Dallas, Texas

"But Mr Ewing, it's a good deal, for both of our companies", the man was thoroughly confused, he thought he'd hit it big with Bobby Ewing, then JR Ewing came along and tried to persuade him to change his decision. "I have my reasons. If you want to keep doing business with Ewing Oil then I suggest you call off this deal. You'll get your money as long as you do what I want, it's a win-win"; JR had been unable to convince his father that Bobby was totally useless, so sabotage was the next best option. Bobby was only working at Ewing Oil for the summer, but already Jock had tried to include him in the work that JR did; come September, Bobby would be back at college, but JR couldn't risk Bobby having an influence at Ewing Oil now, it was too dangerous. "Whatever you say Mr Ewing" the man agreed and decided that it was in his company's best interest to do what JR wanted, he was a powerful man and not someone he wanted as an enemy. "Good, good; I trust that my father and brother will never know about this. Pleasure doing business with you", JR shook the man's hand and left the office; he had every intention of making a deal with this company in the future, but it had to be his deal, not something he was obliged to give credit to Bobby for. As JR left the building, he grinned to himself, three deals squashed and only two to go; he was on his way back to the top and Bobby was soon to be back where he belonged.

Austin, Texas

"Sue Ellen?" Patricia knocked on the door to her daughter's apartment and waited for her to answer; Sue Ellen was surprised, her mother hadn't called and she usually played bridge with her friends on a Thursday evening, it was unusual for her to be here at this time. "Mama, Kristin, how nice to see you. Please, come in", she faked enthusiasm, she didn't particularly want to spend the evening with her mother and sister, but she would if she had to. "Were you busy?" Patricia scanned the apartment; it didn't look like anything was new or unusual. "No mama, just doing a few chores. You should have called; I would have changed into a more welcoming outfit and prepared some tea" she was always on alert when her mother was around, a lady had to be prepared to become a hostess at any minute and she'd caught her off guard. "No, no, it's fine. Besides, you can go and change clothes now. I'll make the tea", Sue Ellen wasn't sure exactly why her mother was there, but she wasn't going to argue, "alright, I'll be back in a minute", she left the room and went to change clothes.

Kristin had stayed quiet and hadn't been assigned a task, so she walked around the apartment, snooping in Sue Ellen's personal things and looking at the decorations. Sue Ellen re-entered the room and noticed her sister's attention focused on the framed picture, "the Ewing barbecue" she smiled as she remembered that day, she'd been so nervous to meet all of JR's acquaintances, but the day had ended wonderfully, it was the first time she and JR had spent the night together and she loved it. "Yes, who would have thought, almost a year later and you two still aren't engaged", Patricia brought the tea set to the living room and Sue Ellen sighed, was that why her mother was here? To remind her that she was still not a married woman? "Mama, JR and I have barely been together a year, and the barbecue was in September, that was ten months ago, not a year", it wasn't a strong argument, but it was all she had right now. "Yes, well, it's been almost a year since you started dating him. Just a few weeks after the Miss Texas pageant wasn't it? That anniversary must be coming up soon, perhaps he'll propose then", she was sure that JR would propose sometime soon, she'd had enough talks with him for him to understand exactly what her plan was. "I don't know mama, maybe. But it isn't up to me, it's JR's decision and he'll make it on his own", she poured three cups of tea and Kristen started talking about something; Sue Ellen didn't really care too much what it was, she was just glad that Kristin had moved the attention off her.

"It's black, and sparkly. Wait, no, it's more just sparkly, I'm not actually sure about the colour; it's dark though", Kristin tried to describe the purse to Sue Ellen but she was just confusing her, "I'll know it when I see it". Sue Ellen knew there had to be a reason for their visit and this was it; Kristin just had to borrow something that belonged to Sue Ellen and she had to have it now. "Let's go and look" Patricia suggested and started walking toward Sue Ellen's bedroom before she had the chance to say no; it wasn't that she was really hiding anything, but she didn't appreciate the way her mother would use the opportunity to snoop around the room. "No, no, no…" Sue Ellen took each purse off the shelf and held it up, each one rejected because it wasn't right; Patricia knew her youngest daughter had the situation handled and took the opportunity to have a look through the rest of Sue Ellen's room, it was neat and tidy, but she knew there had to be something secretive somewhere. There was a fresh pile of clean laundry ready to be put away and she looked through it, it was all normal items until she noticed a blue men's dress shirt, two pairs of boxer shorts and two pairs of socks, that was unusual, Sue Ellen lived alone. She looked up and Sue Ellen was still trying to find the purse that Kristin wanted, she took the opportunity to look through a few more of Sue Ellen's things.

The bedroom had a large walk-in closet, she was impressed, with both the size of the closet, and the amount of lovely things her daughter had; JR Ewing certainly wasn't shy about spending money. Most of the racks and shelves were filled with Sue Ellen's things, but there was one small section of men's clothes; "that's it!" she heard Kristin yell excitedly and Sue Ellen sounded relieved that she'd finally found what they were looking for. Sue Ellen looked around the room, her mother was no longer there and she began to panic as she saw the light in her closet was on, "Sue Ellen Shepard, would you like to explain these?" Patricia held up a white shirt and a red tie and Sue Ellen knew that she was not in a good position. "Do you not remember the number one rule I had before I let you move in here? The one rule that applies at my house, in the dorms, in the sorority house, hotel rooms, Southfork, here, and anywhere else you may stay the night while you're still unmarried" she was angry, Sue Ellen had betrayed her trust and if she'd broken this rule then she'd probably broken some of the others too. "Sue Ellen, the rules exist for a reason. You know that the only way to find a good husband is to make sure you're the kind of girl that men want to marry. Giving a man the benefits of marriage before the wedding is wrong, you'll never be fully rewarded for your efforts and once you give away that gift, you can never get it back. I'm teaching you all of this for your own good. Now, please explain". Sue Ellen thought about lying for a moment, but her mother was pretty good at recognizing deception, she would be better off just telling the truth, "well mama, JR just keeps a few of his things here because it makes it easier than having to pack a bag full of clothes every time he visits Austin. He usually stays in a hotel, but there have been a few times where he's stayed here. He always stays in the guest room though" she lied about that small detail, it was easier than explaining exactly how intimate they could be without consummating their relationship. Patricia looked sceptical, "mhm. Well, I think you should move back home with me. There's no reason for you to stay here anymore anyway; your meetings are during the day and we don't live that far from town. Yes, you'll move back where you belong. Pack your things, I'll come over in the morning and help you move", it wasn't even a discussion, she'd made the decision and put Sue Ellen in a position where she really couldn't argue without seeming like she wanted to stay for a dishonest and immoral reason. Kristin observed the whole thing, she couldn't believe that Sue Ellen would be so stupid to keep JR's things in her own room; if she were going to use the guest room story they should at least have committed to using the guest room closet. In some ways, Kristin hated the way their mother treated them, but in others she was grateful that Sue Ellen was much older than she was; it gave her many opportunities to make plans around her sister's mistakes, she wouldn't be caught for some of the silly details Sue Ellen forgot to plan out.

Dallas, Texas

JR got ready for bed, satisfied that the impending events would be enough to get him back on top and push Bobby back to where he should stay, away from the real power at Ewing Oil. However, even if he failed, there were only a few months before Bobby returned to college and would be out of his way. But he was impatient, he wanted the power back now and he was doing everything he could to make sure he got it. The phone rang as he was getting into bed and he answered it, not really thinking to leave it to Raoul or Teresa, "JR?" she spoke and he immediately knew that it was Sue Ellen calling, she had a shaky voice and he could tell that she'd been crying. "What's wrong darlin'?" he asked before she tearfully recounted the whole story.

To be continued…