- [Charlie and Amita are standing before a chalkboard full of equations, as usual]
- Charlie Eppes: Amita... you know, I didn't think you could make this work. But you've come up with a novel approach to solve this problem.
- Amita Ramanujan: Spent six months getting nowhere until I thought - if you can't come in the front door, climb through a window.
- [Charlie laughs]
- Charlie Eppes: Well, you've obviously, certainly, come a long way in your thesis work.
- Amita Ramanujan: Thank you.
- [she grins]
- Amita Ramanujan: You know what the weird thing is?
- Charlie Eppes: What's that?
- Amita Ramanujan: Well, I realized how much I enjoy being here, at CalSci.
- Charlie Eppes: That's good, I'm glad to hear that.
- Amita Ramanujan: Well, I was hoping you'd say that, because... I'm seriously considering getting a second PhD.
- [Charlie's eyebrows go up]
- Amita Ramanujan: In... astrophysics.
- Charlie Eppes: ...No. Don't do that.
- [Amita grins and sighs and Charlie continues, teasingly]
- Charlie Eppes: Don't tell me I've been working with you for over two years on combinatorics, and you're just going to throw that all away for physics?
- Amita Ramanujan: Charlie, astrophysics and computer science make a pretty good match.
- [Charlie hms skeptically]
- Amita Ramanujan: Besides, I've really realized how much I like... being here.
- Charlie Eppes: So you'd do your work here.
- Amita Ramanujan: [nods] ... Of course, I'd have a different advisor.
- Charlie Eppes: [softly] ... Of course.
- Amita Ramanujan: Which means that... I wouldn't be your student anymore.
- Charlie Eppes: I guess that's true, isn't it?
- [the two of them share a long moment just looking at each other and smiling, until they're interrupted by the NTSB official]