Summary: In his own unique way, Larry helps Don deal with the events in Arrow of Time.
A/N: Minor spoilers for Arrow of Time and the Doctor Who episode Father's Day. I wrote this when I was having trouble dealing with some regrets of my own, and I'm not sure how good it is, but I decided to post it anyway.
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: Don't own, not making any profit.
Larry was standing on the deck, leaning on the railing and staring into the depths of his glass, obviously in deep thought on something. Don walked over to stand next to him.
"Hey, Larry. Whatcha thinking about?"
Larry continued to contemplate his glass. "Did you know that antimatter particles can be thought of as normal matter traveling backwards through time?"
"Really? So, does that mean I can get my time machine in a couple decades?"
A small smile. "Hah, no, it appears that traveling through time any way other than forward at a rate of one second per second will not happen. In our lifetime, at least."
"Aw, man. I was kind of hoping I might get a chance to meet Babe Ruth."
"I don't know… To me, going back in time is a bit like Schroedinger's cat. Until we can observe it, we won't know how it works. We won't know if we can change the past until someone actually goes back and tries it, and trying to change the past could create a temporal paradox that destroys the universe. However, if they succeed and it doesn't destroy the universe, we'd never know. Have you ever seen the Doctor Who episode Father's Day?"
Don smiled slightly at the non sequitur. "Um, no, can't say I have."
"Oh. Well, suffice it to say that one character tries to change her past and the result is not optimal."
"That bad, huh?"
Larry nodded.
Don stared into his own glass. "Sometimes… I wish I could get a do-over for the last few years of my life. I did some stuff I'm not proud of, and I wonder if I didn't do it, would things be better now? But at the same time, I think, if I hadn't, would things be worse? Would Megan be gone, and what about Colby and David, Charlie and Amita, Robin, Dad? So I just decided, if I'm ever in a similar situation, to try and do it better that time, or at least not do it worse."
"Mm, that's good. Learn from the past, because you can't change that, and the future is ever-changing."
"Who said that?"
"I just did."
Don laughed, then became serious again. "Thanks, Larry."
"Any time." Don turned to walk back inside when Larry said, "Oh, and another thing about antimatter. If a particle collides with its antimatter counterpart, both particles are annihilated."
"I'll remember that, the next time I start thinking about going back in time."