"Adrian! Hurry up, we're going to be late!"

Natalie Teeger could not believe the words she was saying. Her boyfriend was never late, but for the past week he had been acting so strangely, walking around with a smile on his face, disappearing throughout various points in the day, getting up an hour earlier than normal and being fully dressed with breakfast on the table by the time the women woke up. He had apparently even switched out their routine, not only taking his shower before the ladies but cleaning the bathroom before either of their feet hit the tile. She had asked him about it, but he was evasive, telling her than he just decided to get up a little earlier to get things done earlier and take a walk.


It had now been six weeks since Leland had been shot and the commander was making great strides in his recovery. In fact, although he wasn't quite ready to be released from care, he had improved so much that the doctor was trying him on half days at work just to rebuild his strength and stamina for when his healing was complete. This new schedule began on Tuesday morning of week six and the commander was uncharacteristically chipper on that first day in. In fact, the other police at the department decided to throw him a "Welcome Back" party and he didn't even complain about it. He hated being at home alone away from the action and suffered through a small party just fine in order to get it out of the way. In short, he was in too good of a mood to complain about much of anything.

The same could not be said for his cohorts. Randy and Sharona had apparently had a big argument at home the night before, leaving Randy half asleep on his feet as he went to work. And, when Monk and Natalie finally arrived, the first thing Leland and Randy heard from out in the hallway was Natalie grilling Monk about a message that Julie had handed her just before they left.

"Natalie, just stop." he said entering the squad room. "You're being ridiculous."

"Am I?" she asked. "How did she get your number? And, why was she calling you? I thought she was Randy's girlfriend."

Sergeant Alphonse Dawson looked up from his desk in the main room. "Captain Disher has a girlfriend? No wonder he slept on the couch last night."

Randy heard the comment and yelled from his office. "Captain Disher does NOT have a girlfriend, so don't even go there. That's ALL I need is for Sharona to think that."

Natalie walked through his door. "So, you deny knowing Jessica?" she asked Randy.

"Jessica? Only Jessica I know is on Roger Rabbit." Randy replied.

Natalie raised an eyebrow and looked at Adrian. "You said that she gave you her number to give to Randy. Is that not true?"

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Of course, it's true. Why would I lie to you? At least, about something...like that?"

She folded her arms in front of her. "Are you implying that there are things that you believe it is justifiable to lie to me about?"

"Good morning, Monk. Natalie." an amused Commander Stottlemeyer said. They both responded with barely a grunt and continued the argument.

"NAT-lee." Monk said, putting his hands on her arms. "You know I am the worst liar in the world. If I said that she gave me the paper to give to Randy, then she gave it to me to give to Randy. Frankly, I barely even remember receiving it."

"Then why was she calling your apartment?" Natalie asked.

"How am I supposed to know? I didn't talk to her. Julie did." Adrian said.

Dawson was still sitting at his desk. "Hmmmm…. Sounds like Detective Monk has a girlfriend." Another officer said, "Mmmmhmmmm."

Adrian walked to Disher's door and looked at the men. "Yes, Detective Monk has a girlfriend. Her name is Natalie Teeger and she's enough to deal with. He doesn't need two." He shut the door, closing the four of them in Randy's office.

Leland and Randy looked at each and then around the room as if they needed to take cover.

"And what was THAT supposed to mean?!" Natalie said sternly.

"I...um...it means that you fill my life with s-such joy, that I can't even think about other women...because of the joy I feel." he smiled sheepishly. Natalie said nothing but gave him the look.

Monk looked over towards Leland. "Leland, can you help me out? Tell Natalie she's being ridiculous if she thinks that I would ever step out on her with someone else?"

Leland thought for a moment and then looked at Natalie. "As much as I'm enjoying this scene, Ms. Teeger, he's right. I can't imagine Monk being with anyone besides you."

"Me neither." Randy offered.

Natalie did not look at either man but stared straight at Adrian. "You can kindly begin calling me Natalie again, Leland. We're not supposed to be mad at each other anymore, though I would appreciate it if you and Randy would not try to defend him for that which you know nothing about. A pretty nurse gave my boyfriend her number while you were in the hospital and he said it was for Randy. Apparently, Randy knows nothing about this pretty nurse named Jessica. Today, before we left, we received a phone call from a Jessica. To top it all off, he's been evasive and not himself for the past week. He disappears every morning and three or four times a day and won't tell me where he went. I would hope that there is an innocent explanation, and in fact, knowing him as I do, I believe there has to be . But, so far, I'm getting nothing, so I'll try again. Adrian, where have you been every morning for the past week, and why haven't I seen you use our shower, and where do you go three or four times every day?"

Monk looked at her and his eyes shifted. Looking down, he made his way to Disher's desk and began arranging the pencils in Randy's pencil holder.

"I'm waiting." she said, tapping her foot.

By now, Disher and Stottlemeyer were equally as curious, but Monk refused to say where he had gone. Only that it had nothing to do with any Jessica, and he was not cheating on Natalie. Before the argument could go any further, a junior officer knocked on Randy's door to deliver a piece of paper.

"Got a call from the deputy commissioner. Sounds like there's a 187 down in the fashion district. Big show in town tonight, they want for you guys to go check it out." he said.

Leland smiled. "Ah. Back to work. Let's go Monk...NAT-lee. You can finish your fight when you get home."


Randy Disher's police sedan pulled up outside of a five-story fabric store in the middle of the SoMa district in northeast San Francisco. The South of Market district had long been a home for garment makers and factories related to the fashion industry and currently took in around five billion dollars a year in profits for the city's coffers. It wasn't the kind of place where one would normally hear of murder, but it was in Randy's jurisdiction and so the call went to them.

Randy parked his car and Natalie parked directly behind him as the four teammates walked past a police barricade and into the building.

"Let me know if any of this is too much, commander." Randy told Leland before they entered the room. "I can have Natalie drive you back home."

Leland's immediate, "If I feel I can't handle it, I can take a cab. No sense in inconveniencing Ms. Teeger." was meant as a gesture of kindness. He knew that she and Monk were riding together and for her to have to take him home to his house near Indian Basin just to turn around and travel to Monk's apartment in Russian Hill seemed at the time like too much travelling. Innocent as it was, however, the comment was not taken in the spirit it was given.

"I know you have a problem with me, Leland." Natalie stated. "But I don't have cooties and I'm perfectly capable of taking you home."

Adrian raised his hand to try to get her to back away. She had been in this sort of mood all morning and it certainly wasn't going to help the investigation if they were bickering. But Leland's next comment didn't help the situation any more.

"Ms. Teeger, it might just do you some good if you stop to consider that maybe, just maybe, I was trying to be nice. I didn't want you to have to cart me around and spend your gas. But, of course, you've apparently developed this persecutorial complex and now think everyone's against you."

"Oh, gosh." Monk said, raising one hand to his forehead even as he placed the other around Natalie's waist to keep her from going after him.

"Is that what you think? A persecutorial complex?" she asked, leaning towards him.

"Natalie. Just let it go." Adrian said softly.

"Are you sticking up for him? Did you hear what he said?" she asked.

"I heard. And I think you need to let it go." he replied.

"You think what he said is true?" she said defensively.

Monk rolled his eyes and pulled her to the side. "Natalie. Of course, I don't. This is his first time back out on the streets and things are a little tense. It's not going to do anyone any good to be fighting and to be perfectly truthful, you're a little uptight today and probably took his offer the wrong way. I honestly think he was trying to keep from inconveniencing you. That doesn't excuse his later comment, but I think you should just let it go."

Randy overheard what was being said and walked up to the couple. "Monk's right. We've got a dead woman inside the store. Let's try to focus on the case for now and act like the professionals we all are."

Natalie clenched her jaw but then nodded her head. "Fine." she said as Monk took her hand and led her into the building. "Let him take a cab."

"Nat..." Adrian warned, and that was the end of that.


Walking down the long aisle which was flanked by hundreds of bolts of fabric of different styles, weaves, textures, and prices, the team made their way to the upholstery section just outside of the main warehouse. The tell-tale yellow crime scene tape that was a daily fixture in their professional lives cordoned off the entire back section of the store and it was clear that it had been secured properly. While Randy and Leland talked with the first officer on the scene to get the scoop, Monk began to survey the scene as Natalie stood to the side watching him, ready to assist. He raised his hands and walked around the body which had been wrapped up in a thick bolt of heavyweight burgundy and gold jacquard fabric, appropriate for making curtains, and he examined both the body and the area around the woman whom he estimated to be about seventeen. Her face was pale and had bruising along the jawline, and an encrustation of dried blood was an indicator that she had experienced blunt force trauma to the head, yet, her linen dress also was covered in blood which had come from her chest. He surmised she was hit in the head with something and then stabbed. By what, he wasn't sure.

Leland and Randy walked over and stood by Natalie and the three continued to watch Monk work.

"Has he got anything?" Leland asked Natalie who folded her arms and rolled her eyes.

"We just got here. He's not a machine." she snarled.

Leland raised his eyebrow and told her "It was just a question."

Monk stopped where he was and closed his eyes trying to block out the sound of bickering going on behind him.

"What have you got?" asked Randy, walking forward.

Monk raised his hand to his forehead. "Nothing. Nothing yet." he replied.

Leland Stottlemeyer had worked with Monk long enough to know that the look on his face was one of distraction. He quickly began to survey the scene to see what was out of place. Spotting a section of fabric where the rows were not even, he walked to the side and began straightening things out. Making sure that things were perfectly level, he turned back to Monk and proudly asked. "Is this better?"

Adrian looked up at him through the top of his eyes. "What? What do you mean?"

"Did Adrian tell you something was wrong, commander?" Natalie asked.

"Well, I just thought maybe that was distracting him." he replied.

"He normally says what's distracting him. He doesn't need you to trying to help him where he doesn't need to be helped." she snapped.

"WHAT is your problem, Natalie?" Leland said, putting his hands on his hips.

"What on earth do you mean? I don't have a problem. You have a problem!" she retorted.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Leland said, taking a step forward.

"Commander, you're not supposed to get yourself excited." Randy said, entering the fray.

"Randy, I'm NOT getting excited." Leland shouted. "I'm just trying to figure out what the hell this woman is talking about and why she suddenly has this attitude that everything I do is wrong."

"I didn't say everything you did is wrong." she replied. "I just said assuming that Adrian is distracted because of the bolts of fabric not being even when he didn't say that was what was distracting him was wrong. You know what happens when one assumes."

"Ms. Teeger." Leland replied.

"Natalie. I have a name. You need to start using it." she replied.

"Oh, for the love of Pete!" Randy said. "Will you two stop arguing? I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but you two are acting like children. Little bitty children."

Natalie and Leland both folded their arms and stood in a way that they had their back to one another and were refusing to speak. Randy shook his head as Monk continued to stand still, hand on forehead.

"What is it, Monk?" Randy asked. "What's distracting you? Let me know and I'll fix it."

Adrian looked up slowly, then looked each team member in the eyes. "This. This is what is distracting me."

"What?" Randy asked. "Are we standing too close?"

"No." Monk replied. "All this arguing. It needs to stop. This should be a happy day. Our commander is back with us and we are a team. We're not acting much like it, but we are. We're all friends and you guys are just arguing over nonsense."

"Nonsense?!" Natalie began to say.

"Natalie! Don't start!" Monk said in a rare tone of rebuke towards his girlfriend. "This is nonsense and it needs to stop. You guys need to bury the hatchet and I don't mean in each other's heads. You're not mad about what you think you're mad about."

"Adrian, he's been acting condescendingly all day." she replied.

"And she's been being a b_, a pill." Leland responded.

"Were you just about to call me a..." Natalie asked with eyes narrowing.

"STOP!" Adrian shouted, then walked away from the crime scene. "I have no idea what happened to this poor girl and I'm not going to figure it out today. Tell the officer in charge that he missed a woman's stiletto heel cap under the display stand over there. Doesn't belong to the victim who was wearing flats. Natalie. Let's go home. I've got a headache."

Natalie glared at Leland and Leland glared back at Natalie as she walked over to Adrian and looped her arm through his. As they walked through the store and through the exit, Leland and Randy followed.

"Monk! Where are you going? We need you in here to finish up this investigation before they take everything down." Leland said.

"Leland. You don't need me on this. I wouldn't do you any good if you had me." Monk replied, stopping at the door. "I just can't focus."

Leland stopped for a moment and thought things through. Both Adrian and Randy were right. Natalie and he seemed to be fighting just for the sake of fighting and they were acting like children, though he placed the greater blame on her. Still, he was ready to listen.

"You're right. Listen. You're right." he said, placing a hand on the doorframe as Monk stepped outside of the building. "Look. What can I do? I want to do what it takes to make all of this better. Just tell me. What can I do?"


"Group Therapy! Can you believe it?" Leland said to T.K. as he walked into their house late that afternoon. "He thinks we've gone nutty or something and need a shrink."

T.K. held up her hand and flashed five fingers, her signal to him that she was almost finished with her current article and she'd be with him in a minute. And when the requisite five minutes were up, she closed her laptop and looked at him.

"Okay, Leland. What happened?"

"T.K. You should have seen her. She was ragging on me all morning, trying to pick a fight, just like at dinner. I'm surprised she didn't call you and tell you her side of the story first. And here I was supposed to have a nice, low-stress first day back at the office. Huh!"

"I thought you and Natalie were trying to get along. I thought it was getting better between the two of you." She noted.

"I thought so, too," he sighed, moving her legs so he could sit beside her on the couch.

"Well, maybe she was just having a bad day." T.K. offered.

"No. She really had a chip on her shoulder. She was fighting with Monk the moment they entered the building. Can you believe that she actually was thinking that Monk might be cheating on her?" he asked.

T.K. wrinkled her nose. "What? Adrian cheat on her? That's ridiculous. The man can't breathe without her at his side."

"Exactly! Apparently, some woman named Jessica gave him her phone number when I was in the hospital. He has no clue why, but thought she was trying to reach Randy, but Randy says he doesn't know anyone named Jessica so we're back to Natalie thinking Monk has something going on with whoever this Jessica is. It was probably just a wrong number." Leland explained.

"Jessica Sterling? The nurse?" T.K. asked.

"They did say she was a nurse. Why? What do you know about it?" Leland asked.

T.K. smiled, nervously. "Oh, that might be my fault. I'm - I'm sorry, um, there was a nurse named Jessica Sterling that was into alternative medicine or something and she was trying to talk to me about it when you were in your coma." That horrible week was still hard for her to talk about and he touched her hand, wordlessly saying I'm still here. "I wasn't in the mood to talk to her, obviously, and I might have pushed her off onto Monk and Randy. I didn't even think that it would cause any problems. And, you're saying Natalie became suspicious over that?"

"Yeah. Well she said he's been acting weird lately." Leland replied.

"Lately?" T.K. laughed.

"You have a point. According to her he's been disappearing during the day and going out early in the morning and not telling her where he's going. He just said he's taking a walk." Leland made a face. "I hope you have higher standards for what does and doesn't qualify as cheating, dear."

T.K. laughed. "I have enough to worry about with your job, Leland, I don't worry about you cheating on me, too. Relax." She was quiet for a while. "Natalie should know that man is completely devoted to her, honestly. Whatever it is he is or isn't doing it isn't that. But how on earth did Monk get from that to all of us needing therapy?"

He shrugged. "Beats me. The greatest mystery in the world and the one case I'll never be able to crack is how Monk's mind works. I'm not going, so it doesn't matter." He said, as he began to stand up to go to the refrigerator to get himself something to drink.

T.K. reached out and touched his sleeve and stopped him. "Actually, dear. I don't think it's such a bad idea."

"Come again?" he asked, surprised, settling back down into his seat.

"Hear me out." She replied. "My parents insisted on me going to therapy for a few months after James' trial ended. They thought I needed someone to talk to." She was silent for a minute and looked up at her husband. "Do you think I'm nutty?"

"Well…of course not." He said, his voice softening. "If it helped you…well, that's what therapy is for. It must be helping Monk because he keeps going. I just don't see the point of the six of us sitting in Dr. Bell's office rehashing everything."

"I stopped going after two weeks. I was like you, not wanting to go into the therapist's office for an hour a week just to go rehash things, but look what happened. Twenty-five years later, you do something and Natalie says something and it's like I'm right back where I started. I didn't deal with the pain at the time, so I'm having to face it now. I don't want that happening to all of us, and I'm pretty sure you don't either."

Leland was silent, so she continued.

"Leland, over the past few months we've all been through a lot of trauma and our relationships have suffered a lot of stress. Things are better now, but they still aren't right, and you would admit that if you weren't being all defensive over Natalie's bad mood. I think the idea of a group therapy session might just help. Talk it all out. Let each other be heard in a setting where a professional referee can help guide the conversation into a more constructive path."

Leland grimaced. "So, you think I need a shrink? That's what you're saying."

She leaned over and wrapped one arm around his, laying her head on his shoulder. "I think we just need to talk everything out once and for all, and having a professional like Dr. Bell be there to oversee everything isn't a bad idea, just so you don't accidentally say something that gets you punched in the face again."

Leland leaned back for a second and looked at her to make sure she was joking about the last part, then smirked, leaning over and kissing her on the top of her head. "Well, if it can get Natalie to stop harping on me all the time for everything…alright…I'll go. As long as you're there, too."

She leaned up and kissed him. "Always. I think we've all been through a lot and these friendships are too precious for us to give up on. Adrian's your best friend. He's been your best friend for thirty years, and now he's got a front row seat to his best friend and the woman that he loves fighting all the time. Neither of you are being fair to him, are you? Natalie is the woman that he loves, but you are his best friend. Honestly, Leland, you're his only friend. He loves both of you and all he wants is for everyone to be happy again and for everything to be how it was five months ago. That's not too much for him to ask, is it?"

"No," he muttered reluctantly. "I ask a lot of him and I suppose it wouldn't be a good sign of our friendship if I couldn't do this one thing for him."

"Leland," T.K. murmured firmly. Her eyes met his directly and held his gaze. "I've told you this before and I'll tell you again. Natalie didn't know. She didn't know that what she said that night about me not having biological children would trigger me the way it did. Don't let that be the reason you don't forgive her."


Little was said on the drive home from the crime scene by either Natalie or Monk. Adrian should have realized that Natalie's easy submission to allowing him to drive home was yet another manifestation of her attitude that day, but he decided to go with it for the time being. He was perfectly happy to follow along that path until he quite by accident saw the name of the cross-street and it occurred to him that they were halfway back to his apartment and they hadn't talked about anything important aside from what Julie might want for dinner. She hadn't asked him or talked to him about the case at all, which was something he'd tried to get her in the habit of now that she was officially his investigative partner.

Natalie, for her part, was silent not because she didn't have anything to say about the crime scene that they had gone to that day, but because she was ashamed. She'd brought a fight with Adrian into the workplace and the personal argument distracted Adrian from performing his best professionally. This was her career now, her livelihood as much as it was his, and she couldn't allow their private lives to stop them from getting the work done. She hadn't been fair to herself, to him, or even to Leland. Today was his first day back on the force after everything had happened. T.K. said more than once how much he was looking forward to going back to work and even asked Natalie to keep an eye on him and report back, and what had Natalie done? She had thought the worst of Leland and intentionally misconstrued his innocent remark. She hadn't played fair.

Adrian was acting suspiciously, yes. He was clearly hiding something from her and while she had determined to trust that he would eventually tell her what was going on, the call from Jessica hadn't helped any. It had just sent her imagination off places that she knew were ridiculous. Of course, she knew he wasn't having an affair. He was right. That was preposterous. But where was he going every morning, and why wouldn't he tell her about it? The longer this mystery drug out, the more insecure she felt. They needed to talk. To hash things out. But they needed to do this alone, not in some group.

"Adrian," she finally asked quietly, once they were at a full and complete stop at a red light behind a traffic jam that looked like it might take them awhile. She knew better, of course, than to distract him from the road when the car was in active motion. "Look, honey, I know you want to help all of us, and we appreciate it, really, but Dr. Bell and your therapy sessions are just for you. That's your private space to talk. You don't want me or Leland interfering with that and I really don't need therapy. I mean, Leland might, but…"

"Yes, you do." he said quietly as he stared out at the road. "I've spent fourteen years realizing that therapy isn't a bad thing and it's something that can help you cope. You've been through so much, Natalie. Julie was arrested for something she didn't do and charged with murder, she was attacked in prison and almost died, your house was burned on purpose and then Julie was kidnapped and almost shot. Leland was shot. And after all of that, the person that murdered Josh and framed Julie was one of Julie's classmates. You and Julie let Melody into your home a few times."

"You almost got killed, too," she added. "Jenna hated you as much as Melody hated Julie. If this is your way of getting me to say yes to therapy by telling me everything bad that happened to us, it's not a very good plan."

"It's what I've got right now," he responded matter-of-factly, and she finally broke through and smiled.

He dared to take his eyes off the road for one-fifth of a second even though they weren't moving at all, and smiled softly back at her. "Natalie, we've been through a lot. All of us, but…but especially you. And I think…I think maybe your brain is just trying to make sense of everything. It's okay that you're still angry but it's not okay that you're manifesting all of that anger at the wrong people. Like me. Or Leland."

"He wasn't helping us," she said immediately, but that answer didn't fill her with the satisfaction that it usually did.

"He followed me to where Julie was and helped me save her from Jenna and Melody, and he took a bullet for Julie and almost died." He sighed and took one hand off the steering wheel, taking Natalie's hand in his and squeezing it softly. "Leland was always on our side, sweetheart, and deep down I think you might know that and that's why you're so mad. He did the best he could with what he had and he had his reasons, which we may or may not agree with, but bottom line, its' over now. And we've got our friendships to try to repair, if they can be repaired and if we want to continue working together, and we can't have another day like we did today. You're friends with T.K. and I'm still friends with Leland, but there is this tension between us that is threatening all that. Things are just too…volatile. That's why I suggested group therapy."

Natalie remained silent and stared straight out the window. She knew he was right. He was always right.

"Natalie Jane, I love you with all of my heart and can't imagine ever being without you. But, Leland's my best friend and I really value having him around too. Do you understand that I can't do this, Natalie? I can't have the two people I love most in the world fighting. I need everything to be okay between all of us. I - I need that, Natalie. I need the six of us to be back the way we were because this…this thing we've been doing. It's just not how it's supposed to be."

Natalie considered his words for a few minutes and slowly leaned over and kissed him. "I still don't think I need to see a psychiatrist. But I love you and I'll do it for you."

Adrian Monk smiled, leaning his cheek against the top of her head as the continued to wait in traffic. "You'll thank me later."