Julie had gone to bed around midnight and Natalie has set both the alarm and the coffee pot for the breakfast that she promised to Adrian at eight-thirty in the morning. As much as she hated moving away from him, it was nice to know that her daughter once again had her own room and that things were at last returning to normal in their lives. It was the first worry-free night's sleep that she could honestly say that she had experienced since the previous December. Oh, the upcoming wedding definitely had her mind occupied, but she was not really worried since Monk had cleared the air with her and it was a certainty that he was just as excited at starting their married life together as she was. So, even if the venue ended up cancelling on them, even if it rained, even if her yet-to-be-purchased wedding gown somehow got ruined – Natalie didn't feel the least bit worried or disturbed because she knew that in six months, her dreams would come true. Crawling under the covers that night, she pressed a kiss to her fingertips and then touched the picture of her fiancé on the nightstand before turning out the light. She then drifted quickly off to a peaceful and sound sleep.
Natalie had been asleep for a total of three blissful hours in which she was having the most pleasant of dreams of life with Adrian. She had just rolled over onto her side when a tap on her bedroom window interrupted her nocturnal bliss. At first, she tried to work the sound into her dream imagining someone was tapdancing while they were doing a waltz. When that discontinuity didn't work, her mind tried for something else but ultimately gave up the effort as the tapping sound got louder going from a gentle tap to the sound of a tympani. Furling her brow, she tossed in bed and awakened, gasping when in her disoriented state she turned around and saw the shadow of a figure outside her bedroom window.
Natalie swallowed with wide eyes and reached over to her drawer, opening and fumbling for the can of pepper spray that she kept inside. Silently, she said a prayer that it would still be potent enough to stop the intruder since she knew the can to be at least four years old. Grabbing hold of it, her heart began to pound as she saw that the person had managed to slip their fingers underneath the bottom of the window, next to the windowsill, and was beginning to raise the pane. Quickly, she slipped out of bed and tip-toed quietly across the floor as she observed the person stick his leg inside her room and then, staying as low to the sill as possible begin to slide his head under the frame as well. Immediately, she rushed up to the man and sprayed the potent spray directly into his face, causing him to shriek in pain. He jerked, raising up and slamming the bottom of the window pane with his head before rolling over the sill into agony on the floor. Taking advantage of his discomfort, Natalie ran to her bedroom door, picking up a baseball bat that she had leaning in the corner for self-defense and she flipped on the light. Rushing back to the man with the bat raised over her head she stopped in her tracks when she realized that it was Adrian who was crumpled over in pain on her bedroom floor.
He squinted at her pathetically with eyes so watery and bloodshot that they reminded her of when he had had acid splashed in his face at a firehouse, blinding him for weeks.
"Go ahead. Do it." He whimpered. "Just get it over with. Put me out of my misery, I don't mind."
Natalie tossed the bat on the bed, moving over towards him and wrapping her arms around him in a hug.
"Oh, honey. I am so sorry! I didn't…"
He shrugged her off because his face and nostrils were burning so badly. All he wanted was relief. "Hurts…it hurts."
Natalie looked at his face as streams of tears came pouring from his eyes. "Gosh sweetheart…I…I'll go get some cold water. J-just stay right there."
Monk mumbled something about where on earth am I supposed to go? I can't see as Natalie made her way out into the hallway. Turning on the light in the bathroom she startled when she saw her daughter's bedroom door open up and Julie appeared.
"Did something just happen?" she asked her mother,sleepily. "I had my earbuds in but I…I thought I heard a noise."
Natalie looked nervously towards her bedroom door and then assured her daughter that everything was okay, instructing her to go back to bed. Less than a minute later, she was back at Adrian's side on the floor placing the cold, wet washcloth over his eyes and helping him off the floor onto his feet. It was then that she saw the rope that he had tethered around his waist which she quickly helped to untie as he held the cloth against his face.
"Come on over here and sit on the bed." She stated, after dropping the rope to the ground. She took him by the hand and led him to her bed, sitting him down and then running across the room to close both the window and her bedroom door. Moving as quickly as she could, she crawled across her bed and sat down next to him, rubbing his arm and comforting him the best that she could as both his emotions and inflamed eyes calmed down.
After several minutes passed, he was finally able to open his eyes which, though slightly swollen, were unaffected in terms of his vision. He looked over towards her sadly as she rubbed her fingers through his hair.
"You feel better?" she asked. He simply nodded, looking down at the cloth in his hand and then around her room for a place he could lay it. She took it from him and set it on top of an empty water glass she had set on her night stand from when she took her multi-vitamin just before it was light's out. Turning back to him, she looked at him concernedly. "Now, do you want to tell me why you're up here at almost four o-clock in the morning and why you decided to come up the fire-escape, of all things?"
Adrian began to whimper, falling over onto Natalie and burying his face into the side of her neck.
"Oh, Natalie. It's awful. It's…it's a disaster!"
Natalie braced herself with her left hand on the bed so as to not be knocked over as his full weight pressed against her, all the while wrapping her free arm around Adrian's back, kissing the top of his head and rubbing his shoulder in a comforting manner.
"What is, sweetheart? What's a disaster?" she asked.
Monk sniffed and began to tell her the tale. "After…after I went downstairs…I-I got ready for bed and…and I had just laid down around twelve o'clock when there was a knock on my door."
Natalie furrowed her brow. "A knock? What? Did something happen? Did someone hurt you?" she asked, leaning back to see if he was in some way injured.
"N-no." he sniffed. "I…I'm okay…it was…it was Randy."
"Randy?!" Natalie mused. "What was Randy doing at your apartment at midnight?"
"I…I don't know." He said. "B-but I don't think he's going awayyyyyyyy." He rocked harder against her and she again had to brace herself lest she fall, even as Monk moaned against her neck.
"Honey. I don't think I understand. Are you saying he's still there?"
Monk sat up slightly and looked at her. "Yes. Why do you think I came up the fire escape? I…I couldn't let him see me sneaking past the couch and heading up here. I mean, what would he say?"
Natalie smirked at the thought of the gossip but said nothing.
"Oh! And he…he used my shower and he's sleeping in my robe and he even used my…my loofah."
Natalie bit her lip. "Your loofah? I didn't even know you had a loofah."
Monk frowned. "That's because I keep it in my special loofah keeper, underneath the sink behind the extra bottles of shower gel."
"Oh. You have a loofah keeper?"
"Yes. In a medical-grade sterile container. You'll need to know these kinds of things when we get married. It's to help keep my skin smooth and help the cells to regenerate. There are less germs if you have less dead skin cells on your…on your b-body."
Natalie nodded, suppressing a giggle since he was being so very serious at that moment. At least now she knew why his skin was so smooth. "Okay. And, you're saying that Randy used it?"
"Yes. And left it on the edge of the tub, next to the stubble."
Natalie made a funny face. "Stubble? Why is there stubble in the bathtub?"
Monk's eyes grew wide. "How am I supposed to know?! Why was he shaving…with MY razor! At twelve o'clock in the morning in MY bathroom?! I mean, at least when you two girls used your lady razors, you wiped down the tub and left everything clean. Randy…he's tracked water all round the tile, left stubble in the tub, used my loofah, is running around in my robe and I'm pretty sure, couldn't swear to it, but I'm pretty sure he took a drink directly out of my orange juice carton in the refrigerator. It's simply cataclysmic, I tell you! A disaster!"
Natalie took a deep breath trying to empathize with her boyfriend, bringing him in for a warm hug and kiss on his forehead. "Honey…that just sounds so awful for you. What a bad way to end your night." She said quietly, continuing to caress his arm. "But are you sure that he didn't tell you why he's there? Did he and Sharona have a fight or something?"
Adrian sat back up. "Um…yes. He said she kicked him out. Said it had something to do with that Jessica nurse girl or something – that Sharona was jealous of her and him."
Natalie nodded. That was kind of what she and T.K. had suspected, but she didn't' want to accuse Randy of doing something untoward without there being any evidence of it so she was careful in how she phrased her next question. "Did Randy give her reason to be jealous?"
Monk sighed. "No. He says no. Said he's only talked to Jessica a couple of times, maybe three, but the last time that they spoke Sharona walked in on them laughing about something that had happened with one of his professional sports basketball teams. He said she's been, quote, 'freezing him out ever since', end quote." He paused and got a pained look on his face. "Natalie, he told me after he got out of the shower that he and Sharona…they're not even…um…well…they're not…."
"Sleeping together?" she asked.
"Yes! Not sleeping together. Not having r-relations. That's why he brought his sound machine and motivational tapes with him. " Monk raised up and looked Natalie deadly seriously in the eye. "Natalie. Sweetheart. Do I honestly look like I want to hear about Randy and Sharona's…um….love life?"
Natalie paused. "Uh…no."
"Thank you!" he said, turning back around and resting his elbows on his knees while running his hand through his hair.
"Well, why did he come to you? Why didn't he just go and stay with Leland and T.K.? They have that extra bedroom."
"I don't know?! I…I…" he paused and looked at her nervously. "Well..actually, I do. But I don't want to say."
"You don't want to say? What don't you want to say?" she asked.
He shuffled in his seat. "It's too embarrassing, cause it has something to do with the other thing."
"The other thing? What other thing?"
"You know…the thing. The thing we just talked about with Randy and Sharona."
"That Sharona thinks Randy cheated on her with Jessica?"
"No! Not that thing. The other…other thing. You know…the thing."
"The thing." She said, raising her hand to her chin. "Honey, I'm sorry. It's after four a.m. and I'm just not thinking straight. You're going to have to tell me. Remember…we're getting married soon. We said we wouldn't keep secrets."
Adrian swallowed and look over at her through the tops of his eyes and twisted his mouth to the side. This was so uncomfortable to talk about, particularly with the mental images that it invoked. "Okay…here's the thing…um. Randy said that he didn't want to go over to Leland's house because, um…well….quote…. 'they're getting along so well that it's like they're newlyweds again, and I do not want to be in the same house with all of tha't…end quote." Monk exhaled and Natalie blinked her eyes incredulously.
"That's it?" she asked. He looked at her blankly. "That's the big secret, that Leland and T.K. are being intimate?"
"Shhhshshhhshhshhhh…." Monk immediately spoke up, raising one finger to his mouth. "You're going to wake Julie up."
"Julie knows people have, um…relations… Adrian." She said, curbing her language a little for his sake.
Monk winced. "I…I know she's old enough to know that…but she shouldn't even be thinking about those sorts of things for another twenty…thirty years. She has to think about her studies."
Natalie rolled her eyes. Julie was going to just LOVE having Monk step in as even more of a protective father figure than he already was.
"Alright. Okay. Well, hey. People fight. Couples get in arguments and sometimes they have to spend a few days cooling down." She said. "She'll probably come back to him in a few days and things will be back to normal."
"But…what do I do until then?" Monk asked. "He's got his suitcase on the dining room table and his stuff thrown all over the place. I honestly don't know how Sharona puts up with him. He left his clothes laying in the middle of the bathroom floor. I had to put them in the hamper…"
"You picked up Randy's underwear?"
"I…I used gloves." He reasoned. "Of course, the hamper will now probably have to go into the incinerator."
"Honey…Randy's just going through a rough patch. He just needs a friend. This is an opportunity for you to be a friend to him. It'll be a new experience."
"I don't like new experiences." He whined.
"I know. But, it'll help you to grow and I'll be here with you."
Monk sighed then leaned against her again. "Alright. But only for a few days. And you need to help me if things get too bad."
"Sure thing. You just say the word." She stated. He looked at her and smiled, then leaned in and kissed her.
Looking back towards the window, he sighed and started to get up, but she pushed him back down. "Where are you going?" she asked.
He looked at her and shrugged. "Back down to my room."
"Down the fire escape?" she said, raising her eyebrows.
He rolled his neck. "Well, yeah. That's how I came up. It would be a little weird for me to just show up at my front door having not passed him to leave."
"Aren't you nervous?" she asked.
Monk thought. "Well, now that you mention it…How…how did I just do that? Earlier, when you were climbing that ladder…" he stopped and shuddered. "But tonight, I didn't even think about it. Huh." He said, amazed.
"That's because you had your focus on what was most important, and that was to get up here to speak to me. What's most important now is to be a friend to Randy while he and Sharona work this out. You'll get through it and you'll be okay."
Monk smiled and leaned in and kissed her once more, then pulled away, tapping his temple with his finger. "See…now that's why I'm marrying you. You're a smart lady, when you want to be."
Natalie leaned back and shoved him. "When I want to be?"
Monk shrugged again. "Yeah…what?"
Natalie pulled away and turned her head to which Monk explained that it was meant as a compliment.
"Well, you need to work on your complimenting skills." She griped.
Adrian moved over towards her placing his hands on her arms, "Sweetheart. I'm sorry. I honestly didn't mean to upset you. You know me. Open mouth. Insert foot." He said, twisting his neck at the mental image.
Natalie sighed then turned and looked at him, knowing he was telling the truth. "Okay. Well, you can make it up to me one way."
Monk looked at her eagerly and scooted a little closer to her. "Anything."
"Stay with me tonight." She said, looking lovingly towards him with a bat of her eyes.
Adrian's lips parted a little and he looked between the window and his fiancée. "Um…the rules?"
"Will be obeyed." She said. "I just miss having you near me, and you don't really want to go back down that dirty fire escape late at night now do you?"
Monk stopped and looked at his hands then wiped them on his pajama bottoms, then he smiled and nodded, crawling into Natalie's bed. Natalie quickly got up and turned off her light then jumped in next to him and they laid that way for a minute or two with Monk tossing and turning. Finally, Natalie asked him what was wrong.
"Um…here's the thing. Usually, I'm…I'm on the other side." He replied.
Natalie sighed then climbed over him, placing her body in between him and the window and he scooted over, making room for her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and the two happily spooned together until they fell sound asleep in each other's arms, happy as could be.
Together, they slept that way for another three and a half hours, awakening in the same manner that had caused Natalie to wake up in the middle of the night. They heard a knock and then Natalie's window was pushed open and Randy slipped his head quietly into Natalie's room. Monk and Natalie looked at each other in shock and then back at Randy.
"Hey, man. Sorry to wake you. Hey, Natalie." He said, to no response. "I was getting up to get ready for work and was making some pancakes for breakfast when I realized you didn't have any syrup. I called for you and went into your room and realized you'd come up the fire escape to go see Natalie, so…"
Natalie spoke up. "Um…Randy…couldn't you have just picked up the phone?"
Randy looked over to her phone on her nightstand and grinned. "Yeah. I guess…well, I guess I could have…but, I figured since he was right upstairs that…"
"It's in the hall closet." Monk sighed.
"Huh?" Randy asked.
"The syrup. There are extra food supplies in the hall closet. I bought two extra bottles. You'll find them there."
Randy smiled. "Oh! Ha! Okay, man. You're the best." He said, as he began to slip back out the window to go back down stairs. "Oh, and don't worry about this."
"Huh?" Adrian asked.
"Yeah, man. Your secret is safe with me. I know you came up the fire escape to come sleep with Natalie just so Julie wouldn't see. Figured you couldn't keep that celibacy thing up for long the way you two liked making out."
"Randy!" Natalie gasped.
"No…hey. I get it. Sharona and I used to do the same thing so that Benjy wouldn't see. I'd sneak up to her balcony late at night, kinda like Rapunzel. She said it was romantic. That's when she still liked me."
Natalie looked sympathetic at Randy, but Monk tried to explain. "Randy. Natalie and I aren't sleeping togeth…well…we were sleeping together but…that's what we were doing…sleeping…together."
"Hey man, you don't need to explain. Not my business." He winked. "I'll just head back down so you two can…whatever. I'll leave your pancakes in the microwave for when you're ready." He said as he turned and climbed back down the ladder.
Adrian looked at Natalie and twisted his mouth to the side. "Going to help me to grow, huh? What if I don't want to grow?" he complained.
Natalie smiled and patted his cheek. "Oh, it'll be fine." She said before pulling his face down to hers for a tender good morning kiss.
