Emotions are one of the main things that derail communication.

Host: The night office was mostly dark, except for the faint hum of computer screens left on in forgotten corners. The city outside glowed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, its skyline fractured into lines of gold and silver against the black glass. Somewhere far below, a siren wailed — not loud, but persistent, like a pulse.

At a conference table, surrounded by empty chairs, Jack and Jeeny sat opposite each other. A single lamp hung above them, throwing a cone of light between their faces. Half an hour earlier, they’d had an argument. It wasn’t loud — just sharp, controlled, and surgical in its hurt.

Now, there was only silence… and the echo of Christopher Voss’s words on the whiteboard behind them:
“Emotions are one of the main things that derail communication. Once people get upset at one another, rational thinking goes out of the window.”

Jack: (finally breaking the silence) You know, Voss has a point. Once emotions show up, logic packs its bags. Look at us. One heated word, and everything useful in this conversation just… vanished.

Jeeny: (without looking up) Maybe logic’s overrated. You can’t talk about real things without emotions.

Jack: (leans back) That’s exactly the problem. You can’t talk when emotions take the wheel. It stops being dialogue and turns into defense.

Jeeny: Maybe defense is part of dialogue, Jack. It’s how people show what matters.

Jack: (bitter laugh) Oh, that’s a nice philosophy — “yell at me to show you care.”

Jeeny: (finally meeting his eyes) I didn’t yell. I felt. There’s a difference.

Host: Her voice trembled slightly, not with weakness, but with the effort of keeping her anger contained. The light above them buzzed faintly, casting shadows that split their faces in two halves — one lit, one dark.

Jack: (lowering his tone) Look, all I’m saying is — once emotion enters, reason leaves. Negotiation becomes chaos. That’s why people like Voss — FBI negotiators — rely on calm. No emotion, no escalation. Just clear, cold logic.

Jeeny: (quietly) And that’s why negotiators might get compliance… but not connection.

Jack: (sharply) You think terrorists care about connection?

Jeeny: I’m not talking about terrorists. I’m talking about us.

Host: The air between them tightened, like a drawn string. The rain outside intensified, streaking the glass with veins of water. The city lights blurred — emotion’s reflection made visible.

Jack: (after a pause) You know what happens when people get emotional in a meeting? Deals collapse. Truth gets twisted. People stop hearing words — they only hear tone.

Jeeny: And yet tone is what tells us who’s human.

Jack: (frowning) That’s poetic, but useless. Rational thinking is the only thing that saves us from tearing each other apart.

Jeeny: (leans forward) No, Jack. Rational thinking without empathy is what tears us apart.

Jack: (shakes his head) Empathy isn’t the opposite of rationality — it’s a trap dressed like virtue. Once you start feeling too much, you lose the ability to decide clearly.

Jeeny: (voice rising) No. Once you start feeling, you remember what you’re deciding for.

Host: The lamp flickered, its light catching the tension in their eyes — his cold, gray, hers deep and burning.

Jack: (sternly) You know, there’s a reason surgeons aren’t supposed to get emotional during operations. One hesitation, one tremor — and someone dies.

Jeeny: (quickly) But the same surgeons cry after, Jack. They just hide it until no one’s watching. You can’t do this — live like emotion is infection.

Jack: (sarcastic) It is infection. It spreads. Fast. One angry person, and suddenly everyone’s irrational.

Jeeny: (firmly) No. It’s not emotion that derails communication — it’s unacknowledged emotion.

Jack: (pauses, surprised) What does that even mean?

Jeeny: When people feel seen, they calm down. When they feel dismissed, they explode. You can’t shut emotion out — you have to let it breathe until it stops screaming.

Host: The clock ticked on the wall. Its sound felt louder now, syncopated with their breathing — two rhythms fighting to stay in sync.

Jack: (sighs) You sound like one of those mindfulness coaches. “Let it breathe.” Great advice — until someone’s throwing a chair across the room.

Jeeny: (half-smiling) Maybe if you’d let them talk before that, they wouldn’t need the chair.

Jack: (grins despite himself) You’re impossible.

Jeeny: (softly) No. Just unwilling to amputate my humanity in the name of efficiency.

Host: The tension shifted — not gone, but softer, like thunder moving farther away. The rain lightened, turning into a rhythmic patter that blended with the city’s hum.

Jack: (rubbing his forehead) You know, maybe Voss meant it differently. Not that emotion is bad — just that it needs to be managed. Like pressure in an engine. Too much, and the system breaks.

Jeeny: (nods slowly) Maybe. But you can’t manage something you refuse to feel.

Jack: (quietly) And you can’t trust something that clouds your judgment.

Jeeny: Maybe the trick is to use both — emotion to understand, reason to respond.

Jack: (after a long pause) So, emotion is the message, logic is the translation?

Jeeny: (smiling faintly) Exactly. Without one, you either lose truth or you lose heart.

Host: Her smile softened the air between them. Jack looked down at his hands — long, calloused, uncertain. For the first time that night, his voice lowered, almost gentle.

Jack: You know, I used to be good at listening. Really listening. But somewhere along the way, I started hearing people like problems to solve.

Jeeny: (softly) That’s what happens when you get too good at winning arguments. You forget that conversations aren’t battles.

Jack: (smiles sadly) That’s rich, coming from you.

Jeeny: (shrugs) I fight too — but for understanding, not victory.

Host: The lamp flickered again, then steadied. A small moth circled it, drawn to the heat, blind to the danger.

Host: The two sat there, quiet now, the distance between them smaller — not because either had surrendered, but because they’d begun to listen again.

Jack: (after a long silence) Maybe Voss was half right. Emotion derails communication, sure — but only if you let it drive alone.

Jeeny: (smiling) And logic without emotion? That’s like a GPS without a destination. You can move, but not meaningfully.

Jack: (leans back, thinking) Maybe the goal isn’t to throw emotion out the window… but to roll it down just enough to let reason breathe.

Jeeny: (laughs softly) Now that’s progress.

Host: The rain stopped, leaving streaks of silver on the glass. The city lights blinked below like distant neurons firing in the dark.

Host: In that still office, where emotion had briefly drowned reason, something else had surfaced — a fragile balance between them. The kind of understanding that isn’t born from logic or feeling alone, but from both — finally meeting halfway.

As the lamp dimmed, and the room fell quiet, Jack whispered — almost to himself —

Jack: “Maybe the trick to communication isn’t staying calm… it’s staying kind.”

Host: Jeeny smiled.

Outside, the sky cleared, and the first light of dawn began to break through — not loud, not sudden, but patient. Like reason returning after a storm of feeling.