Houston, Texas

Reading over the permission slip she'd left sitting on his desk, Herbert Wentworth looked up at her, asking, "Dallas again? Tell me sweetheart, what's in Dallas?" as she entered the home office with a tray of tea.

The question was simple but the answer was a little more complicated. Her mother was refusing to answer any of her questions and she couldn't go to her father with no evidence of what she suspected. JR Ewing was supposed to be helping her with gathering that evidence, but three and a half weeks following their discussion she'd yet to hear from him. It was possible that her mother's history wasn't easy to follow, she'd had a difficult time of it herself, but she hadn't heard anything and even if just to be told that there was no news, she needed to see JR again.

Setting the tray down on her father's large, wooden desk, she answered his enquiry innocently, "SMU."

Nodding, her father didn't appear to suspect that she had an ulterior motive, but that didn't mean he didn't question the decisions she was making. "I got the impression you thought SMU was just fine but no finalist."

"I do."

"Then why are you planning to go back again?"

Knowing her well, he didn't appear to believe that she had any interest in SMU, which was correct, so his confusion as to why she'd want to take a day out of class to tour the campus again was perfectly valid. He had no real reason to believe she was being deceptive by telling him one thing and actually wanting another, because she wasn't known to be deceptive, she rarely needed to be, she could usually just get what she wanted by asking for it, unfortunately, this situation was a little more complicated.

Pouring their tea, she answered him, technically telling him the truth, but not in the context he'd asked for it in, "I just need to be sure, I need to get Dallas out of my mind."

Listening, her father didn't hesitate to give her his thoughts on the subject. "I think that's a good idea. You've always spoken so excitedly about going out-of-state for college but if you're having second thoughts about that and want to stay here in Texas I'd say UT Austin or Rice are more appropriate for you than SMU."

"You're right, I do want to go out-of-state, but there's just something about Dallas, I need to go back to be sure." Her college plans had been in the works for years and her thoughts hadn't wavered. She'd always loved the northeast and saw herself slotting in nicely to campus life there. Texas was her home and she'd always love Houston but she had bigger plans for her life than to stay local, plans that she had to pretend she was hesitant about in order to justify her upcoming travel.

Smiling, seemingly convinced by her argument, he uncapped his pen and signed his looping signature on the dotted line. "If that's what you need to do then I don't have a problem with it."

Moving to the side of the desk, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, "thank you daddy."

Patting her hand the way he'd done her entire life, he let her know that everything was just fine between them, even going as far as to returning to the subject she'd raised earlier. "I might have been a bit harsh, I do like Dallas as a city; you know it's where Wentworth Industries started."

Returning to her side of the desk, she sat down, taking the teacup he offered her. "How could I forget?"

"Remember when you were young? I'd take you in to the office and you'd play president for the day." Reminiscing about the past, her father's smile reinforced what she knew to be true; her mother's history was complicated, but her own was simple, she was a Wentworth and that was special.

"I do." Remembering her childhood fondly, she briefly wondered how her mother saw things. She was an only child as far as her parents were concerned, but technically, she wasn't. She didn't have confirmation but she didn't think her suspicions were wrong either; Cliff and Pamela were her siblings, her mother's other children, however she was the only one that her mother acknowledged as her kin. She knew very little of Cliff or Pamela or the lives they'd lived, but she knew that however they'd been raised they'd missed out on having their mother around and she hadn't, which put her in a privileged position, one she couldn't even begin to understand. How could her mother justify giving her so much time and attention but Cliff and Pam so little?

"Where did that time go? Here we are talking about colleges."

Empathising with her father, she made a suggestion she knew he'd appreciate. "We could go again."

She was unlikely to play president of Wentworth Industries when she visited the office this time but she genuinely did enjoy spending time with him, and she felt very comfortable with the position she already held, daughter of the president of Wentworth Industries.

"I'd like that", delighted with her suggestion, he followed up his comment with one that was a little bittersweet, "it'll be all yours one day."

"Not until… I don't want to think about it being mine yet."

She knew she was set to inherit everything, she was the Wentworth heir, her father's only child, but to be in the position for that to happen she'd have to lose him, which wasn't a pleasant thought.

Looking sympathetic, he reassured her that death wasn't the only option. "I do plan on retiring at some point."

A little relieved, she still didn't like to think about him being gone. "Let's not rush our lives."

Her father likely had another decade or two before he retired and hopefully several decades before he left her completely, but it felt like bad luck to start talking about it so soon.

"You're very wise. Let's set aside talk of the distant future and you can tell me all about the present. How does that sound?"

Making a suggestion, he brought his teacup to his lips and waited for her to proceed with what they'd come together for in the first place, their Sunday afternoon catch-up, a conversation in which she usually took centre stage.

"Better", saying it, she meant it. She did feel better. There was a lot she couldn't tell him about the present, she needed to have all the information before she did that, but that wasn't the only thing she had going on in her life and there was a lot she had to tell him.

To be continued…