After school the next day, Marty eagerly ran to Doc's lab - he knew the way from years of going there back in his timeline - and pounded on the door.

Emmett opened the door. 'Hey, Marty -'

'Doc!' Marty threw his arms around his old friend. 'Oh my god, Doc! You wouldn't believe my new life.'

'Is it good? Bad?' asked Emmett.

'Carl's got a better life than I do. But it's worse,' said Marty. 'He's got no friends. He's a mathlete. A total nerd. And Strickland likes him.'

'Strickland the principal?'

'Yeah.' Marty shook his head. 'He doesn't play music or skateboard - his mom's too paranoid of him getting hurt after he sprained his wrist falling, but I broke my arm, Doc. When I was a kid first learning to skate, I broke my arm.'

'Yes, children often injure themselves while playing,' said Emmett.

'Did you?' asked Marty.

'Skateboarding hadn't been invented when I was a child, Marty,' said Emmett. 'But I did get cuts, bruises, scrapes. As every child does. My mother would be the one to comfort me, of course.'

'Yeah. Lorraine was the same,' said Marty. 'Lorraine. My… Doc. She's my mom. She was my mom. When I broke my arm, she took me out for ice cream just to make me feel better. And George. When I was stuck at home with the mumps, he sat and watched old TV show reruns with me.'

The more Marty talked, the more agitated he became.

'Doc, you have to fix this,' said Marty as he paced back and forth in the lab. 'Doc I - I can't be Carl. I want to be Marty again. I hate this family I'm living with and Jennifer… she doesn't even know me! She's dating Needles for Christ's sake!'

'Marty, I've told you, I can't fix this at the moment,' said Emmett. 'You will have to stay with your family -'

'They are not my family, Doc!' Marty shouted. 'These people might be related to me by blood, but they'll never be my family! Stephen never sat down on the sofa with me and watched The Brady Bunch - George did. Sue was never waiting at my bedside to comfort me whenever I had a nightmare - Lorraine was. Rich never introduced me to awesome music - Dave did. A-and April and Lori never picked up a book and started reading me to sleep - that… that was Linda.' By now, Marty was doing all he could to stop the tears from coming. 'But… they're gone, Doc.'

'In this timeline, they never existed,' said Emmett.

'Yeah. It'd be easier if they were dead. Then other people would be like "oh I knew your father, he was a quiet guy. Your mom made the best potato salad. Your brother was a great singer. Your sister was very funny." They'd have graves I could visit. But it's just me that knows about them.' Marty shook his head. 'I don't know these new people, Doc. They're not my family. I don't want them. I want my family.'

'And I promise you, we will get you back to the McFlys. As soon as I can figure out a way to time travel without creating a paradox, we will be in that DeLorean and back to 1955,' said Doc.

Marty nodded, pulling at the colourful sweater he was wearing. 'I really hate this Carl's sense of fashion. Why does he have to own so many Cosby Show type sweaters?'

'Because you were put you in a new environment, and your personality is different. It's the classic "nature versus nurture" debate. How much of our personality is dictated by genetics versus the environment we grew up in.'

Marty nodded. 'Okay. So how long until you think we can get back to 1955?'

'It could be a while,' Emmett admitted. 'Or it could be tomorrow. Next week. Later today. You need to come here every day until I figure everything out.'

Marty ran his fingers down one of Emmett's wrenches. 'Doc. I gotta know. What happened to George and Lorraine and Biff?'

'Lorraine is a secretary - she went to college, got a degree, and is now married with two kids. Seems happy. Came to visit me a lot after you left asking me where "Calvin Klein" was, and now we exchange Christmas cards.' Emmett shook his head. 'Biff runs an auto parts store. Don't go there. He'll only rip you off. And George… I don't know what happened to him. Sorry, Marty.'

Marty nodded. His mom was happy. After all that happened. And she had kids. And a husband. Was it right for him to erase all that so she could be unhappy with George, just so Marty could have his family back? Was this a jerk move? Was he being selfish? And since he really was switched at birth, there would be a lot of heartbreak when it came out later on down the line.

'I understand you must have some conflicting emotions about all this,' said Emmett.

'Conflicting doesn't even begin to cover it, Doc. Man. This is heavy.'

'Would you like to wait here with Einstein while I get us both a burger from the Burger King next door?'

'Why?'

'You need to calm down. You need to eat.'

Marty nodded. 'Okay,' he said quietly. 'Sure.'

'Then you can tall me all about your new family. And your old family, if you wish. I'm sure you'd like to talk about them.'

Marty wanted to say something to that, only the words wouldn't come out. Instead, he just nodded again.

Emmett returned with the burgers some twenty minutes later. Marty was lying down on the sofa, one arm across his chest, the other flopping down and scratching Einstein on his head.

'I'm back with the burgers,' said Emmett.

Marty just grunted in acknowledgment. Then he sat up and pulled himself to his feet.

'I didn't know what burger you liked, so I got us both a regular Whopper,' said Emmett.

'Whopper's fine,' said Marty.

Emmett pulled the burger from the bag and handed it to Marty. 'Are you alright? Is something else bothering you?'

Marty sighed and shrugged. 'I don't know,' he said. 'Everything's just so different now. But this - you getting us burgers from Burger King and-and calling me Marty… it's so normal. This is what happened before.' He started tearing up and wiped his eye with his shirt sleeve. 'Before I stopped being Marty. I am Marty. But it's not like people know it.'

'I know it,' said Emmett. 'You're not Carl. You may have been born Carl, but in your timeline, you did not stay Carl. And I'm sorry I didn't recognise your identity crisis sooner.'

'I'm so…' Marty grunted, not knowing what to say.

'You're finding it all hard to deal with, aren't you?' asked Emmett. 'It's alright. You've gone through a huge change.'

'Everything in my life has been a lie,' said Marty. 'I don't know what to believe anymore and that's - it's so scary.'

'Why don't you tell me about your old family,' Emmett suggested.

'I miss them, Doc,' said Marty. 'My mom, Lorraine, she… she wasn't the best. She was a bitter, depressed alcoholic. But she loved me - I know she did. She was always the first to comfort me or help me when I was in trouble. And she really did make the best potato salad. My dad, George, was pretty much everyone's doormat and he gave terrible advice. But it came from a good place. He didn't have a malicious bone in his body.'

Marty lifted the top bun on his burger and listlessly put it back.

'Dave… he was fun. We'd always hang out watching TV or listening to music. He got me into some great music, Doc. Like Huey Lewis, Van Halen, and Michael Jackson. I'll never forget the first time he played me Thriller. If it wasn't for Dave and his great music, I never would have picked up the guitar. Dave was the one who showed me my first chords. And he got me my Walkman for my birthday with the money he made at Burger King.'

Emmett nodded. He remembered Marty's Walkman. He'd been fascinated with it, playing with it while Marty was at school in 1955.

Marty pulled his Walkman from his jeans pocket. 'Is this Marty's? Did this come from Dave? Or did someone get it for Carl?'

'It came with you, Marty, to 1955,' said Emmett. 'You still have it in 1985. I would say that's Marty McFly's. A gift from his brother.'

'That's what I want to believe too,' said Marty quietly, running his hand over the small, beaten up machine.

'And your sister? What was she like?'

'Linda. She was… protective. Especially when we were kids. Because we were closer in age, we were just closer.' Marty smiled wistfully. 'She was only two years older than me, but she learned to read before I did. On the days when mom was… unavailable. Linda read simple kids' books to me. I had a lot of nightmares as a kid. So we slept in the same bed. We also did a lot of hugging. Then… we grew older. Our relationship changed. She started getting interested in fashion and makeup and boys. And less interested in hanging out with her dorky little brother. That's why I took up skateboarding. To prove I wasn't just Linda's dorky little brother Martin. I wanted to prove to the older kids that… that I was cool too. It was Linda who convinced my parents to get me my first proper skateboard for Christmas when I was seven. That's when I became Marty over Martin. And when I broke my arm, she was the one who convinced me not to give it up.'

'You miss your siblings more than your parents,' Emmett noted.

'Yeah.' Marty shrugged. 'I mean… I last saw my parents on Saturday. They still exist in this world. This timeline. But I'll never see my brother and sister again. Dave and Linda. I'll never see them again.'

'Does Carl play guitar or skateboard?' asked Emmett.

Marty shook his head. 'No. His mother's paranoid of skateboards because he sprained his wrist.'

'But you can still skateboard?'

'Yeah, I still can. Bought one yesterday and skated home, but it got confiscated.'

'Then your sister is still with you,' said Emmett. 'That you didn't suddenly lose those skills on returning to 1985 is evidence enough that she existed.'

Marty looked at Emmett in confusion. 'It is?'

'It is,' Emmett confirmed.

'I haven't tried playing guitar yet. Not since I was up there at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance playing Earth Angel and I vanished from the photo because my parents didn't kiss.'

'You could play then?'

'Yeah, I could.'

'So, if you vanished from the photo while you were playing the song -'

'It was at the beginning of the song.'

'Then I see no reason why you cannot play guitar now.'

'Dave,' said Marty.

'The ties you have to your siblings are still there, Marty,' said Emmett.

'Does that mean I'm not Carl Davis?'

'Oh, no, no, no. You still are. You haven't usurped his place or supplanted him. You always were him. But you have different memories, different life experiences, because you were the one who altered the time stream,' Emmett explained. 'Carl never picked up the guitar because he never had a brother to show him how to play those first chords or give him musical heroes to look up to and want to emulate. And he never took up skateboarding because he was held back when he was injured, whereas you were encouraged. Encouraged with guitar and skateboarding. That is why you can do these things and Carl cannot.'

'What's that got to do with the space-time continuum?' asked Marty.

'George and Lorraine, your mom and pop, did not get together at that dance. Which led to there being no baby swap in 1968. When you made the jump back to 1985, this is the timeline you jumped into - we'll call this, 1985-B.'

'1985-B,' Marty repeated. 'Right.'

'Time changed around us leaving all of us unaware about the events of your timeline - which we'll call 1985-A.'

'1985-A,' Marty repeated. 'That's the original.'

'Yes,' said Emmett. 'But because you were the one to time travel from 1985-A, make that change in time, and go back to 1985-B, you retained those memories. All the memories of 1985-A.'

'So, how am I not Carl?'

'You are. But also, you're not,' said Emmett. 'In 1985-A, you were still born to the Davis family, but the baby swap, for whatever reason, happened, and you became Marty McFly. Here, in 1985-B, your mom and pop aren't together, so they didn't have children together, meaning there was no Marty McFly to do a baby swap with.'

Marty nodded. He wasn't sure if the whole thing was complicated, or if he was just stupid, or still in shock and processing everything, but it wasn't really sinking in.

'Perhaps a visual aid would help,' Emmett suggested.

'A visual aid,' said Marty. He hauled Carl's backpack from the floor and pulled out Carl's notebook and a pencil he'd borrowed from one of his classmates earlier in the day. 'Like this?' he asked, dropping them on the table.

Emmett took the notebook and flicked it open to an empty page. 'Marty, you study advanced mathematics?'

'No, Carl does,' said Marty. 'And I was hoping you could help with that.'

'Yes, yes, of course, of course.' Emmett picked up the pencil. 'But first, I'm going to explain the timeline split to you.'

He wrote out three years on the paper. At one side, he'd written 1955. In the middle, 1985-A. At the bottom of the page, 1985-B.

He held up the notebook to Marty and tapped on 1985-A with the pencil. 'This is where you come from. 1985-A. In this timeline, your mom and pop kissed at that school dance, Your brother, your sister, and Martin McFly were all born. You were born and swapped out for Martin McFly, causing you to grow up in the McFly family. And we were apparently good friends.'

'Yeah, that's right, Doc,' said Marty.

'Then, an incident sent you back in time. Back to here.' Emmett turned the notebook back around and drew a line between 1985-A and 1955. Then he turned the notebook back to Marty. 'Where you accidentally stopped your parents' first meeting and then met me. You tried to get your mom and pop back together, but your attempts failed.'

'That's right, too,' said Marty with a sigh.

'With the lightning strike on the clocktower, I sent you back to the future. This future, to be precise.' Emmett again turned the notebook around and drew another line - this one from 1955 to 1985-B. Then showed Marty. 'This is the timeline where your mom and pop didn't get together and so didn't have kids. You were born. But there was no baby swap, so you grew up with the family you were supposed to -'

'I was supposed to grow up with the McFlys,' Marty corrected.

'Yes. I'm sorry,' said Emmett. 'Here, you grew up with the Davis family, who you are biologically related to - and always have been. And we have never known each other.'

'Heavy, Doc,' said Marty unenthusiastically.

'Indeed,' said Emmett. 'Now, these alternate timelines - they are not alternate universes, alternate realities. You did not travel to a parallel universe. 1985-A and 1985-B are the merely different versions of the same timeline.' He struck a straight line between 1985-A and 1895-B. 'That is why there is only one Carl Davis. And that's you.'

'I don't want to be Carl Davis.'

'No. Which is why we must figure out a way to travel back to 1955 without causing a paradox that could destroy the world. So. Marty.' Emmett set the pencil and the notebook down on the table and pushed them towards Marty. 'This is why it's important you tell me - what happened in 1955?'

'How much do you want to know?' asked Marty, eyeing up his now-stone cold burger. 'Is it-is it just the night of the dance or further back?'

'As much as you can tell me,' said Emmett. 'Remember, what was one week ago for you was thirty years ago for me.'

Marty nodded. 'Okay. Well. You were shot and killed by Libyan terrorists, which led to me going back to 1955.'

Emmett winced at that. Yes, he'd read the letter. Yes he'd experienced the almost murder the other night. But it was still not a pleasant thing to remember.

'I crashed into a farm, ran over a scarecrow - at least I hope it was a scarecrow - and hid the time machine behind a billboard. I wandered into town and everything was different. At the cafe, I saw my dad - I mean George McFly. I followed him and uh…'

He paused as he debated whether or not to include that George had climbed a tree to perv on a girl - not just any girl though. Lorraine. He decided not to in order to not give the wrong impression.

'He got in the way of a car. So I pushed him out the way and I got hit by my Grandpa Sam's car instead. That was how my parents met in uh… 1985-A. Grandpa Sam hit my dad with his car. Then my mom felt sorry for him and asked him to the school dance.'

Emmett nodded. 'Yes, I remember this part.'

'Instead, I was the one who got a concussion. But my mom - Lorraine. She never felt sorry for me. She admired me for standing up to Biff Tannen. He just picked on George and-and tried to grope her. The fifties sucked in a lot of ways, Doc.' Marty paused. 'The eighties aren't much better, but they're home, at least.'

'Biff and George and Lorraine,' Emmett prompted.

'Oh. Yeah. Right. Um, well, Biff started picking on me too. I just don't think he liked anybody.'

'Some people don't, Marty,' said Emmett. 'It doesn't take a lot of effort to be mean and nice is a thing you choose to be.'

Marty scoffed. 'Biff Tannen is deathly allergic to niceness,' he said. 'At the dance, he had his three goons beat the crap out of me and then lock me in the trunk of a car. While he…' Marty stopped, seemingly unable to go any further.

'Marty?' asked Emmett. 'Are you alright?'

'The Starlighters. They busted me out of the trunk,' said Marty. 'By the time I got back to your car… Biff was… he attacked my mom.'

'You witnessed -'

'Yes.'

The room went quiet.

Emmett said nothing.

Marty tried to compose himself.

'And George. He walked away. Let Biff do that to my mom.'

'So what do you think you can change?' asked Emmett.

Marty opened his mouth…

Only he didn't know what to say. He didn't know what he could change about that situation

'I'd go back to that first day. Pull myself aside. Let my dad get hit by a car and let my mom play nurse to him.'

Emmett shook his head. 'Marty, I'm afraid you can't do that,' he said. 'You mustn't be seen by your past self.'

'But it's not my past self,' Marty argued.

'Yourself from a week ago is still your past self.'

'So you're telling me there's no way out of 1985-B?'

'Is there any point we can get you back to 1955 and replace past you with your current self?'

'So I can take Biff out myself?'

'No, doing that could cause your mother to fall in love with you.'

'At least it's not incest.'

'She raised you. She might not be your biological mother, but she is your adopted mother, so it still very much is incest.'

Marty groaned.

'We will figure this out, Marty. I promise,' said Emmett. He put his hand on Marty's arm.

Marty just nodded and looked down at Einstein lying at his feet. 'Yeah.'

'How's the family you currently live with? The Davis Family?'

Marty shrugged, still not taking his eyes off Einstein. 'They're okay. But they're not my family. Sue and Stephen are overprotective. Rich, the older brother, is a yuppie. Lori, the little sister, is a mall rat.' He lifted his head and looked Emmett in the eyes. 'But the worst thing, Doc. You didn't tell me Carl had a twin sister.'

Emmett's expression changed multiple times over the course of just a few seconds. Terror, confusion, panic, pity, trying to remember - did he know this? Did he warn Marty?

'Yeah, her name's April,' said Marty. 'She looks like me. In fact, they all do. It's creepy. None of them are identical to me. But sometimes I'll just see them and it's like looking in a mirror. Part of my own face is reflected back at me.'

'Marty, I'm so sorry,' said Emmett. 'I didn't know. She wasn't mentioned in the birth announcement.'

Marty shrugged. 'Does that make Carl the oldest? Or are Sue and Stephen sexists?'

'I'm not saying anyone is sexist, but the sixties were a sexist time, Marty. It may well be that you are the oldest. But it may also be that with a set of boy-girl twins, they prioritised the boy. Equally plausible is that you were born on the twelfth, while April was born on the thirteenth, so her birth announcement hadn't gone out yet.'

Marty nodded. He'd not thought about twins sharing a different birth date before. He didn't know it was possible.

'Is she nice?'

'Yeah. She is. I remember, in 1985-A, seeing her around school and she was always friendly to me there. Just like… a nodding acquaintance. I don't think we even knew each others' names. But maybe I should've made more of an effort to be her friend.'

'And Carl? What's he like?'

Marty shrugged. 'A nerd. He's a mathlete. Doing advanced physics and mathematics at school. I've always been the one to scrape by with a C, but this guy's a solid A+ student. It's honestly kinda freaky to think that's me.'

'Well, why not?' asked Emmett. 'I lived with you for a week in 1955. I saw you and I can say with certainty that you are not stupid. Easily distracted, yes. But not stupid.'

Marty laughed bitterly. 'I am stupid because I let this happen.'

'It's not your fault. Nobody could have known.'

'Now I'm stuck in a house with a family that's mine but not mine, and they look like me, and they think I'm being bullied because Carl was acting weird.'

'Acting weird? How so?'

'I don't know, Doc.' Marty sighed. 'Carl was just in the middle of some mental crisis when I replaced him.'

'You didn't replace him,' said Emmett. 'But it's starting to explain why he stole my time machine.'

'You seem oddly unfazed by that,' said Marty. 'A strange kid stole your time machine and you don't seem concerned about bringing him back. And he may have altered the future, but we won't know because we didn't travel back with him. What's happening there?'

'I -'

'What if he ends up changing the future? Would I just… disappear? Fade from existence like Dave and Linda?'

'Well -'

'Oh my god. Jesus Christ, Doc. I can't. I can't do this.' Marty brought his hand to his chest, struggling to breathe, swallowing the air. In his panic, he stood up, only his knees buckled beneath him and he dropped to the floor on his hands and knees. 'Can't… Doc, help! Help!' He shook his head to try and get rid of the horrible whine coming from his ears.

Einstein looked up at his master, expecting him to do something to help Marty.

Emmett grabbed the nearby paper bag that the burgers had come in, and crouched down. 'You're having an anxiety attack.' He handed the paper bag to Marty. 'Breathe into this.'

Marty snatched the paper bag with a shaky hand and did as instructed, sitting down on the floor. He did his best to ignore the burger smell in the bag as he breathed in and out.

'Slower, Marty, you don't want to pass out,' said Emmett. 'Just inhale… and exhale. It's scary, but you're just hyperventilating.'

Einstein rested his head on Marty's thigh.

With his other shaking hand, Marty petted the dog. The more he breathed into the paper bag, the better he felt. He lowered the bag and put his head back.

Emmett nodded. 'Are you feeling better?' he asked.

'Yeah,' said Marty, barely audible. 'But, Doc… what did happen to Carl Davis? Did I erase him out of existence, or will he erase me out of existence?'

'Nobody is erasing anybody,' said Emmett. 'He cannot erase you and you cannot erase him because you are the same person.'

'So, what?'

'My own personal theory is that you merged,' said Emmett. 'Nobody supplanted anybody.'

'Why don't I have his memories?'

'You went back in time so your memories are unchanged.'

'So, I did replace him!'

'No, Marty, you didn't.'

Marty raised a shaky hand to his face and resumed breathing into the bag. 'Jesus Christ, Doc!' he exclaimed.

'You didn't replace anybody. There is only one Carl Davis and that's all there ever has been. It just so happens that in 1985-B, Carl Davis is also Marty McFly due to a… temporal mix-up. But you two are the same person. There is no Carl and Marty. It's just Carl. Who now goes by Marty.'

Marty nodded. He didn't really understand what Emmett was saying. Words were just going in one ear and out the other and it was harder than usual to focus.

'Marty?'

'Yeah, Doc?'

'Go home. Get some rest. Come back here tomorrow.'

'Doc, I'm fine, I swear -'

'You're not. You've had such a shock to the system - you're going through a rather extreme existential crisis and you're still in the middle of processing all of this. It isn't doing you any good to be talking about this when you're still in a state of fight or flight.'

'But -'

'No buts. Come back tomorrow.'

'Can't we… watch TV or something?' asked Marty. 'We did that in 1985-A.'

'If your parents are as overprotective of you as you say they are, it's best you head home now,' said Emmett. 'It's starting to get dark out.'

'I-I'm sorry, Doc.'

'Don't be sorry,' said Emmett. 'Today was productive. You've given me information I didn't have before.'

Marty nodded.

'As a scientist, I find any information is useful. Right now, you are stranded. But with more information, we can restore the 1985-A timeline.'

'Restore the 1985-A timeline,' Marty repeated. 'That's what we'll do.'

'It is indeed,' said Emmett. 'So go home. Get some rest. And come back tomorrow.'

Marty pulled himself up from the floor, still shaking. He could feel his heart still pounding in his chest, so put it down to all the adrenaline from hyperventilating.

'You can keep the bag, Marty,' said Emmett.

'Thanks,' said Marty, half-hearted.

By the time Marty returned that night to the Davis household, Sue and Stephen were beside themselves with worry.

'Carl, why didn't you straight home from school?' asked Sue.

'I went to a friend's house,' said Marty. It wasn't like it was a lie.

'You have a friend?' asked Lori. 'You're always finding new ways to surprise me.'

'So what's this friend's name?' asked Stephen.

'D - uh… Emmett,' said Marty.

'Emmett what?' asked Sue.

'Emmett Brown,' said Marty.

'Like that deranged scientist?' asked Lori.

Stephen's eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. 'It's not that deranged scientist, is it?'

'No. It's a-a different Emmett Brown. No relation to the uh… deranged scientist.' Marty felt dirty for saying those words. His best friend - only friend at this point - was a brilliant scientist. Who broke all laws of physics and actually invented a working time machine. Of course there was the whole Manhattan Project thing. But that was in the past. Way in the past.

Sue nodded. 'Then that's a relief.'

'I don't know any Emmett Browns in school,' said April, turning her attention from the TV.

'He's in college,' Marty said quickly. 'He's uh… helping me with… mathematics.'

'But you're so brilliant at mathematics,' said Stephen.

'So is he,' said Marty.

'I didn't know you were feeling any pressures with that,' said April. 'But it explains some things. Carl, I'm sorry.'

'If you need me, I'll be in C - my room,' said Marty. He put his hands in his jeans pockets and walked down the hall.

'Would you like a call when dinner's ready?' asked Sue.

'You're not going to force me to drink OJ, are you?' asked Marty.

Lori sniggered. 'Orange juice is a breakfast drink. You know this, Carl.'

'So what comes with dinner? Apple juice?'

'Whatever you want. 7Up, Pepsi, orange crush - yes, apple juice too,' said Stephen.

'So why the orange juice?' asked Marty

'You know why,' said Sue. 'Breakfast isn't breakfast without a cup of orange juice. Dinner won't be long, Honey. Around half an hour.'

'Yeah, thanks.' Marty continued his walk down the hall and opened Carl's bedroom door. His bedroom door.

All he Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, and Prince memorabilia scattered around Carl's room was freaky. Yes, Marty liked Michael Jackson. But he didn't really care much for Springsteen. And Prince just reminded him of Linda - his sister was a huge Prince fan.

All it did was make him think of the times he berated Linda for singing Raspberry Beret off-key earlier in the year. Not just berated. He was actively belligerent towards her and she found that funny and kept teasing him with the song. Now, what he wouldn't give just to hear Linda singing off-keyagain.

Marty flopped down on Carl's bed.

Every time he thought he'd adjusted to the new timeline, something always came along to kick him in the nuts again.

He did his best to stay resolute. He would fix this. There wasn't no hope. Not that a double negative could help him.

Marty pulled his Walkman from his pocket and reached over to put it on the bedside table, but missed and accidentally dropped it on the floor.

In his panic, he shot up and went to pick it back up off the floor.

That was a precious gift from his brother - one of the only ties to his old life, along with the denim jacket and puffer vest.

Picking the Walkman up from the floor is when Marty noticed it. A book, under the bed.

Marty put the Walkman on the bedside table and reached under the bed for it.

The book was Carl's diary.

And since he was Carl now…

Marty sat down on Carl's bed and opened the first page of Carl's diary.

A/N:

So, Lorraine is happy and has kids. What a dilemma - I just keep piling it on for poor Marty. And it's still going to get worse before it gets better.

It's never said in the films why Marty picked up the guitar or skateboarding. I can imagine he was in some ways influenced by his older siblings. My older cousins skated and were super into Tony Hawk. When I was about seven or eight, I'd play Tony Hawk video games with them. Then, to be like them, I started skating myself.

They were also musicians, and played in a band. They even made a few albums later on. One of them showed me my first bass chords. Another showed me my first banjo chords. I've been playing ever since.
My taste in rock music came from my mother. But the boybands came from my another cousin, the 80s kid (I'm a 90s baby, 00s kid).

And those were my cousins. So to me, yes, Marty's a free thinker, but even free thinkers are influenced, or at the very least, inspired by someone else. All it takes is that one little spark. And it wouldn't be far fetched to think it would be his older siblings.

Why does Doc want to know about the McFlys? Well, he may be socially oblivious most of the time, but even he can tell that Marty's upset and needs to get some things off his chest. After all, Doc is the only one who knows about Marty's old life as Marty McFly.

So Carl. Did he make it to 1955 and what is he doing there? Will he erase Marty from existence? Will we ever find out what's up with him?

So the orange juice. I should probably explain that. When I was a kid (actually, even now), my mother used to serve a glass of orange juice with breakfast. Every breakfast. If we were travelling, it'd be in a juice box or a bottle. Mostly now, I make my own breakfast, but if she still makes it for me (I may be pushing 30, but I'm not going to refuse my mother making me a meal), she still serves it with orange juice. She says the same thing Sue said; Breakfast isn't breakfast without a cup of orange juice.

So. Marty's found Carl's diary. The question now is what will be in it?

And is the Walkman really from Dave? I think we all know the answer to that one.