"Come on out in the sunshine. It's such a beautiful day!" Molly Evans exclaimed. "A wonderful day to be alive!"

Natalie smirked at the young woman's exuberance and followed her on out to the balcony of her Hayes Valley apartment. She had gone there early that morning to find out what she had discovered thus far on Ibrahim Tahiri's charity, Macedonian Light.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing at Molly's face.

Molly immediately jumped, swatting at her cheek. "What do you see?" she asked. "A bug?"

Natalie shook her head and smiled. "No…unless you want to refer to it as the luvvvvv bug. You are positively glowing."

Molly looked relieved. "Oh, you scared me. That! Yes! Can you believe it? I had no idea he was going to propose."

"How'd he do it?" Natalie asked.

"Oh. It was the cutest thing." She said. "He took me to a movie that I was reviewing starring Jonas Gilbert and he insisted on going to the concession stand. I told him that I wanted some Milk Duds, but he came back with Cracker Jacks. We almost got into a mini-argument until the people behind us told us to shush. He let me quietly eat the caramel corn until I got to the end and realized there was no prize. I tilted the box and nothing came out and I guess I kinda huffed a bit. He asked me what was wrong, and I whispered to him that it was no big deal but they had left out the prize. Picking up the box, he looked inside and then exclaimed, 'here it is!' Not believing him, I watched him stick his hand down into the box and then pull out my ring. I couldn't believe it, and I guess I kinda squealed. That got the couple behind us to shush us again but I told them to shush themselves." She giggled.

"Good for you!" Natalie smiled. "What then?"

"Well, he got on one knee and proposed and I accepted right there. Adrian was the second one I told after my parents." She replied. "Figured it was best to tell him quickly so he could get used to the idea before I saw him."

Natalie laughed. "Good call. But, don't worry. He'll get there. He loves you and ultimately wants you to be happy – even if he does grumble a bit."

"What? Adrian grumble?!" she replied. "Never!"

Several minutes passed and they continued to converse about this and that until they finally settled down to talk through what Natalie had been sent to discuss. As they sat beside the small wrought iron scroll-detailed table, Molly pulled out a notebook with handwritten notes and a few printouts from the internet.

"Here's what I have so far." she explained to Natalie. "Ibrahim Tahiri had connections on both sides of the war and moved around in the background with a lot of the world leaders at the time. He was a frequent guest, for example, at the home of E.U. Deputy Secretary of Finance, Sir Malcolm Lindsey. Lindsey was friends with the head of the California Legal Association and I think that might be how Ethan made his connection.

In terms of his charities, Macedonia Light was only one of them - the one he had set up in the United States. He also had foundations set up in Great Britain, France, Germany, Bosnia and Croatia."

"Why so many?" Natalie asked.

"Initially, I thought that it was simply because it's easier to raise local funds through local administration; however, with what I've been seeing it would appear Tahiri did it this way so that the right hand wouldn't know what the left was doing. He had several patrons he worked with and its unlikely that any of them knew exactly how much he was worth."

"That makes sense." Natalie replied. "What happened with the organizations after Tahiri died?"

"That's where it really gets weird." Molly answered. "Two months before Tahiri's suspicious death, every single one of the organizations suddenly closed up shop. The bank accounts were emptied and nobody seemed to know where the funds went. Tahiri was questioned but remained evasive. He was evidently under investigation by the world court when he turned up dead."

"You said his death was suspicious. How did he die?" Natalie asked.

"Boating accident." Molly replied. "It was suspicious because Tahiri was deathly afraid of the water. And yet, for some reason, he chartered a boat. They found his body and the boat out among the rocks near Alcatraz Island. His son requested an inquiry but it was immediately ruled an accident and swept under the rug. Guess his connections didn't want too much prying."

"And the money?" Natalie asked.

"Went somewhere." Molly answered. "Exactly where is also still a mystery. If we could only get access to the bank accounts."

Natalie stopped for a moment thoughtfully considering what Molly had just told her. Nodding her head, she asked, "May I borrow your phone please?"

"Oh, sure. What are you thinking?" Molly replied, retrieving a handset and passing it over to Natalie.

Natalie took the phone and dialed. "I'm thinking that sometimes it pays to have connections."

Molly watched with curiosity as Natalie waited for the line to pick up. After a few seconds, Natalie's face broadened with a big smile and the most syrupy sweet voice Molly had heard in a while came from her lips.

"Daddy! How are you...What? Oh. Did I call at a bad time? Oh. Okay. Well, I was wondering if you are still in touch with Ben Turner…Yes, the bank auditor… You are? Great. I'm working on a case and I was wondering if maybe I could pull some Davenport strings and maybe talk to him a little this afternoon? It's about a suspected bank fraud….Huh? Oh sure, I'll wait."

Natalie looked over at Molly and winked. "See? Easy Peasy."

Molly grinned. "I can see that."

"There's a reason Mr. Monk he keeps me around." Natalie continued.

"Oh, I'm sure!" Molly smiled as she picked up their plates to carry them back to her kitchen. "Maybe more than one." she winked, before stepping out of the room and leaving Natalie to wonder what she was inferring.

While Natalie and Molly made arrangements to see her father's auditor friend, Monk and Leland made their way over to Prince's townhome in order to pick her up for an entirely different quest.

Despite the fact that she had worked with them since shortly after their friend Randy Disher had left his position to become Chief of Police in Summit, New Jersey, they knew very little about her on a personal level. She had mentioned on occasion that she had a roommate named Jason, but they had never seen his picture, didn't know if there was a romantic connection between them at all, or really much else about her at all. Therefore, when they arrived at her place both detectives were more than a little curious to see how she lived.

Knocking on the door, they were both immediately ushered inside where Alicia told them to make themselves at home while she continued to get ready. Despite the rare show of hospitality, from the moment he walked through the door, Adrian knew something was off and felt uneasy. He asked Leland about it but he didn't notice anything unusual and instead parted ways with Monk, heading to the living room to look at the medals and awards in her bookshelf leaving Adrian alone in the front hallway to peruse on his own.

Walking into the dining room, the first thing that Monk noticed was the smell – a rather strong smell. He stopped for a moment to try to consider where he had smelled that smell before but was drawing a blank. It was kind of like a sweet vanilla, a scent he wouldn't have associated with Prince; but it was vanilla mixed with something else, something that wasn't particularly pleasant.

Continuing to walk, Monk went into the kitchen. Everything was neat and put together and in a sterile modern style that made his own masculine furniture look rather warm. He walked over to the refrigerator to see what kind of things she ingested but immediately shut it again when he spotted three half-gallons of milk on the top shelf the moment he opened the door. Nearly gagging at the thought of it, he shook his head and continued further back into the house, walking into the dark pantry.

That's when it happened. Adrian Monk met Jason.

The scream was heard not only by Leland but by Alicia who was upstairs in her bedroom getting dressed.

Rushing downstairs with her gun drawn she nearly ran into Leland as they followed the sound into the next room.

"Monk! Where are you? Are you okay?" Leland asked as they went running into the kitchen.

"In…in…in here!" was the meek reply they heard coming from the pantry.

Looking each other warily in the eye, Leland and Alicia slowly walked towards the pantry – Alicia with her firearm at the ready by her side. Slipping quickly into the room she flipped on the light switch and they looked around at each other in confusion. The room appeared to be empty.

Alicia lowered her weapon. "Where is he?" she asked.

"Uh…uh…up here." She heard Monk whisper from above. Looking up, they each noticed that Adrian had climbed up the Pantry shelves and was now clinging with all of his might onto the very top shelves.

"What the hell are you doing up there, Monk?" Leland asked, placing his hands on his hips and looking up at his partner with frustration.

"Th…the….there was s-something i-i-in here. Something f-f-fast and with g-g-glowing eyes. I th-think it was a rat." He said.

"A rat?" Alicia asked. "I don't have any rats."

"I – I -I think you do. A b-big one." He replied. "It went behind that box over there. Don't put away your gun. You may need to kill it."

Alicia looked over at Stottlemeyer and shook her head as she went to investigate what Monk saw.

"Get down here." Leland urged, but Adrian wouldn't budge, instead craning his neck to see what Alicia was running into.

She sighed and shook her head. "What are you doing back here?" she asked, bending down to pick up the animal from behind the box.

"N-no-no d-don't touch it! It may have rabies!" Monk warned.

Alicia stood up and turned back around. "He doesn't have rabies." She said. "He lives here. Monk, Captain, meet Jason. My Siamese cat."

"A cat?" Stottlemeyer asked, disbelieving. "Oh, for Pete's sake."

"Yes. I've had him since he was a kitten." She replied. "Not sure how he got in here. He usually stays upstairs. Come on, Jason. I'll go get you some fresh food and water."

As she left the room, Leland looked up at Adrian who was still clinging to the shelf.

"Well, are you going to come down now? It wasn't a rat." He said.

"Yeah. But it is a cat!" Adrian replied. "Cats are number twenty three on the list."

"The list? I didn't think you had a list anymore." Leland replied.

"Oh, I still have it. I just don't visit it as often. You and Alicia go on to San Jose. I'll stay right here."

"Monk, you can't stay in Alicia's cupboard all day. You have to come down."

"Um, I don't think so."

Leland began to get perturbed. "Monk, if you don't get down here this minute, I'm going to drag you down. Or worse, I'll go get the cat and bring him back in here."

"Not going to work." Adrian replied.

"Come on, Monk. It's just a cat."

"Exactly! Do you know what diseases cats carry? Cat scratch fever? Helloooooo…."

"Monk, I'm giving you to the count of three to come down and then I'm dragging you down."

"I'm fine up here."

"One."

"No, really, Leland, you and Alicia go…"

"Two."

"Really, I'm fine, I'll just..."

The sound of the crash of Adrian Monk's body hitting the ground was only marginally softer than the sound of his scream several minutes earlier, but by this point Alicia knew what was going on. Calmly, she poked her head into the pantry and saw that Monk had landed on Stottlemeyer on the way down. "You guys ready to go?" she asked nonchalantly.

Monk quickly stood up and dusted himself off as Leland followed, then tried to help Adrian get some lint off of his shoulder only to be repelled with a push. Leland stepped backwards throwing up his hands and Adrian straightened his lapel and chirped something into Stottlemeyer's ear which resulted in Leland clinching his jaw and grasping Monk by the arm, pushing him out of the pantry and towards the front door.

"Sometimes they don't pay me enough." He grumbled to Prince as he followed Monk towards the exit.

Alicia snickered as she followed Stottlemeyer, finding that by the time she reached the car that Monk was already seated in the front seat with his arms crossed in front of him, a flustered look on his face. Yes, this was going to be a wonderful day.

Across town, Natalie and Molly walked into the offices of Benjamin Turner, Esquire, one of the top bank auditors in the western United States and a man with associations throughout the world of finance second to none. After brief introductions, Natalie explained to him their situation and what they were looking at and he readily went to work examining the withdraws from Tahiri's accounts in America in particular to determine where the money had gone. As luck would have it, each withdraw was given both a transaction number as well as a routing number and therefore it was fairly easy to trace when such a large sum of cash was withdrawn; however, nothing even close to that amount was flagged for Turner in his search for where it went. Immediately, this raised a red flag in his eyes since an organization to organization transfer in those amounts would likely be apparent. So, he lowered the threshold on the dollar amounts being transferred and discovered that needle in a haystack they were looking for.

"What have we here?" he asked himself, clicking a link and then typing in a password. "Interesting."

"What?" Molly asked.

"Does the name 'Illustrious Sun Trust' mean anything to either of you?" he asked.

"Illustrious Sun? No. Not to me." She replied.

"Nor to me." Natalie echoed.

"It appears that the money was sent to an offshore account in Caracas, Venezuela under that name." He said.

"Venezuela?" the ladies asked, simultaneously.

"What's in Venezuela and what is the trust for?" Natalie asked.

"That's what I'm trying to find out." He replied, clicking a few more buttons. "Hmmm…This…this is most irregular, I must say. The profile for the company is almost blank other than the bank routing number that the money was sent to. An address is required, but the only address I see here is not in Venezuela but right here in San Francisco, on Cornwall."

"Cornwall? Isn't that in your neck of the woods, Natalie?" Molly asked.

"Yes. It's right around the corner. What's the address?" she asked.

"685 Cornwall." He replied.

"685? Are you sure?" she asked.

"That's what it says." He replied as Natalie fished in her purse for her cell phone. Thumbing through the address book she looked up at him quizzically. "That's a grocery store! Why would there be a foundation at the grocery store?"

Turner raised his eyebrows. "There shouldn't be. Sounds like it's just an address to receive mail at."

"But mail for whom?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, any names with that group?"

"No. Like I said, the profile is nearly blank. No contact information other than the address. Definitely suspicious." He responded.

"Do you think you could look into it further for me?" Natalie asked.

Turner smiled. "For Bobby Davenport's daughter, certainly. Just make sure that your father remembers my largesse next time I ask him to go golfing with me at Pebble Beach."

Natalie smirked. "I'll be sure to do that, Ben."

"I'll let you know if I find out anything, and Molly, it's been a pleasure meeting you." He said with a nod.

"Likewise." She replied. "Thank you very much."

The trio of Stottlemeyer, Monk and Prince finally arrived at their destination in the San Jose suburb of Willow Glen, California – about an hour south of San Francisco. For Stottlemeyer, the ride seemed longer than that since Monk and Prince argued over her cat for the first ten minutes of the trip and then argued over who started the argument for the next twenty.

For Monk's part, Alicia Prince was always disagreeable wanting to argue over every little thing and he was willing to say so. He had a long list of examples that Leland wasn't interested in hearing but he rattled them off as quickly as his eidetic memory would permit.

Alicia countered that Monk was just too sensitive, skirting dangerously close to some of his mental struggles as she went on and on about how contrary to how he wanted to see things, the world was not perfect, nor would it ever be and he should just get used to it. After about a half-hour of the back and forth, Leland finally had enough, pulling to the side of the road on the highway and telling them both to be quiet or he'd give them something to be quiet about. Monk promptly obeyed, a reflex ingrained in him due to how he was disciplined as a child; but, Alicia merely clamped her jaw shut. Leland knew the look and that it meant that she would file a complaint with the department over his response, but at that particular moment he didn't care. The peace and quiet for the rest of the ride was well worth the slap on the hand he would get from his boss.

They arrived outside the home of Mrs. Louisa Chambers, a retired cafeteria worker and mother of Lieutenant Harrison Chambers of the U.S. Navy's Eastern Mediterranean Fleet around ten-thirty. Leland parked the car and the three passed through the gates surrounding Chambers' home, walking up the stone staircase and onto the porch. The home itself was an excellently maintained 1930s craftsman style home that was painted in a moss color with light beige trim. Surrounding the home were some sort of well-trimmed flowering shrubs, currently covered with crème and beige colored flowers.

Expecting an older woman who had the look of blue-collared thirty-year veteran of cafeteria work, they were each surprised when answering the door was a well-groomed woman who appeared at least ten years younger than she was and was dressed in a floral chiffon blouse along with tailored white pants that one might expect of a high-society dame.

"Good morning." She said with a smile. "Captain Stottlemeyer, I presume?" she asked of the Captain who was first in line.

"Yes, ma'am." the Captain smiled. "And this is my chief Lieutenant, Alicia Prince along and our lead consultant, Detective Adrian Monk. May we come in?"

"Certainly. I've been expecting you." She replied, turning around and walking into the house while leaving the front door open for them to follow. "I had plans on joining my bridge group for brunch this morning over at Skully's so you're lucky you called when you did. Are you thirsty? I have coffee, tea, gin." She said, walking into an adjoining kitchen and reaching for a glass in the cupboard that she filled with some sort of alcoholic beverage.

"No, ma'am." Stottlemeyer replied. "We really just came looking for a little information about your son and his time in the military."

"Right. That's what you said when you called." She stated, coming back into the room and sitting down on the sofa. "Please take a seat."

She motioned for the group to sit down, so Prince sat next to her on the sofa and Leland sat in an adjoining chair while Monk looked around for a place to sit rather than the cramped confines of the couch with the ladies. He attempted to sit on the arm of the chair next to Leland, but almost fell off, so Leland rolled his eyes and stood up, giving the chair to Monk while he sat next to Alicia.

"Mrs. Chambers. We are here because we're investigating a double homicide involving a woman who may have been involved with someone that your son used to work under. Lieutenant Commander Mitch Teeger." Leland replied.

"Teeger…Teeger… Oh, yes. Mitchell Teeger. I remember that name." she sneered, taking a sip of her beverage and swirling it around in the glass. "Mr. Teeger was Harry's Commander when he was stationed over in Eastern Europe. He cost him a promotion. Harry never really recovered from it."

Monk and Leland glanced at one another as Alicia continued the questioning. "What happened?" she asked.

Mrs. Chambers facial expression tightened as she explained the story from her son's point of view. "He was always on Harry's case. Most of his command was. But Teeger seemed to really have it out for my boy. He would document when Harry would come in late and wrote him up twice for taking a few days off. They were long holiday weekends that several of the others had taken off. Harry had a girl in Sarajevo for a while and my understanding is that he stayed there with her."

"How many times did this happen?" Monk asked.

"Twice, that I know of." Chambers replied. "Beyond that, he was always writing my son up for small things – nitpicking him, although one time he wrote him up for having drug paraphernalia." She said, looking each in the group in the eyes. The team remained silent. "Well, I know it wasn't his! My Harry was not a druggie. He was a good boy."

"I'm sure he was." Stottlemeyer interjected. "Now, he was serving under Mitch Teeger when their plane crashed in Kosovo, wasn't he?"

"He was Teeger's co-pilot when their plane landed in enemy territory."

"Landed?" Monk asked. "I thought they were shot down."

"No. Harry said Teeger was acting strange shortly after takeoff and landed them in a clearing. Then, he said Mitchell deserted. Poetic justice that that man died a coward." She replied, taking another sip of her drink. "My Harry would have been a colonel if he hadn't been treated so unfairly under his command. As it was, he left the military a short while after the incident. Set up an import business in Monterey when he moved back to California. He ran it until he died. So…so young." Tears began to form. "It was so shocking when I got the news of his car crash. No idea what he was doing all the way over in Sacramento. Must have gotten tired at the wheel though. He worked so hard. He's been gone over a decade and it seems like yesterday that I got the call."

"The death of a loved one is hard." Monk said softly as the mother nodded.

Leland refocused them. "Just a couple of additional questions, ma'am. Did your son ever mention any business dealings with a man named Ibrahim Tahiri?"

"Tahiri? No. Never heard of him." She replied.

"How about Ensign Lawrence Robinson?" he asked.

"Robbie?" she replied. "Definitely heard of him. He was Harry's best friend from the time they were boys. They called him 'Vulture' because he was always scavenging for food. Tragically, he drowned about three years ago. They were so close, in fact, that when my son died, he left all of his personal effects, his books, clothes, his other car which was a foreign sports car, a Lambourgini, all of the manly things to Robbie. I received nothing from that part of the estate. Robbie did help me navigate through settling Harry's life insurance policy. Harry took good care of his mother there. Left me a multi-millionaire. I was shocked."

"On a Lieutenant's salary?" Alicia asked.

"Yes. Harry was very good with money. Always seemed to have a lot of it and left no bills behind for me to settle. Had a huge insurance policy of $4,000,000 that he kept paid up. Like I say, a very good son." She replied with a smile. "Are you sure you people wouldn't like a drink? I'm going to freshen mine up a bit."

"No, ma'am. We're fine." Stottlemeyer replied. "Just one more thing. Does Robbie have any living relatives we could talk to?"

She thought for a moment. "He and Harry lived together while Harry was alive and after that Robbie met and married a woman named Cara Tate. They moved to Miramar. I'm not sure if Cara still lives there, but I can get you her address if you like – at least the last address I have for her." She replied.

"That would be very nice, ma'am." Leland said.

While the woman went to another part of the house to find the address the three detectives quietly discussed what they were told amongst themselves.

"Looks like Harry Chambers had some issues with the truth." Monk began. "Bet he was lying about what happened with Mitch."

"Why would you say that?" Alicia asked.

"For one, he had motive. He clearly hated Mitch- a lot, something he passed on to his mother who never met him."

"So?"

"So, Mitch was a good man – truly. Natalie's too smart and good to stay tied up with someone that wasn't."

Alicia rolled her eyes.

"And, sounds like he had a lot of disciplinary issues." he added. "Mitch was always writing him up."

"Man in his position would have to." Stottlemeyer replied. "Can't be flying over enemy territory and have someone who lacks discipline at your side. A lot like police work in that regard."

Alicia nodded. "What else?"

"Well, there's the money." Monk replied. "A lieutenant makes about $50,000 a year, even less back then."

"And how do you know that?" Alicia asked. "Oh…I'm sorry, I already know. Your girlfriend's boyfriend is a lieutenant."

Monk stopped and glared.

"Prince. Enough." Leland scolded. "Where were you going with this Monk?"

"Guy always had money, four-million-dollar insurance policy, expensive cars – a bit unusual for a low-level military officer. If he were that good in the import business, don't you think we would have heard of him?"

"Maybe." Leland replied. "So, what's the point?"

"I think he lied about Mitch to cover up for what he was really into over in Kosovo. I think he was paid off to say what he said, possibly by Tahiri. Just a gut feeling at this point. I need more information to find out for sure. Also, there's the question about the 'crash'. Don't you find it odd that Mitch landed the plane in enemy territory?"

"After he began acting odd?" Leland asked. "Yeah, I picked up on that."

"You guys thinking he was drugged?" Alicia asked. Monk nodded in affirmation.

"Here you go." The voice said coming from the back of the house. "Here's her address and her home phone number . I always got along with Cara and Robbie, so tell her that Louisa said hello." She said, handing the paper to Leland.

"Will do ma'am." He responded, standing up along with Monk and Prince. "Thank you for seeing us today. You've been quite helpful.

"You're welcome anytime." She replied with a smile.

Natalie and Molly traveled back towards Molly's apartment, happy to have made progress but once again at a standstill. Both were anxious to run the new information by Monk to get his feedback, but Natalie had the alternative motivation of making him proud. He had sent her on a mission and she hadn't come back empty handed.

About half-way to the apartment Molly glanced over at Monk's assistant. She considered broaching a subject that had nothing to do with their quest for the day but everything to do with her life.

"Hey, Natalie…are you hungry? Want to go pick up something for lunch?" she asked.

Natalie looked at her watch. "Is it that time already? " she responded. "Okay…sure. I don't have to meet Mr. Monk until around three so lunch would be good."

Pulling into the parking lot of a small diner, Molly took a seat with Natalie and after ordering a sandwich twisted her mouth to the side and began to speak.

"I have a confession to make." She said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I didn't really want to just have lunch. I wanted to talk." Molly said. "It's about Adrian…and me and Kyle…"

Natalie smiled. "Like I said, he'll get over it and wants you to be happy."

"That's good…and, I believe you…but that's not the whole thing. Kyle has been offered a job in New York City. We both have, really. And…well, we've decided to accept."

"New York! Wow! How exciting!" Natalie said.

"Yeah. It's really a great opportunity." she continued. "I'm just a little worried."

"Worried?"

"Yeah. About Adrian. You know. How he's going to take the news?" Molly answered.

"Ah. I see." Natalie responded. "Well…probably not well at first, you're right. But, Mr. Monk is a realist and, like I said, he wants you to be happy."

"But, I worry about leaving him all alone. I mean, when we first met he kinda went overkill in our relationship. My friends thought he was stalking me." she laughed. "But really, he was just so excited to meet me and I was him - although, it was a little weird. Lately, we've just got this good relationship and I do think of him like he's my stepfather. He is my stepfather. I've adopted him, even though we don't have legal papers. I hate that I'm going to pack up and leave him alone."

"He's not alone, alone. He's still got me." Natalie replied. "And Leland. We're a good team."

"I know you are." She responded. "That's the one saving grace. He's got you. You know, that's what he really needs."

"What's that?"

"A woman." Molly chuckled. "I mean, I get and admire how much he loves my mother and honors her memory – but Trudy wouldn't have wanted him to give up living. She would have wanted him to live and to love again and to really enjoy life with someone who loved him."

"I imagine you're right." Natalie replied, a little self-conscious at what it seemed Molly was inferring. "But, with Mr. Monk, there's only ever going to be Trudy."

"I'm not so sure about that." She responded. "You know...the ring is gone."

"Yes. I noticed."

"And, he's kinda been going through a little bit of a metamorphosis lately. He dresses different, he carries himself different, I even noticed he was wearing cologne the other day."

Natalie giggled. "I noticed that too. What do you think it means? I mean, I've known him for eleven years and he's so clean, of course he doesn't smell…but all of the sudden he's wearing cologne? You don't…you don't think he has a girlfriend do you?"

Molly shook her head. "No. But he may be thinking about getting one, or at least opening himself up to that. That's the feeling I get at least – and I would like nothing more than to see it."

Natalie listened and felt herself becoming anxious and a little jealous. If it was anyone other than herself, she didn't want to know. But, then again, she was taken, wasn't she? So why was Molly having this conversation with her?

"Adrian deserves to be happy and he deserves to have someone in his life that is compatible with him that can take him to new horizons – someone sorta like…well…like you."

Natalie blushed. "Like me? Me and Mr. Monk? You're joking."

"No. I'm not." Molly replied. "I think the two of you would be a great couple."

"Molly, I'm dating Steven."

"I know. I was just telling you what was on my mind." She said. "It's your life, of course. But, I think you two are good together and I would love to see Adrian with someone good and patient and someone who builds him up like you do. So, if you ever change your mind about Steven, consider me team Adrian and Natalie. You two would have the sort of relationship that legends are made of."

The waitress arrived at the table and interrupted the conversation but Molly's words hung in the air around them. For the rest of the afternoon and until she was to meet up with Monk it was all that was on Natalie's mind. Old feelings swirled about her reminding her of the dreams she dared to entertain from time to time – reminding her of the things that had recently happened. Things went so far in her mind that she began to daydream about what it would be like for Monk to finally ask her out – but then, she recalled that they had already been out. But was that really a date? Just the thought of it made her get butterflies in her stomach and caused her to smile inside as she left Molly's apartment and headed to the precinct to show him what she had found.

Entering the squad room, she had such joy in her heart from the afternoon spent bathing in that hope. Little did she know that hope's light would be extinguished the minute she entered the room.

"I don't care what you have to say, Alicia. She's not my girlfriend and it's most unprofessional of you to continue saying that!" Adrian stated, nearly in a shout.

Natalie stopped in her tracks, the joy draining from her heart.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say." Prince retorted, shaking her head. "She's a girl and she's your friend, but it's more than that. Everyone's talking about it. She's your girlfriend! Admit it!"

"Listen! Natalie is my assistant! She's been my assistant for eleven years. My employee. I write her W2s - or have her write them and then sign them...She works for me, and she doesn't need you trying to demean her as she fulfills that role. You seem to want to look down at her, but she's invaluable to me. I need her. She is a good investigator in her own right and I expect you to treat her that way. And if you don't stop badgering me over her, then I'm going to file one of those complaints with the mayor that you're so anxious to file all the time." He replied, turning on his heels to head out the door. "Oh…Nat-Natalie! I…I didn't see you st-standing there." He stammered.

Natalie's face flushed and she looked down. "That's okay, Mr. Monk. I just got here. Molly and I found some information that I wanted to share with you."

"Really?" he asked, oblivious to what she had overheard. "Um, do you want to go back to my apartment and look over it?"

"Um…actually…" she stated, trying to hold back emotion. "I think I'll just leave it with you, if you don't mind. I can drive you back to your place, but I'm feeling pretty tired. It's been a busy day and I think I'd like to just go home and rest for a while, if you don't mind."

"You're not getting sick, are you?" he stated, reaching his hand out and touching her cheek.

She looked up at him with saddened eyes. "No. I'm fine." She smiled softly. "Really, Mr. Monk. Just a little tired. Everything will be back to normal in the morning, so don't worry. I promise I'm okay."

Dropping Monk off at his apartment, Natalie rushed home as quickly as she could. Taking off her jacket and shoes the minute she entered the house, she locked the door and didn't even bother to change into anything different. Rather, she walked straight up the stairs and crawled into bed where she pulled her pillow over her head and cried herself to sleep, before the sun even fell.

At eight-thirty that night, she was awakened by a phone call from Steven Albright. He had good news for her. His trip was to be cut short and he would be back in San Francisco the next day.

"That's wonderful, sweetie." She said, faking excitement. "I can't wait to see you."

"Me too Natalie. I can't wait to see you and give you the kind of greeting you deserve." He replied. "Get some good sleep tonight, babe. And I'll see you tomorrow."

"Get good sleep yourself, Steven."

"I love you, Nat."

Natalie swallowed as a tear came down her face. "Me too. Be safe coming home. Goodnight."