49Author's Note: This story was the first in my Monk Not Junk Series of Stories. At the time, I hadn't 100% completed watching the Monk Television series but Adrian and Natalie had already captured my heart. I had never written a fictional novella at the time and was really quite green. The story has recently been updated and reedited to get rid of some of that 'green-ness' for the reader's enjoyment. Since writing this story, I've written 10 other stories on my own revolving around Monk and have just completed 2 stories with KittyKat06 under the screenname of "AftertheEnd" and 1 story in collaboration with Alex Hoodle as 2Souls1Flame. These ladies are a blast to work with and I hope you will enjoy those works as well. From this vantage point, there are a few things that I probably would have changed in this story (Steven Albright being one of them), but there were other things that I really enjoyed doing. Given that Monk sometimes solved the most outlandish of cases, I limited myself only by imagination. If I can imagine it and describe it, no matter how unlikely it might be, it can happen. I hope you enjoy this series. Current plans are to finish the Monk Not Junk series somewhere in "Season" 10. Adrian would have liked that. And now, on to Mr. Monk Takes the Next Step.
The cool Spring rain tapped against the window of Natalie Albright's room as she sat in her chair facing the courtyard. Staring blankly into space, her emotionless face betrayed no hint of what was going on inside her mind nor could it express to the world the pain-saturated heart that pulsated within her. Unable to communicate. She sat still and silent and staring - a shadow of her former self.
It had been 4 months since she received the knock on her door. "Mrs. Natalie Albright?" said a young man in a U.S. Navy dress uniform.
"Yes?" Natalie responded with a smile which faded as the blood drained from her face upon seeing the paper in the young man's hand. She had seen that kind of paper before,years ago,when a similarly dressed man came to tell her that her husband Mitch, a Navy pilot, had been shot down and was presumed dead.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry to inform you..." the young man began; but, before he could finish, she crumpled to the ground screaming "NO! NO! NO! STEVEN! NO! OH PLEASE, NOOOOOO!
Startled, her daughter Julie, who had been visiting her mother on Spring Break, ran in to the room to see Natalie convulsing with sobs and rocking herself on the floor.
"Mom! What is it? What has happened?" she said .
"Whyyyyyy? Whyyyy? Ohhhh, whyyyyyyyy?" Natalie sobbed.
Julie looked up at the young man who now looked helpless. "What is it? What did you say to her?"
"I, I, I didn't get a chance to... Ma'am. I am so sorry." He handed Julie a piece of paper which stated "The Department of the Navy is sorry to inform you that Lieutenant Steven Albright was killed in action when his submarine was struck off the shores of Bahrain early Tuesday afternoon."
Julie dropped the piece of paper and began crying, "Oh, Mom..." She held her mother closely. "Mom. Steven. Oh, I'm so sorry!" She cried.
"Whyyyyy? Why does this keep happening? Why?" Natalie cried. "I can't...I can't go through this again." she said breathlessly. "I just can't...I, just..." She stopped talking altogether and just wept, and wept, until suddenly she stopped.
"Mom, are you okay? Mom?!" a startled Julie said. "Mom?"
Natalie's weeping had stopped so suddenly that Julie feared the she had stopped breathing. But ,she was breathing. Her eyes were opened and she was staring straight ahead, slightly whimpering but unresponsive.
"Mom, are you okay? Mom? Talk to me. Mom?...Oh no. Mom, stay right here. I'm going to call a doctor." Julie sat Natalie against the wall and ran for her cell phone. Twenty minutes later the base doctor came by and examined Natalie. They moved her to the living room couch and he tried to get some reaction out of her, but there was nothing. He stood up and walked towards Julie with a concerned look on his face.
"Doctor, is my mother going to be okay?" Julie asked?
"Only Time will tell. She's in bad shape, Julie. This shock appears to have been too much for her. Her constitution seems to be shattered. She doesn't even seem to recognize where she is or that we are even here - a complete mental break. I have given her a sedative to try to help her sleep tonight. Let's hope when she wakes up, she is more lucid. But, we must be prepared to find out that we are dealing with a deeper form of traumatic psychosis from which she may never recover."
"Oh no!" Julie exclaimed.
"All I can say is, Pray for her. Miss Teeger. Pray." The doctor stood up and Julie walked him to the door. When she returned, she went over and held her mother's hand.
"Mom, I'm here. I'm not leaving you."
Julie sat silently watching her sleep as she thought about the short-lived happiness that her mom had experienced with Steven.
They had only been married for 3 years - a happy 3 years. Leaving San Francisco and moving to Norfolk, VA had been hard. She had to leave the life she had built there, and especially had to leave the quirky man who had become her very best friend and was very much a father figure to Julie growing up, Adrian Monk. But such was the life of a navy wife, and now with his late wife Trudy's daughter Molly in his life, and the closure that he had obtained concerning Trudy's murder, Mr. Monk seemed much less bothered by the demons that had tormented him for so many years. Oh, he was still Adrian and still had many of the phobias, obsessive rituals and paranoid thoughts. But he functioned much better, was more relaxed and was doing well. So, she agreed to go.
Both Adrian and Natalie had wept when they had to say goodbye; and, they knew it was the right thing for them to do and swore to each other it would not be for always. Adrian even joked that he was now expert at goodbyes, but Natalie discerned that down deep Adrian was terrified and full of self-doubt. Still, he insisted that she go and gave his blessing for her marriage to Steven. It was among the hardest things he ever had to do. His love and respect for Natalie was greater than his fear of living without her as his assistant. He wanted her happy. And so, he let her go.
"Oh, come on Adrian!" Molly said to her step-father "I'm just going to L.A. It's not that far, and I'll be back every other weekend."
"I know, Molly. I know. It's just, there are people from Los Angeles in L.A." He looked at her as if that was some good argument that made sense. "Don't you want to go to Stanford for your graduate studies? It's so much closer."
"Adrian! ... Dad... I will be back!" Molly smiled, touching his arm.
"Oh, I know how it goes. I know how it goes. You say that now, but then some strange gangly, good-looking boy will come along and swoop you off of your feet and then you'll get married and I'll lose you forever." Monk responded.
"Haha, no way. You can't get rid of me that easy! It took almost two decades for you to find me. I'm not going to leave you now. Hey, just think of it like this. If Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome does show up, you're not losing a daughter but you're gaining a son and maybe even….grandkids!""
Adrian shuttered at the thought of coughing, sneezing, slobbering little kids crawling all over him, but also warmed inside. Grandkids. He smiled and shrugged his shoulder nervously. He had never thought of that. "How about that, Trudy?" he pondered. "Grandpa and Grandma Monk! Sounds like a situational comedy!" he said looking at the ceiling as Molly reached out and gave him a tender hug.
Suddenly a horn beeped outside.
"That's my ride! I love you!" she said as she kissed him on the cheek.
"I love you too." said Adrian with a sad smile on his face and tears running down his cheeks. As he followed her down the sidewalk to her ride, he stated, "Call me and let me know you made it safe. Oh, and don't talk to any strange people on the way..."
Molly put her bags in the trunk and then went to the passenger side of a car driven by one of her friends. "Strange people in California?! Impossible!"
She smiled and blew him a kiss as the car drove away. She had truly been a godsend in his life and he had progressed so much in the time he knew her. What would he do without her? Life had many sad turns and twists, but he wouldn't trade what he had for the world. With growing confidence, he knew, Adrian Monk would be okay.
"Mrs. Albright. You have a visitor." the nurse said to Natalie, turning her chair from the window after she and Julie walked into Natalie's private room at the mental health facility. "Miss Teeger, Mrs. Albright has been uncooperative today. See if you can get her to eat a little of the lunch that they brought in for her earlier this afternoon. I will be back a little later."
"Thank you nurse." Julie stated as the nurse left the room. "Good afternoon Mom! How are you doing today? The nurse said that you aren't eating. We will have to fix that." She fluffed a pillow behind Natalie's back. "You look mighty pretty today. The rain has stopped now. Let me open the window a bit so you can get some fresh air."
Julie walked over to the window and raised the blinds a little higher so she could unlock the window. Opening it, she turned to see Natalie still staring straight ahead but with a tear rolling down her drawn face.
"Oh mom. What's the matter? Are you okay?" Julie hugged her. "It'll be alright."
Julie moved forward and kissed her Mom on the forehead, brushing her bangs back slightly. When she did this, she noticed a bruise on the side of her head.
"Mom! What happened? Did you fall and hurt yourself? "
She leaned back and saw more bruises along her collarbone, and then bruises in the shape of a hand on her upper arm.
"Nurse! Nurse!" Julie jumped up and ran to the hallway.
The nurse stood up from her station and said "did you need something?"
"What has happened to my mother?!" Julie responded.
"What do you mean?" said the nurse.
"Come in here right now and look a her. " She said raising Natalie's bangs exposing the fresh bruise. "What is the meaning of this?"
"She must have fallen. Happens a lot." the nurse responded.
"Fallen my foot! Look here, bruising here, and here, and right here on her arm in the shape of a hand. Who has done this to her? Is this the kind of care she can expect in this facility?"
"Miss Teeger, I assure you that we have the finest of care money can buy."
"This isn't about what money can buy! This is about someone hurting my mother! You are supposed to look after her and I come in to this! Look! There is even bruising on her hand, and…wait! Where is it?"
"Where is what?" asked the nurse.
"Mom's ring! Where is my mother's wedding ring? Tell me! Who has been in here with my mother?"
"Well, ma'am, I…."
"Oh, forget it! I'm reporting this! I've never seen such incompetence in all my life! She's not staying here! I am going to bring her back home so she can be closer and get her some real care. And you'd better find out where my mother's ring is or I will make sure that the law comes down hard on this farce of a facility!"
Julie turned to Natalie. "Mom, I have to go now. I'm going to go make some calls to your doctors and arrange for you to fly back with me tonight. I won't let them hurt you anymore. I promise. You'll have the best of care, even if I have to quit school and do it myself. We are going home."
It was 4 AM and Adrian's dreams were permeated with the sweet smell of his late wife Trudy's perfume in his bedroom. A low glowing light was coming from the edge of the bed. As he slept, a broad smile came on his face and he said out loud "Trudy, darling! You came back!"
"Why of course, Adrian. I told you I would be here if you needed me." Trudy said to him in the dream.
"But you were gone so long, Trudy. I thought I had lost you forever. Everyone's been abandoning me. First, Natalie went away and now Molly has gone as well. I, I don't begrudge them, because I want them to be happy. But... I called out to you for several times and you didn't come."
"I heard you, Adrian, but I had to stay away."
"Stay away? I don't understand."
"Adrian, If I did not stay away, you could not see how much you've grown. You would not know that you could make it on your own. Here you are, making it alone. No assistants or dead wife to prop you up. You've come back to the land of the living."
"This is living?" Adrian scowled. "I'm lonely, Trudy. Yeah, yeah. My fears aren't ruling my life like the once did and having our Molly in my life has absolutely transformed everything. But now she's gone to L.A. and I'm here alone. Trudy, I need you."
"Adrian, you don't need me."
"But…"
"No buts. Adrian, I was so worried about you. For so many years, you wrapped yourself up in work and clung to this sad dark existence that I never wanted for you. Part of you died when I did. I was afraid that you would never come back. But you've done so well. I am proud so of you! Yes, you needed me to help you through some of these dark times. But you don't' need me now. Instead, you're strong enough now to walk forward and take the next step into your future, and I cannot go with you into it. "
"What? Trudy, what do you mean?! You can't abandon me too!" Adrian cried out.
"Oh, Adrian, I'm not abandoning you. I'm freeing you. I'm always going to be here. It will just be different. Instead of talking to you in some dream or vision, my love will linger always in your heart and in the love you share with Molly. That will never go away. But it's time for you to let me go. Death parted us, and while many have said through the years that you should just move on, I knew you could not do what they wanted until you made peace with my death and began to live again. That's why I stayed- to help you. But look at you today! You are not the man you were when I married you, or 15 years ago, or even 5 years ago. You've grown. You're more generous and more kind and stronger and braver than you or I ever realized you could be. I have watched with joy as the smile has returned to your face. But now I need for you to do something."
"Anything, Trudy."
"I need for you to let me go and truly move on and be happy. I need you to take that next step."
"The next step? What is that?"
"When you could not cope with what was happening in your life, God sent two angels your way. First, he sent you Sharona, who loved you and cared for you in one way; and then, He sent you Natalie who cared for you in a different way. Two very different people, but they were what you needed at the time. Now, it is time for the man who was helped so much through the darkest time in his life to come out of his shell and pull someone else out of the abyss."
She continued. "Adrian, your very best friend in this world is hurting. She's broken. And you're probably the only one who can fully break through to her and help her. You don't' need me any more Adrian, but she needs you. Go. Go to Natalie. Go and help her. I will never stop loving you, but your happiness is what I need to truly rest in peace, and I know that you will never be happy stuck in the past. You need love and purpose and joy. I promise you, it will come if you will just open up your heart and take that next step. And know this. I will never be far away but will be watching from the wings cheering you on.
My time with you truly is at an end now and your life should be about the living, not about the dead. I love you for always and I know how dearly you loved me. I am forever grateful for the time God gave us. But now, I must let you go and you must reach for what He has called you to do. Goodbye my love. "
"Trudy! I love you! Don't go!"he cried.
Then suddenly, she was gone.
Adrian opened his eyes and instead of feeling angst or fear, he felt a feeling unlike any he had experienced in the past 15 years. It was a feeling of peace. Adrian Monk was at peace and a dark chapter had closed in his life. He would never lose his love for Trudy nor would she lose hers for him. But he knew it was time to move forward. He was no longer the needy. He was needed. So much of his journey had been so difficult and filled with uncertainty; but now, knowing what he had to do was easy. There was no struggle, no hesitancy. He had to go. He had to go to find Natalie. She needed him. Trudy said she was in trouble and Natalie was far too vivacious and beautiful and loving to lock herself up in the prison of despair for years as Monk had done to himself after Trudy was murdered. Life was about to change, and for once, the change felt right.