Work Text:
The doc was alive.
Well, he had known the doc was alive. Even as the car had hurtled back to the future, he had clung to the knowledge that he had saved the doc.
Again.
But it wasn’t just that the doc was alive.
It was that the doc was alive and well and here.
In 1985.
Beaming down at him from a flying train.
Marty almost couldn’t believe the absurdity of it all.
He waved frantically at the doc, Jennifer pressed against his side. He knew if he glanced at her he would see a wide smile on her face but he couldn’t bring himself to look away from the train. As if when he looked away the doc would disappear again.
They waved at the train until it vanished into time, flashes of light momentarily blinding him.
Marty felt his heart sink.
The doc wouldn’t…the doc wouldn’t stay gone, he was sure.
The doc had created a whole time machine from a train and judging from the fact that he now had kids, it had taken him a while. Marty was sure that the doc hadn’t just done that to travel through time.
Some of that had to have been for him, right?
“Marty?”
He blinked, realizing that he had been staring off into the distance.
“Yeah?”
He said.
His voice sounded weird.
Almost far off.
The flashes of light from the train had sunk into dark splotches on the edges of his vision, pulsing softly with every breath he took. Jennifer’s hand on his shoulder was weirdly heavy and he blinked slowly at her.
“Are you okay?”
She asked and he nodded.
He immediately regretted it.
The black splotches grew larger and he frowned.
He couldn’t really feel his legs.
He took a deep breath in and felt the air rattle all the way through his lungs. Could he normally feel that? Jennifer was suddenly gone, the warmth from her side disappearing and leaving him in the bitter—what month was it, again?
“Marty?”
Her voice was growing further and further away.
He took a shaky step towards her and the blackness rushed in, the world blurring around him. He didn’t even register hitting the ground, just that suddenly he was staring up at the clouds as they twisted into weird shapes.
Were clouds normally that fuzzy?
Weird.
“Marty!”
The next thing he knew he was staring up at a dark ceiling, someone moving next to him. His entire body felt like it was glued to the bed, like he was being sat on by a giant gorilla or something similar.
What was he thinking about?
He blinked, trying to turn his head.
The light suddenly flicked on and he winced as the shape of his mother came into view.
His mother.
His new-timeline mother.
“Mom?”
He croaked out and she shushed him, pressing a cool washcloth against his head.
“You’re okay.”
She said and he frowned.
“What—”
“Jennifer said you passed out. Something about not having enough to eat or drink? Really, Marty, you should know better.”
“Oh.”
He managed to get out as his mother stood up briskly.
“Right. You’re going to stay in bed the rest of the day, understand?”
He sat up quickly.
He regretted it.
The world spun and he squeezed his eyes shut as his mother hurried back to his side.
“That’s why.”
She said and he opened his eyes.
“But—”
“No buts. You’re staying in bed.”
She hurried to the door and he stared after her, the world having stopped spinning but darkness still creeping in on the side of his vision. She paused in the middle of the doorway and he raised his eyebrows.
“By the way, do you have any idea why Doctor Brown has a train?”
“What?”
He croaked out and she smiled at him.
“I suppose you’re too out of it. Yeah, he’s got a giant train by his garage. Said something about an experiment.”
“Wha—you’ve seen him?”
She frowned at him.
“Of course I’ve seen him. I picked you up from his garage where you were unconscious.”
“Oh.”
Marty said, feeling faintly embarrassed.
Not that he should feel embarrassed.
It was just the doc and Jennifer.
Still.
How had he even been at the doc’s garage?
“Stay in bed, Marty.”
His mother said and he nodded.
She smiled again at him and shut the door.
He immediately leapt out of bed. He grabbed a jacket and shoved his feet into his nearest pair of shoes before hurrying over to the window. He pushed it open as silently as he could and scrambled out, jumping to the ground and letting out a silent grunt.
The world spun and he leaned against the wall, breathing deeply.
He was fine.
He had to go see the doc.
He had to go find out what the doc was doing.
He grabbed his skateboard from the garage, kicking off and rolling down the street, the wind whipping past him and chilling him down to the bone. He could have sworn it wasn’t this cold yesterday.
Today?
A few weeks ago?
He shook his head, turning the corner and going faster down a small hill, ignoring the way the world kept slipping in and out of focus.
He was fine.
Five more minutes of skateboarding and the world was spinning faster and faster around him. He stumbled off his board and shook his head hard. If he focused he thought he could hear his brain tumbling around inside his skull, rattling like drums.
He coughed and picked up the skateboard.
It was heavy.
Really heavy.
He took a few steps towards the doc’s garage—his mom was right, the train was there—and yet it seemed like he hadn’t moved at all.
He frowned.
Took another step forward.
Was the workshop moving farther away?
He called out for the doc but no sound came out.
Weird.
His foot hit something hard and he crumpled, just managing to stop himself from slamming his head into the pavement with his hands. Blood was dripping onto the concrete and he blinked, realizing that his hands were all scraped out.
The world spun faster.
“Emmett!”
He heard someone shout.
He just managed to recognize Einstein’s bark before the blackness won again.
The world was warm.
Really, truly warm.
He could feel the heavy weight of a dog at his feet—it had to be Einstein—and the familiar blankets that were always in the doc’s garage. He could hear people talking in the background and he sighed, burrowing deeper into the comfort.
“And instead of staying at home, the first thing he does is run to you?”
That was a woman’s voice.
“Yes, it is odd.”
Doc.
“Is it? Emmett, he was willing to duel Buford for you. I think…I think he was willing to die for you.”
He was.
He would’ve.
If he hadn’t managed to outsmart Buford.
He would’ve died for the doc.
Anyday.
A hand was suddenly running through his hair and Marty sighed, as the voices grew slightly louder, even as they were clearly trying to whisper.
“It’s been years for us but for him…I mean, he did all of that to save you and bring you back here. And then he must’ve thought he failed.”
“I know. I missed him.”
“I know you did.”
“What do you think I should do?”
“Apologize. Talk to him. Explain things? I fully believe he’s your best friend, but he’s also seventeen years old. I thought he was your son, when I first met you two.”
Marty opened his eyes slowly.
He was lying on the doc’s couch in the garage.
Clara was standing a few feet away, no longer dressed in clothes from the 1800s but a regular pair of jeans and a shirt that he would’ve been used to seeing his mom wearing. It was still purple, though.
He couldn’t see the doc.
“I know.”
The doc’s voice said and Marty turned his head to see the doc sitting on the arm of the couch, his hand tangled in Marty’s hair.
“Good afternoon, future boy.”
The doc said, a twinkle in his eye as Marty frowned at him.
“Wha?”
“You’ve been out for…five and a half hours.”
Clara supplied, gesturing to all the clocks in the workshop. Marty nodded, moving into a sitting position as the doc got up from his seat and turned to face him.
“I called your parents and informed them that you snuck back here. I said I’d return you before your curfew.”
“Okay.”
Marty said hoarsely.
“I’m going to check on the kids.” Clara said, giving the doc a peck on the cheek—that was weird to Marty, but not really in a bad way—before she left the garage, calling Einstein with her.
“What happened?”
Marty asked and the doc fixed him with a look that Marty wasn’t entirely sure he had ever seen before.
It was…what he imagined a disapproving parent would look like.
“Well. Just a few minutes after we left you and Jennifer at the train tracks and landed at the garage I got a frantic call from your girlfriend, saying that you had passed out. Thankfully there was a phone booth near the tracks. I took the train back out there, got you and Jennifer, then came back here. I called your mother and said that the two of you had been hanging out here, helping me with my newest invention, when you had apparently passed out. Your mother came to pick you up and I thought I would see you when you felt better.”
The look the doc gave him was stern and Marty wanted to shrink into the couch cushions.
“I was wrong. I was cleaning up the garage when Einstein went nuts barking and Clara reached you just as you passed out again. Your hands were all scraped up and it seems like you might have a minor concussion.”
He hadn’t even noticed.
“Oh.”
“Yes.”
The doc spun around, his 1800s coat flapping behind him dramatically. Marty watched as the doc bustled around the garage, grabbing various kitchen items. The speed of the doc’s movement got to be too much and he sank back down into the couch cushions, closing his eyes.
“Here.”
He opened them again to see the doc holding out a mug of steaming liquid, in one of the old cracked mugs. Marty took it and drank a sip of the tea before making a face.
“Bitter.”
“Well, it’s been steeping for three hours.”
He looked at the doc in confusion but the doc just shrugged.
“I wasn’t expecting you to sleep that long.”
They sat there in silence.
“Can I—”
“Absolutely not.”
The doc cut him off and Marty made a face.
“You don’t even know what—”
“You were going to ask if you could help, or play your guitar, or do something.”
The doc wasn’t wrong.
“Yeah but—”
“Marty. You have just traveled through time an unprecedented amount these past few days! Or weeks. I’m not entirely sure how long it’s been for you, but the point is that we have no idea what this could do to your physical state.”
The doc placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You need to stay in bed.”
“This is a couch.”
“You know what I mean.”
He grinned sheepishly at the doc, who gave him a gentle smile.
“Rest, Marty. We’ll be okay.”
The doc got up and Marty sank back into the cushions, closing his eyes. He could hear the doc moving around the garage. He could hear the door swinging open and Clara asking a soft question. He could even hear the kids running around outside—kids that he couldn’t wait to get to know, because if they were the doc’s kids? They were going to be absolutely insane and he couldn’t wait to be the cool older brother friend.
Einstein jumped back up onto the couch and Marty rubbed the dog’s ears.
Fine.
He’d stay on the couch.