Marty's feeling of unease intensified as they reappeared in the night sky of Hill Valley, approximately twenty-five minutes after they had originally left it. There didn't seem to be a reason for his disquiet, at first, none that he could really see -- until he took a hard look outside the window to his left.
"That's weird..." he muttered, unable to catch any light coming out of Doc's barn, down below. Weren't they supposed to be over the property right now?
"Is something wrong?" Jennifer asked, concerned by his remark. Marty squinted at the ground, taking the DeLorean closer to the earth for a better look.
"I'm not sure," he answered honestly. "Do you see any lights below? At Doc's house? At least, I think that's his house down there...."
Jennifer checked through her window. "No," she reported after a pause. "But you know, it is ten at night. They could all in bed."
"No," Marty said. "I mean, sure, I guess I can believe the house might be all dark, but Doc said he was gonna wait up for us -- remember? And Doc's not the kind of person to sit around in the dark for that or go to bed at ten in the evening."
The car dropped lower to the ground and Marty got a closer look at the buildings as the headlights swept over a couple parts. He saw they were run down, in disrepair. Marty hadn't seen it look so bad since before Doc and his family had moved in--
"Oh shit!" he hissed as it sunk in, hardly even aware of speaking. Beside him, Jennifer leaned forward and stared at him, wide-eyed.
"Marty, what's wrong? What is it?"
"Damned if I know," he answered, making a beeline for the ground. "But these buildings look deserted or abandoned. They sure as hell didn't look like this when we left. Doc and his family spent months fixing this place up in the fall when they bought it."
"Are you sure?" Jennifer asked. "I mean, about this place looking abandoned? Maybe it's just a trick of the light. You know," she added, looking outside, "this place seems darker around here than it was earlier. I don't think there're as many streetlights."
She's right, Marty noticed. Most of the poles were dark, as if the bulbs had burned out or the power had been cut. The car finally touched ground and he yanked the keys out of the ignition, reaching for the door handle. "Come on, I want to check this out." He left the car without waiting for her response.
As expected, Jennifer followed him, having the foresight to grab a flashlight on the way out. "You'll probably need this," she said, passing it to Marty when she caught up with him.
He nodded his thanks, then switched it on, aiming the beam at the ground. The sight of the grass jumped out at him, brown and dead beneath his feet. Something in Marty's chest tightened.
Something happened. Something bad. Something real bad.
Yet he didn't feel terribly shocked or stunned. It was almost as if he had been expecting this.
Marty headed for the house first, playing the flashlight's beam across grey, weathered boards and cracked windows. One of the farmhouse's walls had started to fall down, and the shingles on the roof were rotted and falling off.
Jennifer broke the silence after a few minutes. "We don't need to go inside that place, do we?" she asked as Marty panned slowly around the scenery with the light. "It's obviously deserted. No one lives here."
"I know," Marty said, the confession giving him the start of a headache. "Doc doesn't live here anymore, I guess."
Jennifer's face was pale. "Anymore? Marty, what happened? What could have happened in just half an hour? Did Russia drop the bomb or something?"
Marty shook his head once and clicked the light off, heading back to the car. "Worse. Let's get out of here. I want to find a phone book, see if I can find the Doc in there."
Minutes later Marty was backing the DeLorean carefully onto the street -- no more hover conversion for now -- and keeping his eyes peeled for a phone booth. If things hadn't changed, there should be one down the street, at a small gas station and auto repair shop.
"Things look different," Jennifer said, gazing out the window as the car moved. "More run down."
Marty had noticed. But he also saw a few people out, and passed a few cars -- all junky looking. A small bit of relief took away a little of the fear and dread that was lumped together in his stomach. Last time he went through this experience, there had been no people.
The phone booth was in the same spot he remembered. He stopped the car and got out, telling Jennifer to stay put. The few people who passed by in cars or on foot stared openly at his muddied hippy clothing. Marty ignored them and stepped into the phone booth. He saw with a weird sort of relief that the book looked the same as he remembered. Marty flipped it open to the listings of Browns and quickly located Doc's name and address. He recognized it right away. It was his old place, where he had lived before Clara had come along -- but should it have been different? New phone books hadn't yet been printed with an update to the name and address for the Browns.
"Hope it's some kind of lead," he muttered. Marty was about to close the phone book when, on a whim, he looked up his own address. It was then he got the first real shock of the night. Their was not only a George McFly, but a Lorraine McFly. And both addresses were different from each other.
"What the hell?" Marty whispered, confused. He noticed that the address following his father was the same it always was -- 9303 Lyon Estates Drive. But his mother's was now 1412 Maple Lane, near where he was now. He quickly committed the address to memory, then jogged back to the waiting DeLorean.
"I found out where Doc is," he said as he got into the car. "At his old place, next to that Burger King. Remember?"
Jennifer nodded. Marty continued as he shifted the car into first and headed for the street.
"I also found out something strange -- apparently my mom and dad now live at different addresses. Dad's in the same spot, but Mom's nearby, at this end of town. So I figure we can stop by there and see what there is to find out."
"Do you really think that's wise, Marty?"
"Better that we have somewhere to start than nowhere," he said. Jennifer didn't say anything for a few minutes, until Marty pulled to the curb before the building that was supposedly now his mother's home. It was a big, rambling place, a little run down, with a number of lights burning from within. "Wait here, I'll be right back," he said as he shut the car off.
"Marty, don't!" Jennifer said, alarm in her voice. "This isn't normal! What if something happens to you?"
"Jennifer, this is my mother we're talking about. I seriously doubt that she'll try gunning me down or something, even if this might be... what it is." He stopped himself from saying "alternate reality" before it could slip out, not wanting to get into that particular discussion quite yet. "Just wait here for a few minutes and make sure no one takes the DeLorean. I'll be back soon."
He reached up to shut the door as Jennifer started to reach for her handle. "I'll coming with you, then."
Marty's fingers slid off the door. "The hell you are! We need someone to keep an eye on this car! And this is my family. I think I should do this alone, just in case."
Jennifer scowled at him, but leaned back in her seat. "If you insist," she said coolly. "But don't blame me if you're knifed or worse!" She turned her face away from him, to the window glass.
Marty ignored her outburst and slammed his door shut, a little mad himself. He boldly walked up the old brick pathway and steps to the porch. There were footsteps behind him, but didn't pay too much attention to them, sure that it was Jennifer ignoring his orders, anyway. When he reached the door he hesitated, then knocked on it.
At the same time, someone else stepped on the porch next to him. Marty glanced at the stranger, started to look away, then looked back, his eyes bugging out. In the sickly yellow glow of the porch light, he was staring at... himself! The other Marty was dressed all in black, including a black leather jacket and leather boots. His hair was hanging down to his collar, uncombed, and a cigarette dangling from his lips. His leather-clad-self's eyes also went wide, and the cigarette fell from his gasping mouth, to the ground.
Marty tried to speak, but nothing would come out. His heart hammered in his chest and his breath came in short gasps. He took a half step back and his other self did the same. They stared into each other's eyes.
How can this be happening? There are two of me! Marty realized faintly. And this wasn't the future or the past -- it was now... wasn't it?
He suddenly realized he couldn't breathe. The shock was too great for his mind and body to comprehend; it was like overload or something. He felt himself go weak all over and his vision dimmed out. He never saw the other version of himself also faint, falling back into the bushes next to the porch, or the door opening behind him as he fell. He never felt the young woman catch him, and lower him to the ground. And he never heard her yell, "Hey, Lorraine, your son's back and he's had too much to drink, again!"
* * *
Jennifer watched Marty go up to the house with only half her attention, still fuming about being left behind. If he thought it was so dangerous to go up there, why was he even doing it? She certainly wasn't going to think badly of him if he didn't want to, or let her come with him for company. Sometimes she got so mad at male chauvinism! Marty wasn't even that bad about it, although occasionally he would do something like this and really tick her off.
She saw him step onto the porch and noticed someone else creeping up behind him. The second person looked a little familiar, but she couldn't see much with most of the streetlights out. It was too dark. She half-watched Marty knock on the door, then turn around and look at the person who had been behind him. Even from this distance, in only the dim light from the porch, she saw his face drain completely white in a few seconds. Jennifer leaned closer to the window, puzzled, trying to get a better look.
Both Marty and the other person backed away from each other. Then, suddenly, both of them sort of fell backwards, the other person into some bushes next to the porch, and Marty through a door that had suddenly opened at his back. The woman who had opened the door caught him and leaned over, easing him to the ground. Jennifer watched the tall blonde turn her head towards something out of sight and a second later, she shut the door, cutting off Jennifer's view.
A minute passed. Two. No one came out of the house. Jennifer's anger was swiftly replaced by fear. What had happened to Marty? Where was he? She reached out for the door latch, then let her hand fall back. There was too much uncertainty to go up to the door and see what happened. Letting out an angry sigh of frustration, Jennifer leaned back in the seat and kept her eyes on the house, able to do nothing right now but wait.
It was a light that woke him, illuminating from a streetlight, slanting through a window next to the bed, and washing over his face. Marty blinked, confused and groggy, wondering where he was. He heard movement to his left and a gentle hand touched his face.
"Mom?" he whispered. "Is that you?"
"Just relax, Marty," he heard his mother soothe. "You've been asleep for almost two-and-a-half hours now."
Marty relaxed, but only marginally. Something was nagging at him that he couldn't quite remember. Something bad. "I had the worst nightmare, I think," he murmured, closing his eyes again. "Something was wrong, out of place...."
His mother's voice broke in. "Well, you're safe and sound now, here at the burlesque house," she said.
Marty's eyes snapped open and widened. "The burlesque house?" he repeated, horrified. From above him, his mother flicked a Bic lighter, and brought it to a long cigarette, allowing a brief view of her face. It looked older then Marty remembered, more world weary. He hardly had time to acknowledge that when a door opened, spilling more light into the room, and the shadowy shape of a woman leaned inside.
"Hey Lorraine, Rich Peterson is complaining about the job that Julie did." The shadow paused and flicked a switch next to the doorway. An old chandelier came on from above, flooding the room with light.
Marty sat up, shielding his eyes from the brightness and trying to get a good look around at the same time.
He was in a bedroom, in a four poster bed covered with satiny sheets in deep burgundy hues. The wallpaper was red and gold, peeling a little at the edges, and the small amount of furniture in the room was all dark walnut. The polished wooden floor had oriental rugs scattered about.
His mother was seated next to him. Her face was lined with age, heavy make-up caked on it in a bad attempt to make her look younger. Her dark hair was unusually long, almost down to her waist, and colored in such a way that Marty was all but sure it was dyed. Her outfit was the ultimate shock, though: a dress of tight, black leather, low cut, and stopping a good six inches above her knees. Fishnet stockings and high heels -- all black -- with big, gaudy silver jewelry completed her outfit.
"Mom!" Marty gasped. "What the hell happened to you?"
His mother took a long drag on her cigarette and eyed his clothes. "Nothing, why are you asking? You're the one who looks different. Did you sell your clothes for booze?" She sighed, as if expecting that to indeed be the case.
Marty ignored her comment. "Why are we in a... in a burlesque house?" he asked, throwing the covers on the bed back and swinging his legs over the edge.
Lorraine stared at him, her cigarette poised just before her too-red red lips. "Did you get some bad liquor?" she asked gently. "This is my business, remember? I run the place." She turned toward the young blonde woman still hovering in the doorway as Marty gasped at his mother.
"Suzie, tell Rich that if he doesn't like what Julie did, he can take his business somewhere else," she ordered. "There are plenty of other places in town. He's a lowlife scum, anyhow, and I won't be shedding any tears if he stops coming here."
The young woman -- wearing something tight with lots of feathers and sequins -- nodded. She looked at Marty and grinned. "Hey, Marty, you feeling better now? If you're not, I think my calendar's free for later, and I could stop by...."
Marty blinked at her in disbelief. "No -- no," he said quickly. "I -- I'm fine."
"All right. But if you change your mind, you know where to find me." She blew him a kiss, then leaned back out and pulled the door shut behind her. Lorraine turned to her son.
"Harry wants to see you," she said, taking another long drag on her cigarette. "He thought you weren't going to show up for his birthday. Actually, I'm surprised you did. Your younger brother worships you, you know that? Although I don't really understand why...."
Marty jumped to his feet. "My what?" He didn't have a younger brother. He was the youngest in the McFly family!
His mother looked at him with a slightly uneasy expression. "Marty, are you okay? You didn't OD on something bad again, did you?"
"Since when do I have a younger brother?" he demanded, ignoring her questions to concentrate on his own.
Lorraine stood, one hand on her hip. "Since 1974," she said matter-of-factly, knocking ashes off her cigarette into a golden ashtray next to the bed.
Marty's mind was struggling to keep up with all these new developments. "Does Dad know? And why doesn't he live here?"
His mother finished her cigarette and ground it into the ashtray. "Of course your father knows," she said, her voice filled with bitterness. "And you know we're been separated since he had that affair with that flight attendant in '71!" Her face softened as she looked at Marty. "Are you feeling all right?"
Marty shook his head, but had too many questions to ask to really care what his mother thought anymore. "If you and Dad have been split up since then, how come you have a son younger then that?"
Lorraine rolled her eyes. "Honey, Harry was the result of that unfortunate time I let Biff take me out," she said. "Don't you remember?"
Marty blanched. Biff Tannen and his mother? They had a kid together? His mother didn't notice his reaction and put one hand on his shoulder. Even those were different from her normal hands, these ones with long red nails and a ring on almost every finger.
"Maybe we should take you to the doctor," she said slowly, looking him in the eyes. "I think you took some bad drugs or something. You look awfully pale."
Marty managed to smile at her with only the most supreme effort. "I'm fine," he said. "I'm just a little -- confused. That's all."
Lorraine nodded. "Well, not to sound too much like a mother, but maybe you should cut down on all that stuff you like to take."
"Uh, Mom?" Marty asked hesitantly. "How's Dad now? What's he doing? What about Dave and Linda?" Although he was pretty sure he wouldn't like the answers, he had to know what had happened to his family in this world.
His mother looked at him with more concern in her face. "Your father is the same he's always been -- drugging himself into a grave and getting a new playmate every night. And, let's see, your older brother is still serving his twenty year sentence in jail for that accident with the knife and his gym teacher. And your sister is expecting her fourth kid next month. Her husband is still working at the gas station." Lorraine raised her painted eyebrows. "Is that all?"
Marty nodded. It was only then, for some reason, he remembered leaving Jennifer in the DeLorean before he had visited the house. He looked at his watch and drew in a sharp breath. "Oh jeez, I gotta go," he said. "Nice talking to you, Mom." He hurried for the door, but his mother's voice stopped him.
"I want you to go see your younger brother first, Marty," she said sharply. "I mean it. I let you get away with a lot of things -- most of which I know are illegal -- and don't say anything, but I want you to give at least five minutes to Harry. He's just a kid, and it's his twelfth birthday today!"
The last thing Marty wanted to do was spend time with a kid he didn't even know, let alone one sired by Biff Tannen! "Mom, look, I really have to go now. I'm sorry. I'll come back later, okay?"
His mother stared at him for a long moment, her mouth turned down in disapproval. "Fine. Do that." She stepped before him and pointed a long nail in his face. "But you'll be the one explaining why you're not seeing him today!"
The words had no effect on Marty, who knew he didn't even belong here and therefore could not be blamed in hurting anyone's feelings. He opened the door and started down a dim hallway. Several exotically clad woman passed him, most with men in tow. Marty hardly noticed them, though he remembered his mother's earlier words about where he was and shuddered.
He went down a winding staircase and found his way to the front door without much difficulty. He had his hand on the knob and was starting to turn it when he heard someone called his name from behind. Marty turned slowly and saw the kid. It had to be Harry. The boy was the right age and bore a strong resemblance to Biff Tannen. The teen shuddered.
"Where are you goin'?" Harry whined. "You promised to take me to Dad's bar so I can see those women dance."
I did what? Marty wondered. He tried to smile at the kid who was his half-brother, but the expression was more of a grimace. "If you say so. But listen, I gotta go now."
Harry sighed. "I knew it," the kid said softly. "You're backing out. Dad's right, you are gutless."
"Not exactly. I'll see you later, and you can say this to me all over again. Now I really have to go, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Marty opened the door and practically ran outside. No one was around as he went down the walk and to the waiting car at the curb. Jennifer was out of the DeLorean before he had covered half the distance to it.
"Where were you?" she demanded, sounding angry. "I was worried sick! What happened?"
Marty rounded the front of the car. "I'll explain it to you on the way to Doc's," he said, wanting to get away from this place as soon as possible.
* * *
Jennifer listened to his story with interest and mild horror. "Your mother runs a what?" she asked, her eyes wide.
"A burlesque house. I think those were like private clubs with adult entertainment, if you know what I mean." Marty shuddered. "And I can't believe I have a half-brother who's the son of Biff Tannen! He looked just like Biff, Jen!"
"Marty, what's going on here?" She swallowed hard, not liking the possibility that was occurring to her. "Is my family changed, too?"
"I don't know about that. Somehow, when we were back in 1969, we changed history. Maybe just us being at Woodstock was enough to do that, I don't know. I hope Doc will know more about this world then we do. Because if he doesn't...." He didn't finish the sentence.
"Has this ever happened to you before?" she asked, watching him intently.
Marty took his time answering. A full minute passed before he finally said, "Yes. Twice."
Jennifer frowned, trying to understand the conversation subject fully. "I'm going to assume you got things back to normal...."
"We did, thank God. Doc and I had to go back to the point where history skewed and make sure the thing that had kicked off all the changes hadn't happened -- or did happen, depending," he said. "It wasn't very fun."
Jennifer looked outside at the dark world. "Is this place worse than the other two?"
Marty bit his lower lip. "I don't think so," he answered eventually. "But each of these alternate realities is worse in different ways. If they were perfect, then why would we try to change them back?"
They reached Doc Brown's old place a couple minutes later, their arrival temporarily halting further discussion. Marty pulled the DeLorean into the deserted parking lot before the building and cut the lights and engine. They sat in the silence for a minute, their eyes trained outside. Jennifer thought that the outside of Doc's old home looked more run down than usual. No lights burned from within, which didn't make her feel much better; it honestly looked like the place had been dark and abandoned, and the only thing they would find inside would be cobwebs.
"Will he know who we are?" she asked in a whisper.
"I don't know, Jen, I really don't," Marty murmured back. "We're just gonna have to get out and see."
He left the car first, waited for Jennifer to do the same, then locked it up, pocketing the keys. "I hope this baby doesn't get ripped off," he said, clearly reluctant to leave it alone.
Jennifer nodded and reached for his hand, wanting the comfort of the touch of someone she knew and who knew her. Marty accepted her hand and squeezed it, looking nervous. "Guess this is it," Jennifer heard him murmur.
They stepped through the broken gate of the wire fence that surrounded the building and to the door of the old garage. Marty hesitated a moment before knocking, softly at first, then slowly increasing the force of the blows. A minute passed and no one answered. He finally turned to look at Jennifer. "Maybe he doesn't--"
The door suddenly opened with a protesting creak. A face peered out at them, a candle held under it. The flickering light and shadows made it look like some gruesome Halloween mask at first. Jennifer flinched back, a scream at the back of her throat. Marty jumped back, then, after a moment, leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. "Doc?" he asked hesitantly.
The eyes narrowed in the face that peered out, the person leaning forward a little more and surveying Marty with a look of clear suspicion. Jennifer saw that it was Doc Brown now, though he looked older then she remembered. It could have been the poor lighting... or it could be a new twist with this world.
"Marty McFly?" It was clearly a question.
"Yeah, it's me," Marty said, a note of hope in his voice. "Do you know who I am?"
"I know." The scientist remained rather suspicious, not opening the door any wide and clearly keeping them at bay. He raked a rather curious eye down Marty's body. "What happened to your clothes? Isn't that stuff against the law now?"
The hopeful look on Marty's face faded. "No, it's not me that you're thinking of! I'm the same Marty McFly that visited you in 1955 about the DeLorean time machine! I'm from a different reality than you are!"
Doc frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Marty looked annoyed. "Doc, I know about the time machine you made. I know that on November 5, 1955, you fell off your toilet and had a vision of something you'll call a flux capacitor, which is a device you'll make that will let you travel through time."
The scientist's face paled so quickly that Jennifer took a step forward, afraid he might faint. But, although Doc gripped the side of the door for a moment, needing the support, he did not collapse. He looked hard at Marty once again, then Jennifer, then nodded and stepped aside, gesturing for them to come in.
"I apologize for the mess," he said as they entered. "But have a seat and make yourselves comfortable."
Neither of them made any move to sit down or venture any further than around the doorway to the lab. Doc looked at Marty for a long moment, then turned to Jennifer. By the look on his face, she could tell he had no idea who she was, a belief verified a moment later. "Who are you?"
"Jennifer Parker. I'm Marty's girlfriend," she added. "I was with him on the trip we took."
Doc shut the door behind them. The candle in his hand was the only light in the entire vast building, causing Jennifer to wonder if this place even had any power. "I never knew Marty dated girls like you," he said.
Marty, who had been looking around the room, turned around at Doc's comment. "I'm not the Marty from around here," he said. "That guy sounds like a jerk, if you want my opinion." He changed the subject quickly. "Do you have a time machine around here?"
The inventor frowned, looking irritated and grumpy. "I wish. I lost all my money to the Government. I can't even afford light bulbs now!" He left the couple to flit about the room and light various candles so that a few minutes later, the entire space was filled with a soft, dim glow. There was enough light, now, to see how cluttered and run down Doc's home was.
A sagging couch and recliner sat in one area of the once-garage, with a old TV that looked to be black and white. In another area was a cot with ragged blankets lying strewn on top of it. A few tables lay in various parts of the room, covered with odds and ends. One appeared to be a desk, with a chipped, beat up chair resting in front of it. The rest of the room was filled with old junk -- electronics, broken furniture, etc.
"You might want to get your time machine in here," Doc said, breaking another period of silence as the teenagers looked around. "It won't last the rest of the night outside, not in this neighborhood. I'll get the doors open for you, though I don't think I've had them open for a couple years, now. The hinges may stick a little, but I think I have some oil around here, somewhere...."
He lurked off into another area of the building. Jennifer crept over to Marty. "He seems different," she whispered.
Marty nodded. "Yeah, definitely. And he looks a little older, more run down, like life wasn't as good to him as it was to the Doc we know. I wonder if not having a time machine himself has anything to do with that...." Marty watched him from across the room. "But he still has the same personality that I've seen in him since I met him. It just seems a little... more toned down, I guess."
After a moment of studying his old friend, he turned back to the door. "I'm gonna get that gate opened in front for the DeLorean," he said.
Having nothing better to do, and not entirely comfortable staying behind, Jennifer followed him. Outside, a few street lamps cast off enough of a glow to provide a good view of the DeLorean in the deserted parking lot... and of a figure hovering near the door of the car. Jennifer stopped where she was, startled more than anything else; Marty immediately charged toward them.
"Hey!" he said angrily. "What the hell are you --"
The person jumped, startled, and turned around. The lighting was bad and Jennifer blinked, wondering if that was contributing to making her see what she thought she was seeing. It looked like Marty who was standing next to the car... but it couldn't be! He couldn't be in two places at once... could he?
Marty stopped dead when the look-alike turned around. Both of them stared at each other, jaws dropping. "It's you!" the look-alike gasped, dropping something in his hand that clattered -- by the sounds of it, a metal wire, perhaps the kind that would break into the cars. The look-alike backed up against the DeLorean, breathing in short little gasps.
Jennifer swung her eyes to Marty. He had grown deathly pale in the orange glow of the street lamps, his blue eyes wide open. He seemed to have trouble breathing, too, his eyes locked on those of his look-alike. Marty started to shake a little. After a seemingly endless moment of them staring at each other, the look-alike suddenly slumped against the car, sliding toward the ground. At the same moment, Marty started tottering back. Jennifer knew what was going to happen and lunged forward, managing to catch him just before he would have hit the hard asphalt of the parking lot, scraping a knee to prevent Marty from a painful impact.
"Marty!" she cried, shaking him hard, her own heart pounding. He moaned a little, but didn't wake up. Jennifer turned towards Doc's home.
"Doctor Brown!" she yelled, panic shaping her voice into something that she didn't even recognize. "Doctor Brown, come out here, quick!"
A few seconds had hardly passed before Doc barreled outside, his eyes wide. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know!" Jennifer moaned, frustrated. "We came out here and there was this person messing around the DeLorean who looked just like Marty and they both saw each other and--"
For the first time Doc noticed the look-alike. "Great Scott!" he gasped, rushing over to his side. "We've got to get them inside right away! If someone comes by and sees this...." He did not finish the sentence.
Jennifer stood up and took Marty under the arms. He was really heavy unconscious. "Can I have some help, here?" she grunted as Doc started to pick up the look-alike.
Doc set the look-alike down and rushed over wordlessly. He took hold of Marty's legs and together the two of them got him into the house and set him on the couch. Marty was stirring a little and Jennifer was for staying at his side and prodding him awake. She leaned over to try, but Doc stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"I wouldn't advise it," he said when Jennifer looked up at him for an explanation. "He's had quite a shock running into the other version of himself from this world. We should let him wake naturally, when his body has had the chance to cope with the shock in its own time."
It was good advice, but Jennifer wanted to speak with him now, if just to alleviate her worries. When Doc returned outside to get the other version of her boyfriend and bring him inside, Jennifer went over to a sink in a bathroom nearby and ran a washcloth under the water. After wringing out the washcloth, she ran back over to Marty and wiped his face with the cool cloth. Slowly, he started to come to.
"Marty," she called softly. "Can you hear me? It's Jennifer."
He groaned some more and his eyelashes started to flutter. Jennifer put a hand on his cheek, willing him to open his eyes and look up at her. After a moment, he did.
"Jennifer," he murmured, mild confusion on his face. "What happened?" he asked, then added another stereotypical question. "Where am I?"
Jennifer took his hand and gave it a warm squeeze. "You saw yourself outside and fainted," she explained honestly. "It was your alternate self or something like that -- the Marty who is from this world."
Marty's eyes widened at her words and his color, which had been improving a little, went white again. "Oh God!" he gasped. "I remember! He--" That's all he was able to get out before the shakes started. Marty's whole body trembled so hard that his teeth were chattering. Jennifer yelled for Doc again, scared.
The scientist came into the room with his arms full of the other Marty, took a quick look at the scene, and hurried to another area of the garage separated from view by a wall. A minute later he returned with a couple pills in hand and a glass of water, minus the other Marty. "Here," Doc said, handing the pills to Marty. "These should help you relax a little."
Marty used a trembling hand to pop the two capsules in his mouth, then reached for the glass of water. Some of it spilled down the front of his tie-dyed shirt, but he was able to drink the water and get the pills down.
Doc took the empty glass from his hand and set it on a chipped coffee table next to the couch. He looked Marty directly in the eyes as Jennifer took a seat on the recliner nearby. "I think you're experiencing some after-effects from the shock of seeing your double tonight," he said.
"It was the second time I saw him," Marty said, making an effort to keep his voice steady. "The first time was at my mother's burlesque house. I had forgotten about it until now."
"Oh yes, Lorraine McFly does own one of those in town," Doc Brown mused. "You didn't happen to see your father yet, did you?"
"No," Marty said, a cautious look on his face. "Why?"
Doc appeared thoughtful. "You might want to skip seeing him," he said.
Marty started to sit up, but Doc put a hand on his chest and pushed him back down. "I wouldn't sit up in your condition," he advised. "You don't want to pass out again."
Marty nodded. "So, what's the world been like since... I guess 1969?" he asked, a faint tremble still in his voice. "It's important that Jen and I know."
Doc looked at Jennifer, sitting quietly in the chair. "I imagine it is. But it won't make a good bedtime story, kids, let me warn you of that."
"We just came from 1969," Jennifer said. "You -- I guess that would be the other version of you that we're used to -- gave Marty some tickets to Woodstock for his high school graduation gift. That's why we're dressed the way we are."
"1969, huh?" Doc asked. "Before I give you a history lesson on my world, why don't you give me a little information about yours?"
"The history should be the same until August of '69, unless things are super different," Marty said. "That's when we came in and did something we weren't supposed to -- but neither of us know what that was!"
"I was making plans for a time machine up until 1978. That's when some investments I made in some stocks went bust. In '79 I sold most of which I had in material items and took up the job of fixing things."
"What were the stocks you invested in?" Marty asked. His voice was steadier now and he had quit trembling so much.
Doc waved his hand carelessly. "Oh, some electronic companies with ideas on bringing home video cassette recorders and cameras. But that went bust."
Jennifer stared at him in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?"
Doc shook his head, looking absolutely serious. "No. I was expecting that company to bring great things, but I haven't seen any of the advances like I had expected would come by the '80's. I was expecting home cameras, home computers, eight track tapes--"
"Wait a minute, you don't have cassette tapes?" Marty asked in disbelief.
Doc shook his head. "No. We only have records."
Marty frowned. "Have you ever heard of Huey Lewis and the News, Van Halen, Journey, any of those?"
"No. Have you heard of The Seven Suits, Portfolio People, National Debt, or Green Bills?" Doc asked. "Those are the big musical artists now."
By the look of confusion on his face, it was clear that Marty had not. "No."
Doc stood from where he had been perched and went over to an ancient looking radio in a corner of the room.
"This is the popular music right now," he said, twisting a switch. A second later music filled the room -- if it could be called that. Even Jennifer thought it was terrible, unlike anything she'd heard before in a bad way. It sounded like a cross between rap and big band music, with monotonous chanting for the lyrics.
"Not many people like the music," Doc said after they'd heard it for a minute, clicking it off a moment later. "Aside from the general sound of it, most of the music has subliminal lyrics so that you will give the Government most, if not all, of what you have."
Marty covered his eyes, stricken. "Rock 'n' roll is dead!" he gasped in horror. "I don't believe it!"
"I don't believe what you're saying about the government," Jennifer said. "You make it sound like they control everything people do now."
"Oh yes," Doc said, his voice serious. "They do. They control the media like you can't imagine. They control the music industry, the cinema industry, the television industry, newspapers, books, magazines. They decide what is to be taught in the schools and what technology should be released. Let me tell you something, kids, the arms of the Government are long and powerful indeed."
Jennifer looked at him, fascinated at what he was saying. Marty didn't seem to share her fascination with it. He yawned as he asked another question. "Is Hill Valley some kind of slum area now? I mean, my mother runs a burlesque house! And things look pretty run down everywhere."
Doc looked like he was about to answer, then stopped. "I'd like to hear more about what your world was like. What happened to my alternate self?"
Marty started to sit up again, decided it would be a bad idea, and fell back on the worn cushions. "Well," he said carefully. "Where would you like me to start?"
By the time Marty had answered most of the scientist's questions to his fascination and satisfaction, it was closing in on three in the morning. The teen was dozing on and off where he lay, and though he would snap awake each time Doc asked him for another detail, it was clear he was fading away for the night. Jennifer finally spoke up after another pointed look at one of the clocks.
"It's awfully late, Dr. Brown," she said in between one of his queries. "Is it possible that perhaps Marty and I could get some rest, and tackle more of the problems tomorrow? We might be better with clear heads."
Doc checked his watch, then stood abruptly, his manner one of embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I'd forgotten what hour it was. We can continue this conversation tomorrow -- or, I guess that would be later today." He turned toward another section of the room. "I should check on the other Marty and figure out what to do with him."
Jennifer watched him leave from view, though he was only on the other side of the wall, about ten or fifteen feet away. "What a weird world," she murmured with a frown, then looked at Marty. He had dozed off again. Jennifer gave the faintest of smiles, then leaned over and kissed him gently on the cheek before tucking the blanket around him better.
"Sleep well, Marty," she whispered. "I get the feeling that tomorrow is going to be a very long day."
Jennifer left her boyfriend's side and headed in the direction she had seen Doc vanish. She found the scientist bent over the other Marty, who was lying on a cot, still out. Jennifer stood a few feet away, staring at the still face of Marty's "twin" (in a manner of speaking). The resemblance was fascinating. Even unconscious they looked exactly the same. But the longer she looked, the more she saw that all was not as it seemed, and there were definitely differences between these individuals. This Marty was dressed all in black, like a biker or something, with a leather jacket, tight black jeans, black t-shirt, and black leather boots. His hair was a little longer, messy and rumpled, just touching the collar of his jacket. He had a couple small silver earrings in his left ear and a faint scar across his chin.
"Is Marty asleep?" Doc asked, having heard her approach.
She nodded. "What were those pills you gave him, anyway?" she asked.
"Valium. And he needed it, believe me." Doc straightened up and turned to look at her. "I'm going to have to take my car and get this Marty over to his house now. If I leave him on the porch, when he wakes up he'll think it was all a nightmare or a drug induced hallucination -- which, from what I know about this one, won't be too much of a stretch."
Jennifer nodded again. She yawned, quietly, into her hand, but the scientist caught it. "You can take the cot for tonight."
"Thanks," she told him. "But where are you going to sleep tonight?"
"Don't worry about me. I've got some things I have to take care of, anyway. I'm sure you're both hungry and I don't have any food right now but--"
"Is the money the same here?" Jennifer interrupted.
"The same as what?" Doc asked, sounding genuinely puzzled.
Jennifer reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of crumpled bills. She held them up. "Would this world accept currency like this?"
Doc took the money from her hand and examined it carefully. "Where did you get these from?" he asked.
"You gave them to us before we left."
"I think they would accept these," he said after a minute. "Of course, seeing they are about seventeen years old, I might have to exchange them for more modern bills at the bank."
"Keep it," Jennifer said. "We don't need it anymore."
Doc separated two tens from the pile and pressed them in Jennifer's hand. "Keep these," he said. "Just in case there is some emergency. Okay?"
She nodded. "Okay," she agreed, placing the money back in her pocket.
"Dawn is a few hours away," he said as he started to heft up the other Marty. "If you're going to sleep, too, take care to blow the candles out. I know this place like the back of my hand and I'll have no problem navigating it in the darkness."
Jennifer helped him get the other Marty transferred into an old, junky Packard in the back before snuffing out the candles and finally lay down on the cot. She was sure that she would remain awake despite her fatigue, worrying about this mess they were in now. But exhaustion and stress quickly dragged her under before she knew it.
It was raining outside when Marty woke up. He didn't know where he was at first and felt unusually groggy, as if he had overslept. Gray daylight seeped through cracked windows and rain was pattering down on the roof. A few feet away from him a puddle of water had spread on the cracked concrete floor, caused by a steady drip from above.
Something big happened last night. What was it....?
Still puzzling over it, he sat up suddenly when he realized he was in Doc's place -- his old place -- and everything from the night before came back to him. He and Jennifer were stuck in this new version of 1986 until they could at least figure out what the history changing thing one or both of them had done. His parents were split up. His mother ran a burlesque house. And Doc had never made a time machine.
Marty leaned forward and sighed deeply, resting his face in his hands. A minute later he lifted his head up, a delicious scent causing his stomach to growl softly. Food! He couldn't remember the last time he'd had something to eat.
Marty got off the couch slowly, feeling a little week and sluggish, wrapping the quilt around him against the room's damp and chill. He caught sight of a clock in he corner and noticed it was a little before noon.
He stopped after rounding the corner, seeing Doc and Jennifer sitting at a table, hot food around them. Jennifer was talking to Doc about something. Her voice trailed off when Marty came into the room and she smiled at him. Doc turned around, his back having been to the teen, and nodded.
"We were just having brunch," he said. "We set some food aside for you."
Marty shuffled over to the table without a word and sat in the last available chair. A plate of cinnamon rolls and bacon were set on the table, with a pitcher of orange juice. Marty set a couple of the rolls and a few pieces of bacon on a paper plate in front of him and dug in. He felt like he hadn't eaten in years.
"So," he asked a few minutes later, the worst of the hunger satisfied, "what are we going to do today?" Marty looked at Doc. "Any brilliant ideas on tracking down where Jen or I altered history?"
"You seem to know your history better then I do," Doc said. "So I thought I would get some books and documents from the library and bring them over here so you can trace things back."
Marty glanced around the room cautiously, a question nagging him at the back of his mind. "What happened to my other version last night? Did you leave him outside with the DeLorean?"
Jennifer answered for Doc. "We brought you into the house and then Doc went back out and got the other Marty. He put him on that cot over there, then gave you some Valium to calm you down. After you fell asleep, he left the house with your other version to set him on a porch somewhere."
"Your mother's house," Doc clarified. "In this world. I figure when he wakes up, he'll think that running into himself was some kind of dream or hallucination."
Marty nodded, chewing one of the rolls thoughtfully. "I've heard that one before," he said, half to himself. He noticed saw the DeLorean parked inside. "When did you move the car?"
"This morning," Doc said. "Jennifer helped me with it. It survived the night intact, but it's all wet from this rain. Water won't harm it, will it?"
"Hardly," Marty said. Doc eyed him and Jennifer for a moment.
"If you'd both like to take showers and get that grime off you, I could wash your clothes and dry them out for you in a few hours. I have some robes you could use in the meantime, if you don't have anything else to change into."
Jennifer sat up straighter and looked at Doc with a grateful smile on her face. "That would be wonderful!" she said happily.
So enthusiastic was her response that Doc left Marty to the food and took Jennifer to the bathroom to show her where everything was and let her get started on her shower. Without the distraction of conversation and feeling more awake now, Marty started to really worry.
What if Jennifer and I can't figure out what we did? Does that mean we're trapped here? Would we even be able to live here, with other versions of ourselves floating around?
That last one really bothered him. In the other alternate realities he'd been in, there had been no Other Marty, at least not one he'd had the dubious pleasure of meeting face to face. In Biff's little fantasy world, his other self seemed to be at a boarding school in Switzerland. And in the Nuclear Hell world there had been no other him because he had simply never been born -- or, if he had, he hadn't know about it. Was it even possible for two of him to co-exist?
Marty sighed, trying to ignore the worries. He got up from the table and headed over to the DeLorean to make sure that it indeed hadn't gained any damage from sitting out all night. A brief circle around the car proved his fears groundless, but, as he looked through the window, he noticed that the time circuits were still on. That was not good.
"Dumb me," he muttered with a half sigh. He tried the door closest to him, found it opened, and climbed inside to turn them off.
And froze. Had he seen what he thought he'd seen?
Marty turned around. And felt his heart briefly stop. When he had last checked, the flux capacitor had been built in a little capital Y shape, with three things -- Marty had no idea what they were -- converging together to form that shape under the glass. But now, unless his eyes were playing huge tricks with him, one -- the bottom one -- was missing.
There was only one thing to do. "Doc?" Marty called out the door. "Come here a minute. I think I found something!"
* * *
"And this isn't normal?" Doc asked the teen from inside the car.
Marty shook his head hard from where he stood, just outside the door. "No way! I've seen the flux capacitor tons, even saw the original specs that the Doc I met in 1955 had sketched out, and this isn't anything like it. A whole piece is missing, and I couldn't see it in the case."
"Nor can I," Doc said, craning his neck to see. "I don't think it would have a place to go, either, and there's no sign that it shattered, or that the case containing the device has been tampered with."
"I don't like the sound of that," Marty said with a sigh. "So are you saying it just vanished? That's impossible."
Doc's expression grew thoughtful. "Maybe not... hold on. I still have the prints I drew up for the flux capacitor. Let me grab 'em...."
Marty waited, not too patiently, as the scientist ran to a different area of his lab and rummaged around for the plans. As he waited, he leaned inside the car for another look at the flux capacitor and saw, to his sinking heart, that Doc had been absolutely right. It looked like that piece had just... vanished. But how? And why? And what did it mean?
And, more importantly, when had it gone missing? Before they had arrived here or after? And if it had been before--
"Got 'em," Doc reported, running back over. He unrolled the blueprints and drawings in hand on the hood of the car. Marty came over for a look and saw to his relief that the drafts had the same familiar Y shape that he was used to.... but, a moment later, he realized that didn't really explain much.
"What does this mean?" he asked. "What would happen if one of those things were missing?"
"The 'things' were actually supposed to be glass tubes filled with a gas, and their objective was to help focus and channel the flux dispersal, which was caused by a great release of energy that would essentially punch a hole through the dimension of space-time and allow--"
Marty held up his hand to ward off the lecture. "Spare me the details, Doc," he said. "Just tell me, theoretically, what would happen if one of those was missing."
The scientist's gaze grew far off and unfocused. "Hypothetically? An uneven distribution of energy output, which could render the time machine dreadfully unstable and...." He paused and was silent for a long moment. "Well, I suppose after that, I don't know. That you and Jennifer are here, whole and sane, argues that such an unbalance would not cause the death of the time travelers, trapping them forever in a point where time ceases to exist.... Seeing as how I wasn't able to complete my time machine, due to both cost and a lack of better parts that I had hoped would be made by now--"
"Wait a minute," Marty said. "What parts?"
Doc shrugged vaguely. "Something that would be a little lighter and less space consuming than transistors and tubes."
"You mean something like microchips?"
Doc blinked. "I've heard that phrase somewhere.... don't the Japanese make 'em?" He sighed, wistful. "Too bad that we've stopped trading with them...."
Marty blinked at another piece of news new to him. "Uh, okay... but the Americans make 'em, too."
"Do they? If they do, it's certainly not available to regular Joes."
Marty put a hand to his head and screwed his eyes shut. "Okay, so that's another thing weird with this world -- the technology isn't as advanced, at least in America." He stood like that for a moment, wracking his brain for a connection that just wouldn't come, then opened his eyes with an explosive sigh. "I still don't get it."
Doc glanced over at the flux capacitor in the DeLorean, his eyes glittering with clear curiosity. "I could dismantle the capacitor and see if there's anything missing in there...."
Marty shuddered, picturing all manner of complications if it was put together wrong. "Let's wait on that, okay?" he said. "Are you still going to go to the library?"
The inventor blinked. "Oh, yes, I suppose so, before they close."
"I don't think that'll happen for a few hours, at least."
Doc looked at him seriously. "You may think so, but the Government can close it any time they want to."
"I'm liking this Government less and less," Marty said, following Doc as he went to a clothes rack at the back of the room and pulled out a long coat. "Did America become Communist or something?"
"No... not exactly," Doc said, pulling the coat on. "I'll be back soon. Don't leave."
Before Marty could say anything more, he was gone. He heard a car start in the back -- loudly, too, its sound clearly heard over the pouring rain outside. He caught a quick glimpse out of a dusty window of the cream colored Packard that Doc owned way back in 1955 sputter its way out of the carport and into the empty parking lot. Marty continued to stare out of the window long after Doc's car had left, amazed and saddened to see that Hill Valley looked even worse in the light of day, even more run down than he had thought last night. Potholes were numerous in the streets, with junky cars rattling by at uneven intervals. All the buildings could use a fresh coat of paint, and many of the retail shops were shut down or changed their business. The Burger King that had once been next to Doc's place was now a bar of some kind. Marty leaned closer to the glass, wondering if he was seeing right. It looked like the place was called "Biff's Biker Bar!"
"Why am I not surprised," Marty said under his breath. He wasn't, really. But he was definitely surprised when he saw the young woman step out of a car that had just pulled into the lot -- she looked just like Jennifer!
Marty rushed for the door and flung it open. His Jennifer was still in the shower, if the sound of the water through the pipes was any indication. Otherwise she might want to follow him and see what made him react the way he did, and Marty had a feeling that wouldn't be good.
Without the dirt or cracks on the window obscuring his view at all, Marty was able to get a clear look at the woman, and what he saw took his breath away. It was Jennifer! He was sure of it! Probably her alternate version. This Jennifer was wearing heavy make-up, high heeled black leather boots, and a skimpy black outfit that looked like it was leather. It reminded Marty of what he had seen his mother wearing, and made him wonder with a shudder if she was in her same line of profession. Her hair was a little longer, permed and teased so that it stood up about six inches off her head.
As she walked carefully through the rain, Marty saw another figure leave the building and come halfway to meet her. He leaned forward, squinting a little, wondering if....
God, it is! That's Biff Tannen!
Biff didn't look too different from what Marty remembered. He was dressed like a biker might, however, with really tight leather pants and a black leather vest over a skull t-shirt. He also had a lot of tattoos on his arms. A beer belly hung over his tight pants, straining the material of the t-shirt. The proliferation of leather made him wonder how expensive it was; he was seeing it everywhere!
Marty watched as Biff suddenly embraced Jennifer and gave her a steamy kiss on the lips. He was sure she would fight or pull away, but Jennifer kissed him back, just as passionately. Marty turned away and grimaced, feeling like he was going to throw up. His girl and that creep!? He ducked back inside and shut the door.
Determined not to look outside any more, Marty wandered around the lab and searched for a distraction. He hadn't yet found one when the water shut off in the bathroom and Jennifer came out a few minutes after that, bundled up in a blue bathrobe. Her hair hung down her back, dripping water, and her arms were full of her Woodstock clothes.
"Your turn," she announced.
"Great," Marty said sincerely. He started to empty his pockets out onto the coffee table nearby as he watched Jennifer cross the room, leaving wet footprints in her wake, and stop next to the old washer and dryer.
"Doc said for us to put our clothes over here and he'll take care of them," she said.
Marty nodded as he tossed his wallet onto the table. "Did you empty your pockets out?"
Jennifer reached into the pocket of her bathrobe as she crossed the room to him and held up a handful of various things. "Done," she said, dropping the stuff on the coffee table. Earrings, necklaces, and some money were intertwined with one another.
"Oh yeah," she added casually. "I gave Doc most of my money from 1969 -- except twenty dollars, which he made me keep -- so he could get us some food and stuff while we're here. I hope that's okay?"
Marty tossed his house keys and some spare change that had been kicking around in his pockets on the table. "That's fine, I guess. I hope our Doc will understand."
Jennifer laughed suddenly, unexpectedly. "Oh, that'll be fun to explain it to him."
"If we have the chance to tell him," Marty said rather darkly. He grabbed the other bathrobe the scientist had set out for him, draped over the back of the recliner, and went into the still-steamy bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
* * *
Doc was back by the time Marty emerged from the bathroom after his long shower. The water had been nice and hot for about twenty minutes, then it had changed to freezing cold. He had gotten out in a hurry after that and still had goosebumps all over, shivering despite the heavy terrycloth robe wrapped tightly around him.
Doc and Jennifer were bent over a pile of books on the table where they had eaten breakfast earlier. Marty dumped his clothes with Jennifer's on the washer and went over to join them.
"What did you find?" he asked, picking up a book with a green cover and flipping randomly through it.
"I checked out most of the books I could find about the Government and general history in the last ten to twenty years," Doc answered. "This should give you a fair amount of information to draw from."
"Where are the newspapers and magazines?" Jennifer asked, sorting her way through the books.
"They keep those locked in the back of the library," Doc explained. "The Government has a rule that you cannot access them short of a week's notice and a legitimate reason."
"But we can't stay here for a week!" Marty protested, looking up from the book he had in his hand.
"I know. The night watchman there knows me and tonight, around midnight, he'll let me in and I'll get the material then if we still need it. Don't worry about it. In the meantime, you'll both have all this to go through."
"I don't believe this," Jennifer said suddenly, holding up a fat book with the inscription A History of Government on the cover. "They changed some of the constitutional rights that we have!"
Marty leaned towards Jennifer and peered over her shoulder. "Hey, what happened to the freedom of speech?" he asked, looking at Doc.
Doc Brown shrugged. "Aborted in 1970. The Government did not like to have the people talking and writing negative things about them."
"This says that the Government changed it so everything has to be approved by them that is written, and performed and everything!" Jennifer said in disbelief. She looked up, a pink flush of anger in her cheeks. "They can't get away with that! It's unconstitutional!"
Doc shrugged again, looking older then before. "Kids, what can I say? You paint a picture of a wonderfully democratic world, but this is the way things are here and now. I'm sorry."
Marty and Jennifer looked at each other. "I don't know what we could have done to cause all this," Jennifer said, shaking her head. "I mean, Marty and I didn't really do anything that big at Woodstock. We got there, saw the bands, camped out in the field, met a couple who...." She froze. "You don't think my delivering a couple babies could change things?"
Marty looked at Jennifer, then Doc. The scientist smiled faintly, though it was an expression far from pleasurable. "I think that might get us on the right track," he said. "Tell me the whole story."
Jennifer recounted the experience from the beginning. When she finished, the scientist sat back a moment, frowning a rather slanted frown.
"It does sound as if you erred there," he agreed. "But I'm not sure how there can be a connection between the living of two persons that haven't yet before, and the way the world is now. Do you know the full names of the couple whom you helped?"
Marty shook his head no, but Jennifer offered the information. "Aura's real name was Beth Anderson and Stormy's was Mark Connell."
Marty looked at his girlfriend, surprised. "How'd you know that?" he asked.
"I spent more time with them than you did," she said. "And even though they were pretty out there, they weren't as strange as we first thought."
"Do either of those names ring a bell, Doc?" Marty asked, looking at the inventor, who appeared to be thinking hard. At length, he shook his head.
"Neither of them help," he said. "What were their children's names?"
"Jenny and Jane Anderson-Connell," Jennifer said.
Doc again pondered those names to himself, but shook his head again and gave a half shrug. "Maybe you both should start looking through the books and see if you notice anything different."
Many hours and pages later, Marty finally closed the latest book he'd been plugging through and let his head fall to the table with a heavy, exhausted thud. "I give up, Jen," he all but whimpered to his girlfriend. "I completely give up."
Jennifer, who had been prodding along with the same diligence as Marty, tried to twitch her mouth into a smile but couldn't quite manage it. "I'm afraid I'm as lost as you are," she admitted with a half sigh, half yawn. "I don't see how my delivering the babies has anything to do with what this world has become. And how can things have changed before 1969?"
Marty didn't answer, and Jennifer didn't expect him to. Dozens of times that day they had found odd little discrepancies in their research that dated prior to 1969. If Jennifer understood the time travel thing correctly, then such changes shouldn't've been possible, not unless the babies she had delivered would someday be time travelers themselves and go back to muck around in the past.
Doc Brown, too, had no answers, though he seemed to Jennifer to have at least the glimmers of an idea. At the sound of the teens' voices, the scientist, who had been occupying himself with the problem in the time machine, looked up. "I believe I've thought of a new avenue of approach," he said. "I've discovered something rather... interesting over here."
Marty managed to raise his head, though it looked like such an action took a supreme effort to Jennifer. "What?" he asked weakly.
"Come here and I'll show you."
Despite her exhaustion, and the massive headache accumulated from too many hours of squinting at fine print, Jennifer was curious enough to get to her feet and head over to see what the scientist had found. Marty groaned at the idea of moving, but he, too, dragged himself to his feet after his girlfriend.
"What did you find?" Jennifer asked, trying not to feel too hopeful. She felt as if they were beating their heads against a relentless wall and hardly expected that Doc could've found something in the time machine rather than a history book.
Doc pointed at the blueprints that he had spread out across the DeLorean's hood. To Jennifer's casual glance, they looked like plans for the time machine's flux capacitor. "I've opened the case of the flux capacitor," he said, nodding first towards the car, where Jennifer could see the critical device was now missing, and then to a table, where it was spread out, "and I discovered that the piece you saw missing is just the beginning."
Doc picked up the blueprints and trotted over to the table, spreading them out beside the device. Jennifer and Marty followed him at a considerably slower pace. "This, this, and this--" He pointed to a few fine details on the prints. "--are missing from the capacitor. They're not rattling around in the case or broken off -- they're gone as if they simply never existed."
Marty frowned, rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache. "So what does that mean?"
Doc looked to Jennifer instead. "Did either Beth or Mark discuss their interests with you, future plans, or dreams?"
Jennifer shrugged. "They talked a lot about what they wanted to do. Stormy -- or Mark -- planned to be a house husband with Aura, raise their kids like that. Aura the same. From what I gathered, and they told me, Stormy's parents were really well off and had set him up with a fat trust fund that he had gotten away with before his parents more or less disowned him for his hippy ways."
"What line of business was his family in?" Doc asked.
Jennifer shrugged. "He didn't elaborate. Why?"
Marty spoke up before Doc could. "You have an idea, don't you?" he asked.
"A theory," Doc corrected. "And, yes, I do." He fell into silence, though.
"So what is it?" Marty asked, rather impatiently.
Doc hesitated a moment, then spoke. "I think you are both here for two reasons," he said. "Equipment failure and a changed timeline. But why have we been unable to find any clear connections between what was done in 1969 and now? I think that's because there is nothing inherently obvious to find."
Marty looked more baffled by the explanation than he had before it. Jennifer, whose mind for things like this was drastically underdeveloped, thought hard before offering her summary of what he had said.
"You mentioned equipment failure," she said. "Is that what brought us here, then?"
Doc nodded. "Yes. But I think the equipment failure was caused by a change in your timeline." He pointed at the flux capacitor blueprints, and at the device that was half apart on the table. "From what you've told me, this Stormy fellow intended to raise his children from home. Correct?"
Jennifer nodded.
"So, then, what if they didn't survive, as they probably hadn't before your intervention? Let's say that in such a scenario he didn't stay home and perhaps took a job. Was he smart?"
Jennifer thought a moment. "Yes, he was," she decided. "He had mentioned an interest in electronics and boasted about repairing things like radios and the electrical system in his car."
Doc smiled. "Wonderful," he said. "That fits with my theory flawlessly! So, then, let us say that because his children were not there to raise, he eventually went to college and got a degree in something related to that. Electrical engineering, for example. And perhaps at his job he had the opportunity to design small circuits or chips that the other me used in constructing his flux capacitor. And if history was run off course and someone didn't design the same things, or designed them later, or not at all -- who knows -- then it would explain neatly why certain parts of the flux capacitor have vanished."
Jennifer ran through what he had said and thought it made sense, but there were still enough oddities to leave her confused. Marty felt the same way, if the look on his face was any indication.
"So, if what you're saying is right, then the time machine would've been missing some parts before we left... right?"
"In theory, yes," Doc said.
"So if that's right... why are we here if this isn't a direct cause from the changed history? Or is it?"
"I doubt it," Doc said. "As to why you're here, I told you before that the flux capacitor missing a part, as you noticed it was, would cause an imbalance in the dispersal and could have mysterious, unknown results. Maybe those results are actually taking you randomly to parallel dimensions."
Marty frowned. Jennifer didn't even try to understand what he was saying. "Is this why we can't find anything about what we might have done?" Marty finally asked.
Doc nodded. "You haven't done anything -- and that explains why you noticed a number of historical discrepancies prior to 1969, which first prompted me to wonder if this was the correct theory. I'm fairly confident it is, now."
"But Doc -- the one I know -- said that the alternate realties we'd seen were probably caused by what we did and weren't there before," Marty said, looking confused.
Doc shrugged. "Maybe that's so in those cases," he said. "Or perhaps there are billions of parallel universes out there and when you change something in the past, the time machine brings you back to the reality that is most likely spawned from that moment."
Marty groaned and sat down in a chair nearby, his face in his hands. "This is too heavy," he moaned softly.
Jennifer didn't even try to think about it, instead focusing on something mentioned earlier. "If this is equipment failure, then, what do we do?"
Doc smiled at her. "I can cobble together something to replace what's missing, which should allow you to go back to 1969 and undo what you did. Once that's fixed, the missing parts should reappear, once the ripple effect catches up to you, then you can disconnect the temporary device, and go home."
Marty looked up quickly, understanding at once. "You don't mean that we have to kill the twins, do you?" He sounded horrified at the concept.
Jennifer's eyes widened. "I am not going to murder two defenseless and innocent babies!"
"No, no," Doc said, waving a hand at them as he looked back to the plans. "All you'll have to do is find a way to prevent Jennifer from helping in Aura's delivery. Let nature take its destined course." He shrugged. "Who knows? Perhaps the twins did survive and just the mere interference with their delivery was enough to create this new world to you both."
"Wouldn't that sort of nix your theory?" Marty asked.
"I don't think the twins would've lived if I wasn't there," Jennifer added, knowing that would've been so without the slightest doubt. "At least not both of them."
Doc shrugged. "Well, then, try to come up with a way that will prevent Jennifer from interfering with the delivery." He looked at the teen in question. "Do you think you could handle it if you saw yourself?"
"If I saw myself?" Jennifer repeated, puzzled. "What do you mean?"
Marty clarified it for her. "Do you remember the first time you got in the time machine with Doc and me and we all went to 2015, and later you got to see what our future house looked like and everything?"
"Yes," Jennifer answered, honest.
"And then later, you literally ran into yourself, thirty years older, leaving," Marty said.
Jennifer put a hand to her forehead. "Yes," she said again. "You told me this before, that I fainted at the sight of myself." She gasped softly, realizing. "Like you did when you ran into yourself yesterday."
Marty nodded. "Exactly. But I've been able to be around my other self, in terms of a past self, without that happening. I think if you're expecting it and have time to prepare yourself for it, you'll be okay. But when it happens suddenly, without warning--"
"You'll go into shock," Doc said matter-of-factly. "It makes a great deal of sense if you think about it. People don't go into shock confronting things that are expected. It's the unexpected and the unprepared that get to you. And seeing yourself face-to-face is something quite startling if you're not preconditioned to handle it."
Jennifer nodded slowly. "If I knew about it ahead of time, I think I could handle it," she said with more confidence than she felt.
"Good." Doc was silent for a moment, then looked at Marty. "Marty, you said that you weren't involved with this at all?"
"No. I was back in our tent. I didn't even find out about this until the next day, and then it was just by accident."
Doc nodded to himself and was quiet for a few more minutes. He left the table and walked over to a cabinet above the sink in his kitchen and pulled something out of it. "Jennifer, do you remember what time all this happened?"
Jennifer frowned in thought. "I think it was around one in the morning when I went over there."
"All right," Doc said, returning to the table and setting a bottle down. Marty picked it up and looked at the label.
"Chloroform?" he said aloud. "What are we going to do, knock out Aura with this?"
"No. Jennifer."
"Hey!" Jennifer protested automatically. "Why me?"
"Listen to this first before you say anything," Doc said to her. "You both return to Woodstock shortly before the delivery occurred. After Jennifer -- the original one, the one in the past -- goes into the tent, this Jennifer--" He pointed to her. "--pulls out the chloroform and soaks a rag with the stuff. Meanwhile, Marty goes in and tells Jennifer he needs her for something right then. Make up an emergency if you must. Jennifer, if this happened, would you go with Marty?"
Jennifer shrugged. "I don't know."
"This is very important," Doc insisted, not changing the subject. "You know yourself the best. Think about it for a minute."
Jennifer was silent for a while, biting her lower lip in thought, trying to remember as clearly as she could her mindset and any likely behaviors she would've had then. If Marty had come into the tent, would she have left Aura? Maybe if it had been for just a minute, and if he looked upset enough.
"If he was excited enough, I would," Jennifer finally said. "Especially if he said it would only take a minute."
Doc let out a long breath. "Good. So, Marty can go in there, get Jennifer outside. Then, Jennifer, you get behind your other self and use the chloroform on her, covering her nose and mouth with a soaked rag. After the other Jennifer is unconscious, you both get her back to her tent, return to the time machine, unhook the temporary device, then take the vehicle back to the date you had originally intended." He paused for breath. "Everything should be back to what you consider normal and natural, then."
"You make that sound so easy," Marty said, smiling thinly.
Doc looked at him seriously. "Oh, it's not. You must be very careful when you sedate the other Jennifer. Too little and she'll wake up too soon; too much and she'll never wake up. And that would create a major problem, because if that killed her, then who could have induced the chloroform death in the first place?"
Jennifer frowned as she struggled to keep up with the odd concepts. "What if Jennifer has her hands full with Aura and doesn't leave?" Marty asked, swallowing the inventor's warning without further question.
Doc shrugged. "Create a distraction, then. Pretend to faint, lie and say there's a fire -- just improvise. If all else fails, drag her out bodily."
Marty sighed, not looking enthusiastic with the idea. "Great," he said. "What about the temporary repairs? How long will that take?"
"With your help, I think we could have it done by tomorrow night," Doc said, looking to him with one sharply arched eyebrow in silent question. Marty sighed deeply, then nodded his agreement.
Emmett Brown had remembered from the night before that, in this Marty McFly's life, the teen had been an assistant to the scientist and had forged a friendship that had originated from such a job. Thus, he was pleased that the other version of himself had taught the boy well, and found him a competent and definitely helpful set of hands to help put together the device that Doc had quickly drafted to fill in for the missing flux capacitor pieces.
What he hadn't counted on, however, was Marty not having quite the same energy level or enthusiasm as the inventor. Shortly after four in the morning, Doc looked up from a rather delicate and tricky connection to find the teen slumped forward with his head on the table, sound asleep. Knowing that he and Jennifer -- who had crashed hours earlier, on the couch -- would have a long day ahead of them tomorrow, Doc chose not to disturb him and got up to snag the needed tool himself.
As he prowled about his home in search of it, he found himself pondering the way life was now, and how this visit had brought a much needed breath of fresh air into an otherwise stale span of time. He had almost forgotten about the thrill of inventing, since parts were so hard to come by and expensive. Fixing up old things and reselling them through a black market was certainly tedious, not to mention dangerous. The pay was lousy, not paying off for the work, risk taking, and time at all. If the Government caught him doing such activities by circumnavigating them, Doc knew he could spend the rest of his life behind bars -- if he was that lucky!
And, yet, even if he wanted to work in the legal world, he wouldn't have been able to. Unless you were related to someone in the Government, or paid the incredibly costly price of getting a college education that had to have been within the last ten years, you couldn't get a job at all. The only legit non-Government run jobs were even worse paying and more dangerous then Doc's underground repair business.
Doc sighed as he passed by the DeLorean, gleaming slightly in the blaze of candlelight, and he paused to give it a long look. To him, the time machine symbolized the future he had hoped for, but had never come to be -- at least not yet. He reached out a ran a hand over the cool, smooth finish, wishing things had turned out differently, and buoyed by a hope that, somewhere else, they had. Having Marty and Jennifer here was a shock, yes, and definitely unexpected, but Doc was grateful for it, too. He still couldn't quite believe how different they were from their local counterparts. The Marty McFly he was used to seeing was a prankish, lowlife sort, and had in fact taken an almost sadistic delight in tormenting Doc with practical jokes and tricks while in his teen years. Jennifer was usually one of the number of ladies seen with Biff Tannen, the owner of the biker bar next door.
Doc turned away from the DeLorean and continued his search. There were enough candles lit to give him plenty of light to see where he was going. Wondering if what he needed was in a box of tools that he knew was in his living room area, he headed that way, taking as much care as he could not to disturb Jennifer on the couch. As he knelt down to look under the sofa, a few objects on the surface of the coffee table nearby caught his eye. He leaned over to take a closer look at the things and realized they were a variety of items that had likely come from Jennifer's and Marty's pockets, and that the couple had forgotten to put them back when their clothes had come out clean that afternoon.
The thing that drew Doc's attention first was a red wallet. Doc picked it up slowly, casting a cautious glance at Jennifer, who seemed unaware of his presence next to her. He opened the wallet carefully, wincing at the sharp sound of Velcro that held the thing closed, but the sleeping girl did not stir from the noise.
The first thing that the scientist saw was the driver's license, which told him the wallet belonged to one Martin Seamus McFly. Doc flipped back the transparent sleeve with the license, not terribly interested in it, and found a photograph. He only had to glance at it to see it was one of Jennifer. Under that was a picture of Marty with a young man and young woman, posing before a wishing well. Doc flipped that picture back, then stared at the one under it. His hands shook as he pulled it out of the plastic sleeve.
The photograph showed him -- and, why did he look younger than he was now?! -- standing next to a pretty middle-aged woman with dark eyes and curly dark hair. The photographic scientist had his arm around the woman's waist in the picture. Kneeling before the couple were two boys, both looking to be in their later childhood years. One had blond hair and blue eyes, with a mischievous gleam in his eye. The other looked a year or two older, with dark eyes, brown hair and a more serious air about him. All the people were smiling widely for the camera. In the background was a beautifully restored farmhouse, and in front of the blond boy was a sheepdog. The sky was blue and the sun was shining, and, if the happy expressions on everyone's face was any indication, it was obvious that the Government didn't have quite the same hold on these people's lives.
Doc knew, almost instinctively, that this was the life of the other him. And that this was his family.
He turned the photograph over and found scribbled in cursive the words "The Browns -- Doc, Clara, Jules, and Verne, 5/86, w/ Einstein."
Doc turned the picture back over and stared at the images, holding it as close to his candle as he dared. "My family," he whispered, the words uttered with a longing that was painful. Tears filled his eyes and a horrible feeling of loneliness and depression washed over him. Even if he never knew them, Doc mourned for their loss. Perhaps it saddened him even more because he had never known them. All he had was a small snapshot of the people who made up his alternate family in his hand, of a family that would never be for him, as he knew that Clara had been not a product of the present, but of the past.
After what felt like a long period of time -- but, likely, was no more than ten minutes -- Doc tore his eyes away from the photograph and slipped it back inside the wallet. As he set it back on the table and got to his feet, wincing at the pins and needles in his legs and feet, he tried to forget what he had seen and put his mind back on the tool and device. Imagining what "might have been" when it would never be was far too depressing. Best if he put what he saw out of his mind and get on with life, for the sakes of the couple who had shown up on his doorstep.
But the faces of the family his other self had continued to haunt him, well into the day.
* * *
In the late afternoon, Doc finished the temporary flux capacitor assistant, as he thought of it, with Marty's help. The teen had woken up after just a couple hours' rest and, though he wished he could go back to sleep -- and, this time in a more comfortable place than at a work table -- he threw himself into helping with the completion of the device. After Doc painstakingly put the flux capacitor back together and reinstalled it into the DeLorean, he ran a cord from the back of it to the temporary assist and explained to both Marty and Jennifer how to disconnect it when the time was right. After a quick dinner, the young couple packed up their things, did a final check of the car to make sure the rest of it was still running, then got in to leave.
Doc watched Marty program the time circuits for their return trip to Woodstock through the open door. He sighed softly. "I hope that everything works out for you back there," he said, almost wistfully.
Marty nodded. "Me, too. Thanks for everything you've done for us."
"Glad to help." Doc paused as Marty started to close the door. "Take care. If you end up here again for any reason, look me up."
Marty smiled faintly. "We will, Doc."
Doc nodded, smiling as Marty closed the door and started the car. He felt severely relieved when it came to life without a problem. Next to him, Jennifer sighed, her hands nervously clenching the bottle of chloroform and a rag.
Marty looked over at her and tried to smile, but didn't get that far. His stomach was full of knots of nervousness. If we screw this up....
He left the thought unfinished.
Jennifer nodded once, as if she could read his mind, then returned a sickly smile to him.
Doc waved as Marty threw the car into reverse. Marty waved back, turned the car around, and drove into the street, away from the scientist's lair. It was almost completely deserted out, like it had been the night when they had arrived. As soon as he was away from some buildings and possible prying eyes, Marty flipped the hover conversion on and took to the air. Jennifer spoke for the first time since getting into the DeLorean.
"Do you think we'll be able to pull this off, Marty? Honestly?"
"I've had to do harder things," Marty said. "It's not that complicated, if you think about it. We just have to worry about you not coming out with me, or you overpowering yourself."
Jennifer looked down at the chloroform in her lap. "I'm kind of scared about seeing myself," she admitted. "It sounds so weird. Do you think I'll really be able to handle it?"
Marty glanced at her and smiled. "Yeah, I think you'll be fine." He sighed. "Cross your fingers that we make it back!"
They reached eighty-eight a minute later and, after his dazzled eyes recovered, Marty had a terrifying moment of disorientation. Rain was pouring outside and thunder flashed. Wind gusted hard against the car, causing a battle with the steering.
"Oh, no, what's happening?" Jennifer cried, bracing a hand against the dash to keep from falling forward.
"I don't know, I think we're in a storm -- was it storming that night?"
"Yes," she answered immediately and shrilly. "Land the car!"
"I'm trying!" Marty cried. "But this wind isn't making it easy, and I can hardly see three feet outside!"
A bolt snaked dangerously close to the car and Marty's heart gave a nervous leap. "What happens if we're struck by lightning?" Jennifer demanded, squeezing her eyes shut.
"It'll probably fry the car and send us to God knows where."
Jennifer didn't say anything after that, perhaps seeing that he needed to concentrate hard to bring the car down. With the next flash of lighting, he was able to get a rough idea of where they were and where to bring the car down. He landed it in a hurry next to a barbed wire fence, with the tents and campsite on the other side of the fence. After he shut off the car, he silently watched the dark world vanish outside under the curtain of water gushing down the windshield and windows.
Neither Marty nor Jennifer made any move to get out of the DeLorean for a moment. The multicolored lights broke the darkness inside the car. Marty watched as the 1:00 A.M. on the time display clicked to 1:01 A.M.
"We'd better get out, now," Marty said reluctantly. "We don't want to get there too late."
Jennifer nodded silently and opened her door. Both she and Marty had already prepared for the weather by putting on their rain ponchos back in the other 1986. Marty pulled on his hood, got out of the car, and carefully locked it up before slipping the keys in his pocket. It was noisy outside, between the wind, thunder, and rain. He and Jennifer ducked under the fence and stood at the edge of the sea of mud and tents.
"Are we nearby?" Marty asked, raising his voice to be heard about nature's noise.
Jennifer turned on the high powered flashlight she had brought with her and swept it around. "We're close," she said after a moment. "I recognize some of these tents." She started walking forward and Marty followed her. He didn't know where they were, but trusted that his girlfriend did if she said so.
As they traveled further into the camping area, Marty saw more and more people and even heard music from radios drifting through the air. Many of the tents glowed faintly from the inside and shadows danced on the walls. A couple minutes later, the surroundings clicked into place for Marty, and he caught sight of Stormy and Aura's tent a moment after that. Jennifer stopped so suddenly that Marty almost ran into her.
"There it is," she said unnecessarily. "I'd be in there by now."
Almost as soon as she spoke, Marty saw Stormy burst out of the tent at a run. He passed within five feet of them, but didn't even see either Marty or Jennifer. Lucky for us, Marty thought, relieved.
"Let's get this over with, then," he said as soon as Stormy was out of sight. "Are you ready?"
Jennifer nodded as another flash of lightning lit up the night. "As ready as I'll ever be," she said softly, her voice mingling with the echoing boom of thunder.
Marty started walking toward the tent, glancing back to make sure Jennifer was following. She was. He stopped right before the entrance of the tent and caught her eye. She nodded slowly. He hesitated a moment, preparing himself, then ran inside the tent.
"Jennifer!" he gasped, trying to sound a little frantic. It wasn't hard to stretch; the stress of the situation had made him pretty strung out.
The inside of the tent was lit by candles. Jennifer -- the other one, not the one with the chloroform -- was kneeling next to Aura and holding the young woman's hand. Aura's face was flushed and she was breathing in short gasps. "Oh, it hurts, it hurts! I think she's coming out!" the mother-to-be moaned.
Jennifer jerked her head towards Marty at the sound of his voice. "What are you doing here?" she demanded. "Is something wrong?"
Marty stared at Aura, his eyes wide. Jennifer started to get to her feet, prying her hand from the young woman's. "Marty?" she asked, worry now in her voice.
"Oh," he said, blinking, remembering his job. "Uh, yeah, something's wrong. I need your help!"
"I want to push!" Aura gasped, reaching out for Jennifer's arm.
Jennifer turned to her. "Not yet," she pleaded. "Please."
"I can't!" Aura said, her voice pitched to a near scream.
Marty decided he'd better get Jennifer out of there as soon as possible. He licked his suddenly dry lips. "Jennifer?" he said. "This is important. It's about our trip home."
"It can wait, can't it, Marty?" Jennifer asked, not showing much concern about it. "Just a minute, please!" She looked at Aura and knelt down next to her. "Put your feet flat on the ground, bend your knees, and spread your legs apart," she told her.
Marty took a deep breath. The room seemed to be closing in on him and he suddenly found it hard to breathe. Aura's panting was starting to echo in his ears. "Jennifer," he said, a real pleading note to his voice.
"Are you wearing any underwear?" Jennifer asked Aura, another uneasy glance at Marty.
"Got that off already."
"Marty, you might want to wait outside for a minute." She didn't wait to see if he followed her suggestion (he didn't), and reached for a light blanket nearby as she pulled back the lower half of Aura's dress. At the sight of her exposed belly and everything else, Marty started to feel a little woozy and put a hand to his head.
"Jennifer, it's an emergency!" he said sharply. "You can spare a minute for this!"
"Marty, let me see if this baby is coming first!" she shot back, throwing the blanket over Aura's lower body.
"Is she coming out?" Aura asked as Jennifer turned back to her. "It hurts, still, hurts really bad. Like something is tearing me up inside."
Marty tried to take slow deep breaths, but his body wouldn't listen. His breathing became more erratic. His heart started pounded faster and faster, and he felt like he wasn't getting enough air. The room seemed to press down on him. Panic shot through his veins, the very sensation making him feel even more anxiety and more panic, quickening his respiration until he was gasping like a marathon runner.
"I don't know," Jennifer said in answer to Aura's question. "You want me to look?"
Aura nodded. Marty opened his mouth again. "Jennifer! Now!" he said urgently, the woozy feeling increasing. His heart thudded in his chest.
Jennifer glanced at him again, then turned her attention back to Aura. She pushed the blanket up and picked up a flashlight, turning it on. Marty stared in horror at the top of the baby's head that was peeking out from inside Aura. Nausea welled up in his throat.
"Oh," he moaned, trying to take a deep breath. It wasn't working, though. He still wasn't getting enough air. He had to get out of here -- now. "Jen!"
Aura let out a groan. "She's coming!" she cried.
Marty grabbed Jennifer by the arm, hard and dragged her to her feet. Jennifer frowned at him, genuinely angry. "Marty, what--"
"You. I. Out. Now!" he managed, dizzier than he thought could be possible on solid ground. He turned around, took one step towards the door... then fell face first to the floor, out cold before his head hit the ground.
* * *
As she waited outside for Marty to come out with... herself, Jennifer watched the proceedings in the tent through a narrow crack. She jumped back a little as Marty suddenly fell forward on his way out, hitting the ground with a weighted thud that sounded nice and realistic.
Nice acting, she thought of his entire spell. The reaction of her other self wasn't entirely unexpected. Slightly younger Jennifer let out a half shriek and knelt down next to Marty, calling his name with increasing concern when he didn't react.
"Come out here, please," Jennifer murmured under her breath.
When hard shakes did nothing to revive Marty, the slightly younger Jennifer looked between Aura and Marty with a strained expression of one under intense pressure on her face.
"Aura, I'll be right back, I promise," Jennifer said to her, standing up and darting. "I'm going to see if I can get someone else to help us. I can't handle all this alone."
"No, please," Aura pleaded. "Don't leave me."
Outside, Jennifer winced at the plea. But her younger self didn't turn back. "I'll be back, I promise," she called over her shoulder.
Jennifer drew back, preparing herself for the attack and, a moment later, her other self came outside. The teen didn't waste a moment. She lunged forward, the now soaked chloroform rag clenched in her hand, wrapped an arm around Other Jennifer's neck, and slapped the rag over her nose and mouth.
"Take a deep breath, now, and everything'll be all right," Jennifer whispered in her ear. The other Jennifer's hands flew up to tug at the hands of her attacker, trying to pull them away from her mouth. Jennifer kept a firm grip and, in terms of strength, it was evenly matched. She heard her other self whimper, deep in her throat, then a moment later the other Jennifer took a deep breath. The teen went limp in her arms and the Jennifer with the chloroform lowered the rag after a moment. She gently eased her other self to the ground, then took a deep breath before turning her head back towards the tent.
Marty wasn't coming out.
Jennifer crept over to it and peered through the slight crack in the doorway again. Marty was still on the ground, pretending to be unconscious... but was he just pretending? She suddenly remembered a comment he had made to her the day after this stuff had happened originally, something about almost passing out in health class during a childbirth video.
Oh God, he didn't.... Jennifer thought, feeling her face pale.
Aura was moaning and yelling for help. Jennifer bit her lower lip in a moment of indecision, then finally ducked inside the tent.
"Help is on the way," she reported to Aura, bending over Marty. "Sit tight a minute, will you? I have to get Marty out of here." She rolled him over onto his back, then took hold of him under the arms and started dragging him outside.
"Will he be all right?" Aura managed to ask through her pain, surprising the other girl.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," Jennifer said, trying to smile but unable to make it. "Some men just can't take the sight of childbirth." She backed out of the tent as quickly as she could, dragging her boyfriend. As soon as she had Marty completely clear of the tent, with a few feet to spare, Jennifer lowered him to the ground and tried to wake him up. She hoped that the rainwater coming down and wetting his face would help, but it didn't. Jennifer shook him hard and called his name a few times, but it didn't work. Marty groaned softly and his eyelids twitched, but didn't open.
Knowing that any minute, Stormy and the doctor could return, Jennifer was left with only one option. She drew her hand back and finally slapped him as hard as she could across the face. She winced at the sound her hand made against his skin, but it seemed to do the job. Marty's eyes popped open. He blinked once, then looked up at her with vague confusion.
"What's happened?" he asked, raising a hand to his face and touching the spot where Jennifer had hit him. She winced in guilt.
"I think you fainted in there," she explained as he sat up -- quicker than he probably should, but with all the mud on the ground, she didn't blame him. "I had to slap you to wake you up. I'm really sorry, but I didn't have a choice. We have to get my other self back in the tent before Stormy and the doctor come -- and that could be at any time!"
Marty rubbed his cheek as he stood up, staggering a little. Jennifer gave him a steadying hand. "Man, you could have gone a little easier with my face."
"I'm sorry," Jennifer said, sincere as she could be with her apology when she was also trying to hurry him along. "Come on, we have to get me back in the tent before anyone shows up."
Marty and Jennifer both lifted the other Jennifer up, and a minute later they had her arms around their necks and her hood over her face. To people passing by, it appeared as if they were helping a friend who'd had too much fun back to her tent.
"What happened in there, with Aura and me?" Jennifer asked as they half walked, half staggered back to their old blue tent. "You just keeled over."
"I told you, I have a problem with seeing that kind of stuff," Marty said, sounding embarrassed. "I just felt like the room was closing in on me and I couldn't breathe."
Jennifer grinned, though it seemed out of place under the circumstances. "Sounds like a panic attack. I'd hate to see what you'd be like if I was the person having the baby."
Marty grinned back. "Maybe I'll get over this by that time."
Just before they reached the blue tent, Jennifer remembered another detail that she hadn't earlier. "We have to be careful," she warned quietly. "Last time I slipped inside, you woke up."
"I did?" Marty whispered. "I don't remember."
"It doesn't matter. But if you wake up this time, you won't go back to sleep right away," Jennifer said. "You'll want to know what's going on, and why there are two of us."
Marty frowned a moment, thoughtful. "Do you still have that chloroform with you?"
With her free hand, Jennifer reached into her pocket where she had stuffed the rag and the bottle and pulled it out. "Yeah, why?"
Marty took it from her hands and fingered it thoughtfully. "Can you wait here for a minute?"
* * *
Once he was sure that Jennifer was able to handle her other self by herself, Marty gently pulled back the tent flaps in their own tent and stepped carefully inside. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness earlier and he could see pretty well without a flashlight.
At Marty's feet was himself. His slightly younger other self, to be more precise. Younger Marty was lying on his right side, asleep, breathing deeply, and burrowed in his sleeping back up to his chin. Marty stared at himself, the fascination and deja vu sense that accompanied the truly weird experience of seeing yourself from a third person perspective, live in person.
So this is what I look like asleep, he thought with some amusement. Like many kids growing up, he had always wondered. Not sure how much time he had, Marty bent over himself, poured some more chloroform on the rag, then cupped it over his other self's nose and mouth. The other Marty began to stir, starting to open his eyes, but almost as soon as that happened, he breathed in the rag and grew still and silent again. Marty pulled his hand away and listened to his other self's breathing for a moment, making sure that he wasn't going to stir and wasn't going to stop, before stepping outside again.
"Let's get you inside," he said to Jennifer softly. "It'll be safe now."
"What did you do?" she whispered, glancing down at the other Marty as they went inside.
"I just gave him -- me -- a whiff of this chloroform," Marty explained quietly. "That way I won't accidentally wake up while we're in here."
They quickly got the other Jennifer inside and under the blankets. Jennifer shook her head as she looked at their doubles on the ground.
"This is so weird," she commented.
"Time travel's weird," Marty corrected, parting the doorway flaps. "Should we go, now? Are you ready?"
Jennifer followed him out the door. "I hope this worked," she said. "If it didn't, we went to all that trouble for nothing!"
Marty's cheek gave a faint twinge, as if agreeing with her. He couldn't believe how hard Jennifer must've slapped him! "We'll find out soon enough."
They reached the DeLorean without trouble and, following Doc's instructions, Marty disconnected the temporary device after noting, with extreme relief, that the flux capacitor looked the same as he remembered it from before. He set their destination time to the same it had been when they had left 1969 the first time. If all went well, they would be back where they had intended in the first place.
If not....
Marty started the car and lifted it into the sky, not wanting to worry any further.
They appeared in the same place they had left 1986 in the parallel world. It wasn't raining anymore and the night seemed calm, almost serene, compared to what it had been like in '69. Marty leaned forward, trying to see outside better. It was hard to tell anything from the height they were at, with the darkness and all.
"What can you see?" Jennifer asked, casting quick nervous glances out of the window.
"Nothing, yet. We're too high up. Let me drop closer to the ground and land the car." Marty squinted at the buildings as he got closer, but was still unable to tell if they were as run down as they had been before. Beside him, Jennifer shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
"I can't tell yet, can you?" she asked a minute later.
Marty looked at her. "Not yet," he said. The tension was almost unbearable. Marty decided to abandon the slow, cautious decent he was doing and pushed the wheel forward. The car dropped about twenty feet in two seconds. Jennifer gasped.
"I think..." he began slowly, his eyes glued to the outside. "I think... I think we're back!" he finished triumphantly. "That building wasn't there in the other 1986! But it was -- is -- now. I mean, in the world we're used to!"
Jennifer smiled widely, hope brimming in her eyes. "You're sure?"
The car touched down on the asphalt and Marty braked it to a stop. "Positive!" He grinned at his girlfriend.
Jennifer threw her arms around him and kissed him hard on the lips. "Oh, I'm so glad!" she gasped.
Marty put his own arms around her and held her tight. He returned her kiss, feeling a pleasant warmth in his chest melting the icy ball of fear that had gathered there the last couple days. Jennifer was still smiling when Marty leaned back.
"We better go check in with Doc," he said softly, getting the car moving again down the street. "He'll be wondering where we are."
Jennifer sighed, watching the buildings pass. "I hope that I never have to go through anything like that again!"
"Do you mean Woodstock, an alternate world, or messing around with our doubles?" Marty asked.
Jennifer laughed. "All of the above. I'm sorry, but I guess I'm not cut out for time travel. I guess it's more your thing than mine. I'm happy where I am right now, thank you very much. I don't need to jump around in other times."
Doc's farmhouse loomed up ahead, and Marty was relieved to see that it was back to its previous restoration, with a couple lights on in the house, and the old barn-turned-lab lit up. He pulled into the driveway, noticing that the big doors to the lab were still open.
As he drove through them, Marty made a quick decision. "You know what, don't mention any of what happened to Doc. I don't want him to know about our problems, even if we did fix it."
Jennifer stared at him in surprise. "Why not?"
Marty grabbed the electronics that the other Doc had made and slipped it under his poncho, in the waistband of his jeans, before pulling into the lab. "I'll tell you later. In the meantime, watch what you say."
He stopped the car, turned it off. Outside the car, Doc started walking over to them, looking exactly like he had when they had left originally. Marty opened the door and stepped out, with Jennifer following his move. Doc stopped in his tracks and stared at them. "What on earth went on back there?" he asked.
For one horrible moment Marty wondered if Doc had known about the hell they'd gone through, just by looking at them. "What are you talking about?" he asked, his voice cracking.
Doc gestured to the two of them. "Did you take up mud wrestling?"
Marty looked down at himself and realized, for the first time, that he was covered in mud and water. His clothes under the rain poncho were uncomfortably damp. He looked at his hands and found that they, too, were covered with drying mud. He was willing to bet there was some on his face, too, and in his hair, if the sensations he was now noticing were any indication. A glance at Jennifer told him that she was in a similar condition.
"Woodstock had a lot of rain," Marty said finally. "And a lot of mud."
"That seems like a bit of an understatement." Doc pulled a remote control from his pocket and pushed a button on it. The doors that the DeLorean had come through closed automatically. He looked at Marty expectantly. "Did you both enjoy yourselves?" he asked.
"It was an experience that I'll never forget," Marty said honestly, looking sidelong at Jennifer. "Wouldn't you say?"
She nodded. "Oh yes. It was interesting back there."
Marty tensed up when Doc gave Jennifer a rather intense look, but a moment later he turned his gaze back to Marty and changed the subject.
"Did you have enough money and supplies?"
Marty dug around in his pocket and came up with the two tens that were left from the batch that Jennifer had let the other Doc have. "Yeah, we had enough. Here're the leftovers."
Doc took them from his hand and raised his eyebrows. "Only twenty dollars?"
"Well, it was a long weekend," Marty said, feeling a little uncomfortable. "Lots of stuff happened."
"I understand," Doc assured him. "Don't worry about it. Do you both want to change back into your own clothes, or just wear those home and return them to me later?"
Marty looked at Jennifer. She shrugged. "I guess we might as well change at home, since these things feel like they've been glued onto us right now. Is that okay?"
"Sure." Doc paused, looking at them a little oddly. "Did you both enjoy yourselves back there?"
"Why are you asking?" Marty wanted to know, a little paranoid.
"You both seem a little... jumpy, I suppose."
"We're tired," Jennifer said, yawning for the effect. "Super tired."
Doc still looked skeptical. Marty decided it was time for him to do some fast talking. "We had a great time back there, Doc," he said, not lying. Woodstock had been fun. "It was a blast, and I'll never forget this gift. It meant a lot to me."
Doc smiled, looking a little less suspicious now. "Well, good, I'm glad," he said.
Jennifer looked at one of the clocks in the lab and let out a slight gasp. "Oh, is it almost ten-thirty already?" she asked, sounding appropriately distressed. "I told my parents I'd be back by then...."
At Doc's understanding nod, the couple headed for the door. "Have a good night," he called to them. "And if you have any questions or concerns about your trip -- especially you, Jennifer -- don't hesitate to ask me. All right?"
"Sure, Doc, will do," Marty said, giving him a brief wave as they stepped out into the night. Neither of them spoke until they were in Marty's truck, and safe from sharp ears.
"So what was that about?" she wanted to know. "Why didn't you want to tell him?"
Marty sighed as he removed the temporary device from the makeshift hiding place, wincing a little at the pokes and scratches his skin had taken for the cause. "Doc tends to overreact with this kind of stuff," he said as he tossed the device in the backseat of his car, then started it up. "I knew that if we told him about the mistake we made back there, and the effects it had, he'd probably get more paranoid about time traveling."
"But Marty, don't you think he has a right to know?"
"Jennifer, everything turned out fine. Why give him something to worry about?"
"If something like this does happen again -- God forbid -- then he'll know what he can do. I think that might be important... don't you?"
Marty half shrugged. "I'll think about it," he said. "But don't say anything 'kay? It'd be better coming from me, anyway."
Jennifer pursed her lips together then nodded once, grudgingly. They didn't say much else on the drive to her house. It was just after eleven thirty when Marty pulled into her driveway. Lights were still burning in the living room, and they both knew her parents were waiting up for her. "What should I tell them we did?" she asked, nodding to the house.
Marty grinned mischievously. "You could always tell them we went to a tractor pull. That'd explain the mud."
"So would mud wrestling, but I don't think that would be the best excuse."
"Don't your parents have a sense of humor?" Marty asked.
Jennifer shook her head. "Not when it comes to guys. Sure, we've been dating a while, but they're still a little... you know."
"Yeah," Marty said, nodding. "I know. Parents."
Jennifer reached for the door handle, pausing with her hand on it to regard Marty with a rather crooked smile. "This has to be the most interesting date we've ever been on," she said.
"It was a once in a lifetime experience," Marty agreed.
Jennifer poked him in the side jokingly. "Not if you have a time machine!"
Marty laughed, then leaned forward and kissed her gently on the mouth. She slipped her arms around him, pulling him close for a moment, then reluctantly pulled away. "I gotta go," she said, almost apologetically. "If we're out here much longer in your car, my parents are going to get nervous."
"I understand." Marty watched her as she got out of the truck. "I'll call you tomorrow," he said.
"Definitely," she said, then shut the door. He backed out of her driveway. Jennifer waved, blew him a kiss, then turned to head for her door. Marty smiled at her back, happy to have her in his life, happy to be home, then pointed his truck in the direction of his house and headed for a hot shower, clean clothes, and a warm bed.