Sharona turned up shortly after noon on Tuesday. She found Natalie alone in the kitchen, sipping tea and paging through a magazine. Adrian was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Sharona," Natalie greeted her. "How'd it go?"

"I think it went really well," Sharona said, still feeling jittery and excited. "Dr. Hector said she'd let me know sometime next week. Where's Adrian?"

"He's doing some packing at his apartment," she said. "I wanted to go and help, but he was too afraid I'd lift something I shouldn't." She rolled her eyes.

"That's probably wise," Sharona said, grabbing a mug and making some tea for herself. "Sometimes you don't realize how heavy a box is until you start lifting it, and then it's too late."

"I promised him that I wouldn't lift anything heavy, I'd just help pack, but you know…" She sighed. "Deaf ears. I suppose that he'd just repack everything I did anyway."

"Probably," Sharona agreed, joining her at the table. She cocked her head, noting the signs of a restless night on Natalie's face. "Did you have a rough night, pain-wise?"

"What? No," Natalie said, shaking her head. "I haven't needed Percocet in days. I just… I have a lot on my mind right now."

"I'll bet," Sharona said, stirring honey into her tea. "Wedding worries?"

"Not really," Natalie said, staring at her magazine. She hadn't read a word or turned a page in nearly an hour. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Hypothetically — very hypothetically — do you think it'd be a bad idea if I… if Adrian and I… had a baby?"

Sharona had to swallow very quickly to avoid spewing her tea all over the table. "Are you asking for my medical perspective, or my personal opinion?" she asked carefully.

Natalie shrugged. "Both, I suppose."

Sharona blew out a breath. "Well, from a medical perspective, it'd be wise to wait a little while. You just had major surgery. I'd say at least two months, or more if you want to be extremely cautious. As for my personal opinion…" She shrugged helplessly. "I can't answer that because it's not my business. It's between you and Adrian."

When Natalie didn't say anything, she pushed a little further. "Are the two of you thinking of trying?"

Natalie gripped her mug tightly. "We had a talk on Friday night, and he asked me how I'd feel about stopping birth control," she confided.

Sharona's eyes widened. "Wow." She had a hard time believing that it was Adrian Monk who had instigated that particular conversation, or who had made that particular suggestion, but Natalie didn't look as if she were joking.

"I told him I'd have to think about it, which I have been." Natalie stared into her mug of tea. "A lot."

Sharona frowned as something occurred to her, given that she was now intimately familiar with Natalie's medication regimen, as well as the contents of her medicine cabinet. "But… you're not on birth control right now, are you?"

Natalie shook her head.

"So did you two — "

"No," Natalie admitted. "That's something else we talked about. He wants to wait until our wedding night, and I agreed." She blew out an exasperated breath. "Reluctantly."

"Ah." Sharona nodded sagely, although she was struck by how surreal this conversation was. Adrian Monk's sex life was not a subject she was accustomed to discussing. Still, knowing him as she did, and remembering how he'd reacted to the sight of Natalie's incision a few days ago, she could guess what his worries were. "Is he too freaked out about hurting you right now?"

"Yes, but part of it is the whole birth control issue, too. I don't exactly want to go back on it if we do decide to try after the wedding, and I don't think he likes the idea of condoms." Natalie absently fiddled with the teabag in her cup. "I wasn't sure how I felt about stopping the Pill, at first, but… I have to admit, the idea is starting to have some appeal."

"Do you want more children?" Sharona asked.

"I always wanted more children," Natalie confessed wistfully. "Mitch and I tried for another baby after Julie, but it never happened — not that we were able to try a lot, given his deployments. After he died I couldn't even think about it for years. Eventually, though, I kind of hoped I'd remarry at some point and maybe have a few more kids, but I never found the right guy."

"Until now," Sharona supplied sympathetically.

"Until now," Natalie agreed. "But… it seems ridiculous. I'm nearly forty, for heaven's sakes. He's fifty-one. There are risks. And my only child is eighteen — there'd probably be a twenty-year age gap, maybe more, between them. I thought I was done with the baby days; do I really want to start all over again, with breastfeeding and diapers and teething? I mean, it's ludicrous to even consider."

"But you're considering it anyway."

Natalie heaved a sigh. "Yeah."

Sharona smiled, sitting back in her chair. "Welcome to the club, honey."

Natalie's head jerked up in surprise. "Are you and Randy…?"

"We're thinking about it," Sharona admitted. "Not right now, I need to find a good job and get established in it before we even think about trying, but… he wants to, eventually. And I think I do, too."

Natalie smiled. "That's great."

Sharona raised her eyebrows. "Is it? I'm nearly forty and my only child is eighteen."

"I — " Natalie flushed. "Randy's younger than Adrian."

"What difference does that make?" Sharona said. "The equipment works the same way, no matter how old they are."

"I know, but — " She didn't like putting her concern into words. "It's just — people don't live forever, and — "

"You're afraid you'll end up a single mom again?" Sharona said quietly.

Natalie nodded, her eyes filling with tears at the thought of it.

"I know how you feel," Sharona said pragmatically. "Randy's a cop. It's one of the most dangerous professions there is. I could end up a single mom again, too. And it'd be tough… but if the worst happened, I think I'd regret not trying much more than I'd regret having that child."

"Yeah," Natalie said through her tears. Sharona handed her a napkin.

"It must have been so awful for you after Mitch died," she said sympathetically. "At least Benjy's father was still alive, even if he wasn't around much."

"It was… excruciating," Natalie said, reliving the experience as if it'd happened yesterday. "I felt like a zombie for months, just going through the motions. But I'm so thankful I had Julie. The only thing that got me through it was having that… that piece of him with me, and knowing he'd live on through her."

Sharona nodded in understanding. "I think that if Adrian and Trudy would have had a child, he might not have fallen apart the way he did after she died."

"That had occurred to me. Especially since I could have died in that accident, and he'd have been alone again. I mean, I know Julie would have been there for him, but I don't know if that would have helped."

"I think losing you would have utterly destroyed him, regardless," Sharona said softly. "He barely survived it once, but twice? I just thank God that didn't happen."

"Me too," Natalie said, shuddering as she remembered the accident photos.

The two women were silent for a long while, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Sharona spoke again. "After I remarried Trevor, I wanted more kids. We tried for two years, but it never happened."

Natalie reached out and took her hand. "Did you get any testing done, or…?"

Sharona shook her head. "Trevor kept telling me that it'd happen eventually, that we just had to relax, or maybe it was taking a while because I was older than I once was." She swallowed, and Natalie saw tears glimmering in her eyes — but they were angry tears. "And then I found out he'd had a vasectomy the year before we got back together."

Natalie stared at her, open-mouthed. "He'd been sterilized and he didn't even tell you?"

Sharona shook her head, tears slipping down her cheeks. "He lied to me. Over and over again, he lied to me — and when I confronted him, he said I should be happy about it, that it was built-in birth control and I was too old to have another kid anyway."

"Is he still alive?" Natalie asked frankly.

Sharona laughed, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Unfortunately, yes. But I kicked him out that same day and filed for divorce — again — just as soon as I could. That's one of the reasons I wanted to move back here, honestly — after that, I couldn't stand even being in the same state as him."

"I don't blame you," Natalie said fervently.

Sharona shrugged. "I was stupid to get back together with him in the first place, but I thought he'd changed. I was wrong."

"I am so sorry," Natalie said, genuinely appalled. "I can't believe he would lie to you like that."

Sharona smiled sadly. "Of course you can't. You were married to an honest, decent man — and you're going to marry another one."

"You have an honest, decent man now, too," Natalie pointed out. "In fact, Randy's one of the most decent guys I know."

"He is," Sharona agreed, smiling fondly. "I think my luck with men has finally changed."

"Does Randy know what Trevor did to you?"

She nodded.

Natalie gave her a wry grin. "If Randy goes on a mysterious business trip to New Jersey and Trevor's found floating in the Atlantic a few days later, I promise I won't say a thing."

Sharona laughed. "The thought had crossed my mind. Let's just say Trevor knows to stay as far away from San Francisco as he can get."

They both laughed, and Natalie felt oddly settled. "Thanks for the tea and sympathy," she said. "I feel much better now."

"Likewise," Sharona said. "You know, you're the only one I've told about what Trevor did, other than Randy."

"Benjy doesn't know?"

"Oh, he knows, but only because Trevor told him, not me. I think Trevor thought Benjy would be on his side, but Benjy was furious with him." Sharona shivered. "They had a huge fight — they nearly came to blows. After that, Benjy decided to transfer schools."

"Good for him," Natalie said firmly. "You raised him right."

Sharona smiled. "I did, didn't I? Did you know that he wants to be a cop?"

"Really?" Natalie exclaimed. "That's great!"

"I'm proud of him, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't scare me. Most dangerous profession, and all that." Sharona bit her lip. "But he says he wants to be a homicide detective like Adrian. And he's really warmed up to Randy, too. They get along really well."

"Julie's a theater major," Natalie said. "She's not sure yet if she wants to be an actress or just work behind the scenes."

Their conversation drifted into more mundane topics. When Adrian came home around three, they were still sitting at the table together, laughing and chatting. The remains of a casual lunch of sandwiches and carrot sticks littered the table.

"Hey, want some help?" Sharona asked, seeing the box in his arms.

"I wouldn't say no," Adrian said, shifting the box to get a better angle. "I have a few more out in the car."

Sharona left to grab a box while Natalie began clearing away the lunch debris. By the time Sharona and Adrian had finished carrying all of the boxes out of the car and up to the guest room, she had the kitchen tidied up again. It was amazing how just doing a simple household chore made her feel so accomplished after weeks of sitting around doing nothing.

Adrian, of course, wanted to unpack his boxes right away. Not surprisingly, he wouldn't let her help. Sharona, sensing that Natalie was feeling at loose ends, offered to take her grocery shopping — after assuring Adrian that no, she wouldn't let Natalie do any heavy lifting at all, and she'd be sure to have her rest afterwards.

Natalie decided to get the ingredients for homemade chicken pot pie, Adrian's favorite, and cook an actual dinner that night. It was Tuesday, after all. In the last few weeks, they'd been making do with fairly simple meals — canned soup, sandwiches, pre-made dinners from the grocery store, a few frozen casseroles T.K. had given them, and occasionally getting take-out. It was time for a change.

Adrian was still busy unpacking and organizing when they returned to the house, but after a short rest — at Sharona's insistence — Natalie started dinner preparations. Sharona had already gone home for the day when she took the pie, hot and bubbling, out of the oven.

He appeared in the kitchen minutes later. When he saw the pie cooling on the counter, the expression on his face was so hopeful that she couldn't help but smile. "Is that… chicken pot pie?" he asked as though he were afraid to believe it.

"No," she said, and his face fell. "It's homemade chicken pot pie," she clarified, and laughed at the grin that spread over his face.

"What's the occasion?" he asked, noting the table was already set, complete with candles.

"It's Tuesday, I'm off bed rest, and you've been working hard today." Using potholders, she carefully transferred the pie to the table.

"Hey, I can get that!" he protested, springing forward.

She rolled her eyes. "Adrian, this pot pie does not weigh more than ten pounds."

"I guess not," he said, drawing back and flushing slightly. "I'll, uh, fix us some ice water."

He enjoyed the meal tremendously, judging by the large portions he ate, and she had to admit there was something satisfying about a home-cooked meal.

When they were finished eating, Adrian helped with the clean-up. He was putting their water glasses away on the top shelf of the cupboard when he suddenly yelped in pain and grabbed his left shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Natalie asked, alarmed.

He winced, rolling his shoulder slowly. "Yes, I just pulled a muscle earlier today."

"Ouch," she said sympathetically. "Let's sit down and I'll massage it for you."

"It's fine, it's not — "

"Adrian, hush," she said, leading him to the living room. "I can see that it's hurting you." She made him sit on the couch, then she knelt behind him and rubbed his sore shoulder, massaging carefully but firmly where she felt the tense muscles.

She could tell it was helping by the way he gradually relaxed. "Will you just keep doing that for the next eight hours or so?" he mumbled, his eyes closed and his expression slack.

Natalie grinned. "I'm not sure my fingers would last that long."

"We won't know until we try," he said, sighing in contentment.

She kept up the massage as his head lolled against the couch cushions. "Adrian," she said as she worked, "I've been thinking… a lot… about what we talked about on Friday evening."

He'd had a long, busy day and her gentle massage was immensely relaxing. "Hmmm?" he murmured vaguely.

"Well… here's the thing." She smiled, a bit self-consciously. "I think I want to."

"You want to what?" he asked, a little drowsily.

"Stop using birth control."

It took a minute for her words to register, but when they did, Adrian froze. He blinked his eyes open and turned to face her. She looked nervous, but also… happy. "You do?" he asked.

She nodded. "What do you think?"

He hesitated, feeling flummoxed. What did he think? As he gazed into her soft blue eyes, he heard himself say, "I think you should stop using it, too." He could hardly believe what he was suggesting, but he realized that he was absolutely in earnest.

Her first reaction, to her own surprise, was elation. But then she bit her lip and said, "Adrian, there's something you should know – it took Mitch and I nearly a year to have Julie, and we tried again afterwards but we didn't have any luck, so I don't know if – "

"If it happens, it happens," he said. "And if not… that's okay, too." He kissed her, long and soundly, and the two of them almost forgot themselves as they sat on the couch and made out like randy teenagers.

Eventually he forced himself to pull away, as he was getting entirely too tempted to forego their arrangement. "This waiting thing is going to be a lot harder than I'd anticipated," he said gruffly.

"It was your idea," she said, breathing heavily, looking attractively tousled.

"Don't remind me," he grumbled. "Maybe I should move back to my apartment until the wedding."

She giggled slightly. "It's a one-bedroom apartment. I'm not sure my parents would want to share."

He sighed, and stole one more kiss before making himself get up. "I'm going to go outside and take a walk. Maybe find a large body of freezing water to jump into."

"Don't drown," she said, her eyes dancing with humor.

"I wish," he muttered as he strode out the door.