There was silence in the room after Dr. Bell opened the floor for anyone in the group to begin discussing the reason they were all there – to address the causes for the disintegration in their once-close relationships.

Monk held tight to Natalie's hand and glanced at the commander, quickly looking away before Leland looked at him. He opened his mouth but closed it again. He didn't speak.

Dr. Bell tried again. "Leland?"

T.K.'s hand on Leland's knee was the only thing keeping him from saying everything that he really wanted to say, but for her sake and for Monk's sake he kept quiet.

"Natalie?"

Natalie opened her mouth to speak but thought of T.K. and their tenuously recovering friendship and decided against being the first to speak.

Five minutes of exceedingly uncomfortable and awkward silence passed while Dr. Bell did nothing but observe the six, writing things down with his pen, and continuing to wait for someone to speak. Finally, T.K. decided to be the brave one and started talking.

"Okay. Since nobody else will go. I'll start." She said. "Leland felt like Adrian and Natalie didn't respect his authority. At the same time, they held him to impossible standards and expected him to put his career on the line to help them." she said.

Dr. Bell looked up from his notebook. "Allow Leland to take ownership of his own feelings. Leland, is what Trudy is saying accurate? Did you express some feelings like that at home and is that why she feels compelled to share them since you are being silent?"

With that, the floodgates opened.

"Listen, doc, it's not about how I feel." Stottlemeyer complained. "It's about how Monk and Natalie were acting. They had no respect for my authority or apparently my ability to work things out, and in spite of being in my office when the district attorney was there threatening my job if they didn't stay away, they ignored all of my pleas and kept meddling in the case at every turn. I got suspended, not because of what I was or wasn't doing, but because Monk wouldn't leave well enough alone and continued to poke around the case, and that's the facts."

"So, you felt disrespected." Dr. Bell stated.

"You're damn right, I did." Stottlemeyer replied.

"We needed to move fast, while the evidence was still fresh." Monk said in defense. "Lewis and Holman at the Port Police..."

"Were my job to handle!" Leland yelled. "Dammit, Monk! Don't you understand? I was doing what I could and I had you two in my face on a daily basis telling me I should be doing more. Then, you went around my back and had Randy trying to do your dirty work for you, and you used our friendship as justification for what you were doing. Then, to top it all off, Ms. Teeger, over there has blamed me this entire time for Julie getting hurt in prison, in spite of the fact that I spent an entire morning trying to get her moved. Then, she told me that if I would have remembered what it was like to be a parent, I would have understood where she was coming from."

He crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his foot angrily on the floor. "Now I think everyone who knows me knows that I have two boys that I would lay down my life for in a heartbeat, so it's more than just a little insulting when the 'mother of the year' over there tries to tell me that I know nothing about standing up for my kids - or hers, for that matter. It's like she thought I was doing nothing."

Adrian spoke out before anyone could say anything else. "But you did help us, Leland, even after you got suspended. Randy called you at your home and asked you to help us find out who was threatening Julie, and, you did. We never wanted you to lose your job."

"Adrian even quit being a consultant so you could get your job back," Natalie added, defending herself and Adrian, crossing her own arms over her chest and looking straight ahead at the commander. "Adrian told me that you offered to have the three of us move in with you and T.K. after Melody and Daniel blew up our house. Did you really mean that?"

Leland dropped his wife's hand and threw his own hands up in frustration. "See what I've been dealing with?!" He stared at Dr. Bell. "Natalie's been taking everything I do as a personal declaration of war against her and I'm sick of her saying that I didn't care about Julie."

"That's not what I meant!" Natalie replied, offended.

"Like hell it isn't." Leland responded.

"Leland, lower your voice." T.K. urged.

"What, T.K.?" he snapped. "Are you going to say this is another bad day for Natalie?" he asked her sarcastically.

Natalie opened her mouth to protest. "Commander Stottlemeyer, I don't - "

"Leland has expressed his wish to be called Leland in here and not Commander Stottlemeyer," Dr. Bell interjected, putting down his pen to look at Natalie. "Respect that."

"Why are you taking his side, Dr. Bell? He's been calling me Ms. Teeger ever since he got out of the hospital and not Natalie," she muttered, sinking back in her seat. "Why is it okay for him and not for me?"

"It's not about taking sides, Natalie," Sharona spoke up, a slight edge of annoyance to her voice. "It never was. No one in this room faults you for doing everything you could for Julie. Randy knows that I would have done the same for Benjy and I'm sure T.K. knows that Leland would have done the same for Jared or Max if they were in trouble. But Leland and Randy still had procedures that they needed to follow in order to give Julie the best possible chance at a fair trial. You know how much worse it would have been for her case if there was any favoritism because of who Julie was or who her mom was dating.?"

Natalie crossed her arms over her chest. "Now we're all blaming my relationship with Adrian for how Leland and Randy acted?"

Randy opened his mouth to speak and Dr. Bell quickly jumped in to guide the conversation back to neutral corners before it got any more heated. "No one is placing blame, Natalie," Adrian's longtime counselor told her. "It's not constructive for you to continually rehash what Leland may or may not have done or for Leland to continuously rehash what you may or may not have done because that doesn't help you move past it. You want to be friends with him again, don't you?"

"I thought that's why we were here," Leland muttered under his breath. T.K. narrowed her eyes at him upon hearing the hint of attitude and edge in his tone.

Dr. Bell just smiled and remained unfazed. "Yes, Leland. You're all here, hopefully, to learn how to move on constructively from everything that has happened in the last five months in a way that you all can remain friends and the four of you that work together can continue to do so without lingering animosity. I'm sure all of you here would agree that's the goal. But let's move on for now and talk about something else. We can always come back to this."

He uncapped his pen and flipped to a new page in his notebook. "The six of you met for dinner in February and it didn't go well." He began. "I've heard Adrian's version of what happened but I want to hear the whole story. Let's talk about that."

The group looked at Randy in surprise when he was the first to speak, and Randy shrugged. None of them were going to take the initiative to talk about what had happened that night, he might as well get the ball rolling and get all of this started.

"Well, Dr. Bell, here's what happened." He paused. "I love saying that. That's a good one, Monk." He continued with a thumbs up.

Monk just stared, then Randy cleared his throat and continued. "Natalie was goading the commander into a fight that entire night. Leland ran his mouth, as usual – sorry, commander - and he said something he shouldn't have about Trudy...Monk's Trudy, not the commander's, and Monk went all Hulk-mode and punched the commander in the face."

Natalie's surprised face morphed into a frown, Leland glared at him from across the room like if he only had his anger management yo-yo he would have been more than happy to throw it directly at Randy, and Sharona sighed and covered her face with her hands.

Randy shrugged again. "What?" he snapped in irritation when he saw all eyes staring at him in silence. "No, seriously. Dr. Bell. Sharona and I might as well be the Greek chorus here and get this show on the road if you guys aren't going to talk. This whole thing is about the three of you and even T.K., to a lesser extent. I don't know why Sharona and I are even here."

"You used the analogy of being the Greek chorus for a reason, Randy," Dr. Bell said quietly. "Explain why you feel as though you aren't as involved with this as the others. All six of you are friends, are you not?"

"Sharona and I stayed out of it that night and we're staying out if it here. I explained what happened since none of them want to. Monk and the commander have a history that goes back decades and if anyone wants my opinion, I think that played into a lot of what happened at dinner." He drummed his fingertips on the arm of the chair. "Monk wasn't the only one that felt torn, you know."

"I'd like to get back to that if we have time, but let me go ahead and pose the question to the four of you and more specifically, to Natalie and Leland and Adrian, since it echoes what I was referring to earlier" Dr. Bell replied. "Randy again just highlighted the fact that, in his opinion, your long-standing friendship and history played a part in how you reacted to each other the night of the dinner. Adrian, you've told me before that you and Leland Stottlemeyer have been best friends for, is it….thirty years? Going back to your first weeks on the police force and when you were dating Trudy. You were distraught that night when you called me and told me what you'd done. You punched him in the face."

Adrian bowed his head. "I know what I did, Dr. Bell, you don't need to say it out loud."

Dr. Bell merely nodded at his patient. "Oh, but I do. I've heard you and the others speak about your friend's temper but he's not the one that got physical that night. You did. And from what you told me, it took Randy and Leland's oldest son to pull you away physically to get you to stop."

"He said horrible things about Trudy and about Natalie," Adrian replied. He stared straight ahead and didn't even acknowledge Natalie's comforting hand on his shoulder. "He was there for me after...after Trudy died and he knows how I was. How I still am. Why ? Why would he say something like that? I - I thought that we were better friends than that."

It was a very long time before anyone in the room spoke, and when someone finally did, it was Leland Stottlemeyer's voice that Adrian heard first and the normally gruff and rough voice was awash with shame and regret. "We are friends, Monk. I shouldn't have used Trudy's death against you like that and you were well-within your rights to punch me. I deserved it."

"Yes, you did," Natalie muttered under her breath. Leland didn't argue back. Maybe that was the first sign of progress.

Dr. Bell looked disapprovingly at Natalie. "They are talking to each other, Natalie, you'll have your turn when it's over." He turned to Leland. "I know what you said to Adrian because he told me. The other people in this room know what you said because they were there and for the sake of moving forward, we don't need to have you say it again. Nevertheless, you are his best friend and you knew how what you were going to say would affect him. You made the choice to say it anyway. Have you apologized?"

"He apologized for hitting me." Leland replied.

"That wasn't what I asked, Leland. I asked you if you've ever apologized to Adrian for the comparison you made between his current girlfriend and his late wife."

All eyes in the room looked at Leland as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I apologized for saying things that were out of line and he apologized for hitting me."

"I think that's as good as an apology as you're going to get out of him, Dr. Bell," Randy mumbled from his seat next to Dr. Bell. He averted his eyes and looked down when the commander glared at him. "Sorry, commander," he said sheepishly.

Dr. Bell continued to take down notes in his notebook. "Perhaps Adrian and even Natalie would like to hear an apology from you, Leland, for the part you played in what happened that night. You didn't say something that was out of line. You said something that you knew would hurt him deeply."

Leland took a deep breath and then nodded. "Alright. Monk, I'm sorry for getting so angry that I brought Trudy into the conversation."

Dr. Bell looked at Adrian. "Adrian?"

"I am sorry that I hit him. I still don't remember doing it, but I shouldn't have hit him." Monk paused. "I'm not usually the one that reacts to things by getting violent."

"Oh?" Dr. Bell asked. "Care to elaborate?"

Leland sighed in frustration. Trust Monk to remember everything he'd ever done, even something that had happened five years ago.

"He means that he said something to me about my girlfriend at the time that I didn't want to hear" Leland replied. "And I reacted by shoving him into a car."

"My hip almost hit the mirror." Adrian replied. "It would have left a bruise."

"Oh, I remember that," Randy interjected, with entirely too much glee for Leland's liking, and even Monk's. "Dr. Bell, Monk was trying to make Leland see that his girlfriend Linda was a murderess and the commander got all offended and slammed him into a car. Leland told him Monk was just jealous 'cause the commander had his badge still, and a woman, and a life."

Everyone was staring at him again and Randy for the third time that afternoon shrugged in apparent nonchalance. "Natalie told me. Monk just stood there and took it because he knew the commander was just upset and sometimes his temper gets the best of him."

Dr. Bell nodded. "Interesting. So, the dinner isn't the only time where you have reacted to a situation you didn't like by saying something that you knew would be hurtful."

Leland bowed his head. "Yeah. I guess not."

Dr. Bell showed little reaction at first, and everyone was surprised when his mouth quirked into something that looked like a smile. "I knew this would be an interesting session and I was right," he mumbled to himself. He looked at Adrian and then at Leland. "Now for a follow-up question I didn't think I'd ever ask: Leland, was Adrian correct in his investigation? Was your girlfriend a murderess?"

"Is the man ever wrong about stuff like this? Yes. Of course, she was." Leland muttered. "It's not one of my finest moments."

Randy snorted back a laugh.

Leland growled in frustration. "I have a temper and I know it, okay? I run my mouth and I say things I don't mean sometimes."

Adrian was silent for a few moments. "Apology accepted," he said quietly. What he said next was under his breath and mostly to Natalie. "Of course, he could just stop running his mouth and saying stupid things, then he wouldn't have to apologize."

"Amen to that." Was T.K.'s quiet and eager reply. Something about the way she said it and the way it was amplified in the otherwise silent room struck Natalie as incredibly funny, and she couldn't help herself. She smiled. T.K. had been the one to say it, after all, and T.K.'s own mouth tugged into a small smile when Natalie looked at her and that was all it took for both women to burst into laughter. Leland's look of betrayal in T.K's direction didn't do much to curb the laughter, though it did slow down.

Natalie took Adrian's hand in hers and took a deep breath. She looked in Leland and T.K's direction, but mostly at Leland.

"Leland wouldn't have said that horrible thing to Adrian if I hadn't taken shots at him first. If I hadn't practically goaded him into a fight that whole night."

It was the most significant attempt at an olive branch Natalie had provided in the entire five, almost six months of this horrific saga, and Leland leaned back in his chair. T.K. looked at him encouragingly and made a motion with her hand towards Natalie, encouraging her husband to say something and meet Natalie halfway.

"Leland," Dr. Bell spoke up. "Natalie is making a significant step in healing the rift between the two of you. Do you want to say something to her?"

"I should have reacted better," he said after a long moment of silence. "Like she said, she was goading me into a fight and I took the bait like an idiot. None of that helped Julie or our friendships." It took a moment longer before Leland turned to Natalie. "I - I know you love your daughter and that you only wanted what was best for her. I know how important she is to you and Monk. I was really trying to do the best I could."

"I know that, Leland," Natalie murmured, her eyes beginning to fill with tears.

Dr. Bell handed Randy a box of tissues and instructed him to pass it down the circle until it got to Natalie. Natalie wiped at her eyes. "I…I was wrong to say that you didn't care about Julie. I know you did everything you could to help her. I mean… you took a freaking bullet for her and you almost died! I don't think that we ever thanked you properly for that." She turned to Leland fully and tears swam in her eyes. "Thank you for saving my daughter's life that day, and Adrian's. I - I don't know what I'd do without either of them."

Leland was quiet. "I was doing what we're trained to do in a hostage situation."

"No," Natalie insisted, shaking her head. Tears fell from her eyes and she wiped them away. "You promised us that my daughter would be safe and you kept your promise, and you almost died because of it. You did all of that for us, even though Adrian and I …"

Adrian coughed. She looked up and nodded. "And by we, I mean I. I treated you horribly and I fully expected you to go against all the laws and procedures to fix everything for Julie because of our friendship, and - that was wrong of me. And I'm sorry. Not just because you're best friends with Adrian, but because you're my friend, too. I shouldn't have treated you that way."

"No, Natalie, you shouldn't have." Leland said seriously.

Natalie looked up, eyes shining in hope that maybe she hadn't ruined everything, and group therapy would help them after all, when Leland abandoned calling her "Ms. Teeger" as he had for the past five months and called her Natalie instead.

"Randy and I and all of the other officers on the force work hard to solve cases." He continued. "We call Monk for consulting because he is good at what he does, but that doesn't mean he does all of our work for us."

Natalie had the good sense to look ashamed. T.K. had told her that the crack she'd made that infamous night about Adrian doing all of Leland and Randy's casework for years had struck a nerve with her husband, and clearly, she was right. Leland took his professional pride seriously and she'd used that against him, much like he'd used Trudy's death against Adrian.

"I know," she murmured. "I shouldn't have said that, either."

"But," Leland said, as all eyes looked at him hopefully. "You said the first day that if it was Jared or Max this had happened to that I would be doing everything I could to help them no matter the cost to me, and that's true. I would do anything for my kids. And I know, and appreciate the fact that you reacted that way for Julie."

Dr. Bell spoke up, his pen once again out and opened in his hand and writing down words in his notebook. "You were both on the same side just coming at the situation from different angles and different perspectives. It sounds like both of you forgot that for a little while."

"Yes, we were." Leland acknowledged.

Dr. Bell busied himself with writing down more information and observances on his notepad, giving the six of them the room for a few moments. Adrian's longtime psychologist watched as Leland reached for the box of tissues and handed one to Natalie, telling her that this was better than her yelling at him, for sure, but for Pete's sake to stop crying. Julie was safe and they were all friends again. They never weren't friends. And that was all that mattered. Then, Dr. Bell looked from the top of his glasses and smiled as Leland and Natalie shared a brief, yet awkward hug. Five minutes later, Natalie leaned in to Adrian and whispered something in his ear, at which point, Adrian raised his hand to get Dr. Bell's attention.

"Dr. Bell," Adrian said insistently. "Natalie has something else she would like to say to the room."

Leland smirked. "Doc, he does that at crime scenes too when he's around people besides us. Raises his hand when he has wants to talk."

Monk scowled at Leland and Natalie leaned forward. She hesitantly looked in Leland and T.K's direction. "I'd like to apologize to T.K. as well while we're here."

"For the way you treated her husband throughout this experience?" Dr. Bell asked.

"No." Natalie wiped her free hand on her jeans. "That night when we had dinner - I said some things to her that were inappropriate."

The psychiatrist set down his pen. "Go on."

Natalie's voice was quiet at first when she spoke. "Well, she and I have already spoken about the specific things that I said and she has forgiven me for it…so, I think it's best not to dredge it up again; however, there is one thing that I didn't apologize for and I would like to do so now, if you'll allow me."

"Natalie…you don't need to." T.K. said.

"No. I do." Natalie paused and looked an them both then the words tore out of her like a flood. "T.K., you said in the hospital that first night that Leland got shot, that you two had been fighting lately. I can't help but feel that my actions contributed to the friction in your marriage. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was to mess up the two of your's marriage, and I just - I just needed to tell you both that I am sorry. I'm sorry I hurt you and I'm sorry I brought up something I wasn't supposed to and I'm sorry I caused all these problems everywhere and I'm just - I'm just sorry!"

She buried her face in Adrian's shoulder when she was finished and Randy quickly handed Sharona the box of tissues to hand to Adrian. The box of tissues had made it all the way around the room by now.

T.K. waited patiently for Natalie to lift her head from Adrian's shoulder, and when she did T.K.'s voice was soft but firm. "Natalie. Nothing happens without a purpose. Your actions forced me to have a conversation with my husband before I was ready, a conversation that was already going to be incredibly painful for me," she said. Leland's hand continuously rubbed soothing circles against her back. "But it was a conversation we needed to have and if it was up to me, I'm not sure I ever would have been brave enough to bring it up."

Leland's glare to the rest of the room told anyone that might have wanted to ask what T.K's issue was not to even think about it, and not even Randy was dumb enough to go against the commander when he was in protection-mode like that. "We…you, bringing it up that night didn't help, but Leland and I were already fighting. He and I are fine, now. Natalie, you didn't damage my marriage. I promise."

Natalie blinked back the last of her tears. "You're sure?"

T.K. said her next sentence sternly, and with a voice that encouraged no protest from Natalie. "What you said that night brought up a lot of issues for me that I thought I'd put past me a long time ago. Turns out I haven't, and it's going to take me some time to put all of this in the past where it needs to be. But we forgive you." She said, speaking for the both of them.

What was left of the session seemed to be a little easier. The six of them were more willing to talk to each other and Dr. Bell now that the biggest apologies had been made and accepted, and Dr. Bell didn't have to work so hard to get answers out of them. Leland wouldn't ever be the most talkative person in a therapy session, but Natalie's apology to him and her apology to his wife did a lot to lower his defenses and make him more eager to mend fences. Adrian smiled, thankful that everyone seemed to be happy again at last. The two people he loved the most were friends again and the four of them could work together in tandem and he could focus.

Everything was good again, for the first time in five months. And as he thought about the future and looked at Natalie, he smiled with confidence, knowing the future was bright.

That was, until Dr. Bell was leading the session to close, and they were back to casual small talk about what they thought were safer topics.

"I think this has been a very good session. Randy, what is a key lesson that you think we learned here today?" Bell said, in a friendly manner, hoping to make the captain feel more a part of the situation.

Randy thought for a moment. "Um…honesty and openness with each other and a willingness to listen can keep relationships strong and prevent misunderstandings?"

"Very good!" the pleased counsellor stated. "And, do we all now feel that the air has been cleared between us and that we're not harboring ill-will or important secrets within ourselves that the others need to know?"

Each of the three pairs looked at the others with satisfaction and then turned their eyes to each other. Randy, Sharona, Leland and T.K. each smiled at each other knowing that indeed the trip had been worthwhile; but, when Monk and Natalie looked at one another, they both smiled, until Natalie tilted her head towards him and squinted her eyes. Immediately, Adrian felt on the defensive.

Natalie twisted her lips a little then raised her hand. "Actually, Dr. Bell, there is one other topic I think needs to be dealt with before we end this session."

Bell sat up in his chair with surprise. "Oh?"

"Yes. Randy just talked about the importance of openness and honesty in relationships, and I really believe that's key too. Adrian and I have a warm and loving relationship and he's really been my rock throughout the whole time that Julie was in trouble."

Monk sat up a little straighter, accepting his girlfriend's praise.

"Really everything is just perfect with us…well, almost." She continued.

Monk's expression changed and he searched her eyes for understanding of what kept her from saying it was 'almost' perfect. Of course, if there was something that needed to be fixed, he thought, I'll do whatever it takes.

"You see, he's been taking off at various hours of the day, getting up early, and he'll stay gone for a little while and come back. Sometimes long times sometimes short times. But, he won't tell me where he's going."

Except that. Monk thought to himself. He couldn't tell her about that. He shifted in his seat, uncomfortably.

Bell looked mildly amazed. "Is this true? Are you keeping secrets from Natalie?"

Leland and Randy smirked as Monk looked more and more uncomfortable.

"She thinks I have another girlfriend!" Monk deflected. "Can you believe that? This nurse named Jessica gave me her number and, I'm not sure how she got my number but she called the apartment and…"

"Jessica Sterling!" Sharona said, immediately sitting up. Monk shrugged. "That floozie!" she continued, showing anger.

"Floozie?" Natalie asked, more curious than ever.

"Yeah, that sneaky snake has a tendency to try to bed down with any and every guy she meets, particularly the ones that are taken. It's like it's some sort of contest with her. If she gave Adrian her phone number, I'm sure that's what she was after."

Monk looked even more uncomfortable turning to look at Natalie who was once again giving him the look.

Immediately, T.K. jumped into the conversation. "Ho-ho-hold on a minute, Sharona. Natalie. I don't think that this is what was going on this time at all. I am afraid I'm the one who gave her Adrian's number. I met her at the hospital the week Leland woke up and was recovering. He was very uncomfortable and she tried to strike up a conversation with me about alternative medicines she was selling. I didn't really have the energy or patience to deal with that with all that was going on, so, I kinda pointed her to Adrian and Randy. I'm afraid that I'm the one who gave her your number, Adrian, I'm sorry. I gave her Randy's as well.

Sharona squinted her eyes and slowly turned her head, looking towards Randy.

"Randy. Is there something you mean to tell me." She asked, accusingly.

Randy got a deer-in-the-headlights look and shrugged. "What? I don't know any Jessica! I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't hand me that! The little flirt on second shift that kept talking to you while I was signing out that day?"

"Her? That's Jessica? Huh. Well, I still didn't talk to her."

"Is something wrong?" Dr. Bell asked.

Sharona looked at the group. "That little witch is a liar. I've worked with Jessica Sterling and she is the most anti-alternative medicine nurse I've worked with. She's gotten written up more than once for trying to preach to the patients if they believe differently than she does. She just wanted a reason to talk to you to get to Randy. Probably why she called Adrian too."

Dr. Bell tried to speak, but Sharona gave him no time to jump in.

"Dr. Bell, Jessica knows me. She knows I'm married. She knows I'm married to Randy and she still flirts with him. And now I hear that she's using my friends to get messages to you and get your phone number?!"

Sharona scooted away from her husband and closer to Adrian's chair, crossing her arms over her chest. "Women don't go out of their way to give their phone numbers to married men, Randall Disher, unless they are encouraged."

All eyes looked at Randy who looked at Sharona and just shrugged, and Dr. Bell reluctantly put the cap on his pen as he looked up at the clock and realized the session was over.

"I'm sorry, that's all the time we have for today." the doctor noted as everyone stood. "I believe today was very productive. If...um...some of you would like to continue these sessions, or talk about other things, please see my receptionist on the way out...it sounds like there are some things which still need to be aired out."

Natalie and Adrian looked at the scene and flinched when they saw the look Sharona Disher was giving to her husband. If looks could kill, the SFPD would of a certainty be knee deep in another homicide investigation at that very moment.