Dallas, Texas

"They're sending me down to Austin for a few weeks", listening as Cliff threw various pieces of clothing into his suitcase, Pam's stomach flip-flopped, she'd been hoping to have a quiet moment alone with him tonight to broach the subject of her relationship with Bobby, however she wasn't sure she'd get that now. When Cliff was focused on something it was often hard to pull him away to have him think about something else, so with his mind on work matters and whatever it was that was happening in Austin, it was unlikely that even if she did ask him to stop and listen to her, he'd actually be completely with her.

"How many weeks?" asking hesitantly, she tossed up whether to tell him now and hope that their time away from each other was enough for him to cool down, or whether to wait until he was back and they could talk properly. "Two, three, I don't know yet, it depends on how long negotiations and the like take. You know how it is, we go in high, they come in low, and then we agree on something in the middle, it's hard to say how long it will take though, there are too many variables, especially in this matter". Listening to his response she nodded, he hadn't given her any concrete answer but what he had given her was enough to convince her to wait, he sounded preoccupied with work and although she'd been strong with Bobby about her opinion, now that she was actually faced with telling Cliff she was more than happy to delay that conversation.

While Cliff was preparing to leave for a business trip, Bobby was back from one of his own and from the way she felt, she knew she was in deep with her feelings for him; it was physical, she couldn't deny that, but it was emotional too, though that was a little harder to admit aloud. "I hardly see you anymore anyway, I'm sure you won't even notice I'm gone", muttering an additional comment, her brother's facial expression told her he was mostly joking, or at least not seriously upset that she had a life outside of their family. Still though, she smacked his arm lightly and shook her head, smiling amusedly at his comments; it was probably true, but she was hardly going to admit that she intended to spend even more time with Bobby than she had been now that they'd had the talk about what their relationship actually was.

"What? You know it's true, in fact I'm surprised you're even here right now, I'd have thought maybe you'd be off with him, swooning over his generic gifts and amateur poetry", chuckling to himself as if his joke was actually funny, Cliff had no way of knowing just how close to the truth he was. Her displeased facial expression and whined, "Cliff", told him that however accurate he was, she didn't appreciate his comments though, and to his credit he did then hold his hands up as if to surrender. "Ok fine, I'll say nothing more", making a zipping motion with his hand over his mouth, he looked at her as if he were trying to read her thoughts, before returning to his packing.

She didn't know what her problem was, it wasn't as if he was being intentionally nasty to her, nor had he actually said anything particularly offensive anyway, she was just jumpy and sensitive about her relationship, the relationship she knew Cliff wouldn't be joking about so easily when he finally found out the details. "Thank you", smiling weakly, she pushed him aside gently and began to properly fold the clothes he'd haphazardly thrown into his suitcase, receiving an even more puzzled look from her brother as she did so.

"Pam? Tell me you're ok", stopping her as she folded, his concern was obvious; clearly she was behaving strangely and he had suspicions, suspicions she needed to avoid going into detail with him about right now because it had felt like the right time all the way up until it actually came time to tell him. "I'm fine, I promise. I'm happy with Bobby, and I have aunt Maggie here to talk to and help me with daddy if I have any issues. You go to Austin and deal with your business problems and I'll be here when you get back, don't you worry about me". Answering him, the knot in her stomach began to release, it wasn't fair to make it seem as if their father's issues were what was bothering her but it was an easy excuse to throw at Cliff, he understood more than anyone how Digger could be cause for unease.

"Fine, fine", holding his hands up in surrender again, Cliff backed away from her, "I won't push it, but don't ask me to not worry about you, because I know you and you're acting strangely". Frowning at her, his eyes told her he was still trying to figure out exactly what was wrong with her, because she certainly wasn't convincing him that she was in fact fine, even if he was agreeing not to push it. "Now, I really do have to go to Austin, so I'm going to trust that you'll be ok like you say, but when I get back I want you to be my sister again", pointing at her and then back at himself, as if they were connected, he waited for her to nod in agreement, which she did.

"Good, maybe you could invite this Bobby over for dinner when I get back too, you know, so I can see for myself why he makes you so happy", making a genuine suggestion, he smiled at her and she felt obliged to smile back, even if the thought made her stomach lurch. She wasn't doing anything wrong dating Bobby Ewing and acting shiftily about it was doing her no favours, but her usual strong personality seemed to have disappeared and been replaced by a meeker, weaker girl that she just couldn't shake. "Sure, that sounds nice", responding, she smiled as normally as she could, though clearly it wasn't very convincing, because Cliff once again gave her a strange look in response, one she just couldn't wait to get away from. "In fact, maybe I'll go call him now", mumbling another response, she could tell she was only further increasing Cliff's curiosity about her behaviour, though she was quick to make her exit before he could ask her any more questions. She had no intention of calling Bobby right now but any excuse would do to get out of the awkward situation she'd created for herself. Unfortunately, running away from confrontation was only temporary and eventually she knew she'd have to tell Cliff the truth. The truth could wait though, today was not the day to tell all.

To be continued…