19A soft hint of dawn came through the window sheers in the Lincoln bedroom as Mr. and Mrs. Monk curled up together under the blankets. They had been married less than 24 hours and it already felt that they had been together for always, with a love predestined from eternity.
A few hours prior, they had witnessed what they initially thought was a shooting star. Moments later, it was clear it was not a star but something on fire, followed by an explosion that occurred somewhere in the distance. Adrian's guess was Alexandria, Virginia or perhaps even further east.
Knowing how wrapped up her husband could become with mysterious happenings; Natalie forbade him from going downstairs to speak to White House staff about it and from calling DC police.
"If it was something besides a meteor, we'll know in the morning as it will be all over the news." she said as she led him back into their room and fell blissfully asleep in his arms.
As the daylight began to grow brighter, Adrian opened one eye, lifted his head, then slowly and gently extracted his left arm from underneath her head, being careful not to wake her. He sat up on one elbow and looked around for the remote control. Surely the news would have full coverage of the story by now. But where was the remote?
Ah! There it is, on the nightstand on her side of the bed. He rolled further onto his side and up on his left knee and reached over her to try to reach the remote- desperately trying to keep her from waking up. As he climbed over the top of her, his fingers barely snagged the remote and he had to stretch even further. By now, he was fully straddling her and balancing on his right knee. Finally getting the remote in his hand, he felt compelled to touch the ball shaped glass lamp shade that sat on the table.
Just then, Natalie woke up, and being a little disoriented as to where she was and who was over the top of her, she sat up quickly, catapulting him out of bed and onto the floor, taking the nightstand's tablecloth and globe lamp with him.
Natalie wrapped herself in a sheet and jumped out of bed. "Sweetheart! Are you okay?" she asked.
Laying on the floor covered in a tablecloth with a remote in his hand a lamp on his chest Adrian said in a quizzical way, "Uh…I…I was just checking out the carpeting?"
"Is that a remote in your hand?" she asked.
"Um, I, uh…how did that get there?" he asked guiltily.
"I'll take that" she said, taking the remote control from him and placing it in a dresser drawer. "We are on our honeymoon. No detective work" she said pulling him up by the arms. They tumbled back onto the bed and laid there face to face.
"Honey, the world is going to creep in on us soon enough. I just want to take this little bit of time we have to just enjoy each other. If something happened, let the authorities deal with it. For this one moment, we shouldn't have a care in the world. We have each other, and that is enough." She said, putting her arms around his neck.
"You're right." He said. "What on earth was I thinking?" He leaned in for a good morning kiss.
By 10:00 AM, the Monks had gotten up for a second time, gotten cleaned up and were out the door for a planned day of walking along the Tidal Basin to see the cherry trees and visit some of the sights in the city.
With the events of the previous night fresh on his mind, Adrian looked for any hint of anything out of order, any sliver of news from anywhere, in a effort to find out what happened without breaking his promise to his bride. Everything seemed perfectly normal as people bustled about their morning. White House servants showed them to a formal dining room where they were served orange juice and coffee, eggs, bacon, hash browned potatoes and perfectly square pancakes all served on separate plates.
"They remembered." said Adrian, as the feast was placed on their table.
Natalie smiled knowingly since she had put in the very specific order the night before.
"You're hard to forget." She said.
After they ate, they walked down to the main level where they ran into Vice President Gionetti as he was coming up from the Situation Room. He had somewhat of a serious look on his face. As he spotted the Monks, he smiled and walked over to shake their hands. Natalie slipped Adrian a wipe which he then passed back to her and she put in a baggie in her purse.
"Mr. and Mrs. Monk! I understand that congratulations are very much in order!" said Gionetti.
Natalie loved how it sounded being called Mrs. Monk and hugged her husband's arm and giggled when he said it.
"Thank you, Mr. Vice President." Said Adrian.
"Sal! Call me Sal!" said Gionetti. "I still can't get over how you figured out that Fernandez was on the take last year. You have some amazing skills."
"It's a gift." said Adrian.
"And a curse" said Natalie as Adrian squeezed her hand.
"Say, Sal." said Adrian. "Is everything okay today? Anything going on, in particular. You looked so serious a few minutes ago."
Natalie grimaced and softly cleared her throat, knowing what her husband was trying to do.
"Everything's just fine, Monk. Just another day in D.C. Now if you'll excuse me, I have another meeting to attend over on Capitol Hill." He replied.
"Certainly, it was good seeing you again, Sir." said Natalie.
She squeezed Adrian's hand hard and gave him 'the look.'
"What?!" he said.
"You know what!" she said "Don't play dumb, Adrian Monk. I know exactly what you were trying to do. You promised that this time was going to be about us."
"It is about us, Natalie. I'm not watching television or picking up a paper. " he replied.
"But you figured you would satisfy your curiosity by pumping the Vice President for information." she said.
"I didn't pump him for information. I asked him if there was anything wrong." Adrian replied.
"And he said no. So that's the end of it." She answered. "It was probably a meteor or something."
"It exploded." Adrian replied.
"Haven't you seen those videos of the bright lights that explode over cities?" she asked.
"Videos?" Adrian asked.
"On the internet." She replied.
"You forget. Adrian Monk is not into the internet." He said.
"I didn't forget. I just thought you…nevermind. Before it's said and done, I'll make sure you've been pulled into the 21st century on things like this. They will be very valuable tools for your trade – a trade you are not practicing on our honeymoon!" she said.
"Yes dear." He replied.
"Good. Now go take your wife for a walk. She wants to see some cherry blossoms." Natalie answered.
Adrian smiled. My wife. He thought. At long last, he felt whole again. What a wonderful day.