JR Ewing sat at the desk in his office going over some paperwork. Even though it was past dinner time by now, he was not in a hurry to get home. Ever since he and his wife Sue Ellen had divorced last year, Southfork just hadn't felt quite the same to him anymore. His son John Ross only lived at Southfork every other weekend now. While it was true that it was also common for him to come for short visits during the week and some holidays as well, JR was still sad that he couldn't be with his son on a regular basis anymore.
But that wasn't the only thing keeping JR at work longer these days. After JR's father, Jock, had died last year it had been made clear in his will that the ownership of his company, Ewing Oil would only be passed on to either JR or his younger brother Bobby through the means of a contest. This meant that whoever managed to raise the most money at Ewing Oil by the end of the year would win and become the company's president. While JR hated the idea of having to fight for something that he believed was already rightfully his, he was grateful that he was at least given the chance to try to win it at all. It was no secret that Bobby had always been his father's favorite son and because of that JR had been constantly worried that Jock would simply hand Ewing Oil over to Bobby in his will out of favoritism.
The battle for Ewing Oil had been going on for months now. Even though JR seemed to be winning so far, he hated how his family was reacting to it. In order to get ahead, JR had not been afraid to use every dirty trick he could think of. The problem was that when word about his schemes and how he made deals got out to other people in the oil community it was usually inevitable that the rest of the Ewing family would hear about it as well. They had never liked JR's way of doing business. They thought that it was dishonest and that it hurt their reputation as well. Nowadays, it seemed to be causing even more arguments at home. It was frustrating for JR. After all this time his family refused to understand that there were some things that had to be done in order to make Ewing Oil successful, even if they were unpleasant.
But what hurt JR the most of all was that his family didn't understand the real reason why it was so important for him to go so far to secure his future position as president of Ewing Oil. JR wanted to someday pass on the company to John Ross. In JR's mind, his son was the only viable option in the next generation of Ewings when it came to running Ewing Oil. His niece, Lucy had never shown any interest in it, and even if she had, it was JR's firm (yet also sexist) belief that it was only right for the company's future owner to be a male. And while it was also true that Bobby and his wife Pamela had a son of their own, not only was Christopher younger than John Ross, but he had also come into the family through an adoption. Even though JR had nothing against Christopher, there was no way that he would let the future of Ewing Oil be handed over to someone who had no Ewing blood whatsoever! He would make sure that he won Ewing Oil so that he could one day pass it on to John Ross, who rightfully deserved his legacy!
Just then, someone knocked on the door to JR's office, interrupting his angry thoughts. "Come in." JR answered.
Bobby practically stomped into the office. Lately it seemed like Bobby was almost always angry. At least when he was around JR, that is. JR didn't understand why. While he was a bit behind JR in the contest, JR didn't see why Bobby had to take that out on him. This was their father's idea, not his. And it wasn't like Bobby didn't have every opportunity at his disposal in order to win. It seemed like plenty of oilmen were always ready to make a deal with him. Even though Bobby was a lot more inexperienced in the oil business than JR, he was known for his honesty and likable personality when it came to business. Right now though, he seemed anything but likable as he glared at JR.
"JR, just how long are you going to stay here!? This is the third time this week that you have missed dinner! At this rate you might as well move a bed into your office and sleep here too since you can barely find the time to actually come home anymore!" Bobby said angrily.
This remark only irritated JR further. "Oh, I am so sorry that I don't find family gatherings to be a very enjoyable experience these days!" JR shot back sarcastically.
It seemed that ever since the contest had begun, family meals and cocktail hour had turned into a sort of daily torture for JR. It seemed like everybody took it as a chance to complain and yell at him about whatever he was doing at work. Nowadays, it wasn't even uncommon for Bobby to try to resort to using actual physical violence against JR when he got too angry. While JR knew that his own mouth also didn't help the arguments, he still hated how meal times had turned into "pick on JR hour".
"Bobby if you just came in here to lecture me about my schedule then I suggest you leave. Because unlike you I am actually taking our contest quite seriously!" JR said.
The look on Bobby's face then changed to sadness. He then replied to JR. "Well, if you had managed to take anything else seriously then perhaps you would've noticed what is actually going on in the world for a moment."
"And what is that supposed to mean!?" JR asked in irritation.
"Rebecca Wentworth died today." Bobby answered solemnly.
"What!?" JR couldn't believe it. Rebecca had been fine just yesterday and JR didn't think that she had been suffering from any serious health problems.
"How did this happen!?" JR questioned Bobby in confusion.
"Her plane crashed when she was flying to Houston in order to help Cliff buy an oil refinery. More specifically, a refinery that you intended to buy!" Bobby explained.
JR silently groaned in frustration after hearing Bobby's explanation. Of course Rebecca would have it in her head that she would need to do this in order to help her dim-witted son, Cliff, get his hands on something that she thought would help her to further her ridiculous quest for revenge against JR.
Just last year, Cliff had attempted suicide after JR's scheme to make him hit rock-bottom had succeeded. Cliff had embezzled money from the company Rebecca had given him, Wentworth Tool and Dye, in order to continue drilling for oil on a site that had turned out to be completely dry. He hadn't known that the land had actually been a "gift" from JR! Ever since then, Rebecca had made it her mission to do what she could to get back at JR.
If only Pamela, who was also Rebecca's daughter, hadn't tracked her mother down and brought her back to Dallas after finding out that she had faked her own death years ago! Then none of this would've happened! JR was irritated that Bobby was trying to blame him for this mess.
"Anyway, I just thought that you should know about that. I'm going to head home now. Pam needs me now more than ever and I'm exhausted after bringing Katherine back from the airport." Bobby said.
JR looked up in surprise at the last thing that Bobby had said. "Katherine? She's here?" JR asked.
"Yes, she flew in from New York today and she's staying at Southfork until the funeral's over." Bobby answered him.
Katherine was Rebecca's daughter from her second marriage when she had lived in Houston after leaving her old life and children behind. Katherine's father, Herbert Wentworth, was the owner of the impossibly huge Wentworth Industries (to which Wentworth Tool and Dye was only a small part of). He had died about a little over a year ago.
Even though JR had only spoken with Katherine a few times last year, he thought that she had seemed nice enough. She had been upset that her mother had simply handed over Wentworth Tool and Dye to Cliff. JR was completely sympathetic to Katherine's anger at this. After all, Katherine was her father's only child and since he was the company's founder, not his wife, it only seemed fair that she should've been the one to inherit it. JR was pretty sure that if Herbert had known that Rebecca had already had two children (from two different men as well!) than he wouldn't have simply signed ownership of everything Wentworth over to her in his will!
Katherine had asked for JR's help in getting Cliff out of the company because she knew that he could do it and that he would because it was also in his best interest as well. JR had to admire that.
It also didn't hurt that Katherine was, in JR's opinion, quite beautiful. Back then she had not even responded to JR's compliments at all, though. Usually JR would've tried a lot harder to get a woman in bed with him, but he could somehow tell that Katherine wasn't going to give him that no matter what. Even though JR had been disappointed about that, he did respect Katherine for it. It was usually all too easy for him to get a woman to give him what he wanted.
Now Katherine, who had been nice to JR and had never done anything to hurt him, had now lost both of her parents, pretty much one right after the other. She did not deserve this. JR realized that for the first time in a long while, he actually felt sorry for someone. No, not just that. He felt guilty about this! JR couldn't help believing that Bobby was right. He really hadn't been paying attention to things and now he had caused a tragedy.
Author's note: Hi everybody! This is my first story ever, so if anything with the overall grammar or punctuation looks weird, that is probably why! I wanted to write a story about Katherine because I have barely seen any stories about her, and usually when she is in a story, she is usually either continuing to stalk Bobby, kidnap Pam, or kill a bunch of people! No offense to anyone who wrote those stories, but I can't even begin to talk about how tired I am of that! So I decided to write this to make her do something different. I made this a Katherine/JR pairing because I believe that they have a lot in common and because I like the idea of them as couple. I will try to update this weekly. So if anyone can tell me what they think of this story, I would greatly appreciate it! Reviews are welcome and feel free to PM me if you have any questions or anything!