Author's Note: Thank you guys for the initial interest in this story. I hope this next chapter will help give you a feel for my intentions with Romilly. We'll be spending roughly half our time in flashbacks and the other half with the Endurance. No matter what happens in my story, everything leads to the moment Amelia and Cooper return to the ship. Thanks again, and talk to you in the next chapter.

23 Years, 4 Months, 8 Days

By: BYIT

Chapter 2: July 20th, 2035

As Phillip Romilly dreamt in his sleeping unit, his mind wandered to a time before any of this occurred. And he remembered.

The winds were beginning to pick up that day.

"Mom!" Romilly shouted from behind the tall woman. Romilly's mother looked down at her son and smiled; she gently pushed her son in front of her, so that he could lean his body against the railing. Even at this far distance, the rocket was as clear as day to Romilly's eyes. He had been counting down this day for months.

"When are they gonna start?" Came a young voice from behind Romilly; his sister, Erin. This time, it was Romilly's father, who stood just beside his mother that bent down to talk to the young girl. Erin's thick braids were even swaying in the winds.

"We don't know yet, sweetie," He said with his signature fatherly tone. "The men inside have to wait until just the right time to start this launch or else something may go wrong."

"Like what?" Erin asked, as calmly as her first question. Romilly's mother shot her husband a warning glance.

"Nothing too serious," He said, covering his tracks. "The men and women inside are just as anxious as you."

From here, it was another few minutes of anxious standing and waiting. Romilly could remember looking down into the Florida grass, and kicking around a few stray sticks. Erin and her father stood by, discussing how the men were supposed to make it so high, no one could see them for a long time.

To Romilly's left, he could see another girl; she stood as close to the railing as possible; one sneakered foot resting upon the lowest rung. In the strong winds, her blonde hair flew all around her.

"Phillip!" Came a voice behind him. Romilly turned away from the girl and looked up at his father. "It's starting in five minutes."

Five minutes. Five long, anxious minutes. Romilly remembered just how long this time was for his entire life. The anxiety of seeing what he had always dreamed of seeing: spacemen, leaving this planet and going far away, into the space beyond this place. And while Romilly didn't quite have the vocabulary for it at the time, he felt a sense of grandeur looking at these men, knowing that they'd soon be setting foot on another planet; the first men ever to do so.

And so, the five minutes finally gave away, and the roar of the engines took off, giving away to loud cheering from the observing crowds. Higher and higher the rockets flew, and louder and louder the crowds grew. It was a majestic sight to see. All around the world, people watched as, for the first time in decades, a new generation was launching upwards, to the stars. To go explore the galaxies, one planet at a time.

And, as the world watched, the hopes and dreams of all people, and the hopes of all those on board, came to a crashing halt, as the spaceship suddenly burst into a brilliant white light, followed by a shimmering million pieces of spaceship flying in all directions from a singular explosion of fuel and metal.

Then came the screaming.

At first, Romilly, Erin, and their father had no reaction. The three stared upward into the sky as the crowd around them turned into a mass of surging panic. The brilliant orange and yellow sky shone in their black pupils.

"Chris!" The mother screamed. Still the father stared ahead. "Chris!"

In that instant, Romilly's father snapped from awe, to shock, to survival. He grabbed his daughter first.

"Dad?" Erin asked as she was lifted from the ground. Her mind could not connect what she had seen from what she had thought would happen. "What's happening? Dad?"

"Come on, Phillip," Romilly's mother said as she grabbed her son's hand. As Romilly turned away from the falling debris, he turned back to his left.

The blonde haired girl had not moved. Behind her, an army of men and women swarmed and fled, and yet still she stared straight ahead; her hair flowing in the gushing wind.

Romilly pulled back from his mother's grip to no avail. His eyes were locked to the girl.

"Phillip!" His mother screamed. She pulled harder on her son, and his feet started to be dragged by the much stronger force. He began to panic, trying desperately to stay in this moment; to witness this girl.

"Hey!" He screamed. Suddenly, two blue eyes turned and locked with his. The blonde-haired girl stared back at him. For a moment, or for an hour, the two looked at each other with mutual confusion and shock. Suddenly, the silence was broken.

"Run!" Romilly screamed. Suddenly his mother swept him off his feet, lifting him into the air and disorienting himself completely. At 10 years old, these would be the memories scarred into his mind until the end of his days.

The last he saw of the blonde-haired girl was her turning away from his eyes and rushing into the crowd. From here, both were sucked into the swarms of people. After several minutes, and lots of screaming, Romilly, Erin, and their parents all ended up driving quickly back to their home. The car was dead-silent.

—

Romilly and Erin both sat in the room they shared together for several hours, while the 'adults' talked outside.

Atmospheric Pressure, was the word Romilly kept hearing from the muffled voices through the walls. Something about atmospheric pressure and gale-force winds. Either way, no one spoke to either child from a very long time.

Eventually, the sun began to set outside the singular window in the sibling's shared room. Outside, the fields of wheat were just becoming ripe for the harvest in a month or so.

"Phillip?" Romilly's mother asked as she cracked the door open. Romilly stood to his feet. "Erin? Are you guys alright?"

Romilly said nothing. Behind him, Erin sat up on her bed. "Where's Dad?"

"He's fine," Their mother said. She motioned for Romilly to come with her. "Everyone's fine, sweetie."

"Even the spacemen?" Erin asked. She held one of her braids in her hand.

The mother gave her daughter a restrained smile, and led her son out of the room. "We'll talk about it later," was all she said as she closed the door behind her.

Romilly was led by his bother to the house's living room. Different family members stood around talking in small pods. The men hung to one side of the room, and threw around the big words, like atmospheric anomaly and aerodynamic forces and structural weakness.

The women on the other side of the room used other words; mainly Challenger and Columbia.

Romilly's mother led her son through all of the men and into the kitchen, where she handed him his and Erin's dinner. Soon, after he was led back.

The evening faded into the night. The crowds of people in the living room faded away into the small moans and creaks of the house. Erin eventually calmed down and laid down for the night, as did Romilly.

Romilly, however, didn't sleep.

He laid in his bed for hours; staring into the ceiling of his small home. He tried rationalizing every event he had seen; the brilliant explosion of light, the swarm of thousands of people. The blond-haired girl, staring upwards in brilliant awe.

By two in the morning, Romilly silently crawled back out of bed, slid over to his door, and made his way to the living room.

The room was empty, and void. All the mess of plates and cups were nowhere to be found. It was as if none of the days events had ever happened in the first place.

On the walls, Romilly saw his father's life work; a doctorate degree. A shining metal of honor. A single picture of his wife in the middle of it all. On almost everything on the wall shone the four letters of the day: NASA.

Romilly had started to read the different awards to understand what they had all meant, but in his young mind, all he could manage was that his father was a great man. And as he read, he heard a faint sobbing from the bathroom. He tore himself from the wall, and made his way over.

Through a crack in the door, Romilly could see this great man. He was sitting on the toilet, head in his hands. He cried.

"…sorry," Romilly managed to mutter, before turning away. His father, however, noticed his presence.

"No," He said, almost forcefully, before sniffling deeply. "It's fine, Phillip. Come here."

Phillip Romilly made his was back into the bathroom. He leaned against the wall, opposite his father.

"Erin she doesn't—she doesn't know what happened, does she?" His father asked. Romilly shook his head.

"Do you?" He then asked.

Romilly froze for a moment, then nodded his head. Yes.

"I'm sorry," His father said softly. "I wish this hadn't happened. I wish I didn't take you."

"I wanted to go, Dad," Romilly said. "I wanted to see the spacemen."

Romilly stared downwards as his bare feet against the tile floor. There was a long silence between the two boys. After a minute, Romilly spoke again: "Why did it happen?"

"Lots of reasons, or maybe just one," The father said. "Many things can go wrong. It's hard to explain."

The father lowered his head again, and sobbed quietly.

"Why are you crying?" Romilly asked innocently. "Do you cry for the spacemen?"

"I cry for you, son," His father replied. He stood up and tried his best to regain his composure. "I feel sad for you, because I don't know how many more times we will try to go to space."

"Then we can just be here, on Earth, Dad," Romilly said. "This is our home."

Romilly's father looked down to his son, and for a moment, appeared to lose his composure again. Romilly would not understand what his father was thinking in that moment for another dozen years. But, in this moment, Romilly could only guess his father felt bed for a lot of reasons.

"You're right," His father said. "This is our home,"

—

"Romilly?"

Romilly's eyes shot open; he sat straight up in his sleeping unit. This time, he did not cough. He blinked several times, until the cold metal of the Endurance became clear to him. He turned to TARS.

"The others?" He asked.

"18 months, as promised," TARS said. "But no, no contact with the Ranger. They'll need more time."

Romilly took a few deep breaths, and but his hand against his head.

"Are you feeling alright?" TARS asked.

"Fine, fine," Romilly said back, exhausted. "Just had a long dream is all."

"Dreaming is good," TARS said, as he started to shift away. "I'll give you a few minutes; I've got some readings I need to go over with you, when you're ready."

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine." Romilly said. He rubbed his wet beard.

"And Rom?"

Romilly turned to the robot.

"Welcome back."