All characters, etc from Sons of Anarchy belong to Kurt Sutter.

Ashleigh Carter is my own small piece of warped imagination.

Any mistakes are my own. Feel free to point them out but please be nice.

CHAPTER 11:

Ashleigh parked next to the kerb just behind a Harley. She'd have put money on it being Jackson's rather than Trager's. When she'd found out who Gemma was she'd kept digging. She had found that she had a brother called Jackson, who had two sons of his own and that she'd had another brother, Thomas, who'd died young. There were details about a genetic heart condition. Ashleigh supposed she had Alex Trager to thank for the fact she hadn't inherited it.

She grabbed her various bags from the passenger seat and walked up to the front door, locking the car behind her with the remote lock.

She knocked and the door opened fast enough that Ashleigh knew Gemma had been waiting for her.

"I'm not late am I?" She asked checking her watch.

"No honey, you're right on time. Your brother is already here. Come on through."

Ashleigh handed Gemma the bags. "I took your advice, hope these are OK." Gemma looked into the bags. "These'll do just fine, I think we're gonna need them."

Gemma led the way through the house into the kitchen. Ashleigh could smell chilli cooking and wondered whether she'd inherited her affinity for cooking from just her mother or from both parents.

A blond, blue-eyed man, wearing baggy blue jeans and a black hoodie, was leaning against the kitchen counter with a bottle of beer. He stood up when he spotted Ashleigh and a look of anger crossed his face. "Ma! I know Tara's on your shit list at the moment but what the hell are ya tryin' t'do settin' me up on a blind date?!"

"Calm down Jax, I'm not setting you up on anything." She turned to Ashleigh. "Do you want beer or wine honey?"

"Wine please." Gemma held up two bottles as a question. "The red if we're having chilli."

Gemma pretty much ignored Jax whilst she got two glasses and opened and poured the wine. He didn't relax; he was wondering what on earth his mother was up to now.

Gemma handed Ashleigh a glass and took a big sip of her own. "I'm gonna cut straight to the point Jax. I'd like to introduce you to Ashleigh. Ashleigh here is", Gemma took a deep breath, "my daughter. Ashleigh, this is Jackson, your brother."

"Hey, pleased to meet you." Ashleigh wasn't a fan of bland conventionality, but being introduced to a half-brother for the first time, who was also the President of the mother charter of a dangerous MC, wasn't the time to be a smart ass.

Jax's jaw dropped. He did a couple of double takes between his mom and this stranger who looked a lot like her, but not quite somehow. When he regained the power of speech he gave his mother a hard look. "Gee ma, first Trinity, now this? Are there any other kids lying around you and Dad forgot to mention?"

Gemma had been expecting something like this. "No, as far as I know, there's only ever been the four of you."

"Did my dad know about her?"

"No, I never told your father about her, Clay doesn't know about her either. Come on honey." She said shepherding Ashleigh over to the table. "His bark's worse than his bite." She looked at Jax meaningfully until he moved out of the way so that Gemma could show Ashleigh to her seat at the table. "Jax, why don't you take a seat right here? We'll eat, we'll drink. I'll tell you my side of the story and Ashleigh can tell us hers."

Jax sat down too shocked to do anything other than as directed by his mother. He looked between Ashleigh and Gemma again before turning to Gemma. "Woah, hang on there just a minute, who's her father?"

Gemma paused from taking the chilli out of the oven. "Tig."

Jax jumped up "What?! What the fuck?! You and Tig?!"

"Calm down. Sit back down."

Jax just stood there completely incredulous at what his mother was telling him.

"Sit down and I'll explain."

Jax slumped back into his chair. Ashleigh watched their interaction quietly whilst sipping her wine. She'd let Gemma handle this bit without interfering.

"You know Tig and me grew up together in Charming before we both skipped town." Gemma kept dishing out the food whilst she was talking. "It happened just before Tig left town, just before he turned eighteen. I was sixteen. I left town after I found out I was pregnant. I gave birth in Texas and gave her straight to the state. I knew there was no way I could bring a baby up on my own. He didn't know anything about it".

"Does he know now?"

"Yes, I told him this afternoon."

"How'd he take it?"

Gemma sighed as she brought the plates of food over to the table. "I don't know yet."

Jax rounded on Ashleigh. "And you? What do you want? Why are you bringing this to us now?"

Ashleigh took another sip of wine and tried to stay calm. She'd known this wasn't going to be some sort of Hallmark moment. "I'm not here to cause you any trouble. I grew up in Texas and I'd never planned on leaving, but my little girl's daddy asked us to come live with him in Charming. I decided to find out about my birth mom before I made my mind up and I s'pose it's a good job I did. It would have been awkward if I'd bumped into your mom on the street or if all this had come out by accident."

Jax thought back to Belfast and Trinity and what had nearly happened and had to agree that even though this had been a hell of a shock it was definitely a better way of finding out you had a half sister. Gemma watched her son. She could tell when he blushed then relaxed that he'd come to the right conclusion.

Jax picked up his fork, which seemed to act as permission to the two women that it was safe to eat and that no glasses or crockery were going to be thrown.

Jax glanced up at Gemma. "I'm still mad at you for hiding this. How the hell are we gonna sort all this out with Clay and Tig?"

"You leave them to me. I'll make sure they don't cause you any problems."

"Why didn't you tell dad?" Jax adored his boys. He couldn't understand how someone could give a child up, walk away and never talk about it to anyone.

"No offence honey." Gemma said looking at Ashleigh. "Bit I just wanted to forget about it. It hurt too much…" She tailed off.

The tired look of remembered heartache on his mother's face was too much for Jax so he turned back to Ashleigh. "So, you're from Texas?"

She put her fork down and picked up her glass again to take a sip of wine before speaking. "Yes. I was adopted by Samuel and Moira Carter. My dad is President of the Lone Star MC in San Leon."

Gemma nearly dropped her fork. Jax nearly choked on his mouthful of chilli. "You grew up an MC princess? Do you know about SAMCRO?"

"I do. I'd heard about the club in passing back home, and it came up when I found out about Gemma."

"How did you find my mom…your mom…whatever?" He said shaking his head with a smile.

Ashleigh got up and walked over to where she'd left her bag on the counter. "Your mom left this when she signed me over to the state." She handed him the picture of a young Gemma.

"That was taken the afternoon you were conceived." Gemma said without realising what she'd said.

"Mom!"

Sorry baby, TMI." Gemma muttered.

"Have you got a picture of your little girl?"

"Yes." She handed him the picture of Rose. "Her name is Rose."

"I've got two boys, Abel and Thomas.

"Yeah I know."

Jax looked at Ashleigh with his eyebrows raised. "Exactly how much do you know about us?"

"A fair bit. Let's face it; your club hasn't exactly been under the radar in the past few years. News travels, even to Texas."

Jax thought about taking offence, and then realised there was no point since she was right.

A knock at the door startled everybody. Gemma reacted as if it had been a gunshot. Jax shot her a questioning look. "That must be Tig. I told him he could drop by if he wanted to meet Ashleigh." She said getting up slightly unsteadily to answer the door. She hadn't really expected him to turn up.