett reached into his pocket for a little alarm clock and put it in Marty's hand. 'When this alarm clock goes off, hit the gas.'

Marty nodded. 'Right.'

'That's everything, I guess,' said Emmett.

Marty, in a state of shock over everything and without saying anything, reached up and pulled Emmett into a hug.

'I hope I remember you when you disappear.'

'Me too, Doc,' said Marty.

'Just hit the wire with the connecting hook at precisely eighty-eight miles an hour the instant the lightning strikes the tower and you and the time machine should be transported back to 1985.'

'More the DeLorean than me,' Marty said, glumly.

Emmett looked at the boy sympathetically. He'd grown attached to the teen and now he had to disappear from existence. He really did hope he'd remember Marty.

Someone had to.

Less than ten minutes later, after an incident in which Doc tore up the letter Marty had written him warning him about Libyan terrorists, and another particularly stressful incident trying to restart the DeLorean and stressing out about missing the lightning strike, Marty was back home, in Hill Valley, 1985. And he still wasn't disappeared. He was definitely gone from the photo. And the photo itself was now gone too - left back in 1955.

Marty tried to restart the DeLorean, but couldn't.

Suddenly it occurred to him - Doc and the terrorists. Doc was dead.

Marty had been too worried about his own existence, his own parents… he really hoped Doc got that letter. There were so many things he needed to ask.

He wandered around the town square. It was night and there were people about. Just not too many. Probably just the drunks and those who were going to the midnight porno. Marty sat down on an empty park bench and sighed, waiting for the universe to take him, waiting to fade out of existence.

A light shone in Marty's face and he figured that was it. He was dying now. Only, there was something off about the whole thing.

'Marty?'

That was Doc Brown's voice.

Marty leapt to his feet. 'Doc! You're alive!' he said, jubilantly. 'Or I'm dead.'

'You aren't dead, Marty,' said Emmett, as he climbed out of his van.

'How did you survive - how did you know where to find me?'

'I knew where to find you because I knew the exact date and time and place I sent you to back in 1955,' said Emmett. 'And I survived because of this.' From his pocket, he took out a yellowed, beaten up, taped together letter - the one Marty had written earlier that day (well, for Marty it was earlier that day. For Emmett, not so much), warning about terrorists.

'You got the letter,' said Marty. 'What about the terrorists?'

Emmett shook his head. 'It doesn't matter about the terrorists. Marty. You should have disappeared out of existence, like your brother and sister. And yet you haven't. Why do you think that is?'

'You said it was a time ripple that hasn't caught up to me yet,' said Marty. 'Right?'

Emmett took a seat on the park bench next to Marty. 'Marty. It's important you understand what I am about to tell you.'

'Doc… you're uh, you're kinda freaking me out here,' said Marty.

'Marty,' said Emmett, his voice serious. 'I am warning you. You know you've changed the timeline.'

Marty nodded. 'Yeah.'

'You didn't disappear because you still exist in this timeline.'

'Like… like a stable time loop?'

'Do you remember, back in 1955, I made an offhand comment that you were adopted?'

'Wait a minute, wait a minute - Doc. Are you saying I really was adopted?'

'I'm saying…' Emmett took a deep breath. 'Marty, the McFlys are not your family. Biologically speaking. It was nothing you did to the timeline that changed that. They simply never were to begin with.'

'Can't you… you have a time machine - fix it Doc. Fix it.'

'I… I'm so sorry, but I can't fix this, Marty. Even if I took you back to 1955 and you got George and Lorraine together, they still would not be your biological parents.'

'That's my family!'

'Some fluke event happened and put you in the McFly household. There's no way of knowing whether that event would be repeated. I'm sorry, Marty, but there's just as big a chance that you would end up in another family. It isn't worth that risk.'

The air escaped from Marty's lungs. No. No, that wasn't right. It couldn't be right. His vision went spotty and his heart started racing. He hasn't noticed, but he was also hyperventilating. He tried to bring his hand to his head, only it wouldn't respond. His other hand was shaking violently, just like the rest of his body. This was it - he was dying.

Except he wasn't - he'd simply descended into a full blown panic attack.

'Marty, please, I need you to breathe,' said Emmett, as he squeezed Marty's shoulder.

'Doc… no. No. No.' The only words Marty could bring himself to say. He shook his head. He was crying - he didn't notice that either.

He'd fucked up so bad this time. What the hell was he going to do now?

A/N:

I just like hurting fictional characters for amusement. It's very fun.

Think of this as like a Marvel What If? It's What If? Marty McFly was not biologically a McFly and so didn't disappear when his siblings did. I know. It's not snappy enough.

Title is from the Bruce Springsteen song The Ties That Bind.