Just wanted to make a comment here to answer some things that came up in reviews, etc following Part One. Some of the comments I received make me want to explain a little bit. And I'm posting this separately so that those of you who have already read Part One won't miss this.
Originally, I had actually thought about adding notes at the beginning of this fic, kinda as a disclaimer about how I'm handling the bullying issue in this fic - because I'm simplifying it. This is so not reality but I don't want people to think I'm just shoving stuff under the rug. But bringing it up (starting with it) takes my story where it needs to go. I really thought some people would have a problem with this if I didn't explain myself
However, I am a bit surprised (and not surprised I guess because I struggled with it myself) about the reaction to having Sonny tell Nicky not to cry. This is actually integral to the direction of this story and there is more Nicky/pre-school stuff coming up again later in the story. And in that section I actually go into the motivation for WHY Sonny is trying to teach his son not to cry.
But as mentioned, I did struggle with this myself because Sonny's a great guy, right? Would he actually say something like that? But dads - even really nice ones - will say things to their kids (especially boys) to toughen them up for "the real world." And Sonny strikes me as someone who had to be "tough" growing up to survive. I tried to make it not sound like he was passing a judgement on having feelings that make you want to cry - ie you can't cry because it's bad, it makes you weak, not a man, etc. Sonny would NEVER say that.
I tried to couch it in terms more like hey, don't do this or others will want to hurt you without him being judgmental about the actual emotions/crying part. Cause we all know our Sonny wears his heart on his sleeve, no? I can't see him teaching restraint of actual emotion to his kid at all. But I can see him trying to teach his son to deal with his emotional reactions so that he won't get picked on. I'm so sorry that didn't come across in this, but hopefully that upcoming chapter I mentioned will help explain my intentions better. (It's already written and I have no plans to re-write it, I just hope that as is it clears some of this up).
But, if you end up not liking how I lay out Sonny's motivation later in this story either, then I guess you can just chalk it all up to me writing a plot device to get us all headed down the road to explore the theme of crying in this fic. :-)
Sorry I pulled him out of character for a lot of you. I hate it when that happens when I'm reading fic too. I try very hard to keep my characterizations accurate. Hopefully what I do with him going forward won't be too out of character either, but he'll be dealing with some heavy stuff that I believe can really change a person. So, fair warning, he'll be a bit changed too.