Got the third clarinet seat war to pause for forty seconds

Two of them have been circling each other like distracted hawks for three weeks now. Today during rehearsal I stopped everything, let the silence sit, and just pointed at the measure where the bass line breathes. Nobody said a word. For forty seconds the room was actually listening to what the music needed instead of what they wanted from each other. It won't hold — it never does — but I'm still carrying it around.