Chapter Four: Ich Liebe Dich

Lisa found herself in Doc Brown’s garage. It was in its usual state
of disarray, as always. The sound of numerous ticking clocks
echoed through the building. Though a series of lights were
illuminating the interior, she could tell it was night from the lack of
sunlight coming through the windows and from the fact that the
clocks she could read showed 7:55PM on their faces.

She looked around the place, unaware that she wasn’t alone.
Pinned to a bulletin board was a newspaper article reading:
BROWN MANSION DESTROYED. That, at least, told her that it
was after August 2, 1962, which was the day after Doc’s house had
burned down. He had told her he had to move into his garage after
the accident.

The place wasn’t exactly meant to lived in, but it was all Doc had
left. He had managed to salvage some of his belongings from the
house and bring them to the garage. Lisa, however, didn’t meet
him until long, long after the accident.

Lisa heard a sound behind her and turned around quickly. She saw
Doc Brown lying on a couch, moving around as if coming out of a
deep sleep.

“Sorry,” Lisa apologized. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Doc ignored her. Strange. She walked slowly around the furniture
until she came to a pile of...well, junk on the floor. She couldn’t go
around, so she tried to step over it.

Her foot went through the debris.

More than a little astonished, Lisa tried to touch the wall she was
standing beside, and her hand went through that as well.

“Weird…” she whispered.

Then she heard another sound, this one not in Doc’s voice.

It was her own.

Lisa continued on and saw herself curled up beside Doc, sound
asleep with one of his long coats draped over her as a makeshift
blanket. Lisa finally looked at herself – she who was not asleep on
the couch – and saw that all colors on her body were washed out.
It was as if she were a ghost.

“If I’m there,” she said to herself, pointing at the one sleeping
against Doc and assuming, quite correctly, that they couldn’t hear
her since she wasn’t even solid enough dent the piles of trash on
the floor, “and here,” she pointed to herself, “…am I just an
observer? I think…”

She paused and, acting on an impulse, looked at the garage floor.

Yep. There was The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and the
television was playing Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

She smiled. She remembered this. She remembered this, indeed.

It was December of 1984, very close to Christmas, the second
Christmas they had spent together. She and Doc had settled on the
couch to read a little before they watched the movie (which,
incidentally, had rerun later that night according to the TV Guide).
Lisa, being Lisa, had made herself comfortable by curling up on
the couch and laying her head against Doc’s chest, using one of
his coats as a blanket. The scientist hadn’t protested; in fact, he
had adjusted his position so she’d be more comfortable, and they
stayed that way as he read her passages from The Time Machine.

Lisa didn’t remember ever seeing the end of the movie that night,
and had concluded she must have fallen asleep before it ended.
And here, she saw, that Doc had drifted off as well. Neither of them
had woken until the next morning.

At least, that’s what she thought.

Doc opened his eyes and looked down as Sleeping-Lisa shifted a
bit in her sleep. He smiled softly and gently stroked her hair. She
sighed a little, but didn’t wake.

For the first time, Lisa knew what Doc was thinking and feeling
during this…

He was perfectly comfortable having her sleep against him. Warm
feelings of utter contentment washed over Waking-Lisa (for, as far
as she was concerned, she was awake). It made her smile even
more. It felt like…like…

Like family.

Lisa hadn’t had a family since the incident. Doc had been the first
person to fill that void in her hearts after…after. Doc was hers,
plain and simple. Doc was hers.

Doc had never had a true family (back then…). Lisa had been the
best thing that ever happened to him. He was quite certain of how
Lisa fit into his life.

“Ich liebe dich, meine Tochter,” the scientist whispered to Lisa’s
sleeping counterpart as the waking one listened intently. “I don’t
care if you’re beyond my species. In my heart, you’re mine.”

He blushed a little, as if whatever he had said had been
embarrassing, and he mentally noted that Lisa wasn’t a sound
sleeper. There was a good chance she’d heard him, but part of
him didn’t care. He fell asleep shortly after that, leaving
Waking-Lisa to her own devices.

Lisa, for once, had been sleeping soundly. So soundly, in fact,
that she didn’t know that had happened. Now, however, she did.

Ich liebe dich, meine Tochter, she repeated in her mind, not
understanding the language he had been speaking. The only
languages she could understand were the languages of animals,
and, unfortunately, the human animal wasn’t included in that.

What could it mean?

Being insubstantial, and yet all her powers seemed to be intact,
there was only one way to find out.

Lisa shut her eyes and concentrated, casting her mind into Doc’s.
She “pulled up” his most recent memories and reviewed them. The
words…were German…

“Ich liebe dich, meine Tochter. I
don’t care if you’re beyond my
species. In my heart, you’re mine.”

“Ich liebe dich, meine Tochter.”

“I love you, my daughter.”

Intense happiness coursed through every pore of Lisa’s being. She
opened her eyes and grinned uncontrollably. She had known he
loved her, of course, but actually hearing him say it (even in
another language) was another matter.

Lisa searched his mind again, shutting her eyes tightly in
concentration, in the area of his brain that knew the language.

After a moment, satisfied with her search, she opened her eyes and
came to stand right beside the sleeping scientist. She knelt down so
they were nearly face-to-face and spoke to him, stumbling a little
over the pronunciation, even though she knew he couldn’t hear
her…

“Ich liebe dich, Vater.”

“I love you, Father.”

End chapter four.

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