Hushed Willows The nightmare scenario has happened.

Pepper asked her questions as gently as she could have and Stark wasn't sure if Pepper was using the oven mitts on him or if she was trying to be gentle out of respect for the deceased. Pepper, to his knowledge, hadn't encountered a situation like this and neither had he. Losing a spouse was utterly different than a parent, even if he couldn't call Octavia his mate. It had been close enough in his mind to ward off any advances and to squash down any attraction after all and Stark had stepped in as parent to Octavia's only child. 

"Yeah..I..I talked. And it seemed to settle her, mostly." He'd made a mistake of mentioning Tambourine and she had become riled - maybe it was a hint that the woman was more there than Stark was giving her credit for but the dark Alpha would never truly know. It wasn't like he could ask Octavia, even though they had shared a poignant moment where he had admitted allowed his feelings for the first and only time when it came to the grayscale woman. 

"She isn't hurting anymore," Stark echoed the sentiment, held it like it was some small consolation although it was still hard to consider and it left him a bad taste in his mouth. "It's...it's so final - there's no going back and fixing things, no chance to come back around and make it all right." Stark said weakly. "I wish....maybe...we were so close to the pack, I could have called Tambourine..."