(There is a hefty intro to this chapter because it was one of the hardest ones I've ever written. Alright, folks. I'll admit it. The reason that Monk has been absent thus far in the story is that I wasn't sure if I had the talent to capture all his idiosyncrasies in text form. Well there is no putting it off anymore, and here is my valiant, brazen attempt at a chapter with Defective Detective. Also—I found Natalie rather vexing to write. No offense to her character on the show…but I find that she has no real personality that makes her stand out in writing. Thusly, amidst all the other colorful characters here in this tale…she might just blend in a little too well. Honestly I don't think this chapter is all that stellar…give me a break, its my first try at Monk. After I wrote the bit with Monk I realized that there was little to no actual plot movement, so I included other little short bits that might actually get us somewhere haha. This is the fact—Monk is a character that is better acted out, not written down. Urg. I will say it, I despise writing Monk already.)
It was spring—a wild and desperate season with a hearty lack of logic to it. Every year (it did not fail) there descended a flurry, a whirlwind of activity upon the House of Monk…and once more Natalie found she was swept up spectacularly in the middle of it.
Every year Monk found it necessary and proper to practically dismantle his home in an orderly way so as to remove the dirt and dust from each of his possessions. Here entered the insanity of it all—the house was painfully, achingly meticulously clean as it was. There was an utter dearth of filth to be cleaned, seeing as the defective detective swept the place from top to bottom with all the thorough care of a fine-toothed comb's fine-toothed comb.
Natalie submitted to the more bizarre practices of this ritual called Spring Cleaning for the sake of her monthly paycheck. She supposed that now she cut a rather comical figure, standing in Monk's living room wearing protective gloves, a hairnet, and a mask, cleaning doorknobs, hinges, doorframes, dishes, forks, spoons, knives, glasses, cups. The last two days had been anything but exciting, and she was so sick of the smell of Pine-sol that it nearly wanted to make her scream. Julie had mercifully been spared, smart enough to realize that to escape this she had to stay as far away as possible from Monk or even her mother. A rather disgruntled Natalie Teeger was handling anything that wasn't bolted down.
Anything that was bolted down, however, had been subject to a rigorous cleaning at the hands of Adrian Monk himself. Now after a days worth of cleaning furniture and whatnot, he sat at Trudy's old desk from her office, staring down at the darkened oak, and the cleaning rag slipped from his hand and hit the floor.
Natalie looked up from the kitchen where she was carefully washing a doorknob, as ordered (with particular movements so as not to leave streaks) and saw the man sitting there in his morose state with his hands limp at his side.
A pang went through her chest—he could not bear to wipe away any last imprint Trudy Monk had left on Earth. The moment was touching, and Natalie set down her sponge to revel in the poignancy of it all.
As though Monk sensed her inactivity, he wheeled around with a blazing look on his face, his gloved pointer finger stretched out as he squinted and tilted his head in her direction, "You missed a spot."
All sympathy was gone in one fell swoop. Natalie sent a scathing look across the hall and went back to her work, thinking wistfully about this month's pay and how gleefully she would cash it in.
"You still missed it." Monk repeated, a little louder as though she had not heard him.
Fed up, Natalie put the doorknob down. When she spoke her voice sounded oddly muffled from behind the surgeon mask, "Mr. Monk there is no way that you can tell from—"
"You've still missed it, Natalie." Similarly, Monks voice was distorted.
The gentle inflections. The earnest plea in the voice. The stare. There was (sadly) no doubt in Natalie's mind that she had indeed missed a spot, and deserved chastisement for such a crime. She methodically went back to washing, feeling tempted to drop it all and leave.
That paycheck…
"Mr. Monk, you know next time the Captain calls we're going to have to go." Natalie felt (not for the first time that day) that she needed to comment, bringing up the old argument. In Natalie's mind, at least, it had been an argument. The Captain had called with a case for them, and Monk had politely turned him down saying that Spring Cleaning needed to be done. Natalie had nearly croaked then even when the case was so small, and now that it was Federal she could only imagine the perks in store if Monk would only…
"We don't have to go, Natalie." Monk said with the air of one explaining something very simple to a small child. His eyes looked as empty as they ever had, "We cover homicides, not kidnappings."
"There was a death though, Emily Springer!" Natalie insisted, "She was your old friend on the force, Mr. Monk. Why won't you help find whoever killed her?"
It was apparently a bad question to ask. Monk grew silent and swung back around abruptly. The silence in the air was the same sort of silence that fell whenever Trudy's name somehow got into a conversation.
"Look, I'm sorry Mr. Monk. I didn't know this lady, but you did." Natalie abandoned her doorknob and wound her way back from the kitchen to where the living room was, "And I really think you should do something to make this right…"
Monk must have had his reasons for this flat refusal, because he gave a small incoherent mutter and rose to his feet, "Someone is coming."
All at once there was a knock at the door.
"Who could that be?" Monk said more for his own benefit than Natalie's. Leaving her aghast at how he could have known the presence of guests—and how Mr. Monk was planning on entertaining what with the house in orderly shambles—the man walked slowly, carefully to the door in time to pluck two pairs of gloves, two hats and two facemasks as though he were expecting these arrivals.
The door did not open for at least a full minute. Kat felt distinctly foolish standing there in the hall with her brother at her side. In her mind she knew that Jack was already planning on turning tail and leaving, so she reached out with a hand and squeezed his both to keep him anchored in the spot, and to let him know that in this moment she needed understanding from him, not the skeptically raised eyebrow.
Jack returned the gesture with a small amount of compassion, and they exchanged glances. He was hoping this worked just as much as she was.
There was a shuffling noise behind the door, and both of them turned their eyes back to the white thing at once.
"I'm sorry but we're not available right now," A distinctly tired, worn voice drifted out from the wood, "Please leave a message after the tone…we do not make calls, we are not here…we are busy…"
Kat sprang at the door, her reserve had held so long in these past few days and in that moment it nearly broke, "Mr. Monk? Mr. Adrian Monk? Please, please open the door this is Katriona Springer and we need your help desperately…we wouldn't have come to anyone else but things are just starting to fall together and we realized that we can't…that we can't…"
Natalie lunged past Monk and wrenched the door open with such ferocity that Kat leaped back, screaming.
"Mrs. Teeger??"
For one moment, Natalie stared at Katriona with such shock on her face that it was hard to tell who was more befuddled, she or Jack. The look on Kat's face was that of unexpected joy, as though she had found a hundred dollar bill in her jeans pocket or rather that Christmas had come early.
"Yes?" Was all that Natalie could say, aware that she looked ludicrous still with her hairnet and mask on, "Do I…do i…"
"Know me?" Kat gasped, stepping towards the woman, "I was a good friend of Julie's at school…I…I've seen you bringing her to school, sorry, I remember faces really well…its just that…I…"
Jack stepped in, thinking it time to take over, "Monk, we need your help. You know as well as anyone what's going on, and you seem to be the only person at the moment who—mrrff.."
Monk had reached out and firmly put the surgical mask over Jack's face. Momentarily flustered, Jack let it go and continued anyways, altering his speech behind the cloth so that his words were actually intelligible.
"We're on the run, the authorities are getting everything wrong. We're following the bread crumbs and we know what's happening but we need to make sure that we put enough people on the real trail before we go into hiding. Monk—"
"I can't help you." Monk said suddenly, unexpectedly, and made to close the door, "We—"
"Now wait just a minute!" Natalie said ferociously. Now that she thought on it, she recognized Katriona's pretty face not only from the televised news, but from parties and social happenings that she had taken her daughter to as well, "This is a friend of Julie, and she needs help."
"Excuse us." Monk held up one finger, dragged Natalie back into the house and closed the door with a snap right in the kid's faces.
Jack and Kat stood there, at a loss for words.
"She is much more than a friend of Julie's, she's a wanted suspect in the brutal shooting of a woman." Monk hissed, staring at Natalie with fire in his eyes, "If the Captain knew that she and her brother had come here—the brother may even be a suspect in this case, we don't even know its gone to the Feds…"
"Mr. Monk, they both came here because they're running scared. They're from our town, and I trust Julie to pick good friends!" Natalie insisted, choosing to ignore memories of the actual bad friends Julie had been known to hang around with, "They want to hire us, and seeing as you've refused to help the Captain and the San Francesco Police Department…"
There was something in Monk's eyes, and it made Natalie stop.
"Mr. Monk…something is especially wrong, I can tell. What is it?"
"Emily Springer was not as bright and as innocent as everyone makes her out to be." Monk said with that glint still in his eye, "Natalie, if helping these kids means that her true actions are brought to light for all to see…then fine I'll do it. The Captain was too fond of her, that's really why I didn't take the case…"
Monk glanced at the door, and suddenly slammed his fist against it hard.
Kat yelped and jumped back. She had been listening with her ear pressed against the woodwork. She staggered back again into Jack's arms.
"You heard him, they don't want us." He said, looking down at her.
Back inside, Natalie was looking at Monk as though she had never seen him before. The only times he was filled with such passion was when he was on the trail of a killer. It gave her chills—Monk was serious about this woman.
Monk pulled the door open again a sliver, and spoke hesitantly, "C-come in."
(Break)
"…and then they just left and said they'd be in touch!" A few hours later, Natalie was relating this tale to Julie. The teen had her homework books sprawled out in front of her on the kitchen table, and although her Ipod buds were in, she was listening to her mother intently, hanging on every word.
Natalie threw her hands in the air, "I don't know what to make of it!"
Julie chuckled, pulling her Calculus book towards her, "Mr. Monk let them into his house amidst his cleaning freakout? Wow, I'm impressed."
"After they put the hairnets on!" Natalie chuckled, but then quickly became serious, "Julie, you need to tell the Captain that you knew Julie Springer. It could be very helpful in their investigation."
"Not really." Julie shrugged, "Kat never talked much about what went on at home. I guess we all know that her mom was in the FBI and that her dad was a jerk. No one asked and no one really needed to know."
"Her dad was a jerk?" Natalie's inquisitive nature reared its head.
"Well yeah," Julie said casually, flipping through the pages of the textbook, "She always said about how he'd never let her do anything really anymore, about how he was really nervous about stuff happening to him…you know, usual teenager stuff. He was really controlling."
"Right." Natalie said. She filled her lungs to try and press Julie into telling her more, but the girl had already turned up the volume. There would be no getting past the wall-of-shun, because Julie was done talking. Natalie knew from experience that this meant she would not be spoken to for a while and wisely chose to leave the room.
The second Natalie went off to occupy herself with something, Julie glanced up to make sure she was gone. Once this fact had been confirmed, she pulled her cell phone from her school bag and scrolled through a few names in her address book. She found the one she wanted and hit the 'call' button, slinking from the table and heading out the door to the backyard.
She walked down the stone path and put her back to the large oak. Here she knew no one could see her. There was better service on this end anyways. The phone rang and rang and rang…
Come on, Kat. Pick up.
"Hello?"
Julie's heart skipped a beat, but she swallowed it and managed a shaky, "K-Kat?"
"Jewels…" The voice on the other end sounded tired and worried.
Julie looked around her shiftily. Her mom was probably watching TV, either that or watching her from out the window. Either way she knew that she had to make it quick, and therefore skipped all the usual girl greetings and gushes,"What did you guys want with my mom's boss?"
"Where are you right now?"
"In my backyard."
"Are you alone?"
"Yes."
"The police and Monk aren't making you do this call so they can trace us?"
"No. Monk doesn't trust the police for this case, at least that's what my mom says."
There was a silence on the other end. Julie gave a small smile, "I promise I'm alone, Kat. On my honor, or else I'll ask Nick Race Visser to prom."
There was a dry chuckle, "OK, that's about as good a promise as you can make. What do you want to know?"
Julie took a deep, calming breath, "You've been all over the news! What do you think I want to know! I haven't seen you in school for ages…everyone is starting rumors that you ran away with Dustin Grose…"
"I wish," Kat's voice was starting to warm a little, and it didn't sound quite so fractured or tired, "Well, you know the news stories. Someone is orchestrating these events, someone is leaving a trail up and down California that Jack and I are trying to trace. So far its lead us to Monk."
"Why do you think he can help?"
"He and my mom have a history…not like a romantic history, so you can stop looking so scandalously excited." Julie grinned, Kat knew her too well, "I don't know the exact details, but…I dunno. Jack wasn't sure if this connection would help or hinder us, but its done enough that he's agreed to look over our case and try to help us."
"So where are you guys right now?"
"Sorry, Jewels. I can't say. I trust you, but there is a chance that this call is being bugged even without you or me knowing."
Once more, Julie looked around her. It was getting dark, she had better get back inside before she was missed, "Is there anything you want me to do? I really wish I could help you out, Kat."
"Tell Dustin that I love him and that I most definitely would have gone with him to Spring Fling." Kat chuckled, "Besides that, there's not much else you can do except believe me when I say that not all is as it seems."
"My mom is coming outside." Julie said suddenly. The door had swung open.
"Julie?"
Julie snapped her phone shut and slipped it back into her pocket, her face flushed…