"I'm Jason Monroe... I'm sorry to be so blunt but... if I may say so Ms. Teeger you are very beautiful." He seemed nervous. Natalie felt her cheeks turn red.

"Well... um thats very nice of you to say. How do you know my name?" She responded and her flirting instincts kicked in so she started to play with her hair.

"Some of the other officers told me... would you like to maybe go out sometime?" He asked shyly. Monk didn't know what was wrong with him. He felt like knocking the wind right out of the guy and he knew his face was red as well.

"I'll think about it...could you give me your number and maybe I'll call you." Natalie said and now she was flirting big time she was playing with her hair, making her voice seem soft andsweet, and looking at the ground only glancing up a few times.

"Sure!" He said with a big grin. He went over to his desk and wrote on a piece of torn paper and walked back.

"Here... I get off duty at six." He said, handing her the paper

"I'll call you later, if that's OK?" She said still in flirting mode.

"Great! I'd love that." He said and still had a big grin on his face. Natalie then began to walk off swinging her hips as she walked toward the front doors. Jason and Monk both watched her walk away then Monk soon followed still mad as fire.

Monk and Natalie both got into the car. Monk didn't know what to do. She would be going on a date with another man. Was he supposed to just stand around and watch her flirt with him? Something about watching that previous scene made him mad and he didn't understand it, but seeing her with another man made him... well, jealous.

'What? No. Why would I be jealous, she's just my assistant?' He thought, but was brought out of it by the sound of giggling.

"What are you laughing at?" He asked not aware that he words were full of anger.

"I got a date!" She answered looking at the piece of paper with Jason's phone number on it.

"No, you just said you would call him." Monk said trying to change his tone from angry to normal.

"Yea but when I call him, I will get a date." She said putting the piece of paper in her purse and turning the key and starting the car. She wasn't actually that excited but she noticed back at the precinct that Monk's face got red as she was talking to Jason.

Their next stop was Amber Kincaid's work, a real estate firm called 'Howard Reality' and luckily it was on the other side of town and it gave Monk a chance to calm down. The ride was quite until Natalie continued talking about gas prices.

"I mean it. If we have to keep driving like this you'regoing to have to give me a raise." Natalie said again complaining about gas prices. But this time Monk didn't let her continue.

"Well how about I call up Bush and ask him to lower gas prices just for you." He said with a smirk. Natalie was surprised.

"You would do that for me?" She asked with a small smile dancing on her lips.

"Yes, but with my luck they would put Nancy Pelosi on the phone and I would
get fussed out."

"Then I would call back and fuss her out." Natalie said reaching over and patting his arm.

"Well, can I watch?" He asked not realizing she would want to know why.

"Why?"

"Well...nothing." He said quickly. He wanted to tell her it was because she was cute when she got mad but he didn't.

"Come on, what were you going to say?" She pushed.

"Were here!" He said as they neared their destination.

It was a five-story building and Natalie rolled her eyes as she parked the car. They walked in, asked the lady at the front desk which floor Amber worked on and proceed to the stairs making their way to the fourth floor. As they neared the second floor, Adrian broke the silence that had been lurking between
them.

"So when are you going to call Jason?"

"I was thinking six." She said, bringing Monk to a halt.

"But we're still going to watch that movie, right?" He asked and Natalie also came to a stop but one stepabove him so they were eye to eye. His eyes were full of concern and what looked to Natalie as if he were pleading with her as well.

"Of course." She said and they both made the mistake of looking in the others eyes. Natalie's heart skipped a beat and started back at a faster pace. Monk's heart was also racing. He hoped she hadn't noticed his breathing get heavier or the sweat on his forehead. He could smell her perfume, strawberry's with a hint of cream. He inhaled deeply to take it all in and slowly let it out. Just then the sound of a door opening and closing brought them back and hey continued up the stairs. Along the way they past a brown haired man wearing a suit, judging by his clothes, he must have worked there.

Natalie opened the fourth floor door and they looked down the hall. As they walked left they looked at the name plates on the doors and found Amber's at the very end of the hall. Walking in, Monk started to do "his thing" while Natalie looked at the papers on the desk. Natalie looked up from the desk to
watch Adrian but once she got into a daze a woman walked in.

"Excuse me... may I help you?" The woman asked, eyeing Natalie and Adrian suspiciously.

"Yes we are working with the police... did you know Amber Kincaid?" Natalie asked, moving from behind the desk to the front.

"Yes we are best friends. I'm Tracy White... is Amber in some kind of trouble?" Tracy asked, looking from Natalie to Monk who was now standing beside Natalie.

"I'm sorry to tell you but Amber was found this morning... she was murdered." Adrian informed her.

"Oh my god!" Tracy's eyes began to fill with tears as she moved to sit
in the chair behind the desk.

"Were you the friend Amber had been staying with?" Natalie asked.

"No she wasn't staying with me..."

"Did you know she was having a affair?" Adrian asked looking at the nasal drainage in the corner of her nose, twitching. He reached over and grabbed a tissue from the box on the desk and offered it to her. She nodded a thanks.

"Yes." She said wiping her nose causing Monk to slightly relax.

"Can you tell us what you know about him?" Monk asked glancing at Natalie.

"I didn't know him personally. I just knew him from what Amber had said... She said he was smart, cute, sweet, and made her feel special. Unlike Steven. That's who she was staying with."

"Do you know his name?" Natalie asked.

"Yes, David, I believe" Tracy said nodding her head.

"Do you know his last name?" Adrian asked.

"No she never told me."

"OK, if there is anything else that you think could help with this case give us a call." Natalie said, taking a piece of paper off the desk and writing her cell phone number on it.

"Yes of course." Tracy said, taking the paper. Natalie and Adrian nodded and walked out. But Adrian didn't go quietly. Tracy had laid her tissue on the desk and was getting up to leave also. Monk was trying to go back and throw it away but Natalie grabbed his arm pulling him to the stairwell.

Neither noticed the sign that said "wet floor" so as they neared the stairs Natalie let go of Adrian's arm. As soon as she did, she slipped on a wet spot and started falling backwards. Adrian's left arm flew out, and caught her back, letting her down as if dipping her on the dance floor, while his right hand was placed on her hip. Expecting to hit the floor, Natalie's eyes shut automatically. Instead of feeling the cold hard floor she felt the compassionate arm's of her boss holding her.

She slowly opened her eyes and found Monk's brown eyes staring back, full of concern. She noticed that he was dipping her and his hand was gently placed on her hip. She placed her hands on his shoulders and slid them behind his neck. Her breathing and heart rate increased, which seemed to be happening a lot lately.

"Are you OK?" He asked in a whisper that sent chills down her spine.

"Ye, Yes." Was all she could manage.

Adrian could smell her perfume again and couldn't remove his eyes from hers. He could feel his heart pounding against his ribs and tried to steady his breathing. His right index finger found a gap between her shirt and the waist band of her jeans, he gently glazed his finger over the soft skin that was exposed.

Natalie felt his finger touch her skin and closed her eyes. Just a simple touch could make her feel so weak and vulnerable, and yet warm and protected. She didn't know if he meant to touch her or not. Her mind was saying no but her heart was saying the opposite, she knew him and he would never willingly touch her. She opened her eyes and again found him staring back. He gently began pulling her face closer to his. She thought for a minute that he might kiss her but all her hopes vanished when he stood her up right.

For a minute, he didn't know what he was doing. He wanted to be closer to her but he just couldn't bring himself to kiss her, for the fear of her rejecting him and betraying Trudy. He moved her closer to him but in the end brought her to her feet, instead.

"Thanks." Natalie said, turning toward the stairwell trying to hide the disappointment on her face. She opened the door and started the decent. Monk followed close behind.

They walked down the stairs in silence, both with the same questions rolling through there minds. What just happened? Why do I feel this way? In the end they both came to the same conclusion: The other would never feel the same way.

The ride back to the station was surprisingly quite, no complaining about gas prices or talk of carpooling. Complete silence, trying to get the other off of their minds. When they arrived, they told the Captain what they had found outandwith no signs of Officer Monroe they left and headed to Natalie's house. It was five thirty when they walked through the door.

"I'm going to fix super, is there anything special you want?" She asked walking into the kitchen.

"No, whatever you want is fine." He said following her into the kitchen.

"Alright... how about..." She opened the freezer to find only Chicken Pot-Pies and made a mental note to go to the store soon. "All we have are Chicken Pot-Pies." She said taking them out of the freezer and holding them up.

"That's fine." He said trying not to stare at her as she placed both of the pies in the oven and set the timer.

She then walked over to the cabinet that held all of the DVD's she and Julie had collected over the years. It wasn't hard to find "The Silence of the Lambs" since right after she started working for Monk he organized them all by title, year and gender. As she was doing this, Monk was having a very hard time distracting himself from looking at her. He tried to organize the magazines she had laying on the coffee table but his eyes kept going back to her. What was it about her that mesmerized him? Maybe it was her amazing eyes, her perfect face, or maybe it was because she was perfect all around. He was snapped from his thoughts when Natalie turned around and found him staring at her.

"Is there something on my face?" She asked touching her face. It briefly crossed her mind that he might be admiring her but she quickly dismissed it.

"Wh? What? No, no." He said his face full of embarrassment.

"Well what were you looking at?" She asked, walking over and standing next to him.

"Um nothing." He said slyly turning to her. It was then they realized how close they were. Monk could feel Natalie's warm breath on his face. They were both transfixed on each other.

Thanks to Monkwriter for editing! Again I promise the really interesting moments will start in the next two chapters but again somthing has to happen first. Please review and tell me what you think they keep me going! And I'm so sorry it took so long to update I've been having some problems lately but now I am writing at full speed ahead and will update as soon as I can!!