April Fool's Day, Mr. Monk

Dale the Whale cunningly smiled as he watched his prey walk into the visitor's room of the San Francisco Prison.

It had been over a year since he had last seen Adrian Monk. A year filled with anger and hate. Now the time had come to lay a trap for his enemy. A trap so well planned that Monk would fall for it, and breathe his last breath.

He leered at Adrian as he sat down in the set on the other side of the glass and nervously picked up the phone with a wet wipe.

"You called?" Adrian said as he put his wet wipe away and looked at his old enemy through the security glass.

"What no 'Nice to see you again'? No 'How have you been?' or 'How's tricks?'" Dale snidely replied.

Adrian's eyes narrowed as he calmly spoke. " It's not nice to see you again, Dale. I don't care how you have been, and I don't care 'how tricks' has been."

Dale placed a hand over his chest as he feigned being hurt by Adrian's words. "Oh Adrian, you just don't love me anymore."

Adrian glared at the man sitting across from him. "You know damn well that I never loved you and I am only here because you called me."

"Details, details, details," he remarked as he waved his hand in the air.

Dale paused as he looked at the man sitting before him and gave him a crooked smile. "I called you this morning because I have stumbled across some information for you." He gave Adrian a dramatic pause before he spoke again. "Information about your dearly departed wife." He let the statement hang in the air for a moment as he watched with delight the different emotions that drifted across Adrian's face: exasperation, surprise, curiosity and then finally anger. It was the last emotion that most surprised Dale. In all the years that he and Adrian had been playing their game of cat and mouse, he'd never once seen him angry.

"How dare you!" Adrian angrily growled into the phone. "How dare you bring Trudy into this!" He paused as he focused intently on Dale.

Dale shifted nervously under Adrian's intense gaze. Whenever Adrian's attention was on him, it made him feel both wanting and lacking in Adrian's eyes.

"You're lying, Dale. You don't have a single piece of information about Trudy's death. I won't fall for your trap." Without saying goodbye, Monk hung up the phone and walked out of the prison, leaving a shocked Dale sitting alone in the room.

His nursing assistant and now friend held him in her arms. Sharona was forced to let go when he started angrily pacing back and forth.

Monk yelled out his fury and put himself down for being a fool, to fall for even bothering to answer the phone this morning.

He stomped to the car, opened the door and then slammed it shut. He slammed his fist against the dashboard, thinking again about how stupid he was for coming there.

Sharona remained silent as she started the car.

"Don't tell Leland about what happened today, Sharona," he whispered. "I don't want to bring Lee into my battles. I don't want him to feel that he has to come to my rescue."

Sharona silently nodded in agreement, but in her mind she thought, 'Well, he may have told me not to tell Leland, but he never said that I shouldn't tell Lt. Randell Disher, who will be kind enough to inform Leland.' She smiled at the thought. Ever since Leland and Adrian had become a couple, she saw Adrian slowly emerging from his shell, but now with this new threat, she was afraid that he just might crawl back into his it and never come out. If Adrian withdrew from life once more that would not only hurt him, but it would kill Leland. That was one thing she didn't want to see.

~two hours later~

A very angry Leland Stottlemeyer entered the San Francisco Prison and sat down to wait.

"Well, this is a nice surprise," Dale the Whale slickly spoke as he slithered to his chair and picked up the phone. "When they told me I had another visitor, I never thought I would see you, Captain Stottlemeyer."

Leland grunted as he looked Dale over with a critical eye.

For several moments, Leland didn't say anything as he watched Dale begin to squirm under his close scrutiny. He looked up as he watched the door open and then close behind Dale.

A very tall and buff prisoner stood behind Dale as Leland finally began to speak.

"You see that very strong, tall prisoner standing behind you Dale?" He paused as he watched Dale turn to look at the man.

Dale slowly gulped down the lump of fear that had formed in his throat as he turned to look back at Leland.

"That is your new roommate. His name is Tiny, but if I were you, I wouldn't tease him about it. Oh, by the way, if I ever find that you are bothering Adrian again, I will personally be very happy to tell Tiny all about it. You see, Tiny owes me a favor for taking care of his little brother and making sure he stays on the straight and narrow," Leland paused and let his threat set in.

"And, if you are thinking about telling the guard that is standing outside the door about our conversation, I wouldn't bother, because he happens to be my cousin," Leland finished with a wide smile.

"Are you threatening me?" Dale squeaked out as he leaned forward to look more closely at the captain that he had clearly taken for granted.

"Now, why would I do that?" Leland asked. "All I am telling you is that Tiny is a friend of mine and I think you two will make great roommates. Isn't it a small world that you two should end up sharing the same cell together?" With that, Leland smiled ferally at Dale as he hung up the phone and walked out of the visitor's area.

He paused as he opened the door, calling out, "Hey Tiny, I will be making regular visits to see how you and your new roommate are getting along."

With that, he closed the door and made his way to Randell's car.

"Everything alright, Sir?" Randell asked as he watched his captain get in the car.

Leland grinned as he nodded his head. "Yes, Randell. I was just checking on an old friend of mine."

Randell smiled at his friend and captain as he started the car. "Where should I drop you off, Sir?"

"Drop me off at Monk's place. After the day I've had I think we could both do with a little cheering up," Leland said as he thought of making out on the couch with Adrian.