Dallas, Texas

"How soon can you have the new documents written?" maintaining a straight face but internally grinning, JR looked at Harve as he spoke. It was Monday morning and he'd set up a meeting for he and his father with Harve promptly at nine; he wanted their verbal agreement to be made a legal one as soon as possible and for him, that meant having documents signed and filed by Friday at the latest, though preferably sooner than that. It wasn't that he didn't trust his father to go through with the agreement when it came down to actually signing the documents, but he wasn't stupid or naïve, he knew not to celebrate a victory before he'd actually won. His life was on the cusp of being great again, but there were a few loose ends to tie before he could officially breathe a sigh of relief, so the sooner he could get the new contract written and signed, the better. "Well, since we're just discussing amending a small part of the contract, not rewriting the entire thing or starting from scratch, I don't see any reason why I couldn't have it drafted and sent back to you by tomorrow. I assume you'll be using Mr Oliver as your lawyer again? He's a fair man and with the current agreement, I don't think there will be any reason for him to request a renegotiation or rewrite of the new agreement. As long as you notify him in advance that he'll be receiving the documents for review tomorrow, I'd say that you're probably looking at getting them signed and filed by Thursday afternoon, Friday at the latest. How does that sound?" Grinning as Harve spoke, JR thought about it for a moment and then nodded, "good, good; Thursday afternoon it is". Letting out a small laugh at JR's obvious glee, Harve murmured a few words of agreement before Jock made a move to shake his hand and end the meeting.

Minutes later, walking out of the Smithfield & Bennett offices together, Jock placed his hand on his eldest son's shoulder to stop him for a moment. "JR", his gruff, slightly unfriendly manner was enough to make JR stand up a little straighter and listen; he needed to show that he was being respectful and taking things seriously, because although the amendment was what was morally right, Jock was still making a large economic promise, one that now had a whole lot less strings attached to it. "I take it you're happy?" making a comment about JR's obvious grin, Jock paused for a moment, anticipating his son's response, though he got a lot more than he expected when JR did speak. "Yes sir. Very happy. I'm very proud of Ewing Oil's history and what the company is today and I look forward to building it up to what you always dreamed it would be. I want Ewing Oil to be the biggest independent oil company in Texas and I'm tremendously grateful that you're trusting me to make it happen. I won't let you down daddy, in business or in my personal affairs; I promise". Meaning what he said, but also making sure to hit the points he knew his father would appreciate, JR looked him directly in the eye as he spoke and when he observed his father's facial expression changing, he knew that he was playing the game right. "Good, that's what I want to hear, forever. You stay on the right side of your wife and keep doing what you're doing with Ewing Oil and we won't have a problem. I'm trusting you JR, don't let me down". Remaining serious as he spoke, but allowing his own pride to show through just a little when JR nodded and agreed again, Jock then slapped his son on the shoulder and changed the subject back to his favourite topic, oil; "good. Now, tell me about the reports from Ewing Eight".

Across town, Bobby Ewing sighed to himself as he sat in his office, staring at the folder of information about his upcoming trip to Houston. Standing up, he walked over to the window and looked out over downtown Dallas in an attempt to clear his mind enough to where he could actually focus on the paperwork he was supposed to be reading, rather than his argument with JR the previous evening and the subsequent thoughts that had come from that talk. He was in a tough position, he needed to say something to his father before it was too late and JR was guaranteed Ewing Oil in its entirety, leaving him with no legacy for his own future family and in all probability, no job security for his future. He wasn't so naïve to believe that JR really, honestly appreciated his contribution to the business and truly enjoyed Ewing Oil being a very family-centric company; it was quite clear that JR tolerated him for the sake of maintaining peace and was happiest when his assigned tasks involved him being away from Dallas for long periods of time. He couldn't lie and say he didn't enjoy his job, he was the director of public relations for Ewing Oil, a role that mostly just involved him travelling around spreading goodwill to potential business partners and making sure that even those who weren't directly involved in the oil business thought favourably about Ewing Oil. There was a little dirty work involved when situations proved a little more difficult to guarantee an ally for Ewing Oil, but those situations were less frequent than the good-natured interactions and connections he made. Unfortunately, although the work he did for Ewing Oil was beneficial to their public image and increased their visibility in sectors other than the oil business, he somehow doubted that JR saw him as completely necessary and had a strong feeling of uncertainty when he considered his future. It wasn't that he expected to one day be the president of Ewing Oil, but he had hoped that perhaps he would eventually move up in the ranks and perhaps be the vice president, however, with JR the way he was, he had no doubt that without explicit instruction to do so, there would be no promotion in his future. Once JR gained majority control of Ewing Oil, anything was possible, and once he gained full control and ownership of Ewing Oil, Bobby knew that that would be the final nail in the coffin for his future in the family business.

He'd probably always needed to be a little clearer with his father about his feelings for Ewing Oil and his expectations about his future there, but in all honesty, he'd never really considered it, he'd never thought he had to. He had always known that he was his father's favourite son and from JR's disgruntled attitude, he'd been made aware that his father had allowed him to progress up the ladder in Ewing Oil much faster than JR had. Because of those things, he'd naturally assumed that his father had a plan in place for him and he'd trusted that whenever he was ready, the next stage of his progression would begin. Unfortunately though, his assumption had been wrong and he was now in a position where things weren't looking so bright for his future anymore, and on top of that, he was in an even worse position when it came to considering how to approach the topic with his father. JR was right when he'd said that his status as favourite son wouldn't save him from the wrath of their father if he found out that he'd been snooping through his private files, and he wasn't stupid, he'd probably get suspicious if he just raised the topic out of the blue, without any prompting. In addition to those two things, he was also uncertain about whether asking his father to rethink things was even an option anymore. From what JR had said, it sounded as if their legal agreement was signed and sealed and not up for renegotiation any time soon, and if JR and his father had a legal agreement about the ownership of Ewing Oil, that probably meant that JR would be involved in any future negotiations too, essentially putting them in a stalemate. Sighing to himself, he knew that until he could think of a good way to naturally introduce the topic of his future to his father, he was stuck where he was.

To be continued…