First Time for Everything (Back to the Future, M)

[delovelys]

Hi there, all! It's been a while since I posted to the forum, but here's something I felt the urge to write recently. After watching BTTF for the billionth time the other day and being reminded of my insane childhood crush on a young Michael J. Fox/Marty McFly, I was surprised (and saddened) at the fact that the Internet seems to lack any fics based on such an epic movie. Therefore, this fic was born.

It's basically supposed to be a, "What if Marty had a cold during the entire movie?" sort of thing. I'm not going to copy the movie word for word because that's boring, especially for the people who have seen it. However, I'm probably going to include some of my favorite quotes because why not?

I'm going completely off memory while writing this, so sorry if some of the events are irritatingly inconsistent with the actual movie. Also, please remember to leave any sort of review! Your kind words mean a lot.

~~~~~~~~~~

It’s nearly 12:30 when the cordless phone next to his bed begins ringing. He’s asleep, as per usual during this time of night, but for some reason, he feels especially tired tonight. He’s pretty tempted to ignore the phone due to the irresistible comfortableness of his bed (not to mention the heaviness of his eyelids), but he somehow wills himself to reach out and answer it.

The phone feels heavy in his hand, but the voice on the other end is filled with so much urgency that it causes him to sit up right away. “Marty! You didn't fall asleep, did you?”

The boy rubs his eyelids with the heel of his hand, clearing his throat. “Uh, what?” he asks groggily.

“Do you realize how important it is that you arrive at precisely 1:15?” Doc continues, his tone growing more exasperated with each word. “Not just to me, but to the world of science!”

“Uh…” Marty starts again. He grabs his shoes from the side of the bed and slips them on with averse hands. Doc’s being pretty vague, something that Marty’s used to, but he’s never heard him sound this enthusiastic over something.

“Yeah, no, I get it, Doc. I was just about to leave, actually.”

“Oh, good,” Doc says with a sigh. He sounds so relieved to the point where Marty almost feels bad for lying.

He grabs his vest from the end of the bed - just in case it’s chilly outside - and presses the phone harder against his ear. “Twin Pines mall, right?”

“That’s the one, Marty! Can I trust you’ll be here soon?”

“Absolutely.” He sniffs. He can feel his nose randomly starting to run, which is just about as much of an annoyance as anything else. He wipes it on his sleeve and immediately cringes.

“I’ll be there soon,” Marty promises. Just let me change my shirt first, he thinks, looking down at the glistening trail of mucus his nose left behind.

By the time he arrives at the mall, it’s just about one A.M. He figures he’s made pretty good time considering he had to use his skateboard to get all the way here. As he rides around the corner of the street, he can see Doc Brown’s RV sitting in the vast parking lot, guarded by his loyal dog, Einstein.

“Hey there, buddy,” Marty says as he pulls up, rubbing his hand against the top of the dog’s head. The door to the RV slams open a few seconds later, and before Marty can get a good view of the professor, the older man grabs his arm and yanks him forward.

“Follow me,” he orders. “You’ve got that video camera I told you to bring, don’t you?”

Marty nods, lifting it up slowly.

“Good. Turn it on.”

“Jesus Christ, Doc, what’s with the hazmat?” Marty questions, raising an eyebrow as he notices the starch white jumpsuit that’s been thrown lazily over Doc’s usual outfit.

“Oh! Thanks for reminding me!” Doc exclaims. He disappears back into the RV, storming out seconds later with a yellow suit similar to his.

“Put this on,” he instructs Marty. The teenager sighs, slipping the jumpsuit on as quickly as he can. Doc can get impatient pretty easily, and Marty’s too tired to deal with that right now.

“Right. Looks good on you. Very… Okay. Come here.”

Marty follows him over to the other side of the RV. A large object sits ten or so feet away, covered by a dirty tarp, and it’s pretty clear to him that it’s some sort of vehicle. He wrinkles his nose in confusion.

“Doc, I don’t -”

“Shush! Turn the camera on.”

Marty obeys silently, lifting up the camera and pressing the record button. He peers through the viewfinder as Doc waves awkwardly at the lens.

“Hello, and welcome to my latest experiment. It’s the one I’ve been waiting for nearly all my life. Marty, you’re gonna want to get this.”

He pulls back the tarp quickly, and the look on his face is practically giddy with excitement. When the tarp falls to the ground, exposing the shiny, smooth vehicle in all its glory, Marty can see why.

“It’s… a DeLorean,” he states, shocked. His eyes scan over the car’s several noticeable adjustments, and he moves in closer so that the camera can get a good shot. “Jesus, Doc, what the hell did you do to it?”

“Never mind that for now. It’s a surprise! Einstein, come here, boy!”

Einstein trots up to him from behind Marty, who can’t seem to will himself to take his eyes off the car. He’s only ever read about them in magazines and papers; he never thought he’d be so close to one.

“Alright, Marty, you’re gonna wanna get this,” Doc states, pulling a digital clock from his pocket. “The time now is precisely -”

“Haa’ATCHiiIEW!” Marty sneezes loudly, the tickle in his nose having crept up on him without any warning.

“Er, it’s precisely -”

“Hhh… Hh’ETCHHiiew! Hehh’TCHHiew!”

“Okay, Marty, shut the camera off,” Doc says after a beat, emitting a soft sigh. “We’re gonna need to start over.”

“My bad, Doc,” Marty says apologetically. He sniffles, the trickly substance in his nose blocking his airway and causing his nose to tickle once more. He quickly rubs his nose back and forth against the back of his hand, successfully eliminating the possibility of another sneeze - for now, at least.

“Don’t worry about it. We just need to get this introduction out of the way before I can execute my experiment.”

“Yeah, I know.” Marty nods. “I think I might just be allergic to -”

“To what? Advancement and achievement in the name of science? Time travel, maybe? Einstein?”

Einstein’s ears perk up at the mention of his name. Marty shakes his head.

“No, no, none of that,” he says with another sniffle. He pauses, his eyes widening to their fullest potential. “Wait, did you just say ‘time travel’?”

Doc grins, nodding in an intense, passionate sort of way. Marty shakes his head again, this time out of disbelief, his mind working hard to piece the puzzles together.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute. Doc… are you telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean?”

“Precisely!” Doc exclaims, motioning for Marty to turn the camera on again. He gestures for him to walk forward, pulling the driver’s side door open to reveal what the DeLorean looks like on the inside.

“As you can see, all I have to do is punch in the date and time of the departure on this keypad. This screen here tells you the current date and time, and this one…”

Marty can feel himself spacing out as Doc continues his explanation, but he can’t really help it. He has suddenly become hyperaware of the mucus and phlegm rolling around in his head, threatening to dribble out of his nose as well as make him cough. But no matter how many times he sniffles or clears his throat, he can’t seem to get rid of these annoyances, and the tickle blossoming in his nose only gets worse.

“… and after I came to, I had a perfect image of it in my mind: the flux capacitor!”

Marty blinks dazedly, processing only the trailing end of Doc’s sentence with yet another tired sniffle. “Huh?”

Doc sighs again, placing a hand on Marty’s shoulder. He has this kind, almost fatherly look in his eyes that the boy has never seen before. He usually looks much more... erratic. “You know what, Marty? Maybe we should do this another night. You know, when you’re feeling a bit more… up to speed. You look like all of the energy has literally been beaten out of you.”

“What? I feel fine,” Marty argues, trying to recall some aspects from their conversation. “Flux capacitor. Time travel. Something about a toilet. It’s all riiiight here, I swear.” He presses his index finger against his temple, which causes a shooting pain to pierce the inside of his head. He mutters a small “ow,” followed by another round of sneezes.

“Hheh’EHTCHiieww! Hhaa’AHCHiiEW! Uhh… Ahh’ttCHIIEW!”

“Yes, you certainly sound like you’re in the pinnacle of health,” Doc replies as the teenage boy wipes his nose repeatedly on his sleeve. “Geez, you’re lucky your mother isn’t here. Didn’t she ever teach you proper etiquette?” He unzips his hazmat suit and produces a handkerchief from inside his coat pocket, holding it out.

Marty doesn’t reply - partially because he’s too fatigued to come up with a witty comeback of his own, but primarily because he’s so relieved to be able to stop using this nonabsorbent hazmat in lieu of Kleenex. Doc’s making it pretty obvious how disappointed he is that it’s taking so long to test out the DeLorean, hence his snappy attitude - but Marty can’t really blame him. Once you perfect something that's so hard to achieve, all you want to do is show it off to everyone, right?

He rubs the slick underside of his nose against the handkerchief with the hand that isn’t clutching onto the video camera, too embarrassed now to blow. It gives his runny nose some relief, but not much.

“Better?” Doc asks, and Marty just shrugs. “Alright, alright. Let me drive you home. Can’t have you riding all the way there on that skateboard of yours if you’re sick.”

“Wait, wait, Doc, I - I’m okay. At least I think I am. Look, I really wanna see how this thing works. I mean, you spent thirty years on it, for Christ’s sake!”

He pats the hood of the car, making sure to look Doc in the eye if he really wants to sell this thing. The professor seems unsure, but only for a couple of seconds, before he claps his hands together with a small, merry laugh. He quickly has Einstein hop inside the car, and Marty focuses the camera on them as Doc buckles him in. The Doc takes several steps back, and Marty follows, his genuine curiosity providing a distraction from his running nose and pounding headache.

“Alright, now watch this.” Doc lifts up a ridiculously large remote control device, which immediately puts Marty on edge. “When this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour, you’re gonna see some serious shit.”

[Masked.Maiden]

Omg this is so cool. I actually googled back to the future sneezfics completely unaware that this one had popped up just today. Thanks for writing this.

[Ali Marie]

This is utterly fantastic!

[BikermousefromMars]

i'm really happy seeing back to the future get a sneezefic! :3 such attempts are rare if at all, lol. wonderfully done! i can only imagine lorraine having to take care of him with a cold back in the 50's

[IveGotRedHair]

I never knew how much I needed this in my life! It's amazing

[PuddinPop]

I honestly came in here pretty sceptical, but I actually really enjoyed it!

I love how disappointed the Doc was when he almost had to postpone sending Einstein back, and also his excitement when they decided to go ahead xDD

Brilliantly done, I hope you write more!

[Shay]

That's so cool that you're writing this and the timing is so great because my sister just got me the boxed set of the 25th anniversary edition of the Back to the Future trilogy on bluray for the holidays.

[spirkestielgirl87]

Ooh a BTTF fic! This is the first I've read. I'm liking it!

[Nas]

Oh my gosh, I've been looking on and off for a story like this for the past few years! This is great so far!

[Dye]

YESSS!

The timing is amazing, I've been craving a BTTF fic, since I've been recently playing the games on PS3.

Marty is so cute <3

[delovelys]

Wow, I'm completely overwhelmed (not to mention happy, of course) to see how many reviews this has gotten in one day! I guess I figured there wasn't a big following for BTTF on the forum due to the lack of fics written about it, but you guys have proved me wrong!! All of your kind words mean the world to me, thank you so so soooo much :-)

The next part should be written within the next two or three days. I'm contemplating whether or not I should include the character Biff since he's a pretty big nuisance to everyone (IMO) but we shall see. I'd love to hear what you guys think about including him or not!

i'm really happy seeing back to the future get a sneezefic! :3 such attempts are rare if at all, lol. wonderfully done! i can only imagine lorraine having to take care of him with a cold back in the 50's

Oh my goodness, I'm soooo excited to write about Marty and Lorraine, you have no idea lol! The scene from the first movie where they're together in her bedroom makes me crack up every time. I have lots of ideas for how their storyline can progress.

I honestly came in here pretty sceptical, but I actually really enjoyed it!

I love how disappointed the Doc was when he almost had to postpone sending Einstein back, and also his excitement when they decided to go ahead xDD

Brilliantly done, I hope you write more!

Awww, thank you so much! That's so good to hear!! I was pretty nervous writing for the Doc, since his tone is usually so impassioned and I can have a hard time with that, so I'm glad I could do him some justice lol!

Again, thank you all so much for leaving such lovely comments. I should have the next part up soon!!