Remember, Remember, the Twelfth of November...

A/N: Since it was November 12th recently...I came up with the idea of a fic in which the characters themselves would ponder the significance of that day, on the day itself, in the four different time periods explored in the series!

So each chapter will be set on November 12th, and around 10:04 PM, in front of the Clock Tower, in whichever time period. The first chapter is set in 1885 and features Doc and Clara...

Thursday, November 12th, 1885

10:04 PM

Doctor Emmett Brown, and his fiancée, Clara Clayton, stood before Hill Valley's latest pride and attraction-the new Clock Tower.

The clock, which had been inaugurated at the Town Festival two months earlier, had finally been installed atop the Courthouse a little less than a fortnight ago. Doc had walked by it several times since then, and on this particular night, he insisted that he and his future wife visit the Clock Tower, at this particular time...

Clara hadn't understood Emmett's insistence, until he explained to her, the significance of that date and time; whereupon, she was gripped by a sense of curiosity and eagerly agreed to accompany him. In the last two months, Clara had exhibited considerable eagerness to hear all about his adventures in time...almost, Emmett wondered, as though she were trying to make up for her initial refusal to believe the truth about him. He had told her before, more than once, about the convoluted sequence of events that occurred on November 12th 1955, a momentous day he had experienced twice! Though, he supposed he could hardly fault her for not remembering the date...after all, one had to live through such events in order to truly appreciate their uniqueness and inherent cosmic significance...

And now as they stood side by side, in silence, by the Clock Tower, Emmett could not but help think of Marty. He thought of Marty often, but standing here, before the Clock Tower, literally flooded his mind with memories of the teenager. He sincerely wished the boy had made it back to 1985 safely. The fact that Marty hadn't returned to pick him had worried him for weeks...he feared that something had happened to Marty, which made him incapable of returning to 1885. However, as time passed by, cold logic gradually replaced his initial fear...after all; it was entirely possible that the problem wasn't so much to do with Marty as it was to do with the Delorean itself. As he recalled, on every previous occasion, Marty had needed his help before making a time jump. He had prepared the Delorean and co-ordinated Marty's return to 1985. He had orchestrated events in Lone Pine Mall such that Marty was able to go back to 1955 in the first place. He knew that it was only with the help of his 1955 counterpart that Marty had been able to travel back to 1885. Without his help, it was entirely possible, probable even, that Marty would not have been able to travel back to retrieve him. Besides, the Delorean itself had been, frankly, on its last legs. As if the malfunctioning time circuits weren't bad enough, it had also been struck by lightning and forcibly pulled back through time, spent seventy years in storage, been retro-fitted with obviously inferior 1950's components, had its fuel tank and fuel injection manifold damaged, and most recently, been pushed by a locomotive, somewhat crudely, along a railway track...what were the odds that it was even in working condition after its return to 1985?

No, Emmett assured himself that Marty was alive and well. Or at any rate, would be alive and well, a hundred years from now.

"It's almost time now", he muttered, staring at his pocket watch and then looking back at the Clock Tower. He vaguely recalled taking a picture before the Clock Tower, with Marty, two months ago...just before Bufford Tannen's unsuccessful attempt on his life.

Then the minute hand moved and the time was 10:04 PM...

"This is when it happened", he said to Clara in an almost mystified tone. "This is where it will happen", he corrected himself, "exactly seventy years from this very moment".

Clara seemed to have been awed by his tone, for she stared mystified at the Clock Tower herself.

"Marty had been driving the Delorean down that road", Emmett said, indicating the dirt track running past the Clock Tower. In 1885, it was a dirt track, but in Emmett's minds' eye, he saw a tarred road, lined with shops on either side, with a theatre at the end of it. In his minds' eye, he saw a violent thunderstorm, of the kind Hill Valley had never seen before. And he saw the Delorean, little more than a silvery blur with headlights, racing towards the cables...

"I had been on the Clock Tower, fixing the cables", Emmett said, continuing his reminiscence of what was, to him at least, the past. "But I pulled too hard and the cables below had gotten detached. And it was almost time. So I slid down the cable, got down to the street, and connected the cable with the street-level terminal with barely a second to spare".

"Lightining struck the Clock Tower at precisely 10:04 PM", he said. "Just like the flyer from 1985 said it would have. I almost couldn't believe it!" He laughed at the memory, "That was the most accurate weather forecast I'd ever seen!"

"What happened then?" Clara asked. "What did you see when the lightining struck?"

"I saw the electricity literally coursing through the cables. I got a bit of a shock myself", he added sheepishly. "And I the instant the hook attached to the Delorean connected to the cables...not even a split-second later, the Delorean vanished into thin air in a flash of light...and a pair of flare trails leading up to the theatre almost magically appeared on the street!"

And he remembered how he could hardly contain his excitement at seeing his invention, his future invention, actually work!

"I'm afraid I began dancing wildly in the streets", he confessed in an embarrassed tone.

"Emmett!" Clara exclaimed. "You dancing wildly in the streets! I can hardly believe that!"

"More than one unbelievable thing had happened that night, already", Emmett said. "And when I saw that car from the future disappear, all I could think was that whatever happened to me after this, whatever difficulties and disappointments I'd have to face over the next thirty years, it would all be worth inventing that marvellous machine!"

"It must have been difficult...waiting thirty years", Clara said.

"Yes it was. Though it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. There was always work to do...to keep me busy and keep my mind of things. In the 60's I took up a job at the local university...I met some brilliant young minds, even though a few of them thought I was a bit...crazy", he shrugged as though being called 'crazy' was something he was used to and took in his stride. "I was on pretty friendly terms with Marty's family in the meantime...I'd even attended his parent's wedding. And in 1982, Marty started working for me as a sort of lab assistant and we gradually grew close. He was a little...different from the way I remembered him. Not just younger, but somehow cockier, more confident than the Marty I'd known in 1955. Growing up in a more successful family, and with a more assertive father, had certainly had its effect on the boy."

"That was a good thing, wasn't it?" Clara said, rather than asked.

"Yes, well...", Emmett hesitated, knowing only too well what Marty's brashness and overt cockiness would lead him to in at least one possible future. "Unfortunately it had the effect of making him a little...too confident. And careless. You saw the way he challenged Tannen to the duel at the Town Festival? That kind of behaviour could lead him to a lot of trouble in the future..." Mentally, he crossed his fingers and hoped that Marty's experiences with Mad Dog Tannen had taught him a lesson. After all, as he himself had said, the future isn't written...maybe there was still a chance that Marty had reshaped his destiny for the best!

"I'd certainly love to meet Marty again", Clara said. "He sounds like such a wonderful person...and a brave one too!"

"I wish I could meet him again too", Emmett said sombrely. "Unfortunately, it seems quiet impossible. If at all it was humanly possible for Marty to return to pick me up...pick us up...he would have arrived the very minute after he left".

"Well maybe...maybe you can build...another time machine", Clara suggested.

Emmett looked at her suddenly, reeling slightly from the impact of her statement. Another time machine? In 1885? Somehow, the idea seemed...absurd. Ridiculous even. After all, he had been unable to even repair the time circuits on the Delorean. To build another time machine from scratch in the 19th century seemed...nonsensical to even contemplate!

"I can't Clara...it's impossible!" he said.

"How do you know that? You haven't tried it yet have you?" Clara insisted, putting her hand on his shoulder. ""If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything"...your words, Emmett!"

Yes, now that he thought of it, her words...or rather, his words thrown back at him, did make perfect sense...after all, he hadn't really even thought about it; sub-consciously condemning the idea as being impossible. And yet, there had been a time when the mere idea of time travel itself had seemed impossible to him...but he had proved that assumption wrong. If it wasn't impossible in the 20th century...there was at least a one percent chance it wouldn't be impossible in the 19th century either...

"You're right, Clara", he said. And silently he made a decision. If at all it were humanly possible...he would return to 1985. He would meet Marty again.

And someday perhaps, in the future, they would stand side by side at this very spot, before this very Clock, again, and catch up on old times...