Jessica stood in at the front door of Sarah Wilson's house and knocked on the door. She was slightly nervous; she didn't know these people, so she wasn't sure how they would react to her just showing up. A minute later, a woman opened the door that seemed a year or two younger than herself; there was a boy standing behind her looking at his mother before looking right at her. Jessica had decided to wear a simple navy blue button-down shirt and a knee-length black skirt, her hair was done up in a ponytail, and she had on a pair of dress shoes and a necklace in the hopes that she looked professional enough to get Sarah to listen to her. "Can I help you?" the woman asked.
"Are you Sarah Wilson?" she asked, her hands clasped in front of herself.
"Yes." Sarah said slowly with a questioning look on her face.
"My name is Jessica Mays, and I'm here to talk to you about your boat." She said, and Sarah looked at her confused.
"My boat? I'll let you know that the boat needs a lot of work. I can take you down to the dock and show you, but I just needed to tell you that it will be a lot of money before you decide whether you want to buy it."
"Oh, I'm not here to buy it. Tony Stark sent me down here. He heard about your situation through Steve, and he wants to help. He asked me to come down and see what parts you need for your boat, and he and several of the other Avengers will pay for the parts to get your boat up and running so that you can sell it. He doesn't know a thing about boats, though, so I'm here." She said with a smile.
"What's in it for you?" Sarah asked, a skeptical look on her face.
"Nothing. My family believes in paying it forward. When they first started their fishing business, they were constantly in the red, they had sold all but one of their boats to try to make ends meet, and they were sure they'd have to sell that one too when an anonymous donation came in. The only thing the person wanted them to do was to pay it forward, it saved their business, and they were able to buy better boats that could go out further, and eventually, they built the Mays Fishing company. They donate to small businesses and charities, not that you're a charity case. More of a small business, I guess." She said when she saw the look on Sarah's face. The other woman seemed to think it over before she sighed and turned to the boy.
"Go grab our shoes, Cass. We're going down to the docks." She said.
"Is it safe to stand on?" Jessica asked when they got to the Paul & Darlene.
"Yeah. It's more like there's something wrong with it mechanically. I just haven't figured it out." She said with a sigh. Jessica got onto the boat, amazed that it barely shifted at all. She walked around the boat, bouncing every so often to look for any weak boards that would need to be replaced later on. She was surprised to see that Sarah was right for the most part. She couldn't see over the side very well, but she was sure that they'd see some things that needed to be done if they dry docked it. She walked down the steps and checked out several of the instruments to see if anything looked broken or worn out, making a list. Cass followed close behind her; if there was something she couldn't see very well, he would look to tell her if it looked broken or worn down to him.
"Do you have any kids?" he asked as she checked out something on the deck.
"I have a daughter. She's 14."
"Where's she at?"
"With her dad since she has to be at school. Where's your dad at? Your mom said your uncle left to go on a mission, but she didn't say anything about your dad." She asked. Cass looked down with a sigh.
"My dad passed away when I was little. Mom said that he got sick."
"Oh. I'm sorry." Cass looked up at her with a smile.
"It's okay. You didn't know, and it doesn't hurt as much to say it."
"I bet you have a lot of good memories with him, though." When Cass shook his head yes, she smiled back at him.
"I have a feeling that he loved you guys." She said as she finished up the list.
"Are you going to help us?" Cass asked as they got off of the boat.
"We're going to try. Maybe we can get this fixed up, and you can take one ride on it before you sell it. I bet your mom and uncle told you many stories about growing up on this boat."
"Yeah. I think Uncle Sam said that he had his first kiss right there." Cass said as he pointed towards the bow of the boat.
"Did he?"
"Yeah, he said he used to take girls out on the boat."
"Alright, that's enough. I don't think she needs to know about your uncle's past love life." Sarah said as she brought over bottles of water for them.
"Thank you." Jessica said as she took one of the bottles.
"Did you get the list done?" Sarah asked.
"I think. I need to shop around for the parts, though, to give Tony a ballpark number of how much everything's going to cost, and then we need to find people to help replace everything."
"I'm sure I could find people to help us when the parts get here. So where are you staying at?" she asked.
"At the hotel in town. Why?"
"You have time to stay for dinner?"
"I couldn't impose like that." Jessica said in shock.
"You're not because I asked you to join us. We can shop around for parts together." Sarah said with a smile.
"Well, in that case, what are we having?" Jess asked as she followed her back to the house.
