The next morning, Natalie called the FBI and told them that Adrian would not be into the office because he was sick. She wouldn't be in either. He wasn't actually sick, but it sounded better than telling them that her husband had a body that was wracked with pain because as a man in his late 50s he decided to pretend he was in his late 20s and run up 50 flights of stairs. Every muscle in his body throbbed with excruciating pain, or at least excruciating pain in Adrian's world, and she knew in her heart that she was in for a long day of taking care of three babies.

It began as soon as she had hung up the receiver.

"Natalie! Oh, Gosh-Natalienatalienatalie! Come! Come quick!" he said, laying stiff as a board in bed.

As she ran to the bedroom she asked "What? What's the matter?"

"Natalie! I…I can't feel my feet!" he whined. "I…I think that the swelling is so bad in my legs that it has cut off circulation to my feet. Quick! I need another Advil!" he said, beginning to raise his arm but groaning in severe pain from the action.

"Adrian, you have already had three. You shouldn't take any more right now." She said, walking over and fluffing his pillow, much to his consternation.

"I…I can handle it! Just…just give me another Advil! Just one!" he said, reaching out his hand.

"No!" she said. "The side affects are too serious."

"Serious! Natalie, what could be more serious than having the blood cut off from your limbs. If we don't address this now, tissue death will set in and then gangrene! I…I could die!" he gasped.

"You're not going to die!" she said, rolling her eyes.

"I could. I literally could die." He said.

"Adrian, If you're in this kind of pain you need to see a doctor."

"Noooooo…..no doctor! Don't need to see any doctor!" he said. "How about Aspirin? That's not Advil."

"Same class of drugs. Would not be safe to mix." She said. "I'll bring you an ice back."
"Ice pack! I don't need an ice pack. Ice packs are too cold!" he complained.

"Ice packs help relieve pain and decrease inflammation." She said.

"Motrin! I think I saw some Motrin in the medicine cabinet." He suggested.

"Same class, sorry. Come on, just let me get you the ice. I promise it will help."

"Too cold." He said.

"I'll bring you a blanket." She said

"Noooo….no ice! Too cold. It's too cold! "

"Well what then?" she asked.

He thought for a moment and then opened his eyes wide at his idea. "I know! Go over and get my wallet."

"Your wallet?" she asked.

"Yeah. Over there on the dresser." He said.

Natalie walked over and picked up his wallet.

"Okayyyyyyy, I have your wallet. What now?" she asked.

"Get in there and pull out a ten…no a twenty." He said.

She complied with the request. "Alright? What now?" she asked.

"I need you to go buy me something." He said softly, motioning for her to come over.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Medical Marijuana! Get me some medical marijuana!" he whispired.

"Adrian!" Natalie exclaimed, beginning to laugh.

"It's not funny! People say it helps pain. Go on out and see if you can find me some reefer."

"No! I'm not going to go try and buy you pot!" she said laughing at the request and taking his wallet and twacking him in the foot with it.

"Owwww!" he yelled.

"Look! A miracle! Feeling to the feet is restored!" she said, with a knowing smirk.

Adrian gave her his infamous glare, but she wouldn't budge.

"I'll be back in the few minutes with the ice!" she said, feeling sorry for him but enjoying every moment as well.


With Adrian out of the office, Garrison Kennedy stayed close to home base, working in his office most of the day. He gave the appearance that he was working on Sharon's case. In reality, he was using special software to bypass the security measures of the agency's system so that he could install keylogging software on the server- specifically in the user folders of Associate Deputy Director Monk and Director Abramson. His obvious goal was to stay in the loop about what was being said and searched for, and to thwart it. If all went well, then his team could stay one step ahead of Monk and his crew until the grand finale of their crime spree.

He waited until every soul had gone home before executing the second part of his plan. As the last person to leave for the day, it was up to him to close the suite. This would entail checking to see that the offices were all secured and then locking the grand suite itself before heading downstairs and signing out with the guard and going home.

He waited for a full half hour to make sure that everyone was indeed gone and would be unlikely to return for some forgotten item, then he made his way through the darkness into the Director's office. With just a small flashlight beam illuminating the dark room, he made his way over to a floor lamp and with gloved hand, gently unscrewed the chrome and brass finial which secured the metal lampshade to the stand. On the end of the finial, he screwed in a small listening device, fashioned for that particular lamp. Finding the make and model of the lamp was easy because the FBI didn't make interior decorating of its executive offices a budgetary priority. Each office was suited with the same basic hardware, desks, chairs, shelves and other furniture. Only in the Director's office would one find additional items such as a television set and an en suite bathroom complete with a large glass shower.

After bugging the director's suite, he moved over to Monk's office. Stepping into the office, he made his way through the darkness over to Monk's desk. Feeling around the edge of the desk, he made his way to the back and then got on his hands and knees behind the chair, feeling along the wall until he reached the outlet. Carefully, he sat on the soft beige carpet behind the desk, holding the flashlight with his chin. Using a small screwdriver, he unscrewed the beige plastic two plug outlet from the wall and laid it on the ground. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a plastic bag containing a new receptacle to switch out the old. This device was different, however, in that in place of one of the grounding holes, there was a small voice activated spy camera.

He carefully put the receptacle in place and screwed it into plate. Gathering his material, he grabbed onto the edge of Monk's desk and pulled himself up off of the ground – bumping Monk's chair as he did so. Knowing how persnickety that Monk could be, he put the chair back in its place and left the room. His team was now set and he had done his job – staying alive for yet another day.


By early afternoon, Natalie was seriously considering strangling her husband. He was in a foul mood, arguing and barking orders and acting as if his concerns were the only ones that existed in the entire world. In other words, he was typical Adrian when he felt bad. This in turn put her in a foul mood, which she didn't dare show.

Preacher called at 1:30 PM to check on him and let Natalie know that he was going to go see his nephew, who worked at George Washington hospital, around 5:00 PM to possibly get Adrian some stronger medication. When Adrian heard this, he demanded that Preacher stop work immediately and go to the nephew that very minute, in spite of the fact that the Captain was in the middle of handling a domestic dispute that had turned into a possible hostage situation. Naturally, Preacher ignored the request and Natalie was treated to a monologue by Adrian of how nobody could possibly understand the pain he was in and how she should just take the babies and go and let him die in misery.

At around 3:00 PM, things got even worse. First Lee began to cry and would not stop, which was uncharacteristic. About 20 minutes into Lee crying, Abby started. She felt their little heads and noticed they both felt warm. Taking their temperatures, she determined they had a fever, so she fished through their diaper bag to find a bottle of liquid Tylenol to administer to them. Unfortunately, it was empty.

She called Preacher on his cell phone to ask him to get some medicine for the babies when he saw his nephew, but there was no answer. So, she called the pharmacy and asked them to have some ready for her for when she went through the drive-thru window later that evening. They told her that without a prescription she would have to come into the store. She thanked them and hung up her cellphone and then called Julie for a little sane conversation to help her calm down.

Preacher called her about 5:15 PM and let her know that his nephew Arnold Armstrong had given Monk a prescription for a non-narcotic muscle relaxant that would not make him loopy but would help him to sleep throughout the evening. He had bent the rules slightly in prescribing it, and made Preacher promise that if Monk was any worse in the morning that they would bring him in to see him. The moment he arrived home, Natalie brought the medication up to Adrian and administered the required dose. Within 15 minutes, he was out and she breathed a sigh of relief.

She came downstairs and saw that Preacher had made himself a sandwich and was sitting in his recliner watching the evening news.

"Thank you." She said. "You saved a life tonight."

"Yours?" he asked.

"No, Adrian's." she answered with an exhausted smile. "Listen, Lee and Abby have come down with something and are running a little fever. I'm out of their medication and need to run to the drug store for a few minutes to pick some up. Would you mind staying put and watching them, and Adrian, in case they need anything?"

Preacher started to put down his half-eaten sandwich and began to stand. "I wish I had known while I was out." He said. "You should have called."

"I tried to, but you obviously were busy with more pressing matters." She said.

"Well, I can go for you now." He stated.

"That's okay. I will only be a few minutes. I need to get out and get some fresh air. It's been a hard day." She stated.

"Alright." He said. "Be careful. You're not in the safest of neighborhoods at night."

"Oh, I will be. I'll make sure that I'm not followed, and will be back before you know it."


Natalie walked out to the street and got into her car and adjusted the mirrors. Looking around she made absolutely sure that there was nobody around before she started the ignition and began to head East towards the store. Keeping her cell phone with her the entire time, she walked confidently and observantly into the store, into the pain reliever/ fever reducer aisle and picked out exactly what she needed to get. As she headed towards the checkout, she picked up a box of chocolate and some snacks to pig out on for when she went home. Checking out, she walked back out to her car, observing the lot the entire way. She quickly unlocked her door and climbed into the car and started the ignition. As she began to accelerate, she felt the cold hard steel of a 9mm semi-automatic pistol against her neck. She stiffened.

"Good evening, Mrs. Monk." Said a male voice from the back seat. "Don't worry. I don't have any intention of hurting you, as long as you behave yourself. I just came to deliver a message."

"Who…who are you" she said, as her heart began to race and her eyes widened with increasing fear.

"My name is Sammy. Sammy Miller." He said.

Fear turned to terror as she recognized him as the man who had killed Sharon Grier.

"Ssssssammy Miller?" she said. "What…what do you want?"

"I need you to drive, ma'am." He said. "Don't make any sudden moves. I come in peace, and I want it to stay that way."

Natalie did as he said and began to accelerate.

"Now, I know that you and your husband work for the FBI, and they are investigating the murder of Sharon Grier and the recent bombings across the nation. I need you to know that my organization is responsible for both. We are the New America People's Liberation Front. We are many, and we are all around the country. We are dissatisfied with the way that this Republic has been run and we will be doing whatever is necessary to bring the change that is required to make it into what it needs to be. You may have noticed, we have thus far avoided civilian casualties. Unfortunately, there have been a few, but unlike before we will not let this dissuade us from our goals. Complete domination of the United States is our goal. Our next target will be in New York City and should be kicking off in about ten minutes. You can not stop it. Nothing you or your husband can do will stop it. I suggest strongly therefore that you leave it alone. Go back to your home in Boston, or even go back to San Francisco and enjoy your life with your husband and those two beautiful children. Forget about D.C. It is a lost cause. Now, turn left here." He said. "Take me down by the river."

She complied. "Why are you involving me in all of this?"

"Because, my boss has a certain affection for your family. He knows how brilliant your husband is and does not want him interfering. Trust me, if he wanted me to kill you, he would not hesitate. The very fact that we are having this conversation…turn right…shows that he means you no harm. If we can do this peacefully…" he said.

"Peacefully? You already killed Grier!" she said.

"Grier had long expressed support for our revolutionary goals and she had done a whole lot for us through the years. But, she was getting sloppy and became a liability. She had to go. That's how it goes. I'm sure you understand." He answered.

Natalie was silent.

"Alright, drop me off right here. You are to call no one until you reach Armstrong's house. You are to give your children their medicine and check on your sleeping husband. You will say nothing until nine o'clock tonight, or our offer of peace is over and you will experience warfare unlike anything you have ever imagined. Do I make myself clear?" he said.

"Yes." She said, looking in the rearview mirror at his hardened face.

"Oh, and in case you doubt that we are everywhere, we have people in the same building that Julie lives in at Harvard. And, we have additional people stationed in San Francisco where your parents and Mr. Monk's brother lives. We can make this very painful, or it can go nice and easy. Your decision. Choose wisely." He said, as he opened the back door and walked through the night towards the river and disappeared into the darkness.


Natalie threw the car into reverse and made her way back to Preacher's house by 8:15 PM. Preacher was glued to the television set watching news from New York where a large explosion had occurred inside the New York stock exchange causing widespread damage to the building but no suspected casualties since it happened after the bell had rung for the day.

Terrified, she ran upstairs to check on the children and Adrian and shook violently as she tried to pour out the recommended dosage for the children. Looking at the clock, she saw it was only 8:20 and knew she had to calm down. Willing herself to pull it together, she gave the baby's their medicine and then went to check on Adrian who was still in a deep sleep. He finally seemed comfortable, which was the one relief of the night. She waited quietly as the second hands moves slowly across the face of the clock. It seemed like an eternity.

Finally, at 9:00 PM, she called Preacher upstairs and woke Adrian up.

Preacher entered the bedroom, a little put out that she had pulled him away from the coverage, but all ill feelings dropped when he saw her face.

"Preacher, Adrian, we need to talk. Something happened when I went to the market tonight."