[She closes her eyes when he says it, but even as her head bows down Pepper knows it could be far worse. Disappearances are bittersweet things, grief they attempt to temper with the belief that the people in question are at least back in the world where they belong now. The hollow comfort isn’t what eases her heart then, however. It’s the fact that their possessions haven’t vanished with them, meaning that Wonderland might still bring them back as it so often does.]

Then we wait a week or so. [The standard amount of time, although Pepper’s own case stood as an exception to that. Still, until those first set of seven days went by, she wouldn’t let herself fret. So far as she is aware no one comes back before then.]

We should probably still tell the mansion though, for simplicity’s sake. [Steve and Natasha had both been involved with training and who knows what else, not to mention that they had other friends who might worry. She hesitates for a moment, studying Bucky’s face, seeing just how he’s been shaken.]

They’ll come back. [Pepper grins, a small smile to try and encourage him. She’s a terrible liar, but for right now, she refuses to think of that outcome as anything other than truth.]