CLINT EASTWOOD AND SHIRLEY MACLAINE ³, back to the future

xii. softie

➩ 𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟: 𝕚'𝕝𝕝 𝕓𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 (𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕞𝕖) 𝕓𝕪 𝕣𝕒𝕪 𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕖

CONSIDERING CLARA'S RIDE back home was now a complete wreck down the ravine, the trio rode along with her over where she'd mentioned she'd be staying. Once they'd tied up the horses to drop her things off on the porch, Amanda looked over to Doc tipping his hat towards the woman politely. The wide-eyed apperance he had in awe of her left to smile over his open display of admiration. "May I help you inside with these?" Doc offered politely.

"Oh, no. That won't be necessary. I can take care of it. You've done more than enough already," Clara told him.

"But it's really no trouble."

Marty turned over to him, acting as a voice of reason that was a complete shock for everyone. "Doc, she says it's fine. We gotta get goin'." He then turned over to Clara to shake her hand. "Ma'am, good luck with your schoolteachin' and everything."

Amanda smiled softly to shake her hand as well. "Yes, hope to be seeing more of you Miss. Clayton," She told her to follow along behind Marty.

Shoving him suddenly to his surprise, he turned over to her offended. "What was that for—"

"Look at him!" The couple turned over to Doc continuing to talk to Clara to have her sigh in content. "Come on, this is sweet."

Watching her be moved by the awkward interaction, Marty chuckled under his breath. "If I did this, you'd have made fun of me up until my last breath?"

Amanda nodded, knowing he was right and looked over to him cheekily. "And you'll always be the exception to the rule, blue."

Turning over to the grin Doc now had as he walked back over to them, thinking he was about to leave, until Clara suddenly stopped him. "You know, I'm almost glad that snake spooked those horses. Otherwise, we might have never met." She stopped to look to him dreamily. "Suppose it was destiny."

Marty looked over to Amanda as she said this to have her do the same. Seeing as the phrase was their known trademark, it was only fitting for them to look to the other. "I know another thing that was destiny—" He raised a brow to have her roll her eyes, blushing over suggestion obviously. "Aw, look! You've gone all soft."

"I'll send you off the horse, McFly. Don't test me," She told him as he winked regardless of the threat.

The two seemed to continue their conversation, having Doc fail to actually leave the property along with them. "I will see you again won't I?" Clara called to stop him again.

"Of course, you'll see lots of me I'm sure. I have a shop in town. I'm the local scientist- uh, uh-" Doc stumbled on his word choice over the mistake he'd made. "b-blacksmith."

Clara wasn't troubled by this and instead looked on to him in surprise. "Science? What sort of science? Astronomy? Chemistry?"

Looking over to Marty growing tired of seeing this hopeless exchange Amanda only smiled over the innocent comments going between them to continue listening. "Actually, I'm a student of all sciences."

"At this rate we're never gonna leave," Marty muttered under his breath, "Hey, Doc. We gotta get goin'."

"Oh, yes well—" Doc slowly backed away, hitting himself on the fence on the way out as he continued to lock eyes with Clara, "Excuse us, Clara. We have to get going. Tootle-oo!"

She waved off to him with a wide-grin as Amanda let out a chuckle over the awkwardness at the end. The trio were now riding back over into town, Marty jumping on the opportunity to ask Doc what he meant over the situation he'd managed to fall into. "What do you mean you're gonna be seeing lots of her?"

Doc brushed this off. "Well, I might see her again, just in passing."

"You can't be that oblivious? Didn't you see the way she was looking at you?" Amanda told him. Though, coming from from her who constantly doubted Marty's affection, the comment had zero authority to it.

Marty laughed to this amused to only see this as an opportunity to tease her. "Amanda had a bit of déjà vu for a minute because she's done the same look."

Doc, still lovestruck, didn't seem to pay mind to what they meant. "She did have quite a scare, right?" Rolling their eyes over him being oblivious, the couple still said nothing of it. "After all, Miss. Clayton almost ended up at the bottom of Clayton Ravine."

Realizing the similarity in the name finally, Amanda became puzzled by the coincidence. "Wait, Clayton Ravine. You don't think—"

"Holy shit!" Marty said suddenly to have her look over to him surprised, "Clayton Ravine was named after a teacher. They say she fell in there a hundred years ago."

"A hundred years ago? That's this year!" Doc realized.

He laughed to himself over the story behind his sudden memory. "Every kid in school knows that story 'cause we all have teachers we'd like to see fall into the ravine," Marty explained to smile over to his partner, "Except for the softie here, apparently."

"Hey for the record Lee told me that story only once and I'm not a softie—"

"Great Scott!" Doc stopped suddenly to have the group collectively stop riding to look to him having stopped riding his horse in shock. "Then she was supposed to go over in that wagon. And now, I may have seriously altered history."

Seeing he was obviously angry with himself over this, Amanda instinctively tried to reassure him it wasn't as bad as he thought it to be. "Well, they just won't name the ravine after her, right? That's all?"

This didn't seem to be any much help as Marty tried to steer the conversation away. "Look, Amanda's right. Let's just get the Delorean ready and get the hell outta of here."

"I wish I'd never invented that infernal time machine. It's caused nothing but disaster," Doc told them, the frustration in his tone of voice over this more than obvious.

He then rode off dramatically as he said this to have the pair hesitate before continuing along. "I think he's taking this all very well," Marty mentioned as they straggled behind Doc.

Amanda continued the sarcastic tone over the circumstances at hand. "Yea, definitely. He's as level-headed as ever."