I_soprano_5x13 – Popular

Tony left the room and walked straight into the path of the FBI. The feds were moving in, a swarm of windbreakers and warrants. They weren't there for Livia; they were there for the wreckage Tony had left behind in his wake.

As the rain began to pour, Tony found himself at Vesuvius, the doors locked against the storm. Artie Bucco let him in, his face a mask of pity and fear. They sat in the dark, eating pasta by candlelight while the lightning illuminated the empty tables.

The realization had hit him like a panic attack, but without the sweet release of passing out. Livia and Junior had conspired to have him clipped. His own blood had turned the Vesuvius dinner into a potential wake. I_soprano_5x13

The following story is a reimagining of "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano," the Season 1 finale of The Sopranos .

Outside, the sirens were getting louder, but for one last night, the walls held. Tony left the room and walked straight into

Inside the house, the silence was brittle. Carmela was upstairs, her rosary beads clicking like a countdown. She knew the storm was coming; she could smell the gunpowder on Tony’s skin even when he hadn't fired a shot. Tony stood up, his heavy footsteps echoing off the flagstone. He had a stop to make before the world exploded.

Livia’s eyes fluttered, a tiny, wicked glint appearing behind the fogged plastic. She didn't deny it. She just looked at him with that look—the one that said the world was a giant bowl of nothing and he was the biggest nothing of all. As the rain began to pour, Tony found

Tony looked at his family—Carmela, Meadow, AJ—huddled together in a booth. He realized then that the ducks weren't coming back. He had built a cage around his family, and the bars were made of his own sins. He raised a glass, the wine dark as blood. To the family, he said, his voice cracking.