Dallas, Texas

"Darlin'", JR handed her a glass of champagne as he poured one for himself, "thank you", Sue Ellen accepted the drink and beamed at him as she thought about the situation. Although she had had her suspicions for a while now, she still couldn't believe that it was actually real, that she was finally able to give everyone what they wanted, and she finally had what she had always wanted, a real, happy family. Everything in her life was finally good and all of a sudden, all of the pain and negative feelings she'd had in the past didn't seem so terrible anymore, because they had finally led somewhere positive. Her mind moved further into the past as she assessed everything; when she was a teenager and then a college girl, she had always imagined her future to look something like it did now, including the traditional white house, loving husband, children and a big extended family; it was still so surreal that her fantasy future was finally a reality. "To you, and the baby", JR clinked his glass against hers as he made his toast, his day really couldn't have gotten any better, his work had been good, but now, with the news of his wife's pregnancy, both his work life and his personal life were about to get a whole lot better, especially where his father was concerned. "Now, tell me, why'd you go to the doctor for the pregnancy test?" he listened intently as she explained all about her woman's intuition and how she had just known. She gave him a basic, non-graphic account of her physical symptoms and then explained about how she had gone to see Dr Danvers earlier in the week, how he'd confirmed the news to her yesterday and how thrilled she had been when her assumptions and wishes had been confirmed. She then explained that she was six, almost seven weeks along and JR smiled as everything came together in his mind; six or seven weeks ago made the date of conception sometime around the time they grew close again after the accident. He didn't know much about pregnancy, but he knew enough to know that her early pregnancy hormones explained a lot of her recent behaviours, including her eagerness and energy in the bedroom a few weeks ago as well as why she had been so emotionally up and down recently.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, I didn't want to get your hopes up before I knew anything for sure. I know how painful it is to think one thing and then find out that you were wrong…" she switched from an excited mood into something more subdued and sad as she continued to speak, candidly explaining her worries that her mind was playing tricks on her again and her fears about everyone's reaction if she spoke too soon. JR was surprised at just how openly she was speaking; she was usually meek and quiet when it came to her own thoughts and feelings. However, her words did explain a lot of her behaviour over the past few weeks and he felt relieved to have confirmation that all the things he had been worried about recently were related to the pregnancy, or at least he thought they were, she never detailed any of her thoughts about her boredom or loneliness. "Darlin', I've told you before, you need to relax and stop worrying so much about what other people think of you. Of course everyone wanted this baby, but no one was angry at you when it didn't happen immediately. Now, forget all of the negative thoughts and feelings you've been harbouring, because you are about to make everyone very happy, and with everyone else happy, I want the mother of my son to be happy too". He looked her in the eye to make sure that she understood before he paused and grinned to himself, changing the mood as he spoke again, "this is wonderful news. Mama and daddy are going to be so pleased"; Sue Ellen didn't know how he did it, but somehow, he had the ability to switch between moods easily, something she found a little more difficult to do. However, his kind words and current excitement were beginning to make her feel better, and deep down, she knew that he was right in his assessment of her. She did take things more personally than the way other people intended them to be received, and everyone would be pleased with her now that she and JR had good news, so really, it was silly to be concerned about her old worries and fears now, they were irrelevant.

Looking at his watch, JR realised that the time for his parents to be pleased about their news was sooner than he had realised, "darlin', as much as I hate to cut short our alone time, we should probably start getting ready for dinner; you know how daddy despises lateness". Sue Ellen nodded, JR was right, Jock hated when anyone was late to dinner, though with their news, they could probably get away with it today; however, she didn't plan on telling the Ewing family just yet, so instead of dillydallying, she hurried and changed for dinner. Fifteen minutes later, JR took his wife's hand and led her out of the bedroom, "mama and daddy are going to be thrilled", he squeezed her hand in excitement as they walked down the hallway and he was confused when instead of squeezing his hand back, she stopped dead in her tracks and her face paled. "Darlin'?" he turned back toward her and looked at her, "what's wrong?" he didn't understand her sometimes, just a moment ago she had been as happy as he was, but now she was somewhere else and he had no idea what was going on in her head. "I… JR would you mind if we didn't tell your parents the news just yet?" she looked at the floor and whispered her words; as assuring as JR had been, she still had a nagging feeling in her mind, something that was telling her to wait until the time was right before telling everyone the good news. JR watched his wife and sighed, they didn't really have time to have a deep conversation right now if they wanted to make it to dinner in time, but it was obviously something she felt strongly about, so he decided to allow her a small postponement for now. Putting his finger under her chin, he tilted her head up from looking at the floor, "ok, that request obviously means something to you, so we won't tell them right now. However, after dinner, you and I need to talk about why you feel that way", he gave her a light kiss before taking her hand and leading her downstairs to meet with the rest of the family. Whatever was on her mind would have to wait until later, but when they were alone again, he fully intended on finding out what was going on in her head, because there was obviously something affecting her, her sudden request to keep the pregnancy a secret didn't seem normal to him.

To be continued…