Ok guys, I am really sorry it took me so long to update. I had the worst case of writers block I have ever had. It lasted about a week and a half. all I had was the first four paragraphs (if thats even how you spell that dumb word), and I couldnt think of anything else to write! It was very mind boggleing. I finally thought of somthing (it actually came to me in a dream...sounds so whistful...not really. But I really did dream it), and thought it took me a while to think of...I am pleased with how it turned out.

ON TO THE CHAPPY!

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His face was completely solemn, though it showed no emotion. His eyes were fixed on one thing…it was a picture of his late wife. A single tear slid down his cheek as he continued to show no form of emotion in his face. His eyes softened as they fell to rest on his wedding band. It was that time again, the time that happens every night or so. It's when he contemplates whether or not he should take it off. He knew that he had been married to a dead woman for too long, he knew that the time of letting go had passed quite some time ago. He knew that this was something he would have to do sooner or later. Yes…it was time. With eyes full of determination, Monk stretched his fingers on his left hand apart, he slowly placed his right hand's forefinger and thumb around the ring. With lips pinched shut, he slowly began the slide the ring off of his finger. He got it passed the first knuckle…and stopped. He looked up at the picture in front of him. He saw his wife standing there, in her wedding dress, with a look of reassurance in her eyes, as though she knew all along that he would one day have to do this while looking at that exact photo. He nodded at the picture and slowly continued to take off the ring.

It was just about to pass over his nail when all of the sudden, his front door opened and in walked Natalie. He lost his courage a quickly slid the ring back into its normal position. It was too soon. He wasn't ready. The fact that he had to do it sooner or later was still very real to him, he just preferred it to be later instead of sooner. He dried his single tear and stood to greet Natalie.

Their first kiss was still a vivid memory in the minds of both Natalie and Monk. Though it was awkward in the beginning, Adrian secretly craved for it to happen again. But at the same time, he reluctantly shuddered at the thought of Natalie's mouth touching his. The mouth was the number one place to find germs on the human body. And even though kissing Natalie was one of the single, most enjoyable things Adrian had felt in a VERY long time, the thought of doing it again made him nearly spring for the nearest toothbrush.

He hated feeling that way. He wanted to be a normal man, where he could kiss who ever he wanted, without having this feeling of horror that he may get sick and die from it. It was moments like those that he couldn't find the 'blessing' part of his 'blessing and a curse' thing. He wished that he could be charming, lift Natalie into the air, and kiss her softly. He wished he could give his love freely to whom ever he pleased. But he couldn't. He could never do things like that freely. For the demons that haunted him had forbidden those kinds of feelings and actions. Those were the simple pleasures that men like him had been denied. Even though it may be so easy for other men, love would never come easily for Adrian Monk. It felt as though he were prisoner of something, as though he was living his life in chains that were not visible to the human eye. For the few years that he had had Trudy, he cherished them. He felt as though he had beat the system or something. Like he had tricked those who haunted him. When she died, it was as though the party was over and he was sent back to his invisible chains. If ever he found the key to those chains, he knew he would run strait for Natalie.

"Hey Mr. Monk. I brought in your mail. I hope that's ok." She said as she walked over to Monk and held out the small stack of envelopes.

"Yeah, that's fine Natalie. Thank you." Adrian grabbed his mail from her hand and walked over to his desk. He opened the drawer and retrieved his letter opener.

Natalie watched as he carefully opened his mail. "Adrian?" She asked.

"hmm?"

"I just wanted to say…I just…wanted to say…that I really appreciate you doing this. You know, looking for my kid and all. I know you have a lot of other things you probably need to be doing…so I just wanted to say thank you for doing all of this."

Monk turned around and faced Natalie. He had a strange look in his eyes, one as if he was confused about something. "I don't understand. Why are you thanking me?"

"Because, I know that this probably isn't at the top of your to-do-list. I mean…you're the most famous detective in the country! I know that you have other cases to work on that are more important then this."

It was at this point that Natalie's face began to scrunch up and tears began to slide down her face. "…So I just…wanted…to say thank you"

Monk set down his letters and walked over to Natalie. He reached into his jacket and retrieved his handkerchief; he then tilted Natalie's face upward so he could rid her face from the tears that gathered on it. "Natalie," he said, "you don't have to thank me for anything. I'm not doing this to earn thanks; I'm doing it for Julie. I want to see her home as much as you do. And you're wrong. There is no other case more important to me right now. I swore to find Julie, and I intend to…not because I have to…but because I want to…I need to."

"I miss her." Natalie exclaimed as she practically fell into the hug that she so desperately needed. "Its not enough to just look at her pictures anymore, Mr. Monk. I need to be able to feel her. I need to be able to hug her. I need to be able to make everything better for her. She needs me, Mr. Monk. I can feel it. The other day when my alarm went off, I got out of bed and yelled towards her room that she had to get up or she would be late for school. It took me a couple seconds before I realized that I was talking to no one cause Julie wasn't there to talk to. No parent should ever have to realize that."

Monk sighed and gently shook his head in agreement. "No Natalie, they shouldn't." Monk found himself gently stroking her back at she wept into his jacket. Adrian remembered the pain he felt when he heard that he had lost a child. He imagined the horror it would be to know that your child was somewhere out there, alone, maybe dead. He considered the pain on one hand, and the fear on the other, Monk couldn't decide which would be worse. But one thing was for sure, He didn't want Natalie to hurt any longer, he had to do something to bring Julie home faster.

As Natalie gave yet another sob into his shoulder, Monk allowed a tear to slide down each cheek (which was good. He would have hated if only one of his eyes cried, cause then it would be…you know, uneven.). He placed both hands around Natalie's face and pulled her away from him. He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Natalie, I swear I will find Julie and get her back to you as fast as I can!" Monk declared as he gave Natalie's face a reassuring shake (which was a bit more forceful then he planed cause it made Natalie's eyes cross).

Both Natalie and Adrian's attention was then turned to the phone as it started to ring. Monk walked over to it and raised it to he ear.

"Hello?" Adrian said.

Pause

"Alright, we'll be right over." Monk then gently placed the phone back on its hook and returned to Natalie, who had been listening to what she could hear of the conversation.

"Where are we going?" she asked at she grabbed her purse and dried the last of the fallen tears.

"To the priciest. The Captain wants us to hear something."

Natalie jumped back into 'normal mode' as she complained the subject. "Why cant he ever just tell us over the phone? Instead he makes us (me) drive all the way out there and use up all of that gas, just so he could tell us something that we could have heard over the phone. I mean, wasn't that why the telephone was invented anyway, for communication? I think a certain Mr. Alexander Graham Bell would be very disappointed."

Monk simply sighed and rolled his eyes at his friend as he walked out the door.

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"Ok, we're here. What did you want to say." Monk said as he stepped into the Captain's office. Monk stopped when he realized that there was no one in the room. Monk turned around to see Lt. Disher standing in the doorway.

"Where's the Captain?" Natalie asked.

"He's in the interrogation room with a suspect." Answered Randy.

"You have a suspect!" Natalie asked in a high voice.

"Not to you case…to a different one." Randy said.

Natalie looked disappointed, but no one could blame her.

"In the meantime," Randy began, "I guess we can just wait here." He said as he gladly took the seat at the Captain's desk, folding his hands behind his head and crossing his feet on the desk in front of him, with a smug smile on his face, as if he had just been promoted and was now the Captain himself.

Natalie took a seat and picked up a magazine. Like Natalie, Monk also wanted some reading material, so he reached for the daily reports made by some of the cops at the station.

Soon after, Capt. Stottlemeyer entered the room to find Adrian and Natalie quietly waiting for him. Leland also noticed that his chair had a unusualoccupier. Upon seeing Stottlemeyer's entrance, Randy quickly vacated the cozy chair.

Monk and Natalie noticed this and turned to see Stottlemeyer standing behind them.

"There you are." Adrian exclaimed as he set down what he was reading and stood.

"Yeah sorry about that, I was interrogating a dim-whit-thug who got a little trigger happy. By the way Randy, I think I solved the Emerson case."

"Really sir? That's great! Did Michael Lotner do it like you though he did?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you how in a minute,"

Monk and Natalie looked at each other, the both felt very out-of-the-loop. Natalie turned back to the Randy and Stottlemeyer, "Oh, of course!" she said as she slowly nodded her head. "Michael Lotner!" Natalie pretended that she knew all about the said case. Then she held up her hands and hiked her shoulders to show that she was completely clueless.

"Right, sorry." Stottlemeyer said as he took a seat at his desk. "The real reason I asked you guys to come here is because I wanted to tell you how I got another phone call from whoever it was that has Julie."

"You did!" Natalie shouted as she nearly jumped out of her seat.

Monk smiled at her excitement. "What did he say?" Adrian said as he let his attention once again fall on Stottlemeyer.

Leland then began to repeat all that he remembered from the short conversation. Once he was through Natalie turned to look at Adrian. He, as expected, had his usual 'deep in thought' face on. He had his elbows on the armrests and the fingers interlocked his hands. Natalie loved what she was looking at. She loved his look that he always made. She watched as he was clearly deep in thought. She saw how his eyebrows fell into their thoughtful position and his eyes went without blinking. She waited quietly for his response. Finally…he spoke.

"What else did you hear?"

"What do you mean?" Stottlemeyer asked. "I just told you every thing he said."

"I know that. What did you hear in the background? Was it noisy? Was he alone? Was the TV on? Was the room echoing? What else did you hear?"

Stottlemeyer caught on, he thought back to earlier that morning as he received the phone call. "I…I think it was pretty silent. I might have heard a clock ticking."

"What kind of a clock?"

"A sun dial, Monk! How the heck and I suppose to know?"

Monk raised his right index finger up to where it was about eye level to him and shook it lightly. "Uh sun dials don't tick, Captain."

Stottlemeyer sighed and shook his head with his eyes closed, clearly annoyed at Monk. "No Monk, I don't know what kind of clock it was."

"Ok, lets forget about the clock. Did you hear anything else, Captain?" Natalie said trying to get back on subject.

Stottlemeyer thought back on it. "No," he said.

"Anything strange that he might have said or done." Natalie asked.

Monk turned and looked at his assistant. He was amazed how quickly she seemed to catch on to the detection business, already she was asking the right questions.

Stottlemeyer thought about it, "Yeah actually," he began, "I do remember him calling Trudy by name. He referred to the case as the 'Trudy case'.

Monk was equally shocked at this but that feeling was soon delayed for the woman next to him currently distracted Monk. Natalie turned and gave Monk a superior smile. "Hah, I got Trudy where all you got was the tick tock of a clock." She said with a girlish smile. A smile in which had Monk hypnotized for the briefest of moments.

"He was eating chicken, too" Stottlemeyer added.

Monk turned and looked at him. "Pardon?"

"The guy was eating chicken. He choked on a bone during the phone call."

"Are you sure it was chicken!" Monk exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Yeah, he said so. Why?"

"Because if he choked on chicken…then I know where Julie is."

"What!" Natalie, Randy and Stottlemeyer all said in unison.

"I just solved the case."

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All right guys, this is the fun part. This is where you all send me reviews filled with your guesses and a brief summery of what you think happened. I don't plan on posting the next chapter until I get at least five guesses or reviews.

Please tell me what you thought of this chapter. It would really mean a lot to me if you guys said a bit more then just "Hey, great chapter. Hope you update soon." lol

Author's Note: I don't know if I spelt Alexander Graham Bell correct. So I'm really sorry if I got it wrong.

PLEASE REVIEW:o)