“It aches sometimes, but otherwise I’m back to normal.” Thor changed the subject. “What else is going on? Ryan says he taught you to play chess and that you crushed him.”
“Are you checking up on me?”
“Always.”
“Yes, I beat the pants off him. You know what’s crazy?”
“What?”
“For as long as I knew her, Patty told me there was more to life than science. It took her death for me to learn what she meant.” Samantha told Thor how she’d kept mostly to herself her first winter here and how she’d forced herself to socialize after he’d gone. “At first I did it to keep from feeling depressed and lonely—and because you pushed me. But now I’m actually having fun. I’ve made friends.”
“You’re special, Samantha. They all see that.”
She brought him up to date on the rest of the news. Bai and Kazem were determined to marry. They had applied to Denmark and Sweden for jobs and visas. Lance was back to his old self, and he and Charli were together. The galaxy she’d discovered was, indeed, an elliptical double-ringed galaxy.
“I’ve started a campaign to get it named after Patty rather than assigned a catalogue number. Some of our former professors at UC-Berkeley are helping. I’m also working with them to establish an endowment for women doctoral students in Patty’s name. We haven’t raised much money yet.”
“You’ve been busy. I’m certain Patty would be touched.”
“It gives me something positive to do, a way to turn my grief into something tangible that will ensure that Patty is never forgotten.”
“That makes perfect sense.”
“Remember the ladder we came down—the one that led into the ice tunnels?”
“How could I forget?”
“The guys who work down there now call it ‘Thor’s Ladder.’”
He frowned. “Why my name? Why not ‘Samantha’s Ladder’? You were the first to see the flag that marked the escape hatch, and you were the first one down.”
“Yeah, but I’m not named after a deity. ‘Thor’s Ladder’ just sounds better, doesn’t it?” But Samantha had saved the best news for last. “I haven’t had a nightmare for a couple of weeks now.”
Relief spread across his handsome face. “I’m so glad to hear that. The therapy is helping then?”
At Thor’s request, Cobra had connected Decker with a PTSD specialist who combined therapy with controlled doses of ketamine to help people process traumatic events without retraumatizing them. As a scientist, Samantha had insisted on reading the research before she’d agreed to go along with it.
“I’m loopy for a few hours after every therapy session, but it seems to be working. I’m less jumpy. I don’t think about what happened all the time like I did at first, and I’m able to concentrate on my job again.”
He smiled. “It makes me happy to see you doing so well.”
She was doing well, but this was still sohard. “I miss Patty. I miss you so much.”
“I miss you, too,minelskling.”
My love.
She loved it when he called her that. No, it wasn’t the same thing as him saying that he loved her, but it was close.
“How’s life wherever you are?” Samantha had never told Thor this, but nowadays she kept an eye on international headlines. She saw global politics from a different perspective, knowing Thor was out there somewhere, risking his life.
“We’re wrapping things up and flying out tomorrow.”
“Nothing scary or dangerous happened?”
He grinned. “Not this time—unless you count McManus hitting his head on a low stone archway and needing stitches.”
“Ouch!”