Chapter Text
“Pleased to meet you hope you guess my name. But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game.”
“Violence as does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”
~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Gemma was at her wits end. Every which way she tried to come at the problem of Tara had backfired. She thought she had run the gash out of town over a decade ago, but then she returned like a wayward angel and Jax fell right back into her honey trap. Now she was carrying her grandchild and she had to tolerate her at least until her grandson was born.
Jax always had a weak spot for Tara.
Gemma had been friends with her mother before she passed away after fighting cancer. She came to Charming when Dave Knowles returned from college after serving in the Vietnam War, which wasn’t too long after Gemma returned with a baby and a motorcycle club in tow.
Gemma knew Dave growing up in Charming and always thought he was handsome. He was known for being the best looking and charming guy in town, pun intended. Gemma was used to being the the best looking girl in Charming, and thought they would make a great couple. That didn’t pan out, and then she left town and returned with a motorcycle club, John Teller, and a bouncing baby boy named Jackson. She was Queen of the world.
Now, what were the chances that Gemma’s husband, Piney Winston, and Dave Knowles served in the same platoon during the war? Gemma’s luck just never ended. Then, of course, Dave Knowles had returned from college with the most beautiful woman any of them had ever laid eyes on, Taisia Knowles.
Even Gemma had to admit that she didn’t hold a candle to Taisia. The woman looked like Snow White as the princess in an Eastern European folk tale. All almond eyes, porcelain skin, and ruby red lips without the help of makeup. Hell, even Gemma had the hots for her.
Gemma wasn’t petty though and befriended her because lord knows the Croweaters and Sweetbutts weren’t the kind of women you made friends with. Sucking dick and serving beer didn’t require a degree and the conversation usually didn’t require more than a dim bulb for brains.
Taisia was actually a lot fun to hang out with too. The Russian side of Gemma and the Ukrainian of Taisia, along with Luann’s crazy ass drank any of the guys under the table when they got together for girls night.
Dave Knowles was so head over heels for Taisia that she never had to worry about him straying with the temptations around the clubhouse when the guys got together. He quite literally only had eyes for her. The guys gave him shit for not taking advantage of the pussy buffet but Gemma could see quite clearly that any of them would never stray if they had Taisia at home either.
It didn’t take long for Taisia to pop out the prettiest baby girl anyone had ever laid eyes on. Jackson was two years older and by the time he was four, he was smitten with Little Tara too. It was the cutest thing she had seen and they joked that they could arrange a marriage like Fiddler on the Roof.
Taisia developed breast cancer when Tara was eight and gone by the time she was nine. Dave didn’t lose his mind, but he got lost in the bottle. He took good care of Tara but he drifted away from hanging out with the boys to care for Tara as best as he could. Gemma made sure to have Tara help out at community events here and there but she just wasn’t wired to nurture a girl so she left it at that. Then Thomas got sick, John left for Ireland, and everyone lost their minds.
When Jax came home from school after a Homecoming game talking about some girl who had the balls to not drop her panties for him she half heard him telling Clay the story but didn’t catch the gash’s name.
Gemma encouraged Jax to follow the MC bro code and hit up as many girls at school and Croweaters too. After all, he was John Teller’s son and with the rapid expansion of the Sons of Anarchy under John and Clay’s leadership, Jax had a legacy to carry.
In the MC world, legacy was all about sex and violence. Gemma knew how to use both and together with Clay made sure that the club stayed on the right path. John’s untimely death helped bring Jax into the fold under Clay’s guidance. Girls were pussy and puppy love was not an option. It made you weak and weakness was a liability.
A few weeks after the Homecoming game, Jax went on a double date with Opie and his new piece, Donna. Piney and Mary were softer on Opie and actually encouraged the whole girlfriend phase. Both boys were known for being players so she thought nothing of it until the day he said he was bringing a girl home for dinner.
Gemma blew it off but then Tara Knowles walked through the door and she knew they were fucked.
Tara had blossomed since Gemma last saw her after Taisia’s s death. Actually, blossomed didn’t begin to describe her. She was more like an eclipse. It shouldn’t have been possible but Tara was even more beautiful than her mother.
She looked just like that princess right out of that same Eastern European folk tale Gemma remembered her mother telling her as a child. Tara Knowles blew that childhood fantasy to hell and the dopey grin Jax had when she was in the same room turned Gemma sour to the girl instantly.
The whole good little Catholic girl was a ploy as old as time and Tara worked it as far as Gemma could see. Jax actually had respect for a female besides his mom. She made him want to be a better person. Then she gave him her virginity and Jax lost his damn mind. Like father, like son.
It was war.
The next few years were an actual battle with Tara for the heart and mind of Jax. She had to give the girl credit for not backing down, either. What she didn’t know was that Tara’s mother warned her to watch out for Gemma before she died.
Taisia saw how Jax was around Tara and she knew Tara would be a threat to Gemma. After fleeing the Soviet Union with her parents, she knew that Gemma’s Russian nature would stop at nothing to preserve her power and her power was based on her control of Jax. So she told Tara exactly how to handle Gemma because she knew she would need it to literally survive if Jax ever truly fell in love with her.
All of the work Gemma put into making Jax the heir to the MC was almost lost when the harpy had Jax almost out the door to go to college with her when she caught him trying to leave the clubhouse lot.
The only way Jax would listen was if she made it crystal clear to him that Tara would suffer the consequences if Jax left Charming with her. If she had no issues with trading one husband for another to retain her crown, then getting rid of this nuisance would barely pierce what was left of her conscience.