I own nothing but Nicki

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"Be true to who you are and the family name you bear."

Maroni walked into Belmontes, straightening his tie in his haste. His eyes scanned the restaurant, his expression becoming more and more irritated as he did so. Frankie, who had entered behind him, seemed less concerned but seeing his boss's anxiousness snapped his fingers at some of the men at the bar. They quickly rushed over.

"Where is she?" Maroni asked, his eyes still roaming the room.

The biggest of the men gave him a heavy shrug. "She ain't up yet."

Maroni gave him an incredulous look. "You're kidding right?" He glanced at his watch. It's one o' clock! You were supposed to make sure she was up hours ago!"

"Aw boss we went up there earlier but she just looked so damn peaceful. And she didn't get in til late-"

"What are you going soft on me?" Maroni scoffed. With a pointed finger and pointed look he added, "Gabe. You're fired." Gabe only believed his boss for a second before Maroni's stern look broke into a playful laugh. He lightly slapped Gabe on the cheek. The others joined in, but only for a moment before Maroni was back to business, clapping his hands together and shouting, "Well? What are you mooks waiting for? Go wake up the birthday girl."

"I got it," Frankie drawled, pushing his way past the others. He made his way to the back of the restaurant and up a set of stairs to a bare wooden door. He gave the door a hard kick with his boot and stood back and listened. Nothing. With a sigh he raised his fist and began pounding on the door, shouting, "Ay Nick! Open up!"

The door swung open and a newly sixteen year old Nicki stood, tossled-haired and sleepy eyed in her black sweatpants and grey t-shirt. "Hey sleepin' beauty, how long are you gonna keep us all waiting? Your pops is already downstairs." Frankie was gruff as usual but Nicki was unimpressed. She regarded Frankie with an irritated look which he exchanged for what passed as a playful smirk. As she trudged past him, the tall and stubbly man was right on her heels, not faltering in his monotone stream of dialogue. "What are you gonna just sleep the day away? And on your birthday too? What's the matter with you. Get down there."

She made it down stairs to see a gang of large and suited men staring at her expectantly. With a small smile she ran her fingers self-consciously through her hair. "There's the birthday girl!" Maroni announced as if the whole room hadn't noticed her already. Grabbing her face between his meaty hands he planted a loud, smacking kiss on both of her cheeks, causing her to break into a bout of laughter. "Sweet sixteen!"

"Sixteen anyways," Frankie commented, winking at her. She laughed, punching him in the arm.

"It's about time you got up! You want your present or not?" Maroni tried his best to seem stern, but couldn't wipe the grin off his face. He rubbed his hands together, clearly more excited to give his figt than she probably was to receive it.

"Sure thing pops," she replied warmly, shaking her head at his excitement.

"Well look outside."

She moved between the pillars of men to the front door of Belmontes and froze. Her eyes grew so wide Maroni was afraid they might pop right out of her head and her mouth had fallen open in surprise as she saw her present parked out by the curb. A jet black motor bike with a large red bow tied to the handlebars.

"No way…" she muttered, frozen in place. A smile broke out over her face and she suddenly let out a squeal, jumping up and down in excitement. Gabe and the others were startled by her outburst but Sal just chuckled and shook his head. Nicki turned and ran at her guardian, crashing into him and throwing her arms around his neck. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you-" her words came fast as she knocked the air from his lungs.

Maroni gave a hearty laugh. "Happy birthday Bella."

"Well are you gonna stand there staring at it or are we gonna take this puppy for a spin?" Frankie asked, teasing.

Nicki shouted in the affirmative and started to rush towards the door. Maroni watched her with a wide smile, chuckling at her excitement and feeling pretty good about getting her a gift she took to so much. In the past, he hadn't always been nearly as successful, but he had felt good at this one. And from the way she reacted he could tell he had been right on the money. She couldn't wait to-

Maroni's smile slid off of his face as a thought occurred to him.

"Bella!" he shouted after her, stopping her just as she had reached the door. Snagging a helmet from the table he tossed it to her. With as stern of a look as he could manage he ordered, "Don't forget to wear your helmet."

Frankie, who had been right behind the sixteen year old, and trying to hide his own excitement over her gift, got a look of mischief in his eyes. He gave her shoulder a light push, making her turn to face him. With a nod and a lazy smile he asked, "Hey kiddo? Who wears helmets?"

Quickly catching on, Nicki lolled her head back and twisted her mouth to the side, doing her best to imitate Frankie's deep, gruff, Italian voice as she replied, "Yella' squares wear helmets."

Frankie laughed and tossled her already messy hair. Maroni bit back a smile at her ridiculous impersonation, trying his best to seem unamused. "You're a bad influence Frankie," he mock scolded. He gave in to their infectious laughter, however, as Nicki and Frankie giggled to each other before turning to the door and her new present again. As the two rushed out the door he shouted after her, "Don't ever let me catch you on that thing without a helmet or I'll knock your brains out before the pavement does!" And then as an afterthought he added. "And don't be late for dinner!"

Nicki turned and gave him a salute as the door closed behind her. With a stupid grin on his face, Maroni watched Frankie show her how to operate her new toy. Just as they go the engine running, NIcki looked back at him through the glass door and flashed a smile before taking off.

Nicki ran her hands over the handlebars of her bike. She was in the park, sitting on the only part of home that she had been allowed to keep. The only piece of familiarity that hadn't been taken from her. It must have been 3am by now and she had been riding around Gotham ever since she had left Fish's sleazy club.

She had been so excited for this meeting with Don Falcone, had been looking forward to it for years, and now she wished it had never had she felt more betrayed, more homesick, and more … was the only word to describe how she had long since cried herself of all tears she had in her and had simmered in all of the bitterness she the end though, she only felt as though it was didn't fix anything and being angry did little closest thing she had to family now were Fish Mooney who had been a sort of mother figure in her younger years and her brother had done her best to seem sympathetic, but Nicki couldn't believe a word of her laments to her "poor, dear Nicholetta" knowing that Fish had been the fore runner in getting her to else would she have suddenly been so accommodating, even with the history of maternal life lessons between them?No, this had been planned for a was sure of it.

Victor had been even less had wanted to call him as soon as she left her meeting with Falcone, but thought it best to wait until she had gotten all of her raw emotions was always looking out for her but he was never one to stand for her when she acted "ridiculous" as he put had raised him to keep his emotions in check while growing up with Italians had taught her to be much more vocal about found him to be even less sympathetic than Fish.

An hour ago

The phone rang only a second before he picked up.

"Yes?" came a breathy whisper.

"Victor?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone as Nicki sat patiently waiting for her brother to respond. She was perched on a railing by the bridge, looking out over Gotham. The city was beautiful at night, even if it was more dangerous. It occurred to her, as two full minutes passed without a word from the other end of the call, that not once had she considered leaving Gotham, even now as her life was in shambles. As she looked out at the city, she wondered if maybe it was because it had its merits. All the lights did look awful pretty. Or maybe it was just pretty because it was home. Love what's yours when it's all you have. Isn't that what Victor was always telling the kids at the Flea?

Finally, after five minutes passed, Nicki tried again. "Victor?"

"Just one sec-" There was a horrified scream, and she heard him let out a low growl. He finally offered an irritated response. "Kind of in the middle of something-"

She rolled her eyes. Judging by the screams, that much was obvious. She had probably just ruined his sneaking up on someone with the phone call. Not that it mattered. He would still get them. He always did.

"I'm a part of the Falcone family now…" she replied. There was another pause, this time out of hesitation.

"Ok, talk." He said guardedly.

And so she did. She told him everything, from the beginning of her meeting with his (correction…their) boss to right now as she sat on the bridge wondering how terrible it would be if she accidentally fell off.

"Don't." he panted, "Be like that." His voice was stern but shaky. Was he running? "Ok look," he continued. "I had no idea they were going to do that, but…Damn it," he suddenly hissed and she heard whimpering in the back ground.

"You ok?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow that he couldn't see.

"Yeah…" he replied. His voice became a little more distant, as if he was holding the phone away from his mouth. "Just for that, you're losing your fingers." And then into the phone again. "The bastard bit me. As I was saying-"

"As you were saying, you knew this was going to happen." She finished, feeling that now familiar sense of betrayal wash over her. How could he? Her own brother.

"No," His voice was much more even now, but she could hear someone's voice in the background, pleading, whining. "I had no idea this was the way he was going to do it. I thought they were just going to try to be…persuasive-"

"Oh they were persuasive all right…" her voice was cut off as a scream rang through the receiver, causing her to wince and hold the phone away from her ear. There was a sickening thud and it was cut short. Now only quiet whimpering remained.

"Rude, rude, rude…can't you see I'm on the phone," she heard Victor scold. "Look, I know they didn't exactly handle it well. But is it really such a bad thing? You're always the one that said that family should stick together-"

"Salvatore is my family-"

A gun shot rang through the phone and then there was silence. "I'M your family." Victor's voice was logical and flat. He sighed. "You're the one that was so against us getting split up in the first place Nick. Isn't this a good thing? No more batting for different sides?"

She bit her lip. He had a point. She supposed she should be grateful to be reunited with her brother. But part of her still felt cheated. And part of her still hated the fact that she would be cut off from her other family. After all they had done for her…but no, he was right. What mattered was that they were together, and the Flea would still receive its funding. That was the reason they got involved in the mafia to begin with and it was selfish of her to want to do otherwise.

"You're right." She said flatly. He didn't respond, but she heard him groan, as if he were lifting something heavy.

"Usually am," he said smoothly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a…package to deliver." The line went dead and she scoffed at his twisted humor. His penchant for violence was one of the few things the siblings didn't have in common.

Nicki might as well return home she reluctance, she climbed onto her bike and out of habit, reached for her helmet, normally hanging on the it was gone, she immediately felt a pang in her chest as she remembered all the times Sal had chastised her for showing up at the restaurant on her bike without was one of the few things he was always adamant , for some reason, she felt a compulsive need to have it on, if only because she knew it would have made him happy.

She struggled to remember where she had left it, and then it came to Mooney's.

Hey guys! Thanks for reading! This was kind of the chapter of the flashbacks so I hope that's ok. We'll move forward next time!