A/N: For Derek. I hope Tiff comes around.
He sometimes comes over to straighten up her house. He decided long ago that while she was a very helpful, she was not as clean as he would like and thought he might do stuff for her once in a while. You know, kind of show her what he thought she should be doing... She would talk -- mostly about whatever was going wrong, or whatever he had screwed up, or whoever she was dating -- and he would stack magazines. Alphabetize movies. Dust.
He tried to vacuum once, when she was talking about some guy named Rob. She didn't think it was too kind.
She's talking to him. It's hard to pay attention to what she's saying, but he likes the sound of her voice. Of course it's... well, nasally and her accent grates on his nerves. But, he's used to it. Her voice will never change.
He's straightening the Fleming family coffee table, placing things by color and size as Sharona speaks. Book, book, book... TV remote. Paper from Benjy's school.
"...and then she said..."
An open notebook.
He picks up the notebook very carefully, wondering what's written on its pages. He finds it hard to help himself -- ever since he was told that curiosity killed the cat, he's tried to figure out what weapon was used.
The writing isn't Sharona's. He has hers memorized -- loopy and curly, not always neat, neglecting lower-case A's. The letters on the lined page, however, are jumpy and angular.
He guesses it's Benjy's.
He's about to set it back down, ready once again to mind his own business when something catches his eye:
Mr. Monk and Mom are being weird again.
He looks up from the notebook, his gaze now directed at his assistant. She's still talking, oblivious to the fact that he's found something a bit more interesting than the conversation she overheard at the drycleaners.
"...Sharona?" he says.
She stops talking and gives him a look. Not the Look, but a look he knows well all the same. She raises an eyebrow, squints, her lips get... tight and it's very hard for him not to be a little scared. He's never sure what's going on inside her head, which never ceases to unnerve him. One day, she had been perfectly calm. In fact, she hadn't been annoyed with him the entire morning... But then she burst into tears for no (as far as he could see) reason. She cried on his shoulder for three hours.
"Yes, Adrian?" She's still got the look on her face. He hopes she doesn't hurt him or -- or anything.
"I found... something." She raises her other eyebrow. "Something of Benjy's -- er... you should read it."
She takes it from him, muttering something about something he can't understand because she's muttering. God, he hates muttering. He hates it when she mutters, because he always feels like she's complaining about him.
"Oh, my God." she says, looking up at him. "This is Benjy's? He thinks we're... that you and I are..."
"Weird." he supplies. "You know... you should have a -- a talk with him, or something, about respecting his elders..."
She gives him another look. "Adrian... how much of this did you read?"
"What, there's more?"
Sharona closes the notebook and sits on it.
"No."