Halloween 
 
Author: Eileen Thomson

E-Mail: indigotoast@yahoo.com
 
Summary: My favorite speech from any Guardian episode is Laurie's
one about Nick in Hearts. I have used it in this fic. I thank the
writers, and apologize for the theft!
 
Author's Notes: To Suzanne and Linda, They guide the fevered
wanderings of my mind.

--+-- 

"Leslie" Nick murmurs as he wakes, slowly surfacing to the world. He
has been dreaming. This morning it's Leslie Walker who haunts him
and he is still breathing in sharp hiccups. He can feel the tears
drying on his face. *Why is it I dream about Leslie? Yesterday it
was Mom. Does my past surface when I'm at my most vulnerable?* He
curls up, pulling the blanket tighter over his back and tries to
sink back into the place he was before, but it's gone. It's not time
to get up and he is bone weary. Still, Nick rises from bed, hoping a
shower will revive him. He starts the day in a foul mood.

The drive to the office does nothing to lighten his frame of mind.
As he was attempting to change lanes he thought he saw his mother in
the car passing in front. Distress coursed through him like
electricity. Sheet white from shock, without a rational thought, and
with a wildly beating heart, he follows her car. Drawing along side
and terrified out of his wits, he looks across. She was just a small
dark haired woman with little or no resemblance to his Mom at all.
Heart pounding in his throat, and now a little queasy, he re-traces
the route to the office.

As he enters from the elevator his phone is already
ringing. "Nicholas Fallin," he says an impatient quality clearly
evident in his voice.

"Nick, I phoned you at home but missed you. I'm sorry... I know
you're always in early. I need your help so badly. Could you come to
LSP just now?"

"Laurie, why are you there at this time of the morning?"

"Please come down Nick. You will, won't you?"

"I hope these are hours I can book, and not just another favor,
Laurie."

"When will you get here?" Laurie asks, completely ignoring his
question. "Will you leave now?"

Nick sighs and rubbing the back of his neck to relieve the tension
building there, he replies, "I'm on my way. I'll just leave a
message for Jake. We were to work on something together this
morning."

~*~

Reaching LSP, Nick comes out of the elevator and seeing Laurie in
Alvin's office, he signals he is going to the broom cupboard. He
sits and takes some papers out of his briefcase. Sitting, playing
with his pen, he does no work. He cups his head in his hand and
stares -- at nothing. *Halloween. Another holiday. That's why I
dreamt of Leslie!* he muses. *Why I dreamt of Mom, I can't figure
out. Ghosts from my past and creepy Halloween. I hate it! I'll shut
the door and not answer to the neighborhood kids. They give me the
shivers, the costumes are getting more outlandish every year.*

"He looks unwell today. You sure he can fit this in?"

"He'll do it." Laurie lets her eyes follow Nick into the room. He
doesn't look well, and she's worried about him, but she knows his
soul. She looks at Alvin and, with a small smile the corners of her
mouth, she continues, speaking quietly. "Not because he has to, not
even because Lulu's off and we are under-manned. He'll do it because
Nick is one of the few who lives by a set of standards. I do think
he has the right things in his mind. And he's the kind of person who
will follow through. It may be just to prove other people wrong, but
he follows through." Laurie stops for a moment and looks out of the
door towards the broom cupboard and at Nick. With his elbow on the
table and his head resting on his hand, his long fingers cupped over
his ear, she thinks, *If I leave him long enough he'll fall asleep*
she thinks. Turning to Alvin, she finishes her thoughts. "He can be
rude and stand-offish. When I first met him, I truly disliked him.
But of all the imperfect people I've met in this world – and that
would be everybody – Nick is one of the few who lives by a set of
standards."

"You're a Nick fan?"

"Truly a Nick fan. Now I'd better go see what is wrong with him.
Those dark circles round his eyes…He looks ill."

The lift arrives just as she leaves Alvin's office and she goes
forward to shepherd two children into the room. "Sit here, I won't
be a minute. I have to speak to your lawyer."

~*~

"I don't have a lot of time. What do you need?" Nick asks, as Laurie
enters the room.

"Nick, have you been watching the news recently?"

"Which part of the news in particular?" he asks sarcastically.

"The twins from Baton Rouge? Have you heard about them?"

Nick furrows his brow in concentration. "They went missing after
their mother fell from a rope, circus kids. Four or five weeks ago,
something like that? Have they found them?"

"Nick, they walked into a police station here about three hours ago."

"How did they get this far from Baton Rouge?" Nick swallowed hard,
and asked the questions he so hated. "Who had them? Are they all
right?"

"They rode the freight trains, Nick, they came on their own. You
have to meet them, they're astounding kids." Laurie's voice echoes
the amazement she feels, that these two had not been found by the
police or molested by a hundred other odd souls they had met. They
had made their way slowly, travelling in freight cars. The police
had been swamped with sightings of them, but never came near to
finding them. It was a miracle that they had arrived here unscathed.
With the money taken from their own house, they had made a plan and
went ahead. "They thought that they would be put in care in Baton
Rouge so they came to their uncle in Pittsburgh. They left right
after their mother's funeral." She shakes her head in wonderment at
the audacity of the two children. "Now, Mr Rastof, the uncle is in
Florida on vacation, but will be back by tomorrow morning. The media
will go into a feeding frenzy over these two. Nick, we have to get
them to court and out of sight before the news breaks that they are
here. They are only ten, they can do without all that publicity"

"Okay, bring them in and I'll explain how it will work. Is that the
paper work?"

"Here are some details I got from the uncle as well, about the
mother and father, both are now dead. Nick, the twins are jumpy and
afraid to be separated. You must convince them that their uncle is
coming for them."

Nick turns back to the desk and knocks over the papers he was going
to work on with his arm.*Damn, damn, damn. I just can't get things
together today!* Getting on his knees under the desk in the tiny
room is a feat of dexterity. Picking up the papers, he looks across
to see two pairs of feet on the opposite side of the desk. He had
not heard them enter. An eerie feeling makes the hair on his neck
stand on end. Both children sit on one chair it looks as if the
feet and legs all belong to the one person. *Fanciful, Nick!* but he
shudders again anyway. Nick's normal stoic expression is almost
wiped from his face as he gets up from the floor.

The two children sitting opposite are straight from the `Village of
the Damned. Pure blonde and dark eyed; they sit perfectly still
saying nothing. Arms wrapped around each other, they look at him,
completely emotionless. Nick can hear his own heartbeat thundering
inside his head. Swallowing hard, he forces himself to be calm.

"I'm your lawyer, Nick Fallin. I have to take you to court at 9.00
and ask the judge to allow you to be placed in a care facility for
one night only, until your uncle arrives tomorrow to get you." Nick
recites the words, all the time looking down at he papers on the
desk in front of him. He glances up to assess how the kids are
reacting and is again reminded of the movie. Shivering inside, he
carries on. "Mr. Rastof, your uncle, will then come to court and
the judge will give him control over your upbringing. She will maybe
ask Laurie," he pauses to point outside, "to look in on you, to
check to see if you are all right for a few months. Do you
understand that?"

Two sets of piercing brown eyes regard him coldly. Their white blond
hair is brushed straight down, sitting on their shoulders. Even
though Nick knows there is one boy and one girl he is hard pushed to
choose which is which. Again the image of the children from that
blasted film reaches through time rattling his nerves, and twisting
his guts. He had stayed up late at his dad's house when he was a
young boy and watched it by himself. It had scared him so very much,
but he wouldn't give in to the fear and get out of bed to turn the
television off.

"Do you understand?" he repeats.

"Why can't we just…" the one on the right begins.

"…stay at our uncle's place?" The one on the left finishes the
sentence.

"You have to be taken care of, surely you can understand why?" Nick
is not certain which one to look at, since both speak the same
sentence. Chills run the length of his back. These kids are odd! On
top of the dreams and the lack of sleep, Nick's imagination is
running riot.

"We can take care…" the voice from the right begins.

"…of each other… by ourselves," the voice from the left ends the
thought.

"Didn't we get here…" from the right.

"…alone…?"

Nick stares at them silently. He pulls his weary body from his chair
and goes to the door. He opens it and calls, "Leslie, can you come
in."

Laurie comes up to the children and, putting a hand on each of them,
says kindly, "will you wait just outside the office? I won't be a
minute."

Sitting down, she reaches over the desk and takes Nick's hand. He
pulls it out of hers and brushes it down his tie nervously. Getting
up and moving round the desk, Laurie again reaches and takes his
hand in both of hers. "Tell me what's wrong."

"What do you mean?" Nick says defensively.

"You called me `Leslie'. Has something happened today to make you
think of her?"

Nick leans far back in the chair so Laurie can't touch him and runs
both hands through his hair, dislodging all the curls and making him
look like a young boy. "I dream about her sometimes, at holidays
mostly. You know its Halloween today; I think it's maybe because she
never got to enjoy any of that. It saddens me, that's all." He looks
at Laurie guardedly, he had cried in her arms when Leslie had died.
It had broken a lot of barriers between them. Barriers which still
remained with people he had known for years. Pulling at his lip he
says huskily, "I know I would have let her down eventually, Laurie,
but in my dreams I never do."

Laurie reaches out again and she gently she rubs his cold
hand. "Nick, you don't know that. I have great hopes for you. You
always try to do the right thing. No one gets it perfect, but you
try harder than anyone I know."

Pulling his hand away, he ignores Laurie's compliment and reasserts
himself again. "What's with the Village of the Damned kids?" he
whispers, making sure he can't be heard outside. "Do they always
talk like that?"

"Identical twins sometimes even make up their own language. Read the
notes, Nick."

Quickly reading, he is surprised to find that they had been con-
joined at birth. They were born in Rumania when their mother and
father had both been with the same travelling show. She would not
let them be separated until they got back to America when the
children were two. It was a simple operation since the twins were
joined by skin only at the hip and chest, but her fear of
substandard hospitals made her decide it would be better to leave
them joined until they came home. Kedra and Karl. *I suppose that
accounts for there holding on to each other, but it still creeps me
out! Now, if I could figure out which is which, I would think myself
a genius.*

"Can I bring just one of them in for a talk, then the other?" he
asks hopefully.

"I'm not sure they will even allow themselves to be separated that
long. Be patient with them, Nick, they've been through a lot in the
last few weeks."

"Okay, let's try again."

Laurie leads the children into the room.

"Tell me your name," he says pointing to the one on the right.

"She's Kedra," says Karl, the one on the left.

"So you're Karl?"

"He's my brother," says Kedra.

*Give me a bucket full of Advil* thinks Nick. "I have to know if you
understand what is going to happen now. Your uncle has the right to
raise you both; he's your next of kin. Is this what you both want?
You have to tell me if this is what you want. He's willing to do
this and he'll be here tomorrow. You understand that tonight you
have to stay with the family Laurie has found to take you. We want
to try to keep you away from the press. It's just for one night,
until your uncle goes before the judge. In the interim, I will be
appointed your guardian. Will you stay with this foster family for
one night?"

"We can do that," says Karl.

"As long as we're together," says Kedra.

Nick can see no reason why the uncle can't have the kids. "Your
uncle has a job doesn't he? What's your uncles' line of work?

"Uncle owns the fun park," starts Karl.

"Rastof's Fun Park, on the east side, you know," finishes Kedra.

"Have you ever been to the haunted house?" asks Karl.

"It's so cool," they both say together.

Nick hates fun parks and haunted houses--- they give him the heebie-
jeebies. Only a kid would want to live anywhere near one. His skin
crawls,*Oh boy, what a day. I just want to get this one over with
and get back to safe, quiet corporate law.*


~*~

As he does every year, Nick relents and has a bowl of candy for the
children who come trick or treating. He endures their prattling and
noisy humour with undisguised bad grace. He is about to put the bowl
away when the phone rings. Looking at the time, he is surprised to
see that it is 11.30. He allows the answering machine to take a
message. "Nick. Pick up, God, please, Nick pick up. It's Laurie."
The terror in her voice makes Nick rush to the phone.

"Laurie, what's wrong?"

"They've gone. Nick. The mother of the family they were with went to
check on them at 10.00 and they had gone. I had to phone the uncle.
He says they will have gone to his house. He built a way for the
children to get into it in case anything went wrong in the park and
they were left outside or afraid. Will you go and get them? Please
go find them. Nick!"

"Give me the address, I'll go, but Laurie, I can't understand why
his house would have to have a special entrance for the kids."

"It's not their home, Nick, it's the haunted house. The uncle said
that's where they will go. It's easy for them to get access to the
place. The Rastof children play in the Fun Park but they have a bolt
hole, in case of anyone bothering them." The silence hangs in the
air and Laurie wonders for an instant if they have been cut off.

Nick is thinking at a furious rate. *I can't tell her I don't like
haunted houses, it would make me look like a wimp.* He asks
quickly, "Any chance of getting Alvin to meet me there? It would be
better if there was a representative from LSP on hand, don't you
think?"

"I'll phone him now. You'll leave right away?"

"We'll get them, Laurie," Nick is talking and pulling on his boots
at the same time. "They came from Baton Rouge alone, what makes you
think that they'll fall apart now?" He stops momentarily, "How do
Alvin and I get into the house?"

"I'll give you the address of the manager who has the keys; it's on
your way. Nick, let me know as soon as you find them. I'll wait up."

~*~

Having stopped for just a minute to collect the keys, Nick is
worried that he has not given Alvin enough time to get to the park,
and he doesn't want to be alone there. The Haunted House is right in
the centre of the Fun Area and Nick is unhappy to be driving into
the Park by himself.

He is relieved to find Alvin rooting around in the trunk of his
car. "What are you looking for?" he asks.

"Flashlight," mutters Alvin, his head buried deep in the trunk. "I
know it's in here somewhere. You'd better bring yours as well."

"I don't have one."

"What do you do when your car won't start?" Alvin is amazed at
him. "Everyone has a flashlight!"

"Not me, I have a cell phone." Nick is bemused at Alvin's idea of
trying to fix your own car. "I stop and phone the towing company and
a cab. I've never been under the hood."

Shaking his head, Alvin starts walking towards the house. "Coming? I
wouldn't like to be going in here alone. I hate these places."

Relieved, Nick admits that they are not his favourite places either.


~*~

Entering the door at the front, Nick and Alvin come face to face
with the sight of two mechanical children playing with hoops and
rings. "That's not too bad." says Nick, and then the children get to
the end of the room and turn. Their hats have hidden the bare
skeleton bones and the dark green lights gleaming from inside their
eyes. Nick and Alvin both step back in shock. Laughing at each
other, they stop when the sound of children's laughter reaches them
from a distance. "Over that way," Nick says indicating a set of
stairs at the back of the room.

Trying to walk on the floor is impossible and they both slip and
slide. "Damn, what is wrong with this surface?" Alvin says from
where he has landed on his knees.

Nick puts out his hand to help him up. "The floor is made from
cylinders and the level is uneven. Every time we try to walk, the
floor moves with us."

"Should we crawl?"

Nick is appalled, "No way Alvin! Kids come in here and they don't
crawl. I'm damned if I will!"

When they reach the stairs, the lights go out. They both let out a
yelp of fright. "I'm going to have serious words with those kids
when we find them," growls Nick.

The stairs are more difficult than the floor, as every step is not
sound. Sometimes the third one sinks when they stand on it and when
they try to avoid the third ones, the second ones sink. They are
both tired and their nerves are ragged by the time they reach the
top.

Alvin points to the back of the room. "There's a door there, head
towards that." Just as they reach the door the flashlight goes out.

"Didn't you put in new batteries?" asks Nick. "Surly you came
prepared," he crows, still stinging from Alvin's remarks about his
lack of mechanical prowess.

"At least I had a damn flashlight," retorts Alvin.

The darkness in the passage is absolute, they are no shades of grey,
and Nick feels the fingers of fear grip his guts. He jumps as a hand
grabs his. It is cold and clammy. Trying to shake it off, he grunts
with the terror of the unknown.

"Nick, Nick…"

"Alvin, what's wrong? Is that your hand? God, your freezing, are you
all right?" Nick now gropes round until he can feel Alvin's face and
he realises that the LSP boss is in deep trouble. Alvin is damp with
sweat and breathing in gasps, the first stages of an acute anxiety
attack. "Okay, I'm going to hold your hand and we'll feel our way to
the end of this passage. It might be better at the other side."

Suddenly Alvin's hand is torn from his grasp, and Nick is left alone
in the dark space. "Alvin, can you hear me?"

"I fell down a slope. I'm beneath you. There are some lights here.
Try to come down."

Furious now, Nick gets on his hands and knees to feel for a catch of
some kind. "I can't find anything," he shouts, and then, suddenly he
is tumbling down into a room full of balls, the kind kids play in.
At the edge of reason now, Nick jumps up and rounds on Alvin. "I
swear to God…!"

"Nicholas Fallin! I don't want to hear the three words, children,
murder and bury in the next sentence you utter." Both men collapse
in gales of nervous laughter.

Entering the next room, they find they are in a morgue. "Now I don't
like this, but you just know that one of the dead is going to rise,
so bring it on," Nick declares.

In front of them a sheet slips off from a tiny form and a baby turns
its head and whispers,
"Mama." They look at each other and both men hurry to the other
side of the room, into a dark tunnel. They did not care where the
tunnel leads this time, they were just in a big hurry to get far
away from the very realistic baby.

They hold hands again, Nick stops and asks Alvin, "Can you feel a
difference in the walls?"

"They're very smooth, like glass."

"Oh God, back up, we've come into the hall of mirrors." Trying to
get out quickly, Nick loses Alvin once more. He feels the difference
in air pressure as the door slides shut behind him. The room takes
on a blue tinge, and he looks round to see himself over and over
again in the endless reflections. "Alvin, where are you? Can you
hear me?"

In the distance he can hear Alvin answer. "I'm not going to move,
that way we will be near each other. I can only be on the other side
of the mirror."

Nick glances up to see the monster from Alien behind him and,
shouting in shock, he runs and bangs into the mirror, a short
distance away, on the other end of the room. Watching warily and his
heart threatening to break loose from his chest, he waits for the
next shock to hit. He sees trees in the reflection now and the room
suddenly takes on a green hue. Looking up to see if he can figure
out how to get to the lights and perhaps escape, he loses his
concentration. When he looks back, the trees are reaching out to
touch him. Leaping away in panic he roars in ill humour, "Stop this
at once or I'll break the mirrors with the flashlight."

The room floods with pure white light and Nick sees the image of a
beautiful woman high on a rope with her hair hanging down her back,
her smile with the joy of living. He knows this must be the twin's
mother and he says nothing. The mirrors move and Alvin is standing
with his hands on his knees catching his breath. "I hate these
places, Nick I have a terrible fear of them."

"Me to, but I'm sure not giving into two kids. I'll give them the
sharp edge of my tongue when I find them. My nerves are shattered,
and I doubt if I'll ever sleep in peace again. Tell me why people
come here again?" he jokes.

Away from the hall of mirrors, they move into another dark
passageway, this time with a small light at the end. Alvin and Nick
look at each other, "It's the only way to go," says Nick, and
carefully they make their way along the corridor. Coming to the
room, Nick stops and looks up to see that nothing is on top of the
door. Slowly pushing the door open, they both step into the room,
lit only by a single candle. The sticky warm goo hits them in the
face and now both men yell with alarm. Trying to get it off, they
bang into one another and then stop. "It's cotton candy," Alvin says
picking a piece from Nick's face and putting it in his mouth. The
sound of the children giggling makes them turn and Kedra and Karl
are sitting on the edge of the only chair in the room.

When they see Nick's stern face they stop laughing and cling tighter
to each other. Nick motions them to follow him. Then realizing his
error, he says, "We are going out now, do you understand? I'll take
no more nonsense from you both."

The twins drop their heads in misery and lead the two men to the
exit.

~*~

Nick phones Laurie from the front of the haunted house and tells her
he is taking the twins home with him. They have already said that
they will run away again if they are sent back to the foster
home. "I have a room with twin beds and they will be all right until
morning. Then I'm giving them to you and you can do what you please
with them." Telling the children to get into the car he stops to
make one more call. "Will you bring it with you? You have a key?" he
talks into the cell quietly.

"Alvin thanks for coming with me tonight. I hate these places and I
appreciate the back up. I'm just going to get their things from Mrs.
March and then I'll get them home. That's all right, isn't it?"

Just then Nick's cell rings and Laurie tells him she has spoken to
Mr Rastof. "He says its fine that you have them. He'll be here early
tomorrow and everything will be sorted out then. Nick, thank you.
You know, I knew you wouldn't let me down."


~*~


"Come here." Handing them their night clothes Nick says, "You,
Kedra, go in there and wash and get ready for bed. You, Karl, in
there," pointing to his own room. "When you are both ready come
downstairs and see me."

~*~


"Mr. Fallin… Mr. Fallin, we're here."

Nick comes out of the living room and, seeing them standing in their
institution pyjamas, too big and hanging off their slight frames, he
relents. He hunches down and, taking each by the chin he looks into
their eyes. A big smile breaks over his face and he admits
ruefully, "You had me scared, good and proper in the house." The two
kids giggle at this news. "Now, come and see this."

Before they can step down into the living room, he stops them and
tells them, "Close your eyes."

Leading them down the step, he whispers, "Happy Halloween."

Kedra and Karl open their eyes to a wondrous display. The glass
pumpkin has stars cut in the top and they shine up onto the ceiling
as it rotates. It has four different faces cut into the sides and
they shimmer out over the furniture, gliding in and out of the dark
spaces. The children rush into the room and put their hands out to
catch the stars.

Nick slides down beside Shayla, and sliding his arm around her waist
he says softly. "Thanks for doing this for me. They deserve
something after all they have been through. Even though I admit, I
had a murder or two in mind earlier."

Shayla reaches out and gives Kedra and Karl a cup of hot chocolate.
She then sits forward and says to the twins, "I'm going to tell you
a Halloween story before you go to bed..."

Nick lifts his cup in a silent salute and thinks, *Happy Halloween,
Leslie*

The End