Chris knows that pat struggles with infertility issues. to hit pat during a conflict with the inability to have children is known as

 a conflict with the inability to have children is known as Betlining.
A betlining is a psychological blow that happen to someone after knowing that they're incapable in doing something.
In infertility issues, betlining often hit because we fail to fulfill our human instict to reproduce

Ibelieve the answer is water and oil.