Hushed Willows The nightmare scenario has happened.

She had zero experience with this kind of thing. Dead deer, butchered rabbits, sure. Every wolf dealt with death on a regular basis, but not like this. Pepper had nothing to fall back on, and she wasn't exactly the creative type; nobody had trained her for this. It was time to learn, and most importantly to support.

Pepper was silent for a long moment after Stark spoke, trying to think of what to say. She went through a myriad of potential responses before settling on, I hope.. I hope that she found peace, but it sounded so lame the way she said it, with that hesitation and doubt, so the usually boisterous woman (who always knew what to do, and was always well prepared for everything) let the silence sink in around them.

It was strange to be this close to Stark, especially during such a tender and fragile moment in his life, but she only wished to keep him intact; there was no telling what the fallout from this might be. All of this was new territory to Pepper.

Finally, she added: Can I do... anything? Anything at all.