A/N: I might as well start off by explaining to you how this story first came to life.

In 2009, Lee Goldberg, the first writer of the Monk novels, wrote a book called Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop. Well, technically it was written in 2008 and published in July 2009. The plot of the story was that when Captain Stottlemeyer is faced with budget cuts, Monk's consulting contract is terminated. He and Natalie are hired by PI firm called Intertect, run by an ex-cop named Nick Slade. Shortly thereafter, Stottlemeyer is framed for a murder and Monk is the only person who can clear his name.

Personally, I thought that the story had some good things in it, but I thought that I could improve on it. So this story started as a rewrite of Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop about five years ago. In time, it eventually became very different from the original work. While some of the original's plot elements and characters are kept, this story does drop a number of Monk's idiosyncrasies and plays out more like an action thriller than a typical Monk investigation. The violence is ramped up a bit, for instance.

This story is set in an alternate continuity of my own that's been moved about seven or eight years into the future from the actual series. In this continuity, Natalie is a widow who became Adrian Monk's assistant when her husband and daughter were murdered, and Adrian is married to a new cousin of Natalie's named Kendra Marybeth Davenport. I have another 'story' that is meant to explain the background of the characters per my continuity.

Enjoy!

An Introduction from Kendra Davenport:

Here is something you learn about brilliant detectives in fiction: they're typically a bit messed up in the head.

I mean, Nero Wolfe was a defining example of this. He was just a morbidly obese private eye (not whale-sized, although I do know an obese man called "Dale the Whale") who refused to leave his Manhattan brownstone. He instead stayed at home tending to his orchids, downing at minimum, five quarts of beer a day, and eating gourmet meals prepared by a live-in chef. He also employed a private-eye named Archie Goodwin to do all the legwork - question clients, run investigative errands, track down leads, and drag people back to the brownstone to be rudely questioned. I can't remember the specifics, but Archie was an ex-cop or something, so he was cut out for the job.

Then there was Sherlock Holmes. As Arthur Conan Doyle wrote him, he was an eccentric, washed up cocaine addict who played the violin 24/7 and conducted dangerous chemical experiments in the living room of 221B Baker Street. If it weren't for Dr. John Watson, he'd probably have been committed. Dr. Watson had retired from the army with a war wound from Afghanistan (either in his leg or his head), rented a room from Holmes, and ended up being the detective's assistant and official chronicler. A medical degree and combat experience gave Dr. Watson the skills and the temperament he needed to deal with Holmes.

Of course, America is a breeding ground for eccentric detectives. He may be fictional, but I'm a fan of fictional detectives like Richard Castle, Kate Beckett, Temperance 'Bones' Brennan, and Seeley Booth.

I'm from San Francisco, California. Like every other American city, we have our own brilliant detective. His name is Adrian Monk, and he is practically a living legend among law enforcement in the United States. He is the most uncanny genius you'll ever meet. He can look at you and read your whole life story if he wants to. He can identify your occupation based on the littlest clues. Adrian can identify you as an alcoholic based merely on damage inflicted to your cell phone. He can determine if you had sex recently, and the physical build of your paramour, just from looking at your skin. And most importantly, he always gets his man, because nothing will stop him from prowling the crime-ridden streets of San Francisco in search of justice.

Who am I? I'm Kendra Davenport, Adrian Monk's wife and one of his two crimefighting partners. Neither I nor my cousin Natalie Teeger may be a former FBI agent, or aspiring medic, but I am one thing: a hardcore action girl who practically could be lifted straight out of an action movie. I used to be a roadie for a rock band before I met Adrian, and before that, I was taking criminology courses in college.

What I've learned while married to Adrian and working with him and Natalie on cases is that it doesn't matter what your job before you began working, or in my case, get married to, an eccentric detective is, it won't make a difference. Because what makes him capable of solving impossible crimes is going to make it really difficult for everyone around him. I practically was a cure for most of Adrian's eccentricities when he married me in 2012.

For the most part, we're the trio that gets called in by my dad, Lieutenant Kendrick Davenport, whenever there's a case where the police might be stumped. Though often we also end up working cases where we weren't called in and usually Adrian ends up solving the crime anyway.

One case that stands out a lot amongst the investigations is the case of Douglas O'Donnell, a particularly ruthless criminal whose crime spree, which ranged from armed robbery to mass murder, invoked a sense of terror throughout the city over the course of a multiweek rampage.