It's Boxing Day 2002 and a slim teen wearing a Manchester United suit and tie enters a service station on the A1 motorway near Newcastle. His attire attracts attention, but his face doesn't register with weary festive travellers.
The boy who later maintains that he can eat "anything" without putting on weight on ignores the fast food outlets, but uses the service station toilets to change into less formal clothing.
It's still 10 weeks until Fletcher will make his Manchester United first team debut, but Sir Alex Ferguson wants the talented young midfielder to experience travelling with the first team.
He didn't get off the bench at Middlesbrough that day as United were defeated 3-1 but it helped him to experience the atmosphere of the Premier League.
It also put a three-hour dent into the long journey home for Ferguson allowed his 18-year-old midfielder to travel north with his family to spend "Hogmanay" in his native Edinburgh.
Ferguson always maintained a soft spot for his compatriot, but Fletcher was also winning approval from the harshest judges.
"I try not to harp on about a player but he impressed me from the very first moment I saw him," Roy Keane told me of Fletcher a decade ago.
"He has got the potential to be outstanding. He's got unbelievable talent but he's got a good head on him and that's what I like about Fletch. He could be up there."
After making his debut against Basel in March 2003, Fletcher would go on to start 265 times for United, plus play a further 75 games as a substitute.
He made it when so many others failed. Five Premier League titles, the Champions League, the Club World Cup, the FA Cup, three League Cups ... Fletcher won the lot as a reward for his talent and dedication.
Darren Fletcher has been a stalwart of Manchester United for over a decade but his days at Old Trafford look set to end. Now 30, Fletcher started his first game since August in the 1-1 draw at Aston Villa on Saturday and received an ovation from the 3000 travelling fans. He was selected because Marouane Fellaini and Ander Herrera were ruled out with illness.
Fletcher has been fit to play all season but when he has got off the bench it has been fleetingly: one minute against Crystal Palace at home, two at Arsenal, 16 minutes when United were coasting at home against Hull, four against Stoke and one at Southampton.
It's nowhere near enough for any professional footballer and while Fletcher may feel that he deserves more minutes, his manager Louis van Gaal does not.
He gave him game time pre-season and even made him vice-captain behind his close friend Wayne Rooney and started him in United's first three games of the season from which the team picked up only two points.
That Fletcher has played top-flight football at all is remarkable considering his own struggle with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel condition so serious he needed the toilet up to 30 times a day, preventing him leaving the house to go for a meal or to watch his kids play football.
He lost three stone in weight, had pounding headaches and was deeply embarrassed by a condition he's now proud to raise awareness of. Plenty thought he might never play again but he came back at Villa in December last season.
Fletcher proved the doubters wrong but it's his future which fans are now talking about. He just wants to play football, but he's not doing that at United.
He has maintained that he has been fit enough to play for over a year now, yet his appearances are all too infrequent, though he has had his moments.
He was United's best player for an hour against then-European champions Bayern Munich in April, when he snapped away at the Bavarian midfielders like a man on a mission to make up for missing United's three European finals in 2008, '09 and '11 through suspension and non-selection.
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