This is a one-shot inspired by Impulsivity. It's not part of that universe, but Chapter 13 and 14 inspired me to write this. I have not abandoned Commitments, but this story is screaming to be told.

Right Before Your Eyes

Set during Mr. Monk and the End, Part 2

Timeline: Natalie's been poisoned, and the doctors have just managed to find an antidote. Rickover is dead, but Monk has had no revelations about the existence of Trudy's daughter. Both Monk and Natalie are still hospitalized.

It was a pale Lieutenant Steven Albright that exited Natalie's hospital room. She still had a fever, and all night, she had been asking for her boss, saying she needed to see him. She had said she couldn't lose him again, and needed him to be okay.

Captain Leland Stottlemeyer was waiting outside because of Monk and Natalie. Monk had finally achieved what he had sought out to do. Trudy's murder had finally been solved.

"Lieutenant, how's Nat?"

The Navy officer just stared out into space. He hadn't heard what the police captain had said.

Leland waved a hand in front of his face, "Earth to Albright."

He snapped to, and quickly said, "I'm sorry, Captain. What did you say?"

"I asked about Natalie."

Albright shook his head. "The doctor says she's recovering, but she still has some fever and talks in her sleep." His blue eyes suddenly bore into Leland's. "I need you to tell me what you know about Natalie's relationship with Monk."

Leland turned around and stared towards a distant window down the hall. "Do you really want the answer?"

A grim look crossed Steven's handsome features before he answered. "Yes, I think I need to know."

Stottlemeyer gestured down the hallway. "Let's sit over there, where we won't be heard."

"First thing, Lieutenant, why are you asking these questions now?"

Albright sighed, "It's the things she's been doing, and has been saying. When all of this started with the poison, he's been all she can think about. She would sob uncontrollably into the night. Then she picked up one of those cursed wipes of his and now she's in here. Still, she wanted to make sure Monk got the antidote first, and she's been delirious. She won't stop asking for him. She says she needs him, that she can't lose him again. What is Natalie not telling me, Stottlemeyer?"

Leland broke his toothpick and tossed it into the wastebasket. "I don't think Natalie could even admit it to herself, much less any of us. Natalie's relationship with Monk is different from the one he had with Sharona- his first assistant. They're two wonderful women, but both had their distinct methods on how to handle Monk. It started even before that incident with your CO and the submarine. Monk was accused of a murder he didn't commit. Monk is a genius, with an uncanny ability to extract himself from bad situations, and managed to escape the transport and went on the run. But not before he went to Natalie. He sought her out for some care- money, clean clothes, a shower- and then he disappeared again."

Leland just shook his head, hating to delve so deeply into a personal topic. "He wound up on the run. I helped him fake his death. He was wearing a vest, and I met him on the pier. I fired two shots in his chest, and he managed to play the role to the hilt. Everyone else thought he was dead, I didn't even tell Randy. I also didn't tell Natalie. Monk wanted to get in touch with her when I met up with him to send him into hiding, but I told him he couldn't. So I had to tell Natalie he was dead."

"Of course it upset her, Captain."

"Upset? No, upset would be better than Natalie's state of mind at the time. She went into debt to give him a hero's funeral with full honors. She was hysterical. Randy couldn't comfort her, and she didn't even want to look at me."

Albright ran a hand through his hair. "But of course he wasn't dead."

Leland started to chuckle. "Monk is Monk, Albright. There's nothing that can stop him from solving homicide cases. I thought he would be under the radar in Nevada. He was cleaning and detailing cars, but he managed to solve a hit-and-run while working at this car wash. But by pure luck, Natalie wound up seeing the story in the paper about the 'Car Wash Columbo' and everything added up. She ran to the station, confronted me, and I was forced to admit to her it was him- that we faked it. She nearly collapsed, and started to beat up on me for torturing her that way."

"Is that the long and short of it?"

"Not quite, Lieutenant. She lied to me when she promised she wouldn't go after him. She promptly packed up her things, and hit the road in search of him. She stayed with him until we caught the real killer, and saved the governor...it was all part of a big assassination attempt on the governor."

Albright was quiet for a moment. His voice was barely audible when he uttered the painful truth. "She loves him."

Stottlemeyer shook his head. "This is nothing Natalie has ever said. I don't know what all that will mean now, Lieutenant. Monk's solved Trudy's murder, but that doesn't mean he will move past losing her enough to think about a relationship with another woman- even Natalie."

"He's a goddamned fool."

"I know that it's hard for you to understand, Lieutenant. But Monk is the most brilliant and unique individual I have ever known. I've watched other cops try to survey a crime scene the way he does, but it just doesn't work. Trudy's death destroyed the cop that I knew. All the little quirks he had as a young man multiplied and multiplied, and they weren't little things that could be conquered. He'll try to sell you a good game about which fear trumps the other. But on a scale of 1-10, he places all of them no lower than 8."

Steven Albright rubbed his forehead, as though he had a headache he couldn't shake. "I have to get away for awhile. I have to think, sort things out. I'm not leaving right away. I want to see Natalie recover. But she needs some time as well."

Stottlemeyer watched the naval officer walk away, his usual military bearing intact, never betraying the fact that his emotions were in turmoil. For some reason, this angered him. He had decided he had had enough and could be silent no more.

Despite his age, and the fact that he had been exposed for a longer period of time than Natalie, Adrian Monk was rallying. His fever had broken, and he was starting to feel a little better. He seemed to brighten when Captain Stottlemeyer came in the room, until he noticed that his oldest friend had his jaw clenched in frustration.

"What is it, Leland? Is it Natalie? Is she going to be okay?"

Leland turned to Monk, eyes blazing. "Natalie...funny you should ask. Here's the thing, Detective Monk. Remember that chat I had with you in the cemetery after you were shot?"

Adrian nodded.

"Of course you remember. Well, it's nothing compared to what I'm about to say to you now. I had planned to put off this talk for awhile, but I can't be quiet anymore. What was conjecture on my part is now something that even the DA would admit as evidence. Now an innocent third party has been caught in the crosshairs, and you're going to listen."

"Leland, what is going on? What does this have to do with Natalie?"

"It has everything to do with Natalie, Monk. I almost let the truth slip that day in the cemetery. I almost told you that she loved you, Monk. Now I don't really care if you're ready to hear it or not. Natalie loves you, Monk."

"Of course- that's her way. She's a kind, affectionate woman..."

Leland cut him off at the knees. "I swear, Monk. Sometimes you're the smartest and the dumbest goddamned person I've ever known. That woman is in love with you. She has been for years."

"What has she said? I haven't misled her. I'm a married man."

Wishing he had his yo-yo to throw across the room, Leland waved his hands in the air in frustration. "You aren't married, Monk! You're a widower. I realize that you'll never stop loving Trudy, but there's nothing in your wedding vows that stipulate that if something happened to one of you, the other had to bury themselves alive until they croaked!" His voice grew softer. "Wedding vows state 'until death do us part.' This may be a sore subject, but right now people are being hurt. Natalie's lying down the hall still a bit delirious from fever, asking for you. She wanted to make sure you had the antidote first."

Monk looked like a trapped rabbit. "She's been asking for me? What makes you think this is what you say it is?"

"I'll tell you, Monk, and I hope you can think of someone besides yourself and actually listen to me. Albright says she'd been sobbing uncontrollably since you were poisoned. She said she couldn't bear to lose you again. Most of all, you weren't there the day I told her you were dead. You didn't see the life drain from her face, and you didn't see the light in her eyes extinguished. I tried to tell her not to go after you, but that was pure idiocy on my part."

Adrian leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "That's why she acted the way she did when she found me. I wanted to comfort her." He looked at the hands he had so assiduously avoided touching people with, especially any sort of meaningful touch. In the end, it had been a cosmic joke. Not touching people hadn't protected him. His wipes certainly hadn't protected him. His germaphobia had been exploited as a weakness by Ethan Rickover, and it had nearly killed him. He gazed at Leland, a naked, frightened look in his brown eyes. "She ran to me, handed me a wipe, and started to cover my face with kisses. She was crying. I didn't know. I still don't know if I'm capable of..."

"Being attracted to another woman, Monk? Oh you've been attracted to other women since Trudy died. Were they serious things? No. That's because you deliberately, and consciously chose women who were ultimately unavailable to you. Monica was married, and Leyla was embroiled in covering for her mother. Safe choices, Monk. Nothing you could possibly be expected to deliver on."

Leland's eyes burned a hole through Monk as he finished what he had to say. "In the meantime, Monk- there's a beautiful woman lying in a bed down the hall. She's been calling your name in her sleep, and asking for you repeatedly. The reason she's there is because of your idiotic wipes that never did anything to keep you safe, and in the end, nearly killed you. They almost killed Natalie too, Monk. She's not a safe choice. You would have to deliver on it. But her job as your assistant is never going to be something she can keep and have a meaningful relationship with another man at the same time. She already has to give so much of herself to it to begin with. Happiness is there, right before your eyes. You just have to be open to it."

Adrian laid there in bed for a long time, thinking about the hard truths that he had been forced to face. He decided to get up from his bed, and made his way to Natalie's room.

She looked impossibly girlish and petite in sleep. Tentatively, he looked at his hand for a brief moment, and then gently brushed her hair back from her forehead. She murmured incoherently at first, but then her words became more intelligible. With the intensity of a blow, he nearly staggered at what he heard. "Mr. Monk...I need you. Please, Adrian. I can't lose you again." He had never thought that Natalie might need him. He needed her. She was the one who cooked for him, shopped for him, helped him with his clothing. She was the one who didn't hesitate to take him by the arm, always there to reassure him that she was there to help him meet any challenge.

Sinking down into the chair next to her bed, he clasped her hand and actually held it to his cheek. "I'm sorry, Natalie. I'm here. I won't leave you." The room was silent, save for the occasional broken sobbing. Adrian Monk had realized the far-reaching consequences of his folly.