Monk and Natalie sprinted behind Sharona as she ran towards the hospital employee entrance in the back of the building.

Sharona had her cell phone raised to her head and was talking to someone as she ran across the parking lot.

"Sharona, wait!" Monk exclaimed, already short of breath. "We can't all be seen together!"

"Well, maybe you should wait in the car! 'Cause this directly concerns me!" she snapped back, turning her head only briefly to tell off her former boss.

"I'll alert you very subtly for you to call on backup," she told the person on the other end of the line, quickly hanging up afterwards.

She slid her employee ID card and ducked into the entrance just as Natalie grabbed the quickly closing door.

Monk and Natalie watched Sharona run into the door at the back of the hospital. When they arrived in the hospital, she was standing in the hallway, hands on hips, looking hopeless.

"Sharona," Monk whispered. "I think we should go up the stairwell to look for Trevor."

She looked shocked.

"Whaddya talkin' about? No one ever uses that stairwell."

"Just trust me on this one. We need to know where he's going. I'll explain later."

Before he could say any more, Sharona had entered the stairwell.

Suddenly they heard Sharona's panting fall silent, the sound of a cell phone ringing the only noise. The ring was coming from a couple of flights above, but could be heard clearly through the enhancement of sound the staircase provided.

"Didn't I tell you not to call me here?" a woman's voice said, obviously annoyed. A pause followed. "What are you talkin' about; you can't go back to work?" Another pause, as someone else must have been speaking. It was a phone conversation. "Well, that's not my fault; you should've been more careful. You didn't even do what you were supposed to do," the woman said. "You gotta go back to work, so you don't arouse suspicion." Monk thought he recognized the voice, but listened intently to pinpoint it.

"Yeah, it seems stupid, but remember, you owe me…. Yeah, well, it would have been a lot longer than that had I not testified…."

The voice suddenly grew hushed, and they could hear a man speaking.

"So it's not working then?"

Monk stared at another balled-up sticker on the stair, the sticky underside free of the dust and dirt of the rarely-used stairwell.

"Well, the weirdo's still hangin' around, isn't he?" he heard the woman say.

"Yeah," the man replied. "Can you believe? She had the audacity to bring him out here as if to accuse me of what happened."

Sharona sucked in a breath. Oh, God. Is that who I think it is?

The woman spoke.

"Well, the important thing is, I've got someone working back in Frisco to make him go away. I didn't even put two and two together until that Baska guy showed up yesterday, and I thought about Sharona's descriptions of her old boss and Baska's weird interest in everything everyone did when he was here."

"I just can't wait until this has all blown over," the man said.

"Even though the circumstances are unfortunate, she now has no real reason to stay here. Maybe she'll go back to Frisco and work for that guy again."

"But she won't want Benjy to be without a father—"

"That's not the point of her stayin' here. Maybe in comin' here, but things haven't been good between you two for ages. She stayed 'cause of her mother. And now, well…."

"I just hate her thinking I had something to do with what happened."

"You have to admit, though; it is rather serendipitous. You'll be free of her for good now."

There was a pause, as the man was considering, apparently. Sharona's face had turned a shade of maroon, and the scowl on her face was actually quite frightening.

"That does tend to be rather odd, for that to happen just as our relationship reaches the next level. Really odd, actually."

"Well, she was old, Trevor. Things do happen."

"The timing is strange, though. And on your ward. The way you put it—"

He sounded suspicious now.

"What are you saying? That I had something to do with it? I was the one to pick her up after she hit the deer! I wasn't there when it happened!"

"I wasn't accusing you. Why do you feel a need to explain yourself?"

Sharona looked at Monk, her face twisted into a scowl of internal torture. It's Geena, she mouthed to her former boss. Monk's face lit up with realization, and he nodded in response.

"Because I can tell you're wondering," Geena said. "Don't you believe me?"

"Yes, but—"

"Yes, but what?"

"Why did you do that? Why would you have volunteered to pick her up, knowing full well that she's my wife?"

"Well, I—"

Monk turned to Sharona, and mouthed words.

She's the guy, he mouthed. Here's what happened, he mouthed.

"I was seeing if she'd mention anything about you being unfaithful," Geena said, a couple of flights above them.

"And why would you care?" the man answered. "She's always been suspicious of me."

Monk leaned in closely to Sharona and Natalie, who stood a step below him, their ears facing his mouth. Sharona opened her phone for the briefest moment, hitting a couple of buttons, and closed it silently.

"She's been cheating with Trevor for a while now," he whispered to the two women. "She wants him all to herself, and believed that Mrs. Fleming was the only thing keeping you around. She blackmailed that ex-con in San Francisco, for whom she committed perjury for in the past during his trial, into stealing succinylcholine, so she could use it on your mother. In that way no succinylcholine would be found missing from this hospital, and could be traced back to its employees. And there'd be more of a fuss about the guy getting past the pharmaceutical company's security system than over a bottle of succinylcholine and a syringe going missing. The syringe that we found containing succinycholine was not from this hospital; I'll bet my life it's from the Smith Pharmaceuticals Company."

"It's just something I was curious about, to see how aware of things she was," Geena said, her voice softer than before.

Monk continued.

"Somehow she knew something was going to happen to you that night. Maybe she sabotaged your car, of that I'm not sure. Anyway, when news of your wreck came in, she volunteered for the job…. then injected your mother with the succinylcholine. Being a nurse, she automatically threw the spent needle in the sharps box, where we found it… Later she realized that she had done this and had to get rid of the evidence, and that's why we found her out by the dumpster, Natalie."

Sharona took a deep intake of breath. Monk's voice grew even softer.

"She then picked you up from the scene of the accident… establishing her alibi. No one would suspect her, being as she wasn't there when your mother – passed away. We arrived, and she then remembered – you'd spoken before of who you used to work for – that you might be calling on me to investigate, and suspected that I was… well, me. So she called her stooge in San Francisco to wreak havoc on things back at my apartment so I'd be convinced to go back home. Claiming to be my wife's killer was supposed to be the clincher."

"I need some time to think about this, Geena," Trevor said.

"Why do you need time?" Geena replied, her voice wafting from above.

"I do believe you; there's no way you could have known about Sharona's wreck in advance. I believe what you're telling me. But maybe we shouldn't be near each other for a while, in case there are any suspicions. Okay?"

There was a silence. More than likely the pair was kissing during this time.

"I'll call you when things go back to normal," Trevor told her, his voice a murmur.

"Oh my God," Sharona murmured, in response to Monk's explanation. "I can't believe we just heard all that. How did you know to come in this stairway to look for Trevor? More importantly, how are ya gonna prove this?"

"We have reason to believe that Trevor meets with her in the stairwell. His nametag…."

"But why were you in the stairwell in the first place? Don't seem like the kinda place you'd like to spend time hangin' out in."

Monk flashed Natalie a look. This was where their quarrel had escalated and had been resolved.

"Trevor already sounds like he's suspicious," Monk replied. "We're going to wait for him to leave and corner him when he comes out. He'll have to admit to the conversation with her, or else he himself could be accused of your mother's murder. Also, I have to tell the captain to look out for Renwik returning to work. He may be able to extract information from him as well. There has to be some way to link Geena directly to this. I just don't know what it is yet."

"Well, what about the syringe?" Natalie asked.

"Anything left on that syringe is long-gone," Monk replied. "We sent it down to the laboratory, and they probably have their fingerprints all over it."

Sharona looked furious enough to attack the pair several flights up; however, Monk grabbed her by a sleeve and started to pull her back down the stairs.

"Come on, Sharona; we have to go wait outside. Their conversation is probably going to be over soon. Doesn't sound like it's going too well."

She obligingly complied, and the trio walked back down the stairs as quietly as possible.

Suddenly, they heard someone descending the stairs behind them. Immediately they ducked back into a darkened corner on the first flight of stairs, Natalie tripping on something plastic, causing a foul-smelling liquid to spill onto the floor.

Monk covered his mouth, temporarily stifling the urge to cough or run away. The odor emanating from the spilled substance was highly concentrated and reeked of a combination of foul odors, one of which was definitely urine.

From their hiding place in the darkness of the first set of stairs, Monk, Natalie, and Sharona heard Trevor coughing as the disgusting smell overwhelmed his senses.

Trevor opened the stairwell door, and emerged into the light, letting in a limited amount of fresh air from the hallway. No one was following him. Geena must have gone back to work. Sharona made a move to follow her husband, her hands covering her mouth and nose, but Monk bravely removed a hand from his face and grabbed her by the arm.

"What is it, Adrian?" she said aloud, causing him to make a shushing sound in response.

"Wipe. Wipe," he said quietly but insistently. Both women went for their purses, retching at precisely the same moment as the whiff of the substance reached their newly exposed noses.

Natalie was the first to hand him a wipe. He began to squat down, his body near Natalie's legs, and the source of the smell. Using the wipe, he picked up the plastic jug by squeezing the front of the jug, where no one would have held the container.

He moved into the light with the jug, soon able to see the label: C'mere Deer Natural Deer Attractant.

"Oh my God," Natalie and Sharona said in unison, as they read the label. Of course Sharona wouldn't suspect seeing a group of deer in that particular stretch of road, so it had been the perfect place to draw the deer….

As the trio stepped out of the stairwell into the hallway, they spotted Trevor, who had his back to the entrance to the stairwell.

Sharona boldly stepped up to her husband and tapped on his shoulder. He whirled around.

"Sharona? What are you doing here?" he cried, obviously distressed. It was then that he spotted Monk and Natalie behind Sharona, both pinching their noses shut, Monk holding the jug.

"What is that?" he said, indicating the jug. Monk turned it around so that its label was revealed.

Monk gave him a sly smile, as his face blanched.

"Here's how Geeda dew about Sharoda's wreck id advads," Monk said, having his nose pinched shut with his fingers. "She drew the deer to a stretch of road where she dew doe wudd would suspect to fide theb. Wuds she heard Sharoda wrecked, she idjected Sharoda's buther with ed albost undetectable fatal dose of drug, thed left to pick up Sharoda, so that durig the tibe Bissis Flebig was dyig, she would dot be aroud. It was the perfect alibi… up udtil dow, that is."

Monk, Natalie, Sharona and Trevor soon emerged from the employee entrance of the hospital enveloped in the stench of the deer attractant, to find Lt. Disher and a pair of squad cars.

Sharona gave the blue-eyed lieutenant a big smile, and ran up to him when she saw him getting out of his vehicle.

"You came," she said, relieved. "I'm sorry about the vague signal earlier, but I'm glad you understood it."

"No prob," he responded. "A cop's life is all about noticing the importance of vague clues."

"I'm really glad you knew what to do, because I couldn't type much more than a letter or two, being as I was eavesdropping on the perpetrator, and her cohort." She made a subtle head motion towards Trevor.

"Not sure I'm following—" Disher said, his eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Nevermind," Sharona snapped. "Monk solved the case."

"Oh," he said in response, his voice dull. He had hoped that he'd be the one to solve it. Sharona could see his face fall.

"He couldn't have done it without your help though, Randy."

Randy's eyes lit up, and he looked at her, a hopeful smile on his face.

"Really?"

"Your connecting Renwik to Smith Pharmaceuticals was the key," she said.

"Really," he said, still disbelieving.

"Yes."

"Eh, I know you're just trying to make me feel bet—"

As soon as Sharona's lips grazed his cheek he fell silent.

The deer attractant jug was admitted as evidence, Trevor was taken in for questioning, and it wasn't long before Geena was arrested in suspicion with the murder, her fingerprints directly linking her to the deer attractant jug, and of course, the damning confession from Trevor. Before Geena was taken into custody, Stottlemeyer had been alerted to Renwik's possible return to work and it wasn't long before he was arrested as well.

Soon it was time for Monk, Natalie, and Randy to return home.

They stood at the airport terminal, Sharona only able to stare at them, speechless.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Natalie asked Sharona.

"I dunno. I think my mom really was the only thing keeping me here. Maybe I'll come back to Frisco at some point, now that I don't have anything else keeping me here. Confession or no, Trevor was completely fine with cheating on me with Geena for months on end."

Sharona made a move towards Randy Disher, who for some reason still had his bags in hand, even though they were too big for carry-on.

"You haven't checked in your luggage yet, Randy," she informed him.

"I know," he said carefully.

"You're not gonna be able to bring 'em home with you if they aren't carry-on size," she continued.

"That's fine." He shrugged, smiling at the nurse.

"What do you mean? You're gonna leave 'em here?"

"No," he said, shaking his head slowly, watching her with wide eyes. "I was just thinking that… maybe you'd like the company of a cop for awhile; you know, for protection and… stuff like that."

She smirked at him mischievously.

"I'd like that," she replied, watching the boyish smile spreading across his face in response.

Monk and Natalie watched Randy in his awkwardness, as he tried to put an arm around Sharona. It was almost enough for Natalie to say awww.

After Disher had moved beside Sharona with his assortment of luggage, Sharona gave Monk a big hug and even a kiss on the cheek. Knowing him very well from the years they had worked together, she immediately handed him a wipe after the kiss. However, upon receiving the wipe, Monk merely looked at it without using it for its intended purpose, not noticing the pang of envy Natalie was feeling at this development.

"Adrian, I don't know how I can ever thank you for doin' what you did," she told her former boss.

"Here's how: keep in touch," he simply replied with a shy smile.

Sharona also gave a strained hug to Natalie, who moved away from the nurse feeling slightly better about things.

Natalie then looked over at Monk as he closed his carry-on suitcase one final time, a large framed picture of Trudy atop the pile of his most important luggage items, acutely aware of the unending presence of his silver wedding band and the unwavering devotion he would always have for his late wife. There was no way she'd want to force him to move on from Trudy, unless he chose to do so himself. There was also no way to know if her budding relationship with Monk would ever completely materialize or develop into anything more. Even so, she was the one that Monk was going home with, in the end. And that was all that mattered to her at the moment.

Of course, there was that issue with his apartment.

The pair headed towards their gate, Natalie's arm around Monk's back.

"How about this, Adrian? You can stay at my house for a week or so."

"But why would I want to do that? My place is—" he looked at her, and seeing her sheepish expression, blanched.

"No problem. Everything will be restored to normal. No more stains and broken—" She covered her mouth with her free hand.

"Stains? What all did the guy do? Do you know, Natalie? Tell me."

"It won't matter, because it will all be—"

"Come on, Natalie. Okay—if you tell me all that happened, you can then ask a favor of me. Sounds fair, doesn't it?"

"Actually, I'd rather skip that whole part and not have you a nervous wreck."

He flashed her a look of exasperation.

"Okay," she replied, shrugging and dropping her hands at her sides, "I guess we're too late to avoid that. It's not going to help you to know what went down there."

"Oh God. Went down. That doesn't sound good. Oh God."

Natalie gave him a comforting pat on the back, dropping her hand back down immediately afterwards.

"It's not so bad, really," she replied. "There's really no use to tell you—"

"When I go back home, Natalie, I'm not going to know what happened to my floor, to my furniture… I'll certainly have to fumigate the whole place, and then buy all new stuff, unless you tell me what happened."

She rolled her eyes, realizing that if he did this, she'd be getting next to no paycheck from him for the next couple of months. It was a rather good threat he had made, and one he would not hesitate to follow through with. She really didn't want to return to the barkeep or card dealer business….

"Okay, okay, if I tell you, will you promise to be a good boy on the plane and not freak out?"

He scoffed. "That's two favors, not even mentioning how difficult they'd—"

"Okay, once I tell you, you can't go buy all new stuff."

"That request will only work for me not buying one item in particular—I did say one favo—"

Natalie suddenly smiled. Perhaps the situation could be salvaged, and he could be kept calm. In all honesty, planes still scared her quite a bit—at least with this favor she might be at ease.

"How about this then—I still don't like planes, and neither do you, so it'd only be beneficial to the two of us if we—"

Before she could even say the words, she felt Monk's hand close around her own. Natalie looked up at him to see him flash her a brief but genuine smile.

"Since you're so good at mind-reading, Adrian, maybe you can just gather from my mind what happened in your apartment, rather than have me explain it."

"Ha ha, good one," he replied, giving her hand a little squeeze. "I almost forgot to laugh."

"Well, I guess you could call this the calm before the storm," Natalie muttered, disappointed that this lively banter would probably change to him wailing and her trying to calm him down.

"You know what," he said, suddenly stopping in place, yet not letting go of her hand. "Maybe the news can wait. I'd rather not spoil…." He looked down at their intertwined hands, feeling shy. She heard herself sigh with relief.

"I agree with you on that."

He looked at her, letting out a chuckle.

"Really," he said dryly. "I would never have guessed that."

At that, Natalie gave his hand a little squeeze and he fell silent as they began walking again.

-----

A/N: Sorry, I didn't like the last ending as much. I hope you guys like this one better! Thanks for the feedback on the last one, Bob Wright! I agree with a lot of the stuff you said!