It was one week to the day that Sharona told Randy that they were finished and it seemed that things were no better between the Dishers. Randy tried to talk with his wife throughout the week only to be rebuffed and so Natalie decided to stop by the hospital in order to try to reason with her fiancé's former assistant, but Sharona angrily told her that she should 'mind her own business and keep her nose away from where it didn't belong'.

Shaken by Sharona's demeanor, Natalie waited until she walked away and then pulled out her cell phone in order to call Adrian but stopped dialing when a floor nurse named Carol took her by the arm and shook her head.

"Don't let her bother you. She's been that way with everyone lately." The woman said.

Natalie looked down the hallway to make sure that Sharona was nowhere near and then told the nurse, "I was only trying to help."

Carol smiled and shook her head. "Oh, I know that dear. We all have. I think deep down she knows. She has to. I mean, Randy is basically this good guy and everyone that's anyone knows what Jessica is made of."

Curious as to what she might reveal, Natalie leaned in closer.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Carol looked both ways and then pulled Natalie down a side hallway and into a room. "Listen. If Jessica knew I was saying this, she'd be sure to make sure I paid…just the kinda girl she is, so I need you to try to keep this as quiet as you can."

"You have my word." Natalie affirmed.

"Alright. Here's the scoop. Jessica Sterling and Randy Disher have had NOTHING going on. I mean nothing. He talked to her a time or two, and I was right there. Chit chat stuff. Nothing personal. But I could see right then and there the wheels turning in that wicked little head of hers and sure enough before I knew anything Jessica was walking around letting on like there was something more there and got Sharona all worked up."

Natalie frowned. "Why would she do that?"

"That's simple, for two reasons. One, she seems to get her jollies out of breaking up happy relationships. I've seen her in action with two married doctors in this very hospital. And she's rumored to have been behind several more. Guess if she can't be happy, she doesn't want anyone else happy either. But second, there is a promotion coming up in the new orthopedic surgery wing that will be a big career booster. One of the world's top physicians, Dr. Cyril Hedgeworth will be heading it up. Word is that Jessica wants the job but Sharona is slated for it."

Natalie narrowed her eyes. "So, by breaking up Sharona's marriage, Jessica hopes to kill two birds with one stone?"

"Exactly. She knows Sharona moved back here so that Randy could get the Captain promotion, but that without him, she'd probably prefer going back to familiar turf in New Jersey. By breaking them up she is getting rid of her nemesis and manipulating her way into the job that she wanted."

Natalie nodded. "I see. That is all very good information to know."

"Yeah. Well, I felt I needed to tell you seeing how she reamed you out. Sharona is a good woman. She really is. But sometimes she can be a bit high strung and assume some things that aren't true. I would hate to see her foolishness cost her a marriage. And, as goofy as he is, Randy is one of the nicest guys you could meet. He's solid. No sense in a snake like Jessica ruining it for him too!"

Natalie took mental notes of all that Carol told her and couldn't wait to share the information with Adrian when she got home. Carol even offered to help her if she needed it in any way, an offer that she gladly accepted – though at that time, she wasn't sure how it would come into play.


A few days later, Sharona called Randy late one evening to invite him to lunch the next day. She knew his schedule and knew he wouldn't have time for anything more than a quick bite to eat in one of his favorite diners close to the station, but he hardly cared. He was anxious to go.

Monk cared because he was forced to listen to Randy's excitement the rest of the night and at five o'clock the next morning when Randy came crashing into his private bedroom space unannounced, his shoes and pants on but his dress shirt untucked and unbuttoned, an exuberant look on his face. Adrian sat up on his elbows, squinting his eyes due to the sudden invasion of light and he looked as Randy held up two ties, one solid blue and one blue pinstriped.

"Which one?" he asked, looking between the ties and then back towards Monk.

Monk glared at Randy and reached for his cellular phone to call Natalie. If Randy had awakened him at this hour for something as inconsequential as a tie, he thought it was only fitting that Natalie be awakened too and that she would have to be the one to deal with this, seeing she had been tasked with getting them back together in the first place and Randy was still there. Besides, he thought about calling Leland but Leland would only yell at Randy and then Randy would yell at him, and none of that was fair, he wanted his apartment back. He needed his apartment back.

Adrian hit speed dial on his phone, not caring that Randy was standing right there, but Natalie didn't answer. He thought for a moment. Perhaps she left her phone in the kitchen. He would have to talk to her about that later. He hung up the line.

"Sharona doesn't like blue," was the first thing Monk could think of to get Randy out of his room and it worked because Randy ran back to the living room to dig through his suitcase.

Monk got out of bed and put on his robe and slippers, locked the bedroom door from the inside, and then excitedly tiptoed to his window, taking the fire escape to Natalie's bedroom. He had rigged a tether to the railing and another to the frame in case there was something like an earthquake or high gust of wind that might cause him to lose his balance and fall, still it made him nervous. Nevertheless, he had trained himself to not look down and in the case of an emergency would always avail himself of this route. This situation might not qualify as an emergency, but he felt strongly that Natalie needed to be updated on what had happened overnight.

Meanwhile, down in the living room Randy had decided on his own to go with the tie he wore in Summit, New Jersey, the night Sharona agreed to marry him. Without so much as realizing that he was now alone in the apartment, he hollered out to Monk that he was leaving and rushed out the door to head to work, deciding to get as much done as possible in those early morning hours so that he and his wife could have as much time as needed to spend together that afternoon. And so, he was very busy the first part of the day, on exactly what he wouldn't have been able to say if you had asked him later, since his mind was 100% on Sharona.


Up in Natalie's apartment, Adrian's arrival at her window caused Natalie very little grief since she had planned on getting up early that morning anyway to go take Julie on a shopping trip to some outlets a couple of hours away. The insurance money had been more than enough to replace the material things that they lost in the fire, but both ladies still had been judicious in their spending, preferring to mete things out over time so that they had the best of all they would need for each season. This day had been pre-planned as a special time for the two of them to get away.

Jumping slightly when she heard the rat-a-tat-tat on her window, Natalie quickly rushed over in order to let him in.

"Adrian! What…what's going on? It's before six a.m.!"

Monk squeezed through her window, grabbing onto her arm and excitedly pulled her to him, giving her a kiss. As they pulled away from one another, he smiled, "You did it! I think you did it!"

"Did what?" Natalie stated, inviting him over to sit with her on the edge of the bed.

Monk sat and turned to her. "Something quite wonderful! She called him late last night!"

"Who called him? Sharona called Randy?"

"Yeah! To invite him to lunch. And, it's really about the best news I've heard in a long time. Things are finally going to be right again. It's going to be like it should be and I owe it all to you!" He drew her in and kissed her again.

Natalie drew back and looked at him. "You owe me for what?!"

"For whatever it was you said to Sharona. Sweetheart! I'm getting my apartment back. I can have my kitchen the way I want it and no more screaming exercise show in the morning and no more weird sounds coming from the bathroom every night…"

Natalie squinted her eyes. "Not going to touch that. Are you saying Randy and Sharona are getting back together?"

"Yes!" Monk exclaimed. "At least I think so! And I'll get my apartment back…and we can have date nights again and snuggle in front of the TV like we used to do." He said, leaning in for another kiss. Natalie recognized a certain glint in his eyes and quickly stood to walk away, knowing Julie would be up any minute to get ready for their day trip.

"Well that's wonderful, honey! That's just great!" she said. "When he gets back home tonight, be sure to tell me how everything went." She said, grabbing her bathrobe, and looking towards the door. "But, in the meantime, I think maybe you should head back to your place. Julie's alarm is going to go off any minute now."

Monk looked confused. "Julie's alarm?"

Suddenly they heard a sound outside Natalie's bedroom door. "Mom? Are you awake?"

Natalie paused a moment, motioning for Adrian to head towards the window. "Yes sweetie, just gathering my things to go take my shower." She said before turning to Monk and whispering "Go!"

Adrian moved quickly towards the window, sliding it open a little further so he could slip outside. It made a squeak.

From outside the door Natalie heard the distinct sigh of her daughter. "Good morning, Adrian!"

Natalie and Monk looked at one another. "Adrian? Why would you say….?" Natalie responded.

"Because I know he's in there. You're not fooling anyone!" Julie replied. "If it's going to be that big of a deal, why don't we all just skip the big wedding and head to Vegas so you two can elope? Then you can be together all the time!"

Monk looked at Natalie. "You know, that's not a bad idea." He whispered.

Natalie shook her head, gave him a quick peck on the lips and then pushed his head down through the window. "No. We can wait just a few more months. I'm getting my December wedding and things are going to be wonderful! No eloping."

Julie shook her head when there was no response. "Whatever. Your business." She said. "Just tell me when you're out of the shower." And then, she walked away.

Assured that her daughter was no longer standing outside the door, Natalie leaned out the window and told her fiancé, who was already making his way down the ladder with great trepidation, "I'll call you when we get home. I expect it may be late. But, I want to hear all about it."

Adrian smiled. "Sh-sure thing. I love you!" he replied. "You girls have fun."

She winked. "We will. Love you too!"


Randy Disher sat at his desk, signing off on more paperwork and delegating some tasks that afternoon to some of his junior officers. He was so excited about his meeting with Sharona that the feeling was almost palpable. When he arrived at work he was smiling and his already-good mood increased a hundred-fold when an hour opened up for him to take lunch and Sharona replied immediately to his text saying she'd meet him at the diner at eleven-thirty. Then, when the set time arrived, Randy was surprised to see that Sharona had gotten to the rendezvous place before he did, somehow, and his usual drink of choice was waiting for him when he sat down. These were all good signs and Randy could hardly believe his good luck. Whatever Monk had done to get Sharona to change her mind, Randy owed him.

Randy immediately slid into the side of the booth opposite his wife and smiled a smile which hid some of his inner discomfort. He knew inside that this meeting was so important for him to get it right. Too much was at stake. Randy knew if he messed it up, not only would Sharona not let him come back home, but he'd have no choice but to stay at Monk's place indefinitely and he knew Monk was already getting tired of him. Plus, there was no way Monk would continue to let Randy stay with him when he and Natalie got married. That would just be awkward to say the least. And so, he put his best face forward and hoped for success.

The two sat together and talked about generalities for quite a while keeping to non-controversial subjects such as Benjy's work and what was going on with Randy's mother and for a while it seemed as if things were opening up for the two of them, and so he decided to get things figuratively out on the table so they could really talk about what it was they were there for.

"Sharona, hey, I'm was so happy that you called last night. I told my lieutenants not to call me for anything for the rest of the afternoon so we have as much time as you want. I mean it. I know you think that I don't make you a priority and I am right now because all of this, you, us, is important to me. Look!" He fished in his back pocket for his phone and pushed it across the table to her side. "Look, it's turned off, I promise, you have my full attention. I'm thinking that we can have lunch and maybe we can go to the pier later or if you don't want to do that, we can do something else. Whatever you want. Whatever you want to do we can, I just want you to talk to me again." He said, with an eager expression, waiting for what she was going to say.

Sharona responded by retrieving something from her purse and sliding it across the table to him. "I'm putting the house up for sale and I'm moving back home to New Jersey. You'll get half of the sale price, obviously, and when you sign that paper, it will go directly into your personal account when the sale goes through, not our joint one. I, um, I think I sent everything to Adrian's apartment that's yours but if there's anything else you want from the house you can stop by over the next few days when I'm at work and take whatever you want. Just, uh, leave me a note of what you took so I don't come back and think someone robbed me."

Randy looked back and forth from the paper in his hand to Sharona's serious face and wondered how it was that his stupid lie about a basketball game had snowballed into this complete disaster so fast. His hand tightened around his drink as his mind swirled around the real meaning of what was transpiring in that moment. Sharona hadn't ordered his favorite drink or said she'd meet him at his favorite hole-in-the-wall diner to tell him she wanted to get back together. She did those things to try and soften him up so she could inform him about their...divorce?

"Were you going to tell me about this, or are you talking to me based upon some legal advice?" was all he could ask, finally. He hardly recognized his own voice.

Sharona blinked, unaccustomed to Randy's harsh tone, and it was the first time the entire lunch that her voice wavered. "Don't make this hard for me."

"I'm going to." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. "You accuse me of cheating on you, you hardly speak to me for almost a month and now when you do it's to get me to sign papers to sell our house so you can move back to New Jersey? We bought that house together, Sharona! It's ours! What makes you think you can sell it without telling me?"

"I'm tired, Randy!" she said, harshly. "I am so tired of thinking that this time I found the right guy just to get smacked in the face when they lie to me. I'm tired of being cheated on. I am so tired of the excuses and the guilt-tripping and the lies just like Trevor used to do, and I - Randy, you know that I only moved back here for you because Leland made Commander and recommended you for his old job. The promotion was good for you and I was so proud of you… but San Francisco isn't my home anymore and I can't even think about seeing you all over town with Jessica. I was humiliated when Trevor paraded his mistress in front of me, two different mistresses, mind you, and I won't tolerate the same thing from you. I won't. I want to go home and you'll get the money from the house. If you want you can keep the house, I don't care."

"And live there all alone without you? I think not." Randy gave a bitter laugh which sounded foreign to his own ears. Maybe he needed to get that 'You Choose to Be Happy' bumper sticker printed out and have it with him like the commander had his yo-yo.

"I'm not Trevor!" he whisper-yelled. "I am so sorry, Sharona, that Trevor hurt you and betrayed you and embarrassed you, but it's not fair to take it out on me. I never had any relationship with Jessica, I mean that. Honest."

He immediately reached for his wallet and pulled out the ticket stub from the Warriors game, Sharona being mad at him for him missing her sister's birthday no longer his biggest concern.

"The night of Gail's birthday I was at the basketball game. Look! There's the date and everything. Sharona, I'm sorry that I lied to you about that and I will make it up to you, I promise, but I promise I wasn't with Jessica that night or any other night."

Sharona took the ticket stub from his outstretched hand and looked at the ripped piece of cardstock for a long time. Randy blindly grabbed for her hand before she pulled away. "Please, Sharona, you have to believe me. I swear that I don't want anyone but you. Ask Monk and ask Natalie if you don't believe me because you clearly don't."

Sharona continued to stare at the ticket and didn't say anything about Randy holding her hand, but pulled back after a minute of silence. "All this tells me is that you have a ticket stub from that night," she said quietly. "Not even Adrian could get a conviction on circumstantial evidence like that."

Randy was silent for much longer than a minute and for the first and only time was grateful for this diner's horrible service that not one waitress had even noticed them yet, much less taken their orders.

Finally, his tired voice broke the silence. "I have a question for you, if you don't mind."

Sharona did not respond and he continued.

"It appears that you are so determined to be right about me that you aren't interested in listening to the truth, but considering all we have been through together, I think you can answer at least one question for me. I mean, that's fair."

Sharona reluctantly nodded, and if Randy wasn't as upset as he was he would have noticed that her tough Jersey exterior had cracked the tiniest bit and that her eyes were damp with unshed tears. "Yeah, Randy, I'll answer a question."

He reached for his jacket and his phone and then slipped his phone back into his pocket. "You're mad at me because you think I'm stepping out on you and that I don't prioritize you; but we've been here for almost an hour and you haven't noticed what tie I'm wearing. You always do." He pulled out some bills for the check and placed them on the table, not caring what they were. Hopefully it would cover whatever Sharona ordered. "I need to know. Why did you say yes?"

She looked up at him in confusion. "Why did I say yes to meeting you here? Because I know it's one of your favorite places."

Randy would have laughed out loud if he wasn't so miserable. And to think, an hour ago he was so happy at the thought of reconciling with his wife.

"When I proposed. If you think so little of me that you won't take my word as proof that I'd never ever even think about being with a woman that wasn't you, why did you say yes when I asked you to marry me?"

Sharona looked down at the table, fighting back the tears which threatened to erupt from within. She placed her hand over her face and then reached into her purse to retrieve a tissue, but when she looked back up to answer, Randy was gone.


Natalie and Julie entered her apartment a little after ten o-clock that evening, both heavy laden with arms full of shopping bags. It had been a wonderful and relaxing day, the kind which they hadn't had in quite some time and they had spent much of it laughing and talking just like they used to. Natalie had filled Julie in on what was happening with Randy and Sharona and gave her the news about what Adrian thought was happening that afternoon, and Julie and she spent a bit of time talking about what each of the couples had gone through before they finally got together. Julie knew that each of them had found 'their answer' and was very happy to hear the Dishers were staying together.

Shutting the door behind them, the ladies each sat down most of their bags on the dining room table and made their way through the darkened hallway towards their respective bedrooms. About halfway through, Natalie flipped on a light and let out a small shriek, dropping the package she had in her hand onto the floor. Julie quickly rushed back out of her room to see what had happened and stopped in her tracks as she saw the same thing that her mother had seen a moment earlier.

"Adrian? What is it? What's wrong?" Natalie asked, walking over to her boyfriend who had been sitting in the dark on the oversized chair Natalie's living room looking forlorn out a window waiting for her to come home. She bent over and took his hand, taking a seat next to him as Julie walked in and stood beside her.

Monk shook his head and whimpered. "It's awful, darling. It's a disaster."

Natalie looked up at Julie and then back at her fiancé. "What? What is, sweetheart?"

Monk looked sadly over towards her and sighed. "Randy came back to my place tonight and refused to tell me what had happened. But…he didn't look happy."

"Oh dear." Natalie said, again glancing towards her daughter and then back towards Monk. "Did he say anything at all? Give you any clues?"

Monk looked sad. "Only clue he gave is…he took off his wedding ring and stuffed it in his pocket! Natalie! I don't think they are reconciling! I'll never get my apartment back, now!" he said, leaning over against her and laying his head down in her lap.

Natalie sighed and ran her fingers through his hair, shaking her head. Leave it to her adorable fiancé to be more worried about his living arrangements than his friend's marriage. Sometimes, even Natalie knew she had to be a saint to put up with him.

"Well, surely there is something else we can do. I mean, he didn't do anything. He didn't cheat on her." Natalie said. "That Jessica girl, she just set him up."

Monk sat up, looking at her desperately. "I…I don't know of anything we can do, Natalie. I mean, I think she really means it this time. You know, Sharona told me she was leaving me a number of times but she always came back. But then she left for good. I'm afraid this is one of those times!"

Suddenly Julie began to shake her head. "Oh, No! No way. This won't do." She said, standing up and walking to go retrieve her cell phone.

"What? What do you mean sweetie? You're not trying to call Sharona are you, because if you are, I've already talked to her. She's not budging." Natalie said as Adrian watched on.

"No. I am not trying to call Sharona." She said with a determined look. "If there is one thing that my ordeal has taught me it's how to deal with someone who is trying to frame you for something you didn't do. And, I'd say I'm pretty much an expert at that right now."

Natalie and Adrian looked at one another and shrugged. There was nothing to argue about there.

"Well, what are you going to do?" Monk asked. "Who are you calling?"

Julie put the phone up to her ear. "I'm calling Jared, and then some of my friends from the theater. Randy has been like an uncle to me and I'm not going to let some two-bit floozie ruin his life through lies and manipulation. I've got an idea and we'll just see how little Miss Jessica stand up against it!" she said with a nod, followed by a facial expression which brightened immediately upon hearing the next voice through the receiver.

"Hey, Jared. I hope I didn't wake you. "she said sweetly, with a smile. "Oh, good. You got a few minutes to talk? I may need your help on something."