If you have read any of my other stories from the What Happens on Bravo universe, you will recognize the themes of love, loyalty and the family you choose for yourself. Like my other stories, this includes young Clay and is not connected to anything happening on the actual SEAL Team show - so no spoiler alerts. The What Happens on Bravo universe includes characters from the show as well as others who I have developed and added. Like my other stories, Uncle Sonny contains family situations, parent child relationships and mentions of discipline and spanking.

It would be helpful in understanding this universe if you have read some of my other stories, especially What Happens on Bravo - Sixteen which introduces this universe, but it isn't necessary to follow or understand this story. I have gotten feedback from readers who have not watched the show, but enjoy the stories.

As always, reviews and feedback are greatly appreciated. I will respond to any reviews or questions from logged in users. I hope you enjoy this latest addition to my universe. — Luna

Punished

Clay was feeling miserable. Jason and Trent had both left town, leaving him behind to stay with Sonny for the week.

The original plan was for Clay to stay with Brock and Katie when Jason decided to fly out to Colorado to visit Mikey, and Trent announced that he was going home to Alabama to stay with his mother while his step-father had surgery. Bravo was off rotation for a week at the request of the boss after a hard three months of multiple complicated missions. Clay was less than thrilled to be staying back home, but he cheered up considerably when Brock and Katie offered to keep him at their place where he could hang out with his best friend, Katie's little brother, while Jason was away.

Clay was grumpy and nervous about Jason going off without him. No matter how he tried to tell himself that Jason would never abandon him, and despite the regular assurances from the much older men on the team that he was the boss' kid now, and that was forever, Clay was still upset to be left behind - even for just a week.

Jason had patiently explained more than once that he was not purposely ditching Clay because he didn't want to take him to Colorado or because he wasn't his 'real' son and therefore not loved the same as Emma and Mikey. His boss and chosen dad had sat Clay down when Mikey first called to ask him to fly out to Colorado and told his anxious boy why he was staying back in Virginia Beach.

"Sunshine," Jason had explained calmly, knowing Clay was not going to be happy. "This is an adult trip, and I guarantee you would not enjoy yourself. Mikey wants me to come out and meet his new girlfriend and her parents. There will be boring adult dinners, boring adult excursions and lots of boring adult talking. I promise that this is not the way you want to spend your week away from base."

When Clay accepted that Jason was telling him the truth, and the Colorado trip sounded like a weeklong snore, he went to work on Trent, his go-to caregiver, Mr. Mom and favorite Uncle. He pumped up the wounded, puppy eyes to max-level and begged the medic to take him to Alabama. The kid was so pitiful that Trent nearly relented and agreed to let Clay come home with him, but Jason shut that down as well.

"No way, Shorty," Jason said, firmly. "And you can save the sad face for your soft-hearted uncles. I can't believe you almost got to Trent. He knows your game as well as I do, so obviously he is distracted by his own family drama. And I am not going off to Colorado and unleashing you on rural Alabama."

"Jase," Clay whined. "I promise to be on my best behavior. You know I always behave for Trent."

"No, Clay," Jason said sternly, cutting off the begging. "Trent has enough to worry about this week. His mother is a nervous wreck, and the man who raised him is having a serious surgery. Trent drops everything for you all of the time. He needs this time to be with his family, and you are sixteen and old enough to understand that."

When Clay didn't respond, Jason continued using the 'I mean business' voice. "Am I making myself clear, young man?"

"Yes," he grumbled.

"Excuse me?" Jason said, folding his arms and making eye contact.

"Yes, sir," Clay said, softly. "You are making yourself clear."

"I mean it, son," Jason said, firmly but with less heat. Reaching out, he put his strong hand on his boy's head. "I understand that you are not happy, and you do not want to stay behind without either me or Trent. But Sunshine, that's the way it has to be this time. Brock and Katie were nice enough to invite you to stay with them, so I suggest you look on the bright side and pull yourself together."

"I'll try," Clay said.

"You better do more than try, Sunshine," Jason said, shaking his head. "Because if you don't watch your step, you will find yourself on lockdown with a real babysitter instead of hanging out all week eating junk food and playing video games with Corey and the cool twenty-somethings who let you both do whatever you want."

Clay was happy with the prospect of a week with his big brother Brock, who at twenty-four was the only man on Bravo who could reasonably be his brother. The rest of the grumpy old men, as he and Brock liked to call them when they were out of butt-swatting range, were more than old enough to be Clay's father. And all but Ray could easily be Brock's father as well.

Clay also loved Katie like a big sister, and her brother Corey had become his best friend. But as the time for Jason to leave came closer, Clay began to panic. The repeated abandonment by every adult in his life who should have loved and cared for him left Clay emotionally damaged and always terrified that he might be discarded and left alone once again.

In retrospect, Clay was kicking himself for not just minding his boss and adopted dad. If he had listened to Jason and Trent, who both told him to accept the situation and make the best of it, he wouldn't be on lockdown with Sonny the Grouch. But as usual, Clay acted out, pushing one button too many. He woke up feeling unexpectedly grumpy with a bellyache the day before Jason was scheduled to leave for Colorado, only to discover Trent had left early without bothering to say good-bye.

When he complained, Jason told him patiently that Trent was called away unexpectedly early because his father's surgery was moved up. He promised Clay that Trent had indeed taken the time to stop by at 5:00 a.m. on his way out of town to say good-bye, knowing his favorite runt would be upset if he left without seeing him. The older man told his boy that Trent came into his room, woke him, and absolutely said good-bye, but he was half-asleep and must have forgotten.

Instead of accepting Jason's obviously reasonable explanation and telling his surrogate dad about his aching belly and sore legs, Clay shutdown. He decided for some crazy reason that Trent didn't want to see him and he and Jason were lying about the medic stopping to say good-bye to him. The shutdown led to a meltdown, followed by a shouting match, during which an out of patience Jason finally lost his temper with the back-talking kid and grounded him for the week.

Despite pleas for leniency from both Brock and Katie, Jason could not be convinced to change his mind altogether about the grounding, or at least postpone lockdown in the fun-free zone until after he returned from Colorado so that Clay could still stay with Brock and Katie as planned. The boss had enough of his kid acting out and announced that Clay would be spending the entire week grounded and under the supervision of none other than Bravo's resident grouch, The Mighty Quinn.

Clay's grounding started off with an unpleasant bang for both the kid and Uncle Sonny.

The night after Jason left town, a very remorseful Clay found himself sent to Sonny's couch for thinking time since Bravo Three didn't have a spare bedroom where he could put the kid. Laying on his aching belly, with his head hidden under a pillow, Clay tried to stop crying by lecturing to himself that he was sixteen and not six. It wasn't working. Sonny had retreated to his nearby kitchenette where he was having his second shot of whiskey and holding back his own guilty tears.

Bravo Three was standing at the counter where he could keep an unseen eye on his upset boy who was clearly trying to hide the waterworks and pull himself together. Clay was unsuccessfully attempting to rub the sting out of his very sore backside. Sonny knew from the cherry red hue of Clay's little ass and the volume level of the protests his naughty kid had howled out from the humbling position, bottom up and pants down, over the knee of the current adult in charge, that Bravo's Baby was truly sorry for his bratty behavior.

While the neighbors who happened to have their windows open would surely declare the blond-headed kid with the big, blue eyes the sorriest soul currently residing on Franklin Street, any member of Bravo would have known without a doubt that Clay was a far distant second place sorry to poor ol' Sonny.

Bravo Three had delivered his first real spanking to the kid he loved with all his big, soft heart. And later, mean old bastard Sonny would drunkenly swear to his brothers that he would absolutely never again spank his baby.

"Not even if the naughty, rotten brat robs a candy store and kicks a Christmas elf," Sonny pitifully announced. "Boss, you can hire a new prison guard because Uncle Sonny will never do that again."

On his first night of lockdown, it had been clear to Sonny that Bravo's underage brat was staging his very own Gunfight at the O.K. Corral to see who was really going to be the boss while Jason was out of town. And it was clear to anyone within earshot of Casa de Quinn that after that particularly ill-advised, runt-initiated confrontation, Uncle Sonny was most definitely the undisputed new sheriff in town.

Sonny had stayed back in the kitchen for several minutes giving the kid some time by himself to lick his wounds and feel sorry for himself. Once he could see that a red-eyed, but no longer crying Clay had turned on his side and was curled up under a blanket, pretending to watch some news show, Sonny came back into the living room carrying a Ziploc bag of crushed ice, a wet washcloth, and a bottle of water.

Motioning his boy to slide down so that he could join him on the couch, Sonny sat down by Clay's head, handing him the cool, wet cloth.

"How about you mop up your face a little there, Kiddo," Sonny said, lightly. "Have yourself a drink of water, and we'll see what we can do about cooling down your red tush."

Sonny held up the bag of ice and gave it a little shake, smiling sympathetically to let the kid he loved more than anything know that he was not angry, and all was forgiven.

"I'm sorry, Uncle Sonny," Clay sniffled, turning on his belly and crawling forward to rest his head in his trusted protector's lap. Wiping his face and handing the cloth back to the older man, the kid looked up to make eye contact. "Are you still mad at me?"

Sonny felt even worse about having to punish his kid, knowing he only called him Uncle Sonny when he was hurting or feeling vulnerable and in need of extra love and reassurance.

"I was never mad at you, honey," Sonny said, gently rubbing the boy's warm cheek with his thumb. "I gave you the good spanking you have been begging for ever since the boss let you know that he needed to go to Colorado and you were going to be staying back here. And I know Jason would never leave without explaining why he was going. So what is this nonsense all about that you had to go and hurt your mean ol' Uncle Sonny's heart - not to mention my sore hand."

Clay looked up with his best pout and attempted to change the subject. "I think my butt is hurting a lot more than your big, hard hand," he grouched.

Sonny scoffed. "Oh I know it is, half-pint," he said. "And you can believe that it will be hurting a lot longer, and blazing a lot brighter if you ever decide to talk to me like that again. You think the boss is the only one with a wooden spoon in his kitchen?"

When Clay buried his face in Sonny's leg without responding, The Mighty Quinn continued the scolding. "Yeah, that's right, Trouble," he said, breaking out the dad voice. "I have my own Mr. Spoon. And I surely know how to make a naughty brat do a prize worthy spanking dance. I always defend you, but I'm starting to think maybe Metal is right that you need your tail warmed at least once a week. I swear you can't sleep soundly until you've earned yourself a good lickin'."

Still hoping to avoid talking about his meltdown, the kid tried out some more distraction and pointed to the bag of ice Sonny had put down on the nearby coffee table.

"Jason and Trent won't let me have the frozen peas on my bottom right after I get a spanking," the kid said, looking longingly at the bag he knew would feel so good on his red, hot backside. "They make me wait until I have had time to think about what I did wrong."

"And why is that?" Sonny asked. He pulled off the blanket and took down the back of the kid's boxer briefs to get another look at the redness level, reassuring himself there was no real damage and his baby would be fine by morning.

Clay shrugged, unfazed at having his bottom bared by Sonny a second time. He was well past being shy with his very grown teammates.

"I don't know," he said, yawning. "When I ask for the frozen peas, they always say something like 'it wouldn't be punishment if it didn't hurt'. Or 'a night on your belly with a sore butt will help you remember to be good in the future.'"

Out of Clay's sight, Sonny chuckled at the kid's imitation of the old grumps' scolding.

Carefully readjusting his boy's shorts and patting his bottom, Sonny gently placed the icy bag on the kid's sore tush.

"Well, I guess it's your lucky break that the boss is halfway across the country, and Grumplestiltskin is down in Dixie visiting his mama."

Clay sighed, going boneless across his current guardian's lap and grabbing hold of Sonny's pant leg to comfort and ground himself. Covering his clearly grateful kid with the blanket, Sonny gently rubbed his back until he fell asleep for the night.

Removing the melting ice and disentangling himself from the sleeping boy, Sonny tossed the ice bag in the sink, straightened up the kitchen and locked the doors.

Returning to the living room instead of his own comfortable bed, mean old Uncle Sonny spent the night sleeping in his recliner. The lights turned off and the TV playing quietly in the background, Bravo Three slept lightly, ready to wake and go to his kid at the first sign of restlessness.