This chapter has a small "M" section at the end.

Chapter 5 - Old Secrets —Max

TK Stottlemeyer picked up Charlie and Emery Monk after school for their Monday afternoon ice cream date. Although sometimes it was ices, sometimes it was pie. Occasionally, it was a field trip to a museum or special event. It really didn't matter. The three went on dates like these all year, every Monday afternoon. It was secretly TK's way of pretending to be a mom, a joy she'd been denied by timing and biology. It helped Adrian and Natalie have one less worry about getting the kids on a workday. TK fiercely loved her stepsons but hadn't gotten in on the ground floor with Jared and Max. She'd been there with Emery, Charlie, and Willow from the moment they were born. TK also had a standing date with Willow on Thursdays since her school was far from the Monk children's, and she was on a different schedule. She would pick a different day for Gabriel and Tori when they were old enough to have dates with "Gigi," as she had chosen to be called. By then, she thought sadly, Charlie, Emery, and Willow might have aged out of their dates.

TK so enjoyed her conversations with her godchildren. However, today, the conversation took an unusual turn.

"Aunt TK," Charlie began hesitantly, having already broached the subject with his sister the night before, after dinner, when they had gotten home from Julie and Jared's house. Emery nodded encouragingly. "Have you ever been jealous?"

TK was taken aback. Where did this come from? "Well, Charlie, I haven't lived this long and never been jealous, but I try to temper it with reason and kindness. What made you ask?"

"I had a thing happen yesterday. I was angry—jealous of someone who came to see Mom and Dad yesterday. His name was Tom. Mom and Dad knew him when he was a very little boy. Less than two. Dad fostered him for a week or two before he and Mom or you and Uncle Leland…" When Natalie was pregnant with Charlie, she told TK about the brief period of her friends' lives when Tommy Grazer lived with Adrian. Natalie described what Adrian had been like with that little boy. Remembering what type of father he'd been to Tommy and to Julie and imagining him with their child. TK smiled when she thought back to that conversation but now concentrated on her godson's serious expression.

"I see," TK said. "This made you feel… angry? Threatened? Envious?" She always spoke to the two Monk children like grown-ups. Their ability to comprehend demanded it.

"All of the above," Charlie said, wincing at his own outlandish response to something that was truly not that big a deal. "I just don't get why a stranger made me feel that way when I don't feel like that about Julie, Emery, Willow, Jared, Gabriel, or Tori. Four of them came after me into Mom and Dad's life. If anything, they're the ones I should be jealous of now! But I'm not; I don't feel anything but love, friendship, and happiness when I think about them!"

TK just looked at her godson; he had found his answer but didn't realize it. "I think you know the answer, Charlie. All those people are part of your… our… family. To you, this was a complete stranger getting your father's attention and approval. It bothered you. It hurt you. It confused you. It doesn't take a Monk or a psychiatrist to unravel jealousy or rivalry. I can tell you from my viewpoint, you have nothing to fear. Your father loves you more than his own life, Charlie. He would never put anything or anyone above you, Emery, Julie, or your mother."

Charlie nodded. He knew Aunt TK wouldn't lie to him or try to mollify his fears with some baby talk. She always spoke to him like he was a grown-up. He appreciated that. Aunt Sharona and Uncle Randy were for the little kid stuff. Learning all the cool games, old music, and street toughness they needed to survive. Aunt TK and Uncle Leland were for the big grown-up problems.

During this conversation, Emery silently ate her ice cream sundae, thinking about everything being said. Finally, she spoke. "I'll never love anyone more than you either, Charlie!" Then she rolled her eyes and stuck out her little pink tongue, and the three laughed together at Emery's attempt to lighten the mood. "Maybe when I find someone to marry. Will that be okay?"

Charlie actually bristled at that. So much like Adrian, yet again. No one would be good enough for his sister. And she would be locked in a tower until she was 35 if he had any say.

TK just watched the emotions and thoughts happen. She smiled, thinking about how much of Adrian had either been infused into or rubbed off onto his son.

"When the time comes, Emery, your mother, and I, along with Julie and Aunt Sharona, will hold Charlie and your father back if they try to stop you from dating and finding a person to marry."

Charlie knit his brows together in confusion. Why would Aunt TK be okay with Emery dating and getting married?

"Charlie, relax. She isn't even eight. We have a while to worry about this stuff," TK tousled his jet-black curls in a way that never bothered him, even though his hair became more disordered than usual.

He relaxed and smiled his little Monk smirk. "I guess you're right."

"I know I am." Just then, the bells over the door of the ice cream shop jingled, and in strode Max Stottlemeyer. Tall, handsome, and extremely well-dressed. He was working on his dissertation for UC Berkeley's Film Department; it was a qualitative inquiry into how romantic love has been portrayed by contemporary media and film. This would garner him a Ph.D. in Film and Media, and although that was impressive, TK had no idea what he planned to do with it. Work for a production company? Teach?

Meanwhile, the subject matter was way beyond TK's writing scope, almost beyond her understanding. Leland was completely puzzled but supportive. Max bent down to kiss his stepmother and scooted into the chair beside hers.

"Hey guys!"

"Hi, Max," Emery said with a cheerful smile, "How's your research going?"

"Good! Just thought I'd take a break and get a snack with you guys!" Everyone in the "family" knew everyone else's schedules, work, play, or otherwise. A fact that Max, in particular, found utterly disconcerting. The lack of privacy was, to say the least, worrisome.

"Hi, Max," Charlie said less enthusiastically, still caught in his earlier funk.

"What's up with you, Charlie?"

"Nothing. I'm just working through some issues," he said with the gravitas of a thirty-five-year-old man deep into his twice-weekly psychotherapy.

Max just raised his eyebrows at TK, and she closed her eyes and gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head. "Okay then," he said. "What else is going on?"

"Well," Emery said enthusiastically, "I was just about to tell Aunt TK about my upcoming dance recital. I've got two solos!"

"Wow, peanut! That's awesome!" Max had nicknamed Emery "Peanut" when she was born. He always said her squished-up face looked like Mr. Peanut when she cried. To Adrian's chagrin, but Emery's delight, it had stuck. No one else got to call her that except her hero, Max. Emery described the dance numbers in the upcoming recital, and TK and Max listened and commented with excited approval. At the same time, Charlie Monk continued to stew over his ice cream.

TK's cell phone rang, and she got up to answer it away from the table. Max continued his conversation with the children. "So, how's our new niece?" Max and the children were all related to baby Victoria and Gabriel.

"She's cute, but Gabriel is going to be an artistic genius, according to Emery," Charlie answered for them both, as Emery had her mouth full.

Emery swallowed, "Yeah, she's adorbs, but for now, she's like a zero… Gabriel has finally gotten really interesting!" She licked some chocolate sauce from her lips and drank water to slake the thirst the sundae had created.

Max smiled at her, thinking about how he and Jared had been about their ages going out to eat with their father, Adrian, not so long ago.

TK came rushing back to the table. "Guys, that was my neighbor. We have to go. I have to get you home to Mercy… there seems to be a flood in my house!"

"Oh no!" Emery breathed. She disliked change and deviation as much as her father did, but she also had her mother's empathy.

"Uh oh!" Charlie, out of his problems for the moment to focus on someone else.

Max stood, "Go, Mom," he said to his stepmother, "I'll take Peanut and Charlie home."

"Max, you are wonderful!"

"Aunt TK, call us to tell us what happened!" Emery called after her. TK gave her a thumbs-up as she pushed through the door. A minute later, she was back with their backpacks and ran back out the door again.

"Take your time finishing, guys," Max told the two ice cream eaters, "I am at your service this afternoon."

Emery giggled, imagining Max in a chauffeur's uniform like Jonas, who worked for her grandparents. Charlie said, "Thanks, Max. I hope everything is okay at Uncle Leland and Aunt TK's." Always curious. "What could have caused a flood?"

"I don't know, but I guess we'll hear the whole story sooner or later."

Charlie nodded in agreement and went to work to finish his sundae. He was, after all, still nine years old and loved ice cream despite his big life thoughts. Emery was finished and went to sit on Max's lap. She had a way of charming all of the men in her life. First and foremost, her father, but her brother, brother-in-law, grandfathers, uncles, godfathers, and "cousins" were also victims of her beauty and ability to coax smiles and affection, not to mention getting them to do her bidding. Natalie and Julie were proud of her talent, mainly because they had it too. And they each used it to full effect—a lot. On their husbands and in the years before their marriages, on men of all ages and relationships to them. It freaked Adrian out to no end. Emery used her charm now as she examined Max's face.

"Maaaaaax… what's wrong?"

"Nothing, Peanut. I'm just tired and working late at night on my dissertation. One day, you'll see." Max was confident that the two children in front of him would be following in the footsteps of their mother, sister, Jared, and him and embark on advanced degrees when their time came. Except he hoped their lives turned out to be easier than his was at the moment.

When Charlie was finished, Max shrugged off his thoughts and said, "Okay, kiddoes, let's hit the road."

"Okay," the youngest Monks responded in unison.

𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ

When the kids and Max made it back to Maison Monk, as Julie had dubbed it many years ago, the alliterative moniker now cemented by an engraved wood sign gotten at a county fair that hung at the front door proclaiming the same, they found Mercy in the kitchen preparing dinner. The children went to their rooms to begin their homework, and Max said he wouldn't leave without saying goodbye. Max took the newspaper to the Monk's spacious patio and decided to wait for Adrian and Natalie. He needed to talk to someone, and he often found that Adrian and Natalie were good sounding boards for all manner of things. Sometimes, they were just a suitable rehearsal space for things he needed to say to his father. This was one of those issues that needed both advice and rehearsal.

Thirty-five minutes later, Max was well into the crossword puzzle when he heard the back door open. He belatedly hoped he didn't ruin Natalie or Adrian's evening by doing their puzzle.

"Hey, Max!" Adrian said as he walked towards him with a glass of iced tea and an outstretched hand. "How are you?"

"I'm okay. I thought I'd stay to say hi and see if you and Nat had time for a talk."

"We always have time for you, Max. Do you want to stay for dinner?"

"I don't want to disturb your family time…."

"Nonsense, you're our family too," Adrian replied sincerely. A long way away from the Adrian Monk, who was unsure how to talk to a young boy whose mom was in the hospital all those years ago.

"What I want to talk about isn't for little ears." He looked at Adrian seriously.

"Okay, we still have time before dinner. Will you stay?"

"Sure, thank you."

"Let me tell Mercy and get Natalie." He handed Max the glass of iced tea and headed back inside.

Adrian came back moments later with two more glasses and Natalie in tow.

"Hi, Max," Natalie said enthusiastically. "What's up? The kids mentioned a flood at your parents' house?"

"Yeah, Mom just called about fifteen minutes ago. Seems a piece snapped off a toilet upstairs that connected the hose to the wall, and the hose was spraying water everywhere." Adrian shuddered violently. Max smirked. "Don't worry, Adrian, it was the clean water inlet hose." The words only calmed Adrian by about a third. "She's waiting for the disaster emergency clean-up people. We'll know more later."

Natalie reached for Adrian's hand to calm his unease and said, "Sounds like it might be quite a mess for quite a while."

Adrian shook his head vehemently and said, "They're going to have to burn the house down. Or move. I'll never be able to go back there."

Natalie rubbed his shoulder, "Yes, you will; it was clean water. You'll be fine," she reassured him with a smile and a nudge. "Meanwhile, we're not here to worry about the state of the Stottlemeyer's house. Max needs to talk to us." Natalie was used to a variety of the young adults in their lives coming to her and Adrian as a practice space before they broke difficult news to their own parents, so she had braced herself for whatever was coming. Although she thought she had an inkling, she was confident Adrian did not. She was proud that they all felt that Adrian and she were trustworthy and even-tempered enough not to jump to judgment and yelling before they listened and tried to help.

They made a little small talk before Max scrubbed his face with both hands and stood to pace back and forth between them. He was tall, dark, and attractive at twenty-seven. "I'm not sure how to say this, guys," he began with nerves apparent in his voice.

"Whatever you say to us goes no further, Max, so you can trust us to keep your confidence or help you if you need help."

"Well, I don't need help exactly. But I do need to confess."

"To a crime?" Adrian asked, startled.

"No, Adrian, to keeping a very big secret for a very long time."

Adrian visibly relaxed, "Okay, as long as your father, Randy, and I don't have to arrest you and your brother and Julie don't have to prosecute you… Nothing else can't be handled."

Max smiled with uncertainty. "You haven't heard what I have to say yet."

Adrian replied, "Sit, Max, tell us what's bothering you."

Max took his seat across from his honorary aunt and uncle. Natalie took his hand and looked him in the eye.

Tears came to his eyes at her soft kindness. "I- I'm gay," he divulged in a short burst.

Natalie nodded. She seemed, to Adrian, unsurprised by the news.

Adrian was briefly shocked but recovered admirably. "Max, no one in the family cares who you love. You know that we love you. Anyone who you want to be with will be thoroughly checked out, of course, but once we do that, we will accept them and love them…God help them!"

They all gave a little laugh at that. Max wiped his tears and said, "Thank you, Adrian. My problem isn't so much who I am or who I love; it's how I tell my father. You know how close he and Jared are. How they do all those football, baseball, hockey, and basketball things together. He and I have never really had much in common in that way. Jared has been his sports buddy for, well, our whole lives. I liked sports. I played sports. Just not quite as much or as well as Jared. I guess their relationship makes me a little jealous, but it also saddens me. My being gay will just be one less thing we have in common and maybe drive us further apart." He hung his head and put his hands behind his neck as he blew out a breath. His dark brown hair fell in soft waves around his face. A tear dripped off the tip of his nose and onto the patio's brick. He watched it absorb for a moment and sighed.

Natalie, ever a mother in every cell of her body, crouched in front of Max and put her hands on his knees before she spoke. "Max, your father loves you. Jared loves you. We all love you. Adrian is right. No matter who you love, it won't change how any one of us feels about you. You're still Max. The dreamer, the guy who dresses better than any of us, who will soon have his doctorate in film and media and be famous for his work one day. Not to mention, who runs all the Stottlemeyer film festivals? Who runs to the theater for every Marvel or DC movie with Leland and also drags Charlie? You. Not Jared. I think you're underestimating your relationship with your dad."

Max's eyes stopped tearing and sparkled at Natalie. Her words had comforted and helped him have hope.

Adrian knew how good she was at that, and he smiled and nodded. "Not to mention, your father and I don't have those things you mentioned in common. We're still friends, he still likes me, and we still find things to do together outside work." There were bowling outings, dinners out, and even some stops at local bars, where Adrian didn't imbibe, but the conversation was still man-to-man.

"Max, is there a reason you've decided to come out now? Is there someone special in your life?" Natalie's question sparked the first genuine smile they'd seen from Max that afternoon.

"So there is!" Adrian said with a smile. He didn't spend much time thinking about other people's love lives. He definitely didn't think about other people's sex lives unless it related to a case. The only person he ever discussed those personal topics with was his wife, and they mainly centered on the two of them in private.

On the other hand, he was always happy when one of the kids fell in love with a wonderful person. Julie and Jared… no matter how hard that had been to swallow at first. His little Julie… He definitely did not ever think about how he'd come to be a grandpa. Benji and Liz. Another law enforcement match made in heaven. What Adrian didn't realize was that the young adults of their family made such suitable matches because they had such good role models—particularly the hard-won romantic love story of Adrian and Natalie. But each of the fantastic second chances experienced by Leland and Sharona had also figured into the equation for them. Now, they were building even more role models for their younger siblings and cousins. Two generations of happy, loyal, stable marriages. Three generations if they looked to Peggy and Bobby as well.

"There is, and that's why it's time to come out to all of you. I want him to meet 'the family.'"

"Probably not all at once…" Natalie said with a snort and a laugh.

"No, I think I'll go with Mom and Dad first."

"Yes, let's ease the poor guy in. We can be an awful lot all at once!" Adrian said good-naturedly. Knowing having to explain the complex web of relationships and family to an outsider was an undertaking not for the fainthearted. Not to mention explaining Adrian's, uh, unique gifts and quirks. He may be beloved by the family, but it took some time to understand and come to love Adrian Monk, even now.

Natalie read his mind, "We can all be a lot, not to mention how our tangled family came to be. Let's take it slowly. How about you tell us his name?"

"Bennett. Bennett R. Davidson. He's a writer."

"Okay. Well, we can certainly start with that," Adrian said, satisfied that he and Natalie could begin looking into Max's love interest without getting Leland involved. "When do you think you'll tell Leland and TK?"

"I was going to do it this weekend, but now, with the flood in the house…Maybe I should wait."

"Why don't you play it by ear? See if things are as bad as they sound, or if it will be alright, then decide. I'm sure Bennett is anxious, too," Natalie smiled at him and pulled him to his feet. "Let's go have dinner, and you can forget your worries for a while. I'm sure your parents will be as happy for you as we all were for Julie and Jared."

"I'm not sure we're that serious quite yet."

"Well, if you're serious enough to tell them at last, it must be pretty serious." Max smiled a truly happy smile and nodded enthusiastically. Natalie smirked. "So, I'm right… He's not the first, but he might be the last."

"Possibly." Adrian put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Getting any sort of physical reassurance from Adrian Monk was a sure sign of love and acceptance. He thought about what his father and stepmother would think about him marrying another man but stopped before he got ahead of himself. Briefly, he wondered where his real mother, no, birth mother, was. He hadn't seen or heard from her since just after his father had married TK. TK was his real mom in all ways that mattered to him after his mother ran out on him when he was just a young teen. TK loved him, and he'd literally loved TK the instant they'd met. She wasn't going to be the issue. He was worried about his father's reaction. But he trusted Natalie and Adrian. They believed in his father's love and ability to accept him as he was. He thought about that as he followed them into the house when Mercy called for them.

The kids thundered down the stairs. Well, Emery thundered; Charlie walked sedately, like a grown-up. Max wondered how he would explain himself to the two of them. But he realized the two youngsters might have an easier time than his father. Their intellect and emotional intelligence were so enormous that they would assimilate the new knowledge as they always did. With deep thought and probing questions, carefully answered by Natalie and Adrian. However, he would let Natalie and Adrian decide the time and place for that explanation.

Mercy bid her farewell after she served dinner. The children each rose to hug her; no one made snacks for homework time like their Mercy. No one was a better babysitter. They shared all kinds of secret confidences with her, as Natalie had with Penelope when she was a child. They adored Mercy, and so did Adrian and Natalie. They felt confident when the children were with her. Dinner was warm and uneventful; even Charlie seemed to return to his usual self, regaling them with a story about an asteroid that might hit the Earth one day.

Adrian began perseverating until Charlie added it wouldn't occur for another 100 years. I'll be long dead, Adrian thought with relief only he could get from that thought.

Natalie raised one eyebrow in silent communication with her worry-wart husband, who immediately settled and smiled at her in his boyish way. Max caught the interaction and hoped he would have that with someone, whether it was Bennett or someone else wonderful, one day.

Due to the earlier ice cream parlor visit, dessert was a healthy fruit salad that evening, as it was on most Aunt TK "date days." The phone rang, and Natalie went to pick it up as Adrian began the chore of after-dinner clean-up with Max as his aide. Not really a chore for Adrian, more like a relaxing pleasure. Everything was cleaned and put back into its appointed place, making him feel that everything was under control when so much of life was beyond his daily control. He heard Natalie's voice rise and fall from the other room. He could always tell who she was speaking to by how she spoke and her chosen words. This was TK on the line. Telling Natalie about the flood tragedy, he supposed. Then Natalie would repeat it all for him. The children had retreated to the den for some television program that he couldn't understand how people of their brain power enjoyed. Something about an anthropomorphized sea sponge with a friend who was a starfish: their arch nemesis was an unpleasant and grumpy octopus named after a squid. The sponge looked more like an ordinary kitchen sponge and wore clothes. It bewildered Adrian, but he heard laughing from the den, and he was glad that his son was in a better frame of mind.

Max returned with the dirty placemats and napkins and put them in the kitchen laundry while Adrian ruminated over his children's taste in entertainment. Max wished him a good night and said, "Thanks again for listening."

"Any time, Max, any time at all." Adrian looked over his shoulder as the young man retreated from the kitchen. Adrian sighed. He wasn't sure how Leland would react to Max's announcement. He knew Leland to be a good, unbiased, non-bigoted cop, but did those feelings run the same when it was a member of his own family? He remembered a long-ago conversation in Leland's office when he was still Captain Stottlemeyer, and they'd caught a case with some nudists and a dead girl on a nude beach. Looking back, Monk knew he had handled it poorly, although it led to a fantastic psychiatric breakthrough for him.

"Don't you talk," Leland commanded. "This is not a conversation. This is an intervention. I'll tell you what I do know. Number one—it was not Chance Singer."

"Captain!" Adrian had replied.

"Chance Singer was in my jail all night long." Stottlemeyer just spoke right over his protests. "Number two—you are off this case."

"You-You-you're defending them?"

"Monk, this is San Francisco! There's a million weirdos out there. Some of them are wearing clothes. Some of them are not. And yes, I am defending them. That's what this means." He'd flashed the badge at his hip in Adrian's face. "We defend them. I spend a lot of my time—too much of my time—trying to keep bigotry and racism out of this department."

Painfully stung, Adrian had replied, "I am not a bigot."

"Well, I don't know what else to call it, Monk. You wanna put this guy away for the rest of his life because he makes you uncomfortable. Look, you've always had issues. But this isn't just another quirk or phobia. Like, uh, your fear of clowns or round things. This is different. This is new. And weird. And ugly."

"First of all, I am not afraid of round things—" he protested again.

"Monk, you're a great detective. Look at it like it's a mystery. There's something going on here. Something's going on inside of you. Figure it out, detective. I don't wanna see you back here until you do."

That led to much soul-searching and a great session with Dr. Kroger. Of course, this made him less fearful of nudity, which made him want to be with Natalie. In a way, that case brought him to where he is today…. It had been well over thirteen years since that conversation with Leland, and he remembered every word. He just hoped he wouldn't have to repeat it back to him in the near future.

𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ

Later that evening, when Charlie and Emery had been settled into their beds for the night, Charlie reading, Emery drawing on her iPad with her Apple pencil, both with strict lights-out times, Adrian and Natalie sat together on the couch and had a quiet conversation. Adrian's arms were wrapped around his wife as she was snuggled back against his chest. He listened to her explain what TK had told her about the flood. "So they'll be holed up in their bedroom for a while. They're going to have the insurance adjuster come tomorrow. They lost part of the kitchen ceiling and the staircase; I think the microwave, the cooktop, and the wood floors buckled from the entry to the dining room. It sounds pretty extensive."

"Good gracious! That's going to be a long haul for them. I hope insurance covers it all." Natalie loved feeling the rumble of Adrian's voice through her back. It was always a comfort.

"I hope so, too. I told her they could bunk here for a while if it became too much."

"That's fine." He inwardly trembled at the thought of Mooshu, their cat, coming along, but Randy and Julie each had terrible allergies, so as the only option, Maison Monk might be the Monk Motel for a while.

Natalie turned in Adrian's arms to kiss him passionately. "I love you."

"I'm glad. But what did I do to deserve that wonderful kiss?"

"You were really great with Max, giving him confidence; you've been amazing with Charlie, letting him push his way through his angst without haranguing him, and you were really kind to Lisa Murphy when she needed that most, and of course, you were brilliant at her house. I hope we can solve this quickly; she doesn't deserve to be in limbo one minute longer than necessary."

"Well, thank you. I think I finally have the hang of this 'being a person' thing. Your work in that area is finally finished. You can relax at last; I am now a husband, father, grandfather, and godfather you can be proud of. Speaking of fathers, remind me to call mine tomorrow."

She ran her hand from his face to his neck, down his chest, and then further. "I've always been proud of you, my love. And I hope my work on you will never be done," she purred in a sexy whisper. He smiled against her lips, moved his hands into her hair, and returned her kisses with the ardor of a teenager with his first love. They spent several long, intense minutes kissing, touching, and reconnecting after a long, busy day. The intimacy they shared recharged them in so many ways that neither could explain verbally. Their psychic connection was so deep and so immutable that they needed their time alone together so they could be the parents, friends, investigators, and partners they were.

"Do you think the kids are asleep?" Adrian growled in an undertone.

"I hope so," she breathed.

They tiptoed up the stairs and stopped in each doorway, putting Emery's iPad on its inductive charger, a bookmark in Charlie's book, and turning off the lights in each child's room.

They held hands as they quietly snuck to the master suite and locked the door behind them. Adrian was on her like a bee to a flower. His personal butterfly orchid. He rained kisses along the side of her face and down her neck to her collarbone as he unbuttoned her blouse, giving him access to more creamy skin. The incredible feeling of desire that always simmered between them was quickly set ablaze. It was insuperable; it was eternal. They were both grateful for this inextinguishable heat between them. Quietly, they murmured words of love and desire to one another, their lover's name and admonitions for "more," "harder," "faster," as well as low gasps of pleasure and words mingled with soft moans and whimpers. Adrian's hands were full of his wife's breasts as he pulsed deep inside of her, caressed and fondled while his mouth licked and sucked to his wife's complete undoing. He felt her contract around him, and he thrust deeper as his orgasm ended and as hers continued to roll over her. He relished watching her climax from this point of view. Both feeling it and watching it was exciting and always made him so elated and proud that he could do that for her. Aside from the deep, deep satisfaction he found within her body, the connection to another human, a connection he never imagined wanting or needing after Trudy died, was all he ever craved. No one who had met him in the years following his first wife's death would have imagined the depth of love and physical connection Adrian Monk would be able to find with another woman. Natalie's love had completed him in a way nothing that had come before it ever had, not even his first love. Looking back, sometimes Adrian had no idea how he'd survived without Natalie or until he and Natalie had become one.

Adrian emitted a soft sigh when they lay side by side under the warm blankets and soft sheets a while later. Natalie had been tucked against him, under his chin, and she pulled away slightly to look into his eyes. "What?" she asked with a satisfied and happy smile.

"Nothing bad. But if I didn't love those kids down the hall so damn much, I would invent a way to just stay here together, alone, in bed, like this, forever."

Natalie simply snuggled closer into her husband and laughed softly. "You're so funny."

"Of all the things I am, Natalie, funny is not one of them."

"Okay, maybe the statement was funny. I just always think back to the day we met. The man you were then. Always brilliant, always quirky, somewhat difficult, definitely secretly sexy," she giggled, "but the loving, empathetic, sweet, open man you are now is so far from that man by a million miles."

"Thank you." He kissed the top of her head, considering the miles they'd traveled together. "But I will always feel slightly guilty when we are so happy, and something in our work reminds me how lucky we are. I feel terrible for Lisa Murphy in so many ways. She lost her husband, is being blamed, and she's relying on strangers to help her."

"I know. But we will help her. You will find the answers."

"We will find the answers, Dr. Monk." He emphasized the "we." "Now, let's get some sleep so we can help Lisa, Tommy, and Desi."