Chapter Text
She’s in the Endurance, of all places, checking on the embryos when he finds her.
It was late. Cooper had been pouring through Murphy’s notebooks all day and he hadn’t seen Amelia since the night before. She’s obviously been trying to keep herself busy. He’s obviously the last person she wants to see right now.
She clicks the drawer containing the embryos shut, still not turning to face him.
“Where’s Sophia?” She asks. Her voice is strange and almost gruff; unlike he’s ever heard it before.
“She’s at home asleep. Harper’s keeping an eye on her.”
Home. It’s a strange way to describe the tin can that they live in that’s a mixture of some of the building materials they brought with them all those years ago and the shell casing from part of the Endurance.
Amelia doesn’t say anything. She’s moving around like she’s busy with something, but really she’s just fiddling with random things so that she doesn’t have to look at him. If she looks at him, she knows that she won’t be able to stay angry for long.
“Amelia, I’m sorry. You were right…about everything.”
She pauses.
“Murphy…” Cooper runs a shaking hand through his cropped hair. “Jesus, to me she was a little ten year old only a couple of years ago and now—and now she’s gone.” He swallows thickly. “I know that I haven’t been spending as much time with Sophia as I should be, I know that.”
He’s not going to cry. He’s not going to cry. Never in his life has he cried as often as he has since they left Earth, and now that he’s started, it’s like a floodgate has opened.
He isn’t going to cry right now.
“And it’s like…it’s like I’m always getting my other family and my family with you and Sophia mixed up in my mind. Not that I get you confused, but I keep thinking about Murph and Tom and—and Erin. They just feel so close to me even though I know that they’re all dead. Fuck, I’m not making any sense I’m—.”
Amelia nearly knocks the air out of his lungs with how quickly she turns and hugs him.
“It’s okay.” She whispers into his neck.
“No, no it’s not okay. It’s not okay. I’m so happy with you and Sophia and I’m going to do better. I’m going to be better for both of you.” He chokes out.
Amelia takes a step back so that she can meet his gaze, but she doesn’t let him leave her arms. “I’m angry at myself, Cooper. Not at you. I was the one that got myself pregnant when I thought you were dead and then I told you about it when I probably shouldn’t have. I feel so guilty because…” She swallows back tears. “Because I’m worried that we got into all of this too quickly. Us, Sophia, living together like we’re husband and w-.”
She cuts herself off, eyes wide and not daring to meet his. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I knew it was too soon for you to start a family after everything and I pushed for it and I’m so sorry.”
Cooper shakes his head profusely before placing a hand under her chin and lifting it to meet her gaze. “No, no I want you and I want Sophia and you didn’t push me into anything. Okay?”
Amelia doesn’t react at first, so Cooper brings their lips together in a kiss for emphasis.
“Okay?” He asks her again.
She glances to the floor, then back up to him. “Okay.” She says quietly.
Cooper nods. “Good. Now let’s get you to bed. I bet you’re exhausted.”
Amelia nods, curling up into Cooper’s side as they begin their trek back to their house.
Murphy’s ring feels like it’s burning a hole through Cooper’s jacket pocket.
October 20th, 2156
Dad,
I know that it’s all going to be over soon. I only stuck around this long so that I could see you one last time and now that I have I know that it’s time for me to go.
I’m not scared. I don’t have any regrets. I’ve lived a good life and I’m not in any pain. There’s so much more that I want to say, but I don’t know where to start.
The ironic part about getting old is that you only truly get wise about life when yours is about to end. So, with all this wisdom I can say these things to you now and know that they’re true.
You have so much of your life ahead of you still. Please don’t waste it mourning Tom and I. We’ll always be with you and you can still love us and think about us, but don’t live in the past.
Along with the notebooks and other personal effects that I have sent you, I’ve also enclosed my engagement ring. I know that there’s a good chance that you’re going to end up with someone eventually, and I know that if you do that someone will be Amelia Brand. She’s the only other person in the universe that’s lived through what you’ve lived through. Remember, I’m very old and very wise now, so I know these things.
The ring is for her when you do finally make the decision to live in the present.
I know that I’ve already written this thousands of times in these letters to you, but I do love you so much. After all these years and all the space between us, even when I was angry at you for so long, it never once wavered. You kept your promise to me. Now it’s time for you to be happy.
All of my love,
Murph
Fifteen families, ten heifers, fifteen hens, five pigs, and eight sheep.
Three months for the inhabitants of Edmunds to prepare for their arrival.
Fifteen homes, three barns, and a fucking chicken coop.
Countless times that Cooper utters the phrase ‘We’re fucked.’
Sophia sits perched in Cooper’s lap, both of them sitting in the armchair in the nursery. Cooper strokes her flossy hair for a moment as she pounds her fists playfully against his chest.
He readjusts the book in his lap before continuing.
“But at night time, when that two-year-old was quiet, she opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed; and if he was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.” He drawls on.
Sophia’s hands slow.
“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.”
“You’d be a fool if you didn’t snatch that woman up now. She’s a catch and pretty soon you’re going to have a lot more competition.” Hank tells him, walking from his refrigerator and handing Cooper a beer.
Cooper grimaces. “Where the hell would we even get a marriage license? Who’s the government in charge these days anyway?”
Hank shrugs before moving to sit on the chair across the table from Cooper. “It’s a bit complicated. Every country from Earth wants their own government in charge.”
Cooper takes a swig from the bottle. “Wait, what do you mean I’ll have more competition?”
“I mean there’s about to be a lot more eligible men around here in the next few months.” He states matter of factly before taking a drink.
Cooper’s face screws up the way it does when he’s really confused. “We have a kid together.” He says dumbly.
Hank shrugs yet again. “That doesn’t matter to some women when they don’t have a ring on their finger.”
“It’s not like that with her.”
Hank tilts his head forward, eyes narrowing. “Since when are you an expert on women, man? Right now you’re still just the baby daddy.”
“I’m the what?”
They were nineteen and Erin was three months pregnant with Tom when Cooper proposed.
It had been the right thing to do. And anyway Cooper loved Erin. She was pretty, intelligent, fun. They’d been dating for three years. It was time.
His grandmother gave him her sterling silver wedding band and he took Erin out on a night when the sky was so clear that you could actually see the stars.
He got down on one knee and everything.
Erin was gone nine years later.
He doesn’t mean to even say it when he does.
They’re out on the rock formations overlooking the compound. The sunset carries an unbelievably orange hue tonight, casting them in a golden haze. Amelia has just discovered a new mineral and Cooper is offered to join her on the trek out to get more samples.
Amelia caps the container that’s he put the samples in, beaming. “It’s incredible! Just imagine how many elements and minerals we’re going to discover that didn’t exist on Earth. I mean, what if something we find on Edmunds is able to, I don’t know, cure cancer or something. And that’s just one example for-.”
“We should get married.” Cooper blurts out.
Well, that’s one way to do it.
Amelia isn’t smiling anymore. “What?”
Of course she wasn’t going to say yes. Women want romantic proposals and Cooper just blew it.
“I don’t—no, sorry.” Cooper stutters, the words tumbling out of his mouth involuntarily.
Amelia’s eyes narrow, brows furrowed in confusion. “Are you okay?”
Nope, no, definitely not.
Cooper’s on autopilot when he moves to feel around in his jacket pocket clumsily, his hand retrieving the velvet ring box.
Amelia’s heart feels like it stops.
“Fuck, I know I’m doing this all wrong. I should have asked you before Sophia was born. I should be down on one knee, but I’m not sure if my knees can take these fucking rocks…and I shouldn’t be saying ‘fuck’ while I’m trying to propose to you, and I definitely shouldn’t be saying it twice.”
Amelia stands stock-still, eyes fixed on his face, then the box in his hand.
He lifts the lid, letting the box click open. “What I’ve been trying to say is will you ma—.”
“Yes.”
Cooper can’t help but scoff.
Amelia’s lips stretch into a toothy, beaming, beautiful grin. “Sorry, sorry. You can go again.” She says, flushed.
“Amelia, will you marry me?” She’s nodding again before he’s finished.
“Yes, yes, oh god, oh my god.” Suddenly Amelia’s laughing deliriously, eyes flicking from Cooper to the ring.
He moves to pull it out of its velvet case before shakily grasping Amelia’s hand and sliding the ring onto her finger; sterling silver, diamond gleaming.
Her gaze catches on the ring again, then on Cooper. “I love you.” She says, voice paper thin, before placing a gentle hand at the nape of his neck and bringing their lips together.
She doesn’t need to hear the words to know that he loves her too.
He says them anyway.