Chapter Nine: I'm Back

Mr Monk slowly groaned & opened his eyes. He realised that he was completely entangled with Natalie. "Now how to do this without waking her" Mr Monk thought to himself. He contemplated moving her off him, but that would surely wake her. Mr Monk thought about trying to slide out, but that seemed impossible. In the end he just gave up & went back to sleep.

About an hour later, Natalie's eyes flickered open & she almost had a heart attack when she realised she was lying on someone. Realising it was Mr Monk, she thought back to last night. Natalie remembered the date, & the ride home, but she still had no idea how she came to be in his bed. "Now how to do this without waking him". Natalie bit her lip, this could be hard.

She began to slide her arm out from under him, careful not to make a sudden movement. Mr Monk stirred, & awoke again. "Morning." He gave her a cheesy grin.

"Morning." Natalie looked quite confused. "Uh, how did…" She trailed off, not really knowing why.

"You practically fell asleep at the wheel." Mr Monk seemed quite comfortable having Natalie on top of him, but nonetheless, she began to move next to him.

"Oh. What's the time?" Natalie changed the subject, still fatigued from last night.

"Uh…" Mr Monk turned over to the clock. "It's 9:40."

"Oh my God!" Natalie practically leapt out of bed. "We have to go, the Captain's expecting us, & we'll need to stop by my place for my clothes!" Natalie was in a panic.

Amused by this, and still half asleep (not realising that he was late) Mr Monk began to laugh.

"WHAT?" Natalie was wringing her hands.

"Nothing." Mr Monk stood up & went over to her. "It's just that you look so cute when you're worried." He enveloped her in a bear hug & began to sway.

"Uh…" Shardy was leaning against the door frame in yet another stunning outfit; blue skinny jeans, black camisole, bikers jacket done up at the neck & black high-heel, to the knee, lace up boots. Her hair was done in a quiff at the top, letting the rest cascade down her shoulders & a good part of her back. "You guys want breakfast? Or are you going to work now?" Shardy seemed wide awake after quite an uncomfortable night on the couch.

"We'd better get going, we're already quite late. But thanks." Natalie smiled at the teenager who strolled off to the kitchen.

The fact that they were late had finally registered with Mr Monk & he threw himself into an absolute flurry. "NATALIE!" This caught her off guard & she slammed into his wall in an attempt to avoid whatever could have provoked such a reaction. "WE'RE LATE! I've got to shower & dress & eat &… &… " He couldn't think of anything else to say, so he just waved his hands around for emphasis.

Natalie began to rub his back. "Mr M-" It was at these times she felt more like his nurse than kinda-girlfriend. "Adrian. Calm down. I'll let you get ready, & I'll drive back to my place & get ready myself. Then I'll come back & pick you up. Okay?" She pecked him on the lips.

Mr Monk looked incredibly lost, and his eyes were set in such a way that he looked absolutely adorable. "Okay." He whimpered, before shooing her out the door.

Natalie bounded down his stairs, almost crashing into her daughter. "MUM!" Julie leapt back, startled by her mother flying down the stairs.

"Sorry darling. We've got to go. I'm late, & Mr Monk's late, &…" She pulled her daughter by the hand, rushing downstairs & into their car.

Shardy was hanging around in the kitchen "Okay, see you soon." She addressed to no one in particular.

Shardy began to eat her dry cereal. "How can you not have milk?" She stressed to herself, and made a mental note to buy some. Just as Shardy finished, she heard some thumping, and found Mr Monk trying to make it down the stairs on one foot whilst trying to put his shoe on.

Shardy steadied him, almost falling over in the process. "Uh… Need some help there?" She raised one eyebrow before pulling his socked foot to the ground. "It's just carpet. You clean it. You're not in danger, & there evidently aren't any germs." Shardy went back to the sink & began to wash her bowl.

"Uh. Let me do that. It needs to sparkle & be shiny, & free of germs." Mr Monk took the bowl from her, but found it spotless. Shardy smirked & leant against his counter. On closer inspection, meaning he stuck his head in the bowl, he found one speck of cereal, which he scrubbed off with the nearest sponge. "There. All better."

Shardy remembered the milk. "Um, do you own any milk?" Her eyes widened as Mr Monk jumped behind a wall.

"M-Milk?" His voice trembled.

"Yeah, the stuff that comes out of cows udders…" She trailed off. Was this another one of his phobias?

Mr Monk gave a few nervous twitches, bringing his head to his shoulder "Don't say. That word."

Shardy was baffled. "What, you mean udder?" Mr Monk began to twitch repeatedly.

"Yes."

"Oookay…" Just at that second, Natalie rushed into his house, panting. By this time, Shardy had began to be a little weirded out, and jokingly backed away.

"Sorry – we're in a rush." Natalie apologised.

"Yeah. Hey, do you know why he doesn't have milk?" At this, Mr Monk jumped behind the wall again.

"Oh, it's another phobia of his." Natalie remarked, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Mr Monk poked his head out from behind the wall. "We'd better go."

"Mmm. Me too, I'm taking the bike over to the mechanic." Shardy stood up, grabbing her helmet from the side table.

"Motorbike?" Natalie looked worried. "You're only 15."

Mr Monk turned to Shardy. "That's illegal."

"Yeah, well so is my life." She retorted in a defiant way.

"You can't ride a motorbike. It's illegal" Natalie stressed to her. Shardy sprinted out the door before they said anything else. "In high-heels too. Impressive. Come on, lets go." Natalie tugged Mr Monk by his sleeve & they went down to her car.

…………………………………………………………………..

"It looks better undone." Natalie undid his top button.

"But it's not even"

"It looks better."

Mr Monk & Natalie were fighting with his top button, her hands trying to undo it, and his trying to keep it done up. Finally giving in, Mr Monk dropped his hand.

"Ah… Glad to see that you decided to show up." The captain looked mad.

"Sorry Captain, but we- I overslept, & I had to drop Julie back h-" Natalie was getting flustered.

"Sorry" Mr Monk cut in, before pulling Natalie away to survey the wreckage.

As Mr Monk started doing his hand thing, his phone rang. Natalie rummaged through her bag & finally pulled it out. "Hello?"

"Hi Natalie, this is Sharona." Natalie smiled a victory smile.

"Oh, Hi Sharona, what's up?" Sharona could hear her slightly mocking tone through the receiver.

"I just wanted to let Adrian know that I've moved back to San Fran – things didn't work out with Trevor."

"Oh, that's too bad. Sorry he can't come to the phone, he's just a little tied up." Natalie's voice was indifferent.

"That's okay, just pass on the message please. Bye."

"Bye."

Click. Natalie laughed to herself, she had won. "Hey, Adrian!" She strolled over to him & wrapped her arms around his waist. He squirmed before zoning back in & realising it was Natalie. He turned around & kissed her.

"Hey."

"I just got off the phone with Sharona. She's moved back here."

"Oh!" His eyes lit up for a second. "Really?"

Natalie nodded her head. "I'd better let you get back to work."

Just as she said that, a black motorbike with red & gold calligraphy pulled up. On it was Shardy. She pulled off her helmet & gave the classic slow hair shake. "Good as new." She tapped her bike before chaining it up to the nearest pole.

"It's pretty brave of you to be driving under-age in front of a crowd of cops." Disher sidled up to her.

"It's pretty brave of you to be hanging around Adrian Monk even though you're trying to hide countless stalking attempts." Shardy smiled at him and walked over to Mr Monk. "Found anything?"

"Uh, well we've determined that it was set off by an automatic detonator, so it was intended for them, not you. We have leads, but they include basically anyone in a 70-mile radius."

Shardy's mobile erupted with an upbeat tune, recorded by herself. "Shardy." She greeted the voice on the other end of the line. "Oh… They did?.... She's here?... WHAT?... Um, no, I don't want to meet her… Sorry, It's just too weird… Okay, bye." Shardy turned away from the group & put her phone away.

"Go on." Shardy faked a smile.

"Well, I'm sorry to say that we can't rule you out either though, so it looks like your name won't be cleared for a while." The Captain sidled up to Mr Monk.

"Oh." Shardy looked at her feet. "Well that sucks." She went over to a group of younger male cops attempting to control the crowd.

"I'm telling you, it's not her." Mr Monk insisted to the Captain.

"I'm telling you that she is a possibility" Stottlemeyer retorted.

Natalie rubbed Mr Monks arm "I believe you." She smiled a comforting smile at him, & he leant his head on hers, gaining strange looks from the officers still not entirely sure what was going on between them.

Mr Monk went back to survey the wreckage, noticing a note left in an out-of-the-way position (under the remains of the gearbox). "Captain, I found something."

The captain used tweezers to pull it out, it wasn't charred & hadn't been in the explosion. A barely legible message was scrawled across it. "I think it says…" Stottlemeyer squinted "This was nor wcsstiq wiph… Or not." The Captain rethought.

"It says, this was for… Uh, messing with… I can't make out the rest of it, I think it's a name. Can we send it to the lab to get the full message & check for DNA?" Mr Monk looked up at the Captain.

"Yeah, I'll send it back now. Have you found anything else Monk?" Stottlemeyer paused for Mr Monk's response.

"No… Not yet. But I will." Stottlemeyer walked away, excited about 'his' discovery.

Shardy bumped the captain on her way back to the wreckage. "Watch it! Evidence!" Captain indicated to the note he had bagged, clearly annoyed.

"Watch it! Suspect!" She mocked him, pointing to herself before smirking.

"Whatever. You shouldn't even be here." Stottlemeyer stalked off, leaving Shardy laughing.

"Hey guys!" Shardy waved, altogether happier now that she had found people who cared about her.

"Hey Shardy" Mr Monk & Natalie addressed her.

"I see you found some note or something. The guy must have snuck in last night to put it there. The street camera's giving any clues?" She looked around.

"Oh! We haven't checked them yet." Mr Monk ran up to Disher, who was trying to chat up some blonde trying to see what was going on. "Randy? I need you to get the tapes from the security camera from last night."

Randy jerked his head up. "No problemo." He tried to act cool.

"Thanks." Mr Monk left.

"You know, I'm kind of a big shot around here." He wiggled his eyebrows, causing the blonde to walk off. "Everytime!" Randy cursed himself & went over to the captain.

………………………………………………………………….

"Long day huh?" Natalie looked up at Mr Monk, who she was lying half-on & half-off on the couch.

"Mmm" He agreed, running his fingers through her hair. "So Shardy's friends with Julie now?" Mr Monk found it hard to believe.

"Yeah, despite the age difference, 2 years, they get along really well." Natalie nuzzled his neck. Suddenly the doorbell rang, frightening the new couple.

"I got it!" Shardy leapt down the stairs in her haste to avoid the couple having to move for Julie. She flung open the door, her eyes widened at the sight & she crumpled to the floor unconscious, all within the span of a few seconds.