Dallas, Texas

Tracing little circles on his chest with her finger, Sue Ellen smiled to herself as she watched her husband sleeping peacefully; he deserved a good night's sleep after the previous evening's events and it was nice to see him so relaxed. Of course, he wasn't relaxed because they had solved their issues with his parents and they were all one big happy family now, nothing was ever quite that simple, but he was relaxed nonetheless and knowing she had had even a small hand in making him that way pleased her. She knew her husband, it took a lot out of him to talk about his emotions, but he had done it and as a result he had made some progress with his mother and had begun to see who his father really was. Additionally, it was becoming clearer and clearer to her every day that he had really changed as a person when it came to their marriage. From the beginning of their relationship he had leaned on her for emotional support in parts of his personal and business life, except when he had pulled back because of how she had been affected by his problems. Now though, using what they had learnt in Doctor Williams' office they were able to talk completely openly and honestly together about everything, including his deepest personal insecurities. Doctor Williams had helped him to accept and speak aloud his own feelings, and while JR had never had a problem communicating when he didn't want to talk anymore, she did credit Doctor Williams for assisting them through a time in their marriage where a decision had to be made about who he chose to release his pent-up frustrations with. She couldn't say sex was a solution, because it wasn't, not long-term; the situation with his parents was the same now as it had been the previous evening, but at least she and JR were happy and comfortable with each other in their marriage. It was nice to feel needed and wanted emotionally, and a little bit selfishly too, she enjoyed the way JR expressed his need and want for her physically. She liked sex, she could admit that, and while in an ideal world there wouldn't be any need for comfort sex, she was glad that in the world she was in, she and JR had each other. JR was on a difficult path with his parents and neither of them were under any illusion that it was going to be easy to reconcile and grow closer, especially with Jock being so obstinate, but she had hope that things could and would change. Leaning forward to kiss JR's chest gently where she had been touching him with her finger, she then closed her eyes and relaxed into the soft sheets; it was still early and after a long night with her husband and in-laws and with a full day with her son ahead, she needed her rest.

A few hours later, after kissing his wife and son goodbye, JR left for work, and a few minutes after leaving his home, as he drove through Braddock, he sighed loudly to himself. In the past, he had been able to avoid allowing emotions to get to him, but for some reason now he didn't seem to be able to do that anymore. Sue Ellen had done as much as she could for him and he was very grateful for that, but she was only human and there was only so much help she could provide. He had really tried with his parents too, he had tried to be honest and communicate his feelings, and with his mother he had made a small amount of progress, but with his father, he had almost given up even trying. Emotionally he was stuck, but he was man enough to admit that in this case, he needed guidance from an outside source, so for possibly the first time ever, he was actually looking forward to taking a break from his day later to meet with Sue Ellen and Doctor Williams. He wasn't looking forward to the inevitable follow-up questions that would open their meeting, because he hadn't given any thought to making a friend for himself like Doctor Williams had wanted him to, however, he hoped that because he and Sue Ellen had somewhat accomplished the goal set for Sue Ellen, he'd be given some grace. Initially, he hadn't liked Doctor Williams style of 'help' very much, because he seemed to ask a lot of questions and have very high expectations for a man who essentially just sat back and judged without personally involving himself in the process that it took to achieve something, however, he was slowly beginning to see how his methods were helpful. The questions he asked did spark thoughts in him that he hadn't necessarily dwelled on before, and his assessment of situations as they unfolded, without actually involving himself, was helpful in the sense that he offered a good third-party perspective on the whole rather than a biased perspective on just a small part. He didn't expect the doctor to be able to fix his relationship with his parents, however, he was hoping he would have some idea of how to proceed from where he was. He was interested in hearing what he had to say about talking with his mother alone, because he really didn't want to make things worse than they already were, and as he was out of ideas for how to make his father understand his perspective, he was willing to listen to what the doctor had to say about that too.

Down the street, at Southfork, after an awkwardly quiet breakfast and a noticeably cold and distant goodbye between her grandparents when it came time for her grandfather to head off to the office, Lucy Ewing mumbled a few words to her grandmother and uncle about gathering her schoolbooks before disappearing upstairs. Looking down the hallway to make sure nobody was behind her, she then opened the door to one of the guest rooms and walked over to the nightstand to use the telephone, dialling JR and Sue Ellen's phone number and waiting patiently for someone to answer. Listening to the dial tone, she hoped that nobody at Southfork decided they wanted to make a call just now, because she had specifically chosen the guest room for its privacy and having someone else pick up the phone would defeat the purpose of her actions. She was allowed to make phone calls, that wasn't the issue, she just didn't want to have to explain to her grandmother or uncle why she was calling Sue Ellen to talk this early in the morning. Bobby had tried his best to distract her the previous evening, but she wasn't stupid or deaf, she knew something was going on with her grandparents, she'd heard bits and pieces of their arguments the past couple of days, and it was definitely not usual for them to disappear over to JR and Sue Ellen's house on such short notice. She knew not to blame herself, nobody had mentioned her name and nobody was treating her badly, but she couldn't help but be curious about what was going on and whether there was anything she could do to make things better. She was interested in seeing Sue Ellen and John Ross in general too though, she enjoyed her time with her aunt and little cousin and she was determined to hold Sue Ellen to her promise of spending time together even though they lived separately.

"Good morning, Ewing residence", answering the phone, hoping whoever it was could hear her over John Ross' enthusiastic toy xylophone performance, Sue Ellen smiled to herself and relaxed as she heard Lucy's voice on the other end of the line. "Good morning Sue Ellen, it's Lucy. I don't have very long to talk, Bobby's going to come looking for me if I'm not back downstairs soon. I just wanted to call to see if you were free this afternoon; there's something I want to talk to you about… and of course I want to see you and John Ross too…" Although Lucy wasn't giving too much away, Sue Ellen wasn't too worried about what it was she wanted to discuss, she had heard Lucy very distraught before and the tone she was using now didn't indicate she was upset, in fact, she sounded more curious than anything. "Well you're in luck; John Ross and I are free this afternoon. Come on over after school and you can tell me what's on your mind. For now though, my watch says you have thirteen minutes before you're late for class, so go get your things and save yourself detention and a lecture from your granddaddy about punctuality". Receiving a hurried, but spirited goodbye, she then hung up and knelt back down on the ground with John Ross; something was going on with Lucy, but until she told her all about it, she couldn't do much about it, and that was ok, she didn't need to control everything and she didn't need to have all the answers.

To be continued…