Ash hadn't made much progress on the case while he had been in Dallas. Not that that really surprised him much since he had spent most of that time tracing Miss Kane's past from the present back to 1998. It wasn't what he had been asked to do, he'd been hired to dig through her history before 1998. But this is where Ash decided to start. Current documents would be easier for Ash to find, easier to get, and might lead him in the direction needed to find what he was really after.

So that phone call he had made from Dallas for the first weekly update hadn't shown much progress, a fact that Miss Kane hadn't seemed too impressed with.

His first big break on the case had come when he was back in New York. Ash hadn't even fully expecting that bit of information to come about that way, and after another day of digging through the Public Records room of the library there in New York, Ash actually had something to report. Not everything that the young woman was wanting to know, but it was a good start.

So Ash walked into the cafe he had arranged to meet Miss Kane in, a manila envelope in his hand. Moving to the counter, Ash ordered himself a coffee then made his way to an empty table in the corner to wait.

After getting a rather disappointing call from Mr Ash Brooks, Jaxon would have started her own investigation into her past and would have been pestering him more. But, of course, that was the time when she was suddenly very busy. Auditions, doing public appearances for the family business, and her own obligations seemed to suddenly flood in when she would have rather been devoting her time to finding out her past.

She had moved back in with her parents, but the relationship was strained by Jaxon’s need to know. Maybe after she knew everything things could go back to the way they had been before. But right now, Jaxon was pulling away from her parents and her parents were letting her; a therapist had told them to give her space.

So when he called to arrange a meeting, Jaxon had juggled a few appointments. After parking her silver car around the corner, she walked the short distance to the small restaurant, glancing at her watch to check the time. She hadn’t had time to change so she was dressed to meet some of her father’s associates, playing the part of dedicated daughter/business woman, at least mostly.

In a dark grey pantsuit and her hair pulled up and to the back of her head she looked fairly professional and a few years older. What threw the image off slightly, and added her own style to the outfit, were the black heels and the metallic red top. She needed the heels for confidence and height, and the four inch platforms fit the bill, looking like she stole them from Betty Boop's closet. The top was basically a tank top with a square neckline; however, it looked like a 20's flapper dress had been made into a shirt. Layered flat red metallic pieces, rectangular like the shiny confetti that was occasionally seen, sparkled and fluttered beneath the modest suit blazer.

Pulling open the door of the café, waving off a waitress who looked ready to seat her, Jaxon looked around. Spotting the man she was looking for, she walked over, setting her soft briefcase on the seat before sliding in across from him. “Hello Mr Brooks…”

Ash looked up when someone approached his table to see the exact person he was waiting for setting a briefcase down on the seat and sitting down. She was dressed much differently than the last time he had seen her, dark grey suit with a shiny red shirt. Other than the fact that the shirt looked far too flashy for a typical business woman, it appeared that Jaxon was dressed for a meeting. A much more formal meeting than simply with him.

"Miss Kane," Ash replied in greeting with a nod of his head. Then he got right down to business. The young woman had seemed very eager to get word on this when they had first met and during that first phone call, after all.

“I still have a fair bit of digging to do, but it is looking more and more like you were in fact adopted,” Ash told her, keeping his voice low in order to keep the privacy in the matter she seemed to be wanting. Then he pushed the envelope across the table toward her. “It seems that the police got involved in '99, apparently there were accusations that your parents were neglecting you, but all thoughts of charges, and even the investigation, was dropped as soon as social services came in. Something about a pre-existing, chronic condition they were already aware about.”

((OOC: I am using a real disease as reference, but I am taking liberties with it, just incase you were wondering.))


Jaxon listened politely, her amber eyes watching him with a cool expression. She could tell he was surprised by her appearance; most people would be at the number of hats she could wear, being who she was she had to be many things and she was good at it. Glancing at the envelope, she took it and opened it, leaning back in her seat as she skimmed it.

When a waitress appeared, Jaxon asked for water with lemon, but other than that, she was silent while looking at the file. After reading enough to know what he knew, even if not the details, she closed it and set it down next to her. Speaking in the manner that she had been all morning, her voice came out chastising, obnoxious, and snotty. “Yes, I can imagine. I have a growth disorder: 2-methylbutyryl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency, or 2McAd…But I already knew that. My condition has improved as I’ve aged, thankfully.”

She hadn’t had the best day so far; it wasn’t her idea of fun to sit in a boardroom full of men at least four times her age who thought she was impudent and undeserving, go over reports with men who thought her stupid and nothing more than a pretty face, or talk to reporters who thought nothing other than her appearance was important. It was hard to defend against all those conflicting opinions and still be open to people. Jaxon had heard her own voice and wanted to wince. Instead she decided to apologize.

Staring at him a moment, Jaxon had to take a deep breath, knowing that she had been out of line, but unsure of how to take it back. She sighed, her tone slightly softer, “I’m sorry Mr. Brooks, I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way…” Though her voice was still strained and tight, the uppity tone had faded, leaving her sounding tired rather than bossy.

Tapping the file with one finger, Jaxon tried to sound a bit more friendly, when she asked about it. “May I keep this?”

Ash sat and sipped his coffee as he watched Jaxon read the file he had slid across the table to her. Not that there was really much more there than what he had watered it down as, but clients normally wanted to read the actual information when he gave it to them. Almost as if he wasn't telling them everything, even though that was what they were paying him to do.

And then Jaxon was talking, telling him about a condition she had. Putting his mug down, Ash scrambled in his pocket for his notepad and pen, scribbling the abbreviation down. It sounded unusual and specialized enough that it might end up helping him in his search.

Before he knew it, as he was pushing his notepad off to the side (he might still need it, and it was far more accessible there than in his pocket), Jaxon was apologizing.

Looking up at the young woman, Ash wasn't sure what to say at first. Sure, it hadn't been appropriate or necessary for Jaxon to use that tone of voice with him, but she was young, was rich. Ash had had interactions with those kind of people before.

Before he had figured out what to say, Jaxon had asked if she could keep the file. "Go for it," he said with a nod. "Like I said, I still have work to do to find out the details, but it appears, based on how the cops and social services acted, that you are adopted."

Nodding her thanks, Jaxon slipped the file into her briefcase. Watching as he wrote down the information, her fingers played with the side of her water, trailing through the condensation. His explanation was logical, and she tried to make sure she didn’t sound like a bitch when she spoke this time. “Yes, that would make sense. If the reason I was up for adoption was because of that, there would have been some sort of grace period to let my parents get me up to healthy levels. Explains a lot of the weird doctor visits…”

All through her childhood, she had been to the doctor regularly, even when she wasn’t sick, as if they were being monitored and Jax had to meet certain standards. Jaxon could remember them pushing vitamins and her medications, making her take them even when she didn’t want to. They made her eat healthy, even changed their own habits to make it easier, and when ever possible they pushed her to eat calories. Just thinking of it made a small smile form. Then she had an idea that would help to improve her day.

With a thought she raised her hand and waved to get the waitress’s attention. Glancing at Ash, she gave him a questioning look; her next question was a bit random. “Do you like pie?” When the woman came over Jax smiled and asked what kinds of pie they had. It was a good list making it hard for Jax to decided.

“We have apple, peach, key-lime, lemon meringue, and coconut cream…”

Usually Jax would order pumpkin, her favorite, but it wasn’t in season and most places didn’t have it all year round. Biting her lip, she grinned, deciding to make her day twice as good. “Screw it…”

Looking back up at the waitress, Jax gave her a winning smile. “I’d like a slice of the lemon meringue and a slice of the coconut please…”

Looking at Ash, the waitress followed her gaze, and turned her attention to him. “And you hun?”

Jax met his eyes, her face tilting slightly, her expression asking if he would join her.

Ash nodded as Jaxon spoke. Now she was giving him more information that might actually be useful in his search. Frequent doctor's visits as a child, that might be where Ash found out what he needed to find. Yes, it was a lot more difficult getting doctor's records, but he'd managed it before.

And now Jaxon was ordering pie from the waitress she had waved over. If that was what she was going to do, Ash thought he should probably go get started on digging up those medical records.

That was, of course, until he felt his phone vibrating and he glanced at the number. Tarin's wife. Again. "I'll have a slice of apple," Ash said, putting the cell back in his pocket as he turned to look at the waitress.

With a nod and scribble on her notepad, the waitress left, giving Jaxon enough time to smile and comment on his pie choice with a smile. “Good choice, can’t go wrong with apple…” Before she returned fairly quickly with the 3 slices of pie. Jaxon thanked her, and started unrolling her silverware, pulling out her fork with a smile.

Shoving her fork into the lemon first, Jax slipped the bite in her mouth, her cheeks tightening in an automatic smile from the lemon tang. With a happy expression, it was hard to find lemon meringue with the proper amount of lemon, she let the taste dissolve on her tongue before taking another bite. “Good pie! How’s yours?”

This was definitely what Jaxon had needed. She could already feel the happy lemon flavor melting her stress. She took a bite of the coconut cream and was not disappointed. It wasn’t as good as the lemon, but still pretty good. Then, not realizing that she might be pushing a sensitive button, she spoke. “So, let’s take a break from this depressing stuff… You went back to Texas, right? How was the trip? See your family?”

It really didn't take long for the slices of pie to be delivered to the table. Time during which Ash remained silent, simply sipping his coffee, while Miss Kane commented on his choice of pie. Good choice? If she chose to think so. To Ash it was simply the simplest choice; nothing here would compare to his mother's pie, and so he had chosen the one that he would likely be the least disappointed with.

Ash was much slower in unwrapping his cutlery, slower in grabbing his fork and spearing a piece of pie on the end. He was slow enough that Ash was just putting his first bite of pie in his mouth when Jaxon asked that question about Texas.

Ash sputtered slightly around his pie and had to take a sip of coffee. Yes, he had seen his family when he'd been in Texas, though he had tried to avoid Josh especially the entire time he was there.

Swallowing, Ash looked down at his plate as he carefully cut off his next bite of pie. "The trip was rather what I expected," he said slowly. This was a client, not a friend, after all, and even if Miss Kane were a friend, there were things that he didn't even tell his best friend about. "Got business there taken care of, and spent some time with my mother." Ash decided it was better not to talk about what him and his mother had discussed almost the entire time he had spent with her. It was that whole client versus friend thing again.

Obviously less eager to dig into his pie than she was, Jaxon was happily taking another bit of her coconut cream when he seemed to choke on his pie in response to her question. Unable to help it, she started laughing, her hand jumping up to cover her mouth that still had pie in it… Jax couldn’t stop smiling though; she did love to make people react to her, but that hadn’t been her intention this time. His response meant that there was quite a bit more to the story that he wasn’t telling, which instantly made her more curious, but she held back in an uncharacteristic show of restraint.

Her laughter was petering out by the time he took a drink and started answering, chuckling and able to lower her hand and continue eating. Her amber eyes were lit with amusement despite the fact that she had probably done something her mother would disapprove of. “Mothers can be very persistent… I would take a guess she wants you to settle down and get married. I’ve already started hearing that speech.”

Repressing a sigh of disappointment, he obviously wanted to return to business, her smile dropped and she pulled her face back into a more ‘appropriate’ expression; cool and collected. Finishing another bite of pie before she spoke, her voice had returned to the flatter tone she had used before. “I guess I have asked something I shouldn’t, and I apologize…”

Finishing off the last of the coconut cream, she pushed the plate close to the edge of the table so the waitress could pick it up if she walked by. Stabbing her fork into the rest of the lemon that she had saved, Jaxon took a bite as she looked up at him. “So when do you think you will have more information for me?”