Tyler, Texas

Sitting outside on her patio, Jenna stirred a sugar cube into her coffee as she listened to Sue Ellen talking, telling her all about what had been happening in her life recently. She hadn't been avoiding Dallas, she still enjoyed making the trip a few times a week to explore her old home town, however, after bumping into Bobby while visiting Sue Ellen at home, receiving a grumpy greeting and a tired, annoyed response when she asked about Pam's whereabouts, she'd dialled back her visits for a little while. Ordinarily, hearing about Pam being out-of-town on business would have been just the invitation she needed to offer to keep Bobby company in the meantime, especially since she was in the same position with Richard travelling almost constantly at present, however, with Sue Ellen being a bit under the weather she'd refrained from causing any further upset in the family. Considering that, when the question of whether she'd be coming to John Ross' birthday party was asked, she felt she needed to check, "are you sure I'll be welcome at the party?"

"You're an invited guest, of course you're welcome", answering the question as it pertained to her, Sue Ellen didn't appear to consider the rest of the family at all.

"I didn't mean were you comfortable with it", having no doubt that if Sue Ellen didn't like her, she wouldn't have invited her, she was more concerned about whether everyone else would accept her attending a family event. She wasn't shy, she didn't mind a little bit of talk, but she was conscious of the fact that her attendance would be the first time a lot of the guests had seen her socially in years and she did have some sense of decorum, it wasn't her day.

Shaking her head, Sue Ellen brushed off her concerns, "it's fine, I ran my list past Miss Ellie when we were planning the party and she did ask a few questions, but she seemed more surprised than upset by our friendship".

"She seemed upset at the hospital", thinking back, Miss Ellie hadn't been the only one to look at her strangely at the hospital, but to their credit, no one had asked her what she was doing there or accused her of interfering, not even Pam, the Ewing who liked her the least.

"Are you sure that was because of you?" asking her to reconsider the way she was remembering things, Sue Ellen sounded doubtful that Miss Ellie had been upset about anything other than the present issue when she'd been at the hospital.

"No, I expect it was because we didn't know whether you would be ok or not. At that time I felt about as guilty as they probably thought I was", admitting that she knew no one had laid blame on her specifically, she left it open-ended as to whether politeness was all that had stopped the words being said.

To be quite honest, she wasn't all that worried anymore about what the family had thought about her involvement in Sue Ellen's hospitalisation was, it hadn't been her fault and Sue Ellen had recovered just fine, so she was free to move on from the incident without guilt. The only reason they were even discussing it now was because of her hesitation to attend a Ewing family event without first clearing it with the family themselves.

"I don't think anyone thought you were guilty of anything. What happened to me was an accident. Miss Ellie doesn't hold grudges either. You left Bobby, but he's married to Pam now and they're about to have a family of their own, I don't think anyone is that concerned about whether you're there or not". Absolving her of any responsibility, Sue Ellen reassured her that she didn't see any problem with her attending, though all of the kind things she said were eclipsed by the surprise she felt at hearing a brief mention of her ex-fiancé and his new wife.

"A family? Is Pam pregnant?" asking the question, she knew what she wanted the answer to be but she wasn't at all confident that she was going to get what she wanted this time.

"I'm sorry, it's not public knowledge yet but I thought you knew", nodding yes, Sue Ellen also verbally confirmed the news.

"No, I didn't", admitting she'd been completely oblivious to the developments in the Ewing family, she was sure her tone of voice gave away how surprised she was. It wasn't fair to have expected Bobby to put his life on hold for her after she left him, she certainly hadn't stopped moving forward herself; luckily no one had ever looked at her as an example of someone who valued fairness above all else, so her sulking because things hadn't gone her way wasn't particularly out of character.

"Oh, well, she is", confirming the news again, Sue Ellen didn't add any further details to the story, either for the benefit of her emotions, because she'd been asked to, or because she didn't know much more.

"How do you feel about that?" uncomfortable having the attention on her for once and finding it hard to believe Sue Ellen was taking the news as well as she'd sounded delivering it considering they'd just been discussing her miscarriage, she changed the subject slightly, moving away from her personal feelings onto Sue Ellen's personal feelings.

"I'm happy for them, now", saying very few words, what Sue Ellen did say was telling; she wasn't the only one disappointed by the news, but they likely had very different reasons for feeling the way they did.

"Now?" assuming that timing had a lot to do with Sue Ellen's feelings, because she never got the impression Sue Ellen disliked Pam herself, she asked anyway, just in case her assessment was wrong.

"Oh you know, at first it was just about the most upsetting thing anyone could have told me, but that was just because it was so soon after my own loss. I'm feeling better now and I'm happy for them", confirming that timing was exactly why she felt the way she did, Sue Ellen also confirmed that she was the better person of the two of them because she could actually honestly say she was happy about the news.

"I understand", agreeing with the assessment that it was upsetting news rather than that she was happy for Bobby and Pam, she responded only briefly, leaving her comment up to interpretation.

Apparently easy to read, Sue Ellen was quick to question her feelings, asking, "are you ok? Because it's understandable if you're not".

Smiling politely, she sidestepped the question, answering simply, "Bobby always wanted children and I only sort of gave him one, now he has the real thing". There was little point in making a fuss about the news now, Bobby wasn't her man anymore and Pam was already pregnant; her tenuous connection to him through Charlie was not the same as him having his own biological child and she wasn't desperate enough to try and make it matter the same way.

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that", interpreting her words to mean she was happy for Bobby having a child of his own, Sue Ellen's comments were inaccurate, though they did give her an idea.

"I'll be sure to tell him", smiling politely, she vowed to do just that. She hadn't returned to Dallas for Bobby and she didn't need his attention or money to function, but she did enjoy interacting with him and making sure he knew she knew the news was just the excuse she needed to interact with him again.

To be continued…