"For All Time"

Synopsis: After the scare Doc Brown recieved from Jordan Smith (see "Future Shock"), he has decided to go back and make certain such an event will never take place by destroying his family's records and replacing them with doctored ones in the correct times and places that would correspond to the cover story that those in Hill Valley know. But when Clara makes a shocking announcement that both rattles the scientist and prevents her from accompanying her husband on the task, Doc enlists Marty's help to rewrite the Brown family history. Things go well until the team is captured in New Jersey during the second World War and accused of being spies. Now, in prison with the Brown records under lock and key, can they get them back and escape before time runs out?

Length: Approximately 37,000 words

Written: June 1999 - February 2000

Revised: February 2000

Author's Notes: I thought this story would be good in tying up some persistant lose ends that bothered me for years -- Doc's "cover story" on his family, the issues of family records just lying around, etc. The context of this idea came to me in an odd way -- one morning in the spring of 1999, I was sitting in a class and suddenly had this very bold, vivid picture bounce into my head of Clara spilling the news in this story to Doc -- and the scientist freaking out. I was amused. And then more of the story revealed itself to me, over time, but I put off writing on it full time for a few months to concentrate on revisions and work out some plot kinks and details, which were a bitch. I knew nothing about archives and records and WWII before starting this story. Even the details on Doc's family's cover story was a pain to research and figure out. I had to come up with a lot of information about the characters in this story. Including Clara's middle name, birthdate, place of birth, etc. The middle name was chosen for no other reason than it just sounded good, and was a common middle name for girls. The birthdate is the same date that my dad was born. (Not year, of course!) It was established in the BTTF3 novelization that Clara was born and raised in New Jersey, but the hometown was never named. So I took it upon myself to create one; the name of her hometown is fictional. I decided that would be a shade easier to deal with than a real town. I literally looked around for the town name, and happened to see a sign that shows the name of the street where my apartment for the '99 - '00 school year in Eugene is located. The street sounded like the name of a town, so what the heck. The name also proved mighty ironic as the story moved along.... This is very much a "Doc Story," really the first one I've done. Marty is in it for most of it, but most of the POV is from the scientist's, and it deals mostly with Doc's reaction to change and all. Sort of something new to write that was rather challenging at times. Of all the characters, I can probably write Marty the best because he's closest in my current age and intelligence and I've done it for so long. Because I plan to revise all my stories and am not done with that as of the debut of this story, one may notice a few odd discrepencies, especially with Jules' personality. Around the fall of 1986, he undergoes a sort of change when he finds he has a talent that suddenly makes him a lot more popular. This will all be further explained one of the stories that takes place around then (not a new story). In other words, the ripple effect is in play from the changes made by me and it may be best for you to just roll with the punches until things become clearer in the future in the past. The title in this story was a long time coming and, when it did come to me, it clicked well. Works on a lot of levels because the changes Doc and Marty make for the Browns are ones that are forever -- or for all time. As is the change that will affect all of their lives that will be arriving in the story to follow this one.... The news that Clara breaks to Doc was rather tricky. One will learn it straight off in chapter one, and I'm sure this may generate it's share of e-mail. Let me point out a few things, right here -- so read no more if you wish to be surprised.... come back here when you finish the story, m'kay? You've been warned.... In January 1993, on New Years, I recorded a very weird BTTF dream in my diary at the time. In the dream, Marty went back to the Old West to visit Doc and Clara and arrived at a time where Clara was pregnant with their third child. While singing at a benefit concert, she went into labor and had the baby. Right before I woke up, Doc burst into the room to announce that it was a girl named Emily. Maybe you may not think that's strange -- but if you've read Mary Jean Holmes' stories, you may know that in her universe, Doc and Clara did have a third child named Emily. When I had this dream, I didn't even know what fan fiction was, let alone that there existed some for BTTF written by this woman. It would be 4 years before I would read her stories for the first time and notice that very creepy coincidence. Second point -- while writing "The Runaway Train," I was considering adding another Brown child, but kind of talked myself out of the idea. In my early stories that I wrote as a kid, before any BTTF story, it seemed that every family my characters were in were having babies -- and I didn't want to do that to my BTTF universe. Also, I didn't want to be so bold to change something like that. And since another writer did it, I didn't want to be accused of plagiarism. Times change, though -- and, FYI, I do have Ms. Holmes' blessing to move forward with this new twist in my universe. From the e-mail that Doc and Clara's discussion brought about in "The Runaway Train," I'm hoping people won't react too harshly to this. And thirdly.... Two words -- "Polly Brown." Who, you ask? You're not the only one. I'm fortunate enough to have in my BTTF collection one of the original "Bibles" for the BTTF animated series. Imagine my surprise while reading to see mention of a Polly Brown -- yet no character profile was included at all and such a character never made it to the TV screen. She was mentioned at least three times. It was almost as if someone concieved of this character (methinks a female Brown child, younger than Verne) and decided to nix the idea, yet they forgot a couple mentions of her in other portions of the Bible. (Like Verne's profile: "But when it's time to follow through on one of his schemes, Verne never seems to have the nerve and ends up talking Jules or Polly into doing whatever needs to be done.") Very interesting.

CHAPTERS 1 - 5 CHAPTERS 6 - 9