Chapter 2

The car ride was silent. Natalie broke the silence, like always. "Mr. Monk you know we have to talk about what happened."

"What happened? I don't remember anything." Monk said pretending to be naive.

Natalie was furious and a little hurt. She thought the kiss was beautiful. She thought that was what he wanted, that's why she didn't stop. "You know what I am talking about. The kiss back at your place. How can you say you don't know what I am talking about?" She said, almost yelling.

"Natalie I just don't want to talk about it, because if I talk about it I won't be able to concentrate at the crime scene." He told her, but she knew it was going to be hard getting him to open up on the way home.

They arrived at the crime scene and they pretended they didn't even know each other. Off in the distance, Natalie stood taking sips of her coffee that Disher gave her when she arrived.

"So what's wrong with you and Monk?" Stottlemeyer asked her.

"Jesus!! You scared me and there is nothing going on between us." Natalie said.

"Oh! Ok, but I asked what's wrong not what's going on." Stottlemeyer said in a sarcastic tone. He walked off with a smirk on his face.

"So Monk did you find anything?" Stottlemeyer asked.

"I…." Before Monk could finish his sentence, Disher interrupted him.

"The vic was a male, 23 years old, lives three doors down, and for some reason the killer changed his shirt so we wouldn't see the bullet holes." Randy said.

"How did you figure that out?" Stottlemeyer asked, confused.

"I realized that there must have been a shooting," Monk said holding a bullet shell with his tweezers, "because I found this lying next to the victim, but when I got to the body I couldn't see any bullet wounds." He said. Natalie handed him a wipe. When he took it they grazed each other's hand and looked each other in the eye, and immediately turned their heads. This went unnoticed by everyone except Stottlemeyer.

"But why would the killer change the victim's shirt?" Randy asked. Everyone turned to Monk.

"I don't know." Monk said looking at the body in his Zen like way.

Natalie started watching Monk. She loved it when he did that. Every time he would do it he would find something everyone else missed. She was watching him and smiling like a teenager with a crush. Stottlemeyer was watching Natalie and wondering what she was looking at. She never really paid that much attention to Monk, but now she was paying a lot more attention.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Stottlemeyer asked standing next to her.

"Oh nothing. I am just thinking about a lot of things lately." she said. "Captain can I tell you something? It's a little personal. It's about what was going on before you came in to Mr. Monk's apartment."

"Yea sure Natalie. What's going on?" he asked reassuringly.

"Well before you came in, Mr. Monk said that he was going to raise my pay. After he said that, I was very excited, of course, I was going to kiss him on the cheek but he turned and we…sorta…kissed…on the lips." She said, not really sure how he would take the news.

"Wow! Monk? Are you sure?" He asked her with his eyes wide open.

"Yes! I am almost positive!"

"Oh, sorry." he said smiling.

"And you know what the weird part is?" she asked him. "I think he liked it. In fact, I think if you hadn't come in when you did we would might have done something we would have regretted."

"What? No you're kidding. Monk would never do that. I mean no offense but you know what I'm talking about." Disher said. He was listening to their conversation.

"What are you doing Randy?" Natalie asked, shocked and wondering how long he had been listening. "Oh my god, what did you hear?"

"Oh, everything so you don't have to catch me up."

Natalie rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe he was listening to them, but then again it was Randy. The man who once wanted to be a human statue. They all started watching Monk and he turned around and looked right at them. They all shifted their gaze to something else, and Monk knew exactly what they were talking about. He walked over to tell them what he found while they were gossiping.

"I found this under the body." Monk said pretending not to know what they were talking about. "It looks like a necklace or bracelet with the name Ellen on it."

"Hey Randy, bag this." Stottlemeyer ordered. "Thanks Monk, listen if you need to go you can. I think we are just going back to the station to get some statements."

"No, I'm good." Monk said looking back at Natalie.

"No Monk I think you should go home." Stottlemeyer said winking this time.

"Ok, but keep us posted."

"Oh we will, and Natalie you keep us posted." Randy said.

Monk and Natalie looked at him and rolled their eyes. They were walking back to Natalie's care when Monk grabbed her arm, not tightly but gently. Natalie turned and looked at him.

"Natalie, I wanted to apologize for what happened this morning. It was very unprofessional and I should have stopped it." he said seriously.

She looked at him in shock. "What about everything leading up to this kiss?"

"Everything like what?"

"Everything like Christmas, when you let me and Julie stay at your place and I didn't even have to ask. Or when we were locked in that vault about three months ago." She was almost in tears now. "When I held you in my arms and comforted you. How I stroked your hair and told you everything was going to be alright. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe I wanted that from you?" She was in tears now and leaning her head against the car window.

"Oh Natalie, it never occurred to me that you would want that from me." He said pulling her in for a hug. "I'm so sorry." He said hugging her tight.

"Oh Mr. Monk," she said leaning into him, "it's not your fault. We have just grown too close together. Maybe we should spend sometime apart. You know these things happen." She said pulling out of his embrace and wiping away her tears.

"No, Natalie we can't. What about this case?"

"Mr. Monk if you want to forget what happened this morning, then we have to separate for a while."

"For how long?" He asked her. He noticed he was still holding her hand and let it go.

"I don't know. I guess until we know what we want." She said. "Come on, I'll drive you home." She said and got into her car.