Discomfort for Nick 
 
Author: JanetD
 
Email: jdillon@mail.win.org

Rating: PG (mild language)

Summary: What might happen if Burton became romantically interested in Laurie 
Solt.

Author's Notes: This is a brief follow-up to “Sacrifice” where Laurie Solt and 
Burton Fallin met for the first time. It occurs a day after that encounter.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters in this story are borrowed 
from the TV show "The Guardian". No money is being made from this story. Any 
resemblance of a character in this story to any real person living or dead is 
purely coincidental. Likewise, any resemblance between an organization depicted 
in this story and any such actual organization is purely coincidental.


--+--

December 2002

Attorney Nick Fallin was passing by his father’s office when Burton flagged him 
down from inside the door.

“Oh, Nicholas?”

“Yeah?”

“Come in here a minute.” 

Nick entered, and Burton closed the door. His father leaned in close in a 
conspiratorial fashion, and asked, “That woman you introduced me to yesterday, 
Laurie Solt. Is she married?”

“She’s a widow,” Nick replied, as warning signs began to pop up in his head.

“Ohh. Well, do you think if I invited her out to dinner she’d accept?”

Disturbed now, Nick asked impatiently, “Dad, why, why would you want to invite 
Laurie Solt out on a date?”

“Well, she’s an attractive woman, son. Seems pleasant. I thought we might have 
something in common.”

“Something in common?”

“Uh-huh.”

Nick asked with poor grace, “What could you and a social worker possibly have in 
common?” while in his head he added unhappily, “besides me”.

Burton replied with his good humor intact, “Well, the normal things that two 
people our age have in common. By the time you get to be our age, Nicholas, just 
the fact that you’ve made it this far means you’ve shared a lot. We’ve lived 
through much of the same history, seen the same presidents come and go, that 
sort of thing.”

“She’s a Democrat, Dad, an activist-type like Alvin Masterson.”

“Well, that might just add a little fuel to the fire, son,” his father observed 
with a twinkle in his eye. “It’s no fun agreeing with a woman on everything.... 
So, whadaya think? Should I call her?”

Nick sighed in frustration. What could he say--‘I don’t want you to go out with 
her, Dad, because I don’t want the two of you comparing notes on me’? That would 
sound really mature.... Damn. He guessed there was nothing for it. He’d just 
have to let this train wreck proceed on its natural course. Then again, maybe 
Laurie would turn Dad down. 

“Do whatever you want, I don’t care,” Nick said at last.

“Okay. What’s her number?” Burton replied unperturbed, as he walked to his desk 
for a pen and paper.

Nick rattled off the number, and Burton jotted it down.

“Thanks, son.”

Nick nodded with irritation, and turned to go. As he reached the door, he heard 
his father dialing the phone. He paused just long enough to hear him say, “Ms. 
Solt?” then he closed the door, and walked away, brooding unhappily on this new 
complication in his life.
 
 
Discomfort for Nick Part 2

Summary: A peek at a part of the conversation between Laurie and Burton on their 
first date. Guess who they’re talking about? =)
 
Setup: Burton and Laurie are at dinner. It’s their first date. They’ve ordered, 
and have been talking companionably. Then Burton says,

“You know, after I met you the other day I realized I’d seen you some place 
before.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh. In that hearing last year, when Nick was petitioning the court to be a 
foster parent for the little girl with the bad heart.”

“Lesley Walker.”

“Right.”

“I didn’t realize you were in the courtroom then.”

Burton nodded. “Yeah, I was there. I remember what you said...about Nick. It 
kind of stuck with me, afterwards. The judge asked your opinion, and you said, 
you said that you’d overheard somebody in the hall calling Nicholas Fallin a 
son-of-a-bitch. And you said, that you thought he was that, but that you also 
thought he had the, the ‘right things in his mind’--I believe those were your 
words--and that it was your belief that he’d follow through in caring for the 
little girl, even if it was just out of stubbornness, just to prove other people 
wrong.”

Laurie colored slightly. “I’m sorry, I--”

Burton raised a hand. “No-no, don’t apologize. I like a woman who speaks her 
mind. And I thought there was a lot of truth in what you said. I wouldn’t go so 
far as to call my own son a ‘son-of-a-bitch’, mind you....” He laughed. “But I 
thought you were pretty much on the mark with the rest of your assessment.”

Laurie smiled with relief. “Well, I’m glad you feel that way. And I certainly 
wouldn’t have wanted to offend you.”

“You didn’t, although I admit I was taken a little aback...at first.” Burton 
smiled. “If you don’t mind my asking, what, uh, what’s your opinion of my son 
now? Now that you’ve known him a little longer.”

Laurie sat back in her chair. “What’s my opinion of Nicholas Fallin? I think 
he’s bright and determined and true-of-heart. I think he can be incredibly rude 
one moment, and surprise me with his compassion the next.... I like him. I like 
him a lot, but he’s also a puzzle. I sense there’s an emotional chasm inside 
your son, Burton, that he carries a lot of pain, deep-seated pain. Am I right?”

Burton lowered his gaze. “Yes, yes, I think you are. Nicholas...well, his mother 
died when he was twelve--cancer. We went through a messy divorce a couple years 
before that, and after the divorce, I was kind of, uhm, I guess you could say I 
was Public Enemy Number One in my son’s eyes. Then when his mother died, 
we...well, Nicholas had a tough time of it. He’d always been an independent 
little cuss, but after he lost his mother, it was like he didn’t want anything 
from me--anything at all--didn’t even want me around. We were like two strangers 
living together under the same roof.” 

Laurie looked at Burton with compassionate eyes. “That explains a lot...the loss 
of his mother. Adults often don’t realize how devastating the death of a parent 
is to a child. When a child loses a mother or a father it’s like half their 
world has suddenly disappeared, just...ceased to exist. It’s overwhelming. And 
if the child doesn’t have a good relationship with the surviving parent, it 
makes it all the worse. I understand now a lot of the things I’ve sensed in your 
son.”

“Yes, well, I decided that maybe the best thing for both of us was for Nick to 
go away to school. Give us a break from one another. So that’s what I did, I 
sent him to school. I, uhm, I thought that when summer rolled around that maybe 
we’d, we’d be able to make a fresh start. But somehow that never happened. 
Nicholas just seemed to withdraw from me further.... I’m afraid, I...I wasn’t 
much of a father to him. We never seemed to be able to ‘click’, just weren’t on 
the same wavelength...I don’t know. I could never seem to tell what was going on 
inside his head. Hell, I still can’t.” Burton took a sip of his drink.

“He’s a difficult young man to read.”

“Yes,” Burton said quickly, “and that’s one of the things that makes him so good 
at what he does. He’s a regular shark, my boy, when it comes to business. Nobody 
can beat Nicholas in a tough negotiation session. He’ll come out on top every 
time. Although...he seems to have become a bit more of a soft touch since he’s 
been involved with the clinic. I think the experience has changed him.” He 
paused, considering that. “Anyway, back to...the other. I think my big mistake 
was sending Nick off to school. I never should have done that. I should have 
tried to work things out between the two of us, no matter how much grief 
Nicholas put me through. I should have made that my priority. Instead, I shipped 
him off to boarding school and made him somebody else’s problem.”

“I’m sure you did the best you could.”

“No...no, I didn’t. I did what I usually did--handed off a difficult problem to 
somebody else to deal with. I’m sure if you would have asked Anne--Nicholas’ 
mother--she would have told you I made a habit out of that, that I excelled at 
it, in fact.” Burton laughed self-deprecatingly, then grew quiet. When he spoke 
again, he said slowly, “I often think that if I’d been able to work things out 
with Nicholas, that he...he would never have gotten involved with the drugs.... 
I often think that.” He took another sip from his glass. “Anyway, I’ve tried to 
make it up to him, through the years--the loss of his mother and my sending him 
away. I’ve tried to make it up to him in lots of different ways, but I can’t say 
I’ve had much success.”

“None of us are perfect parents, Burton. We all make mistakes with our 
kids...some more...lasting...than others. But we can only go forward, not back. 
Nick is not a little boy anymore. He’s what? Thirty-one or thirty-two?”

“He just turned thirty-three.”

“Thirty-three. Fine. That’s too old for him to still be blaming anyone else for 
his problems. He has to take responsibility for his own life, his own 
choices...stand on his own two feet. I know it’s hard, but there comes a time as 
a parent when you have to let go.”

“Oh, I know that. Believe me I know that, but it’s easier said than done.” He 
laughed softly. “I just wish...I really wish Nick and I could have a 
relationship like other fathers and sons. I don’t think we’ll ever have that.”

Laurie was quiet for a moment, then said, “Don’t give up hope. Stranger things 
have happened. I bet you’ve mellowed as you’ve gotten older, and Nick probably 
will too. You may still come to some common ground, some common understanding. 
Give it time.”

“Time...yes, well...thank you, Laurie. You’re a good listener. I’m guessing 
that’s one of the qualities that makes you good at your own job.”

Laurie smiled. “I guess it is.”

The End

Author’s Note: While it might seem there should be more to this story, this is 
all I wrote. And since I wrote it more than a year ago, and the story of “The 
Guardian” has moved on, I wouldn’t plan to add anything further. JanetD