Dallas, Texas

"Hm, I don't think it'll work, but I guess I can try". Knowing he had asked Doctor Williams for his thoughts and now he had to live with knowing them, JR decided to play nice and not argue too much with the idea that his father was simply misunderstood, not completely selfish and a terrible listener. It was becoming clearer to him every time he interacted with his father that that was the case, but before he could declare it as the truth, he first had to exhaust all other options of communicating. He didn't particularly want what he believed to be true to actually be true, he wanted a good relationship with his father and he wanted that to be because his father actually understood where he was coming from, but from every conversation they had had in the past, he knew that was optimistic. He was disenchanted, he had grown up thinking he wanted to be exactly like his father and if he worked hard enough he could have everything his father gave to Bobby, but slowly reality had chipped away at his visions of the future. He wanted the same power his father held, and he would have it, but he wanted to get as far away from his parenting style as he could, and that was proving to be more difficult than he imagined. There was no easy or quick fix, his father was stubborn, he didn't understand how he felt and he didn't want to understand, in his mind nothing was wrong with his actions, if other people had a problem it was their fault, not his. Doctor Williams was probably right though, it was worth trying to get through to him one final time, because the alternative options were messy and painful.

"Good", giving JR an encouraging smile, Doctor Williams then looked over at JR's quiet mother to see if she was ready to verbalise the thoughts that were clearly running through her mind. "Miss Ellie? Do you have any thoughts on all of this?" Waiting a few moments, he was pleased when Miss Ellie looked at him and then turned toward JR to answer; he liked it when his patients addressed each other directly. "I do, not many because we've discussed this before, so I think you know my feelings about your daddy, but I want to tell you that it makes me very happy to hear that you're going to try with him again. I want nothing more than for all of us to have a good relationship and I know that's extremely difficult to achieve at the moment with everything so up in the air, so I want to thank you for not giving up". Watching Miss Ellie then reaching out to touch JR's hand lightly, Doctor Williams nodded and smiled again. He hadn't really had any idea what he was going to be faced with when JR and his mother arrived at his office earlier, and he wasn't under any illusions that things were going to be easy just because their discussion had been calm, but he was pleasantly surprised that things had gone so smoothly so quickly. "Mm well, I am JR Ewing. I don't just give up, you know that", seeing JR's signature grin and hearing his confident words, he had confirmation that things had gone well, though he knew JR too and he knew that there was only so much vulnerability he was willing to show, so even if he looked and sounded confident, he might not actually be so confident. Even with that in mind though, their first meeting had gone better than he had expected and that was very much an accomplishment.

Across town, Bobby Ewing was in a totally different headspace to his mother and brother, he was supposed to be resting at home, but since he hadn't been all that sick or injured to begin with he was now mostly just sitting around thinking, remembering, and considering the future, though that was ok with him, because his thoughts were pleasant. Again, he felt like a teenager, he wasn't one, but he felt like it; he had a crush on a young woman based on not much more than a chaotic meeting, a couple of short phone calls, and his memories of her appearance. She was pretty, she seemed nice, caring, and from what he could tell, she seemed to be interested in him too, and that was all very exciting; it had been far too long since he had been romantically involved with a woman and now that he was close again, he was remembering how much he liked it. Of course, he would have to actually spend some real quality time with Pamela before he could honestly say he liked her as more than just a fleeting, uninformed crush, but he was more than happy to do that. JR had Sue Ellen, his parents had each other, and while most of his college friends weren't married, a number of them were in relationships and seemed happy, he wanted that for himself too, and he wanted it with Pamela, not any of the other women he'd been set up with or met on his own recently. He had already made the decision to leave his job at Ewing Oil too, so he had already come to terms with the upcoming lifestyle change. He didn't like to think of himself as judgemental, but he knew his thoughts about the upcoming change and how it would affect him were a bit judgemental; he honestly did believe he'd have an easier time adjusting to living life away from dishing out and partaking in the three B's than JR had had. He had enjoyed his time on the road and there were still a few more weeks for him to enjoy again, but once it was over he didn't think he would miss it too much, and he certainly didn't believe he would jeopardise any serious relationship he did have simply to get a little bit of quick, dirty satisfaction.

Heading outside, because it was no fun being cooped up inside the house, he walked from the main house down to the stables and was pleasantly surprised to find his sister-in-law and nephew walking around talking to the few horses that were still in the stables during the working day. Standing back in the doorway just watching them for a moment, he knew instantly when they both noticed him that what JR had eventually realised for himself was very much true to his own life too. He had known earlier that he wanted a family of his own, but seeing the real life version of his own generation of new, small family, he knew that making the decision he had made at Ewing Oil was correct, and he hoped that the decision he was making to pursue Pamela was also correct. "Bobby, what a lovely surprise", taking hold of John Ross as Sue Ellen greeted him, he could tell from her tone of voice that she wasn't just pleased to see him because of his knowledge about horses, or because he was good with John Ross, no, she was interested in what he had to say about Pamela. With the way he was feeling though, he was glad, because he liked having someone to listen to him, someone who actually vaguely understood the situation he was in. He had phoned Pamela twice the previous evening and both calls had been cut short on her end, however, knowing what had happened the first time, he'd had the forethought to ask the question he'd been wanting to ask her fairly close to the start of the second call, and luckily for him, she had sounded very interested. He was going to call her again later to confirm where and when he was picking her up for the date he'd alluded to, but the hardest part was now over, and he didn't mind sharing any of those details with his sister-in-law, after all, he wouldn't have even known how to contact Pamela if it weren't for Sue Ellen.

To be continued…