Categories > Movies > Back to the Future > Back to the Clue
Chapter Five: An Explanation (Finally!)
0 reviewsUpon returning to '55 Doc's mansion, James finally has to explain how he knew Doc and his plans for fixing things in 1954. Once they can rescue Doc, that is...
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"Truth is the only safe ground to stand on." - //Elizabeth/ Cady /Stanton
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"Is this it?" James asked as the car pulled into the driveway.
"Yeah, this is it."
"Nice mansion", he commented. "Very lovely."
"That's what I thought", Marty chuckled. "It was definitely a surprise."
"Well, it's been a couple years since I've visited. Fortunately nothing's changed - or at least nothing I can tell."
"Listen, let's get Doc inside, then we need to talk."
"Right. Talk." As Marty went around to the other side of the car he added a sarcastic "Joy". Explaining that he was a wanted felon and that he and Emmett were planning on going back in time to fix things wasn't all that appealing now that the latter was gone...
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"There", James sighed. Emmett was now lying on the couch, his coat, shoes and socks removed, and a housecoat draped over him as a blanket. The letter and the two other pieces of paper in the envelope were drying in front of a fire, along with Marty's socks.
He turned to Marty. "Now, I believe you wanted to talk?"
Marty nodded.
"Good. First, I think you'd better explain the reason why we saw another version of you earlier."
"I had a feeling you were gonna ask about that. You see, it all started in 1985. The 1985 Doc that you met had invited me down to the mall - that is, a bunch of small stores in a larger building - in order to help with an experiment."
"The time machine."
"Mm. Now, we did a test with his future dog, Einstein, and Doc was about to use the DeLorean to travel twenty-five years into the future, when we were attacked."
"Attacked?" James asked incredulously. "By whom?"
Marty quickly explained how Emmett had used plutonium to power the time circuits - plutonium that he'd ripped off from Libyan nationalists. He'd promised them a nuclear bomb, but ripped them off and gave them a casing full of pinball machine parts. When they discovered this, they'd tracked Marty and Doc down at the mall and-
"Killed-?"
The teenager nodded sadly. "Then they tried to kill me. I swear, if that one guy's gun hadn't jammed..." He shuddered. "Anyway, I managed to get into the DeLorean, and during the chase, I accidentally got the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour and went back in time to November fifth, 1955."
"The date Emmett first came up with time travel-"
"Yeah, he used the date when he was describing how to set the destination time. Unfortunately, that was when things got worse..."
Marty went on to explain Doc's plan to get him back home, how he'd accidentally interfered with his parents' first meeting and the subsequent plan to bring them back together, and finally how he'd managed to warn Doc about the Libyans.
When the teenager finished, James leaned back, frowning thoughtfully. "Sounds like a relatively stressful week overall..."
"It was. Now it's your turn. How do you know Doc? Why are you here in the first place?"
James paused before deciding which question to answer first.
"To answer your first question, I've known Emmett for a long time. As you can guess, I'm actually from this time period as opposed to you."
Marty frowned. "A long time? What do you mean by "A long time"?"
"Since we were children."
"Kids?" Marty asked incredulously. "What are you, old friends?"
"Sort of... Well, to make a long story short-"
"Too late."
"Very funny. As I was saying, to make a long story short... I'm his brother."
There were a few moments of silence as the teenager opened and closed his mouth several times, though no words came out. Finally - "Brother?!"
James nodded. "Younger brother, actually. Dr. James Everett Brown at your service."
"Doctor? Are you a scientist, too?"
"No, a medical doctor as opposed to a scientific doctor." He sighed. "Or, at least I /was/..."
"Was? What do you mean?"
"This leads to the answer for your second question. Approximately a year and a half ago, I was being blackmailed by a mystery party. In return for my payment, he would remain silent so certain higher-ups wouldn't discover the circumstances of... my license being lifted."
"Why?" Marty asked curiously. "What did you do?"
To his chagrin, James found himself at a loss for words. Given the circumstances of talking to someone from the future (and not knowing exactly how sexually aware people of Marty's time were), what he'd done quickly became nearly impossible to phrase. Finally, he hit on the way the real Mr. Boddy had phrased it.
"Well... you know what doctors aren't allowed to do with their female patients?"
"Yeah?" Marty replied. To the teenager's surprise, he cleared his throat, blushing slightly. "Oh. You mean-"
"/Please-/!" The polite request came out more like a barked order as he said it. Clearly this was a touchier subject for him than he'd thought. Seeing Marty's shock at the retort, he forced himself to calm down before speaking again.
"Please don't try to judge me too quickly, Marty", he continued, striding over to a window to briefly watch the storm. "It's bad enough that my blackmailer apparently considered me "un-American" (though I doubt that was the true reason). Bad enough that the patient I'd had the affair with was the one who told same blackmailer all the details, only to lose her life at his hands almost a year ago... I've dealt with the shame of what I've done while I was being blackmailed, doubly so while I was on the run, before I met you and Emmett-"
"On the run?!" Marty exclaimed before his mind could stop his mouth. "What-?" He managed to stop himself from speaking further, expecting another sharp reprimand as James turned to face him, but it didn't come. Instead, James crossed his arms over his chest, a strangely vulnerable gesture in comparison to his last reaction.
"I'm sorry" Marty muttered.
For a full minute, both were silent as the storm raged outside.
Finally, James continued. "Then, a year ago, I received a letter from my blackmailer, a Mr. Boddy, along with five other people. He'd invited us here to discuss our "financial situation" for one reason or another. He each handed us a weapon of some sort and said that if we wanted to remain out of the newspapers, one of us had to kill his butler, Wadsworth. In an attempt to silence him permanently, I intentionally misfired, forcing Mr. Boddy to play dead. Once I managed to get away from the other guests, I watched for when he would get up to check on the guests and..."
"Killed him."
James nodded, almost imperceptibly. "Of course, it turned out that Mr. Boddy had had the last laugh - he'd switched places with his butler, who ended up being murdered instead. Murdered by /me/..."
"There have been moments" he continued flatly, "where I've wondered if I was insane, as I'd claimed in an attempt to cover my own tracks. Now..."
He collapsed against the wall, officially drained. Now off the adrenaline high from the day's events, he was starting to feel tired and emotionally worn out. For a year he'd held that inside him without anyone to properly vent to, the feelings of regret, hatred, and self-loathing. Now that it was all out of him...
"So what does this have to do with me?" Marty asked calmly.
"Emmett... I talked to him and he promised he'd help fix things. Back in 1954." He watched Marty's face for the teenager's reaction to the suggestion. If the teenager was shocked by it, he certainly didn't show it.
Marty sat back, obviously going over the options in his mind. After a moment, he finally spoke. "So, what's the plan?"
"The plan?"
"The plan to fix things."
"After what I've told you, you still trust me?"
"I don't exactly trust you, but I don't think Doc would want me to leave any friends of his out to dry like that."
James nodded. "And neither would I, which is why we have to get him back. The only thing is-"
"What now?"
"Well, when I got my license revoked, it led to an argument between this Emmett and me over the circumstances. It won't lessen the stigma that I'm now a wanted felon."
"We'll think of a way to convince him otherwise."
"Hopefully", he added as he sat in the chair next to Marty's. "For now, I'm about ready to collapse."
"Same here", Marty concurred, grabbing the hoverboard from over by the couch and settling back in the chair. After a moment, James allowed sleep to overtake him.
Thank God... it's not over yet, brother.
To Be Continued...
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"Is this it?" James asked as the car pulled into the driveway.
"Yeah, this is it."
"Nice mansion", he commented. "Very lovely."
"That's what I thought", Marty chuckled. "It was definitely a surprise."
"Well, it's been a couple years since I've visited. Fortunately nothing's changed - or at least nothing I can tell."
"Listen, let's get Doc inside, then we need to talk."
"Right. Talk." As Marty went around to the other side of the car he added a sarcastic "Joy". Explaining that he was a wanted felon and that he and Emmett were planning on going back in time to fix things wasn't all that appealing now that the latter was gone...
-----------------
"There", James sighed. Emmett was now lying on the couch, his coat, shoes and socks removed, and a housecoat draped over him as a blanket. The letter and the two other pieces of paper in the envelope were drying in front of a fire, along with Marty's socks.
He turned to Marty. "Now, I believe you wanted to talk?"
Marty nodded.
"Good. First, I think you'd better explain the reason why we saw another version of you earlier."
"I had a feeling you were gonna ask about that. You see, it all started in 1985. The 1985 Doc that you met had invited me down to the mall - that is, a bunch of small stores in a larger building - in order to help with an experiment."
"The time machine."
"Mm. Now, we did a test with his future dog, Einstein, and Doc was about to use the DeLorean to travel twenty-five years into the future, when we were attacked."
"Attacked?" James asked incredulously. "By whom?"
Marty quickly explained how Emmett had used plutonium to power the time circuits - plutonium that he'd ripped off from Libyan nationalists. He'd promised them a nuclear bomb, but ripped them off and gave them a casing full of pinball machine parts. When they discovered this, they'd tracked Marty and Doc down at the mall and-
"Killed-?"
The teenager nodded sadly. "Then they tried to kill me. I swear, if that one guy's gun hadn't jammed..." He shuddered. "Anyway, I managed to get into the DeLorean, and during the chase, I accidentally got the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour and went back in time to November fifth, 1955."
"The date Emmett first came up with time travel-"
"Yeah, he used the date when he was describing how to set the destination time. Unfortunately, that was when things got worse..."
Marty went on to explain Doc's plan to get him back home, how he'd accidentally interfered with his parents' first meeting and the subsequent plan to bring them back together, and finally how he'd managed to warn Doc about the Libyans.
When the teenager finished, James leaned back, frowning thoughtfully. "Sounds like a relatively stressful week overall..."
"It was. Now it's your turn. How do you know Doc? Why are you here in the first place?"
James paused before deciding which question to answer first.
"To answer your first question, I've known Emmett for a long time. As you can guess, I'm actually from this time period as opposed to you."
Marty frowned. "A long time? What do you mean by "A long time"?"
"Since we were children."
"Kids?" Marty asked incredulously. "What are you, old friends?"
"Sort of... Well, to make a long story short-"
"Too late."
"Very funny. As I was saying, to make a long story short... I'm his brother."
There were a few moments of silence as the teenager opened and closed his mouth several times, though no words came out. Finally - "Brother?!"
James nodded. "Younger brother, actually. Dr. James Everett Brown at your service."
"Doctor? Are you a scientist, too?"
"No, a medical doctor as opposed to a scientific doctor." He sighed. "Or, at least I /was/..."
"Was? What do you mean?"
"This leads to the answer for your second question. Approximately a year and a half ago, I was being blackmailed by a mystery party. In return for my payment, he would remain silent so certain higher-ups wouldn't discover the circumstances of... my license being lifted."
"Why?" Marty asked curiously. "What did you do?"
To his chagrin, James found himself at a loss for words. Given the circumstances of talking to someone from the future (and not knowing exactly how sexually aware people of Marty's time were), what he'd done quickly became nearly impossible to phrase. Finally, he hit on the way the real Mr. Boddy had phrased it.
"Well... you know what doctors aren't allowed to do with their female patients?"
"Yeah?" Marty replied. To the teenager's surprise, he cleared his throat, blushing slightly. "Oh. You mean-"
"/Please-/!" The polite request came out more like a barked order as he said it. Clearly this was a touchier subject for him than he'd thought. Seeing Marty's shock at the retort, he forced himself to calm down before speaking again.
"Please don't try to judge me too quickly, Marty", he continued, striding over to a window to briefly watch the storm. "It's bad enough that my blackmailer apparently considered me "un-American" (though I doubt that was the true reason). Bad enough that the patient I'd had the affair with was the one who told same blackmailer all the details, only to lose her life at his hands almost a year ago... I've dealt with the shame of what I've done while I was being blackmailed, doubly so while I was on the run, before I met you and Emmett-"
"On the run?!" Marty exclaimed before his mind could stop his mouth. "What-?" He managed to stop himself from speaking further, expecting another sharp reprimand as James turned to face him, but it didn't come. Instead, James crossed his arms over his chest, a strangely vulnerable gesture in comparison to his last reaction.
"I'm sorry" Marty muttered.
For a full minute, both were silent as the storm raged outside.
Finally, James continued. "Then, a year ago, I received a letter from my blackmailer, a Mr. Boddy, along with five other people. He'd invited us here to discuss our "financial situation" for one reason or another. He each handed us a weapon of some sort and said that if we wanted to remain out of the newspapers, one of us had to kill his butler, Wadsworth. In an attempt to silence him permanently, I intentionally misfired, forcing Mr. Boddy to play dead. Once I managed to get away from the other guests, I watched for when he would get up to check on the guests and..."
"Killed him."
James nodded, almost imperceptibly. "Of course, it turned out that Mr. Boddy had had the last laugh - he'd switched places with his butler, who ended up being murdered instead. Murdered by /me/..."
"There have been moments" he continued flatly, "where I've wondered if I was insane, as I'd claimed in an attempt to cover my own tracks. Now..."
He collapsed against the wall, officially drained. Now off the adrenaline high from the day's events, he was starting to feel tired and emotionally worn out. For a year he'd held that inside him without anyone to properly vent to, the feelings of regret, hatred, and self-loathing. Now that it was all out of him...
"So what does this have to do with me?" Marty asked calmly.
"Emmett... I talked to him and he promised he'd help fix things. Back in 1954." He watched Marty's face for the teenager's reaction to the suggestion. If the teenager was shocked by it, he certainly didn't show it.
Marty sat back, obviously going over the options in his mind. After a moment, he finally spoke. "So, what's the plan?"
"The plan?"
"The plan to fix things."
"After what I've told you, you still trust me?"
"I don't exactly trust you, but I don't think Doc would want me to leave any friends of his out to dry like that."
James nodded. "And neither would I, which is why we have to get him back. The only thing is-"
"What now?"
"Well, when I got my license revoked, it led to an argument between this Emmett and me over the circumstances. It won't lessen the stigma that I'm now a wanted felon."
"We'll think of a way to convince him otherwise."
"Hopefully", he added as he sat in the chair next to Marty's. "For now, I'm about ready to collapse."
"Same here", Marty concurred, grabbing the hoverboard from over by the couch and settling back in the chair. After a moment, James allowed sleep to overtake him.
Thank God... it's not over yet, brother.
To Be Continued...
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