Mal dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands. She was trying so very hard not to go A-bomb on him. She knew she had no right to be shocked at his lack of empathy for her. She hadn't ever shown him much empathy when he needed it, so why should the opposite be true? She was still trying to look anywhere but at him, what with her eyes getting that watery look and her lip quivering like the strings of a violin. She screamed mental obscenities in her mind and somewhere deep inside vowed to give him the worst possible nightmares she could come up with. She was considering something about his wife and child just dying over and over again in different ways.
She refused to deem him with an answer though. It was true. Mal hated the mere mention of the world 'child'. But hating children and not being able to have them were two completely different things. She was a woman still and without the ability to bear children, well, what was she? A machine? There was likely someone somewhere who would testify to that argument. Mal had never considered having children. She would even go as far as to say she didn't want to have children, but being told that you just weren't able to even if you hadn't wanted to was tough to hear. And despite that treacherous tear barreling down her cheek, Mal knew exactly what she had to say.