Due to the late hour at which he went to bed, Adrian got a late start in the morning, in fact, he slept so soundly that Natalie had to get up when Lee was crying in the middle of the night. She didn't mind though. He had generally been a thoughtful, if highly overprotective, father and a helpful husband throughout this time - much more so than she would have expected him to be. Nevertheless, by 9:00 AM, she figured he would probably have some meetings or something to attend at work, so she crawled across the covers and gently shook him awake.

"Adrian, honey. Wake up. You've overslept." She said.

Through drowsy eyes that were still a bit blurry upon waking, he looked up at her and smiled. She looked like a dream as the morning sun softly highlighted her delicate features.

"Good morning, beautiful. Can I go back to sleep?" he asked.

"Go back to sleep? Why don't you feel good?" she said, reaching out her hand and touching his forehead to feel if it was warm.

"I feel fine. I just want to experience waking up and seeing your beautiful face again." He said smiling, and then drew her in for a very romantic kiss.

After a few seconds she pulled away. "Work! You have to go to work!" she said, as she got out of bed and put on her robe.

"Yeah, yeah. Work, schmirk. Story of my life." He said, sitting up and finding his slippers.

"I'll go make you some breakfast while you take a shower." She said.

"Do I stink?" he asked.

"Uh, no. You always take a shower first thing in the morning. Stop stalling and get busy!" she said, leaving the room.

.

Adrian stood up and walked over to the bathroom and looked at his stubble covered face in the mirror. He wanted to shave his face clean, but Natalie liked the mustache so he would keep it. As he looked at his face in the mirror, he noticed how it was changing. No longer did he have the haunted sort of look that was always just under the surface after Trudy's murder. Rather, laugh lines were beginning to appear on his cheeks and along his nose. This was a good thing – a very good thing, he surmised. Marriage and fatherhood had been very good to him, and he wanted to keep them that way.

.

Following the shower, he got dressed and headed down to the kitchen where Natalie, Leland, and TK were all standing around watching the television. Word came through that President Stoddard had been injured but was still in command of the country, and that Vice President Cole was safe. Nobody had seen either gentleman though, so the rumor mill was still in full force. The "cop" side of both Leland and Adrian kicked in as they listened intently for any bit of evidence that might slip out during the news reports. Nothing of note.

After breakfast, Adrian stood up to leave for work, hugging Natalie and telling Leland and TK that he would be back early that afternoon. With their friends in town, his mother-in-law Peggy had taken the opportunity to fly back to California to be with Bobby for a week, but she was expected to return when Leland and TK went back home. Having her gone was both a relief and strangely uncomfortable at the same time. It was good not to have her curious eyes looking over and commenting on every aspect of their lives, but it was also good watching her and Natalie reconnect and watching her as she lived out the role of Grandma to the Monks two children.

Picking up the papers he had printed off at the office the night before, he kissed Natalie and headed towards the door.

"Now remember, we're going to have dinner with Leland, TK, Travis and Julie tonight. I'm making a crown roast. So, don't get caught up in what you're doing and come home late." Natalie said.

"I won't. I'll be home before 5 o'clock." He said, kissing her one more time.

"Be safe." She said.

"Me? When have you ever known me to be anything else?" he asked, jokingly.

Natalie threw him 'the look.'

"Love you." He said with a smile before shutting the door.

"Love you too." She said just after the door clicked shut.


As he drove into work, his mind was on what he printed off the previous evening. The information had been very informative about the traffic along the Mississippi in the days prior to the attack, and there was a definite pattern between what went on there and what went on in Boston harbor. But what of the Office Building? And what of the Motorcade? The only thing that he could think of is that the person who did it had to have a very high, almost an unheard of, amount of access that even someone second in command to the President would not just 'automatically' have. For example, Presidential movements, the placement of monitoring stations, and the timing of fire drills - that was all sensitive stuff and would be handled by different agencies. This made it all very difficult. Who? Why? What's next? Were still, as they originally were, the questions.


Adrian parked his car outside the courthouse and went in through the main entrance, taking the escalator up to his floor and walking into his office. On his desk were crumpled up papers, taken from the printer from the night before, and a note. "Please see me ASAP, Rod."

Ignoring the note for a moment, Adrian signed onto his computer only to find out that he no longer had access to the network drive or email system.

"What the…?" he thought. Picking up his phone, he called Brittany's number to see if she could return to the office and fix the computer again.

"Um, about that." She said over the receiver. "I sorta made a mistake when I gave you access to those things. You weren't supposed to be on that network."

"But, I need it for my research. Are you sure you can't come back up and hook it back up?" he asked.

"No. I got in trouble for doing it. I'm sorry. If you have any questions, you can call my superior, Tai Cheng. If you need anything else though... please…call me." She said, lowering her voice into a sexy whisper.

Adrian cringed his neck and shut his eyes, then put his hand over his face. It dawned on him that the young woman had a bit of a crush on him, and he was flattered, but – he was old enough definitely to be her father, and he suspected, technically old enough to be her grandfather – so the fact that he was a happily married man aside, the whole idea creeped him out. Looks like he would be dealing with Cheng from here on out.

"Thank you for your help, Brittany. I appreciate it." He said curtly.

"Any time, Mr. Monk. Any time at all." She said as he hung up.


After hanging up the phone, Adrian reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a packet of wipes. Removing one wipe, he cleaned off his hands and then wiped out the inside of his ears before running the wipe straight across his face as if to remove any sign of unsavoriness from the last conversation from his person before he could continue. Pulling out another wipe, he wiped down his phone and then threw both wipes away.

Picking up his phone, he called Rod.

Rod saw from his caller ID who was calling, picked up the phone and simply said.

"Not on the phone. In person, and in Zinn's conference room. Now." He said.

This unnerved Adrian since he naturally felt like Rod worked for him, though technically he worked for Zinn. He clearly was upset about something, but Adrian still didn't understand why. As he walked into Zinn's conference room, he quickly discovered that Rod wasn't the only one with the strangely hostile demeanor.

Sitting around the round table were Zinn, Rod Simpson, Eric Gaston, and Tai Cheng.

"Shut the door and take a seat." Zinn ordered.

Adrian complied, and took a seat opposite Zinn at the conference room table.

"W-what's this about?" he asked innocently.

"You printed off papers last night." Said Rod.

"Yes. I did." Adrian stated.

"Sensitive papers." Said Gaston.

"Not that I could see." Said Adrian. "It was just about some traffic…"

"STOP!" said Zinn. "I do not want you talking about what they were about. Bottom line is due to a mistake by one of our junior employees, you received access to data that you were not supposed to see. Now, it is my understanding that you're doing some sort of investigation on some matter on your own?"

"Yes, I'm looking at the…" Adrian said.

"STOP!" said Zinn. "You are looking at nothing. As of this moment, you're not to look at a thing, you're not to talk about a thing to ANYONE! You are to forget everything that you ever saw. Do I make myself clear?" Zinn asked.

Adrian replied. "I'm afraid that's not possible, sir. I…I have a photographic memory, and I forget nothing. And, once I am on the trail of something…well, it's just not possible."

"I see. Then, I'll have to suspend you from your position until the case is over." Said Zinn.

"What? Why? What did I do?" asked Adrian.

"Simpson, please escort Mr. Monk to his office to collect his things, and then make sure that he is escorted out of this facility. Monk, you are to hand in your badge and you will not get it back until the suspension is over. Is that clear?" Zinn said looking at Adrian.

Adrian looked at Zinn and then at Rod. It was clear that he wasn't interested in listening to Adrian's side of the story. "Fine. Let's go." Adrian said to Rod, walking towards the door.

"Monk. Before you go, please know you are being watched. Leave the case alone. Let us handle it." Said Zinn.

"See you around." Adrian responded angrily before leaving the room.


Adrian collected the photographs and the few items that he had brought to the office and put them in a box before being walked to the door. It was rather embarrassing, since most people looking at him thought he had been fired for some serious violation of DOJ policy. As to Zinn's threat that he was being watched, he thought, "let them watch." He had nothing to hide, and from what he could see things were only getting worse and not better having the agencies be the lone sources for investigation. No, this was a case where he really felt like he could truly be a service to his President and country, so he wasn't about to let any bureaucratic technicalities stand in his way.

With this in mind, rather than go home, he decided he would run down to the local newsroom and see if there might be any photographs or raw footage that they might have in the media pool from the Presidential motorcade incident. He was smart enough to do this under some sort of cover, pretending to be a journalist from San Francisco who was visiting town, had heard the story on the news, and being familiar with journalism knew that the local station would have access to the press pool of photos. Being busy in other matters, the station bought the story and allowed him to sit in a room with a computer hooked up to the media depository for the AP Press pool.

As he leafed through the photos on the computer, he held his hand up to the screen looking for any sign of a clue anywhere near the scene. The President's armored vehicle had been removed from the scene, with him in it, but in its place was various pieces of shrapnel and debris. Using the magnifier on the high resolution photographs, he zoomed in to an area next to the curve where he saw some pieces of metal that had writing on them. Zooming in closer, he used the Snipping tool from the computer to capture the item and printed it from the local printer. Looking at it closely, he could see that it was covered in Arabic.

الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الاشتراكية

He took the paper and folded it neatly in his hand and then closed down the Snipping tool and logged out of the system, careful to erase any search record that he had created – a technique he learned from back in the latter months of his work with the San Francisco PD.


Thanking the News corporation for their help, he walked down the street towards the parking lot and towards his car. As he walked, he phoned Natalie to let her know that he was coming home earlier than planned.

"Hello?" Natalie said, out of breath.

"Hi sweetheart, this is your husband." He said.

"I know who you are." She said with a smile.

"Listen, I was just leaving Channel 10 News and…" he said.

"That's nice honey. I'm so glad you called!" Natalie said, with excitement in her voice. "You have to hear this!"

"Natalie? What? Natalie? Hello?" he said, as he walked.

"Honey, I'm putting you on Speaker. Leland and TK are here as well." She said. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes." he answered.

"Alright." Said Natalie. "Leelee. Say it again." She said in soft baby talk. "Say what you said to mommy. Can you say...?"

After a few seconds, Adrian heard distinct as could be a very clear baby voice saying "Dadadadadada"

Natalie squealed in delight. "Yes! That's right! Your daddy is on the phone! Honey, did you hear that?"

Adrian was speechless and even forgot what he had called for, for a moment. "He said ... Dada!... I heard it, he said Dada!"

"Oh, honey. I'm so glad you got to hear that!" Natalie said. "No doubt about it! This is Adrian Monk's son! Talking at 4 months old! Well, I guess we can see where I rank!" she said, knowing that research has indicated that most babies do say Dada before they say Mama since due to the inseparable nature of the early bond with their mothers, the father is generally the first person that a baby identifies as being separate from himself.

"Great job, Monk! Training that kid to identify with us guys first!" said Leland, as he watched his namesake kicking his feet in his floor seat next to his sister who was cooing at TK.

"That's…amazing!" he said, standing in the middle of the sidewalk. "Absolutely amazing!"

"Amazing is a good word for it." she said. "Now, what's up?"

"Huh?" he asked.

"Did you call for something?" she asked.

"Oh…oh yeah. I just wanted to let you know that I'm coming home a little early." He said.

"Oh, okay. Anything wrong?" she asked.

"No. Not really... Well, sorta, but they'll get over it. Zinn got all bent out of shape today because they found out I had accessed some stuff about the crime scenes for the explosions and…" Adrian said.

Just then, a door opened to an SUV and two large muscular men jumped out.

Adrian stopped mid-sentence and spun around.

"And what?" Natalie asked.

"And…" Adrian said, turning quickly to walk towards his car. "And, I've got to go." He said, fishing for his car keys, but not hanging up his phone.

"Adrian?...Adrian?" Natalie said, with fear in her voice.

There was no answer. All they could hear was his feet picking up pace on the pavement and footsteps following close behind. As they heard him fumbling for his car keys, Leland yelled "Monk! Can you hear us? What's going on buddy?"

Next they heard Adrian say. "Who are you? What do you want?" and the sound of car keys dropping to the ground.

"You're coming with us." A male voice said, as they heard a car motor pull up nearby.

Next they heard the rustling of bodies and the shuffling and dragging of feet. The cell phone fell to the ground.

"Where are you taking me? Whuh-why are you blindfolding me?" Adrian said with alarm.

"Shut up and get in!" said the voice.

"Natalie! Natalie" he said, with the last word being muffled.

"Adrian!" Natalie yelled. "Adrian, say something!" she said as they heard a door shut and the screeching of tires speeding away on the hot asphalt followed by a sickening silence.


Natalie looked over to Leland, who had an equally horrified look on his face, and then went into full panic mode.
"We've got to go! Someone has him! We've got to get out of here! Where are the car keys? Keys! Keys! Help me find the #$ # keys!" Natalie said.

"Natalie! Calm…calm down!" Leland said. "You can't go like this. I'll go. You need to stay with the babies."

"I can't stay here! They have Adrian! Leland, THEY HAVE ADRIAN!" she said, grabbing him by the arms and beginning to hyperventilate.

"I'll stay." Said TK. "I'll watch the babies."

"Alright, fine. Get your shoes on and lets go." Leland answered.


In the car, Leland turned to Natalie and asked where Adrian's work was.

"It's along the Harbor, but that's not where he was. He stated he was just leaving Channel 10 News. That's on Arbor street. I'll show you how to get there." She stated.

Arriving at the station, they took out on foot and walked from the station down the sidewalk, spotting Monk's car in the parking lot. His car keys were still lying on the ground and his cell phone rested against a curve a few feet away. A few feet away from that, was his shoe.

"Definite signs of a struggle." Leland stated as he looked along the lot. "Tire marks here say that they turned right. We need to call this in."

Picking up his shoe, Natalie felt weak and afraid. She put her hand up to her head and began to cry. Looking around, she saw something on Adrian's windshield. Walking over to it, she picked it up.

"Leland?" She said.

"What? What is it?" he asked.

"It's...I think it's a note." she said, taking it out of an envelope and unfolding it.

As Leland stood over her shoulder she read.

Dear Mrs. Monk, Please do not contact the authorities. Your husband is safe and will be kept so. Do not worry. We will be in touch.

"Unsigned." Said Leland, putting his arm on Natalie's shoulder. "What has he gotten himself into now?"

"What does this mean? Leland, I am frightened." She stated. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, we can't call the President. He's a little indisposed right now. And, we can't call the authorities. I say, we go back to the house and think it through." Leland said.

"But… I have to know he is okay." She said.

"Natalie, they said he would be kept safe, and right now we have nothing to indicate that they aren't telling the truth. If they wanted to hurt him, they could have easily done so. Not sure what they do want from him, but right now I suggest we go home and try not to worry while we wait for their call." Leland stated.

Natalie said nothing, but lowered her head and climbed back into the passenger side of Leland's car. It was all she could do to stay calm. Everything within her was a rattled nervous mess. She was sick to her stomach and shaky. Adrian's car would have to be picked up later. For now, she would not rest until she heard his voice again and knew, in fact, that he was okay.