Dallas, Texas

"JR, my office, five minutes", popping his head in the doorway of JR's office and seeing that he was in the middle of a meeting with Diane, Jock gave a short, sharp direction before turning and leaving. They had business to attend to first, but after that was dealt with, he had plans for a little talk with his eldest son about women and where to draw the line in regard to listening to and acting on their feelings. He didn't know the specifics of Sue Ellen's talk with his wife, but from the way Ellie had referenced it the previous evening it sounded like Sue Ellen was taking advantage of her newfound confidence and 'communication skills', and he didn't like it one bit. Ellie was a good woman and he liked to think they had a strong marriage, strong, but traditional, where husbands and wives had their place, stayed there, and liked it. Of course, she was also a strong woman and she had made it clear to him a number of times in the past that she didn't appreciate his behaviour, but never in such a specific, audacious way, and never over such ambiguous, silly things. He didn't appreciate her trying to guilt trip him into admitting he had been a 'bad' father when he hadn't been, and quite frankly he thought her regrets about how they had raised their sons were fairly pointless and not worth getting all worked up about. They couldn't change the past and even if they could, other than keeping a closer eye on Gary and offering Bobby the ranch earlier to avoid all of the time and resources he'd wasted on trying to make him an oilman, he didn't really think there was much he would change. Her guilt about handing JR over to him to raise was hers and hers alone; he happened to believe he had done a good job with JR overall.

Of course, there were things he wished hadn't happened and others he wished hadn't taken so long to happen, but he had what he had always envisioned and JR seemed happy with that, so he didn't see the problem. Where he did see a problem was with the wives in the Ewing family; they didn't need to concern themselves with such unimportant, unchangeable matters, but more than that, he didn't like the idea of them getting together to discuss the supposed 'mistakes' that had been made. He had told Ellie that the previous evening before ending their conversation and going into his office to finish his work, then by the time it was time for him to go to sleep it seemed like Ellie had cooled down a little, and by the time breakfast rolled around things were back to normal, just how he liked them. However, although things at Southfork may have calmed down, with everyone resuming their assigned roles without causing issues, there were still a few loose ends he had to tie up before he could consider the case closed and go back to living how he wanted. He needed to speak to JR and he needed JR to remind his wife of her role and place in the Ewing family; he couldn't deal with more of Ellie's outbursts and he needed to ensure she wouldn't be pushed into pursuing pointless topics for no reason other than trying in vain to redo the past the 'right' way.

"JR, my office, five minutes", seeing his father appear in his doorway and then disappear almost as quickly, JR mentally sighed to himself, though physically he just nodded at his father before returning to responding to his mail and messages with Diane. He had a fair idea about what his father wanted to speak about and he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about having that conversation, but he wasn't weak and he would do what he had to when the time came. He couldn't blame Sue Ellen, he knew she acted with good intentions, but sometimes trying to do the right thing ended up causing more issues than it solved and he had a feeling that now was one of those times. Of course, she was right, if his mother was willing to approach the subject with him the least he could do was listen, especially if he ever wanted to move on from the resentment, hurt, and anger he held deep inside him. Knowing it and actually being willing to do so were two different things though and since his mother hadn't yet approached him in any way, it all seemed a bit pointless to continue thinking about. It was on his mind now though, because he could tell from his father's sharp tone that he knew of Sue Ellen's conversation with his mother, and knowing his father, he probably wasn't all that happy about it. His father was like him, or he was like his father, he wasn't sure, but neither of them enjoyed having other people sticking their nose into their private, personal business, and neither of them liked being told they were in the wrong. In this situation though he didn't have a whole lot of sympathy for his father; he respected him, but he was also a huge part of the issue and he couldn't just forget that. He wasn't Gary though, he was strong and he had no intention of crying or sulking all day or allowing it to affect everything else going on in his life, especially not now when he was at work, busy with real, time sensitive tasks.

Five minutes later, right on time, JR knocked on his father's office door, waited for the verbal invitation and then entered, taking a seat as Jock slid a drink across his desk and waved to the leather chair in front of his desk. "JR", nodding, Jock handed him a small stack of papers containing the job description to be advertised and the absolute minimum requirements for the agency to comply with, "firstly, I need you to read and then sign these; I want the agency to start working on finding us someone soon so we need to get these documents to them today". Watching JR silently peruse the papers, sign them and then hand them back to him, Jock then pressed his intercom button, told Julie to come and collect the papers for sending and then returned to being silent, only to continue speaking after his secretary had come, gone, and closed the door behind her. "Now that the pressing matter is dealt with, I want to talk to you; we need to have a serious discussion about your wife. It seems Sue Ellen had been sticking her nose into things that don't concern her and it's distressing your mother and making things very difficult at Southfork and I don't like it, not for me and not for her…"

To be continued…