Meadow: A Sopranos Fanfic

'Paulie Walnuts,' 12 Years a Slave

"Madonn, what the fuck has all this been for?" Paulie whispered to himself, sitting on some 'Unknown Joe's' tombstone and looking down at Sil's. "I gotta tell you Sil, this arrangement is no good my friend. I gotta be honest, this arrangement is fucked."
For a moment he had to forget about all that and take out a comb to get his hair in order; signature silver streaks now perfectly aligned on both sides, with a lot more grey all the way around.
"I gotta tell you," he started in again, " it's like I told Georgie Paglieri when he told me what your wishes were, I told him, 'I'm fuckin dreamin here.' And, all friendship aside, Sil, I'm telling you the same thing too. I'm fuckin dreamin."
Paulie looked around the graveyard where so many of their friends and friends of theirs had been buried. This is most likely where he was sure to be buried too. The day was New Jersey bleak, but it wasn't a particularly bad looking day.

In front of him was Silvio Dante's headstone.
"I know you remember you lousy fuck, back in '07? How many nights I sat there in front of your bed askin that you'd wake up. It's not like 'T' did us any favors checking out either, Bobby too. It was raining contracts on the Soprano boys like they were fuckin Peakytoe Crabs, open-fuckin-house... but I stayed there, cuz I knew you'd wake up.  And you did."
Thinking about it always made him a bit misty eyed. It had been the worst time he could remember in all his years as a soldier in the DiMeo family, even more than the turmoil of the 80's when New York was more like the Wild West than the Wild West had been.
For Silvio to come back from the dead the way he did, waking up from a coma that the doctors had said there wasn't any coming back from, pulling everyone together to the side of his bed and finally giving meaningful orders; it had been like a miracle. Silvio Dante had lead them to defeat the remainder of Burt Gervasi's crew and broker peace with the new Lupertazzi Boss, Butch DeConcini.
"That was 12 years ago... and now... now I'm the Boss," he said resentfully, "but... not like this Sil." Paulie finished the conversation by blowing his nose and putting his handkerchief away.
"Not like this."

***

Alegro Lupertazzi always felt that it was of great significance that his wife's eldest sister was named Allegra. He parked the car and went up the elevator to the main tower where his offices were.
He was Carmine Jr.'s eldest son, and his wife's father had been Johnnie Sack, which is probably the only reason he was still living after all these years; a fact that wasn't lost on him.
He bore no one in the family any ill will. He had already explained this to Butch and the Staten Island boss, George Paglieri years ago before taking the bar exam. All he had wanted to do at the time was finish his law degree and go off and make what was left of his family proud. Butch had allowed this, but it came with the obvious trade-off of having to work for the Lupertazzi family's favorited law firm, Sullenberg and Miatzo, until it was deemed that his father's own debt was repaid in full. It was just as likely that Butch would see him dead as soon as he was of no use, so he made himself of use and more; quickly becoming the youngest partner in Sully & M's history.

For six of his las ten years it had been mostly normal work. It was only the last four years where things got a little bit... weird.

Everyone knew what had happened over there in Jersey when Tony Soprano was leading the DeMio family, and how he had single handedly run it into the ground. From therapists to trying to wack his own mother, from scheming and lying, to finally biting off more than he could chew and going to war with a New York family, basically getting himself and all of his Capos killed. Al knew they had lucked out when Silvio came back from the dead and brokered peace, although at what cost; the Soprano family was now no more than a footnote across the minds of the rest of the New York families, and nothing more than a footstool to the Lupertazzi's. If they had been known as a glorified crew before, they were lucky to be recognized as half of that now, even on their best day.
All this was fine by him, everyone knew he would never get into politics and risk his own well being, only that for some unfortunate reason it was he who Butch and George hand picked themselves to take on and mentor someone who, in his mind, posed a potential problem to them; Soprano's eldest kid, Meadow.
After graduating Colombia and becoming an attorney, the word was Silvio actually came to Butch and asked if she could learn the ropes at Sully & M's. Why? What good could possibly come of keeping a Soprano around, even a legitimate one? Even for legitimate purposes?