Leland awoke from the noise and looked at the clock.

"4:37? Who the heck is calling me at 4:37 in the morning?" Stottlemeyer said as he reached for the phone. "Hello?" He said.

"Is this Stottlemeyer?"

"Who's askin?"

"Just shut up and listen cop! I want you to call off the investigation!"

"Listen pal I don't know who you are and I don't care who you are but there is no way I am going to call off any case just because some idiot calling me at 4 o'clock in the morning says to."

"Alright copie, be a wise guy. But if I read in the papers that you still haven't called off the case then Rachel's dead!"

Then the line went dead. Leland held out the phone in front of him and looked at it. "What the heck is going on here?"

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Monk and Natalie walked into the precinct and found Stottlemeyer and Randy. Disher was taking notes on all that he heard from his captain.

"Captain we really need to talk to you." Natalie said as she and Monk approached them.

"Hold on Natalie." Stottlemeyer said waving his hand as if to dismiss the interruption.

Natalie turned and gave Monk a 'help me' look. Adrian nodded and walked up to Leland.

"Captain, I really think you should listen to Natalie."

Stottlemeyer noted that Monk was using his 'serious face' so he nodded and turned to look at Natalie.

"Ok and while he does that I need you to take a look at these notes the Captain was giving me." Randy said as he handed the note pad to Monk. Adrian began to read through them as Natalie explained what happened.

"Last night I was at home with Julie and she was watching T.V. when I got a phone call from Mr. Monk asking me to come over…"

Monk could feel a sharp pain of guilt as he heard his least favorite part of the story from Natalie. He didn't know if he could ever get over the fact that it was his fault the Julie was missing in the first place. Adrian slowly let his eyes fall back to the note pad in his hands as Natalie continued.

"…So I asked Julie if she wanted to come but then she said that she didn't want to because her movie was almost over and it was Forever Young and she loves that movie because she loves Mel Gibson and he's in that mov-"

"Natalie finish your story." Stottlemeyer commanded.

"Right sorry." She said as she took a deep breath. "Ok…when I came back she was gone."

Stottlemeyer turned his head but still looked at her out of the corner of his eye with his eyebrows down. "What do you mean she was gone?"

"I mean when I came back the door was open and the T.V. was on but Julie wasn't there!" Natalie said as she began to cry.

Monk brought up his head from the pad and looked at his friend in tears. He set the pad on the nearest desk and walked over to Natalie. He grabbed her on both shoulders and brought his head down so he could see her face though she was trying to cover it with her hands. "Natalie?" He began. "Everything's gonna be alright. Right?" no answer "Right?" He pressed.

"…………Right." Natalie finally said through the tears.

Adrian brought out his white handkerchief and started brushing away the tears that had all gathered at the bottom of her chin and in streaks down her red cheeks.

"Monk." Randy interrupted. "What did you think about the call?"

"What call?" Natalie asked as she sniffed in a couple of times.

"Oh some lunatic called me up at 4 o'clock this morning threatening me"

"What did he want?" Natalie questioned.

"He wanted me to close a case. The problem is that he didn't specify which case he wanted called off." Leland said.

"What else did he say?" Monk inquired.

"He said that if I didn't then Rachel would be dead."

"Do you know anyone named Rachel?" Adrian asked.

"No that's the thing. I don't know who the heck he was talking about."

That was when Natalie remembered something. "OH my gosh!" she said with a shaky voice.

Monk turned his head and looked at her "What is it?"

"Rachel!.…That's Julie!"

"What?" the three men said in unison.

"Julie and I had a bunch of safety plans and I always told her that if she was in trouble and a bad person ever asked her what her name is…I always told her never to give her real name and to always say that its Rachel. It's Julie! That creep has Julie!" Natalie grabbed her purse and started quickly walking towards the door.

Monk, Randy and Stottlemeyer all looked at each other then quickly followed Natalie.

"Natalie where are you going?" Disher asked as he and his captain along with Monk tried to catch up to the woman ahead of them.

"I have to find her!" Natalie said.

"Natalie your going about this the wrong way…look come back to my office and we can help you look for her the right way." Stottlemeyer said. By this time they had all caught up and were now trying to keep the same pace as Natalie.

"Natalie you need to calm down." Monk said.

"No Adrian! Don't tell me to calm down! You don't have the right to tell me to calm down! Ok? You've never been a parent, you don't know what it feels like to loose a child!"

Monk stopped walking as he heard this and watched the rest of them walk away as he said. "D-d-don't say that…"

Natalie, Leland and Randy all stopped and turned to look at Monk.

Monk shifted his wait uncomfortably and cocked his head. "………..That's…that's…not true."

"What?" Stottlemeyer asked as he walked slowly towards Monk.

"…I…I had a child………once… a long time ago."

"Tommy doesn't count Mr. Monk," Natalie said with rolling eyes.

"I'm not talking about Tommy." Monk said with his eyes closed and rubbing his head.

"So wait your telling me that you had a kid that I never knew about?" Leland asked with frowning eyebrows.

Monk nodded. "I'm telling you that I had…a child that n-no one knew about."

"What are we talking here, out of wedlock?" Randy asked.

"No of course not." Adrian said shaking his head and hiking his shoulder.

"Ok so where is this kid now." Natalie asked.

Monk said nothing for a while...…then he said. "West park cemetery"

Stottlemeyer sighed as Randy shook his head and looked at the ground. "Oh Mr. Monk I am so sorry." Natalie said as she reached behind him and rubbed his back.

"How'd it happen?" Randy asked.

Monk looked at him and said, "car bomb."

"Trudy's?"

Monk nodded.

"Monk that's impossible. We ran tests, she was in the car alone." Stottlemeyer stated unbelievingly.

"Well yes…and no." Monk said

"How old was it?"

Monk looked at the ground and waited a very long time before saying anything. "...……………….5 days since conceived."

No one said anything for a while, as Monk was feeling very uncomfortable he decided that he would rather have not said anything.

"So to correct your previous statement, yes I have been a parent and yes I know what it feels like to loose one." Monk said as he pushed his way through the small group of friends in front of him and kept walking.