I don't own Monk

Monk could tell right away that Natalie was upset about something. He watched as she stormed out of the door shaking, tears in her eyes.

"Natalie," he asked gently, "You okay?"

"Do I look okay," she asked, "No I'm not okay. I'm the opposite of okay. Today was a horrible day and I just want to forget all about it"

"What happened," he asked gently.

"Barnaby Merriman is a ****** coldhearted stone pig! He said all those awful things about me. Any time I got a question wrong he called me an incompetent moron who could never do anything right. To add insult to injury he knew Mitch. He and Mitch were stationed together and he said Mitch would be ashamed of who I am right now"

Rarely did Adrian Monk get angry. He was always calm. He was always cool. He was always collected. Doing anything on the case he was completely together but when someone hurt a person he loved, and he did love Natalie as a dear friend, NOBODY would get away with that.

"Barnaby Merriman," he said with his voice raising only slightly, "must have been born and raised in a barn."
Natalie looked at him confused.

"You are the most incredibly caring, smart and funny woman that I have ever known with the exception of Trudy. You are smart. You are funny. You're positive when it's hard to be positive and don't even say you're not because I've seen it"

"Not at first," Natalie pointed out.

"Well yeah," he said, "It took you a little while but that's too be excepted. Within minutes not even hours... minutes you were back to being positive again without my even saying you should be. This traffic school instructor knew you for less then a day and he was insulting you. Hell no... that doesn't fly straight. I think you know that you aren't what that man said you are"

"You really mean that," she asked.

"Look," Adrian said, "after Trudy died it was as if everything that ever made sense to me died with her. I never acted towards her the way I act towards other people. In my mind if I'm gentle with another person... I'm being disloyal to Trudy."

"Can I ask you a question," Natalie asked.

"You just did," he pointed out.

"Can I ask you another question," she asked.

"You just did," he pointed out

"Fine I'm going to ask you a 3rd question then," she said.

"Go for it," he said.

"Do you remember the story you told me about... about Trudy," she asked.

Monk looked at her like she was a little loony in the head.

"I told you tons of stories about Trudy," he said, "Could you please be more specific."

"The one about the shock bracelet and why they call you Electric Love."

Trudy had been set up so it looked like she was guilty of a crime. She was sentenced to a year of a shock bracelet that went off and gave out random painful shocks several times throughout the day. She wore it less then 30 minutes. The bracelet was monitored but not like a tracking bracelet was monitored. If nobody was wearing it they would know but they wouldn't know if the wrong person was wearing it. After the first shock brought tears to her eyes and cause her to drop a bowl he couldn't take it anymore. He insisted she put her feet up, took the bracelet off her and put it on himself. He endured a year of painful shocks to protect his wife.

Leland and the others figured it out pretty quickly when he got hit with a STRONG shock during roll call. They confronted him on it in the form of making comments like Adrian's love for Trudy is ELECTRIFYING AND CURENTLY that is the most romantic story I have ever heard which is how he ended up earning the nickname ELECTRIC LOVE

"Say it was... Julie in that situation," Natalie asked, "Would you have done that for her?"

"In a heartbeat," he said, "and I would do it for you too in a heartbeat. Why did you ask that anyway"

"Cause," Natalie said, "I think you're a lot better then you give yourself credit for