Austin, Texas

Sue Ellen was startled out of her deep sleep at the sound of a phone ringing; it was mid-afternoon, not an inappropriate time to call, but she was both physically and mentally exhausted and after returning to the hotel from her routine walk this morning, she had almost immediately fallen asleep. "Hello?" she groggily answered the phone, but she became more awake as the person on the other end of the line began to speak, "good afternoon Miss Shepard, this is Marie at the reception desk, I'm sorry if this is an inconvenient time", she paused and waited for Sue Ellen to give her some indication that she wasn't interrupting. "No, no, not an inconvenient time, please continue", she was still slightly dazed, but she was slowly waking up and becoming more aware of her surroundings and she'd been at the hotel long enough to know that the reception staff didn't call for no reason, so there was obviously something happening. "You have a visitor and I know you've requested that no one know you're staying here or contact you, but it is still hotel policy to inform our guests of any visitors", Sue Ellen listened and sighed, she may be almost out of money, but she still didn't want to deal with JR, "thank you. Please have security escort my husband from the building and inform him that I do not want to speak with him right now", she'd gotten used to asking the staff to do things for her, she was a paying guest and she figured that she might as well take full advantage of the privileges that came with that. "I'm sorry Miss Shepard, I should have been more specific, your guest is not your husband, she's a Mrs Eleanor Ewing, she says she's your mother-in-law", Sue Ellen's stomach dropped as she heard that it was Miss Ellie, not JR that was downstairs, that made things a whole lot more complicated. She didn't really want to see anyone, but it seemed awfully rude to ignore Miss Ellie, especially if she'd travelled all the way from Dallas to speak with her, "I'll be right down".

Unlocking the door to her hotel room again and holding it open for Miss Ellie to enter, Sue Ellen was glad that she was a somewhat tidy person and surprisingly, she found herself thankful that her mother had taught her to always keep her living area 'company ready'. She'd originally suggested that she and Miss Ellie have their conversation in the hotel's restaurant or lounge area, but Miss Ellie had insisted on something a little more private, almost as if she were expecting her to emotionally break down as soon as they started talking, something Sue Ellen had no intention of doing. "Shall I order us some tea?" Sue Ellen made polite conversation as they entered the room and walked toward the small sitting area by the window, "that would be nice", Miss Ellie smiled, though she wasn't entirely happy, things were almost worse than she'd expected. Sue Ellen was acting as if nothing was wrong and in her experience, when Sue Ellen acted like that it meant that she was heading for a huge emotional breakdown when her suppressed emotions eventually came to the surface. Motioning for Miss Ellie to sit down, Sue Ellen walked over to the phone to order their tea and as she did that, Miss Ellie occupied herself by looking at the items on the coffee table; the newspaper, magazines and hotel guide seemed fairly normal, however, a small notepad and pen caught her eye. Glancing over at Sue Ellen as she spoke on the phone, Miss Ellie nosily read the contents of the paper from afar and was taken aback at the words and numbers that were neatly written in columns, however, she didn't get to analyse it much because her attention was quickly drawn away from the paper as Sue Ellen returned. "They said it would be ten or fifteen minutes", Sue Ellen paused as she realised the total awkwardness of the situation they were in; it was obvious that things weren't completely normal, she was in a hotel after all, but she didn't want to mention it and she didn't particularly want to talk about it either. "It's lovely to see you Miss Ellie. How are you? How's everyone at Southfork?" she deflected the attention away from her situation and hoped that Miss Ellie took her hint. Miss Ellie smiled politely and gave her daughter-in-law a short rundown of what had been happening in her absence, she figured that it was best to get the small talk out of the way before they started a serious conversation.

Finding themselves in an awkward silence when the small talk ended, Sue Ellen breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of someone knocking on the door, "that'll be our tea", she stood and answered the door, showing the room service attendant where to place their tray before showing him out again. "Sue Ellen, please, talk to me", Miss Ellie finally broke the silence as she and Sue Ellen began to drink their tea, it seemed silly to avoid the obvious elephant in the room, "how are you, really?" she made eye contact with Sue Ellen in hopes of showing that she deeply cared for her and wasn't there to cause trouble. "I'm just fine Miss Ellie, honestly. I just needed a bit of a break, Dallas was exhausting and Austin was my home for many years; I'm sorry if I worried you by coming here, that wasn't my intention at all", she avoided making eye contact with Miss Ellie, she could lie to her, but she couldn't look at her while she told that lie. "I'm sorry you felt that way about Dallas", she paused, "I think there's more to it than that though, don't you?" she took Sue Ellen's hand, "I think you left Dallas because of whatever problems you and JR were having and it saddens me that you really believe leaving Dallas was the only real option you had. You could have come to me and I would have listened and given you whatever support you needed, you know that. Please Sue Ellen, JR may be my son, but you're my daughter-in-law and I love you and I want the best for you", she squeezed her hand as she spoke and hoped that something was getting through to Sue Ellen. "Miss Ellie, I told you, I was tired. Nothing more and nothing less; I'm sorry that I worried you, but really, that's all it was, I just needed a break", Sue Ellen felt defensive and when she was defensive, her automatic response was to deny that there was a problem, something Miss Ellie knew and expected. "Dear, I'm not blind. I know a little of your life with JR. I really think it would help if you talked it out", she offered her support again but from the look on Sue Ellen's face, she didn't appear to be too receptive to her suggestion. "There's nothing to talk about. JR and I are doing just fine. We're looking forward to having the baby and making you and Jock happy grandparents", Sue Ellen knew she was lying and didn't really believe most of what she was saying, but she felt compelled to pretend that everything was ok. If she showed her vulnerability, she knew she would end up spilling everything and it wasn't right for JR's mother to have to hear about what kind of husband and man her son really was.

"Sue Ellen, you have to live your life for yourself. You can't always be concerned about pleasing Jock and me, or even JR", Miss Ellie temporarily ignored Sue Ellen's obvious avoidance of admitting that there was a problem in her marriage, and instead decided to address Sue Ellen's other issue, her need to please everyone and always present a happy façade, even if it wasn't what she was actually feeling. "I lead a very full and satisfying life Miss Ellie, but you're right, occasionally I do need to focus on my own needs, and that's exactly what this trip was all about. JR and I are fine, I'm sure he's told you that", she smiled through the pain of pretending that everything was ok, because it wasn't, not at all. "Actually, quite the opposite as far as I can tell; JR has been angry, moody and aggressive since you left and when I asked him about your trip, he alluded to some bigger problems between the two of you than just you being tired and needing a break", she paused for a moment then changed the direction of their conversation. "When Jock and I were first married we had problems too..." she didn't expand on her story, but she did get Sue Ellen's attention; looking up at her mother-in-law, Sue Ellen shook her head, Miss Ellie and Jock may have had problems, but she had a funny feeling that their marriage was nowhere near as dysfunctional as her and JR's. Jock genuinely seemed to love his wife and even if he was a ruthless bastard in both his business and occasionally in his personal life, it never overlapped his relationship with his wife, something JR hadn't managed to master yet. "But you two are so happy now. How did you fix your problems?" she didn't ask Miss Ellie to elaborate on what their problems were, it seemed too personal and she didn't really want to set an expectation of sharing personal stories, however, she was interested in a general solution. Smiling, Miss Ellie made a wistful comment, "well, there were two things. The first involved a horsewhip, but that's not really what I was referring to with that example. The second… I had JR. Somehow children make it all seem more permanent and whatever problems you had before the baby seem insignificant and petty in comparison to being a parent", she gave a small smile as she spoke. The fact was, even if she and JR had a weak relationship now, she and Jock had loved and cherished him when he was a baby, their first baby, their only baby, and what she had told Sue Ellen was true, in her own experience, a baby really did fix more problems than it created. She did recognize that in Sue Ellen's situation though, the baby didn't really seem to be the problem or the solution, it was just an innocent party caught up in its parents drama right now and to have a happy and healthy childhood, Sue Ellen and JR needed to sort out their problems.

To be continued…

Author's Note: Dialogue partially inspired by the episodes John Ewing III: Part 2, written by Arthur Bernard Lewis, and Black Market Baby, written by Darlene Craviotto.