he who hesitates is toast

By the week after Bucky had found Alpine caught in a soaking downpour and brought him home, Sharon can hardly remember a time when she woke up and didn't feel the little white cat curled somewhere nearby.

Today's no different, although it seems like he's decided to set up camp on her chest instead of by their feet as usual. Sharon mumbles, tired, and pushes at the sheets to get the cat to move, in the process realizing two things:

First, she's lying on her side, not her back.

And second, when Alpine's small miaow? comes, it comes from the floor, not the blanket. 

Sharon takes a breath to respond to him and instantly breaks into a series of wet coughs that she does her best to stifle.

Well, crap.