Shut up, he wants to shout. He never wants to hear her speak of them again, wants to pretend she hadn't brought it up at all. He wants it to be nothing more than his bruised pride and compromised privacy.

"There's nothing about them," he says, which is a half-truth that doesn't cover what's unspoken. "It's -- personal, and it has nothing to do with you, and I wasn't planning on acknowledging the captain's meaningless taunt until you brought it up."