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The stairwell rang with a duet of laughter well before the door to the freelance police office came kicked in with a crash! Along came stumbling two freelance officers in a fit of hysterics, one loosening his striped tie to breathe easier, the other immediately throwing himself on the floor as soon as the door was open.
“Oh Sam! That was amazing!” The fuzzy white lagomorph declared as he stretched himself out face down on the large circular office carpet, his fingers absentmindedly searching it’s surface for loose dust bunnies to pluck out.
“I second that,” Sam agreed, falling back into the couch with a poof, slight swirls of dust taking air from the impact, a remnant of how little the office had been used in months. He coughed slightly, in part from the dust, in part from their laughter “I had no idea a single hockey puck could cause so much damage.”
“And did you see Syble’s face when I stared at her through the window? You told me people might be a bit surprised to see me but wow! I could have sworn her voice would have shattered all the glass in a 7 mile radius, it sure shattered my ears.” Max dug a finger into one of his long ears to demonstrate. It took a few more seconds for the laughter to mostly die down, leaving both detectives exhausted in their respective locations, breathing heavily coming down from their fit.
Max sighed happily and flopped over onto his back, staring up at the dingy ceiling lamp which hung above his head. “It’s good to be home. I haven’t had this much fun since I double dared you to ride that raptor a while back.”
“Raptor? What raptor?” Sam asked with a chuckle left in his breath, whipping away a stray tear his laughter had brought forth.
“You know, the raptor.” Max rolled onto his side to look at his companion as he recounted the tale. “Remember we went back to go see what real dinosaurs looked like, and we almost got stuck in those tar pits, but we managed to escape by luring over some long necks and then I bet you twenty fudgy freezes you wouldn’t have the guts to ride a real raptor.”
The story sent the hound into another short fit of laughter. “You crack me up little buddy.”
For a brief moment a frown flashed across Max’s brow. “No Sam, I’m serious.”
But the confusion waved away swiftly as his overactive mind got distracted by finally taking note of the details of the rug he was laying on. The deep blue colour. The bald eagle, the white star encrusted rim. It couldn’t be. Oh, but it was. Certainly, without a shadow of a doubt, this was-
“The center of the oval office rug!” Max squeed in pure joy. “When did-! How did-! I-! You-!”
He fumbled for words before giving up and settling for action instead, flinging himself into Sam’s arms, planting a solid kiss in his cheek in the process. The wolfhound for his part looked thoroughly confused at his partner’s reaction.
“Where did you get this Sam? Did you steal it? When? Why didn’t you take me with you?!” The string of questions spewed out of the lagomorph like foam out of a freshly broken fire extinguisher, with each his voice growing louder and his demeanor more excited.
“Cut it out chuckle head” Sam pried the handsy ball of fluff off him and dropped him onto the couch next to him. “I didn’t steal anything. You had that relocated to the office when you became president.”
“I’m president?” Sam could have sworn Max had literal stars in his eyes judging by his sheer look of awe.
“‘Course you are, Max! Well, you were. Remember how you beat the reanimated statue of Abreham Lincoln during the elections after we dealt with the toy mafia back during the hypnotism case involving Hugh Bliss?” Sam let the question trail off at the end, the two detectives staring at each other in a brief silence.
A silence broken as quickly as it had formed with the ever energetic rabbity thing bounding off in seemingly random directions the office had to offer, sticking his nose, fingers and tongue in all kinds of places. “Oo! A whack a rat machine! Sweet! Just try not to hit me too hard, last time you took a hammer to my head I walked in circles for hours!” Max sang minor exclamations of joy and enthusiasm at each new thing he discovered.
It kept his mind from thinking about it too much. All these things in their office, all with his name, or his face, or his writing on it. All of which he didn’t recognize at all. The only thing he did recognize was Brady Culture’s hair, which lay at the very bottom of a huge pile of souvenirs in their closet. Even the photos on the wall had changed. Reminders of adventures he had never gone on. Well, not this version of him anyway.
“Hey Sam! What’s up with the pink stuffed bear in the closet? Did you start collecting plushies while I was gone?” Max’s question came out slightly less upbeat than he planned. This Sam’s adventures were clearly less, er.. time travely.. compared to his.
Max shook the thought out of his head, using the conveniently timed sneeze produced by wafting up so much old dust as a cover. Again, keeping his mind off things, not over thinking it. That was the whole goal. So what if this Sam and him didn’t share the exact same experiences in their respective timelines! It didn’t matter! Sam was still Sam! He was still Max. It didn’t matter that he had, what? Four years? Four years of different memories, memories of things that, apparently, never even happened in this timeline. That didn’t bother him. Nope. Not in the slightest.
“What do you think, Sam? Could we set up an indoor basketball hoop? I wanna try dunking this mechanical puppet head thing.” He asked without turning away from the massive pile of closet junk as he tossed the ex-puppet-President’s head over his shoulder. Max practically buried himself in the pile of souvenirs as he dug through the closet, astonished by (but definitely 100% not upset about) the sheer amount of stuff he didn’t recognize
Besides, it’s better to just laugh it off, right? He’ll just familiarize himself with all the juicy details later. Right now he just wanted to get some sort of familiarity in this place. At least all the holes were still in the walls, right where they left them. Well, there were some new ones, obviously, but in general. Maybe he could scour though some past case files to get himself up to speed with all the new ins and outs of this timeline. That is, assuming this timeline’s Max didn’t shred them already. Curse himself and his utter lack of impulse control and love for needless destruction!
“You know Sam, if I’m the president, or, er, ex-president, do you think I can pull some strings to get us a new dart set? We can finally finish that game-”
Max suddenly found his continuous ramblings cut short when a quiet yet noticeable whine emanated from the direction of the couch. Turning his head to look at his long time friend, partner, crime fighting companion, he noticed the dog still sitting on the couch where he left him. His shoulder’s hunched. His face in his hands. The corners of his mouth pulled up in a slight grimace.
“Sam?” All the wisecrack immediately left his voice in exchange for concern as Max took a few tender steps towards his friend. “Sam are you alright?”
The response he got was another sobbed whine. Max took this as his cue to step in proper and quickly hopped back onto the couch and started gently rubbing the canine’s shaking back. “Sam. Hey-hey-hey, shhhh. It’s okay. Sam, it’s okay.”
His words didn’t seem to have any effect however as the dog’s pitiful whining continued.
“What’s wrong Sam? Is it something I said?” Max asked with genuine worry in his voice, one hand on Sam’s shoulder, the other still stroking the dog’s back.
This time, between whines and sobs, Sam managed to squeeze out a response. “Max, I- I lost you. So many times. I couldn’t protect you. I failed you, over, and over. “
His words weighed heavy on Max’s heart. He hated seeing his friend like this. It always pained him when Sam would blame himself when things happened beyond his control. If nothing else, the big puppy could hold one hell of a grudge against himself at times.
“And, I couldn’t bring you back.” Sam continued. “I lost you and I can never bring you back. All that time, all those things we went though. It’s just, gone.”
Having finished talking, Sam once again reduced to a whimpering mess. Meanwhile, Max could have just about smacked himself. Of course. While he was rummaging through all the random junk in the office, he was rummaging through Sam’s memories. Precious memories. While each new unfamiliar item had brought him frustration, it must have brought Sam pain having all these things from his past few years dug up so soon. It didn’t even occur to him at the time that while he was just trying to manage his own emotional discomfort at being in a home so alien to him, his efforts were stirring up his friend’s own trauma.
“Sam I- I’m so sorry.” He apologised, sliding himself onto Sam’s lap and wrapping his arms around his partner as tightly as he could and pressing his head into Sam’s chest. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I-”
Max gave up on words for the time being. Insead he opted to just cling to Sam like his life depended on it. It didn’t take long for Sam to return the gesture, wrapping his arms around Max and burying his own face in his fur. If nothing else, Max still smelled the exact same way he always has. Max may never admit it, but he took the opportunity of having his face completely sheltered from view to relieve some tears of his own.
So the two sat together until Sam’s whines eventually quieted down and his breathing returned to normal. Max pulled away slightly, looking up at the face of his life long friend, both their eyes slightly red and puffy. Sam lowered his head slightly to let their foreheads rest together.
“Sam, I know it’s hard. And I know it’s going to take a long time for both of us to really get back to the way we were. But… Sam you’ve been my best friend since we were just kids. You’ve been the only consistent presence in my life for as long as I can remember. And I know it hurts that we lost so much time together. But, I still remember when you helped me steal that bike so we could go on a picnic back when I was kicked out of the class field trip. And I still remember how you stood up for me when the kids in junior high started making fun of me for never showing interest in girls.”
“I still remember going to the moon with you, and how happy I was when you told me you liked me too and- and- Sam I don’t know how to go forward but I do know I want to go forward with you. That’s why I came here. I didn’t know what happened in this timeline. Hell I didn’t even know if you were even still alive in this timeline either, but… But I had to come back. Because I don’t think I can be without you. And I know it’s going to be hard, but I still have 20 years worth of shared memories in my head, and those are just as precious to me as the 4 years I lost.”
With a quiet sigh, Sam pulled Max back in for another warm embrace. “I love you Max. I missed you.”
“I love you too Sam.” Max allowed himself to relax in Sam’s hug, his voice less tense and almost sleepy. “Say, Sam? Tell me about the adventures I missed?”
Sam chuckled gently, his voice sentimental. “Sure, little buddy.”