This is the second "In The Beginning" story I have written, and it is now the "official" one of my BTTF universe. I had the old one, but then the idea of the meeting in different realities came to me, and what if Marty somehow prevented the important meeting? The old one is still available if you want to read that, but now, here is how Doc and Marty really met..... :-)

"Mom, when's dinner gonna be ready?" 14 year old Marty McFly asked his mom. Lorraine McFly sighed to herself. She was feeling too tired to cook.

"Dave," she called to her eldest son, who was just leaving for work, "take Marty with you and get him a meal. I'm too tired."

Dave McFly obliged. "Marty!" he called to his younger brother. "If you want dinner come with me!"

"I'm right here," Marty muttered, "you didn't need to shout." He picked up his guitar, which he had bought off a friend in school for $25, and followed his brother out to the car.

Dave drove to his place of work - the Burger King on John F Kennedy Drive. He had been working here for the past 2 months and would be able to get Marty a meal. Then, Marty could do whatever he wanted - wonder off, hang out with "the guys", whatever.

Marty ordered his dinner and sat down to eat. As he did so he thought about his family. Why was his mother too tired again? It's not as if she did much. She didn't have a job to go to or school to attend. She was alone most of the day - surely she could have slept then?

The rest of his family were not much better. Dad was a wimp. His co-worker Biff Tannen constantly bullied and belittled George McFly at any opportunity, and George lacked the confidence to stand up to Biff. George was currently typing up Biff's reports for him, as a "favour". Big brother Dave worked in a fast food restaurant. Sister Linda wore far too much make up. What a family. Each of them had no hopes or dreams.

Marty though did. He wanted to escape his boring life. His ambition was to be a rock star. Marty was, in his opinion, excellent on the guitar. He thought he might go to one of his friends' houses and "jam" for a while.

As he finished his fries, Marty sat down and thought about his life again. He was interrupted by his friend Steve Nelson, who had snuck into the store and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey Marty, what up?"

"Steve, oh, not much. You?"

"Alright, listen, how'd you like to come over to Jason's? He's having a party tonight."

"Yeah, I knew, but my mother found out. She gave me the lecture on how she never did that sort of stuff when she was my age, blah, blah, blah."

"OK then McFly, see ya around." Disappointed, Marty finished his meal as Steve left Burger King.

"if you like," Dave whispered, "I'll cover for you for Mom."

Marty beamed. "Thanks Dave," he said as he got up. "Hey Steve, wait up!"

Marty picked up his guitar and ran to the door. As he ran out, an old man in his sixties came in the other direction. The two bumped into each other. Marty, being quite smaller than the old man, fell to the floor. His guitar fell to the floor with a crack. Marty looked aghast at the crack. It didn't affect the sound of the guitar, but it was very noticeable.

"Sorry," the old man said, extending his hand to help Marty up. Marty took a look at him. His mouth dropped.

"You're...you're...Dr Brown!"

Dr Emmett L Brown, aged 62, lived next door to the Burger King. He was a scientist, and had made some amazing scientific achievements, unfortunately hardly anyone knew about them. He was regarded as the town crackpot by almost everyone in Hill Valley. He lived alone, with only his new puppy Einstein for company.

Dr Brown lived in his garage, the only remaining part of his mansion that had burned down in 1962. He'd sold the rest of the land off to Burger King soon afterwards. Living in the garage was fine, apart from one thing - there was not enough room for cooking.

Just as well then he lived next door to a fast food restaurant. Dr Brown's cooking was not that wonderful - some of it even Einstein wouldn't touch.

Dr Brown had been working on his latest experiment. 27 years ago, on November 5th 1955, he had been hanging up a clock over his toilet when he'd slipped and fell. When he came too, he had a vision of the Flux Capacitor. This was what would make his latest experiment possible - time travel!

Since that night, Dr Brown had been working on a time machine. He'd nearly completed one earlier - he'd put it into a fridge, but the thing had blown up and he'd had to start again. Luckily for him he'd managed to salvage a lot of the parts from the fridge, but Dr Brown now needed something else to convert to a time machine.

Thinking like this made him hungry. Quickly putting his tools away, and locking up some papers, Dr Brown fed Einstein and then walked across to Burger King. And on his way in, he'd bumped into one Marty McFly.

"You're...you're...Dr Brown!"

"Indeed," Dr Brown smiled. "Are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah, um, sorry," Marty muttered. He'd heard stuff about this crazy old Dr Brown and didn't really want to have much to do with him. Besides, he had to catch up with Steve. Marty picked up his guitar and got up to leave.

"Oh my, that's quite a big crack there," Dr Brown said, looking at the guitar. "That's my fault, I'm afraid. I'm really sorry again, sir. Please accept my apologies."

"Um, all right then," Marty told him, really wanting to leave. "They're accepted. I forgive you." He started walking off when Dr Brown called to him.

"I can fix that for you, if you'd like."

Marty turned around.

"I have no money."

"Don't worry about it, it's on me. I caused you to break it, after all," Dr Brown smiled.

"Oh, no, don't worry, this one's old anyway, I bought it second hand from a schoolfriend, I'm getting another one soon..."

"I insist," Dr Brown said. "It'll only take a few minutes."

What have I got to lose? Marty thought. He picked up the guitar and after Dr Brown had ordered a take away meal, Marty followed him to his garage.

Dr Brown sat down, eating his fries as he repaired the guitar.

"Will this take much longer?" Marty asked. "I'm due round a friend's soon."

"Nearly done," Dr Brown said. "You want to put on some music? Help yourself to my collection."

Marty looked through the records on the shelf. They were of all kinds of music, but Marty was amazed that Dr Brown owned a lot of rock and roll - Marty's favourite type!

"As you can see, it's quite a collection," Dr Brown said without looking up. "That's partly why they call me crazy, because I like rock and roll. An old codger like me isn't supposed to," he chuckled. Marty grinned as well, much to his surprise. He decided to put Johnny Be Goode by Chuck Berry on. As the familiar opening chord played, Marty looked around Dr Brown's garage. It was full of weird and wonderful things.

"Hey, what's this?" he asked, pulling some boxes away to reveal a giant amplifier.

"Oh, that?" Dr Brown answered. "I use that for my experiments sometimes. I suppose you could also use it for your guitar though. We'll test it, I've just finished fixing it." They took the guitar over to the amplifier and plugged it in. Marty struck a string. Perfect.

"Wow, that sounds great!"

"I hope you don't mind but I tweaked your guitar up a bit, so it should sound better."

"Cool," said Marty. He looked around again. "Hey, that's amazing!" Dr Brown turned to see what the "that" was. It was the robot he had invented, that would fix his breakfast, feed Einstein and turn on the TV for him in the morning. It should also dump the dog food cans in the bin, but there was something wrong with the arm and it needed fixing.

Marty forgot about going to Steve's house that evening. He was fascinated by Dr Brown's inventions. Dr Brown, delighted that there was someone in Hill Valley who thought they were cool, was more than happy to have Marty with him, and by the end of the evening, a friendship had begun to develop between the old man and the boy.

"Hey Doc," Marty said as he stepped outside to go home, "who owns the DeLorean?"

Dr Brown looked across the street. A DeLorean was parked on the side of the road. "I don't know, Marty, but it is a nice car." Once Marty had gone, Dr Brown added to Einstein, "Perfect for a time machine!" 

"Mom, when's dinner gonna be ready?" 14 year old Marty McFly asked his mom. Lorraine McFly turned to her son.

"What would you like, dear?"

"I don't know about Marty," her husband George said, "but writing that newspaper article has put me in the mood for pizza!"

Pizza sounded OK, Marty thought. His life wasn't that bad at all. Dad was a fairly successful writer who hoped to publish a novel in the next few years. Mom was looking very good for her age. Older brother Dave had just started work in an office, and sister Linda was having trouble trying to keep up with all her boyfriends, much to Dave's and Marty's amusement. Marty also had a good guitar and a bunch of friends who one day hoped to start a band.

Yep, you couldn't get much better than this!

At John F Kennedy Drive, Dr Emmett L Brown sat and watched everyone who was entering the Burger King next to him. Today would be a very special day. Today, he would meet Marty McFly for the first time.

Well, not exactly first. He'd first met Marty 27 years ago - in 1955! Marty had gone to the past from 1985 in a time machine which his future self had invented. Said time machine was currently under construction and bits of it were on the lab surface right now. All he needed was something to build them in. He knew from his experiences in 1955 that later this year he would buy a DeLorean car, and that this would become the time machine.

But anyway, today he would meet Marty. He knew this because Marty had told him the story in 1955. Marty and Doc had literally bumped into each other by accident in the doorway to Burger King, and Doc had repaired Marty's guitar for him. They'd soon become friends and Marty started hanging around with Doc most of the time.

Doc was now looking out the window to see when Marty would go in, and come out, so that he could "accidentally" bump into the boy and meet with him. However the boy didn't show up. By 9.30 Doc wondered if he'd missed Marty, so decided to go and see if that was the case.

He walked up to the counter.

"Excuse me, has a young man, name of Marty McFly, been here? I believe that his older brother Dave is one of your employees. They were supposed to be here tonight."

"We don't have any staff named Dave," Rich, the man behind the counter said.

"Are you sure?" Dr Brown asked.

"I'll check," Rich told him, but it was true. No-one named Dave McFly had ever worked at this Burger King. Dr Brown left the place and headed back home, trying to ignore the chuckles of the Burger King staff about "crazy ol' Doc Brown."

Something must have happened to disrupt the timeline. Dr Brown got out the photo he had taken of him, Marty and Copernicus on November 12th 1955, the day he sent Marty back to 1985, now only 3 years away. Something was wrong. Marty looked a bit faint.

Dr Brown looked closer. He recognised what was happening. Just like Dave McFly had started to disappear from Marty's photo in 1955, now Marty was beginning to fade out in the photo from 1955.

Dr Brown realised that somehow Marty had not gone to Burger King that day, therefore they wouldn't meet and Marty wouldn't go to 1955! That was why he was fading out of the picture. Dr Brown knew he had less than a few days to meet Marty and somehow become friends with the teen.

Dr Brown looked through the Hill Valley Telegraph for anything on the McFly family. He scanned through every page until he came to the letters page on page 23.

"I write regarding the money given to the town by the late Lauren Goddard. Every day I have to drive to my job with Regan and Company, a drive a few miles out of town. And each day, for the past few months, I have had to drive over that pot hole on the corner of Canton and 15th Streets.

Dr Brown re-read the letter. Lauren Goddard had been a fairly well off old spinster who had given all her money to Hill Valley in her will, but that wasn't what he was looking at. It was the author.

David J McFly.

And Doc knew there was only one family in Hill Valley named McFly. But wait, something was wrong. It said here that Dave McFly worked for Regan and Company, the new accountants that had opened outside Hill Valley in July. He didn't work in Burger King.

Suddenly everything fell into place.

"Of course!" he told Einstein. "Now I remember! Because George McFly punched Biff in 1955, when he wasn't supposed to, it must have changed history for the McFly family! And this may have caused history to alter, meaning Dave never worked at Burger King, he never bought Marty with him and we never meet! That's why he's fading out of this photograph! And unless I do something, a paradox could occur!"

Einstein whined.

"But what can I do?" Dr Brown asked the dog. "I can't exactly ring his doorbell and say 'Hi Marty, will you be my friend?' He'd think me very weird, and probably want nothing to do with me."

Einstein whined again. Dr Brown continued reading through the newspaper, until he saw something else he found very interesting.

"They printed my letter!" Dave McFly told his parents. "Here it is, look."

George and Lorraine took the paper and read through the letter. "Well done, Dave!" said Lorraine, hugging her son.

"Looks like you're following in my footsteps already," George chuckled.

"Oh Marty, I almost forgot," Linda McFly called to her younger brother. Seeing the paper had reminded her of something. "They published you as well."

Marty took the paper from his parents. He flicked forward a couple of pages, until he found what he was looking for.

Marty grinned.

"It's in," he muttered.

"Good," George told his son. "Hopefully you should be earning a few bucks soon and treating us all to dinner." He smiled at his son. "I hope you get some replies soon."

"Of course!" Dr Brown yelled again. "I've got it!" There, in the paper, was the answer to his problem.

"I'll offer Marty a job," Dr Brown grinned. "Then everything will be back on track."

Dr Brown looked up at the front door of the McFly house. It was just as Marty had described it in 1955. He took a deep breath. History was about to be made!

"Stay there Einie," he said to his dog. Leaving the window open a bit so Einstein could breathe, he walked up to the front door. He knocked and waited, until a young girl, aged about 16, answered the door.

"Good evening Miss, I'm Dr Emmett Brown." The girl looked at him strangely.

"Linda, who is it?" called a voice, whom Dr Brown thought was Linda's mother.

"It's Dr Brown," called Linda. "He's at the door." Linda's mother came to the door and Linda went back inside to watch some more TV. Dr Brown stared at Mrs McFly for a split second. It was Lorraine! God, she'd changed a bit over the years since they'd met in his garage in 1955.

"Hello Mrs McFly, I'm Dr Emmett Brown. I've come to see your son, Marty. It's about that ad he put in the paper."

"Come this way, I'll go get him." Mrs McFly showed him into the sitting room. Linda was in the room watching TV, but not watching it was a man, who Dr Brown took to be George McFly. He was writing something.

"Here he is, Dr Brown."

Dr Brown turned around to see Mrs McFly with a young boy, aged 14 or so.

"Hello Marty. I'm Dr Emmett Brown. I saw your ad in the paper and thought you might like a job working for me. It'll involve you coming to my place 3 days a week to help me clean up and work on my inventions."

"Oh, um, thanks." Marty didn't sound very convinced. He didn't want to work with Crazy Old Doc Brown! What if everyone else found out and thought he was crazy as well?

"I'll pay you $6 an hour."

Well, that money sounded quite good. If only it was from anyone else...

"Plus unlimited use of my vast record collection."

"I don't know Doc, I'm kind of busy now, but I will think about it and let you know." He smiled slightly. "It does sound good though."

"All right Marty, I hope to hear from you soon," Dr Brown replied. He said his goodbyes and went back to his car, where he looked at the photo.

Marty was still fading.

Obviously Marty was unsure about this. Maybe Marty thinks I'm crazy as well, Dr Brown thought. On behalf of the space-time continuum, I hope not!

"Who was that?" Steve Nelson asked Marty as he came back into his room. Marty's friend had come over to jam for a while.

"Dr Brown, he wanted to offer me a job," said Marty.

"I hope you said no," Steve told him. "Only crazy folk work for the crazy Doc."

"Yeah, I know, I told him I'd think about it," Marty answered as he picked up his guitar. "He did offer good money though."

"Remember Marty," warned Steve, "It'd just be you and him, and who knows what crazy stuff he'd try and do to you. Now, are we here to play or not?"

As he drove down to Lone Pine Mall to do some shopping, Dr Brown looked at the photo for the gazillionth time. Marty was still fading. It was looking more and more likely that he didn't want Doc's job. He hadn't replied for the past 4 days and Dr Brown suspected he'd taken the very next offer.

A few blocks down the road from the McFly house, some kids ran into the road.

"Great Scott!" Dr Brown exclaimed as he swerved to avoid them. He missed them, but heard a bump instead as he came to a stop.

"That doesn't sound too good," he muttered as he got out of his car to see what was the matter. He could hear the kids laughing as they ran off down an alleyway.

Damn kids, he thought.

He soon found the problem. He'd obviously ran over something, because the tyre was flat. He went back to get his tool kit and started repairing it.

Nearby, Marty McFly was walking to Steve's house. He'd composed a new tune on his guitar and wanted to know what Steve thought. He had his guitar with him, since Steve's had broken the other night when they'd been jamming.

Marty looked ahead. The sidewalk was closed. They were starting to repair the pothole Dave had complained about in the newspaper! That would be good news for Dave, but it meant he couldn't get past to go to Steve's house.

Oh well, he thought. I'll have to take a shortcut.

He turned left into an alleyway and carried on walking. He started humming the piece he had composed. He must admit, it was a very good one.

"That's not all of your money!" He looked ahead. A mugger was there with his gang, and they were surrounding a small boy who looked only 10 or 11.

"But that's all I have," the kid protested. Marty knew what he had to do. He could deal with bullies at school, such as Douglas Needles, surely he could deal with this mugger who only looked a year or so older than him?

"Hey!" Marty called. "Leave him alone!"

The mugger turned and looked at Marty. The kid saw an opportunity and ran.

"What's it to you?"

"Just leave him alone!"

The mugger turned around. "Oh, great! You made me lose him. Say, nice guitar. Mind if I have a look?"

He tried to grab Marty's guitar from him. Marty tried to pull it out of his hands, but the mugger was stronger. The mugger suddenly kicked Marty's foot, causing him to lose his grip on the guitar.

"Hold him," the mugger told his gang. "We'll get money off him instead."

"Why don't you just ask you mom for more money?" Marty asked, perfectly reasonably. The gang members chuckled at this. The mugger just punched Marty in the stomach instead.

Marty fell to the floor. Finding no money on him, the gang members started to run off. The mugger followed, with Marty's guitar. Marty got up and ran after them. "Stop thief!"

They got to the end of the alleyway. Suddenly an old man with white hair stepped in the way.

"Stop right there!" he yelled.

"Move aside, old man!" the mugger yelled, prepared to push past the old man if necessary.

"Give him the guitar back!" the man said.

"Yeah, right, I'm going to listen to you," the mugger smirked. "Move aside!" He pushed past the old man.

"Hey, look over there!" the old man suddenly shrieked with alarm. The mugger and his gang turned around, allowing the man to snatch the guitar back. He called to Marty. "Marty! Over here!"

"Doc Brown?" Marty called back. Dr Brown - for it was he - nodded. "This way!"

Marty ran towards Dr Brown and took his guitar back. "Thanks," he said. The gang came towards them.

"You'd better not touch me," Dr Brown grinned. "You never know what I might do to you in a crazy experiment or something."

He smirked at them. The gang members were worried. What was Crazy Old Doc Brown going to do? They decided they didn't really want to find out.

Once they were gone, Marty took a look at his guitar. There was a crack on it due to the scuffle between him and the gang. Marty looked aghast at the crack. It didn't affect the sound of the guitar, but it was very noticeable.

"I can fix that for you, if you'd like."

Marty turned around. Dr Brown was still there.

"I have no money."

"Don't worry about it, it's on me," Dr Brown smiled.

"Oh, thanks!" Marty said, smiling. "You know, you really helped me there. Thanks, Doc."

"Quite all right," Doc answered, liking the way Marty had referred to him. "Just as well I was fixing the tyre on my car, or else I wouldn't have heard the commotion and come to investigate. Fixing this guitar shouldn't take long, but first we'll go to the police station and report what happened."

At the police station, Marty phoned his parents to tell them what had happened and they had come rushing down as fast as they could.

"Thank you, Dr Brown," Lorraine said for the gazillionth time.

"That's all right, Mrs McFly," he said.

"Doc's offered to fix my guitar as well," Marty told his parents. Lorraine looked at her son with a 'I think you have something to tell him' look.

"Dr Brown, Marty has something to tell you," she said. "About that job you offered him."

Marty looked sheepishly at Doc.

"Oh, yeah, sorry I didn't call about it or anything. I wasn't sure, seeing as you are Crazy Old Doc Brown and all that..."

"That's all right Marty, I understand." He paused. "It's still on offer, you know. Do you want it, Marty?"

"Yes," Marty said confidently. "I did all the time, to be honest, but I thought you were crazy, but seeing as I now know you're not crazy, I'd like the job if that's OK."

"That's more than OK," Doc smiled. "Can you start Monday?"

"Sure."

"Marty, shall we go fix that guitar?"

"You bet," Marty answered. "So how many records do you have in that collection?"

Doc took a quick look at the photo from 1955. Marty was now back in the photo completely. He wasn't fading any more. Doc smiled. The future - and the past - was back on track.

Last Revised: June 4th 2004

BACK TO THE HILL VALLEY TELEGRAPH FAN FICTION ARCHIVE

Visit the Hill Valley Telegraph Script Archive