The Final Initiative

33.

      A/N: i watched Harry Potter for the first time! it was wack... but i LIKED IT

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      That next morning Jessi woke up extra early, threw on a NASA t-shirt and leggings, and cooked up a nice, abundant breakfast for the group. Eggs, bacon, sausage, omelets, pancakes. You name it, and she was preparing it. Dishes were piled up high in the sink, and the animatronic robots were already scrubbing away the excess food from that plates. She carefully lifted up a hot pan from the stove and used the spatula to transfer the crisp pancakes to their plate on the counter. The kitchen was alive with the smell of the delicious food. Natasha was the first one to stroll into the kitchen that morning.

      She wore blue sweats, and her hair was held in a loose ponytail "Good morning, Chef" she joked, helping to pull out jugs of orange juice from the fridge "How long have you been up?"

      "Long enough to make thirty pancakes" Jessi wiped her forehead with her sleeve and set the pan down in the sink "Is anyone else up?" she asked.

      "Tony is" she set the jugs down on that table "but he's upstairs doing his hair, so he won't be down for awhile I'm assuming" she chuckled.

"I heard that" Tony announced his presence and entered the room.

      "You're having a good hair day, dad" Jessi complimented as she picked up the plate of stacked pancakes and took them to the table. Tony scoffed, knowing that she didn't really mean it "I made a few omelets for you" she motioned to the island counter.

"Oh dear you shouldn't have" he slipped around the counter and grabbed himself a plate, choosing the most appealing omelet "and when did you learn to cook?"

"Google"

"Ah"

Natasha poured herself a cup of orange juice "Have you started any work yet?" she asked Tony.

He tested a small piece of the sizzling omelette, and coming to stand near Jessi who was setting a stack of plates down on the table "I'm beginning the blueprints for the suits, and the new time machine now actually"

"Do you need any help?" Jessi looked over to him.

"Yeah, actually, I could use an extra set of hands"

"I'm on it"

      For the rest of the day, they hunkered down together in the lab, dirty dishes from food piled up at the edge of the lab tables. Bit by bit, piece by piece, they constructed the blue prints for the Time Travel suit. Jessi sat with her elbows on the table as her father put together the holographic details of the design. She advised to go with red as the accent color to match the white that he already had in place. That reminded him of something "Hey, check this out" he dug around in his briefcase in search of something. She watched him patiently until he pulled out an old, wrinkled piece of notebook paper.

"What's that?"

      Tony laid the paper down on the table and smoothed out the surface. She leaned her head down and eyed the image on the paper. To her, it appeared to be messy notes taken in bad handwriting from some class, and in the margin of the paper was a doodle of the Iron Man suit. Written at the top of the paper was ' Caught Drawing Again '. Tony pointed to the picture "Look familiar?" he sat down on the stool and crossed his arms, waiting for her.

"No..." she shook her head.

      "Well" Tony sighed swiftly, standing up and walking to the table of scattered metal parts in the corner of the laboratory. One of the parts was an old model of the Iron Man helmet. It was colored with hot-rod red and gold. He held it up in his hands to show her "That picture was the original design for this entire suit" he shook the helmet slightly in the air "and for everything that I became after becoming her dad" he tossed the helmet to her. She caught it, the confusion slowly lifting from her face.

"I drew that" she realized, looking down to the helmet. Her thumb rubbed over the eye.

"And now, we're doing it again" he said warmly. She continued to stare down at the old helmet, memories of building, designing, conversation, connecting, avenging. All of it was resurfacing. Her lips curled up in a smile as her eyes became watery "Whoa, hey, you okay?" he put his hand on her shoulder and chuckled at her emotion.

"I'm so good" she held the helmet close to her "Better then I've been in a long time"

"Good to hear" he tapped the helmet "Now, let's get back to work, kid"

      Once they finalized the holographic blueprints, they shared a fist bump followed by a jellyfish hand motion. She spun the suit around with her fingers, taking in the new design. It was going to look so good. There would be a suit for everyone, one to fit perfectly for their different sizes. They even constructed a suit for Rocket. A teeny tiny one that she couldn't wait to show her furry friend "Friday, paint it, fabricate it. Let's get this show on the road" Tony ordered his AI and clapped his hands, taking a look at the time on his wrist watch "It's getting late, don't you got homework or something?" he asked Jessi.

She narrowed her eyes at him "I've been out of school for five years"

      "Sorry, force of habit" he shrugged, stopping in his tracks as someone appeared in the doorway of the lab. Jessi turned her head to see who it was.

"Clint?" She asked in a ghostly tone, slipping off of the stool that she sat on.

      "Barton" Tony greeted. Clint nodded his head up in response. He leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed. Jessi took in his appearance. His hair was shaved on the sides, and an intricate tattoo climbed up his muscular, tanned arm. He looked almost dangerous, and different. She thought of the Clint Barton who sat beside her on the Avengers Tower terrace, and overlooked the carnival in Central Park. The Clint Barton who taught her how to fire a bow and arrow at the range, and the one who introduced her to his own family on the farm.

Laura, and his kids, are all gone.

      "You're here..." she said softly, her heart aching for his family. The family that became hers when she ran away after the civil war "I'm... happy you're here"

"Yeah" Clint looked down to his feet, an unconvinced smile on his lips "you don't have to pretend"

      "I'm not" Jessi shook her head "because with you, we can do this as a whole. And I wouldn't want to do it any other way"

"Very well spoken" Tony said proudly, squeezing her shoulder "don't you agree, Clint?"

"The little Stark certainly grew up" Clint complimented.

"As most people do" she slid her gaze to Tony "but there's a few who don't"

"Hey..." Tony nudged her shoulder slightly.

      Now that they had Clint, and Thor back. This plan was a go. She was confident in their abilities, and in this vague plan that they were formulating as they went along. In a way, she could feel the end of this turmoil approaching. She wished that she could tell the lost ones that they're coming back for them, that they're fighting to save them. She wished that she could tell him that. Although maybe he already knows, maybe he's waiting for her on the other side.

      Jessi watched quietly as Tony and Clint caught up with one another. He showed Clint the designs for the suits, and she only spoke a few times if they directed the conversation her way. She was thinking silently about what their future could potentially hold. She picked up the wrinkled paper with the Iron Man drawing on it and stared down contently, her fingers brushed against the faded pencil marks. The nostalgic memories of the beginning flooded through her mind as they always do. Her beginning with him. With Iron Man.