Ann was having lunch with Sue Ellen and she felt this was the perfect opportunity to find out more about Bobby in order to employ the best strategy. She'd been involved in Harris's schemes before but this one was particularly precarious. In the past it hadn't been so personal and she wasn't sure about toying with someone's emotions quite this way. But on the other hand emotions were for the weak and she'd never had much use for them except maybe when it concerned Emma and she was still concerned about her being involved. Her thoughts wandered to her gentle, sensitive daughter and she'd barely heard a word Sue Ellen was saying.
"Ann?" She asked
"Hmm?" Ann said coming back to the present
"Are you alright?" She asked
Ann sighed heavily, "Oh I'm fine. I"m sorry I was just thinking about those women at the center." She lied, "It's so sad."
Sue Ellen nodded, "Yes, but they are getting the help they need."
"Thanks to you." Ann laid on the flattery
"Well, in some ways I know where they've been." She admitted, "It wasn't easy being married to JR."
Okay Annie let's phish a little, she thought, "How did you finally get up the courage to leave?"
"I finally got tired of the verbal abuse and the cheating." She said, "I finally saw I deserved better but it ended up putting our son in the middle of an awful custody battle and I had been drinking."
Ann put on her sympathetic smile, "Well, you've certainly given those women hope."
Sue Ellen smiled, "I certainly hope so." She studied the woman across from her curious about her own story, after all everyone had one, "What about you? You mentioned you'd been married before."
Ann exhaled heavily again, "It's not something I like to talk about. It was painful but a long time ago." Painful? Well you could say that, if you consider being too sore to walk after sex painful or when Harris was pissed enough throwing me up against the wall and banging me right there
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry." She said
"Oh it's alright." Ann assured her, "So um, I met your brother in law the other day."
Sue Ellen's face instantly brightened, "Bobby? Now there's a man any woman would be lucky to have."
Ah, let's find out more about that, shall we Annie?, "Oh?"
Sue Ellen nodded, "Bobby is the complete opposite of his brother. He's decent, good and honest."
"Strange how that happens isn't it?" Ann observed, like how my daughter managed to wind up with a conscience, "Is he married?"
"No, it's sad really. He was married and his wife, Pam, just disappeared. She'd been in a horrible car accident and badly burned. After going away to have surgery to repair the damage she just vanished and Bobby got a letter from her asking for a divorce. Just abandoned him and Christopher who was only seven."
"Oh that's terrible." Okay this is very useful, play up my 'tragic' past when necessary
"Well that's not all. When he remarried, a woman named April, she was killed on their honeymoon."
"Good lord." Ann muttered, this guy might be hazardous to my health
"He's been single ever since." Sue Ellen explained
"Well, he certainly seemed like a very nice man and so generous to donate the horses to the ranch." Ann said
"Bobby has the biggest heart of any man I know but he's incredibly strong and has tangled more than once with JR and won."
Stong, big heart, do people like that really exist?, "He sounds like the perfect man. Do you have feelings?..." Gotta see if I got competition here
"Oh goodness no. He's like my brother." Sue Ellen insisted, "But I think he'd perfect for you."
Ann demurred, "No no. I'm really not...I mean...I don't think so."
Sue Ellen smiled and took a drink of water
Good girl, Annie, seed planted, let's see it grow.
/
Ann and Emma were in Emma's bedroom. She was going the next day to Southfork about the horse training job and Ann could tell her daughter was nervous. Damn it, Harris, why did you have to involved her, she thought as Emma was trying to decide what to wear.
"Sweetheart, just wear what you would wear if you were workin' with the horses." Ann said trying to calm her down
"What if I screw this up?" Emma asked turning from her closet to face her mother who was sitting on the bed, "Daddy will be so mad."
"Come here." Ann patted the bed and Emma sat down next to her and Ann put her arm around her, "I told you if you don't want to do this you don't have to."
"But Daddy's never needed me before." She explained, "I want to help him."
Ann looked her daughter in the eye, "My darling girl, so eager to please. You were like that as a child. You never wanted to get in trouble. But your father's 'deals' are not for you to worry about."
"They're not for you to worry about either." Emma countered, "I mean after ten years why do you care?"
Ann sighed heavily, "Because I never could say no to your father. He's loaded with charm and when he called me he used every once of it."
Annie please, I need your help. It's important and you're the only one I can trust. He'd pleaded and she was useless against it.
"Well, you said I'm grown so I can decide for myself." Emma insisted
"Emma, I've done very little right in my life, except you. Somehow you have always been better than your father, grandmother and I put together." Ann admitted, "And I want you to stay that way. I never wanted all the ugliness of this world to touch you."
"Why?" Emma asked
"Because I want you to be better than me." She said and for once it was every bit the truth, "I was like you before I met your father and I don't want you goin' down the same path. It won't make you happy."
"So you're not happy?" Emma asked more than a little surprised at what Ann said
"I've come to accept my life for what it is." Ann explained, "You deserve better."
"Don't you deserve better too?" Emma asked
"Sweetheart, I think I've got what I deserve." Ann admitted
Emma considered her mother's words, she couldn't remember Ann ever revealing so much about herself, "But you always act like everything is so great. I mean all those summers I visited you in New York and then Europe. You always acted so happy."
"Well, I was always happy you were with me. But mostly that's exactly what it is. An act." She explained, "Oh, I have fun and enjoy myself for the most part but I imagined things much differently. But it's too late for that."
"Is it?" Emma asked
"For me, yes." Ann responded, "But not for you."
Emma thought for a moment, "I can do this. I'll be okay."
Ann hugged her daughter, "I'll be there if you need anything. I promise."
"I know." Emma said almost relishing this unusual moment, "I love you, Mom."
"And I love you." Ann said, more than you know, sweet girl
/
He was getting nervous. He knew this plan would take time, maybe months. But there had to be some progress. He hadn't heard from Ann but he knew it was best not to be seen together but he finally had to call her and she came over, under the cover of night.
"Honestly, Harris you act like you work for CIA with all this sneaking around." She said as she came in the door
"I need to know what's happening." He said
She noticed the panic in his eyes, "Good lord, calm down. Nothing has happened. I told you I planted the seed with Sue Ellen. Just give it time."
He wiped his palms on his thighs, "I know. I just have to let the people I'm working with know what's happening."
She eyed him suspiciously, "Who are you working with exactly?"
"It doesn't matter." He said
"You're scared." She said, "I mean look at you, you're sweating."
"It's fine." he insisted
"Doesn't look that way to me." She said, "Now I don't really understand why this is so important to you but if I'm gonna toy with someone like this, who happens to sound like a decent person, I want to know the whole story."
"The Ewings are not decent people." He insisted
"Spill it." She insisted
He sighed heavily, "I made a deal with Cliff Barnes that if I helped him do this he would give me enough money to buy Ryland Transport from my mother and get rid of her."
Ann eyes widened, "Get rid of her?"
"Oh Ann, not like that. I mean I would have control for once." He said
"Harris, you've never had control. You are a grown ass man who still lives with his mother. That's why whenever you could you trampled all over me. The only time you felt powerful was when I was weak, dependent on you. Then I had the nerve to change and you thought smacking me around some would make you feel better."
"You mean like this." He grabbed her and shoved her up against the wall and kissed her almost biting her lips, pulling her blouse out of her slacks, his hands roaming her back undoing her bra, he then pinned her arms against the wall as his lips continued their assault on hers
When he pulled back, after what seemed like an eternity, she couldn't quite read his eyes, "You son of a bitch."
"You know you want it, Annie." He said, "You never could say no. So what do you say?"
She licked her swollen lips, breathing hard, "You always knew what you could do to me."
/
The next morning they lay asleep in Harris bed, that familiar ache flooding body. She turned over to find Harris on his side facing away from her still in peaceful sleep. She was trying to decide whether to try and get up when she heard the ringing of her cell phone from her purse. She shot up and realized she was stark naked but grabbed her purse off the floor.
"Hello." She said and Harris stirred awake and sat up in bed
"Ann?" A male voice answered
"Yes." She said
"It's Bobby Ewing." He said, "I'm sorry but Sue Ellen gave me your cell phone number. I hope that's okay."
Bingo, "Oh, of course. How are you, Bobby?" Harris became more alert and she out her hand up telling him to hold on
"I'm fine. Actually I was wondering if you would like to come out to the ranch this afternoon and go for a ride. You ride don't you? I thought Sue Ellen mentioned it."
"Uh yes, I do and I would love to. What time?" She asked
"Well, I thought we could have lunch then go for a ride. So how about one o'clock?" he asked
"That would be fine" She said, "I'll see you then."
"Great." He said, "Oh, you know how to get here?"
"I'm sure I'll find it no trouble." She assured him, "Goodbye."
"Bye, Ann." He said
"Well, well." She looked at Harris, "Isn't that interesting."
"Well, what'd he want?" Harris asked, "You're going to see him?"
"I have been invited to Southfork for lunch and horseback ride." She informed him
Harris smiled and pulled her on top of him, "That's my girl." He said giving her bare backside a swat
"You think because of last night, I'm your girl?" She said
"You'll always be my girl, Annie."
"Oh, even if I end up in Bobby Ewing's bed?" She asked folding her arms on his chest resting her chin
"It's always been you and me." Harris said looking into her bright blue eyes, "No matter how far apart or how many years. That's just the way it is."
