Brave
by Disherona
"Adrian, I can't always do your shopping for you.. You obviously don't like how I am doing it…" Sharona, tried, and barely succeeded in keeping her voice below a shriek in a kitchen piled with groceries, sorted into two piles. Accepted and Rejected.
"You'll learn, Sharona." Adrian Monk replied, some of his meekness leaving him, as a half smile crossed his lips. He had made some progress in the weeks since Sharona Fleming had started working as his practical nurse.
"That's not the point, Adrian. I'm here to help you, so that you can eventually do it yourself."
Adrian Monk didn't answer, but his deep brown eyes grew large, and his jaw began to drop.
"Look, you have to at least come with me." She reasoned.
"I can't." The older man said, mentally imploding into himself. Sharona noticed that he did that, sometimes, when he was beginning to get overwhelmed. He went into his own world and mentally gave up for a short time, to his own detriment when he had to make big decisions or if he had too many choices.
She touched his hand, gently and he tensed up a little. "Why not?" She asked softly.
"There are so many people and you know I can't be in crowds, and there was that incident with the banana in the apple section the last time I went to the store. It was blatant!" He paused for dramatic effect. "And...all the milk. It's everywhere!"
"The milk" she muttered, under her breath and closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose and again wondered why on earth she agreed to help this man. Or how anyone could think that she, a nurse, could ever help him. He had so many problems, and needed a whole team of people to help him, not just Sharona Fleming, a single mother with with a 7 year old kid and not enough help herself. She took a cleansing breath and tried again. "Listen, Adrian. We can find out when the store doesn't have so many people, okay?"
Adrian though for a moment, and nodded, hesitantly.
"And if you want to rearrange a few pieces of fruit...well, we can cross the fruit bridge when we get to it, okay?
Adrian Monk looked relieved, like he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, and he nodded again. "What about the milk? That's close to the top of my list."
"There's always going to be milk," Sharona began, "but I'll be there. I'll protect you from all the milk." She smiled and put her hand, reassuringly on his back and continued. " But, Adrian, I need you to be brave enough to walk into the store. Do you think you can do that?"
"With you there? I think I can."