Sirens screaming in her ears, alerts warring for her attention, the clanging and shrills of tortured metal, inhuman cries echoing in the halls outside, and all she cared about was the voice on the other end of the commlink.
"What's wrong, Baggins?"
Gulping in a breath, she looks around. "Heavy resistance on the way to the pod bay, we took a few more hits. I'm out of med gel. O'Connell is nearly unconscious and her comm is out." She stops, unwilling to continue her list of exactly what's wrong with her situation. Gasping in what is probably the last of her oxygen supply.
"Then get the hell out of there, Baggins! I only let you go that way because you said there were escape pods! The techs say you only have five minutes left!"
She huffs out a laugh bordering on manic. "Well, I may or may not have been only hoping that there were escape pods, all right? The fucking goblins must have gotten here first. All pods damaged beyond immediate repair."
A silence echoed down the link, strangely loud in the clamor of the derelict escape pod bay. Then, words she feared, quick, breathless. "Stay there, we're coming back for you."
Four minutes…
Suddenly, she's angry. "The hell you are, Commander Durin! Need I remind you, Sir, that there is a whole ship's worth of people still within the damn blast radius for this monstrosity and it's your responsibility to get them out!"
"Yes, and that means my whole crew, Lieutenant Baggins!"
"With all due respect, Sir, two lives versus the survival of a ship and its crew? I'm asking you to get the Erebor out of range now. I'm already killing two people today, do not make me responsible for any more." She's deflating now, beginning to accept that she won't make it, beginning to realize that she's wasting time on these worthless words, her final words.
"No, no I won't leave you there. I can't. Mahal, Bilbo, what…" She can hear muffled voices in the background, imagines she can hear Captain Grey throwing out his orders. Poor man was probably going to blame himself, since it had been his idea initially: her being assigned to the Erebor.
"Captain Grey, Sir, if you can hear me, get the Erebor out of range. There's nothing… you can do." Her voice maintains the steadiness until the end, when her throat closes for a moment. Whether it's grief, rage, or regret, or even a combination of all three, she's not sure.
Three minutes…
She snaps herself back to listen, to strain to capture the soft voice of the other life trapped in this hellhole with her. Pushing through the growing muzziness of her brain that registers as oxygen deprivation, she murmurs into the comm. "Thor…Thorin? Ori wants Kili…and Fili to know she's sorry. About all this. Never meant to get separated. Never meant for this to happen."
His voice is shaking, desperate. "I will, I promise, I… Fucking damn it, Bilbo, why?"
She doesn't answer the question, asks one of her own. "Is the Erebor out of range yet?" She has to know, she needs to know her new family will be safe.
Two minutes…
Behind his voice, she can hear an eerie silence punctuated by clicks, like ticks on a clock. The countdown. "The Erebor is away." The response is low, flat, he's furious.
She sighs, a relief and a struggle with oxygen running low. "I needed to know you were safe. That you were all safe. That you were safe even when I couldn't be there."
She doesn't know if the conversation is being listened to by the rest of the ship, at this point she could give a flying rat's ass. There are words she needs to say, if she can remember them.
One minute…
"Thorin, I-I am sorry. I should have never let this go on so long." There's an intake of breath, and the jabbering outside the barricaded door is growing even louder.
"Bilbo…"
"Let- let me finish." Her words are slurring, vision going fuzzy. "You are the w-worst idiot I have ever met in my en-entire life, you're harsh, you speak w'out thinkin', and have the most a-atrocious social graces I have ever seen in anodder livin' bean."
Thirty seconds…
"And I still- I love you. Far m-more than I can say." O'Connell' hand is tightly held in her left, a blaster pointed at the weakening door in her right, breathing growing ragged. "I love you, Thorin."
Ten seconds…
"Bilbo…" Hushed and choking, he sounds on the verge of tears, which sets her off, moisture threading down her grubby face, though there's no time.
five seconds…
"I love…" The door is bowing inwards.
three, two, one…
No time left.