It has been a year since Adrian Monk solved his wife's Murder.
Adrian Monk lay peacefully in his bed sleeping like a baby, that's technically the only time Adrian was ever happy and content. In his dream's his world was perfectly normal with no worries, no doubts, everything was even and in rows of ten, and the best part is, he was with his beautiful wife Trudy. They were both sitting down on a bench in the park happily holding each other's hands. "Trudy, I love you," said Monk kissing her hand, Trudy looked at him, "I love you to sweetie," she leaned over and kissed his hand. "But there's something I want to talk to you about," "Anything you want dear," Monk said joyfully." "Well, as you know honey, I've been dead for 12 years, which is a long time for you to go without loving someone". "What do you mean I haven't loved somebody for the past 12 years honey, I've loved you?" he protested staring into her beautiful, baby blue eyes. "You know what I mean honey," she said earnestly. "Well, I've had crushes," he said trying to avoid where he knew this was headed. "Adrian, you've solved my murder, and I love you, but I want you to be happy and be with someone".
Monk stared at her with a lonely sad look in his eyes, "I can't leave you," he said choked up. "Honey, I'll be okay," she said kissing him on the forehead. "There's no one like you though, no one who cares for me and understands me the way you do," he said arguing with her. "What about Natalie? She understands you, she cares for you, she supports you, and she loves you," she said with mixed emotions. "Natalie?" said Monk thoughtfully, Monk never thought of Natalie in that way, though Natalie did remind him of Trudy and she did care for him, but he never thought that Natalie might actually love him. "Do you think she's attractive?" asked Trudy looking at him smiling, "Well she's beautiful but that's out of the question, I mean she kissed a leper, which that in my book is like kissing death, might as well get in a coffin and ask someone to bury you alive." "Adrian," said Trudy looking sensible, "Don't be that way, she's sweet and very kind, and her husband died too, so you both understand each other on that note, and as much as you don't like to admit it you sometimes aren't very nice to her." "I pay her almost all the time, and you say I'm not being nice to her," said Monk stammering. "You know what I mean Adrian Monk," Trudy said vigorously. "Okay, honey I'm getting stressed, I think I'm going to get up and clean the house," said Monk standing. "Okay, think about what I said Adrian," Trudy said as she waved goodbye.
Monk was now at Doctor Bell's office. "She said that?" said Doctor Bell shocked at Monk's dream. "Yeah, It's like she was saying to me, it's okay to be with Natalie now, you've solved my murder, go on with your life" Monk said, wincing at the memory. "Well, do you like Natalie?" asked Doctor Bell, quizzically. "I-I-I" said Monk stammering, "Do you think Trudy was right when she said you've been a little bit of a jerk to her? "Monk looked at him flustered. "No, I mean yes, I mean, I don't know, It was a dream for crying out loud!" said Monk yelling. "Do you think that possibly Natalie might love you?" asked Doctor Bell dubiously. "I don't know, can we talk about something else, please?" said Monk disturbed. "It doesn't matter anyway, your session is done for now," said Doctor Bell looking at his clock. "Okay, see you on Wednesday" said Monk getting up: Monk walked into the office where Natalie was sitting, reading "Mother Earth News" magazine. "How was the session?" asked Natalie, Monk looked at her for the longest time contemplating on what to say. "It was peachy," said Monk twitching his neck. Natalie got up and put her arm around his, "Peachy?" asked Natalie looking at him funny, "Yeah, Peachy" he said.
"So?" asked Natalie getting into the car, "So, what?" asked Monk looking at her. "Nothing happened?" said Natalie dubiously. "Nope," said Monk tensely. Monk wasn't really paying attention to Natalie, all he could think about was his dream and if Natalie loved him, and if he loved Natalie. "Hey Natalie?" Monk said finally, "Yeah Mr. Monk?" Natalie replied cheerfully. "Do you think I'm a jerk to you?" he said timidly. "Well, you can be rude when you want to be," she said hesitantly "But you can also be really sweet, so I guess it depends on your mood of the day, sometimes I'm crabby when I want to be". "Really, oh, well I'm sorry if I'm a jerk to you sometimes," said Monk warily, "it's okay Mr. Monk, but thanks for apologizing," She said joyfully. "I just wanted to complement you on something Mr. Monk, you have changed a lot since you solved Trudy's murder." Monk cocked his head, "In a good way or a bad way?" he said worried, "A good way" she said patting him on the back.
"So what do you want to do today?" "I don't know, I guess just go home, the captain's off today so there's really nothing to do, unless you can think of something?" he said looking at her with a grin. "You actually want my opinion on something?" she asked sarcastically. "Yeah" he said smiling at her, "Well, we could have movie day." She finally said. "Movie day, what's that?" he said uncertainly. "Movie day is where you go and rent movies and watch them all day with your friends" she said. "Really, what kind of movies?" He asked, Natalie suddenly looked at him with a little bit of sadness in her eyes and said, "Well, me and Mitch used to watch romance movies, which we don't have to since, you know," "What?" he said looking at her wondering what she meant. "Well, you probably don't really like romance movies because of Trudy," she finally said. "Oh," Monk said in a sad voice, "Well, it's okay to watch love movies once in a while, the last love movie I saw was a couple of day's before Trudy died it was "The Titanic". Natalie looked at him with a sweet smile "Did you like it?" "Like it? I bawled my head off through half of the movie" he said feeling a little self-conscious at the memory. "Oh, okay so what romance movie do you want to watch?" she asked finally. "Well, the truth is, the love movie that always interested me was "The Notebook," he said. "The Notebook, oh, I love that movie, it's so sweet." She said putting her hand to her heart. "Okay, but it doesn't have any racey stuff in it, does it?" "Oh yeah there's a few, but we can skip past all of that stuff" she said waving her hand expressively. "Okay, onto the movie renting place I guess?" He said motioning toward the road. "Okay," she said. She thought it was cute the way he was acting, she didn't understand why she thought it was cute though, she just did.