It was the second of July and Adrian was up early waiting for Leland to take him to the facility where his procedure would be done. He was so nervous he felt physically ill but put on a brave face in front of his wife and children as they stood in a line and waited for him as if he were a soldier going off to war. Natalie whispered encouraging words to him and told him that she'd have their room waiting for him, knowing that he would probably be tired post-surgery and it would take a few days for him to be feeling back to normal. He kissed her on the lips and then hugged and kissed their children then turned on his heels, stopping to wave goodbye as he got into Leland's car.

For many men, being the caretaker of another man during such a time would have been an imposition. But, Leland knew Monk well and knew that he would need his support and so he didn't mind. Still, it was fine with him that they didn't talk much on the way to the medical center. The less talk about Monk's operation the better as far as he was concerned.

The actual procedure took less than forty minutes with Monk being in recovery before Leland could finish a crossword puzzle in the doctor's waiting room. However, the wait for him to get out of recovery took a lot longer due to Adrian's insistence that the operation be done using general anesthesia. But, after another hour and a half, he was at last awake enough that he could at least sit up straight in the car, so Leland took him home and deposited him into his bed where Natalie took over – telling her that if she had any problems that she should call him.

When Stottlemeyer left, nobody expected things would go smoothly – not because of the surgery itself but because this was Adrian. They just didn't know how unsmoothly it would actually be.

At first, things were very quiet. Monk slept solidly for the next four to five hours and Natalie would check on him from time to time, thankful he was getting his rest. But then, his rest turned fitful and her peace was gone. She had figured he'd be a little sore, so she was prepared to be up and down through the night bringing him ice chips or an ice pack – whatever he would need and she planned on staying with him through the night up until the time she'd have to fix breakfast for the family – hoping by then, he'd at least be a little better and could eat. But, that's not how it went.

Starting at two in the morning, he moaned and groaned so much that she almost called the hospital. But she didn't because he begged her to stay with him and hold him because he needed comfort more than medicine. And so, she did. He finally fell asleep but she stayed awake until it was time to get the twins up and make them breakfast at which point, she quietly pulled away and did what she had to do.

She had just gotten them up and poured them each a bowl of cereal when she heard him calling her name.

"Natalie…Natalie…."

Looking at the twins, she explained that when they were done they should just leave their things there and go play in the living room, she'd be taking care of daddy. Then, she ran to the toaster and pulled out the slice of toast she had waiting. Slathered it with a little butter and carried that and some fresh squeezed orange juice on a tray with her as she provided him with breakfast in bed.

"You're awake!" she said with a smile.

"I'm in pain." He replied.

"Oh, now…that's to be expected." She said, setting the tray down. "That's why the doctor gave you some pain medication. Stay right here and I'll go get it."

"No pills…no pills…hey…what's that?" he asked through bleary eyes.

"It's just a little toast. You need to eat something. Keep your strength up."

"No thanks, I'm not hungry." He said.

"Oh, just a little bite." She said. "For me?"

"I'm just so…exhausted. They never said how exhausting this would be." He said, laying his head back and closing his eyes.

"Okay. If you can't eat right now, how about a little sip of juice? I squeezed it for you fresh."

"Is it orange juice?" he asked.

"Yes. Straight from Florida. Come on and take a sip."

"I don't like orange juice."

Natalie sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll get you some water then. You have to drink something or you'll get dehydrated."

Natalie returned a minute later with a bottle of Summit Creek and Monk opened his eyes and raised his head just a little to where she supported his neck as he took just a sip before laying back down.

"I'm just so tired." He said. "But thank you. Thank you for caring for me after, well…everything."

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." She said, setting the tray to the side and then kissing his forehead. She ran her hands through his hair and sat back up. "You just rest. I'm going to leave the toast and juice by the bed and leave the door open in case you need me."

"Okay." he said, without opening his eyes. "You'll hear me?"

"I'll hear you. Just get some rest."

For the rest of the day she ran back and forth between the kids and her husband bringing him ice and fluffing his pillow and bringing him extra blankets when he got cold and removing them when he got hot. She knew that this was pretty much par for the course when her husband felt ill and she told herself that his failure to thrive was just the lingering effects of the anesthesia; but when he seemed worse instead of better by that evening, she really began to worry.

The evening of the second day was worse than the first. By this point his moaning and groaning was accompanied by a rattling sound at the back of the throat that she had never heard him make. She turned on the light to try to see if he was okay and he simply looked up at her and shrugged then closed his eyes, not saying a thing. That's when Natalie began search the internet.

Leland's phone rang at six-thirty in the morning, which typically wouldn't have been terrible, except that this was Saturday and he'd just spent a full week of covering both his and Adrian's caseload and was looking forward to sleeping in. Rolling over, he saw it was Natalie's number on caller-ID and briefly considered not answering. Knowing his friend so well, he figured that Adrian had complained so much in the past three days that Natalie had finally had enough and was reaching out for moral support, forgetting the time. But, on the off chance that she really did have an emergency, he picked up the phone.

"Hello?" he said, after clearing his throat.

"Leland! It's Natalie! I need you to come over to the house. I think Adrian has congestive epididymitis! We need to get him to the doctor today."

Leland looked at his phone briefly then shook his head. "What is congestive epididymitis?"

"It's debilitating pain in the – you know, region. I swear if we pressured him into doing something that hurt him…"

"I'm sure it will be okay. Where is he now?"

"He's in bed where he's been since you brought him home. Leland, he hasn't eaten. He's only had a few sips of liquid and I'm not sure, but I don't think he's even been to the bathroom at all."

"Does it look like he's infected or anything? Any redness? Swelling?"

Natalie sighed "I don't know. He won't let me look."

"But you're his…oh, never mind. I'll be over as soon as I can. "

"Thank you, Leland. I'll leave the door unlocked for you. He doesn't like me to leave his side. You very well may be a life saver."

Walking into the Monk home thirty minutes later, Leland looked around and marveled at how quiet everything was. He made his way down their hallway and noted that the children's beds were still made and deduced that they were staying with relatives. Then, he walked to the Monk's bedroom and quietly opened the door. There, in the dim light he saw Adrian laying perfectly still with his eyes closed and Natalie sitting on the edge of their bed gently stroking his forehead, a worried expression on his face. Natalie turned and saw him then motioned for him to come in. She began to stand.

"N-Natlie…don't….don't leave me. Please…please don't go away." Monk said, weakly.

"I'm not going anywhere, honey. I was just making a little room. Someone has come to see you."

"I…I don't want any…any visitors." He said. "Tell them…tell them to go…to go away."

"But it's Leland, sweetheart. Leland's come to check on you."

Monk opened his eyes. "Le-land?"

"Yeah, Monk. I've stopped by to see how you're doing. Doesn't look like too good."

Monk closed his eyes again and breathed in and out a few times and shook his head yes. "I feel…I feel awful…I can't…I can't hardly move. But hey, I…I'm glad you're here. I…I need to talk to you about some…about something."

Stottlemeyer looked at Natalie who merely shrugged. He raised his eyebrow, unsure of what to expect. "Okay, what do you need to talk to me about?"

Adrian opened his eyes and looked over at Natalie. "Alone. I need…I need to talk to him alone."

Natalie looked surprised. "Um…okay." she said, slowly beginning to stand. "I guess…I guess I'll just wait outside?"

Monk shook his head yes and she looked at Leland then walked toward the door. Adrian watched until the door shut then he looked at his friend. "I…I wanted to talk to you earlier anyway. But…I'm just so…just so weak."

"Natalie says you haven't eaten anything in three days."

"No. I just can't. It's all…it's all I can do to just speak. I knew it would be hard but…Leland…I need you…I need you to do something for me. I need you to go get a piece of paper from the top drawer over there. I need to update my will."

"Your will? Don't you want to wait and talk to an attorney?"

Monk shook his head. "No, it needs to be done now. We have Asher now and I need to make sure that he's included and…well, I know it may be a bit of an imposition…but I was going to ask you to take care of him too…you know…after I'm gone."

Leland furrowed his brow as he studied his friend. "Of course. I'm there for your entire family. No question. But…why do we especially have to do this now?"

Monk looked at him. "Because, I'm dying. I'm dying Leland. I'm not sure how many days I have left, maybe even hours, but I have to make sure that when I'm gone that Natalie and the children will have everything they need. You'll do that?"

"Well, yeah…but seriously, Monk…if you feel that bad…I think maybe we need to take you back to your doctor."

Monk's eyes turned steely. "That butcher! Never! I'm never going to that sadistic monster again. He can just rot in Hades!"

Leland tilted his head. "Well, you didn't seem to think that about him when you visited him for pre-op last Wednesday."

"That was before he did what he did. He mutilated me, Leland!"

"Mutilated you?."

"Yes, I will go to my grave a mutilated man."

Leland squinted his eyes. "Um…what exactly do you think he did to you?"

The bedroom door opened and Leland hastily exited stopping long enough to say something to a very anxious Natalie. She stood when she saw him and walked up to him with wide eyes to hear his report.

Leland smirked. "He's going to be fine. I'm going home." He turned to walk toward the door but Natalie stopped him.

"But, he's in such agony. Leland, he's miserable."

Leland grinned. "The kind of misery he's in now…his doctor won't be able to fix."

"Nat-lie…Nat-lie!" she heard him calling from their room.

"Go ahead." Stottlemeyer responded. "Ask him what he thinks happened to him. You're sure to get a very interesting answer."

"Nat-lie. I neeeeed…I need some ice. Cold, cold ice."

"Coming!" she said, looking at Leland to gage whether or not he was serious before running to the refrigerator and getting Monk a fresh ice pack then heading to their room. She walked through the door just as he called again.

"Nat-lie…where…where are you?" he cried.

"Here! Here! I'm right here, honey. Was just getting your ice." She said before laying the ice on his lap.

"Ohhhhhh!" he moaned. "Heavy! It's so he-heavy."

"Sorry!" she said adjusting the pack. "What did Leland say? He didn't tell me anything when he was leaving, so what did he say?"

Monk looked at her with a bitter expression. "He's no longer my friend."

"What?!" she said.

"No. I told him about my surgery and you know what he did? He laughed! Can you believe that, I'm dying here and Leland laughed!"

Natalie looked confused. "He laughed? That doesn't sound like Leland. What did you tell him?"

Monk looked at her sadly. "I just told him about what that doctor did and how he was a butcher. I know other men have had this done – but honestly, sweetheart – this is legalized barbarism. Atilla the Hun has nothing on Dr. Warner."

Natalie stopped and looked at him being quite unsure. "But I thought the surgery was supposed to be relatively minor. Are you telling me it wasn't?"

His eyes narrowed and he stared at her. "Haven't you ever had a dog?"

She twisted her mouth to the side. "A dog? Well, yeah…we had several when I was growing."

Monk looked at her knowingly. "Did your parents have them fixed?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah. I suppose they did. Mom wouldn't have wanted the house to be overrun by little…" she stopped and stared at him. "Wait a minute…you don't think he…you don't think he did to you what he…"

Monk looked sadly towards the ceiling. "I am half a man. Mutilated. A victim of the cruel tyranny of medical science."

Immediately, Natalie bit her lip and lowered her head, covering her face with her hand.

Monk turned to look toward her. "I'm sorry to have to break it to you this way. Now you understand why I couldn't show you. I didn't want you to be traumat… Wait. Are you laughing?"

Natalie kept her face covered with her hand and shook her head no, even as her body began to quake.

Monk raised up on his elbow. "Natalie? Are you…are you laughing at your husband?" She shook her head no at which he grasped her wrist and pulled her hand away. Her face was red and smiling and immediately burst forth into a gale of laughter.

Adrians' mouth dropped open. "Et tu, Natalie?!" he laid back down and let out an exasperated sigh. "I thought of all the people that would understand…the bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh would at least have a little sympathy! What is wrong with you people."

Natalie wiped tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry, honey." She said, breathlessly. "I didn't mean to laugh. Really. I didn't. It's just…it's just…" She began to cackle, holding her tummy.

Monk was astounded. "Well, I'm happy that in my dying hours I could bring a little levity to my soon to be grieving widow."

Natalie snorted and continued. "Oh, quit it! You're hurting my incision."

Monk looked disgusted. "Well, we wouldn't want to do that. You have major surgery and the whole world comes to a stop to care for you. Let me have major surgery and it becomes a situational comedy show."

"Adrian, stop!" she said, reaching out to touch him. "You're just being silly."

"And, you're being mean to me." He said.

"Oh, I am not." She smirked "Baby, didn't you learn about all this stuff in health class?"

"I never went to health class. Mother wrote a note."

"I see. Well, what about college? Didn't you ever look at an anatomy book and learn how the human body works?"

"Natalie Jane!" he said, offended. "You should know by now that your husband doesn't peruse pornography! No! I avoided such books."

She grinned. "Okay then, grab hold of my hand. We're going to take a walk."

Monk looked at her incredulous. "A walk?! Haven't you heard a thing I've said?"

"Trust me, honey. We're not going very far and you'll be glad you did. Really, you'll thank me later. Come on."

Monk pouted and reluctantly took her hand then moaned and groaned loudly as he stood. Slowly, the two walked across the bedroom floor and into the bathroom. She flipped on the light and picked up a mirror.

"Drop 'em."

"Excuse me?!" he asked, wide-eyed.

"Your pajama pants. I want you to drop them."

He looked aghast. "Natalie, I hardly think this is the time."

She chortled. "Not that, silly. I want you to take a look at your surgery."

"You what?!"

"I want you to take a look at your surgery and what the doctor really did to you."

"No way! I'm not going to look!"

"Oh, come on."

"Natalie, I don't look at myself in good times. I'm certainly not going to look at me now."

"Fine, then I will."

He jumped backwards. "You will not!"

"It's you or me, but one of us is going to look. Now which one is it?" she said, handing him the mirror and then gently tugging at his pants.

"Natalie!" he complained. "Stop it!"

"I'm not looking! I promise." She said, with her head turned to the side. "I want you to look!"

"Please! Don't make me. Don't make me look."

"Adrian, you have to. It's for your own good." She said, taking his hand and angling the mirror to where he could see.

"But, I don't want to. I promise, I'll be good. Just don't make me look. Don't make me look. Don't make me…" he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. "…look." He stopped for a moment and stared as Natalie stood up, brushing some lint off his shoulder.

"Wait a minute. It's all…" he raised a hand to his mouth. "It's all still there! Did Warner not do the surgery?"

Natalie patted him on the back. "He did the surgery. It's just the surgery is not what you were thinking the surgery was."

"It wasn't?" he asked in wonder.

"No. It wasn't." she replied, patting him on the back. "Check it out for yourself if you don't believe me. Meanwhile…" she patted his back. "I'm going to leave you and the boys to yourselves and go make some breakfast."

"Me and the…oh. I get it." He said. "Okay. I will just be a minute."

Later that day, after his wife instructed him on what really happened with his surgery, Adrian sat with Natalie on the sectional in the sun room. Her head was resting on his shoulder and his hand caressing her arm.

"I have no idea how you do it." He stated after a long period of contented silence.

"How I do what?" she asked.

"Put up with me. I'm supposed to be the man of the house and half the time I come off as just another kid."

She smiled. "You're just a little sheltered on some subjects. But, that's okay. It's part of who you are and I love you."

He kissed her head. "Yes, but you would think I'd know how the human body works. I mean here I am, a guy with three biological children of his own and I went into that surgery thinking that when they were shutting me off…they were truly shutting me off."

"What do you mean?" she inquired.

"Well…from what you explained, all they did was shut down the access route towards pregnancy. I thought they were going to shut EVERYTHING down, biology, desire, everything."

"Wait a minute. You thought they were going to make it so that you'd never want to…"

"Yeah. That's what happened with the neighbor's dog. Before they got him neutered, he chased all the little girl dogs around and even some things that weren't. Please don't ask me to elaborate as it brings up bad memories. But afterward, he just laid around and panted. Never seemed to have that desire again."

"And you thought that's what they were going to do to you? Make you not want to be with me anymore?"

"Well, my will power was quickly losing that battle, so, yeah. I ashamed to say, I did."

"And you were okay with that?" she asked.

Monk looked down and shook his head. "I wouldn't say I was okay with it. But I was willing. If it came down to a choice between that and your health and happiness, I'd tell them take it all. No question."

She turned to look up to him. "You know, I think that is the sweetest thing that any man has ever said to me. Thank you, honey."

Monk smiled and rested his cheek on her head. "For the record…" he said, "…now that I know that I was wrong and everything still works as it should…"

"Yeah?"

"I am really looking forward to returning to things like they were before all of this happened."

She smiled softly. "Me too. Four more days."

Monk grinned and then shyly ducked his chin. "Three days eighteen hours and twenty-two minutes…and fifteen seconds."

She laughed. "But who's counting."

The days past quickly and their waiting period was over. It was a sweet romantic night for two with Adrian taking her to an outdoor restaurant with safely distanced seating which was actually a bonus since it added to the intimacy of the night. He danced with her under the stars in the warm Summer night and they came together again later that night at their home, savoring the joy that a deeply committed marital relationship brings. They had been through many battles and each bore the battle scars to show for it; but the love that they felt for one another was something to truly celebrate. They had been blessed in so many ways and they never wanted to take another moment of being with the other for granted.

On the sixteenth of July, they had another reason to celebrate. Asher came home. His big brother and sisters were so excited to meet him and quickly dubbed him "A.J." But surprisingly it was Lee who seemed the most excited of all. When asked about it later, he explained.

"When it was jus' Mommy, Daddy, Joowie, Abby and me, there was three and two. Now it's even so it's just right."

Natalie looked over at Adrian. "You put him up to that, didn't you?"

Monk grinned a guilty grin. "Oh, I don't know. I think maybe he may have come up with that one on his own. At least we can pretend."

She smiled. "Okay, we'll pretend. And he's not wrong. We're both okay. Asher's home. And, everyone's happy. I couldn't ask for a better life."

"And I couldn't imagine having a happier life than I have with you and our children. Thank you, sweetheart. Thank you for making my life and our family complete."

Author's Note: One more chapter to go. Let's see where the Monks are in 2021.