Should have seen that coming

So Clint Eastwood's the biggest Yellowbelly in the Old West?

In all honesty, Marty had thought his parents would smell something fishy much sooner than they had.

As soon as they waltzed into their new (old, last redecorated two years ago he sometimes remembers the smell from when those workers were adding the new carpet in flashes) living room. They had glanced at him for no longer than usual, not remembering the teenager who had forced them to get together who wore the same "coast guard" outfit. It had been years ago for them but surely he could have triggered at least...some latent memories. Something? He suspected a knowing glance from his dad at least. George was a science fiction writer who had based his first novel on the exact life experience that led to his dating and ultimately marrying Mom. Surely he could believe his son somehow interfered in some impossibly convoluted way. Or at least remember what that obnoxious Calvin Klein had looked like with more clarity.

But there was nothing. No hint of recognition, no hesitation greeting him or even much questioning of his general confusion at...everything. Just the same greeting his parents gave him every morning when he stumbled downstairs (not these parents, other parents from another time...place? This remained unclear).

Doc was the only person who really knew how he felt. Marty spent most days incapacitated by horrible headaches as his brain tried to adjust to new memories that had never happened for him. Sometimes they overrode memories for a moment, other times his original memories stayed put. He'd remember setting the carpet on fire, but it was, in this timeline, easily put out and he was only sent to his room for twenty minutes. Not the week of time out he had gotten in the other timeline. Other days he would briefly remember something Linda had done to try and hurt him but then it would fade back to his siblings ignoring him almost completely.

At least he had met Doc the same way. Just by being a curious teenager flagrantly disobeying authority figures, being pleasantly surprised by how cool Doc was, and deciding to take him up on the job offer to hang around the lab more. But now nobody was worried about his well-being being friends with the Doc, now Doc was just his friend. Doc was Doc, a strange inventor that Marty hung around with and ran dumb science errands for. There weren't malicious rumors being spread about him, in fact most people went to him for technical help.

Doc also helped Marty deal with all the constantly shifting memories, keeping Advil handy for headaches and dishrags for when Marty would occasionally get nosebleeds for reasons unknown to either of them. Marty had no idea how the Doc had handled this without the slightest complaint while he had gone on those other unplanned time travel ventures almost immediately after Marty came back to him in 1955. And in the Old West...in hindsight that probably contributed to Doc's despondency at the lack of Advil back then.

Marty felt kinda bad for doing so much meddling in Doc's life sometimes, in the 50s, then the 20s...Marty hadn't experienced half the pain and tedium of having his memories shift and rearrange as they were made in the past and put into a mind in the future. He reminded himself to tell Doc he was allowed to complain after realizing this. And figured he should apologize just for good measure though he knew Doc would say it was for the greater good or whatever. Doc would probably accept Marty's being grateful at moving back to Hill Valley with Clara, Jules, and Verne. With money he'd "picked up" by hopping around time and winning money with some well-placed bets. But at least Doc had just bought a house and fixed it up instead of turning into a psychopathic megalomaniac.

It was another day at Doc's trying to deal with headaches (and the occasional coughing up of blood Marty had neglected to mention for so long that now he'd just feel weird if he brought it up now) that George decided to drop by. Marty, Doc and his family had been eating take out Chinese in the living room talking about something in the time train acting up when George walked in...without knocking or anything and upon seeing Marty draped over a couch with his food asked if he knew what time it was. To which Marty had flippantly said that he knew and had left a message saying he'd be at Doc's. George reminded Marty of his curfew and left with only a slightly prolonged pseudo-glare in Marty's direction. He might get in some trouble but mostly he just hoped his dad hadn't heard anything about time travel. Nobody had figured it out and at this point it had been a year and a half so Marty wanted to keep it that way.

____

Unfortunately, George did hear about the time train. Something in that must have (finally) triggered some memory. Finally bringing back to mind good old Calvin "Marty" Klein and his peculiar ways, knowledge of things not to come he passed off as just a weird thought of his, "something for the novel George" he said once after mentioning some aliens he had seen on TV while George talked about Science Fiction Theater. Things that hadn't made much sense for George suddenly became clear. Time travel was possible, no longer was it in the realm of science fiction it was science fact. And Doc Brown had been the one to finally figure it out, with Marty being the first test subject, who'd have thought? George had to admire his son's ability to adjust to such a change, to most people he was strange, but fit in in the 50s just fine even though it was so different it might as well have been another planet. George wondered if this was what his life was always like, thinking back on Marty's meddling, what if he had changed something? What if George had changed something? Was he different now because of it? What did Marty know him as? It explained everything about that week in 1955 but raised so many new questions, questions to fill several novels, maybe he could start writing a series about the implications of such events.

He'd have to ask Marty about this, not that Marty would ever talk. Marty seemed unsure of everything around him so something about his situation must be different. Was it drastic? That would have to be explored. But delicately of course, this was a fascinating topic but Marty was still his son and not a science project.

Over several months George started dropping small hints of an old friend, Calvin Klein, just casually mentioning that he was a huge source of inspiration for George's novel, was the one who gave him the push to actually share his ideas. Off-handedly wondering out loud where Calvin could have gone. Marty would freeze every time, sputtering out something about how this old friend sounded kinda weird and getting out of the room or changing the subject as soon as possible.

____

When George finally figured it out and got up the nerve to ask, Marty hadn't thought his dad would ever figure it out.

That day started out the same as always, he headed over to Doc's for "work" which was just messing with non time travel experiments with Doc, Jules, Verne, and Clara but he classified it as a job so he could say he did something in the year he was taking off between high school and college. On that particular day he was just fixing up Einstein's dog feeder so it wouldn't short circuit and throw opened cans against the wall in Doc's garage when George yet again came in looking for him. Marty was wearing the same outfit he'd worn when he first got to the 50s and hadn't noticed his dad come in. His dad was strangely silent anyway so when Doc addressed George Marty jumped a bit but went off to go look for some part that might work on the dog feeder. He drowned out the conversation (Doc was occasionally George's science advisor now, even though he was writing science fiction the guy had a penchant for still making it as accurate as possible) but as he was walking back he heard one of the things he' been most afraid to hear.

"So did you really send my son to the past?" Doc was sympathetic when Marty's brain short-circuited and he walked into a wall and passed out for a few minutes.
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Note: Based on a 3AM conversation with Ix. She off-handedly said "What if Marty's parents just somehow figured out he screwed around in their past, and when they asked him about it Doc freaked out and panicked and Marty just broke and walked into a wall" I thought it was a great idea so I wrote it. One of these days I will write a long-fic that explores more of the ramifications of time-travel, how it messes with Marty and Doc, I think Marty would eventually cease to remember his original timeline at some point and fully become the Marty from his new timeline he replaced. He would just be scared he naturally wouldn't forget time-traveling but he wouldn't want to forget anything about his time because it's all he really knows. His new parents might as well be strangers and I don't know what it's be like for Doc I just think it's fascinating and I'd love to write on it in detail but I can't get the words out. I've been experiencing terrible writer's block for the longest time.