Dallas, Texas

"Hold on, she and Bobby were going to be married? When was this? And what happened?" interrupting JR as he spoke, Sue Ellen mentally tried to date the details he was telling her. In all the years she had known Bobby she had always had a feeling he'd make a good husband someday, but the fact was he was younger than both she and JR and she hadn't imagined that that day had already had the possibility of occurring in his life. He'd always appeared to enjoy the life he had as a young, handsome and wealthy man at college and then after graduation and it just seemed strange to her to think that if whatever had happened between he and Jenna hadn't happened, his life would have played out very differently to how it was now. As well as that, it was suddenly becoming clearer to her why everyone had seemed so surprised and thrilled when JR had introduced her to them as his girlfriend and then later on, proposed to her and married her. In the circle of Ewing men at the time she had entered his life, JR had apparently been the exception to the norm rather than the norm itself, because while neither Gary nor Bobby's marriages had worked out, they had at least said and done things that had indicated they were interested in a lifelong commitment. It wasn't fair or right that Jock had put so much pressure on JR to find a suitable wife, however, it suddenly made a lot more sense to her than it had in the past.

"Yes, they were, and I was just getting to that darlin'…" letting out an amused chuckle at his wife's curiosity and eagerness, JR paused for a moment to allow her to settle before he continued with his story. "Now, I don't know all the details, because to be honest, I was more interested in what was going on in my own life to really pay too much attention to Bobby's, but I do know that after Lucas Wade died things began to go downhill and then one day Jenna just abruptly upped and left Dallas. As I said, I wasn't that interested in what my little brother was doing, so I can't quite remember the exact times of all of these things, but I do believe it was on or very close to what they had planned to be their wedding date. Naturally, Bobby was heartbroken and confused, they'd had their problems but I do believe the breakup and subsequent disappearing act took everyone by surprise…" Making a quick judgement, he made the decision to skip recounting his attempts over the next couple of months to cheer Bobby up again, because although they were talking about a past where he hadn't even met her yet, he knew his wife and how she reacted to reminders of the past.

"…so she just disappeared? Without telling anybody? Never to be seen or heard from again? That seems… odd", crinkling her forehead in confusion, Sue Ellen sat silently for a moment, waiting for JR to continue to explain, though even when he did, she still didn't completely understand the situation. "Well, yeah, I suppose so… I told you darlin', I wasn't exactly paying attention to the details of Bobby's life at the time, and while I always liked Jenna, it wasn't as if we were friends and she told me what was going on. As far as I understand, she and Bobby were together, happy and engaged one day, and then the next she was gone. I don't know whether Bobby ever looked for or received an explanation for her departure, but if he did, he didn't do much about it…"

"Didn't do much about what? JR, what do you know that you're not telling me, or Bobby? I know you; it's taken me a while but I know when you're omitting something or skirting around the issue. You're not explicitly saying it, it but it certainly feels like you're hiding something, something important, something that would make this whole confusing story fit together", raising her voice a little in exasperation, Sue Ellen stared at her husband and waited for him to either tell her what was going on or deny that he was hiding anything. He was JR Ewing, he loved being the most knowledgeable person in the room and although he wasn't particularly interested in gossip, she got the feeling that he had done at least a little bit of snooping into the situation, it was just who he was.

Staying silent for a moment, JR tossed up whether to tell her what he knew or whether to deny that he was hiding anything. After seeing the way she was looking at him though, the decision was easy; she expected honesty from him, especially when she asked him a direct question, and he didn't really have anything to hide, it wasn't as if Jenna's secret was his secret. "Well darlin', let's just say I did have one of my men look into it. You see, Bobby was a wreck, so it was up to me to do the responsible thing and check that nothing sinister had happened. The last place I'm aware of her being was Italy, the newspapers reported that she married some wealthy Italian, only for that to all end in tears a few months later. Who knows how much of that information was true or not though, those publications love to spin a small detail into an elaborate story…" All too aware that his wife had read a couple of unpleasant things about him in newspapers over the years, JR was a little quiet as he spoke that part of his sentence, though his voice raised back to its normal tone and volume as he continued to speak. "You're right though, there is one thing I know that I was skirting around talking about, partly because I don't know whether it's really my news to tell and partly because I didn't want to involve you in my actions, they weren't exactly legal you know…" Knowing he was still being vague and it was annoying his wife, he then finished explaining what he knew, "Jenna Wade left Dallas in a hurry, breaking an engagement and my brother's heart and possibly taking a huge secret with her… or not, I don't know. I was able to get my hands on a copy of the birth certificate, that was easy, but the corresponding medical records proved to be a lot more difficult to locate, and without them, I cannot make an informed judgement…" Unsure of how much more detail he could explain without incriminating himself and/or bringing back her memories of their situation with Cynthia Moore, he slowly stopped talking and allowed her to take everything in. He knew a lot, but there was still a whole lot more he didn't know and couldn't explain to Sue Ellen. He hadn't thought about Jenna for years and now that he had, he wondered what was next, for everyone involved.

To be continued…