"Chuck! Buddy, how could you?"
Sarah watches from the couch next to Chuck as Morgan paces in front of them. It's been a few days since the vet, and the Colonel has come out of hiding, and is now crawling over their laps; sniffing at their clothes and pawing at the arms a little.
While the Colonel is content to explore, Morgan isn't happy.
"We were gonna get dogs!" he cries. "Remember? Remember our puppy plan?"
"I know, buddy, but...but I couldn't leave the little guy in the trash can," Chuck replies, defending himself.
Alex is sitting in a chair next to the couch, watching the Colonel, obviously amused. "He is cute."
Sarah grins and turns to her. She feels a slight kinship with Alex, and she's not sure why, but she knows that Alex knows where Sarah keeps the whiskey so they must be friends. "Yesterday he took a nap in the bathtub, and then hid in a paper bag he couldn't figure out how to get out of. It was really adorable."
Alex laughs, and Morgan looks betrayed.
"Look, buddy, you could get a kitten, too and then...and then we could have kitten play dates," Chuck offers.
Morgan thinks about this. "Like a precursor to having babies."
Sarah freezes and Alex tilts her head slowly. They look at their men.
"Is that was this is all about?" Sarah asks. She doesn't mean for her voice to be so intense, but she can't help it.
"Nope, no," Chuck says firmly. "No. He said babies. I did not say babies."
"I don't even have my memories back yet."
"Morgan. Morgan said babies, I didn't say babies. He said babies."
"Stop saying babies," Alex says quickly, and gives Morgan a dirty look, and he cringes.
"You brought a kitten home to simulate having a kid," Sarah accuses.
"No!" Chuck cries. "I brought a kitten home because he was trapped in a trash can and I couldn't leave him there!"
"You could have brought it to a shelter!"
"Now he's an it?" Chuck asks, eyes wide.
"Not the best argument, Chuck," Morgan mutters.
Sarah feels dizzy, and her fight or flight response kicks in and it's flight. She stands up, toppling the Colonel to the ground and dashes back to the bedroom, slamming the door.
She knows the cat has followed her because she can hear his plaintive meows and he's pawing at the door.
She can hear Chuck, Morgan and Alex out in the living room; Morgan's apology and Chuck's telling him its okay. She's struggling to understand Chuck still. He forgives so easily.
It's not something she can manage.
She stays curled up on the bed for a few hours. The Colonel eventually gives up trying to wear down the door, and she's left with silence.
Sarah sits up and looks around, and she spies. She knows he didn't bring the cat home because he's trying simulate having a kid. That's crazy, and it doesn't seem like him. He just wanted to help out a little lost animal.
She wonders if that's what she was to him when they first met; if he looked at her and saw some lost creature in need.
Slowly, she gets to her feet and pads out of the bedroom, looking around. Chuck's not in the living room or kitchen, and the bathroom door is open. She pads over to the guestroom door and taps softly.
"Come in," Chuck's voice says quietly.
Sarah opens the door and finds him sitting on the bed with an open book, and the Colonel lying on the pillow next to his head. She waves awkward, and he waves back, sitting up.
"I..." she takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I lost it pretty badly, and I shouldn't have."
"No, no," Chuck says softly. "It's okay. Really."
Sarah bites her lip and leans on the doorframe. "But...just to be clear..."
"Cat in a trash can," Chuck tells her. "That's all it was. Haven't you ever felt like a cat in a trash can?"
She tilts her head. "What do you mean?"
"He's little," Chuck points out. "There was nowhere for him to climb up and no way for him to open the trash can to get inside in the first place. Somebody put him there."
Sarah hadn't thought about it like that; she just assumed that the cat had accidentally gotten in and had gotten stuck, but Chuck's right. The Colonel is little and the trash can lid is always closed. Somebody threw him away.
She takes a deep breath and nods. "Yeah. Yeah I have felt like that."
"Me, too," Chuck says. "So leaving him there...even taking him to a shelter...I don't know. If you don't want him around, we can always find him a new home."
Slowly, Sarah walks into the room and gets on the bed, stretching out next to him. The Colonel hops down from his pillow and starts crawling on her and she grins. "Nah. I think he's good where he is."
Chuck gazes at her, and she feels all the warmth and love there. It makes her a little dizzy, but in a really good way.