I don't own Monk, or any of her sister characters
"Karen," Leland asked, "can I come in?"
"I don't know Leland," she teased, "can you?"
"Sorry let me put it another way. May I come in," he said laughing.
He and Karen may have divorced but she was still his best friend and he hoped very much that one day they would get back together.
Karen laughed.
"Yeah," she said, "come on in"
"I have a question to ask you," he said, "and I don't know if you're going to say yes or no"
Karen smiled at her ex-husband.
"You won't know," she said, "until you ask the question"
Leland sat down on the plush leather couch that he and Karen had first made love on the afternoon Jennifer Stottlemyer was conceived. Jennifer was their oldest child and she was stolen from them a year ago. That was always a sore point with them. Karen thought the search needed to continue and was very angry about it officially being called off.
Soon they were both looking at each other smiling fondly.
"You want to try again," Leland asked
"It will take some work"
"A lot of it," he said, "but I love you and I'm not willing to give up on… us or on our family"
She looked at him and realized the magnitude of what he was saying.
"I have an idea," he told her
"I agree," she said, "but your original question-"
"Karen I have gotten tickets to the Olympics. I would really like to take the boys. I think they would love it"
Karen thought for a tenth of a second before saying, "sure"
When she looked back up at him she was smiling through her tears. He gently took his thumb and wiped away the tears.
"Honey," he said, "believe me everything is going to be alright"
Everything would in fact be alright but in between now and that time there would be a lot of good times, bad times and in between times.