Surprise, he'd just earned the privilege of calling her that name (just in these specific circumstances) without her rushing to tell him she'd changed her name.
"Yeah, it's me," she said. "Why would you be hallucinating?"
"Because I've been unconsciousness for awhile, it seems," Jim said, peering around at the pod and up at the hatch that was blocking out the snow. "And I'm stuck in a goddamn pod on a planet made of snow!"
"It was Spock!" Jim wasn't thinking clearly, didn't realize she wouldn't know who that was. "I wanted to go back for Pike but he wanted to leave him behind and he threw me off the ship on my own!"
None of that made much sense to her, no. Envy held back the urge to just ask 'someone threw you off a ship?' because that was on par with just asking him 'what?' again.
She drew a breath. Calmed her fraying nerves with that. "Okay, slow down. Start from the beginning."
"We were attacked," Jim told her, sighing and blowing out warmth against his hands. The cold weather gear only did so much. Did he even have any food? "By Romulans."
He didn't go into the whole 'they killed my dad' thing.
"To save us, Pike went over but Spock didn't wanna go get him and he's probably being tortured. I spoke up and disagreed, tried to strip of his command and he kicked me off the ship and stranded me on Delta Vega. It's all just snow!"
"The computer says Starfleet's supposed to come get me but I don't know if that's true or not," he said, pushing the top of the pod open again and peering out.
"Goddammit! It's fucking freezing," he said, sounding muffled before sitting back down. "I don't have any supplies right now besides cold weather gear. There's no timeline here."
"Try to conserve your energy, Jim." Was that a thing? She wasn't sure that was a thing. There was a surge of panic in her chest. She kept a tight leash on it. "You need to be smart instead of angry."
"Hey, I managed to get this damn computer to communicate with you," he pointed out, sitting back and closing his eyes. "I don't have a ton of options here! I don't know this planet, I don't have food but I guess I can get water by melting snow."
"Well, you might wanna say something because I don't know how long this connection is gonna last," he said, pressing his hands up against the hatch again. "It's hot wired and I don't have any duct tape to keep it that way."
She picked up anyway. Call it random curiosity.
Her greeting was cool and professional. "Hello?"
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That last word was shouted. Loudly.
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That would've been a pleasant surprise if he hadn't made her pull the phone away from her ear for a second.
"Don't shout at me."
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"Natalie? Natalie, can you hear me? Am I hallucinating?" he asked hurriedly but not as loudly as he'd just shouted.
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"Yeah, it's me," she said. "Why would you be hallucinating?"
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That had not been something she'd wanted to hear. She also wanted to believe it wasn't as bad as it sounded like it could potentially be.
"Jim, what?"
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She drew a breath. Calmed her fraying nerves with that. "Okay, slow down. Start from the beginning."
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He didn't go into the whole 'they killed my dad' thing.
"To save us, Pike went over but Spock didn't wanna go get him and he's probably being tortured. I spoke up and disagreed, tried to strip of his command and he kicked me off the ship and stranded me on Delta Vega. It's all just snow!"
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She'd forgotten what that felt like. It had been so long since anything had threatened to upset her like that. "Are they coming to get you?"
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"Goddammit! It's fucking freezing," he said, sounding muffled before sitting back down. "I don't have any supplies right now besides cold weather gear. There's no timeline here."
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Did he know how much she hated feeling that way? A lot. It was a lot. She hated it a lot.
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