Hello, my lovelies! I hope everyone has recovered from our Oscars snubs (because I haven't), but the show must go on. I am DYING to see this fandom grow, and I want to know how we can all work together to make it so (see what I did there?). Let's do it! We will not go unnoticed!

I have been writing this chapter for weeks, so I hope you all enjoy it. Please review - I love your feedback, the good and bad! If you have questions, message me, and I'll try not to give you too many spoilers. There's something in this chapter that's going to confuse some people, but that's what makes for a good story in my opinion.

Also, thank you to everyone else who is writing Interstellar fics, here and on AO3. I've genuinely enjoyed almost all that I've read, and I know others do, too.

Now, on with the show!

Interstellar: Revivisco
Chapter 11: Fateor

Cooper drifted somewhere between sleep and consciousness, back and forth. He was woken up by the sounds of the beasts outside, hoping that Amelia didn't hear them. He knew how terrified she would be. He quickly drifted back to sleep.

"Cooper! Cooper!" She was gripping and shaking his arms. "They're back!" He was fully brought out of his slumber by a panicked Amelia.

"Shhhh, it's okay," he whispered, his hand on her back reassuring, "Go back to sleep - I got ya." He noticed that they were in nearly the same position to the one they had been in a few nights ago, and he liked it. He wasn't about to let those damn things interrupt this.

"No, no, no, no, no, no!" She pulled away, crawling over him to get out of the bed. "I'm going to look at the live probe footage." She practically ran from the room to find CASE. "CASE! Wake up!" she said hurriedly, "Live probe!" CASE did as told, broadcasting the imagine onto his screen.

Cooper had slowly gotten up out of the bed, rubbing his eyes. "Jesus," he quietly muttered to himself, walking out of the room. Amelia was standing in front of CASE, arms crossed. AS she talked to the robot, her voice sounded so clear that it was almost like she had never been asleep. He was now behind her, his hands on her waist. "Look, Cooper! There's at least seven of them in this pack." She suddenly began pointing all over the screen, seeming not to notice or care that he was touching her. "Six females, one male."

"Well, alright, alright, alright," Cooper chuckled. "Looks like he's got a nice little setup there; a 6 to 1 ratio? Lucky guy." He knew that Amelia probably found all sorts of faults in that comment. "He's full-grown it looks like, based on those antlers. Makes the one we dissected look like a damn weakling." He was rolling his fingers on her now, attempting to convince her to go back to bed. He was tired and knew she was too, but the fact that he liked being so close to her wasn't hurting his cause.

Cooper stopped his fingers and pointed at the screen. "They've got somethin'," he exclaimed, "CASE, zoom in." CASE did as told, focusing in on one of the females, an animal dangling from its teeth.

"What in the world..." Amelia put a hand over her mouth. She was still staring, trying to figure out what this creature could be. "It looks like a small bear. Full grown but a really small bear," Amelia said, turning around to Cooper. "That sounds too cute and cuddly for here."

He placed his hands back on her waist, still in love with the idea of what sat beneath his fingers. "Well, there were once cute and cuddly animals on Earth, Brand, so what'd you expect from a similar environment?" Cooper yawned into his shoulder. "Hey, we gotta sleep. CASE is and has been recording this, and you don't wanna lose sleep over a damned teddy bear." He attempted to pull her into him but she broke away in protest.

"It's scientific discovery Cooper, not a stuffed animal. We now know of two species, that's double what we knew yesterday. Do you expect me to sleep when I could be analyzing the live feed?" Cooper kind of liked how she looked when she was aggravated.

"Yes, I do," he replied as he grabbed her hand. "Now come on, Amelia. You can have your fun in the morning. It'll be waiting on ya, I promise." She rolled her eyes, swiping her bangs to the side. He was giving her one of those looks that could make her drunk, constantly needing more of that gaze.

"You," she pointed at him, freeing her hand from his, "this will get you in trouble one day." Amelia patted him on the back as she walked back into her room, Cooper following her. "It's going to take me forever to get back to sleep, you know," she exclaimed. "I am still too excited." He shut the door, never taking his eyes off of her.

"You'd be surprised." He waited on her to crawl in first before turning out the light.

"Cooper," she called out for him as she covered back up.

"Yes?" She felt him slide in beside her.

"Thanks for staying over here with me." Amelia was thankful that he was there with her, finding it frightening to imagine her life without him again.

"No problem, sorry we haven't broken out Jenga or told ghost stories with a flashlight yet." That got a laugh out of Amelia. They were more similar than they appeared on the surface.

"We haven't even played truth or dare. Damn, we really need to pick it up. This is getting to be a boring sleepover," she managed to get out in her laughter.

"Brand, you calling me boring?" He knew that wasn't what she had meant at all, just testing her. "Me boring? Really?"

"Here we go," she huffed, sitting up, looking down at him. Even in the dark, he was able to see her smile, and he reached up to cup her face.

"If you come back down here I can show you how not-boring I am." She turned away from him, looking up. "Brand, I can tell when you're blushing even in the dark." He reached around finally finding her thigh under the covers, causing her to jolt. She began laughing again, his hand still on her. "Jumpy, too. Good God, Amelia, we gotta lot of work to do!" he exclaimed playfully, pulling her back down next to him.

"You are the worst," she said, enjoying the feeling of being somewhat surrounded by him.

"I can't be that bad or else you wouldn't want me in here." His words were soft, trying to plan his next move, as he always did. He ran his fingers up and down her arm.

The cocky charmer is alive and well, she thought. "Well, I do like having you here," she admitted, facing him. "This is the one thing here that feels normal to me."

"Yeah, this is good." He gently smiled back, tugging her over to him. "You okay with this? If you aren't, just tell me." She stayed where she was, trying to prove to him and herself that she could do this again. She wanted to feel close to him, and rolled over, her back against his chest.

"Cooper, I'm fine," she muttered, feeling his arms adjust around her. "You're warm, I like this." She was becoming addicted to him.

"You're always cold, so go figure." She smiled as she closed her eyes, her head resting on her pillow. "But I don't mind. Never will."

There in the dark with Cooper, she felt safe. She had been safe at NASA headquarters, and it had provided security, but it never made her feel safe. Being incased in a concrete box hadn't been easy, but Cooper made everything feel less harsh, and she was grateful for it. She was falling for him more and more with each passing moment, constantly remembering when they'd first met, how she had immediately decided that he was trouble. Then that opinion changed as soon as they stepped onto the ship for take off - knowing what all he had left behind was crushing, because she felt the same way about leaving her father. It was necessary, but it was heart wrenching. Her opinion evolved even more as time went on. When he made sure CASE rescued her on Miller's planet, when he fell into Gargantua to save her, when he traveled back out into space to find her, and after he saved them both from the beasts... those were all arguments that helped change her mind. Here with him right now, she felt safe for the first time in years, letting her guard fade away slowly but surely. Whatever you could label this relationship that they had, she liked it.

She clutched his left arm to her body, trying to get more comfortable. "Thank you for coming out here to find me," she spoke quietly. "I don't think I ever formally thanked you, and if I did, just let me say it again." She ran her fingers over the fabric of the long sleeve shirt he was wearing. "You were so selfless and brave, and still are. I can't imagine what shape I'd be in right now had it not been for you being here with me. You just make me feel safe." Still holding her, she turned in his embrace and pulled herself up to his face to kiss him.

There was nothing better than hearing that you were needed. Cooper kissed her back, knowing that an admission like that from Amelia Brand carried much more weight than the words it came with. "I will always protect you," he whispered, before he kissed her neck where he could feel her pulse. She brought her lips in, biting them gently, the feeling so heavenly that it almost caused pain. "I want you to feel safe."

He didn't think he could wait any longer; he had to tell her. This was a huge step for him, because it wasn't letting go or moving on, it was a new book, filled with hundreds of thousands of blank pages for him to fill. What they had with each other - he knew that even in a world filled with people, he'd never find another like her, just like there was never going to be another Jill. That was how it was supposed to be.

You need to tell her. "Can we talk?" he asked her quietly, trying to gather his thoughts.

"Of course." She settled back into a comfortable position, moving just far enough away from him that she could see his face. He could make out her form again, acknowledging how nearly perfect she was to him, the person he wanted to be with.

"So, the other morning after you'd spent the night," he paused, still trying to find the courage to say the words, "I thought about our lives and that we're probably never gonna leave this place." God, Coop, you are terrible at this, he thought. "And I thought about how we'll never fully move on, or let go, and we shouldn't; where we come from and the lives we led will always be a part of us. Why ignore it, you know?"

"Yes," she agreed, reaching out for him, her thumb moving over his cheek.

"And I thought about what Murph said, that I needed to come out here and find you, which I would have anyway, but I also thought about what Jill told me before she died and what my father-in-law told me at least three times a week." He smiled at the thought of Donald telling him what he should be doing, and here he was, finally going for it. "To be happy." She nodded, waiting on him to continue. "And I'm happy, even with all this darkness we both got trailin' behind us, but, I can't help but feel like this is our second shot, Amelia. Like we're getting a second chance because someone wants us to, needs us to." He could tell that she was stunned. "Okay if I continue?"

"Yeah." Cooper could hear the weakness in her voice. He took her hand in his once more, trying to buy himself some time.

"I know I don't talk about Murph and Tom too much, but just saying their names even hurts." He waited again. "You know, Jill and I named Murph after Murphy's Law, and at the time, I knew of one way that it applied to my life. Now it applies to everything, absolutely everything." He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Jill told me that she wanted me to be happy and that I'd know when the time was right, that Tom and Murph would be happier just at seeing me happy. Now, I see what she meant - I know what they all meant."

Amelia was still, and he couldn't tell if that was good or bad, but he guessed he'd have to deal with the consequences regardless. "Once you left the other morning, I took my ring off, and put it away somewhere that I can see it whenever I want to."

"Cooper," she whispered with a blend of sadness, amazement, awe and shock. "You didn't-" Her voice trailed off to a place where her heart took over for her words.

"Amelia, this is our second chance and I can't live in the past. I'm always gonna think about Jill and Tom and Murph, just like you're always going to think about your dad and Edmunds, and we'll have some really bad days when we cry a lot and don't want to talk, but the past will always be there for us to look at," he continued, thinking about the past, how he had actually seen it. "I don't wanna live in the past."

"We are never going to get this finished," Moses muttered as she backed up from the touchboard, quickly scanning the formula. She walked out of the room and into the hallway, not really in the mood to talk to anyone. "It's a fucking disaster."

She quickly arrived at the atrium, desperate to get back to her apartment to sleep. She stopped to look at the shrine-like portrait that hung of the late, great Murphy Cooper - that picture had been at headquarters ever since she could remember. What would Murphy do?, she asked herself. How was she going to keep this a secret from everyone that mattered? Get it together, Mose.

At 24 years old, she was married to her work. She didn't give herself time for sleep, let alone family or friends. Her mother had been begging her to come over and visit, but she knew that she'd get a lecture about exhausting herself and how it wasn't a good idea. No, she thought, it's necessary.

"I'm happy, despite the odds," he managed, trying to hold it together, "and after what I've experienced, I know that it's not just by chance that I'm here with you right now." He was finally letting her know what he had been bottling up inside for weeks.

Amelia kissed him softly, pulling away to speak. "I'm happy, too."

He smiled, chuckling, hugging her to him. "You're not just playin' with my emotions here?" He broke away, only to hover over her, determined to hear her say it again. "Amelia, I can't handle that, you know. You can't do that to me. Not now, not ever." Cooper was still looking at her, stunned and thrilled that she did indeed feel the same way. "I need you," he whispered, his nose touching hers. "Say it again."

"I'm happy," she exclaimed, each knowing that things were going to be much more different from now on. "I need you, too. I couldn't exist without you now."

He felt like he'd just hit a home run and everyone was cheering him on, but this home run was one of his better ones. "You have no idea how good it feels to tell you that, to hear you say it back." They kissed again, both too pleased with their revelations to keep quiet. "I couldn't hide it from you anymore. It wasn't fair to either of us."

"I thought you didn't play fair," she whispered before kissing him with more fervor than ever before.