The Long Wait

Chapter 1-Loose Ends

A/N: This fic is basically going to be a series of short stories covering the thirty year gap, from Doc's POV, between Marty's departure to 1885 on November 16th 1955, till the fateful day of the first temporal experiment, October 26th 1985. The first chapter is basically my attempt (admittedly feeble) to resolve the so-called 'Tombstone paradox'. I admit it's pretty flimsy, and I myself often subscribe to another more complex explanation, but for the sake of literary license, I entreat everyone to accept it at least in the context of this fic.

Wednesday, November 16th, 1955

The reverberations of the three sonic booms rattled Doc Emmett Brown's ears long after the Delorean disappeared through time into the past. Doc looked across the expanse of the Drive-in theatre and saw, in the distance, a pair of flare trails leading up to the life-sized images of the Indians.

It worked! Marty had successfully been transported back to 1885.

Even after seventy years of disuse, the time vehicle had succeeded yet again in doing precisely what he, Doc Brown, had invented it to do. Or rather, would invent it to do.

And beholding the evidence of Marty's successful temporal displacement reminded Doc of the reason why this journey was made. Him. Or more precisely, his future self, trapped in the Old West, and destined to be shot dead unless Marty succeeded in saving him.

It suddenly occurred to Doc that since Marty was now seventy years in the past (if the word 'now' was even applicable in this case, then the results of any of his actions would already be very much in evidence...in other words, the very fact of Marty's existence in 1885 meant that history had been altered, and that he, Doc Brown, was living (and retroactively, had always been living) in a new timeline!

Which reminded him of the specific event Marty had gone back to change...the tombstone! Great Scott, the tombstone! Was it still there? At the back of his mind, Doc felt a little loss of hope...if Marty had saved him, logically, the tombstone wouldn't even exist and he wouldn't even remember it ever being there...indeed, wasn't the very fact that he remembered it indicative of the fact that the tombstone had existed, and still existed, and that he hadn't been saved?

He had to know. Doc knew that there was no way he could ever rest in peace (alive, that was!) as long as he didn't have some sort of an answer...it wasn't good to know too much about one's future, but in this case, Doc was willing to make a very vehement exception.

So he got back into his white Packard and drove out of the theatre. As he drove back into town, he passed Eastwood Ravine and the railway bridge that passed over it. Eastwood Ravine...something about the name suddenly bothered Doc. He didn't see why...after all, as far back as he could remember, the ravine had always been called that...but still...

Clint Eastwood never wore anything like this. Marty's words, spoken mere minutes before. From Marty's comments, Doc had gathered that this Clint Eastwood was a popular actor in the 1980's, and...Great Scott! Could it be...? The ravine certainly wasn't named after an actor who wasn't even alive in the 19th century, let alone well-known...and the only other person in that era likely to know the name was...

No! No point dwelling on that now, Doc snapped to himself. Whatever had happened after September 2nd 1885 was history, but to him it was the future...and therefore, it was best if he didn't think too much about it. Right now, there was only one thing he wanted to know about his future...

He arrived at Boot Hill Cemetery in record time, and nearly ran to the spot where the tombstone had lain, only to find...

It was gone!

The tombstone had vanished, disappeared into thin air, erased from existence...

"Great...Scott!", he whispered to himself as he beheld the empty spot in the ground.

It was gone...and that only meant one thing...

He was alive! Marty had saved him!

He was alive!

But one thing bothered him...why did he even remember the tombstone if it never existed in the first place? The timeline in which he'd been killed had been erased and replaced by the one he was in now...so why did he remember something he could only have seen in another timeline...

Unless...

Perhaps, the tombstone, at least from his point of view in this new timeline caused by Marty's trip back to 1885, was merely an 'echo' from an erased reality...it had existed temporarily, solely for the purpose of preventing a paradox...After all, as it just occurred to him, if the tombstone hadn't been there, Marty wouldn't have gone back to save him, in which case he would have been killed and the tombstone would be there...

No, perhaps, the tombstone being there had been the universe's way of preserving causality...it was the only explanation after all.

Well, Doc thought as he drove back home, it didn't matter...Marty was safe, his future was safe...and now...he had that future before him to live out...all thirty years of it...

Doc felt no little sorrow at the thought that he wouldn't be seeing Marty again for nearly thirty years, and even then, he would have to wait till October 26th 1985 before they could talk about everything that had happened in the past eleven days...

Had it really been only eleven days? Doc felt it had been another lifetime, when Marty first showed up on his doorstep, claiming to be his friend from the future. That night, Doc had discovered he had succeeded in the greatest scientific endeavour of all time...time travel! And despite the shocks and stresses of having to help Marty preserve his own existence, finding a way to send him back to the future, to say nothing of the shocking news he'd brought on his second trip to 1955 of his future self being trapped in the past, and the discovery of the tombstone...Doc wouldn't have traded away the last eleven monumental days in his life for all the world.

But he realised now, perhaps better than he had before, that the last eleven days had only been possible because of what he would accomplish thirty years from now.

Yes, it was going to be a long long wait...but at the end of it all, he was sure that it would be worth it...