J.R. furiously plucked another tissue from the box and passed it to his wife as the tears continued to stream down her cheek. It was a sight J.R. had become strangely accustomed to in her condition. Her nature had become irrational, unpredictable even, and J.R. had little power to predict her reaction to any blasé comment. "Sue Ellen, honey, I'm sorry -"
"Don't you dare say you didn't mean it, J.R.," she wiped away the tears, sniffling noisily.
"Well, I didn't mean it like that," he protested, his voice strained with frustration. A throaty sob convinced J.R. to reel himself in. It had required a full half-hour to probe her from the locked bathroom and he didn't intend to chase her back there. "All women are liable to put on a few pounds in your condition, darlin'." Needless to say, his compliment on her 'fuller shape' had been received with absolute horror. As if she weren't already sensitive enough, the baby behaved as a demon possession inside of her. "It didn't seem to bother you when you were pregnant with John Ross."
"How would you know?" Sue Ellen snarled, scrunching the tissue and tossing it aside. "You were never there! Too busy with your whores." Her voice cracked, reminded of their previous failure and she shook her head, "I need it to be different this time around, J.R., I thought you understood that."
"I did. I - I do," he corrected himself, with an unnoticed scowl. "Have I not been there for you?" Every bout of sickness she experienced, he had held her hair back and poured endless cups of tea. Every doctor's appointment, he had cleared his schedule for. Every tear she shed, he had wiped away and cracked a one-liner to replace her sadness with an infectious smile. "I've kept my promise, sweetheart."
A whimper escaped her throat and Sue Ellen nodded her head, ashamedly. "I know you have, I'm over-emotional, that's all." She couldn't recall the last rational conversation she and J.R. had shared and she was convinced it was because they were alone. "J.R., I miss Southfork." He involuntarily rolled his eyes and spun on his heels, reluctant to discuss their family back in Dallas. "I miss them more than I ever thought possible. John Ross misses them too." How many times she had discovered her son babbling the word 'Grandma' into his toy phone and his innate despair when she didn't reply had broken Sue Ellen's heart. "I thought we'd have gone home by now. We've been here three months, J.R., in another six, we'll have a baby. Do you know how much it would hurt your mother and father if they didn't hold their grand-baby on the day he or she is born? Don't you miss them at all?"
"Of course I miss them," his expression hardened. "But daddy made his loyalty to Bobby real clear."
"So you've left Southfork, never to return?" Sue Ellen held a look of defiance, "I didn't take you for a coward, J.R.. Maybe your daddy wants you to fight."
"I am," he retorted. "By the end of the week, Campbell Energies will be under my control and renamed Ewing Energies. My daddy taught me the oil business, the same age he taught Gary and Bobby how to walk and talk."
"Where exactly do you intend to run this company from?" Sue Ellen asked, curious how J.R. hoped to out-manoeuvre his father in a business he had known for decades.
"Here in Alaska, for a few months at least. Some of their best profits are made here, and it'll give dad the chance to sweat it out, worry about the company my little brother's runnin' into the ground. Bobby's too moral to run Ewing Oil. People don't fear him," J.R. brushed away the damp mascara stain from beneath her eye. "They'll never respect him."
It all sounded too much a perfect fit. "J.R., promise me we'll be home before the baby's born. It's the only home you've ever known, I want our baby to be able to say the same. I don't want this ridiculous competition between you and Bobby to be the reason our children feel like outcasts at Southfork." Sue Ellen had witnessed first-hand how cruelly Jock had disregarded his second eldest son, Gary, and Lucy had been in danger of the same treatment if Miss Ellie had not stepped in.
"I promise, darlin'!"
"Thank you," she exhaled, relieved. "Ewing Energies? That has quite a ring to it."
"Doesn't it?" Ecstatic at her approval, he chuckled. The future was unlimited for his company and he highly anticipated the day the word Global would replace Energies after a few years of success. How ironic, it had taken his removal from Ewing Oil to finally prove his potential. "Say, what d'you say we celebrate tonight?"
"What did you have in mind?" Sue Ellen checked, not fully prepared to reveal herself to the outside world with no make-up on, nor any appropriate clothes.
"Well, the baby's asleep. He won't disturb us and I happened to stop by the video-store on my way home." He revealed Casablanca from his briefcase and Sue Ellen's eyes shone. "I know it's your favourite and it's been some years since we sat down to watch it together."
They positioned themselves in front of the television and curled their bodies into one as they silently watched the movie. Almost an hour passed, before J.R.'s arm became numb under the weight of Sue Ellen's body. He shifted, which only provoked further torture of the pins and needles, and he winced. Soft snores indicated Sue Ellen had long fallen into a deep slumber. The credits soon rolled and J.R. supported his head with his hands, his mood sullen with boredom. The only thing to dim his annoyance was Sue Ellen's beauty in her sleepy state. Unlike the disastrous first time she was pregnant, she possessed a radiance about her and looked barely a couple years older than the day he crowned her Miss Texas. Since then, somehow, their lives had fallen from grace and the whole of Dallas had been their audience. He couldn't deny the humiliation his infidelities had forced upon her but Sue Ellen had worn the mark with elegance - the first time, the second time and every other time, until her exterior cracked and the internal damage became painfully obvious. She couldn't stand much more. It cemented his resolve to be different, be better.