AN: Thank you to Alex Hoodle, Monkish, and Kathy for your reviews in a very bad week you were my bright spot. So, this chapter was originally just the ending of the last chapter and was different. It had this whole scene at the crime scene and all these clues Adrian noticed and it was horrible. I am sorry I just can't write the whole murder mystery crime thing, so I guess I picked the wrong fandom to write about huh. Well anyway, I tried to beef up the rest of the chapter slightly because when I took out all the bad there wasn't much left and I am sorry that what is left is not great either. I think I will be skipping ahead after this because I have no plot of a case to write about for the rest of London, sorry.

Chapter 25 London part 2:

THE NEXT MORNING

Natalie felt fuzzy, warm and giddy the instant she started to wake up. She didn't remember at first what put her in such a good mood, but as she became more conscious of her surroundings and the dream world slipped away, she realized that she was in an unfamiliar bed but with a familiar pair of arms wrapped around her. Not only were Adrian's arms surrounding her but they were bare as was the rest of him. Noticing that she was naked as well. Everything came back in a rush. They were in a hotel room together in London, and last night when they were unable to sleep, they had made love for the first time. Then they had woken twice more during the night for encore performances. Natalie smiled remembering the way he treated her, and touched her, she sighed slightly, and his arm around her tightened pulling her closer.

"Good morning my love," Adrian mumbled sleepily before kissing her just below the ear.

"Good morning," she returned turning to kiss him softly before kissing his chin. She moved her arms wrapping them around his neck in a lazy hug.

"How are you?" Adrian tried to keep the nervousness out of his voice, "I mean how are you feeling after..."

"Perfect," Natalie cut off his words and worries, "I feel perfect. Warm, loved, giddy, like everything is right with the world. How about you, are you okay?"

"More than okay," Adrian kissed her forehead. "Natalie, after Trudy I wondered why I was still here, and now I know, you're my reason. Last night it was like I finally knew where I'm supposed to be."

"You're supposed to be making love to me?" Natalie questioned flashing him a sassy grin.

"Yes," Adrian answered her seriously, "but also just with you, this is it, you are it for me Natalie."

Natalie kissed him harder that time trying to convey everything she felt for this amazing man. "I love you so much." They probably would have made love again that morning if the alarm hadn't rudely interrupted them a minute later. The mood was spoiled, and they both knew they had to get up and get ready to meet the captain.

Natalie was brushing her teeth I thought popped into her mind she quickly put down her toothbrush and ran out of the bathroom. "Adrian, we didn't use anything!"

"What?" Adrian looked up confused, "we didn't use any what?"

"We didn't use anything last night," Natalie tried to explain, "you know, protection."

"Oh," he breathed a sigh of relief, "so? You're clean, I'm clean..."

"Birth control."

"Oh, I didn't think of that," Adrian said, but he instantly realized that he was aware that she had stopped taking the pill a long time ago. Thinking about protection just hadn't occurred to him at all. "It will be okay Natalie, first of all, the chances normally from one night wouldn't be that great, add to it the fact that you're almost 40, and I'm 51, there's almost no chance we conceived last night...and if we did, it's not an ideal way but we would deal with it."

"And when you say deal with it, you mean?" Natalie tried to keep the edge out of her voice.

"I mean we're not planning to," Adrian explained, "but it wouldn't be the worst thing to have a baby with you."

"No," a soft smile spread across her face, "it wouldn't be the worst thing... Okay, I'm going to go finish getting ready. I love you, Adrian."

Thirty minutes later

"Hey there Monk, Natalie," the captain greeted, as they joined him in the hotel lobby.

"Good morning," Natalie said in return as Adrian just nodded a greeting. "So, what's the plan?"

"We can take a cab to Scotland yard where we will meet the inspectors here working on the case and then all head over to the crime scene together.

"Do we have time to grab something to eat?" Natalie asked looking at the café on the corner longingly.

"As long as it's something to go," the captain agreed looking at his watch. Leland joined the pair as they went into the café where Natalie was glad they had coffee along with tea. He couldn't help but notice Natalie was acting weird, she devoured the muffin that she bought looking up guiltily before slowing her pace and mumbling something about being hungry not voicing her thoughts that she had worked up an appetite the night before.

As they hailed a cab, the captain noticed as Natalie pulled on Adrian's hand and he joined her in the backseat making, the captain the one to ride up front with the driver. Leland watched the couple in the back seat with the car mirror. He couldn't help but notice that they seemed as if they were in their own world. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, but something was different.

After exchanging greetings and pleasantries, at Scotland yard, they all went to the crime scene. It was a double homicide the woman killed was the owner of the house and was not only an important lawyer for the city but was also a third cousin of the queen and was 17th in line for the crown. Adrian pointed out immediately that although people with that title took it seriously her royal connection came with no real power or benefit and he doubted it was the reason for the murder. Adrian also made two other important discoveries that day. When they went into the butler's quarters, Adrian noticed that although it didn't look like it the room had been searched after the butler was killed. In the main areas of the house, things had been ransacked to look like a robbery, but this room Adrian noted had been gone through carefully, and things were put back almost exactly the way they had been. That meant that the butler may have been the target, but whether or not he was the killer was after something in this room. The other thing that Adrian noted was that there was a series of faked photographs up in the living room. The man in the picture was apparently the boyfriend of the first victim's daughter. Adrian noted that although several photos appeared to be taken at different times of the year, his sideburns were uneven in the exact same way in all of them. There was no way that someone's sideburns would be trimmed unevenly every day in the same way, the photos had to be fake. With these two clues, the group of them planned to meet with the daughter and her boyfriend the next day when they came into town. For the rest of the day, they went back to the local office at Scotland yard so Adrian and Leland could be filled in on the rest of the details in the case file.

It was seven o'clock before the three of them said their goodbyes and left to get dinner before heading back to the hotel.

"Oh, driver can we stop on the corner?" Natalie asked from the back seat of a taxi as they were on their way back to the hotel. "Sorry I forgot something."

"That's why you should make a list like me," Adrian muttered as the cab pulled over to the side of the road in front of a little convenience store.

"I'll just be a minute," Natalie said, then slid closer and whispered in his ear softly, "trust me you'll thank me later," before sliding out of the car. Adrian didn't know what she was implying, but he knew he should probably be embarrassed. Back at the hotel, Leland asked if they wanted to go get dinner together. Monk accepted before Natalie got a chance to say no.

At dinner, Leland noticed the pair acting odd again. They had been nothing but professional all day while working the case, but now that it was just the three of them they seemed all too easily distracted by each other. Usually, it was Adrian's behavior that stood out to Leland as different, but tonight he noticed that Natalie was different too. She couldn't seem to stop herself from smiling, she was constantly touching Monk, and Leland even caught her giggling. Later when Natalie left the table to use the ladies' room, the captain pounced, "so Monk, what's up with you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," the captain waved him off, "all the goofy smiles and lovey-dovey looks."

"Sorry," Adrian apologized, "I didn't realize we were acting any differently, but it's nothing." Adrian may have changed a lot in the last year, but he was still a terrible liar.

"So, there's nothing new going on?" Leland pressed, "nothing at all has changed, you are just acting this way for no reason."

"No," Adrian paused and looked around hoping that somewhere he would find something to say, "I don't know what you mean." Adrian shifted his gaze down the table avoiding his friend's eyeline.

"Fine," Leland relented, "you don't have to tell me. I'm just happy you guys are happy."

"We are, I feel like, before," Adrian trailed off.

"Before with Trudy?" Leland asked, "that kind of happy?"

"I know that sounds awful."

"It's not awful Monk," Leland reassured his friend, "Actually, it's pretty damn great." At that moment Natalie returned to the table.

"So, what are you guys think about dessert?" Natalie asked, "I kind of want cake, want to split a piece with me?" She asked Adrian who smiled and nodded.

Captain Stottlemeyer knew he was right, something had happened between the two of them, and whatever it was, was good, and he was just glad to see that they were doing well.

Back in their hotel room later that night Natalie had just closed the door when Adrian burst, "okay, I haven't been able to figure it out, what did you get at the store? What am I supposed to be thanking you for?"

Natalie smiled slyly and opened her purse taking out a small box holding it up. Adrian turned pink at the site of the condom box. "Like you said, the chance that we conceived off of one night at our ages is pretty slim, but I didn't want us to continue to take that risk."

"Oh, I've never, I mean there was only, and we didn't," Adrian stuttered nervously.

Natalie smiled reassuringly, "it's okay Adrian, I understand you've never used one, but you will probably be the only guy on earth that will love them. They're hygienic," she added with a smirk. "Besides I'm not saying it has to make love again right now, but even after we get home and I get to the doctor and get on the pill, it would take a month before it's safe. I didn't really want to wait over a month to make love to you again," Natalie admitted stepping closer to him.

Wrapping his arms around her Adrian whispered, "I don't want to wait a month either, and we don't have to tonight, but, I mean you already got them..." Natalie laughed as she gripped the box of condoms and raced with him over to their bed.