#not just a normal cop who yeah might've been jumpy but would've let him go

[doctorbrown]

❝That may be the case, but you can't discount all of the positive things science fiction has brought to mankind.❞ He may have refused to believe that science fiction was not just as motivating, if not important, as anything else, but he has dealt with the sceptic before, and nothing short of hard supporting evidence would convince them.

Unfortunately, he cannot afford to change her mind in such a way.

❝It isn't all Orwellian doom-and-gloom and a dystopian future isn't what's guaranteed to meet us at the end of that path.❞ It may be one possible permutation of mankind's future out of the ever-sprawling infinite, one strand in the cosmic web of multiverses, but he still clings to the belief that somehow, with enough time and growth, they can achieve a future more in-line with that of Star Trek.

After all, the future he's seen time-and-time again now would suggest that, at least in terms of medical and technological advancements.

Emmett fiddles with his watch, trying to curb some of the tension pulling at his shoulders. ❝That's right.❞

He'd been right about the progression of her thoughts and while fabricating some elaborate story seemed attractive in the moment, this would all catch up with him in ten years' time and the potential repercussions, not to mention extensive investigations, were the last thing either he or his family needed.

The door flying open causes Emmett to jump and that look on her partner's face sends his heart plummeting straight down into his stomach. He's seen that look reflected back at him in a mirror countless times—it can only mean—

Great Scott...

This is precisely why he wanted to avoid allowing anybody to look at the time vehicle for too long; even if they didn't understand how it worked, anybody with an interest in the sciences would be able to deduce its purpose after close enough examination. So he'd endeavoured to keep the amount of people who'd seen the time machine limited to the amount of fingers he had on a single hand—six, should he include Einstein—and set to work on the holographic emitters precisely for that purpose.

However, more unsettling than that was the fact that her partner, unlike most others, seems to wholeheartedly believe that the DeLorean is a time machine even without any proof.

This is a nightmare come true.

❝Had I invented a working time machine,❞ Emmett says, trying not to choke on his own tongue, ❝the scientific community would have been up in arms about it.❞ Or the government would've already gotten its hands on it.

The very idea sends a violent shiver down his spine.

❝I designed the car to emulate one, but time-travel is simply just not possible with our current understanding of the universe. That, unfortunately, still remains firmly grounded in the realm of science-fiction.❞

With each minute she spent in the company of this mam, the more convinced Scully became that there was something to this case. She might not agree with Mulder that there was something extra-terrestrial to all of it, but she couldn't deny that there was something strange; Emmett Brown was just too agitated to be simply a man who indulged in his love of fiction and a passion for theoretical science. She could understand a certain degree of worry that most civilians experienced when in a room such as this, particularly when the FBI was involved, but the worry in his demeanour went beyond that. The man was hiding something that was significant enough to have him completely on edge.

"In my experience the effect of science-fiction on reality is rarely beneficial," she replied with the heavy sigh of experience. If it didn't cause naivety and mistakes, then it instead prompted inhuman and immoral experiments, practised on society by an uncaring government. She doubted Dr Brown would still have his enthusiasm if he knew the things she learned over her years on the X Files.

"In the 1940s?" She repeated, looking at him with a deadpan expression. "You were employed by the government in the 1940s?" She did the math quickly in her head, making a mental note to check his files for his birth date later. If she had to guess, she'd say the man had to have been in his teens at the most in the 40s and it made his claim less than probable. Of course the decade would only serve to cement Mulder's point; the obsession with aliens in the United States had, after all, begun in 1947.

"I ask because, in my work for the FBI, I have come across vehicles, particularly aircraft, that has capabilities that shouldn't be possible. Technology that is hidden by government factions for secret projects; I imagine if you had worked on such a project and had retained technology to use for your own personal entertainment that that not only might cause the effects your car left behind, but it would also explain--"

Before she could finish, the door to the interview room opened wide, the handle knocking a little against the wall as Mulder marched in, a look of triumph on his face that only left her feeling concerned.

"He's a time-traveller, Scully," he declared firmly. "That's what the car is. I don't know how you did it," he added, turning to look at Dr Brown, "but you made a time machine, didn't you?"

"Oh, brother," Scully muttered to herself, dropping her head into her hands.