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Story Notes:
    • DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Chapter Notes:

I'm still working on the other stories that are getting closer to their ends, so I started this one because I wanted one about love and family, with a few drama moments but otherwise just sweet. My other stories will all be updated or finished along with this one, so don't kill me for adding more. LOL

Star

Max remembered being three and being afraid of the new place he was in. He was sitting with the mommy, not sure what he was supposed to call anyone. They hadn’t told him, and he waited all day for someone to tell him. The mommy seemed to be worried about having the room inspected by the woman who brought him. So Max waited patiently in the chair the mommy put him in while they were busy talking. He got excited and hopeful, thinking this time they would keep him. The mommy sat next to him, reading him a story while the real kids did their homework in front of him. He couldn’t tell what the story was, but he liked how the family reminded him of the ones he saw on tv at the last place he lived. They didn’t watch the tv or even tell him to do it and stop bothering them. As each day passed things seem to be close to perfect in his mind. He was allowed to call the parents Mommy and Daddy, and the kids seemed to like him too. ‘Perfect’ ended one day though. The only thing Max remembers about the day he left was the mommy saying they couldn’t afford four children to the lady taking him away. Max could count though, and he only counted three with him and the kids that he almost started thinking of as his brother and sister.


Max remembered turning four because the next family he was with gave him a birthday cake. He also remembered how the real kid wasn’t happy that Max lived in his house. The mommy didn’t believe it when Max told her he didn’t break anything, or that he didn’t steal the real kid’s favorite toy and break it. When Max was being taken from that house, what little hope he’d had started to dim. The next house was just two grown-ups, who didn’t seem to have time for Max. He remembered days where he didn’t even see them. Eventually, Max was packed up again when someone asked him where the people who lived in the house were. Max didn’t know so he shrugged and continued to play in the dirt until he looked up to see a policeman standing over him. Max smiled really big because policemen were the good guys. Only, he stopped smiling when they told him he was going to another place. Max didn’t understand why they said he was neglected. Of course, Max didn’t understand what that word meant.


He also remembered the day he turned five because that’s when he stopped seeing the homes he was sent to as families and just saw them as places he stayed for a time. He no longer tried very hard by the time he turned five and the number of families passed his ability to count. The families also didn’t try either, just dealing with him when they had to. What changed for him was that now he was old enough to go to school. Not that he knew what to expect when they drove him there, since he no longer trust what the TV showed him. He was taken to his classroom along with a bunch of other kids, but what interested him most was the room had a corner with toys and things he could draw on. He wanted to go there but knew he was supposed to do what the teacher told him to do. He waited patiently all day and began to think he might not get to play when he refused to count with everyone else. Max politely told his teacher he didn’t need to count any higher because numbers never did anything for him. That was the day he met the person who decided Max’s life would change. Max only knew he liked the smile that made him feel like he’d been touched by the sun.


The man walked into the classroom as Max told his teacher he didn’t want to count and laughed after Max explained why. It made Max feel funny because he didn’t think the man was laughing at him as other people did. He watched the man the whole time he talked to the teacher, and before the man left he walked by Max and smiled at him. Max felt special because the man didn’t smile at anyone else in the room.


One day the school took Max on a field trip, his teacher asked if he could go with them. Max heard her tell the other teacher that she thought it would be a treat for Max. Max wasn’t sure why anyone wanted to see fields but liked that he could sit by himself and watch out the window, and none of the other kids made fun of him. He liked riding the most because no one got mad at him if he just stared out the window. The bus stopped and he followed behind the group as they walked into the building. Max whispered to the teacher, asking why were they in a building when they were supposed to be looking at fields. She bit her lip before telling all the kids to be good while they looked around.


A lot of the kids got bored and the teacher and the other grown-up were chasing after them. Max sat down like the teacher asked, looking up at the picture in front of him. He didn’t know why but the picture made him smile, and he stopped hearing the noise around him. He didn’t even notice that he’d been left behind until his tummy reminded him it wanted something. He got up and walked all over, but didn’t see anyone he came here with. He passed a few grown-ups on the way, but they didn’t really say anything as he kept walking and looking. Since Max didn’t know them he did as he was told and didn’t talk to strangers. He got to the front, still not worried, until he noticed it was darker outside. Max turned back around and went where the teacher had left him, thinking maybe she was looking for him there. When he got back to the bench the man was sitting there looking at the picture. He looked at Max, confused. Since Max was used to people not remembering him, he just sat down, feeling safer but not knowing why.


“You’re Max aren’t you?” The man asked him.


“Yes, sir,” Max replied even though he was told not to talk to people he didn’t know. He felt like he did know the man, so in Max’s five-year-old mind, that should be okay.


“Are your parents here?” He asked, looking around.


“No… I’m on a field trip, but there weren’t any fields. Just lots of pictures.” Max told him.


“You came with the school?” He asked, looking worried.


Max nodded, as his stomach growled. The man got up and held out his hand for Max. “How about we get you something to eat while I call and find out why your still here.” He told Max.


Max was quiet when they walked across the street and the man told him he could have anything he wanted at the restaurant. Max tried to read the words on the menu but he wasn’t exactly good at it yet. He didn’t want to admit to the man he wasn’t good at reading though since the other kids made fun of him for being behind. Even though he didn’t think his teacher meant for them to make fun of him for it when she told Max. He didn’t want the man to look at him the same way, so he looked around when the waitresses came out.


“What do you want?” The man asked Max.


Max started to panic until he saw a plate go by with chicken and french fries. He didn’t need to read since he could see the food.


“Can I have that?” Max pointed to the plate for the man, then decide he wanted to call him something other than ‘the man’. “What do I call you?” Max asked.


“Justin or Mr Taylor, either way is fine with me. I need to make a call, can you sit here while I do that?” Justin told Max.


Justin had used the walk across the street to control his anger over Max being forgotten. He honestly didn’t think things like this really happened. Lindsay wasn’t irresponsible, so he didn’t want to yell at her if somehow this wasn’t her fault. He only came by to check that his painting was hung up correctly, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been there when Max came walking up. The kid was adorable, and Justin remembered him from the day he dropped by to see Lindsay when he got home from a showing in Paris. Brian hadn’t wanted to do anything but check on Kinnetik before they went home. He’d heard Lindsay asking why Max didn’t want to count and almost fell over at Max’s answer. It stayed in his mind when he picked up Brian, and even a jet-lagged Brian was laughing on the way home. They’d spent the last month having fun, knowing they were hoping to come home to some news they were waiting for. Brian jokingly said maybe they could get one like Max, about the child they were hoping to adopt soon.


Justin stopped laughing when Lindsay called him later and he asked about the kid. Only to find out from Lindsay that the kid was new and a  foster kid one of the families in the area took in. Justin looked over at Max who was staring out the window, as his phone rang. He couldn’t help getting angrier that even if the school had forgotten Max, the people taking care of him should have noticed. He wanted to call Brian, but knew he needed to help Max first. Justin was so lost in his anger he didn’t realize Lindsay had answered.


“Are you there?” Lindsay asked.


“Where the hell are you?” Justin snapped, not able to hide how he felt about Lindsay leaving the kid behind.


“I’m at home with Gus, Jenny, and Mel. Is there some reason you're angry at me?” She asks.


“Yes. Because I stopped by the museum to see my painting…”


“Did they do something wrong to it?” Lindsay interrupted, sounding more worried about his painting then she should be about the kid left at the museum.


“No, the painting is exactly where it should be. But your student Max was there also, which he shouldn’t have been when the rest of his classmates and you are all home where you should be.” Justin tells her.


“What are you talking about?” Lindsay asked, at least sounding worried.


“How do you miss that you left a kid when you're supposed to keep up with them?” Justin asked, looking down when Max was there pulling on his shirt.

 

“Ms Peterson wanted me to go with the others… She said it would be a treat for me to go since I don’t get to do that a lot.” Max tells Justin, not wanting him mad at Ms Peterson, who was nice to him.


“I thought he went to his bus since they showed up when school was letting out. Oh God, they really left him there?” Lindsay asked.


Justin didn’t want to make this worse but he had to ask Lindsay. “What about the people keeping him? Why haven’t they called?”


Once again Max tugged on his shirt. “They sometimes don’t remember, since there’s five of us living with them,” Max told him. He’d been left outside the house when his mind wandered and he didn’t hear it was time to go in for dinner.


“Can you get Mel, because I’m not sure if I can be calm when I have to take him back there,” Justin tells her, speaking softly so Max didn’t think he was angry at him. “Max, why don’t you go eat while everything is hot. I just need to know where we go from here.”


“Justin, are you kidding me?” Mel said, after Lindsay explained what was going on.


“I wish I was, but when I got to the museum he came walking up. He calmly sat down like he didn’t realize he should have been home by now.” Justin tells her.


“We’re going to need Carl, and it’s going to get messy. Not just for Max but for the other kids. In a lot of these cases, they farm them out to the emergency homes until they can figure out what to do with all the kids.” She tells him.


“Brian and I could take him,” Justin tells her.


“Justin, they don’t just hand out the kids to anyone,” Mel tells him.


“Brian and I are in the process of adoption. We didn’t plan to tell anyone until it happened. Does that make any difference?” He asked.


“Are you going through the state or privately?” She asked.


“We went through the state. The private agencies gave Brian the creeps when they started treating it like a financial plan instead of a child who we wanted.” He told her.


“Let me see if I can get a hold of someone. If they approved you for adoption then they’ll likely approve you as an emergency family. There’s no guarantee, but you need to call Brian and tell him before I do this.” She told him.


“Brian won’t care. Just make sure I don’t have to leave him with people who didn’t notice he wasn’t home.” Justin told her before hanging up. He texted Brian to meet him at the restaurant.


Brian and Emmett showed up as they were finished, smiling at Max and nodding to Justin. Brian didn’t want to leave Max alone while he talked to Justin, and knew Emmett could easily keep him distracted. Lindsay had called and told him what was going on, and when he saw Max covered in barbecue sauce, he didn’t question what Justin wanted, just texted his lawyer to make this happen for them.


The only question Brian asked Justin was, “Are you ready to be a father?”




Chapter End Notes:

Thank you for everyone even when I'm taking forever to update, who takes times to read my crazy ideas.

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