Dallas, Texas

Closing his eyes and shaking his head lightly as the door closed and his patients left, Doctor Williams let out a small sigh. Even after many years of study and practical experience in his job, there were still times where he doubted and even sometimes regretted his professional decisions; today was one of those times. Up until the previous day, JR and Sue Ellen Ewing had been happy and seemingly unbreakable, but after opening his mouth and reminding them of their past, things had gone downhill. It wasn't that he thought his questions were wrong to ask, because if anything, the couples response had highlighted just how much they needed to talk about those things, however, he did wonder whether he'd made an error in judgement for when to bring up the topic at hand. Their usual Thursday appointment had been one where JR and Sue Ellen expected to update him on their lives and remind him and themselves how happy they were together, but his professional responsibility to help them deal with and move past issues meant that the comfortable, willingly ignorant environment was soon no more. It would have been unprofessional and irresponsible for him to allow them to pay him money to sit in his office for an hour and gush about their happy lives while he looked down at his notes and ignored the list of concerns and topics they needed to address before he could eventually discharge them from his care. Unfortunately though, the things he'd written down from previous appointments were quite contentious and as expected, had not made for pleasant or calm discussion.

During their Thursday appointment, the topic of conversation had gone from optimistic and happy as Sue Ellen recapped the latest happenings in their lives, to a cold, awkward silence as Doctor Williams steered the conversation in a more serious direction, the more distant future. Hearing questions of whether they thought their current happiness was a permanent thing, and how they planned to deal with life after they settled into a new routine, neither JR nor Sue Ellen had really had answers more than the standard, shallow, 'we'll come to it when we come to it' line. The lack of plan or forethought in their response had worried Doctor Williams, but their reaction to his further probing about the previous hardships they had faced and how they had dealt with them as a couple, as individuals and how they planned to never repeat that history again, worried him even more. He had met JR and Sue Ellen Ewing late into their marriage, so he had never heard their thoughts and feelings first-hand as they were happening, he'd only heard Sue Ellen's thoughts after her son was born and then after she'd found out that JR's infidelity may have had further reaching consequences than she'd originally been aware of. He knew enough from what Sue Ellen had told him though to know that whatever conversations and agreements they'd come to in the months prior had probably been ground-breaking at the time, but in hindsight, still didn't completely fix or clarify everything. He needed to help them by having them discuss and really understand what had gone wrong in their early marriage, so that they could be sure to never repeat past situations and be able to recognize when a situation was turning into something that would later be bad news. JR and Sue Ellen needed to be able to talk about their problems without feeling the same depth of pain and anger that they had originally felt, and they needed to be able to address the root causes of the thoughts and actions that had caused so much damage to their marriage. Additionally, he needed to probe deeper and find out how JR's mind worked and what he was thinking, because as it was, a lot of their past problems were due to the way he's justified things and how he truly felt about things, and thoughts like those weren't usually something that were easily changed. Unfortunately, from what Doctor Williams had experienced the previous day and over the past hour though, things appeared as though they were going to get worse before they could even begin to look like they were getting better. They were moving backward in hopes of moving forward and no one was particularly happy with things as they were right now.

Arriving at work that morning, he had looked at his scheduled patients for the day and seeing something surprising, he'd called the receptionist into his office. He had then been informed that Mr JR Ewing had left several insistent messages with the night phone service and then had called again just as the admin staff arrived in for the day, and as they kept open one space for research time or an extra, emergency appointment time, the Ewings were now due to see him again today. Hearing the word 'insistent', Doctor Williams' stomach had lurched; something dramatic had to have happened for JR to be the one insisting on another appointment, their third that week, and he had a fair idea of what it was. The way JR and Sue Ellen had ended their appointment the previous day hadn't been great, but it also hadn't been terrible; he imagined though that their reaction had worsened when everything they'd discussed finally settled in their minds and they had a moment to properly think about it all, because it was a lot to consider and respond to.

Meeting with JR and Sue Ellen in the late morning, his questions for himself and his professional judgement had started almost immediately as soon as they sat down. From what JR was shouting and Sue Ellen was shakily saying, it sounded like his questions had unintentionally brought back all of their confusion and frustration and they were looking for a quick answer as to why they still felt the way they did, even months after they had supposedly made amends. He couldn't answer their questions, he could only help them to examine their own thoughts and feelings in an effort to help them come to their own conclusions. He wanted to help them and he could help them, but it wasn't going to be the easy fix they were looking for. It was true, they had reason to be frustrated that they were in a constant loop of disagreement and upset over so few issues, issues that were currently resolved, however, it wasn't unexpected that that would be the case, because in his opinion, they had a lot more to discuss in therapy than what they already had on their own. He had managed to calm them down enough for each of them to voice their main concerns about the situation they were in now, but at the same time, their appointment today had really been one where they hadn't made much progress at all. He was glad they had chosen to ask for his help in getting to where they wanted to be, but they still had a long way to go and it certainly wasn't going to be a pleasant journey to happiness and peace.

To be continued…