Hello again, friends! Here is chapter 10! Thank you all for the lovely reviews - you know I love them! They're what inspired me to get this chapter out so quickly. Happy reading!

Interstellar: Revivisco
Chapter 10: Imber

Cooper constantly felt like he was doing something wrong with Amelia. Was he saying the wrong things? He hadn't played this game in years, and neither had she, but he knew he had a lot more game than she did. She pretty much made it clear that she didn't even care about having 'game'. She had not spent the night with him again since that night, and she hadn't asked him to make the trek across the hall. He hadn't had any nightmares either, so there was really no excuse to go over there and interrupt her sleep just to try and be close to her. She is too practical for her own good.

Now he played the waiting game. When would she make this a regular thing? He sure wasn't about to initiate it - this was a woman who had made it very clear that she was beyond independent. Cooper knew that when she wanted him, she made it known. She was really good at mixing her fierceness with her shyer side, which was super appealing, but it drove him crazy wondering what she was going to do next.

"How long are you going to shower, Brand?" he questioned loudly so she could hear him through the door.

"I'm shaving my legs – takes up some time!" He heard her yell.

"Gross," he replied, knowing she couldn't hear him. His eyes lit up at remembering when she'd asked him a very similar question. He walked back into the common area, sitting at his desk. "Brand, Brand, Brand." He looked over at her nicely organized desk, his completely cluttered. "Says a lot about me, doesn't it?" he asked himself out loud as he heard the shower turn off. He began trying to tidy up his desk, slightly embarrassed by its state. He stacked the notebooks and books in separate piles, and put his tablet and stylus off by themselves.
"Looks better," he whispered to himself, just as Amelia walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed. "You ready?"

"I am," she replied, walking toward the door. "You coming?"

"I'll be there in a second." She nodded, heading out. He grabbed the tablet, waking it up.

By now, we've witnessed only a few of the grave realities of this planet, but I know that our journey is far from over, he wrote before going outside himself.

"The greenhouse is looking good, Coop," she said, walking back outside, trailing Cooper.

"I did farm for, oh, 16 years, Amelia," he responded, smiling, "but thank you." Cooper stopped in his tracks, looking and pointing up to the sky. "Rain clouds." Amelia halted beside him, looking up.

"Wow!" That childlike wonder that had stayed with her after all the pain came alive. He loved to watch her when she was amazed by something. "I just assumed all the water here was coming from underneath the surface, that it probably rained on some other area of the planet, that that's how the trees got water," she muttered, watching the rain fall down miles away, the clouds slowly approaching them. "This isn't a total desert."

"Apparently not," he exclaimed, still looking back up. "Well, I'll be damned, Amelia." Rain was something so simple, but to them it was so appreciated. They stood there, ready to get soaked, looking up until the rain hit them – huge drops like a big storm, thunder in the distance.

"Might wanna get back in the unit," Cooper yelled, the rain hitting the ground so loud that each droplet was like a coin.

"Okay!," Amelia screamed back, both of them running toward the unit. Cooper held up his hand to scan.

"Whew!" Cooper said, leaning up against the wall just inside. "That was…" he paused, trying to find the words, "amazing. Never thought I'd appreciate rain that much."

"It was like home." Cooper liked that statement, because the more it felt like home, the more it became home.

Amelia walked further into the unit toward her room, but came to a halt. "Well, look who cleaned their desk up!" she exclaimed sarcastically, running her fingers over Cooper's desk. "I am impressed."

"I saw yours and felt bad that you had to look at my mess everyday." She smiled up at him before walking away from the desk.

"Sweet, but not necessary," she half-whispered as she disappeared into her room.

They had changed out of their wet clothes into dry ones. "What needs to be done today?"

"We're alone - that we know of - on a planet, save for these two jarheads," Cooper said, pointing to TARS and CASE who were side by side, "so I don't think there is that much to do." She rolled her eyes in protest.

"TARS and I resent that statement," CASE exclaimed. Amelia and Cooper both turned to look at the robots before facing each other again.

"No, I mean work-wise," she said, sitting down. "There has to be something we can accomplish."

"Even if there is, pretend there isn't, okay?" Cooper asked, sitting down across from her. "I know we took a break not too terribly long ago, but I think humanity can survive if we relax every now and then." She squinted her eyes at him – the way she did when she was frustrated.

"That's awfully grim to say, considering our situation." Cooper huffed. Got yourself into another mess, bud.

"I didn't mean it like that," he retorted, "I just mean that we'll work better if we don't stress ourselves too much, and your muscle spasms, keep that in mind." She relaxed her face, nodding. "You just told me about five days ago that you didn't know life without stress. Well, here it is, just waiting on you to test out!" He got a giggle from her out of that one.

"You know, I haven't mentioned this because I think it's awkward to talk about, but I might as well get it out of the way. I honestly can't imagine myself, um, well," she paused, rolling her lips in, "but what about the fertilized eggs? I check on them every day, and they're fine; I just... I know that there are obviously people alive, tons, thanks to Murphy, but is it selfish of me that I don't want to start that up yet?" Cooper laughed, looking at Amelia. Her face looked as if she were disgusted at herself for evening saying that.

"You are a biologist, Brand! What's the big deal about talking about it?" She shook her head furiously. "Isn't this like, your field of study?"

"I believed so strongly that Plan A would work that I never even took the time to think about the possibility of having to go through with Plan B. Talking about myself taking care of infants, even if they were incubated, and I don't have it give birth to them, it still freaks me out." She was serious, he could tell. "I always knew that it would be selfish of me to have children, considering my job, and I thought Wolf and I would have eventually been married, but I've known since I was 18 that this was what I would be doing with my life, and-" She chuckled, burying her head in her hands. "I just can't imagine myself...," she muttered, "I just don't see myself as the mothering type." She got up and grabbed a blanket from the cabinet "Want one?"

"Nah, I'm good right now," he said as she closed the cabinet door. "Thanks, though, it was a motherly thing to ask." She sat back down in the seat she had left, covering up.

"Ha-ha, Cooper," she retorted, sinking into the chair. "Hopefully we can save those eggs for people who want children and can't have them on their own for one reason or another, you know, once other people get here."

Cooper smiled at that - people hadn't been having children like that since, well, when he was born. That technology was gone to the general public by the time he was 10, at least. He suspected that it was back in full force now that the stations were running. "Those eggs are going to be older than anyone who would carry them, then. Kind of weird to think about, that someone could be having a baby that had the egg been fertilized naturally would be old enough to be their grandparent."

"Welp, relativity," she whispered, locking eyes with him. "I'm sorry." He knew what she meant.

"That's just how it is." She agreed, still watching him. She took in a deep breath, touching her face. "No need to apologize."

"I believe that," she started, "my father must have thought the world of you to send you on this mission without seeing you in over a decade and a half." She tried to find the words. "He knew your drive, passion, enthusiasm for this." She pointed up, waving her hand. "You were never prepared to die like Mann, Miller, Wolf, any of them. He knew that. You've got that desire to survive." He half smiled, thinking about all he'd given up, yet all he'd gained. He thought about holding her hand as she went through the wormhole, letting her know that they would be fine. "That's what he was looking for."

The silence was thick now, resting on the hopes of a spoken word.

"You've got it too, Brand." He paused, looking out the window at the fading light. "Or else he wouldn't've sent his only child out into the wild. He had faith in this, even though he never had faith in Plan A. He had faith in us."

"Wonder how many years have passed on the station by now, compared to here?" she questioned, obviously avoiding the subject of her father, something that was becoming increasingly hard for her to internally deal with.

"That's scary to think about," Cooper replied. "I could have great-great-grand children for all we know."

"Well, you don't look that old," Amelia said, wondering what he would say back.

"Don't flatter him," TARS said, beating Cooper to a response.

"TARS, what does he have your humor setting at?" Amelia enquired. Cooper waited to hear TARS, interested at what else he might say.

"65% right now, Cooper's is only at about 50%," TARS replied, bringing a smile to Cooper's face.

"That'll be enough, TARS," he said, watching TARS go back next to CASE. "TARS is a character." Amelia was silent, staring at the wall. "Have you checked out the footage from the probe?" Cooper inquired, looking out the window from his chair. He knew that the answer was most likely 'no'.

"I'm just not up to it yet," she paused,

She looked kind of peaceful, just like she had a few nights ago, except now she was wide awake. The dark had settled in, the rain gone.

"You know it'll be messy by tomorrow, right?" Cooper said. Amelia smirked, looking back at the desk.

"Eh, I'll live," she replied as she brought her feet up into the chair.

"How un-type-A of you, Amelia." She fixed her eyes on him, trying to keep the humor from showing up in her eyes. "Those death glares or your attempt to block a laugh?"

"You would hate it if I wasn't type-A," she answered, watching his reaction. She was figuring out more and more how to push his buttons.

"Oh, really?" She nodded. "How?"

"Well, if I wasn't type-A, I wouldn't be as organized, and that's important to the mission, but not everyone is supposed to be type-A. Not only do you possess alpha-like qualities, but you're quite creative. Creativity is also necessary for the mission," she said, "and just because I haven't been dictating the orderliness of your desk doesn't mean I'm letting you turn the unit in to a man cave." He laughed loudly, covering his face with his hands.

"Eh, I'll live," he replied, repeating her words from earlier. "By the way, you sounded like a mom just then."

"Shut up, Cooper!" she laughed back, throwing a pillow at him.

She hasn't noticed, he thought, referring to his lack of ring. That or she's not saying anything about it. It had been a few days since he'd taken it off.

And the reason was directly across from him, her eyes begging for sleep, he could tell. Ever since that morning, he'd been even more positive, if that possible, that he was making the right decision. He'd decided that Amelia was one of those people that didn't want anyone holding her hand until someone grabbed it without her noticing, upset when the closeness was gone, which meant if she was getting used to this, there was no going back.

He definitely didn't want to go back, and if she didn't either, that'd be just fine with him. They had talked about their feelings for each other that one night, but ever since then, it had just been mellow, which had its own pluses and minuses. She knew he was serious, and he knew she was, too, but she'd figure out just how serious he was once she noticed that his ring was gone. The ring, except for the watch, was the last thing that connected him to his past life.

He glanced over at her, noticing that she was now asleep, her face buried into the small couch. "Can't have you sleeping here," he whispered ever so softly, picking her up. She stirred, pulling back to look at him.

"What's going on?" she asked, struggling to keep her eyes open.

"You fell asleep," Cooper whispered, opening her bedroom door, walking toward her bed. "I'm gonna tuck you in, okay?" She didn't reply, either too tired to or already back asleep. He pulled back the covers, gently laying her down. "There we go." He pulled the sheet back up over her. He looked at her one last time before turning to leave.

"Stay." In the pitch black room, he felt thin fingers wrap around his wrist - Amelia's forever cold, thin fingers.

S.T.A.Y., Cooper thought, knowing she had no idea what that word, those four letters in that order, meant to him.

"Okay," he replied, slowly crawling in next to her, her fingers still latched on to him.

"Goodnight, Coop." No sooner had she said goodnight, she instantly fell back to sleep.

"Night, Amelia," he whispered, hoping that sleep would come sooner rather than later.