Put Her Back

Title: Put Her Back
Author: Jordanna Morgan
Archive Rights: Please request the author’s consent.
Rating/Warnings: G.
Characters: Adrian, Doctor Kroger.
Summary: Monk shares a quiet revelation with Doctor Kroger.
Disclaimer: Not my characters. Just visiting them.
Notes: Just a short, pensive drabble.

“You’ve been very quiet today, Adrian,” said Doctor Kroger, leaning forward slightly in his chair. “Is there something on your mind?”

Adrian Monk shrugged slightly and stared down at his fidgeting hands. “Captain Stottlemeyer called me out on a case yesterday. A woman was murdered. It had just happened, and while Sharona and I were at the crime scene, the victim’s husband got there. He took it pretty hard.”

“And you sympathized with him,” Doctor Kroger followed.

He knew better than to ask how Adrian knew that the husband was not the killer. The detective’s instincts about love and grief were beyond any question, even for him.

“I guess I did,” Adrian admitted ruefully. “I remember thinking that I just wanted to—put her back.”

“Put her back?”

“Yes. Put her back in her life. In his life. Put her back where she’s supposed to be, because she didn’t deserve to be taken away.” Adrian stared out through the window at the soothing waterfall beyond, and went on in a small voice. “But then I realized, even if I find the person who killed her… I never can put her back.”

Adrian paused for several long moments before he continued.

“And then it occurred to me. Maybe the whole reason I do what I do is because there’s a part of me that thinks somehow, someday… I could find the way to put them all back… and to put Trudy back.”

Doctor Kroger was silent for a long moment. When he did speak, there was a hint of unaccustomed brightness in his eyes.

“I want you to know that I’m very proud of you, Adrian. Because all by yourself, without any help from me or Sharona or anyone else… I think you’ve just taken the biggest step you have in a long, long time.”

The detective smiled sadly, and bowed his head.