Title: Real Science!
Fandom: Guardian
Contents: A remarkable lack of spoilers; time travel; sexual innuendo and sexual content between different versions of the same person; Lin Jing POV; humor; Lin Jing's crazy SCIENCE!!

Note: This is technically a sequel to So Brave!, but you don't have to read that one first.

Summary: Wherein a second Lin Jing arrives via wormhole, and the lab is less quiet for a while.


Lin Jing is spending another -- quiet! -- night in his lab. It’s his only oasis of sanity in the chaos of the SID, ever since future-Chief Zhao dropped through a wormhole and into their meeting with Hei Pao Shi. Between their usual case load, the overtime spent hunting for this Zhu Jiu guy, and Lao Chu’s fixation on finding and stopping whatever might even be capable of killing the Envoy... things have just been too hectic to think straight during the day.

But at night, when it’s quiet, he can focus on the real science he needs to be doing. He’s been working on a new device, and he’s really close to getting it to work! He told everyone he was making a device to help them find the rest of the Hallows -- and technically he was, but he put that aside a couple of nights ago when we realized he might be able to use the Dial to make a wormhole. A small one, maybe just a three minute jump into the past... just to test a couple of theories he has about the timeline.

It’s totally relevant! Who do they think made the wormhole future-Chief Zhao used last time? It’s not like there’s another scientific genius working at the SID! (Professor Shen doesn’t count. He’s not a physicist, and besides, he’s only a consultant.)

Lin Jing makes a few final adjustments to the projector and carefully seats the Dial into the brace. It begins to glow faintly -- a good sign! He takes a couple of steps back, though. Just to be careful.

Lin Jing figures it’ll take about fifteen minutes to charge up and open. Then he can test the portal’s stability, and maybe send an object through. Something his past self will recognize right away, but completely replaceable if it disappears. Maybe his watch? --

The far wall shimmers like water and parts around a wormhole. A dry wind blows in from -- from where, exactly?

Looking in, he sees a riot of color in a dark world. Kind of like looking into space near a nebula, but not nearly so empty. Things really don’t look so very far away, there, although he supposes that might be a function of the way light curves around time and not actually a reliable measure of distance -- and is that someone moving toward him?

It’s definitely a figure in a lab coat, waving at him, moving like he’s on a conveyor belt. Lin Jing waves back, careful to stay on his side of the opening -- he still hasn’t tested if it’s stable -- before realizing that the person is him, Lin Jing, some other timeline Lin Jing, and he’s waving because Lin Jing is standing right where he’s headed --

He tries to duck to the side, but doesn’t quite make it in time. The other Lin Jing barrels forward like he was shoved out an elevator door, and they’re knocked to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

When he catches his breath, the other Lin Jing is lying sprawled on top of him, glasses askew and lab coat bunched up on one side. Or maybe that’s his lab coat; it’s hard to tell.

“Hi.” The other Lin Jing smiles at him from way too close.

“Hi,” he answers automatically, but he’s thinking about sex. It’s totally not his fault! Just, they’re lying on the floor of the lab, pressed together like lovers, and he knows what that smile means from the inside.

The other Lin Jing’s smile broadens. “We should...” he waves a hand in the universal gesture of ‘I’m stating the obvious’ and it’s probably only a little because finishing the sentence would be a blatant innuendo.

Lin Jing snorts a laugh. “You first.”

“Oh, right.” The other Lin Jing smirks at him and slides off his body in a way that doesn’t help at all.

But at least Lin Jing can finally get up off the floor. “You’re doing that on purpose.”

“Well, yeah. It was fun when it happened to me.” The other Lin Jing does a thing with his eyebrows which looks ridiculous, but also really hot in a genius-scientist-who-gets-his-jokes kind of way. Then he sighs. “Too bad we don’t have time for more.”

“Ah.” Lin Jing adjusts his glasses and doesn’t adjust himself in his pants. He doesn’t actually need to, he just kind of wants to... and the other him is doing exactly the same thing. Damn. “So how long does the wormhole last?”

“About three minutes, if it’s anything like the one I saw. But it’s my first try.”

Lin Jing stops. “Wait. When are you from?”

The other Lin Jing grins at him. “About twenty minutes from now. Why? Were you thinking I’d drop more hints about your future?”

Lin Jing punches his shoulder, hard. “Dumbass! You went through an untested wormhole!”

“Ow! Why’d you do that?” The other flinches away, rubbing his shoulder. “I ran into the me who’d done it before me, so it wasn’t really untested.”

“Huh. I’m not sure that’s true?” Lin Jing tries to think about it, but gets sidetracked by the more important bit -- “Hey! It works!”

He dashes over to the projector and runs his hands along the casing lovingly. The crystal in the center is glowing almost as brightly than the Dial at this point -- it’s probably about a quarter-charged.

“Yes, it works. I even figured out how to make it open in the wall instead of the ceiling. The me before me sprained his ankle coming through.” The other Lin Jing tweaks two of the connectors, and the charge jumps at least ten percent higher. “There!”

Lin Jing just watches him. All of this is moving so fast, but -- “You’re changing the timeline.”

“Only a little.” The other Lin Jing ducks his head nervously. “I’m pretty sure we all do it?”

“That makes sense.” It doesn’t, it’s stupid, but he doesn’t think he could resist even if he knew it would destroy the lab. Wait, he might be able to short-hand the conversation they really need to be having -- “Infinite universes or collapsible difference hypothesis?”

“Don’t know yet.” The other Lin Jing grins at him. “Wanna try again in two hours and find out?”

That... would make a good test, actually. If they each still remember their own differences... “Sure. Leave your watch.”

“Good idea!” The other Lin Jing strips off his watch and hands it over. “We can find out if physical objects can remain safely once the wormhole closes.”

Lin Jing lets his fingers linger on the other Lin Jing’s hand. “And if they can...”

The other Lin Jing does that eyebrow thing again. “I bet we can do a lot in twenty minutes.”

It’s still hot. In an I’m-really-likely-to-get-laid kind of way.

“Forty, really.” Lin Jing laughs as the thought occurs to him. “Just with different versions of us.”

The other Lin Jing’s eyes go wide. “Hell, yes.”

His watch -- the other watch -- begins to beep.

“I’d better go.”

Lin Jing isn’t sure which of them starts the kiss, but it’s brief and wet and really good, if he does say so himself.

The other Lin Jing pulls back and winks. “See you in two hours!”

He walks back through the hole in the wall with a wave -- and a stumble as he walks through. He gets smaller faster than he’s walking -- maybe it really is a conveyor? -- and the wormhole closes with a pop and a sudden change in air pressure.

Lin Jing glances around at the door to make sure no one is around to notice, but it stays quiet.

He probably ought to tell someone that he’s experimenting with time travel. And changing the timeline. And making more changes to the timeline every time he does.

But he’s going to be flirting with another version of himself in less than twenty minutes now, and he’s really, really looking forward to it. And then if all goes well, in two hours... well. It’ll be fun, and it almost certainly won’t destroy anything.

Reporting his findings can wait til morning.