There might be a dark, hard stone sitting in her chest, something that was the misery of losing something she wasn't sure how she'd stumbled into or maintained but valued all the more for it, but even staring at the glass of whiskey didn't have her escaping the byplay. "I'll help," she said on reflex that wasn't quiet fierce, but at least it was sure. Because what the hell right did he have, monitoring what was going into Dinah's mouth? That was her job. Though apparently babies couldn't tolerate more things than she imagined, if sugar was off the list right along with alcohol. Then again, it wasn't like she had any cause or desire to learn, and she knew that was going to be the wedge that drove them apart; not what Dinah couldn't do, but what Maria wasn't interested in.
Bruce's words were honey-sweet and smooth, coddling, and Maria felt them as a slap. Her head shot over to him, color leeching from her face, in shock and hurt, before the fury rose. "Don't you fuckin' patronize me, Wayne," she snarled. "You never needed me anyways," she spat out. It was true. She benefited from them more than they ever benefited from her. They weren't about to put up with her now that they had more important people in their life, and hating them felt marginally better than being miserable.
Though not miserable enough to do more than glare at the refill, something twitching in her jaw. Much as she wanted the drink, the burn and the numbness, she needed to drive soon, so that she could get away from this.
The anger chilled down at Dinah's comment, and she tipped a little too close to the pain. There went about ninety percent of anything they'd ever had in common, to be replaced by whatever it was people with small babies did. All day. She couldn't think of a worse prison. And that was where Dinah was stuck for the rest of her life, and there was nothing she could do about it. "What's the point of even leaving the house?" she asked bitterly.
Her shoulders crawled tighter, and her hand tightened into a fist on the armrest before she smoothed it out. That was far too casual a comment to be off-the-cuff, and she didn't want to hear it. She didn't want whatever bone Dinah was throwing at her because they couldn't be anything else to each other anymore. "Enough to know they don't need exercise," she said shortly.