But this is The Guardian, folks, where there are No Happy Endings - thank god. Things usually just go downright sour, although this one I would classify as bittersweet.

Enough about how it tastes. So - Leslie Walker is a bright 12-year-old girl in need of a heart transplant. Not a kidney transplant. Not a liver transplant. Not a skin graft or chemotherapy or reconstructive plastic surgery. She needs a heart. And so Nick gives her a little piece of his heart to take with her to heaven - it's all so beautiful! Before she can get the transplant she needs a stable home, and her foster parents have backed out of adopting her. She and Nick quickly bond over a game of checkers and a discussion about their respective sex lives, while we get to enjoy how cute he looks when flustered. He places an ad to find foster parents for her, and interviews prospective couples at Fallin & Associates (the couple he and Laurie pick has Mute Wife Syndrome - see Indian Summer). This presents a fine opportunity for Nick's weekly dressing down by Burton, which he endures for a couple of seconds before just walking off. He has bigger fish to fry. (Don't worry, Burton gets his comeuppance.)

The subplot involves Burton and his feisty (yes, red-headed) soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend Sarah, as well as a trio of old friends - Harry, Stan and Abe. Harry is dying of cancer and there's something in there about company shares and three-legged pigs, but I can't say I took much notice. As for Sarah, she seems like a sensible, loving, intelligent woman and Burton's an idiot to let her go, but that's just my opinion. These Fallin men are probably frequently idiots with women. Incidentally, why does Nick take his work out to the conference room? WHERE IS THIS MAN'S OFFICE?! This has become a recurring joke and the mystery is presumably intentional, but considering Nick is about to lose his broom closet at Legal Services as well, it's getting a bit ridiculous.

Burton's friend's story is as potentially heart-wrenching as the main story, except that it doesn't involve Nick and so my heart failed to be wrenched much at all. Burton should have livened things up a little with his three-legged pig joke.

The Nick/Burton Angst Meter hits overload when Burton starts talking about Nick's mother, but Nick's having none of that. He decides to be a man and become Leslie's foster parent, much to Laurie and Alvin's horror. Leslie's not too keen on the idea either - she kind of fancies him. Well, duh!

So it's off to court, where Nick impresses the judge with his earnest declarations (extracted like blood from a stone) and he gains guardianship of Leslie. Now, since we know that the premise of this show is not 'young single father on probation juggles two full-time jobs and sick teenage daughter', we also know that poor Leslie has to die at some point, and sooner rather than later. And die she does.

Nick weeps. (Cue violins.) Words cannot do justice to this final scene, so I'll just say: Hands up if you want to be Laurie Solt!

Speaking of Laurie Solt, I've written out her testimony here because it could well be the nicest thing we'll ever get to hear about Nick, in a back-handed sort of way, and is therefore worth savouring:

A few minutes ago I overheard someone in the hall talking about Nick Fallin. They called him a son-of-a-bitch. He is that. He can be rude, 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. I do think his mind is set on this. I do think he has the right things in his mind. And he’s the kind of person who will follow through. Might be just to prove other people wrong, but he follows through.

By the way, when it comes to impure thoughts about Nick Fallin, young Leslie Walker doesn't know what she's talking about.

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* Doesn't answer the phone when it interrupts their game.

* Places an expensive quarter-page ad to try and find foster parents.

* Fights to become Leslie's foster parent.

* Stays with Leslie before the operation and wastes several billable hours waiting for news.

* Is devastated by Leslie's death (he recovers by next week, naturally).

• Nick's never had a long-term relationship.
• Fallin & Associates' phone number starts with 412.
• Nick is 32. His parents divorced when he was 10. His mother died when he was 12, after which he was sent away to school. He felt abandonned and he's still angry.
• Sarah Smalley's children include David, who's just gone to college.

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