#i chose role model for my interpretation of this prompt because the Time Family is simply everything to me

[doctorbrown]

DOCTOBER '24 ⸺ 「 14 / 31 * MODEL 」

August 5, 2000

“It looks like you’ve gotten yourself a little shadow, Emmett,” Clara says, only barely managing to stifle a laugh at Ellie who is now barrelling down the hallway, half-wearing Emmett’s grease-smudged lab coat.

It is far too big for her to be wearing—with their comparable size difference, it practically swallows her up, making wearing it more of a hazard than anything else, but Ellie, determined and persistent, refuses to let the very obviously ill-fitting clothing impede her from her task. The lab coat all but swallows her up and there is more of it trailing along the ground sweeping the floor behind her than there is actually on her body. One sleeve, half-on and drooping off her shoulders, flails as she runs down the hall, waving Emmett and Clara down.

“I was starting to wonder if you’d hung new mirrors up around the house and forgot to tell me,” he says with a slight teasing, yet no less affectionate tone as he looks down at the young lady who’d now firmly attached herself to his leg, half-disappearing in a flutter of fabric. 

“Look, Unca Doc! Now imma scientist too!”

Emmett chuckles. “Yes, you certainly look the part. But where did you find it? You didn't sneak into the lab to get it, did you?”

Ellie manages to look positively affronted by the accusation that she would do something like that—something she knows would upset her favourite Uncle when he has made it clear time-and-time again that the lab is Dangerous And Off Limits, especially if he’s not there—and widens her big blue eyes in abject horror. 

“No!” She shakes her head vigorously. “I know I'm not s'posed to be in there. I didn't sneak! You left it on the chair, Unca Doc, so I fig’red you wouldn't mind ‘cause you weren’t usin’ it.”

Emmett’s lips round out in a surprised ‘o,’ and now that she mentions it, it explains why he hadn’t been able to find it anywhere in the lab earlier despite his thorough searching. Clara’s chiding look says it all.

“I found this”—Ellie lets go with one hand, fighting with the oversized lab coat to roll back the sleeve and dig her hand in the pocket—“in your pocket.” After a slight struggle, she emerges victorious, holding up a slightly crumpled, quartered sheet of paper that Emmett recognises immediately. “And you sounded real annoyed about it, so I thought I could help! You always wear this when you’re doing your es—espeerimints—”

“Experiments,” Clara corrects gently.

“Experiments,” Ellie repeats, nodding. “So this will make me good at science too, right?”

It’s quite an impressive leap in logic, Emmett thinks, and not at all correct, but he can understand how, to her mind, the two things would be connected. The delighted smile on her face stays his tongue and Ellie unfolds the paper—his latest schematics for upgrades to the Time Machine’s computer systems—that now bears several new, heretofore unseen markings that Emmett knows couldn’t have come from him, even at his most exhausted. 

Clara casts her husband a look of mild concern but the lack of urgency on his face—he’s more amused and surprised than anything else as she proudly presents her additions, like a young doctoral student presenting their thesis—immediately settles her concerns that Ellie has somehow gotten ahold of something she wasn’t yet old enough to see.

“I fixed it, Unca Doc! And I can tell you how I did it, too.” 

“She’ll be quite the little scientist yet,” Clara says, earning herself a toothy smile from the young scientist herself.

“I’d love to hear how you figured it out, Ellie. Why don’t you go sit down at the kitchen table and I’ll meet you there to discuss?”

“Okay!” Ellie stuffs the paper haphazardly back into the coat pocket and takes off at a run. 

“Oh, Emmett, weren’t those important?” 

“Yes and no. She didn’t ruin them to the point where I can’t still read them, and it’s obvious which are her additions and which are my original designs. I’ll need to be more careful about where I leave that from now on. She’s still too young to understand and I know she won’t do any real harm, but better safe than sorry.”