Tony pulled up to the building and let out a sigh as he put it in park, he got out and fixed his shirt before he walked into the building. "Hello, Tony." The receptionist said with a smile.
"Morning Rachel. Is Jessica in?"
"Yeah I don't think she's busy at the moment either so she should be free."
"Great. I just need to ask her to do a quick favor for me." He said as he walked to her office. He could see her sitting at her desk typing away a mile a minute, he knocked on the door and she looked up before looking at the computer and looking up again.
"Tony! Hey! What's up?" she asked. She leaned back in her chair, the sun caught on the bracelet she was wearing and it sent little diamonds throughout the room and on her russet-colored skin.
"Just needed to ask you for a favor." He said and she let out a sigh, whenever Tony Stark shows up and asks you for a favor it's usually something that's going to get you in a lot of trouble from what Rhodey had told her.
"And what would the favor be?" she asked.
"I've told you about Sam Wilson, right? The guy that Steve passed the shield on to." He asked and she had to stop and think about it.
"Yeah, I remember him. What about him?"
"He needs help. His sister's been struggling to take care of everything since he was dusted five years ago and it's just become too much for her."
"Okay. Not following. What do you need me to do?"
"Well they tried to get a loan from the bank their family uses and they've run out of options other than to sell their boat. But the problem is that it's not in working condition and well the whole money problem so they don't even have the money to fix it up. All I need you to do is go down and look it over and send me a list of the stuff that needs to be repaired. Some of the other Avengers have agreed to help out money wise but I don't know a thing about boats. I figured who better to ask than someone who was raised on one as well." Tony said and Jessica stared up at him for a second.
"That's it? You just want me to take inventory? Why come to me? You could have anyone do it."
"Because I trust you to not jack the price up." He said as he messed with one of her vases.
"If you break that I will." She said and he quickly moved away from it.
"So what do you say, Jess? You willing to help out?" he asked.
"Okay. But only because it's to help people out. If it was just you though I would have probably just told you to deal with it on your own." She joked.
"Wow, I feel loved." Tony said with a smile before turning and walking away. "I'll send you the address later."
"Come on mom please?" Opal begged Jessica, she did her best to give her puppy dog eyes her big light brown eyes tearing up slightly.
"No. Absolutely not, I don't know long I'm going to be down there and you have school. You are going to stay with your father until I get back that's the end of it." Jessica said before zipping her suitcase closed. Opal let out a huff and stomped to her room to get ready to go to her dad's house her raven hair flowing behind her.
"This is so unfair! You never take me anywhere!" she shouted before slamming her door shut. Jessica closed her eyes and rubbed at her temple while she felt a headache coming on, she missed the days when she was just a little girl and she didn't act so spoiled. She couldn't blame it on her ex since he had always been good about not giving in so she just assumed that it had to do with Opal's new friends at school, a lot of them were the children of doctors and lawyers and such and they had probably never heard the word no and had probably put it in her head that she should get whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. She got a text from her ex Andre a minute later letting her know that he was there.
"Opal! Your dad's here! Let's go!" she called out.
"Alright, alright I'm going." She said as she marched out of her room.
"Hey, come here." Jessica said while grabbing her, Opal rolled her eyes and glanced at her as if to ask her what she wanted. "You be good for your father. I love you alright?" she said while looking at her.
"Yeah alright. Love you too. I'm sorry." Opal said looking down as she walked out the door. She saw Andre standing beside the car with a smile on his face, Opal walked over and wrapped her arms around him.
"Hey. How are you doing?" he asked.
"Mom won't let me come with."
"You have school kiddo. I'm sorry but it's a no from me too." He said as he pulled away. Opal let out a small sigh and got into the car to wait for him. "So, heading down to Louisiana." He said with a surprised look.
"Yeah. Tony asked me to help one of his friends that lives down there. His family owns a boat and they need to fix it up but they don't have the money to do it. So he needs me to go down and do inventory. Tony knows absolutely nothing about boats and he doesn't trust anyone else to give him an estimate as to how much it will cost to fix it up. I couldn't just say no." she said and Andre smiled at her.
"I know. Your mom and dad would never forgive you if you didn't. Remember they still believe in paying it forward." He said. She was glad that while they hadn't always seen eye to eye on things that he at least understood when she wanted to help someone. She just hoped that Opal would continue the tradition.
"Alright, I better let you guys go. I have a lot of packing left to do. I have to head to the airport early tomorrow." She said. Andre got back in his car and she waved to both him and Opal as they pulled away before turning and heading back into her house to get ready.
