Dallas, Texas

After sorting and folding her last box of donated clothes for the day, Sue Ellen collected her purse, said goodbye to her charity co-workers and then left the building. She felt good, she had done some genuinely helpful and appreciated service work and now it was her turn to treat herself to something special. Driving out toward the highway, she made the snap decision to head a little further afield for her planned shopping trip today, not because the stores in Fort Worth would have a better selection of skiwear to choose from than the stores in downtown Dallas, but because Fort Worth had something Dallas didn't, her favourite lingerie store. Of course, Dallas had stores where she could get what she needed and wanted, but she had come to enjoy shopping for more intimate things in a city where she was less likely to bump into anyone from the DOA. She wasn't ashamed of what she was doing, it was perfectly normal for her and JR to enjoy themselves in an intimate sense, she really just had an attachment to one specific store in Fort Worth because of the role it had played in her past, the role it had played in the fresh start in her marriage. She and JR were in a good place now and she was looking forward to going away with him for a couple of days next week, especially after what felt like a long time since they'd last really spent any proper time alone together just focusing on each other. She wanted to and was determined to find a way to help Bobby, she loved being John Ross' mother, and she was always happy to listen to JR's thoughts and concerns about business and other personal matters, but she was definitely looking forward to leaving Dallas and experiencing a new environment for a little while.

Across town, JR was busy doing what he always did when he was at the office, working. He knew that if he wanted to be the best at what he did, but also be home in time to have dinner with his wife and son and actually spend a decent amount of time with John Ross before he lay down to sleep for the night, then he didn't have time to socialise or slack off. Becoming the president of Ewing Oil was guaranteed to be in his future, so he no longer had to go above and beyond the norm and what was expected of him just to show his father that he was the best man for the job, however that didn't mean he was completely free to relax. Ewing Oil didn't just run itself, it required a lot of attention, maintenance, forward thinking, and organization to maintain its position. After having spent more than a decade there though, applying his academic knowledge and learning through doing, JR was comfortable with his ability to do what needed to be done and to do it well, so despite being busy during his hours at the office, he wasn't overwhelmed by the tasks he was faced with. Hearing his intercom buzzing, he automatically pressed the button, murmured a "yes" and waited for Diane to speak; if she was interrupting him when she knew he was busy, then whatever message she had for him had to be somewhat important. Listening as she spoke, he nodded before responding, "wait a couple of minutes and then show him in".

Ten minutes later, as he flipped through a stack of newspaper articles, photographs, and surprisingly, a passenger manifest, JR shook his head, muttered a few things to himself under his breath and then looked up at the private investigator who had compiled the information for him, "the medical records?" Sue Ellen had somehow convinced him that it would be nice for him to help Bobby to find closure about his past. He knew his wife though, when she said help Bobby find closure, she didn't mean help him to move on with his life so he could remain a happy bachelor, no, she meant she wanted him to use his investigative connections to have another look to see what they could find and then use to their advantage. Sue Ellen wanted to play matchmaker and he had somehow found himself agreeing to it, despite not completely wanting to, feeling that it was the best choice, or knowing whether he would actually be able to access any new information now anyway.

"No, I'm sorry sir. I don't have an explanation for that failure other than that medical records are already difficult to access, but doing so in a foreign country is near impossible without already established connections, connections I don't have. I did a thorough job with everything else and I will bill you for my services, but respectfully, I think this is the last time you and I will do business together regarding Miss Wade, because there's nothing more I can help you with here. I'm an honest man and a smart man, I'm not going to try and deceive you; what's in that report is what any good PI will find, but it's going to take someone higher than me to find the medical information you're looking for". Listening as the private investigator explained his position, JR nodded, thanked him for his honesty and then showed him out of his office. He hadn't really been expecting to see the medical records this time, not after the last time he'd had one of his men look for them, and with the information he had now, it didn't really matter whether he knew Charlotte Wade's blood type or whether she had been born on her due date. It was unfortunate that he had first-hand knowledge of the topic of paternity, but he did, and he knew that a simple blood test would be able to tell Bobby everything he needed or wanted to know if and when the time came to seek those answers. Locking the folder away in his office safe, he decided he would focus on everything he now knew later, because unlike the brother he was about to do a huge favour for, he actually worked for a living and he couldn't afford to spend his afternoon analysing personal documents.

Down the hall, unaware of what was going on in his eldest brother's head, Bobby Ewing paced around his small office. If he was about to get what he wanted from his father, then why wasn't he happy? He understood some of his unhappiness was related to the way his father was controlling the situation and treating him, and some of it was because he was antsy and he just wanted to skip ahead a few years, past the training time and possible return to college, but there was something more. His business life was beginning to turn around and if he was just patient, he would have everything he was asking for and had been promised soon enough, but personally, he felt empty. He didn't lack female companionship, he had a family who loved him, he was wealthy, healthy and relatively free, but for whatever reason, he wasn't satisfied. He wanted more and he knew he wanted more, but irritatingly, he didn't know exactly what that more was. Sighing to himself, he grabbed his coat, opened his office door and walked down the hall. He needed to clear his head a bit and a walk, and maybe a drink, might help him do that.

To be continued…