➩ 𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟: 𝕓𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕚𝕟' 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕟𝕕 ( 𝕔𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣 ) 𝕓𝕪 𝕛𝕠𝕒𝕟 𝕓𝕒𝕖𝕫
"DOC!" The duo called out to gain his attention to see the tombstone for himself. "Come here! Quick!"
Seeing his flashlight now bobbing over to them crouched in front of the grave, Doc looked to them worried as they were left in shock over what they had found. "What's wrong? You both look like you've seen a ghost?" He asked.
Marty shook his head solemnly. "You're not far off, Doc." He motioned his flashlight to the tombstone to have Doc stand alongside them to read it for himself.
Being obviously taken aback by the name, he backed away from the tombstone due to his own surprise. "Great Scott!"
Looking closer to the details on the tombstone, Amanda read out the wording for them as well. "Died September 7th, 1885." She widened her eyes over the timing being so close. "But that's one week after you wrote that letter!"
"Erected in eternal memory by his beloved Clara," Marty continued and turned back over to Doc over the unfamiliar name, "Who the hell is Clara?"
"Will you two not stand there!" Doc yelled suddenly, the distress that was bound to overcome him now plainly obvious. Looking down to realize they had been sitting on his grave the entire time, both jumped away from the site.
"I gotta get another picture," Amanda muttered before snapping the photo while Doc finished reading the rest of the writing recounting the events leading up to the apparent death.
"Shot in the back by Buford Tannen over a matter of eighthy dollars—" He turned to them in shock as she tucked the photo of his grave site away into her pocket. "What kind of future do you call that?"
Shaking her head, Amanda recalled the hopeful statement Doc had just spoken about earlier. Snapping her fingers quickly, she looked up to him determined. "We have to get to the library."
Doc nodded, following along to what she was suggesting. "If there's any records in regards to an Emmett Brown in Hill Valley, we have no better place to look," He continued and gave a wide-gesture for them to follow behind him.
Being proud of herself over the wishful thinking made, Marty took note of this confidence emanating from her to tuck her under his arm. "And this is why no one person should give you so much credit."
"It's basic logic, blue," She stressed to him, kissing the back of his hand, "Besides, you're victim to it too."
He smiled over the thought as she laughed over his loving expression. "Not the same thing, doe eyes."
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DROPPING DOWN the folder that Marty and Amanda had found in the library regarding the said Buford Tannen that would shoot Doc, she began to look through the documents for anything else that could help to understand the situation. "Buford Tannen was a notorious gunman whose short temper and a tendency to drool earned him the nickname 'Mad Dog'. He was quick on the trigger and bragged that he had killed 12 men, not including Indians or Chinamen," 'Marty read aloud for them.
Scoffing over the article, she grew sick over the mention of something so vile. "Doesn't surprise me that there isn't a Tannen in history that had some sort of human decency," She muttered to herself.
"Does it mention me? Am I one of the 12?" Doc called over from the opposite side of us.
"Just a minute." Marty raised a hand to stop him to try to follow the words with his finger to keep himself focused. "However, this claim cannot be substantiated, since precise records were not kept after Tannen shot a newspaper editor who printed and unfavorable story about him in 1884."
"That must be why we can't find anything," Amanda noted as Marty nodded beside her.
Doc came over to them with another set of photos stored away in two books. Looking down to them to see the name Callisto on one and McFly on the other, Amanda smiled over the history being taken into account today. Holding up the one of a man that looked similar to her father standing alongside another man in front of a saloon, she shook her head to see them named as Jerry Callisto & Chester Caruthers. "Your relatives?" Doc asked them.
The only family history Amanda heard about Hill Valley was only on her father's side. There was never a time she don't think she'd paid a visit to see her grandparents in town before they'd moved in officially. They always were close with the business that ran the jazzercise down in the courthouse square in '85, she didn't realize the families knew each other for more than 100 years. "I guess so. My dad never really was keen on family history lessons." It was easy of her to forget that her father was the only one to ever successfully move out of the town. Yet even he somehow made his way back here.
Marty, unlike her, was told of his family's impact on Hill Valley by his father. "My great-grandfather's name was William," Marty explained and pointed out the man in the photo. Seeing he looked exactly like him took Amanda by surprise."That's him. Good-looking guy."
She rolled her eyes at the comment being conceited to shut the book revealing it to be a textbook of the History of Hill Valley. "It's like looking in a mirror." Turning over to him, she let out a chuckle under my breath. "Some strong genes, I guess."
Marty gave her a cheeky grin over the comment to gesture to he knowingly. "Well with you and I put together, our kids are gonna be knockouts." She shoved him over the suggestion to have him let out some laughter regardless. "You're not denying it."
"Don't get so full of yourself, blue."
Doc continued to be in shock over the whole ordeal as he scanned through more of the textbooks, ignoring the back and forth between her and Marty. "McFlys and Callistos, but no Browns," Doc noted beside them in distress.
"Maybe it was a mistake, Doc! Maybe that grave wasn't yours. There could've been another Emmett Brown back in 1885," Marty suggested to him. Doc dismissed the very idea as he continued to search through newspaper articles. "Did you have any relatives here back then?"
"The Browns didn't come to Hill Valley until 1908. Then they were the Von Brauns. My father changed our name during the First World War—"
Distracting herself from the other photos she'd stumbled upon, Amanda noticed a man that was their Doc standing beside the apparently new clock for the courthouse. "Guys, look." She held it up to let them see too.
Doc gasped in surprise over the photo with his eyes widened more than before. "Great Scott! It's me! Then it is true. All of it. It is me who goes back there and gets shot."
Turning up to Marty shifting his tone to be more serious left her to worry more over the situation at hand. He had at this point become tired of his friends being in danger. Despite everyone telling him this wasn't entirely his fault, he also felt personally responsible for making sure they were able to bring Doc back safely. "It's not gonna happen, Doc," He reassured him, looking intently to the photo, "After you fix the time circuits and put new tires on the Delorean, we're goin' back to 1885, and we're bringing you home."