Happy Birthday, Back To The Future!

[crossover_chick]

And Holly too! :)
-H: Yeah, Emily and I are still around. We're just quiet, like the Jennifers. You guys know how easily Emily freaks out.-
-E: I do not!-
-TD: *hugs* Happy birthday, Holly. I got you some new chemistry materials.-
-H: Oooo, gimme. *takes out bottles* *blinks* Wha -- "blue mushrooms?" "Vampire blood?" "Drink Me?"-
-TD: The others helped.-
-WRM: Yeah, a good number of those are from Wonderland.-
-H: *grin* Innnteresting. . . .-
-VD2: *rubbing his arm a little* And I'm sure you know where the vampire blood is from.-
-VD: I'm just glad we have a fast healing factor -- took some time to find a good vein in my arm.-
Poked ya full of holes? Poor VampDockie. *huggles*
-D: I assume the BTTF birthday will be honored appropriately?-
Yup -- soon as I'm done here, I'm popping in the DVD. I'm gonna try and match up the 10:04 sequence with the real-life 10:04. Probably won't get it exact, but that's what the pause button feature is for.
-VD2: Of course. Any fanfic?-
I'd hoped to have the 10th chapter of "Boy Genius" up today, but I'm not so sure about it anymore. I do have my other drabbles88, though.

10. Years
The kid was missing again. It was inevitable, he supposed. Leave Marty alone for five seconds, and he’d vanish from sight. Perhaps I should invest in a leash for him. “Marty!” he yelled, getting up from his desk. “Marty, where are you?”
“Over here, Daddy!”
Marty hadn’t wandered far this time, luckily. He was standing in the back doorframe, watching the sky. The kid pointed upward as his father approached. “That cloud looks like a ducky.”
“Daddy” looked up. The cloud did indeed resemble a duck. “Excellent observational skills, Marty, but you can’t just go wandering off like that,” he said, picking up the five-year-old. “Do I have to put you in the corner again?”
Marty wilted. “No, sir. I’m sorry.”
Dr. Emmett Brown smiled. “It’s all right. I just don’t want to lose you. Remember what happened in the mall just last week?”
Marty nodded. “I lost you for a LONG time!”
“I know! And I don’t want to repeat that experience ever again. So you stay close to me, all right?”
“All right,” Marty said. “Can I play with Archie now?”
Archimedes barked, looking eager for a romp. “I suppose – but only if you promise to stay in sight.”
“We promise,” Marty swore, putting a hand on his heart while Archimedes barked again.
Doc grinned. “Then have fun,” he said, putting Marty back down.
“We will! Come on, Archie!” He and Archimedes ran into the small backyard.
Doc watched them through the door. Marty really was a great kid, if a little too eager to wander off looking for adventure. I wonder how George and Lorraine handled him in the first timeline, before my time machine changed everything. He shook his head. When I heard Marty telling me about George standing up to Biff, I thought something might have changed in his future life. I would have never guessed it would be fulfilling my wish to make him Marty Brown! Funny how a change to a person’s confidence level could worsen their financial situation. Then again, grad school generally is very expensive. . . . I’m just glad I was considering adopting a child when I heard about the McFlys’ situation. Otherwise, Marty might have ended up in the hands of someone who wouldn’t know his important role in the space-time continuum.
Doc frowned at that. What was going to happen when he finished building his time machine? Would he have to give Marty some coaching as to what to say? If his 1955 self learned what had happened, it could cause a paradox. Not to mention the whole issue with the terrorists Marty had warned him about. Damn, why does time travel have to be so confusing. . . .
“Daddy! Come play!” Marty yelled at him, waving a hand.
Well, he had a good twelve years to figure things out. He wasn’t going to give himself a headache about it just yet. Doc grinned and headed out to indulge in a game of tag with his son.

-VM: . . . That's a new one.-
*laugh* Would you believe this actually evolved out of my BTTF/El Goonish Shive thoughts? I came up with a scenario that would create an alternate, younger Doc (Doc was attempting to duplicate his rejuv at home, and ended up doing it TOO well) and Twin Pines Marty. Since they'd need an alternate history to "age up" their souls, like Ellen in the actual comic, I came up with an alternate universe where Doc adopted Marty. This version is a time travel mess-up version -- Marty giving George more confidence resulted in George deciding to pursue his education further. Thus, when Lorraine was pregnant with Marty, they simply didn't have the financial resources to handle a third kid. Unwilling to abort him, they decided to give him up for adoption. While discussing it with the adoption agency, they found Doc there, considering adopting a child himself, and decided they wanted "Calvin Klein's uncle" to take care of their son.
-VM: *grin* Smart choice.-
-VD2: *blush*-
-DW: Does Marty know he's adopted?-
Yeah, though at the time of the drabble, he's still a little too young to understand the specifics. It's an open adoption, and he knows his birth parents as Auntie Lorraine and Uncle George. Doc would explain things more specficially when Marty got closer to 17 and the big experiment.
-RPD: Talk about giving memory replacement a big job to do.-
Tell me about it. And is it just me, or do a lot of my AU drabbles revolve around Marty doing something in 1955 to mess things up?
-M: Sure, pick on the newbie time traveler. . . .-

Okay, DVD time. I need a small buffer for when I get dessert.
-HD: *pours tea for everyone* This should prove to be interesting.-
-VD: Watching your own history on film always is.-

Comments

[gigs-83.livejournal.com]

D'aww how cute!

[docsgirl.livejournal.com]

I thought so. :)

Whoa, now that's interesting concept....

[bttf4444.livejournal.com]

I can imagine what would happen, as soon as Marty returns from 1955. He would, quite naturally, hurry over to the mall to warn Doc about the terrorists. He would then be so confused about why Doc wasn't bringing him to his old home on Lyons Estates. Once the ripple effect brings him is new memories, he would be so confused, According to his old set of memories, he would know Emmett as "Doc" - but, in the new set of memories, Emmett was "Dad". "Well, you're the doc, uh, Dad?" This sure has got me thinking a lot. Would he still take off for 2015, after taking Marty home?

Re: Whoa, now that's interesting concept....

[docsgirl.livejournal.com]

Confusion central, yeah.

I have him taking Marty along for the ride into 2015. Though I doubt they'd see anything like the future from Part II, family-wise. I get the feeling this Marty would end up being another Science!Marty, just through virtue of upbringing.

Research is your friend!

[geno0823.livejournal.com]

The drabble's cute, but can I offer some concrit? Adoption and grad school are two of many subjects that hit close to home for me, at the moment.

1) It is very unlikely that grad school, draining on the resources as it is, would seriously affect a couple's ability to care for even a third child. If George was out of grad school by the time, he'd probably be making enough money as a professor (even at a community college) to raise three kids, albeit somewhat frugally (medicine and shoes, yes; lots of toys, no). If he was a late starter and was in the middle of grad school, it's possible for him to get student loans, deferred tuition from the university with a TA job (grad school students with kids have always been given careful treatment), or a grad program that allows students to study part-time while holding down a job. There are plenty of ways that a determined couple paying grad tuition could raise three kids. Either George and Lorraine really don't know their options (unlikely), or they don't actually want a third child, but are unwilling to consider abortion or use contraception because of religious or moral ideals (more likely, especially if, as I've seen some people suggest, George was raised Catholic).

2) It is incredibly unlikely that Doc would have gotten Marty unless at least one person involved manipulated the system to an incredible degree. When considering adoptive parents, family and extended family is almost always considered first--Marty would have been more likely placed with Grandma or Grandpa. Even if neither Lorraine nor George had family who would have wanted to take Marty, married couples looking to adopt are given top priority. And in 1968-1969, it's unlikely that a reclusive single older gentleman like Doc would have been considered a good candidate to adopt a child at all, for a number of reasons. Doc would have had to change his life and lifestyle considerably to have a social worker give him a second glance. The only scenario I can reasonably see him taking in Marty by means that are anything near legal are if there was absolutely nobody willing to adopt within about a hundred-mile radius of the McFlys, or if they had become so close to Doc within the passing years that they could convince the social worker that he was a blood relation (and even then, they would probably have to forge some documents, or at least bribe a lot of people).

Re: Research is your friend!

[docsgirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info -- my problem is size restrictions (drabbles88 fics can be 500 words at max, following the rules of the drabbles100 community, and I'm only five words away from the limit here). If I ever decide to write a full-length version of said story, though, I'll keep all this in mind. (The adoption debacle would be interesting, dontcha think?)

[smudge-pot.livejournal.com]

Cute story! It'd be interesting to see how adopted 17-year-old Marty would get on with Doc - their relationship would probably be much the same as in the films, but maybe Marty would be a bit more snarky towards Doc or something.

[docsgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure myself. How much would that Marty be like the Marty we all know? I'm sure Doc would do things to make sure their personalities stayed similar, to keep the timeline on track as much as possible, but stuff will change. Maybe Marty will have more of a science bent, maybe he hangs out with George and Lorraine to get away from Doc, maybe he doesn't even date Jennifer (which would REALLY throw things out of whack!).

Christ, I opened up one hell of a can of worms here, didn't I? *resists temptation to stick this idea in the Overly Plotted Bunnies document*