[She sat and she stared. There was the temptation to lower her eyes down to the table and to squirm the way she always had when people took her to task for getting something wrong, although this was bigger than a spelling or reading comprehension mistake, and it wouldn't have felt right to cower when he corrected her as if he were some monster. He wasn't. He was just the same as anyone, and anyone deserved to be met with her chin held high.]

I didn't mean- I didn't intend to-

[She tightened her grip on her own drink, which was the lightest they'd had available, then deliberately relaxed it.]

I apologize. I shouldn't have made assumptions. I don't want to make you or my other patients to feel disrespected or like I'm not listening, I really genuinely do want to understand. So... I will do like you said, and do research on the war.

[Another pause, as she glanced at him, weighing whether it would be appropriate to point out that he'd been talking about his soldiers as if the war had happened to just them, and not him, but eventually decided to remain quiet.]