Dallas, Texas
Sitting outside on the patio together, Miss Ellie was the first to spot the returning family, "they're home", happily commenting to her husband, she then looked at him more seriously, "I meant what I said Jock. Please, do the right thing, for all of us. Give JR a chance to prove himself…" Things had been tense between them since the previous week when she had found out the details of Jock and JR's deal and the disagreement they were in because of JR's request to rewrite the terms, a request that Jock questioned the motivation behind. She understood Jock's scepticism about JR's motivation to change things now, but what she didn't understand or approve of and what they had argued at length about was the fact that he had offered such a deal in the first place and that when requested by both JR and Sue Ellen in good faith, he had still refused to budge.
JR's initial actions weren't right, he should have never been unfaithful to his wife, however, just because he was a bad husband didn't make him a bad businessman and thinking about it, she saw where Sue Ellen was coming from when she defended her husband and took his side, even in times of personal disagreement. She was aware that both she and Jock had made mistakes in the way they had raised their sons, and she couldn't disagree with the opinion that with as much as JR did for Ewing Oil and with the promises that had been made to him, it was only right that he be rewarded for his hard work and dedication. Simply put, when considering the entire picture of the Ewing son's lives and the privileges and expectations that they had been raised with, anything less than JR becoming president of Ewing Oil when Jock retired was completely unfair. Thinking about it, presidency was the least JR deserved, and the ownership that the morality clause promised him was really just a written guarantee of what was right, both morally and in a business sense. Out of all three Ewing boys, JR was the one that was the most dedicated to the company and held the deepest understanding of how to grow Ewing Oil into the biggest independent oil company in Texas, so for Jock to even consider retiring and not passing on the highest responsibility to his eldest son really was a silly idea. Deep down, she knew that her husband had probably always planned on retiring and allowing JR to move into his role, however, the fact was, he hadn't guaranteed anything in writing prior to the stupid legal clause he and JR had negotiated months ago. Because of that, she understood why JR had signed the contract, however that didn't mean she agreed with it, a fact that she had made very clear to her husband. It was apparent from speaking to Sue Ellen that the way she and Jock had parented their sons was somewhat unbalanced and wrong and although it was hard to admit, because it did make her feel like a bit of a failure as a mother, she could admit it. She had verbalised some of her feelings to Jock, however, as he was more stubborn than she was and he hadn't done the same sort of thinking that she had, getting him to understand and agree with her wasn't exactly an easy task, but that didn't mean she'd given up trying.
"Fine", mumbling his response, Jock reluctantly agreed. He still wasn't completely in favour of letting JR out of the morality clause but still allowing him to keep the guarantee of Ewing Oil because it was the right thing to do in regard to the promises he'd made to him throughout his entire life, but he was going to give JR a chance to prove him wrong. His decision to meet with the lawyers to rewrite the contract had come from a lot of his own thinking and considerations, but the ultimate final decision to change things had come from his discussions and arguments with his wife. She was a small woman, but that didn't make her weak, and honestly, after fighting with her about the situation for a while, stubbornly ignoring her point of view and rational thoughts in favour of his own, he had then realised that having her be permanently angry and upset with him wasn't worth it. Thinking about the situation as it had been when he initially approached JR with the idea months ago, he had to admit to himself that his wife's perspective wasn't entirely wrong or really all that different to his own. He'd initially had mixed feelings about offering JR the deal, but he had decided that if that was what was needed to get JR to behave, then that's what he would do. Consequently, his wife had a point now though, if JR now willingly wanted to be a better man, without the strings attached to that change, then it wasn't right to keep him locked into a contract that made it seem as if he wasn't capable of real change, only that he knew how to behave in order to reap rewards.
At the time of signing, he had done a lot of reflecting on his own parenting in regard to his eldest son, because it had seemed so wrong to him that he was seemingly incapable of behaving properly, however, sometime within the last few months, he'd forgotten the realisations he'd come to at that point in time. He was aware that he had raised his eldest son to believe that life was a competition and to think of Ewing Oil first in all of his decisions, no matter what the collateral damage was, but in doing that, he'd neglected to teach him where to draw the line and stop with his destructive actions. He'd never taught JR that although power and money were important and enjoyable, there was so much more to life than just those two things, for example, the love of a good woman and the way a man should act when he had a good woman, especially when she was his wife and the mother of his child. Offering the guarantee of Ewing Oil in reward for JR's good behaviour had basically been a move to make permanent JR's promise of change, a reminder for him in times where he did consider straying from the right path, but as JR, Sue Ellen and his own wife had pointed out, that now no longer seemed right. JR was adamant that he had changed, but for it to seem like real change, there had to be no strings attached to his good behaviour, otherwise, it would always be somewhere in the back of his mind and the back of Sue Ellen's mind that perhaps he wasn't being as genuine as he thought. Arguing with his wife and then doing a lot of thinking about it on his own over the weekend, he had come to understand the perspective of the others in the situation and had come to the conclusion that if his wife really wanted him to give JR a chance to prove himself, then he would. In addition to that, if he absolutely had to, he would apologise to Sue Ellen too. He still didn't entirely agree with her involvement, but he could see that his response to her had been somewhat rude and disrespectful and the fact was, she was a Ewing and she did have the right to an opinion on the issue, even if he still thought her involvement was unnecessary. After listening to his wife, he now understood that it seemed hypocritical to discount Sue Ellen's opinion on an issue he considered to be about Ewing Oil, but for him to want to have an opinion on what was a personal, private matter. It didn't please him to be called a hypocrite, but he understood it and understood that he had to be the bigger man in the discussion and admit where he was wrong, even if he didn't want to. "Good. Thank you", patting her husband's hand gently, Miss Ellie was pleased to hear him agreeing to follow the plan they had discussed, it really was the best thing for the family. Standing, they then made their way over to the driveway, ready to meet the returning Ewings.
To be continued…