Chapter Text
George was smart. Why had it taken him so long to notice?
On October 27th, 1985, George had come home from tennis with Lorraine. Marty, Dave, and Linda were eating breakfast when Marty stopped in his tracks to stare at them. “Mom you're so-so- skinny!” He’d said before falling on the floor. George was obviously worried about the kid. He’d said the car was wrecked, when his truck was just fine, and then acted all confused that Biff was an auto dealing guy, as if he hadn’t been for years.
Marty hadn't been himself since then, and he rarely left his room anymore. At family dinners, he was quiet, and he flinched at any loud sounds. He could hardly watch westerns when it was family movie night, and often looked confused when family jokes were brought up.
George decided to make the executive decision to send him to therapy. They had the money, and he felt like Marty needed it.
In May 1986, he went for his first appointment. George took Marty in his car, and waited outside the office. It was a nice small office, with a big plant and a receptionist. Pretty generic, but it was good enough.
When the session was over, the therapist pulled him inside. The room was not so welcoming. It felt cold, and sterile. George sat on the couch opposite the therapist. It was like a piece of concrete and super dirty. George tried to sit as far on the edge as possible.
“Hello. You must be Mr. McFly,” she said in a tone that felt scripted and fake. She smiled fakely as well.
“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Walters,” George smiled. He didn’t think it was normal to be called in, so he was a little nervous. George had sent Marty here because he thought Marty might have had some trauma, with how he reacted to loud noises.
Dr Walters ignored him. “I think your son is having delusions, Mr. Mcfly.” She said coldly.
“Delousions? What kind of delousions?” He slowly breathed in, and out, trying to stop himself from hyperventilating. How had he not noticed this before? Was he that bad of a father?
“He thinks he’s a time traveller, who went to 1955 for a week. Says he met you, messed up the timeline, and now he’s in an alternate 1985, or something. I’d recommend this new pill,”
Whatever the doctor was saying, George didn’t hear. 1955. The only person who he’d met in 1955 for a week, would have been Calvin Marty Klein. Who looked almost exactly like Marty. Who wore the same outfit as Marty. Who called George “dad” multiple times. Who claimed to be related to Doctor Brown, Marty’s best friend who was also a scientist.
“Well, thank you for this! Goodbye.” George said abruptly, standing up to shake the therapist's hand.
He ignored the therapist's open mouth, she was clearly shocked he had just left, as he opened the door. Marty was sitting outside trying not to cry. He’d seen that face too many times. “Let’s go, Marty,” George said calmly.
He and Marty walked out to the car park, and got into George’s car.
“They think I’m insane,” Marty said, through a sob. “They’re going to give me a medication, and-”
“Marty, it’s okay.” George said, placing his hand on Marty’s, which was in his lap. “You’re not crazy. You were telling the truth, weren't you?”
“What?” Marty said, clearly panicking.
“You told the truth?”
“No?” Marty said quickly, and then followed it with a slowly drawn out “Yes.”
“You’re the world's first time traveller and you didn’t tell me?” George joked, which he immediately regretted when Marty looked more nervous. “Sorry. We can talk about it at home?” He asked.
Marty nodded, and wiped the tears with his sleeve.
———————
“Can I come in?” George asked. About thirty minutes had passed. Thirty minutes of impatient waiting for George, and thirty minutes of Marty trying to get a grip on his feelings.
The room felt stale, like it wasn’t his, somehow. Clothes were thrown on the floor, and there was an attempt to make the bed. He had at least 4 cans of Pepsi on his bedside table. Most of them were probably empty.
“Sure,” Marty answered, fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt.
“Will you tell me now?” George asked, sitting down on the bed.
Marty nodded.
“So, it all started on October 26th. Doc had told me to meet him at the twin pines mall- Yes, not lone pines, I’ll explain later -for an experiment at 1:15 am. When I arrived, there was a Delorean.” He took his father through the basic idea of time-travel, and how Einstein got sent into the future by one minute.
“Then, things got really bad. Doc had made a deal with some, uhm,” Marty muttered something.
“What?” George asked slowly.
“Lybian nationalists.” Marty repeated. George tried not to cringe. What kind of danger was Doctor Brown putting Marty in?
“They gave him plutonium in exchange for a bomb. Except he kind of just filled it with pinball machine parts. Obviously, they didn't like this. So they showed up, and uhm,” Marty’s lip quivered. “They shot Doc down. Dead. So I drove away, and it got up to 88, and that's how I time travelled. I messed up how you guys first met, in my timeline. You were meant to get hit with that car, but I did. And then mom.. mom got really weird with me. It was so gross.” Marty’s lip shook as he spoke.
George nodded, putting a hand on Marty’s shoulder. This was obviously hard for Marty to talk about. “You mentioned that this was another timeline?” George asked slowly, trying not to pry too quickly.
“Right, right. So, before you punched Biff, which never happened in the original timeline- twin pines, we’ll call it-” George nodded. “You… and our whole family were sort of… dysfunctional. You were working all the time, and you were like a walking door mat. Biff was your boss, and he would just push you around all the time. He would just hit on mom, and you never did anything about it. Biff took our car the night before I went to 1955, wrecked it, and refused to pay for the damages.”
“Mom was an alcoholic. She didn’t want to be married to you anymore, and you both kind of neglected all of us. Especially me because you were all just done parenting around the time I was past 14.”
“Linda wanted a date so bad, but mom was sort of disproving of anyone dating anyone, probably because she didn’t want us to end up like her. She hated Jennifer so much.”
“Dave worked at Burger King and dropped out of college. I just felt neglected, like, all the time.” Marty’s lip was quivering again. George patted marty on the shoulder.
“It’s like... The only person that cared about me was Doc, and I watched him die,” Marty whispered. George pulled him in for a hug, letting Marty catch his breath for a minute.
“Yeah, so all that stuff happened, and then there were like, 3 other time travel adventures.” Marty grumbled.
“Oh my god Marty, I’m so sorry. You should have told me sooner, you know I love you!”
“I don’t.”
“What?”
“I don’t have any of my memories from this timeline.” Marty said sadly.
“Oh my god- so you don’t remember Disneyland?”
“We went to Disney?” Marty asked. His voice was so sad, George just wanted to fix everything wrong in his life.
“Wait- how is doc still alive? If he was shot?” George asked, remembering what Marty had told him.
“I gave him a letter the night I went back. I guess I never explained how I got back. I had a flyer for the ‘save the clock tower’ thing, and we used that time to figure out when lightning was to strike to generate 1.21 gigawatts.” Marty smiled awkwardly.
“Thats pretty cool.” George smiled.
“Then there was the time with 2015, 1885, and 1931,” Marty mumbled.
“You did what now?!” George asked.
“So after I got back to the new timeline, Doc took me to 2015 to stop my kids from getting arrested. I don’t know why. Anyway, I bought this almanac that has the outcome of every sporting event from 1950 to 2000. Doc gave me a lecture, and old man Biff overheard it. He took the Time Machine and gave the almanac to himself in 1955.”
“Then when we went back, uhm... He owned the whole hill valley, and… How do I say this?” Marty winced. “He was married to mom, and you were… Uhm... Dead.” George gulped. “But, uhm, then when I got there he shot at me like, at least 7 times and made me jump off a roof onto the delorean, which flies now, by the way.” No wonder the kid flinches at loud noise, who knows how many times he’s been shot at, George thought with a pang of sadness.
“So then we went back and got the almanac from Biff, which almost killed me, like, twice.”
“Then when we were burning it, Doc and the delorean got struck by lightning, and he was sent to 1885. He had buried the delorean, and his 1955 counterpart and I fixed it, and I went back because we found his grave.” Marty was shaking. “Sorry.” He mumbled.
“It’s okay, take your time.” George said. This boy had obviously gone through a lot.
“Thanks.” Marty sighed. “Okay, so I went to 1885, almost got run over, hanged, and then I told Doc not to get shot, then he fell in love and basically ignored me.” Marty groaned. “Then there was this festival, where I ended up challenging Buford Tannen to a duel, who is Biff's great grandpa, by the way. Then doc tells her, the lady he’s in love with, that we need to go back to the future. Then right after my duel with Buford Tannen, in which he almost shoots me, she and doc decide to stay, and the delorean gets smashed to bits by a train.”
“Woah. Marty, apologies for the language, but how the hell are you alive?!”
“I ask myself the same thing,” Marty grumbled. “Wait, I didn’t even tell you about 1931,” Marty groaned.
“You can tell me tomorrow.” George smiled. “It’s dinner time.” Marty nodded, but as George was leaving the room, he stopped him.
“Wait! Now that someone knows, uhm, could I show you my hover board?” Marty grinned, scratching the back of his neck.
George chuckled. Of course he had a hoverboard. “Sure,” George shuffled back to where Marty was.
From under his bed he pulled out a pink skateboard without wheels, that floated.
“That’s amazing, Marty.” George said, staring at it. “Can we… Take it to dinner? We could tell everyone else, and show them the proof.” George suggested slowly.
Marty hesitated. “I don’t know, Dad... Mom did some weird stuff to me, I don’t know how’d she feel knowing that was her son,” He said.
“You can’t hide it forever, Marty,” George pointed out.
“I know that Dad, but I’ve been pretty damn good at hiding it until today!” Marty snapped. George backed up, taken by surprise. “Sorry.” Marty said quietly.
“It’s okay.” He has a point. I must be a terrible father for not noticing how strange he’s been acting. He winced at the thought.
“I’ll tell them, but you have to back me up when they call me crazy, okay?”
George nodded.
———————
“So, yeah. I’m a time traveller.” Marty chuckled awkwardly after he told his family the story.
“Oh..” Lorraine bit her lip. “Oh my god, Marty. I’m so sorry for… What I did.”
Marty shook his head. “You didn’t know.” He said quietly, staring at his meatloaf.
“I can’t believe that Marty, of all people, is the first time traveller!” Linda chuckled. Marty himself still couldn’t believe it.
Dave nodded in agreement, and the table was quiet for a while. “Marty,” George asked slowly. Marty nodded. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
“I- I thought you would realize I wasn’t really your son, or something. Because I don’t have the memories and all.” He said, playing with the food on his plate.
“Marty. You will always be our son.” Lorraine said sharply. Marty just smiled.
“Well, I’m going to go over to Doc’s. I think my family is owed a time travel trip, but I have to ask him first.” Marty said.
George nodded, but the others looked hesitant. “I think I’m good, Marty.” Dave said. Lorraine and Linda nodded.
“Oh, okay.” Marty said, feeling a twang of disappointment. He pushed his chair in, and stood up.
“I’ll spend the night, I’ll call later and tell dad when he can come over!” Marty called from the porch, as he closed the door.