The Long Wait
Chapter 7-It Ain't Over Till it's Over...
A/N: This is it...the end of the long wait...both for Doc Brown, and for all you readers who's generous reviews I've much appreciated! This is one of the few multi-part fics I've actually ever finished, and that's due in part to the encouragement I got from those reviews...
Saturday, October 26th, 1985
The sound of the gunshots reverberated in Emmett Brown's ears as much as the shock-waves from the bullet's impact reverberated all across his body...bullet-proof vest or not, in that one instant, he truly felt he was dead...
He dreamed for an eternity. Or was it just a dream? Wasn't it the afterlife?
A torrent of memories flooded him...memories of the past? Of the future? He didn't really know anymore...after all, hadn't he just proven they could be one and the same?
In his dream, he was standing on his toilet seat hanging a clock...then there was a momentary blackness from which he perceived, for the tiniest flicker of a nano-second, a vision of a...device. Yes, that was it, a device...an invention of some sort! And there was a voice calling him from the void...a child's voice...
"I'm from the future...I came here in a time machine that you invented..."
The voice...he remembered the voice! But where was it coming from?
He saw a photograph...a giant-sized photograph larger than life...but he couldn't recognise anyone in the picture because they were all fading away...the picture was fading away!
The photograph faded away and almost as swiftly came the vision of a Clock Tower...and a flyer...and a bolt of lightining striking a car in a brilliant flash of light and fire...
Then the car vanished and in its place was a man...a man dressed like he was in a western...Clint Eastwood! No, how could it be...he hadn't heard of Clint Eastwood yet...Marty had told him so...
Marty...
The bearded man levelled a gun at him... "I damn you...I damn you...to HELL!"the man shouted. But how could this be happening? He didn't remember any of this...was this the past? Or was it the future? Or again, were they still one and the same?
The sound of the gunshot somehow morphed into a tombstone of white marble...how could sound morph into substance? Then again, how could effect precede cause? If one was possible, so was the other evidently...
He could just about make out the inscription...
Shot in the back...by Bufford Tannen...over a matter of eighty dollars...
But how could this have happened? It never did happen, did it? Clint Eastwood had saved him...that's why they named the ravine after him, didn't they...
A swirl of images engulfed him...somehow he had a perception...of time...advancing swiftly...
He dreamt of a book...a large ominous book that told of the future...he dreamt of it in the hands of a shadowy figure who looked vaguely like Biff Tannen...he dreamt of a fantastic world of flying cars and fingerprint scanners...he dreamt of a woman and her smile...and of something falling into a ravine...he dreamt of a mysterious man in a black trench-coat who handed him a spanner...
Past or future...there was no difference now...
The voices engulfed him as powerfully as the images...if not more...
"I didn't invent any time machine"
"...serious repercussions on future events..."
"On the night I go BACK...you get-"
"...I'm back from the future..."
"...I never knew I could write anything so touching..."
"What kind of a future do you call THAT?"
"You were the one who reminded me Marty...it wasn't a good idea to know too much about my future..."
"Remember where you're going there ARE no roads!"
"...Martin Seamus McFly...we decided to name him in poor Marty's memory..."
"...Must have been some experiment..."
"You built a TIME MACHINE? Out of a Delorean?"
"My God...they found me...I don't know how, but they found me..."
Past and future...one and the same...
But then, what was the present?
The present was now...
And since he hadn't time travelled yet...he was still there...
Slowly, Doc began to feel the world around him. He felt it had changed somehow...changed around him...that was nonsense of course...only time traveller's could feel the world change around them...and he wasn't a time traveller yet...
His chest was still aching from where the bullets hit him, but it wasn't as bad as he had thought initially...the vest had absorbed most of the impact thankfully...his body ached mostly from the impact of his sudden fall to the ground, but the pain would likely subside in a few more minutes...
Yes, he was fine.
All thanks to one taped-up letter...
Suddenly, he perceived someone near him...someone sobbing...
He slowly opened his eyes...and rejoined the world of the living...quiet literally, in a way...
He saw Marty...
He sat up and looked at the teenager, still dazed. Marty looked back at him...shock and bewilderment in his eyes...
"Your alive!"
Doc still couldn't find his voice...his chest still felt heavy...God he needed to get the coat off!
He took off the coat, revealing the bulletproof vest, by way of explanation to Marty...
"Bulletproof vest", Marty marvelled. "But how could you know? I mean...I didn't have the chance to tell you..."
At this point, it suddenly hit Doc...this was his Marty...the Marty whom he sent back to the future...well, this was the future now...or rather, the present...once you had a time machine, it didn't really matter...
He took out the letter...the thirty year old letter which Marty had written mere hours ago from his point of view...
"What about all that talk? About screwing up future events...the space-time continuum..."
Doc realised this was the moment that Marty (yet 'another' Marty, he thought wryly) had told him about. And he spoke the very words Marty had told him to use...
"Well I figured", he said in a calm matter-of-fact tone, "What the hell!"
Yeah, it sounded perfectly natural. Especially knowing there was another reality where these words had flowed from his lips naturally.
Doc groaned and tried to stand up. Marty helped him up.
"Boy, come to think of it, you really don't look that much older than the you from 1955", Marty commented.
"Well...I still have my hair", he laughed, thinking back to when he'd seen himself on the recording of the first temporal experiment in 1955...a recording that was made just a few minutes ago...
In the distance, they could vaguely hear the sound of sirens...
"Come on, let's get out of here", Doc said, hurrying Marty into his truck which was nearby. Marty retrieved his skateboard from the ground and got into the cab."Where's the Delorean?" Doc asked Marty as he started the truck.
"At the town's square...it kinda stalled there...something wrong with the starter..."
"Well, I'm sure I can fix that for now", Doc said, as they drove away from Lone Pine Mall. "And I can get a more permanent fix in the future".
"The future?" Marty echoed. "So you're heading there now".
"Yeah", Doc replied.
He knew he was destined to travel to the future after Marty's return, though Marty hadn't said anything about when he'd departed. Still, Doc somehow felt that tonight was the right time...the night of the first temporal experiment, the night the first human time traveller travelled to the past and returned to the present, would be the night he, Emmett Brown, would finally make the 'historic journey' he'd dreamt about for three decades...
They arrived at the Town's Square, and Doc laid his eyes on the Delorean. Though he had seen it mere minutes ago, he realised that this was the first he'd seen of this Delorean in thirty years! He remembered vividly the night of November 12th 1955...the car being struck by lightining and disappearing into the future...had it really been that long?
"Doc, anything wrong?" Marty asked him anxiously.
"Oh no Marty...I was just thinking...about how long it's been..." Doc replied. "It's been a second to you Marty but for me it's been a really long wait. You have no idea how it's been...day to day...month to month...year to year...unable to tell you, or anyone, about what had happened in 1955..."
"Yeah I can guess, Doc" Marty said. "It's kinda weird I guess...you knowing me before I was even born!"
"Yeah", Doc said, thinking back to the day he'd met the newborn Marty.
"And it's kinda difficult to get around the idea that you knew what would happen all along while tonight", added Marty. "The Libyans...my going back in time...getting shot...everything!"
"Oh no Marty...the 'me' you remember seeing, a week ago from your perspective, was another 'me', who didn't know anything about what would happen...and who got shot...", Doc's voice trailed off...having just escaped the very death he was alluding to, he didn't really want to talk about it.
Marty shivered, "Boy, this is heavy..."
"Well, at least I now know it has nothing to do with the Earth's gravitational pull", Doc joked.
They arrived back in the lab. Doc noticed it was in a mess...more than usual that was. He sighed. "Let me guess...you did hook up to the amplifier", he said.
Marty looked confused for a while but then realised, "Oh...yeah...I kinda did before your call...boy that was just last morning, but it's been like a week to me".
"It was", Doc said. "You could have warned me about this mess you know?" Doc added, in a tone of mock exasperation.
Marty chuckled, "Hey Doc, you're the one who said you didn't want to know too much about your future".
His future. Doc smiled to himself. He knew, in fact, more about his future than Marty, 'this' Marty at least, could even guess. But he couldn't...there were still things he couldn't talk to Marty about...and he wasn't sure when those things would happen...quiet literally!
Doc set about the task of quickly patching up the starter, while Marty fed Einstein a late night snack. He then slipped the radiation suit helmet back on and inserted a fresh pellet of plutonium, before placing the case safely in the trunk.
"Better you than me", Marty commented, observing Doc's preparations to travel through time. "As fun as it was at times, I really don't think I want to time travel again anytime soon...I'm sure glad it's all over!"
Oh but it isn't over Marty...not yet, Doc thought to himself. And then, against his better judgement, he said out loud, "Oh I wouldn't really say that if I were you Marty...you know that old saying...it ain't over till it's over..."
"Yeah, I guess", Marty replied, uncertainly. Doc was relieved to know he didn't seem to be unduly pondering that line.
Doc then turned his attention to the time circuits. They, like everything else about the car, looked exactly as they did that night. Doc glanced at the 'Last Time Departed' read-out
November 12th 1955 10:04 PM
Doc smiled as he thought back to that moment. And the shocking reappearance of another Marty who had come 'back from the future' immediately after. He then decided to enter his Destination Time right away.
His original plan had been to go twenty five years into the future...but now, seeing the year 1955 just below the Present Time (October 26th 1985 1:53 AM)...thinking about the thirty year long wait...he couldn't but help think...thirty years...he had waited for thirty years...yes, he wouldmake up for that time by 'skipping' the next thirty years!
So he inputted the Destination Time- October 26th 2015 12:00 AM
Now it was time to drop Marty home and get on with the journey of a lifetime.
Doc drove Marty home to Lyon Estates in the Delorean. He had decided that the road there was sufficient enough to be able to get the car upto 88 miles per hour for temporal displacement.
"So how far ahead are you going?" Marty asked, as he got out of the car.
"About thirty years", he replied. "It's a nice round number".
"Look me up when you get there alright", Marty said as he shook Doc's hand. "Guess I'll be around 47".
"I will", Doc assured him. He remembered Marty saying something about his own future. Perhaps this would be how he was meant to find out...
"Take care", Marty added.
"You too", Doc replied sincerely.
"Bye Einie", Marty said to the dog. "Oh and watch that re-entry", he told Doc again, "It's kinda bumpy".
"You bet", Doc said, smiling as he thought about how Marty had mentioned this to him as well on his second trip to '55. Something else he would probably fix while upgrading the car in the future. He already knew he had to get that hover conversion done...
Marty closed the car door. Doc backed out of the drive-way, activating the time circuits as he did so. He drove down the street, then turned the car around. He could barely contain his excitement...finally, he was going to time travel! There was a world of difference between knowing you were going to do it and actually experiencing it for the first time...
He drove the car straight down the street watching the speedometer rise steadily...40, 50, 60...
He stole one last glance at the time circuits, and the Destination Time in particular.
October 26th 2015 12: 00 AM
"Here we go, Einie", he muttered to himself, and to the dog seated besides him as he glanced at the speedometer once more.
70, 80, 85...88...
There was a sudden brilliant flash of light all around the car and...
Monday, October 26th, 2015
...he was there!
Doc slowly de-accelerated the car. He then looked around him, outside the windows.
At first, the street looked exactly as he had left it...but then, he began to notice the subtle differences...the more futuristic looking cars, the much cleaner street, the houses...
He glanced at the time circuits.
DESTINATION TIME
October 26th 2015 12: 00 AM
CURRENT TIME
October 26th 2015 12: 01 AM
LAST TIME DEPARTED
October 26th 1985 2: 11 AM
He had done it! He was in the future! Not the future he had dreamed about for thirty years...no, that future was now in the past...he was in a time beyond all that now...he had fulfilled his lifelong ambition!
Suddenly, a shadow seemed to descend upon him and the Delorean. Startled, Doc got out of the car and glanced at the night sky and saw...
A flying car!
Yes, there was no doubt about it...he was in the future.
Of course, he knew that he wouldn't be in the future for very long. Of course, he knew that he would eventually end up in the past, far back in the Old West...but that didn't matter...not at the moment...at the moment, he literally had all the time in the world! And he was going to enjoy it to its fullest.
Yes, it had been a long wait. But it was now over. But the adventure wasn't yet over...in fact, it was only beginning...