Hey there, readers! I hope this chapter finds you in good spirits, or with good spirits - ghosts or drinks, whichever you prefer (I'll choose the latter).
I love love love your reviews, so please keep sending them. They really help me out when it comes to direction. I write these chapters in advance (I almost always have the next three lined up to be published as soon as I publish one), but things can always change.

Things are getting interesting as I wrap up Part II and head into Part III.

That being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you for reading!

Interstellar: Revivisco, Part II
Chapter 17 - Abiit

Cooper shook his head. "You're making a mistake."

"You know I'm not," Hart breathed onto his neck. He tried to back away, realizing there was no where to go as her fingertips were at the waist of his jeans.

"Stop this," he commanded, but it didn't seem to phase her. She knew she had him blocked, and she was having fun. Her other hand was on the wall, next to his face - the wrist with the rubber band. He knew what to do.

He covered the hand that was at his jeans. "Finally." She began kissing him, and he froze before remembering the goal. Snap the band.

Too distracted by what was going on, she never felt him grab her other hand. He laced his fingers under it, pulling hard enough for it to snap. "Ow!" She instinctively backed away as he put the probe into the lock, opening the door. "Get back here!" She ran after him down the hall. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Going home to Amelia, away from you." She chuckled angrily as she grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"What's waiting on you there with her?" He pulled his wrist away from her.

Cooper looked her in the eye, smirking. "Cake."

Amelia heard the screen door open from all the way back in her lab. "Hey! How was it?" She heard his footsteps, but he didn't respond. "Cooper?" He appeared at the open lab door, a harsh look on his face. "Are you okay?" She stood up, walking toward him. "What's wrong?"

Cooper grabbed her by the waist and his lips met hers in a flash, rough. She obliged, happily surprised at the turn of events, and with his lips still on her, he picked her up effortlessly. Amelia instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist as he began to walk, taking them out of her lab, down the hall and up the stairs.

"I think this is better than the first one, and I didn't know that it could get any better," Cooper said as he took another bite of the cake. "I've been looking forward to this all day."

Amelia giggled in contentment. "Well, I'm glad. It's not exactly easy to make." She suddenly remembered that she hadn't found out about his meeting. "How did it go today? You looked angry when you got home."

"Yeah, they've..." he trailed off, wondering what kind of lie to tell her. There was no way she could know what happened. Not that it was his fault, but he wasn't trying to get her locked up for murdering Hart. "They've been developing a soil on their own. It's good. Pates hasn't said anything about it, but knowing Hart, she's keeping him out of the loop, too."

"She likes to screw people over, doesn't she?" Tell me about it, he thought.

"Seems to like having the ultimate say, full control." He put his fork down on the plate. "And she's great, the baby, that is."

"Thank you for getting those files. I'm just trying to prepare for the worst case scenario," Amelia replied as she sat down next to him before she took a bite of her cake. "Damn, this is good, isn't it?"

"You definitely know what you're doing." Cooper propped his head up on the table with his fist.

"Same goes for you," she whispered to him suggestively, smiling.

He smirked and shook his head, unable to take his eyes off of her. He didn't want to. "Since when were you the one with the innuendoes, Amelia?"

"I learned from the master." She picked up the now empty plate, got up and put it in the sink.

So I'm the master at that? Good, he thought to himself. "You can't go stealing all my tricks, now." Amelia turned around from the sink, still smiling. "You're glowing."

"I think that's an after-sex glow, but thank you." He chuckled at her response as she walked back toward the table.

"No, this has been going on for a while," Cooper told her as she sat down.

"I'm not doing anything different," she explained, mirroring his position, propping her head up. "Same boring nighttime face routine."

He smiled gently as she brought her fingers to his forehead as she often did. "That feels good."

"Got anything else to do this afternoon?" He shook his head 'no'. "I don't know what to do. I had pretty much finished up my work when you came into my lab and abducted me, anyway."

"Abducted you?" Cooper laughed again, watching her smile. "I don't think it was an abduction."

"You pleasantly surprised me, I suppose." He closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of her fingers gliding over his skin, above his eyebrows.

"Just trying to keep the spark alive, Brand; just tryin' to keep it alive." Amelia moved her fingers out of the way, kissing him on the forehead.

"I thought you only had to work at that after you had children. Are you trying to give me some practice?" If every moment could be like this, life would be even more perfect than what it already was, she was positive.

"You're not going to have much of a problem because I am so spectacular." He watched her roll her eyes. She obviously knew that was a joke.

"So I won't be able to resist you no matter the circumstances, huh?" She bit her bottom lip, moving her hand away from him. "Try me."

"I just did not even twenty minutes ago." Amelia gently hit him in the head with her palm. "I deserved that, I guess."

Cooper sat in his office, trying to distract himself from thinking about what had happened at headquarters the day before. He couldn't tell Amelia, but he felt like maybe he should. But nothing really happened, and God knows that he didn't initiate it.

As it turned out, Amelia had been right the whole time - Hart was into him. This wasn't flattering at all to him, but instead a nuisance that would keep digging at his brain until he confessed to someone. Confessing to TARS might work, though Cooper knew that in the long run, it was probably better to tell no one. He's forget all about it eventually and they could go on living their lives.

He couldn't stop wondering what had motivated her. Hart kept mentioning 'power' to him, as if it was something that would make him leave what he had. If anything, it made him want to be with Amelia even more, if that was even humanly possible. Coming home to her frustrated and angry had proven to work out well for them, anyway.

Part of him knew that Amelia would find out, though. Should he just go ahead and tell her? The longer he waited the more upset she would probably be.

She was back in the hammock, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

"You know, that thing can hold up to 400 pounds." Amelia sat up and saw Cooper.

"Is that an insult?" She was almost sure she knew what he meant.

"No, both of us and then some can fit in it." They smiled at each other and she scooted over to give him some room. "Nice sunset tonight," he observed as he climbed on.

"Isn't it?" She looked out at the corn, watching it sway in the wind.

They really needed to name her soon. "Have you been thinking about names?"

"Not really," he replied honestly. "I thought you'd have the ultimate say in that."

"We need to agree on a name," she emphasized. "I've been leaning toward boy names, for some reason. I just think they're cute on girls."

"What names?" Cooper was curious as to what her ideas were.

"Kyle and Logan. Logan definitely is the most masculine, but I think it could work." He thought about that - Logan. He liked it.

"Logan. Logan... Logan Cooper." Amelia nodded, looking back at the sunset.

"Brand as a middle name, maybe." Cooper liked that, too. Simple enough of a name, but a cool one, nonetheless. "There needs to be something with my name in there. She's not just yours." He chuckled at that, as she curled into him. "I don't want to make that official yet, though."

"Four and a half months and she'll be here." After that, time would fly.

"I'm really nervous, but I think I'll manage," Amelia said, yawning after. "Have you noticed the state of your office lately?"

"I'm a busy man, Amelia," he replied as he watched her roll her eyes.

"I can't stand looking at it anymore. I hate to say this, to do this, but," she shook her head in frustration, "I'm going to have to clean it for you. You can't just leave papers all over the floor. There are probably some important ones just sitting around, and that office needs to be organized. I'm starting tomorrow."

"You really don't need to do that." He wasn't hiding anything - not in a room, at least.

"Oh yes I do! I bet you've even got a coffee cup or two in there that is halfway full." Cooper couldn't help but laugh at her probably correct assumption.

"Something is going on with the shields again. I can't figure it out. Everything is okay on CASE and TARS's end. I have TARS send out a signal to put 'em up, and then suddenly they're back down."

Amelia looked up from her tablet. "You have to be joking. How is that even possible?"

Cooper wasn't sure, but he had a theory. "I'm thinking that maybe it's the wiring. I know where the power source is, so I'm going to start there in the morning and walk the perimeter too see if anything has been dug up or damaged." She was handling this a lot better than he had anticipated. "I've been itching to program the smaller bots but I guess that'll have to wait."

"I'm going to need CASE tomorrow to move things in your office, so if you could only take TARS, that would be great." He nodded, agreeing. "Hopefully you can fix the problem tomorrow, if not, Pates can get some people on it."

"You sayin' I'm not capable of fixing a few wires, Brand?" Cooper loved to see her smile, especially when he was the one who caused it.

"No, I'm saying that I'd like to sleep, without the barking, the fear... you know." She flipped the cover onto her tablet. "That was one bonus to living underground, I guess. No unexpected noises. Sure, I could occasionally hear Romilly playing his music too loud, but that was about it. I didn't complain." Amelia ran a hand through her hair, tired. "I need to shower and go to bed. It's late, and I've got a big day tomorrow."

"Ditto."

"I can't have you dehydrated," Amelia said as she stuffed five water bottles in to his backpack.

"You're good at packing up a backpack, aren't you?" Cooper heard her zip the backpack shut.

"Is it too heavy?" she asked. "I'm serious. That wasn't a jab at your masculinity."

Cooper turned around and pulled her to him. "Thank you for your concern, but I swear I will be alright." She hugged him and then pulled away. "If you need anything, let me know. You really don't have to clean that room up. I can do it."

"I highly doubt that. Now go so you can finish before it gets too hot out, please." He nodded and walked out the door with TARS beside him. "CASE, are you ready to lift a few boxes?"

"It's dull work compared to what I'm used to, but I gladly welcome it." Amelia had always known that CASE and TARS were polar opposites, and she could only imagine the response TARS would have had to her question.

"Do you get bored, CASE? I can always give you other things to do." CASE walked toward her.

"Dr. Brand, as your robot, I have to do whatever you say." She walked toward the office, hearing CASE clonk behind her.

"Okay, we're going to start with the papers on the floor. The floor itself is surprisingly clean, but you would never know thanks to his mess," Amelia explained, moving toward his desk. "I was right! A coffee cup." She picked up the cup and put it on a table near the door. "I'll get that later."

She sat down on the floor near a big pile of papers, going through them, seeing which needed to be kept and thrown away. "Half of these are hand written," she observed, surprised. Little notes here and there, reminders of things to do. He had even taken the time to write down what she was doing on various days. She smiled and decided to keep those for herself.

"Dr. Brand, I've got a video message from headquarters coming in."

"Nothin's wrong with the source, so I guess we're going to have to walk a few miles, bud." Cooper looked at TARS - he viewed him as somewhat human, his reactions necessary for Cooper to communicate with him.

"I needed the exercise today, anyway, Coop. Gotta burn off those calories!" He laughed as TARS caught up with him.

"If we can't find anything wrong with the wiring, I have no idea what the problem could be. I thought maybe something knocked it out, but the shields couldn't go halfway up and then down if the power source had been stripped." TARS was just as curious as Cooper was.

"We could do a rock test, like when you set your own up." Cooper thought that sounded like a good idea.

"Let's do that if we can't find the source, then, if that doesn't work, I'm setting up a new one as fast as possible. Won't cover as big of an area as this one, but it'll give her some peace of mind." They continued to walk, Cooper looking for any disturbances along the line.

"Getting a video from headquarters for you, Coop." He paused and Cooper turned toward him as the video began to play.

"What? No!" Amelia pushed CASE away from her, backing up toward his desk, feeling herself bump against it. "That can't be true!"

Cooper stared at TARS's screens silently, trying to move away, but he couldn't. He'd been dealt much larger blows in his life, but this was still big. Cooper finally walked away from TARS and ran toward the house as fast as he could.

Amelia fell to the floor and gripped the fringe of the rug, her body emitting heaving sobs. 'Why' was the word that kept running through her mind. How could two people be put into so many terrible situations in one lifetime? Amelia Brand wasn't even remotely spiritual, but she wondered if some higher power was punishing her for something, in turn, punishing Cooper - the last person who deserved this.

"Amelia?" She felt his hand on her back. "I know." Cooper stayed beside her as she cried, and she was too scared to look at him for fear he'd cry, too.

"She's... she's dead."

If you absolutely hate this, I'm sorry, but this is where it had to go. Please message me if you're upset about it, because I would love to explain this if you have questions. I'll try my best to not give spoilers. Thank you!