Authors Note: Our apologies for not getting this out on Tuesday as promised. An unforeseen power outage knocked out the internet for one of us which delayed the final edits required before we could post. In the future, we will try to post things as quickly as possible and not keep you waiting; however, there are a few planned breaks in our schedule and sometimes (as it did this time) life just gets in the way. Thank you for your patience!
The time read 11:54 PM on the dashboard clock of Julie Teeger's friend Amy's car as Amy was bringing Julie home a little before midnight, just as she had promised her mother she would. Even though she was eighteen, she and her mom had an agreement that if she were to be out late at night, that she would always come home by a set time, and would call if she couldn't make that time, so that Natalie did not have to worry.
On that particular evening, as her friend Amy drove into Julie's neighborhood, the two girls sang and moved in their seats to the melodic sounds of Bruno Mars as he sang Just the Way You Are which was playing on the local San Francisco radio station. However, all singing stopped when Amy rounded the corner to turn onto Julie's street and they found the street a barricaded about halfway down the block, keeping them from going any further. Julie's heart began to race and she turned off the radio when she saw her family home illuminated by the red and blue lights of SFPD cruisers and watched as a flurry of law enforcement swarmed around her house.
"What the he -" Amy muttered in astonishment. "That's your house, isn't it Jules? What the heck happened?"
Amy's vehicle had not come to a complete stop before Julie grabbed her phone and her purse and jumped out of the car, running to her house and to her front porch. SWAT members and officers tried to stop her, but she pushed past them all and reached her front door. She reached out her hand and was beginning to turn the knob when she heard footsteps behind her. An officer's hand clamped down on her shoulder and roughly led her away from the door.
"No entrance until the area is cleared, ma'am. This is an active crime scene; forensics still needs to do their thing and collect evidence."
"I live here!" the teenager screamed, but the officer explained that it wasn't possible for her to be allowed in as he led her off the porch and back down into the yard. While he called for someone to lead her away, she rummaged through her purse for her phone and immediately dialed her mom's and then Adrian's phone numbers. Both went straight to voicemail. For Julie to get a straight voicemail recording from Adrian's phone wasn't unusual, but the fact that her mom's phone did the same, when it was Julie calling, told her something was very, very wrong, as though the bevy of police surrounding her house wasn't enough of a clue.
She walked back over to the officer and grabbed his sleeve. "You need to let me in! I live here! Where's my mom?! Where's Adrian?! Why is there crime scene tape up all over the backyard?! Why is forensics here? What happened?!" Julie gulped and suddenly thought of something else that wasn't right. "Where's Commander Stottlemeyer and Captain Disher? Can I talk to either one of them, please? I - I know them, they work with my mom and Adrian."
In the distance, a police officer heard the voice of the scared girl who asked for Commander Stottlemeyer or Captain Disher and he immediately recognized who she was: Julie Teeger, the daughter of Monk's assistant. He hurried over and quietly muttered something to the other officer and the officer took his hand off of Julie's arm.
"It's okay, Davidson, she's the daughter of the homeowner. Monk, Disher and Stottlemeyer know her and can vouch for her. Let me take it from here and you go into the house and talk to forensics."
The officer frowned, muttering something under his breath about playing favorites and teenage princesses that think they don't have to follow the rules, but did as he was told and went inside the house.
Julie reached inside her purse for her wallet and immediately showed the new officer her ID just in case. The officer identified himself as Lieutenant Carson and said that ID wasn't necessary and he would speak with her for a moment and tell her what he could, but that he needed her to step away from the house and let the professionals do their jobs. Julie reluctantly did as she was told, looking back at the house the entire time.
"I'm Julie Teeger and my mom is Natalie Teeger, but I guess you know that. Do you know where my mom and Adrian are? Why can't I see them? Are they okay?"
The lieutenant shook his head. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I really can't tell you much. What I do know, and what we can tell you, is that at ten forty-five the precinct got an emergency call from Commander Stottlemeyer requesting that the SWAT team be dispatched to this address due to a potential hostage situation. The team left right away, however, by the time they arrived the incident was already over. Two people were shot, at least one of them critically."
Julie gasped and shivered, and her shivering had nothing to do with the usual drop in temperature this late at night. She turned pale. "M - my mom?!"
"I'm sorry, Julie, but I can't answer that one, because I don't know. There were two ambulances transporting the victims to the hospital when me and my guys arrived and I think Commander Stottlemeyer was in one of the ambulances, too. Not sure which of the injured he went with but it sounded like they were taking both of them to San Francisco General."
Julie dried her eyes and wiped her nose with her hand, not caring that she was crying. Commander Stottlemeyer would be more likely to go with Adrian if he was significantly hurt, but he might be with her mom because Adrian couldn't be, if he was in the other ambulance. She still didn't know what could have happened. Did they intercept a burglar? That wouldn't require the SWAT team, she didn't think, unless it was like a television show she watched once and the burglar wanted to go down swinging and take hostages. Mom! Adrian! Julie thought hopelessly. I wish someone would tell me where you were!
"Who can I talk to, then? Who can tell me what the heck happened to my mom and her boss?!"
Lieutenant Carson touched Julie's shoulder and guided her to the driveway and to her friend. "Ma'am, I know you must be frightened, but I don't know more than I've told you. All the officers here are very busy right now. I would suggest you wait with your friend and find somewhere to stay for the night. I'm certain someone will call you when there is more information, and I will personally deliver a message to Captain Disher to call you as soon as he can."
The lieutenant went back to the house and to the porch once again. Turning back to Julie, he pointed towards the driveway. Julie sighed and trudged back towards Amy and the car. Her cell phone was in her hand and she continuously called her mother's number. There was never an answer. Julie felt like she would burst into tears, again, at any moment. She didn't feel Amy's hand on her shoulder and didn't even know she was there until she heard her voice.
"What do you need me to do, Jules?" her friend asked quietly. "Tell me what to do for you and I'll do it."
Julie turned to Amy, fell into her arms and sobbed. "They won't tell me! He said there was a double-shooting here tonight but they won't tell me who was hurt or how bad they were hurt. They won't even tell me what happened! Mom and Adrian were supposed to be at the Policeman's Ball tonight, Amy, they were giving Adrian an award." Julie's hand went to her throat in horror. "Oh, Amy, what if they never made it there? What if they were carjacked or something? Adrian would do anything to protect Mom, but he's still hurt, he'd be an easy target for anyone."
Amy silently thought for a moment and then snapped her fingers. "Call that commander you're always talking about, the one that always comes to your mom and Adrian's rescue when they need him. Wouldn't he know more? He could tell you if they made it to the party or not, and that would be a start."
Julie wiped her eyes and immediately grasped onto the suggestion like a lifeline, rushing through her phone contacts until she got to C for Commander Stottlemeyer. She called his work-cell phone and impatiently waited for an answer that never came. She hung up after the eighth ring and dialed the number for his home, silently thanking her mother once again for insisting that she also have that number in her contacts. There was an answer after the second ring, but it wasn't Commander Stottlemeyer. It was a voice she vaguely recognized, the commander's wife. T.K. Her mom had coffee with her once a week, or tried to.
"Leland?" Julie heard the other woman say frantically. "Leland, what's going on? What happened?"
Julie sniffled. "Um, is this T.K.? Commander Stottlemeyer's wife?"
The other end of the line was silent for a moment. "Yes, I'm his wife. Did something happen to him? Who is this?"
Julie's sniffles grew louder. "T.K., I know you don't know me very well, but I'm Julie Teeger. My mom is Natalie Teeger. I, I just got home from hanging out with my friends and there are all these police officers at my house and they won't tell me anything that happened except that two people were shot here tonight and Commander Stottlemeyer went to the hospital with them. Can you - can you get him to call me, please, and tell me what happened to my mom and Adrian? He's not answering his phone and he's the only one I can think of that would talk to me. My mom and Adrian trust him so I trust him, too."
"Oh...honey, I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I don't know much more than you do. Leland wasn't able to talk to me very long when he called. He called me about an hour ago. He couldn't give me a lot of details over the phone but he said that Steven Albright was there at your house waiting for your mom and Adrian when they got home from the Policeman's Ball. From what Leland told me, there was a struggle for the gun and both Adrian and Steven were shot."
Julie gasped, her mind trying to assemble all of the bits of information T.K. had just told her. "Shot?! Is Adrian hurt badly? I know that the commander is Adrian's emergency medical contact...is that why he went with him? Oh...and you said, Steven Albright? Mom's ex-boyfriend? He was waiting for them with a gun - like...he broke in to our house and just - waited there in the dark? That gives me the creeps."
T.K. stayed silent and waited patiently as Julie finished all of her questions. "I don't know any of those answers, honey, I wish I did. Leland couldn't talk long. He told me he'd call me as soon as he could with new information."
Julie paused. She couldn't afford to think about Steven Albright anymore. She was too worried about her mom and Adrian. "T.K.? There's a lieutenant here and he told me that Commander Stottlemeyer and the two ambulances went to San Francisco General. Did your husband tell you for sure that's where they are? My friend Amy is here and she can take me…"
T.K.'s gentle voice interjected. "You're only just eighteen, aren't you? Going with your friend might not work in terms of being able to see Adrian, if your mom or Leland aren't able to be there to take you back. You aren't Adrian's immediate family, at least not yet, and they wouldn't be able to tell you where he was."
Julie immediately caught on to the other woman's quiet "yet" qualifier regarding her not being Adrian's immediate family and instantly her mood changed and she got excited. Maybe she had found a kindred spirit, or at least someone she could talk with about what was going on between her mom and Adrian - someone who would get more excited about things than the commander did. "You said, 'yet'! What happened at that party?!"
Over on the other end of the line, twenty minutes across town, T.K. Stottlemeyer smiled, but kept the story of the party to herself. That was a story for another day, another time, and that was for Natalie and Adrian to share.
"Ask your mom someday, and come back to me and I'll tell you all the things she didn't say. Julie...is there a neighbor's house you and your friend could go to? I don't want the two of you sitting out on the street when it's so dark, and neither would your mom or Adrian. Stay somewhere safe and I'll come get you. I'll take you to the hospital, we'll find Leland, and between the two of us we'll get you back to see where Adrian is. I'm sure your mom is going to be right there at his side."
Julie sniffled and looked up to where her across-the-street neighbor, Imogene Baylor, was sitting on her front porch watching all of the action on their street. Mrs. Baylor and her mother had known each other for many years, since she and her mom moved here, and there were a lot of afternoons and even overnights when her mom was at one of her multiple, pre-Mr. Monk jobs that Julie would stay at her house.
She would wait for T.K. at Mrs. Baylor's.
"T.K.?" Julie asked. "I'm going to go two doors down from my our house and across the street to Mrs. Baylor's. It's a blue house with a front porch just like our house. I'll have my phone on and I'll be waiting for you. Thank – thank you so much."
Imogene Baylor and Julie walked together the three-quarters of the block to the end of the street where T.K.'s car was parked. T.K. had told Julie she would simply park there and Julie could come to her, due to the temporary police barricades that made getting down that street close to impossible. Mrs. Baylor insisted on walking Julie to the car that was going to pick her up, both because it was pitch black outside and also because she wanted to make sure this police commander's wife was who she said she was. "You can never be too careful these days", the neighbor said out loud. And besides, thought Imogene Baylor, that poor Natalie Teeger seemed to attract trouble like flies because of who she worked for. How a perfectly nice woman like that could work for someone that investigated murders for a living and enjoyed it was beyond her imagination.
Julie picked up the pace and started a slow jog that quickly transformed into a run as soon as she saw T.K.'s car, not even listening when Mrs. Baylor cried out for her to slow down, child, and walk! Julie barely resisted the urge to tell her neighbor that she was eighteen now, not eight. It took so much more time than Julie anticipated to convince Mrs. Baylor that T.K. Stottlemeyer was legit, was in fact the police commander's wife like both Julie and T.K. said she was, and would be taking her straight to the hospital, no dillydallying, but finally she managed to satisfy her and Mrs. Baylor reluctantly allowed her to get into the car.
The second Julie closed the door she turned to T.K. and begged her to hurry up and start driving and not stop until they got to the hospital.
"But I can stop at red lights, right?" T.K. asked. "I don't want your Mrs. Baylor to come after me."
Julie looked mortified and it was a good minute before she saw T.K.'s smile and relaxed enough to chuckle. "I am so, so sorry. She watched me after school sometimes when mom was at work, this was even before she worked for Adrian, so I was little. She saw that my mom didn't have a husband and so she took it upon herself to watch out for me when mom wasn't around. She's always been overprotective like that and I'm really, really sorry if she offended you."
T.K. shook her head to say she wasn't offended; it was good that Julie had neighbors like that to look out for her and her mom. The other woman motioned to the radio as if to say, change it to whatever you want.
She attempted to call her husband once they were close to the hospital to ensure that he would be available to meet them downstairs and get Julie in to see Monk. She could almost see the nervous energy radiating from the scared teenager the closer they got to the hospital. He didn't answer. Taking another look at Julie and how she nervously played with her purse straps, T.K. pressed redial over and over again, and on the fourth call Leland finally picked up on the sixth ring. T.K. let out a relieved breath and quickly told her husband that she'd explain everything later but that she had Julie in the car and they were just getting to the front entrance. Julie needed to see her mom and Monk and she needed to see them now since she was sure her mind was picturing horrible, horrible things. Leland said something under his breath T.K. didn't catch but promised he'd be there to meet them in the emergency room waiting area.
Julie was out of the car before T.K. even slowed down and T.K. hurriedly parked next to the nearest curb even though it said NO PARKING in block letters and white paint. One fringe benefit of having a cop for a husband was that if T.K. asked him nicely when he was in a good mood he might be able to take care of the parking ticket she undoubtedly was going to get.
Julie ran through the hospital double-doors and looked around frantically, T.K. close behind and pointing to Leland as soon as she saw him.
"Commander Stottlemeyer!" the eighteen-year-old cried out as soon as he was pointed out to her, zig-zagging through the other people in the waiting area to get to him and hugging him as soon as she was close. He hesitated before awkwardly patting her on the back, looking at T.K. over Julie's head as if to ask her why Julie was hugging him.
"The police at my house said you called them and asked for the SWAT team to come to mom's house. One of your lieutenants said something about two people being shot and that Steven Albright was there! What happened?! Where's my mom and Adrian? Is Adrian okay? Did…did Steven hurt mom? Were you there? Did you see anything? Where's Captain Disher?" Julie's questions came shooting out one after the other rapid-fire even with T.K. trying to comfort her. Leland could hardly keep up. Privately, he thanked his lucky stars that he and Karen produced only two relatively even-tempered boys.
Leland cautiously put both hands on Julie's shoulders and quietly instructed her to try to calm down. "Breathe, Little Teeger." Julie rolled her eyes at the name he used for her and T.K. looked offended on Julie's behalf until Leland said that was what he called her sometimes and Julie nodded in affirmative. "Your mom wasn't shot. She's perfectly fine. She and Monk are back there while Monk is getting…"
"I have to see them!" cried an emotional and excited Julie. She didn't wait for Commander Stottlemeyer to finish his sentence before she started running in the direction of the emergency room doors, the 'back there' he had referred to, almost running into a nurse as she rushed by. The nurse yelled for her to stop, but Julie ran on. Leland ran after her, flashing his badge at the nurse to tell her he had it under control and the girl was with him. T.K. followed close behind.
"Julie! Slow down, kiddo," Leland yelled down the hall as he tried to keep pace with the teenager as she worked her way from room to room. San Francisco General was the city's main trauma hospital, it was Friday night, the start of the weekend, and it was close to one o'clock in the morning -which was all a way of saying it was a crazy rush. Leland had to run fast so he didn't lose sight of Monk's surrogate daughter.
"I am too old for this," he muttered to T.K. along the way, and his wife grinned.
Leland muttered something under his breath, apologizing to the nurse and the patient involved, when Julie poked her head into a new room and was immediately reprimanded for seeing the patient when they were half-dressed. Leland caught up to Julie in two strides and firmly took her by the arm, pulling her away from that room and moving to the opposite wall, to the nearest semi-quiet place he could find.
"Julie," he said quietly and Julie immediately looked up, her eyes brimming with tears, recognizing the commander's tone as his police-commander, behave-yourself voice. His tone softened. "Julie, I know you're scared. But you have to calm down and you can't run away from me and run through the halls. There are very sick people here. I know where Monk and your mom are, I'll take you. You just have to relax. You're making me nervous."
Julie sniffled, mumbled an apology and allowed Commander Stottlemeyer and T.K. to take her down the hall and around the corner to where Adrian's room was. Julie matched the commander stride for stride as they got closer to his room, and Leland put his arm loosely around Julie's shoulder when they stopped and Julie hesitated before going inside. "It's okay, Julie, honest. I was with him in the ambulance and I've mostly been with him ever since. Go on."
Julie took a breath and pulled back the privacy curtain, and when she did, she saw something that was very different than what her mind had been telling her nonstop for the last hour, and T.K.'s comment on the phone all of a sudden made a lot more sense.
Leland and T.K. shared secret smiles and took a step back for the moment to allow Julie the full experience of seeing what was in front of her.
Natalie was at Adrian's side, just as T.K. predicted she would be. But everything else was different this time. Her mom was sitting on the edge of Adrian's hospital bed up by Adrian's waist, he was sitting up looking at her mother like her mom was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen, and they were holding hands. Not just holding hands, he was rubbing the back of her hand! Julie watched in somewhat of shock as her mom gently kissed her fingers and pressed them to Adrian's bandaged shoulder, and she watched as Adrian's entire countenance and demeanor seemed to change as he looked at her mom. She watched as he leaned forward towards her mom and her mom leaned in, too, and then they kissed.
Julie clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from squealing, looking backwards only for one second to mock-glare at the commander and his wife for not telling her about this. She knocked on the side of the wall, and even Leland smirked when Natalie and Monk both startled at the interruption and moved away from each other. She scurried to the side of Adrian's bed and Natalie got out of the way just in time before Julie threw her arms around him in a tight hug, mindful of his shoulder. Adrian didn't hesitate and hugged her back, whispering into her hair that he was fine, everything was all right, it wasn't like last time. Julie wasn't even surprised that he knew what she was thinking before she even did. The entire car ride to the hospital Julie's mind stubbornly refused to rest and kept reminding her of the last time Adrian had been hurt and how long it took him to recover from that and how hard it had been.
"I was so worried about you," was all Julie would say, and her voice shook even saying that. Then, she looked down at her mom and Adrian's interlocked hands and, deciding that commenting on the fact that she had seen them kiss would be too embarrassing for them at this point and not something she wanted to tease them about in front of the commander. She stared at Adrian. "Is there something that you two would like to tell me?"
Adrian immediately looked down in discontent. This was not how he wanted Natalie's daughter to find out about this new development in their relationship.
"You said is there something we would like to tell you, and since you are giving me the choice, I would say no thank you, there is nothing I would like to share with you here, at this time."
Natalie had buried her face in his other shoulder, meanwhile, and even from across the room T.K. could see her desperately trying not to laugh.
Julie only hugged him again. "You two are finally dating, and not just the 'I'll-take-you-to-the-Policeman's-Ball-because-it's-the-only-way-you-can-see-me-get-my-award' kind of date! You're really together! I knew it!" At his shocked look she giggled.
Adrian looked at Natalie in shock.
Julie giggled. "Please! I've been watching you two ever since you moved in after you left the hospital. I knew there was something going on but I didn't think you'd would ever make a move. Why do you think I called the Commander to go find you, Adrian, after you left the grocery store? I thought he could talk some sense into you."
Julie wished she'd swallowed her tongue when she realized that she had indirectly brought up the situation with Steven Albright and saw how her mom reacted. Natalie whimpered and scooted even closer to Adrian, if that was even possible, turning away from Julie and pressing her face into Adrian's uninjured shoulder.
There was an awkward silence, the space of about thirty seconds. T.K. was the first one to speak and Julie looked up in surprise that the Stottltemeyers were still there.
"Honey, why don't I take you to get something to eat while Leland talks to your mom and Adrian for a few minutes?" she suggested.
Julie's heated response was immediate. ""No! If the Commander needs to talk to them in private that means it's about police business. I called you to bring me here because I came home at midnight to all sorts of emergency vehicles at my house. Steven Albright came after my mom and I deserve to know why."
Leland looked over at Natalie, as if to ask her if it was okay for him to speak in front of Julie and she looked at her daughter and nodded.
"As much as it pains me to say this," Natalie said "Julie is an adult now and she's right, this situation involves her as much as it does us. She deserves to know."
Leland grinned, making a mental note at how quickly Julie had grown up.
"Very well. The information that I'm about to share may be upsetting." he began.
Natalie sighed, "Well, we've got upsetting pretty much down to a science, so...alright. I'm listening."
Leland nodded. "It's about Caroline Shelton, Steven Albright's former fiancée. I'm afraid it's not good news."
"She's dead." Natalie said, flatly. "Steven killed her. We know."
"You do?" Stottlemeyer asked with surprise. "How?"
Natalie looked at Adrian and continued. "He practically confessed. He said that he had warned her what would happen to her if she ever talked and.. he..." suddenly, Natalie stopped and began to cry again as she realized that if she hadn't called Caroline, that Caroline might still be alive. She felt she had indirectly gotten Caroline killed.
Adrian reached around her and pulled her into his uninjured shoulder, where he stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. As she tried to regain control of her emotions, he finished her story.
"Albright inferred he had killed her, and basically said that he was going to do the same to us. Tonight, I guess he gave it his best shot - quite literally. Thankfully, he failed."
"Indeed." Stottlemeyer said.
Julie was angry. "Well, if he confessed, you need to arrest him and get him off the street. Where's that bastard at? I'll cuff him myself!"
"Julie, watch your language." Adrian scoulded. "We think he's still in surgery."
Leland nodded. "Yes. I checked on him about forty minutes ago and they said he would likely still be in surgery for several more hours, if he survived. Julie, don't worry about Albright. We have enough on him just from tonight to lock him up a very long time."
"How long? What is the penalty for kidnapping and attempted murder in California?" she asked.
"Maximum 8 years for kidnapping - two counts would make that 16 years, and attempted murder ranges anywhere from five years to life with the possibility of parole - depending upon what we can prove." Leland said. "Realistically, I'd say Albright will be in prison for at least the next twenty years."
"Not long enough!" Julie snapped. "If he really killed his ex fiancée, what will it take to get him convicted of that? Will his confession suffice?"
Natalie looked up at her daughter, acting the junior prosecutor, and pushed her hair away from her shoulder. She loved the passion to protect her family that Julie was showing at that point.
Adrian answered the question. "Julie, to convict him of Caroline's murder, we need evidence. It can't just be his word. We would have to go Texas and..."
"Then let's go! Let's go get the evidence. Adrian! I know you, you could do it." Julie stated.
"Julie, honey, Adrian has been shot. He's just barely able to get around as it is and now it'll take even more time for him to get back to normal before he's able to go out on a trip like that. We will just have to leave it up to local law enforcement." Natalie said.
Adrian watched as Julie's head dropped in disappointment.
"No." he said. "We're not going to leave it up to the locals."
Leland narrowed his eyes as the women watched on. "What do you mean, you're not going to leave it up to the locals? What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that the doctors said that I was shot through and through in my shoulder and that I was fortunate that the bullet hit nothing of importance, right?"
"Yes..." Natalie said, furrowing her brow.
"Well, they said they're to release me in the morning, which must mean I'm in no danger. I'll just get my things together and we can fly out to Galveston and check things out."
"Really?" Julie asked excited.
Leland objected. "Monk...I really don't think that..."
"No, Leland, I feel okay. Really. And Julie's right. If Albright killed Caroline, and we know he did, he needs to pay. Best get at the evidence trail sooner rather than later before the trail runs cold."
Natalie began to protest, but Adrian reached his hand up and put it on her lips.
"Sweetheart. We have to act now and make sure that Steven hurts noone else. I'll be fine. Besides, we'll be there together."
She still looked worried, but said nothing more.
"You sure about this?" Leland asked.
"Positive." Adrian said hugging Natalie once again and receiving a group hug from Julie as well.
"Very well. Except, you're going to San Antonio, not Galveston - because that's where Caroline's body was found. I'll fill you in about everything and will help you in any way I can."
"Thanks, Leland. We'll take all the help we can get." he replied.