Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hey, Mak.” She heard Sam call from the kitchen.

Sammun-Mak couldn’t help the cautious steps she took through the doorway, spotting Sam sitting at the tiny round table that was barely tall enough for him to fit his legs under. The kitchen itself was already small, with the cramped feeling made worse by the chaotic clutter of dishes Sam and Max left laying around on every countertop. Sam claimed that eventually at some point they would maybe consider getting around to renovating the house, and the first thing on the docket would be making the kitchen larger.

“You called?” She asked as she stepped up to the table. She placed her hands on the back of one of the chairs across from Sam, but made no move to sit.

Now she could see the small pair of reading glasses that he wore as he wrote in a journal of some kind.

“Yeah, I just had a quick question for you,” he paused for a second as he quickly finished writing. As she looked closer, she could see that the pages were numbered with… dates?

“When’s your birthday?”

Sammun-Mak relaxed at the question. Why did she feel so tense in the first place? “Is that all? A rather simple question, really, it’s…”

The LED screen blinked a couple times. She paused, as if frozen, as she attempted to reach for something that wasn’t there.

It was no secret that Sammun-Mak’s memory was more than spotty. The things she remembered about her time in ancient Egypt were few and far between, and what she did remember were less than pleasant memories of a long-ago tyrant. Nevertheless, she was quick to write down any pieces that came to her in a small journal that Sam and Max’s friend Sybil gifted her.

She remembered that she had a birthday. She remembered that for several years, they were not a time of joy, but a time of mourning. She remembered when she finally had her birthdays back to herself, after she became pharaoh. She remembered when several nearby cities and towns arrived at the palace to celebrate her, and see the newly built pyramid made in her honor. She remembered briefly telling Sam about it, all that time ago back in the museum.

So then, why couldn’t she remember the date?

“We can make one up for you, if you want.”

She was broken out of her thoughts, only staring in stunned silence at Sam for a few moments.

“Pardon?”

Sam’s smile widened momentarily. “I keep telling you that you don’t have to be so formal, y’know. But yeah, if you don’t remember then we can just pick a random date, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Sammun-Mak frowned slightly, watching Sam’s face for some kind of sign that he was messing with her. She thought it odd to claim some other day as your day of birth. That was the whole point of birthdays, was it not? It wouldn’t be a ‘birth day’ otherwise.

“It’s not breaking any rules or anything, if that’s what you’re worried about. But look who you’re talking to. It’s not like Max and I have ever cared about rules.”

She hummed thoughtfully, glancing away momentarily. “Well, if it wouldn’t hurt…”

She glanced back at Sam. The canine constantly seemed to radiate kindness and… security. He asked for trust rather than forcing it upon her. He smiled so kindly. If he held out a hand, he would patiently wait for her to take it. He allowed her to move at her own pace. And though she couldn’t feel it, if Sam reached out a hand and she took it, she could feel it. The warmth. The patience. The sincerity. It was all so foreign to her. Who was the last person who felt like this towards her?

Sam picked the journal up, flipping through its pages for a moment. It looked much smaller in his hands. “How’s June 22nd sound? It’s only a few months away.”

“I suppose that’s… fine.” She was almost hoping for Sam to pick a date and for it to awaken something in her, or something. That Sam would conveniently pick the same date her actual birthday was on and she would remember it when he spoke it aloud. Perhaps she’d been watching too many cartoons. It sounded like a cliche that would be present in one of those.

He quickly scribbled something down on the journal’s pages before shutting it. “That’s all I needed.”

Sammun-Mak only watched as he got up from the too small table. As he walked past her to leave, he reached towards her and patted the top of her head. A gesture she still wasn’t quite used to. And yet it seemed like second nature to Sam.

She continued to stare at the exit of the kitchen, where Sam had just left. She was sure she would’ve figured out his motives by now. Yet every interaction with him only left her more confused. Just what did he have to gain from all this? Sammun-Mak swore to herself that she would figure it out soon enough.

Chapter Text

The office was quiet. Well, minus the incessant honking of the city’s never-ending traffic that could’ve been coming from anywhere between two and twenty blocks away. Curse his excellent hearing. At least Max was quiet. It was a difficult feat, but sometimes when the little guy got engrossed enough in his drawing he’d stay still for a little while.

Sam himself was working on a half-finished crossword from an old newspaper. He always enjoyed working on them, even if he only ever did so to avoid doing whatever paperwork the commissioner had him fill out about their last case.

Currently, however, he found it hard to focus. There was a nagging feeling deep in his gut. He glanced over at Max several times, just to make sure he was still at his desk and hadn’t wandered off and gotten into something he shouldn’t have. It wasn’t Max causing this feeling though. The lagomorph was diligently working on coloring an entire piece of printer paper red. Had he forgotten something? He ran through several possibilities in his head.

“Holy heaping helpings of Hemingway novels neck deep in hot water!”

Max jumped, colored pencil clattering onto the desk. “Jesus, Sam, give a guy a warning next time.”

“No time for complaining, Max. Sammun-Mak’s birthday is next week!”

“She has a birthday?”

“Of course she does, chowderhead. Don’t you remember when I was telling you that we came up with a birthday date for her? I wrote it down in my planner and everything.”

“Oh, that’s what that was about? To be honest, I kinda tuned ya out the whole time,” Max said, kicking his legs up to lay them on top of his desk.

Sam only huffed, not bothering to dignify Max with a response. He rooted through his desk drawers and pulled out his sticky notes. “I won’t make you help with party planning, but could you at least help me pick out a present?”

“Does she really need anything else? You practically spoil her already.”

“I don’t spoil her.”

“Yes you do! Anytime she, or Geek, or even Junior so much as look at anything for too long you’re already throwin’ it in the cart.”

“Well maybe I just wanna buy stuff for our kids,” Sam argues.

“But now we’ve got nothing to get them for their birthdays!”

Sam propped his head in one hand and tapped his pen on the desk with the other. Max had a point, unfortunately. Despite that, Sam was sure there was something they could do for her. It was the first they’d be celebrating together, they had to do something. Something good, and big, and important.

Our kids.

“We could adopt her.”

Max only turned his head towards Sam, giving him a confused look.

“I mean, we’ve already got Junior, and we just adopted Geek on her last birthday. And now that Sammun-Mak’s got a body, it would just makes sense to adopt her too, you know?”

Max’s head tilted slightly as he considered Sam’s words. “…I won’t say I’m opposed to the idea.”

A smile crept its way onto Sam’s face. Max could be very stubborn. He still hadn’t quite warmed up to their newest addition to the house, but the fact that he wasn’t outright rejecting her was a good sign, at least. It made Sam happy, and he thinks that Max knows that.

Max quickly glanced back up. When he noticed Sam’s soft smile, he looked away just as fast, crossing his arms. “But how would we even do that?” He questioned, noticeably more defensive now. “I mean, she’s been dead long enough to be put in a museum. We won’t be able to do the same things we did for Geek.”

“Did you suddenly gain the ability of rational thought overnight?” Sam teased. He didn’t bother trying to block the eraser before it hit his nose. He deserved that one.

Sam glimpsed the phone out of the corner of his eye, and the set of keys right next to it. “I’ve got an idea.”

“Just so we’re clear, sirs,” It’s hard to tell where Superball is looking behind his pitch black sunglasses, “you two want to adopt the brain of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.”

“Yes,” Sam replied, leaning on the familiar oval office desk that currently had several papers scattered around it.

“And this is the same pharaoh that attempted to take over the world a few years ago?”

Max, who’s head barely peeked over the edge of the desk if he stood on tiptoe, spoke first, “Technically she succeed—” he was swiftly cut off by Sam dropping a hand on top of his head.

“We took care of it, she’s fine now!”

Sam watched Superball’s deadpan expression. While the secret serviceman-turned-president was quite good at keeping a neutral face, Sam could always notice the subtleties. A slight eyebrow raise, twitch of his mouth, or the very rare moments where Sam could only barely see his eyes behind the sunglasses he constantly wore were often indicators of his emotions that Sam would look for. And once you figured that out, Superball was practically an open book.

“Listen, Supes,” Sam started, leaning over the desk to get a touch closer to Superball, “I can tell you’re unsure about the whole thing. But Max and I have everything under control! Sammun-Mak doesn’t even have her powers anymore. You have nothing to worry about.”

Superball paused. Sam was pretty sure he was mulling over the canine’s words, and deciding how much he trusted them. Either that or this was his equivalent of the very loud, very annoyed sighs he and Max would get from the retail workers of whatever grocery store they decided to terrorize that week. The ones they gave because they knew Sam and Max were an unstoppable force of nature that will come in and do what they want without much care for whoever tries to stop them.

“Alright then sirs. I just need a bit of information from you two.”

Sam couldn’t stop the grin that split across his face.

The drive back was about as calm as could be expected when Sam was behind the wheel. They made it back home in what Sam thought was record time, but Max argued he actually seemed slower than usual. They continued to argue about Sam’s driving speed as he unlocked the door and they walked inside.

“Damnit– Sammie, where’d you go?”

The pair paused their bickering, looking towards each other. They could recognize Sammun-Mak’s voice immediately. Sam raised an eyebrow, which caused Max to innocently shrug. It was probably nothing, the canine reasoned internally. Sam Jr. was small and mischievous, which made him easy to lose track of.

“Sammun-Mak? You in here?” Sam called as he rounded the corner into the living room.

He stopped in his tracks. Sammun-Mak was in the living room, back turned as she continued scouring the living room for Sam Jr. Around the room several couch cushions and a couple of books were suspended in the air.

“Sammun-Mak?” Sam called out, louder.

The girl flinched, suddenly straightening out as the cushions and books all fell to the floor with a loud thud. She turned to look at Sam and Max, with an expression Sam could only describe as the look of someone who knows they’ve been caught.

All three of them were frozen, only staring at each other in stunned silence. Sam wasn’t sure what to do or say in this situation.

“Not it!” Max shouted, promptly turning and walking out of the living room.

“She can eat cake, right?” Max asked as he pulled the store-bought chocolate cake out of one of the bags.

“Of course she can!” Sam reassured him. Then he turned to Geek, “She can, right?”

Geek rolled her eyes. “Yes guys, she can eat cake. She just can’t quite taste it yet, but I’m working on that.”

“Well there you go.” Sam turned to Max. “Now hurry up and get that to the coffee table.”

The three of them continued decorating the living room. It would be a small party, only the four of them if Sam Jr. decided to keep sleeping. It was the same setup as Geek’s party from several months back, with slightly different decorations. It was a bit of a surprising request, coming from Sammun-Mak. Though Sam certainly wouldn’t complain about it. Celebrating at home was easier. Much more quiet and relaxed.

Yet Sam could feel the anxiety building in his gut. Their present was a big deal in and of itself. He wasn’t sure how she’d react to the news. He also found himself worried about the celebration itself. It was the first birthday they’d be celebrating with Sammun-Mak. He didn’t want anything to be ruined.

“Are ya nervous?” Max suddenly asked, which startled Sam out of his thoughts.

“Of course not.”

“Sam.”

Sam looked down at Max. They were few and far between, but Sam appreciated the little moments between them where they could put the jokes aside and simply be a bit more open with each other. They knew each other better than anybody. It was a bond that Sam wouldn’t trade for the universe.

“Alright. Maybe a bit.”

Max patted Sam’s arm comfortingly. The light caught the small gem in his ring as his hand moved. It was a glittering reminder of just what they meant to each other, and seeing it made Sam’s heart swell. This family, this life that he and Max built together meant the world to him. He wanted Sammun-Mak to be a part of it. Whatever her reaction may be, they’d take it in stride.

The tender moment was cut short as they heard the sound of a car nearing the front of the house.

Max smiled. “Showtime.”

She could smell Sam and Max’s plan from a mile away.

When Sybil showed up and claimed she wanted to hang out with Sammun-Mak for a few hours, while not unusual in and of itself, she knew something was up when Sam eagerly ushered her out of the door.

She didn’t complain about it, though. Sybil was kind. The way she acted towards Sammun-Mak was similar to Sam, though different in a way she couldn’t quite pinpoint. It was almost the same way she acted towards her own kid. Sammun-Mak quickly shook the idea away. It was a silly train of thought that she didn’t wish to keep following. At least Sybil got her ice cream whenever they went out together.

Their time together was coming to an end, as Sybil drove Sammun-Mak back to Sam and Max’s house. She did her best to be patient, but her tapping foot gave her away. Any time she tried to force herself to stop, she would forget and start tapping all over again.

After what felt like an eternity, they finally pulled up to the front of the house. Sammun-Mak gave Sybil a quick goodbye. She swiftly made her way to the front door, pulling out the key Sam had given her a few months ago.

The door opened with a click, and she didn’t wait to step inside. The first thing she noticed was that it was dark and quiet, which confused her.

“Sam? Max?” She called out. She poked her head into the kitchen first, but it looked relatively untouched. She stepped into the living room next, flicking on the light.

“SURPRISE!” Several voices rang out, causing her to jump.

“Happy birthday!” Geek spoke first, a wide smile on her face.

“You didn’t think we forgot, did you?” Max climbed over the back of the couch to sit down.

“My-” Sammun-Mak paused, head tilted slightly as her mind caught up with the situation. “Oh! That’s today already?”

“Geez, you’re almost as bad as I am,” Max said.

“Be nice Max,” Sam quietly chastised. He turned to Sammun-Mak, “I asked Sybil to distract you for a couple hours while we set up here, since you said you wanted something small.” As she listened, she noticed Sam holding his hands behind his back.

“Are you holding something?” She asks bluntly.

“Oh, it’s just a little something for you,” Sam says, moving towards her and revealing a large flat envelope that he handed off to her.

Sammun-Mak paused, staring down at the plain rectangular yellow envelope that had a small red gift bow taped to the front. Silently, she opened the envelope, carefully pulling out the piece of paper that was inside.

She silently scanned it over. She immediately recognized the blue borders from several months earlier, when Geek had received a similar piece of paper and they wouldn’t stop hugging Sam and Max for several minutes. Sammun-Mak was still in a jar back then. At some point, she was pulled into the hugging session as well, even if she couldn’t reciprocate and it couldn’t have been very comfortable hugging cold glass.

The first thing she had noticed were Sam and Max’s names at the bottom. Her gaze slowly traveled upwards, finding her own name on the paper. Even further, and she found the date her and Sam had picked out all those months ago to be her birthday. And

“Sorry about the inaccuracy. We had to put down your birth year as 2003. Apparently it would make some government people flip if we tried to put down your actual birth year. But I figured it wouldn’t be a huge deal, y’know?” Sam continued rambling, happily filling the silence that Sammun-Mak couldn’t.

The realization hit her all at once. This was for her. But… this meant that Sam and Max… No, it couldn’t be. There had to be a mistake.

“So, uh, whaddya think?” Sam asked, finally causing Sammun-Mak to tear her eyes away from the birth certificate.

She glanced down at the certificate once more, struggling to come up with the proper words. “This is… Do you really mean it?”

“Of course we do!”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t we?”

There’s flashes of memories, vague and hard to grasp. But she gets the gist of them. A family, once joyous and full of laughter, torn apart by her hands.

“I…” Her mouth opens and closes several times. Words, much like many of her memories, seem to elude her. “I don’t… deserve this.”

The words surprise herself as much as they surprise Sam and Max.

She remembers a woman’s face, screaming at her for something she did. What did she do?

Sam kneels in front of her.

She doesn’t deserve a family.

“Hey,” Sam’s voice is soothing and gentle. The hand he placed on her shoulder was full of warmth. His smile was nothing but kind. “You belong here. With all of us. We love you.” This whole time, Sam had been nothing but kind. Why had that taken her so long to realize?

She couldn’t cry. This mechanical body didn’t allow her to. But the emotions were there. They were overwhelming and she wasn’t sure what to do with it all. When was the last time she had allowed herself to feel like this?

Geek kneeled next to Sam, opening their arms for Sammun-Mak. She didn’t hesitate, practically diving into Geek’s arms. Her siblings' arms. Two other pairs of arms surrounded them. They all hugged the newest addition to their family for a long time. It was warm. It was secure. It was love.

“Thank you,” was the only thing Sammun-Mak could think to say.

“Of course, kiddo,” Sam, her dad, replied.