Mr. MONK takes a BREAK
Part 2Adrian Monk was organizing his living room, when his phone rang. Once. Twice. Thrice. FOUR!
He quickly picked up the phone and placed in gently onto his ear. "Hello?" He asked.
"Monk!"
"Natalie?"
"Yes. Hey…umm...could Julie and I come over?"
"Why are you even asking? Why wouldn't I want you over here?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows at the odd question.
"Okay. I was just making sure. I'm coming."
"Alright. See you when you get here."
Adrian slowly placed the phone on its base. He grabbed the duster he was once holding, and began to finish what he was doing. He put the duster away and then took out the vacuum cleaner for the 5th time and vacuumed again, thinking about the dust particles he just got all over the place.
He knew in about 15 minutes time, Natalie would be here, so he placed the vacuum cleaner next to the couch and went to get snacks. He opened up the cabinets and took out cookies. He bought them just for Natalie and her daughter. He wouldn't eat them. He tore 2 paper towels off the roll so they could set the cookies on them. Brilliant idea. He smiled. Organized snacking.
Walking back into the living room, he sat down on his favorite chair and waited patiently for the girls. He left the vacuum out to get the crumbs out of his perfect floor.
He began to get bored, and the lamp beside him was crooked, so he fixed it. Again and again and again and again. He was about to touch it a few more times when he heard knocking. They were here. He quickly got up from his chair and answered the door. Natalie and Julie's hopeful smiles greeted him. He smiled back.
"Come on in." Adrian said happily. He moved aside to the two of them in. He shut the door behind them. He grinned as he heard Julie gasp because she has never been to his place before. Adrian turned to see her looking around in awe.
"Wow! Mr. Monk. This is even cleaner than our bathroom you cleaned yesterday!" She exclaimed.
"Thanks Julie. But your bathroom would have been much cleaner if your mother didn't make me stop." He glanced over at Natalie. She was staring at him
Natalie and Julie walked over to the sofa and sat down carefully, trying not to move the pillows. Adrian approved. He remained standing.
"So, why are you here?" Adrian wondered.
"Spiders and roaches." Julie piped up, still admiring the room. Adrian cringed as Natalie nudged her daughter.
"What do you mean?" Adrian questioned.
Natalie turned to him. "We had to evacuate the house because they are spraying to get rid of any possible spiders or roaches." She explained.
Adrian wrung his hands together and looked up at the vacuumed ceiling. He looked at the corners, which were clean of cob webs…or spider webs. Natalie stared at this familiar behavior. Adrian made a mental note to call the exterminator as soon as possible.
Natalie smiled. She knew what he was thinking. He was going to call the exterminator soon: just in case. She shook her head when Julie suddenly began talking.
"Mom. What is Mr. Monk doing?" She asked.
"He's thinking sweetie."
"About what?"
"Exterminators." Natalie whispered.
"How do you know?" Julie asked, still staring at Adrian.
"Because…"
"I have to call the exterminator." Adrian said, still staring at the ceiling as though spiders were going to pop out any given time.
Natalie looked at her daughter and made an I-told-you face. Julie began to giggle.
Adrian quickly walked over to his phone. He picked it up and dialed a memorized phone number. Natalie and Julie watched Adrian with amusement.
"Yes, hello," Adrian began. "This is…Adrian Monk."
A pause.
"I need an exterminator over here to kill any possible spiders and roaches."
A pause.
"Okay. Thank you. Bye." He hung up the phone and smiled at the two girls on his couch.
"Don't worry. They will be here next Tuesday."
"Adrian…you didn't give them your address."
Adrian shrugged. "I don't have to. They know me. Relax." Adrian said, like it was the most obvious thing in the whole world.
Natalie and Julie stared at each other as Adrian walked into his kitchen.
"The companies of Sierra Springs, Lever 2000 and the Exterminator are probably richer than any other company because of you!"
"Thank you." He answered.
Natalie got up and walked into the kitchen with Monk. He turned and grinned at her.
"How many cookies do you want?"
Natalie looked. Oreos.
"Four."
Adrian placed four cookies on top of each other.
"How many does Julie want?"
"Julie! How many cookies do you want?" Julie asked her daughter.
"Six!" She called back.
Adrian placed six cookies on top of each other. Natalie was about to take them when Adrian quickly stopped her.
"Wait!" He yelled, grabbing the top cookie and bringing it over to the trashcan.
"Adrian! What are you doing?" She said, staring.
He stopped and looked at Natalie. Strange. His pupils were oddly dilated. He held up a broken cookie.
"It's cracked."
"So what?" Natalie said, marching over to Adrian and snatching the cookie out of his hands. Adrian stood there dumbfounded. Then she shrugged. Dr. Kroger told him to let other people alone if they don't care about something that he does. He was still having a bit of trouble with that bit of advice.
Natalie took the cookies and walked into the living room.
"Thank you." They said happily.
Adrian smiled. He loved making them happy. "No problem." He called, putting the box of Oreos away carefully.
"Adrian, do you have any milk?"
Milk. The word seemed to echo in Adrian's head. He wanted to ignore them. He didn't feel like taking the milk out of the refrigerator.
"Mr. Monk?" Natalie called after the silence.
Adrian opened the fridge and grabbed two bottles of milk. He walked into the living room and tossed them to Natalie and Julie. They caught them.
He sat on his chair and looked at the blank television.
After Natalie and Julie was finished, they threw their trash away and came back into the living room to find Adrian already vacuuming where they were sitting and then the whole living room floor.
When he was finished, he put the vacuum back into the closet where it belonged, closed the door, touched the doorknob and returned to his chair.
"Mr. Monk, could I watch cartoons please?" Julie asked hopefully.
"Sure, Julie. Here." Adrian gave her the remote, which was in a plastic bag.
"Thank you…" Julie said, observing the bagged remote control.
"Monk, could I talk to you for a minute?"
"Uh oh," Adrian said under his breath. "Sure."
The two of them walked to Adrian's room. It was just as clean as the rest of the house, if not, cleaner. There was a small picture of Trudy on his nightstand. There were actually about 10 different pictures of her all over the room.
Natalie sighed. She still could not figure out why someone would want to kill such a beautiful woman. Adrian often said it was his fault, or the car bomb was meant for him.
Natalie stopped her thoughts. "I need to talk to you."
Adrian blinked. "You are talking to me."
"This is important."
"Oh, no!" Adrian exclaimed. He began to wring his hands together and pace around the room.
"Adrian, look at me."
He ignored her and kept pacing.
"Adrian!"
He stopped abruptly and stared at Natalie. His eyes were wide and fearful.
"Please don't leave me." He whispered as his eyes began to fill with tears. Adrian was getting very emotional this week. Maybe it was because this week was another anniversary of Trudy's death.
Natalie gasped at his behavior.
"Adrian, no! I'm not going to leave you!" She walked up to him and gave him a friendly hug. He immediately stiffened up, but after a while, he loosened back up. Natalie hated it whenever Adrian got his feelings hurt. He would try to hide it, but it often didn't work.
Adrian swayed on the spot. Then he collapsed onto his neatly made bed.
"Oh." He sounded embarrassed. Natalie sat down next to him, and he turned to look at her.
"You just haven't paid me for two weeks."
"Oh…well how much do I owe you?"
"412 dollars."
Adrian quickly jumped up and grabbed his checkbook. He opened it and began to write slowly. He tore the check out of the book and shoved it into Natalie's hand.
"I promise it won't bounce. Just don't-don't leave me Natalie. Please."
"I won't."
"MOM! MR. MONK!" Julie screamed.
Adrian and Natalie jumped and ran Julie to only find her watching the news. They took a sigh of relief to find out she wasn't hurt.
"Listen." She said, turning the volume up.
"She was 8 months pregnant when she did last night. Captain Stottlemeyer of the SFPD is investigating the scene."
The shot turned to Stottlemeyer. "We are a bit stumped at the moment, but we do have a suspect. Even though he denies everything. He's a bit…uh…speechless at the moment."
"Mom, it's not far from here." Julie said turning in her seat to look at her mother and her boss.
Natalie looked at Adrian.
"Sounds like they need your help."
"Yeah." Adrian said, wringing his hands and staring at the television. Was the baby okay? They didn't mention that. The baby was all Adrian could think about.
"Adrian?"
Julie turned off the TV.
"Let's go." Adrian said.
The trio grabbed everything they needed and hurried out the door to Natalie's car.
A/N: Okay…hope you guys really liked the chapter. Now on to the responses to my story…not a lot…but hey…at least you guys like it. That's all that matters!
Bob: I'm really really glad you like my story. Hope you like the rest of it too!
Rach: Thanks for reading! I like the old theme too…it's really cool. I like to hum it…drives people crazy!