DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight.

"Hello Kate, how are you this evening?" I asked after letting myself in the front door.

"Oh hello Edward I didn't know you were coming today."

"I wanted it to be a surprise." I kissed her on the cheek "would it be alright if I took Max to dinner tonight?"

"That would be fine, just don't keep him out late it is a school night." She warned

"I never do." I yelled over my shoulder already making my way up the stairs to Max's room. I knocked on the outside of the door before entering.

"EDWARD" he yelled "what are you doing here?"

"Well I have a surprise for you." He smiled "grab your shoes." I nudged his arm to jump up.

"Where are we going." He asked climbing into the car.

"I was going to take you to eat at Red Robin." Dinner wasn't the only surprise I had for him.

"My favorite."

"I know." I smiled.

The restaurant wasn't crowded considering it was a Wednesday night. We ended up sitting in a booth in the back. After they took are drink orders I decided now was the time to tell him about the other surprise, the one that I had been keeping for over a week now.

"So I was wondering if you wanted to spend your birthday with me?" I tried to hide the smile that was now creeping up on my face.

"I thought you already where." He questioned.

"In Forks." I finished letting my smile finally come. He just looked confused so I kept talking. "I talked to Miss Kate and she agreed to let me take you home for the weekend."

"I get to meet Nana Esme." He finally spoke. Max had talked to my mother on the phone a few times before when she would call. He had taken to calling her Nana even though they had never met in person.

"Yes you will get to meet my mother." He jumped up and down in his seat. Before any of us could say anything are waitress came over to take are order.

While we ate we talked more about the weekend. We would be leaving Friday after he got out of school and be staying until Sunday afternoon sometime. He has been wanting to go to Forks with me for awhile now and I finally got permission to take him. I was really excited this time because my sister Alice would be there with her husband Jasper and there twin boys Owen and Ayden. When we got back I took Max up to his room to help him get ready for bed.

"I never asked you what you wanted for your birthday." I said as I tucked him into the blankets.

"Hmmm" he tapped his forehead with his finger "Rock Band." He blurted.

"Anything else?" I asked, he didn't know but I had already gotten him Rock Band.

"Not that I can think of."

"Well I will see what I can do." I said goodnight and went down stairs to thank Kate.

"Edward I wanted to talk to you before you left." She looked nervous, she was biting her lip and looking down at the floor trying not to meet my eyes. It reminded me so much of Bella when she was nervous.

Bella, I had not thought of her in awhile, it had been eight years and my heart was just mending.

"Yes Kate."

"Why don't we go sit in the office." She led the way.

"Ok." I said sitting down.

"I wanted to let you know there is a family coming tomorrow to see Max." My face fell and I went white as a ghost. I knew I should be happy for him, he was a great kid and deserved a family that would treat him well. I just couldn't help but worry about if this would take him away from me. "I know what your thinking, but Mr. and Mrs. Mason are a very nice couple. They already have adopted two boys." She tried to reassure me. I couldn't say anything at this point, I already had discussed my feelings with Kate, she told me to be prepared for the day when Max would be adopted.

"I have let the Mason's know about you, I said you were like a big brother to Max, they said that if you liked you would still be able to visit." I felt like more than just a brother to him, I felt like a father.

For about an hour we talked about the Mason's. They seemed like a very nice family.

The rest of the night I tossed and turned in my bed. I couldn't stop thinking about Max being adopted, the past year he has been my world. Every time I had a chance to spend with him, I did. In the past I had near given it much thought about him being adopted. Years I had spent trying to get over Bella and I still had a whole in my heart, I couldn't loose him to. I remember when I first joined the big brother program and met Max, he was so scared and alone, he had just been taken out of his home for physical abuse. It took me a whole month just to break past the wall he had put around him. The day I took him to my house and finally got through is a day I will never forget.

FLASHBACK

"I thought we could hang out here today if that's ok with you." No answer. Aright than. I just walked over to my piano and started playing.

"You play." I was startled by a very quiet voice that was right next to me. "My Nana used to play for me before she died." I was shocked to here a full sentence come out of his mouth.

"Would you like me to teach you?" I asked.

"Would you play some more first please?" I didn't answer I just started playing. The thing about me and music is that I get so into it I tend to forget everything of everyone around me.

"Who's the girl?"

"What girl?" I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about.

"The one from the song." I had written the song for Bella but I was not sure how he would even know that I had, or that it was about a girl.

"Why would you ask that?"

"Because of your face." he said bluntly. I looked at him confused. " When you first started playing it was smooth and your face was soft, and in the middle it got rough and your face went angry." He took a breath. "After that the music got happy and you smiled a lot like you were thinking about someone, a girl." "My Nana used to smile like that when she would think of my Papa." He than looked down at the piano keys.

"Why did you get sad at the end?" He asked. If he wasn't so small I would have never known he was only six.

"She used to be a friend of mine." I thought about Bella.

"Did you love her?" I looked at him.

"With all my heart." And it was the truth. I had never said the words to her but I hoped that she knew how I felt.

"Did she die?" He must have took my sadness as something else.

"No, no we just kind of grew up." I wasn't quite sure what I should tell him.

"My Nana said if you love someone you should tell them."

"Your Nana was a wise women."

"Edward?"

"Yeah buddy."

"My mommy told me she loved me, but than she would hit me." He cried, finally letting it all out. "Know no one loves me." I just rapped him in my arms.

"Oh Max that's not true, I love you and I will never let anyone ever hurt you again."

FLASHBACK END

I had fallen in love with that little boy from day one, even when he didn't say a word. After that day we became best friends. Even though he is now only turning eight I feel like I can tell him anything and he understands.

Work was extremely busy the next morning, I didn't get a break all day. By the time my shift ended the ER was empty.

"Dr. Cullen before you leave there is someone on line three for you." Tanya said at one of the nurses stations. I thanked her before pressing three.

"Hello this is Dr. Cullen." I heard a frantic Kate on the other side.

"Edward the Mason's are going to be here in five minutes and he wont come down stairs."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." I hung up the phone with out even saying goodbye and was out the door. When I got to the orphanage I went straight to Max's room.

"Hey you alright." He looked up at me with puffy red eyes and I knew he had been crying. "You want to talk about it?" He shook his head.

"Edward what if they want to adopt me?"

"Buddy that's a good thing." I was probably just as worried as him as to what would happen if he were adopted.

"Will you leave?" He asked

"I will never leave."

We walked down the stairs together to where Kate was waiting with the Mason's, they looked like a very nice couple maybe in there mid thirties.

"Well I guess I will just leave you to it than." I turned to walk out the door but was stopped by two very shaky hands.

"Edward?" It was Max

"Yeah." I turned back around and was engulfed in a huge hug.

"Thank you for being my big brother."

"I love you and I will pick you up right after school tomorrow." He nodded. "Your going to be fine." I whispered in his ear. I got up to leave but not before saying one thing. "Mr. and Mrs. Mason, Max is a great kid, one of the smartest and most intelligent I have ever known, he deserves the best life anyone could ever ask for." I smiled at them and than walked out the door.

The next morning I woke up early, I was to excited to sleep. Max had an early day so he got out of school at noon. While I waited I finished rapping his presents. I went a little overboard but I was happy about everything I got him. After I was finished I noticed I still had quite a bit of time left. I went over to the book shelf to grab a book I could read to pass the time. I decided on the book I had read so many times before, I practically had it memorized. It was a story about a young girl named Elizabeth who was in love with two very different people. The first was a boy named Josh she had grown up with, he was her best friend and she his. They had decided to have a relationship when they where sixteen, but when the new boy moved to town everything changed. Josh had become such good friends with the new kid they were practically inseparable. When Elizabeth and Josh broke up, Easton, the new kid felt like as there friend he should try to fix the friendship the two of them had to begin with. While trying to make things right he falls in love with Elizabeth but try's to keep it a secret for fear of hurting Josh. The two of them end up having a fling behind there best friends back. After a little while, Elizabeth decides to end it, she does not want to risk loosing her friendship she had gotten back with Josh but when she goes to do that her and Easton can't keep there hands of each other and they get got by none other than Josh. In the end she has to pick between her long time best friend, the guy who has been there for her through thick and thin, and the guy who she is madly in love with. It sounds like your typical love triangle but the way Bella has written it makes it so much more, every time I read it I relive my past, what me and Bella had together. Max had said he thought the book was about me, he said that me and the Easton character had so much in common, he was more right than he knew, the only thing was that Easton gets the girl in the end.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was just about time to go so I started loading stuff into the car.

When I got to the orphanage Max was waiting on the front porch. "You ready for the best weekend ever?" I asked putting his bag into the back of the Volvo.

"Are all those for me?" He pointed to all the presents in the back.

"Nope only one." I joked, he just rolled his eyes, I guess he didn't find me very funny. We said are goodbyes to Kate and than headed on are way.

"So did you like the Mason's?" He just shrugged. "You know it won't hurt my feelings if you did."

"They were ok." I had a feeling he really didn't want to discuss it right now and I wasn't going to pressure him I wanted him to have a really good time on this trip so I left it alone.

A/N: This is my first try at FanFiction, so it will get better I promise.