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Bit by bit, Doc’s stamina grew; it was still a slow process, but he was able to stay awake for longer and had more energy to keep up with Marty—and that included giving him proper schooling, albeit a bit more advanced than most four-year-olds would get at that stage.
“Gravity is what causes things to fall down—but did you know it also keeps this planet of ours moving?” he was saying.
“Mm-mmh,” Marty said, shaking his head.
“The Earth orbits the sun—it keeps going around it, because of gravity!” Doc explained.
“But we’re just sitting here. It doesn’t feel like we move,” Marty said, scratching his head.
“And that would account for the pervasiveness of the geocentric model for as long as it lasted,” Doc noted.
“Huh!?”
Doc had to bite back a smile.
“…Too many big words?”
“Too many big words!” Marty agreed.
“What I meant was that, for a long time in history, people thought the sun and the other planets moved around the Earth because it doesn’t feel like we’re moving. But we are—the Earth is orbiting a sun that is traveling through the galaxy!”
“Oh…” Marty said, looking out the window. After failing to see things moving, he shook his head. “If you say so…”
A knock on their door stopped Doc before he had gotten a chance to reply.
“Come in!” he called, and he blinked as he saw Napoleon and Illya arrive with rather solemn looks on their faces; Illya was holding on to a newspaper.
“How are the two of you feeling?” Napoleon asked.
Marty looked to Doc, his answer clearly depending on Doc’s.
“Well… I wouldn’t say I’m in great condition, but I’m certainly better than where I was,” Doc said. He sighed, glancing at Illya and the newspaper. “…They’ve figured out I’m alive?”
“The rumors are strong,” Illya admitted. “Notably due to the fact that your ward was not returned to the foster system.”
Doc immediately reached for Marty’s hand across the table as the boy’s expression sank. He didn’t know all of the words, but he seemed to know that he was responsible.
“It’s… It’s my fault—”
“No,” Doc insisted, summoning his strength to pick the child up into a hug. “None of this is your fault, Marty. I keep saying that because it’s true. You deserve to be safe and happy, and I am incredibly fortunate to be able to assist with that.” He looked back at Napoleon and Illya. “We’re about to return to our old ways as fugitives, I take it?”
“Well, the issue here is that we can no longer guarantee your safety,” Napoleon admitted. “And since this was where you were brought after being extracted from the mountain, this will be one of the first places people will search.”
“I understand,” Doc sighed. “We need to leave for our own safety.”
“You do,” Illya stressed. “As we said before, we could still guarantee Marty’s safety—”
“But that would involve us being separated, and trading one unpleasant situation with another,” Doc finished. “Marty… what do you think?”
Marty wrapped his arms around Doc and whimpered again as he buried his face in Doc’s shoulder.
“I figured,” Doc said, with a resigned sigh. “I don’t think I could stand it, either.”
“We did manage to retrieve the vehicle you left behind in California—that DeLorean,” Napoleon added. “We’ve brought it here and have already readied it with provisions—that will limit the amount of walking you need to do.”
“I never should’ve left it behind,” Doc sighed. Indeed, they could have avoided the whole incident on the train, their getting stranded, and Doc’s subsequent heart attack had he just driven here.
Marty hugged him again now, sensing his distress.
“We got our home back, though?” the boy offered.
Home. It was odd to think that tiny, silver car was home, but Marty was right; it had been the closest thing they’d had to a home prior to ending up here.
“Yeah, Kid—I’d say we did,” he admitted. He gave a nod of thanks to Napoleon and Illya. “We’ll be on our way as soon as possible.”
“Let us know what other help we can provide,” Illya returned.
And as he and Napoleon left, Doc gave another sigh and turned to Marty.
“Well, we’ve got some packing to do,” he said. “And then it’ll just be you, me, and the open road.”
“Where’re we gonna go?”
“…I don’t really know,” Doc admitted. “But I guess that’ll be part of the adventure, won’t it?”
Marty nodded and hugged him again, and Doc, once again, silently vowed that he would keep him safe.