I don't own any of the characters in this story and no copyright infringement is intended..
This is a "What if?" fanfic. What if in the season eleven episode "Top Gun" Sue Ellen had changed her mind at the last possible moment and instead of teaming up with Kimberly and Wendell to beat JR she voted her Weststar shares to make him CEO?
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What If
Part 17
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"JR?" Sue Ellen called to him softly.
"You finished talking to Harv?" he asked without turning away from the window.
"Yes, he's gone."
JR nodded. "Ray really has a beautiful place," he said, gazing out at the landscape. "No wonder the boys love it here so much."
Sue Ellen moved across the room until she was standing directly behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. "I just talked to my attorney. I instructed him to drop the divorce "
She felt his whole body relax against her. "Are you sure that's what you want, Sue Ellen?"
"Absolutely sure, JR. But.. "
She felt him tense again. "But what?"
She lifted her head and placed a soft kiss on the back of his neck. "But I won't let you sell your stock in Weststar and I won't let you hand over twenty percent of Ewing Oil to a trust for John Ross. I love you, JR. The oil business is a part of you. I can't let you give it up for me."
"I want to, Sue Ellen," he protested. "I NEED to."
"JR, no. I know you're trying to save our marriage, but if you walk away, you'll end up resenting me because of it. It will only cause us more problems down the road."
JR turned to face her. She put her hands on his shoulders and leaned against him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him. They stayed like that for a long time, quietly hugging and taking comfort from one another.
"Sue Ellen," JR reluctantly let her go and walked over to sit on the couch. "Do you remember when I told you that the last time you took me back was the happiest time in my life before I screwed everything up with Kimberly?"
"Yes," she answered, moving to sit close beside him.
"That was true when I said it. But it's not true anymore."
"JR...I don't understand…"
"The past few days, since we've been here, Sue Ellen - this is the happiest I've ever been. I know it sounds crazy, with all the fear and the stress and the chaos, but it's true. Being here with you. You trusting me to protect you. Spending time playing with our boys. Drinking beer on the patio every night with my brothers. Having dinner together as a family. Making love to you every single night. Waking up with you in my arms. Sue Ellen, I can't explain it, but I feel completely full of happiness."
"It has been wonderful, JR," Sue Ellen agreed. "But we're wrapped in a tight little bubble. We can't stay like this forever. Eventually we'll have to go back to reality."
"Why can't this be our reality, Sue Ellen?" JR asked her. "We're not getting any younger. You don't seem to be in a hurry to get back to work. You love being at home with the boys. Hell, Ray has even taught you how to cook a few things without giving us all food poisoning."
Sue Ellen laughed and moved even closer to him. He gathered her in his arms and pulled her head down to rest on his chest."I'm a scoundrel, Sue Ellen," he sighed. "I never cheated on you because I really wanted other women. I cheated because of the power. I lie and scheme because of power. I don't want to go back to that world, not if it costs me my family."
"JR…" Sue Ellen wanted to choose her words carefully. "The fact that you are willing to give it all up for us saved our marriage. The time here at Ray's has been incredible...but…JR, this just isn't who we are. You'll miss it, honestly so will I. If…"
"If what, Sue Ellen," JR prodded.
"If you and I could work together. If you could just learn to come to me, to share with me. I could have helped you get Ewing Oil back from Weststar, but it never even occurred to you to come to me. You just went full steam ahead seducing Kimberly and wrecking our lives. We can do this, JR, but you have to try. You have to value me enough to let me help you."
"Sue Ellen, I'm my father's son. He was a scoundrel too. Oh, Mama doesn't know I know, but I saw it with my own eyes. Then one day, before you and I even met, Mama finally snapped. Faced with losing his family, Daddy finally calmed down and became a real family man. I can do the same, Sue Ellen. I can do it for you and for the boys. I can do it for myself."
"Even your father stayed on at Ewing Oil, JR," Sue Ellen reminded him. "It can be done."
"My daddy was a better man than I am, honey. I can't risk it. The business will consume me if I don't walk away. I will miss it. Badly. But when that happens I'll just make love to my beautiful wife and remind myself that giving it up was worth it."
"No, JR, you'll look at me and hate me because you had to give it up to keep me. You know, I'm not the girl you married anymore. I have had major success in business. It's true that I don't know a lot about the oil business, but I didn't know anything about the lingerie business when I bought Valentine. I can learn, JR. You can teach me. We can at least try. I know you're serious about saving our marriage. What you're offering to do fills me with joy and hope. But we have to be realistic. If you walk away from the Oil business for me, it will never work."
JR was quiet for a long while as he considered her words. "Running Weststar doesn't make me as happy as I thought it would," he said finally. "It's the chase that excited me. Once I get what I want, I lose interest."
"Oh, how well I know that," Sue Ellen sighed sadly.
"Now listen, Miss Texas," JR growled, "I have never once, not in all these years lost interest in you. Many nights when I was romancing Kimberly and pushing you to Pearce, it was so hard for me not to come barging into you bedroom, beg you for forgiveness, and make love to you."
"Why didn't you?"
"You wouldn't have had me," he sighed, "and I always comforted myself by believing I would make it up to you and have you back once I got Weststar."
"I would have had you," Sue Ellen said softly. "As angry as I was, as much as I tried to hate you, if you had come to me and told me the truth...I would have forgiven you. I have an addiction to you, JR. Alcohol had always been a poor substitute for my real drug of choice."
JR's eyes narrowed and grew dark. "Do you remember, oh years ago, I was with Mandy. I'd convinced myself I actually cared for that woman. You called me to your room. You seduced me,made me want you so desperately, then threw me out in the cold. You told me you wanted me to remember how you felt, how good it was because I was never going to have you again. After that night, I knew it was over with Mandy. I wanted you so much I was in physical pain. No other woman has ever made me feel that way. No other woman can make me want her with just a look, just a smile, just the smell of her perfume when she walks into a room. You're my drug too, Sue Ellen." He lowered his head and captured her lips in a soft, searching kiss. "We'll figure it all out, Miss Texas. Just stay with me and we'll figure it all out."
"But, JR…" she sat up and chewed distractedly on her bottom lip.
"What is it, honey?"
"I...I'm getting older. I won't be so beautiful for many more years. What if you lose interest in me?"
JR laughed and pulled her back into his arms. "You are more beautiful today than you were the first night I laid eyes on you. In twenty years, you'll be more beautiful than you are today. Sue Ellen, you can still turn the head of every man that meets you, but my love for you is what makes you so irresistible to me. That won't ever change."
"How can you be sure, JR?" her voice was full of uncertainty.
"Same way you can be sure you'll always want me, Sue Ellen," JR said softly. "There is something between us; magic chemistry, whatever you want to call it. Always has been. Always will be."
"Yes, but what if you…'
Her words were lost when he dipped his head and claimed her lips in a passionate, soul shattering kiss. She wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back, pressing herself so tightly against him that it actually hurt.
"Ewwwwwwwww!"
JR and Sue Ellen separated and jumped apart as if they'd been burned. Sue Ellen blushed deeply and hid her face in her hands.
"That's gross, Uncle JR!"
JR burst out laughing. "Sorry Christopher. Your Aunt Sue Ellen is so pretty that sometimes I just can't control myself."
"Try harder, Daddy," John Ross tried to sound annoyed but he was grinning from ear to ear. "Nobody wants to see that."
JR laughed again, then frowned when a pungent smell drifted across the room to his nostrils, "You boys smell like horses." he groaned.
"Uncle JR's right," Bobby said, waving his arms at the two boys. "You two go get cleaned up for dinner."
"What are we having tonight?" Christopher asked.
"Tonight I am going to teach Aunt Sue Ellen how to make spaghetti and meatballs!" Ray laughed. "You boys get cleaned up good. I don't want my kitchen smelling like a horse!"
Both boys laughed. "Come of Christopher," John Ross said happily, "I'll race you up the stairs!"
"So," Ray said with a mischievous grin after the boys were safely up the stairs, "I guess the divorce is off?'
Sue Ellen groaned and flushed even redder.
"Yes," JR laughed. "Thank God for that."
"I'm really happy for you guys," Bobby said, taking a seat in a recliner across from the couch. "There's some things we need to talk about though. The reporter I met with today has a copy of Christopher's original birth certificate and somehow got his hands on the sealed court records of Lisa's custody suit. He's determined to print it all."
"Oh, no, Bobby!" Sue Ellen gasped. "We can't allow that!"
"Harv and I are going to see his publisher tomorrow," Bobby told her. "Also, Cliff and McSween just landed. They should be here in about an hour."
"Alright," JR said, his voice heavy with thought. "It's time for us to get serious about finding out who is behind all this. You'll never convince me it's all unrelated, no matter what Harry says."
"Agreed," Bobby nodded. "We've sat back and played defense long enough. Time for the Ewings to take back control of our lives."
***
"I don't understand," Clayton barked into the phone. "Are you telling me my son is back in Texas?"
"The cowboy that works for the horse breeder you deal with told me the last time he talked to Dusty that was the plan. Seems your son was looking for a woman in California and found out she was back in Dallas," the investigator told him.
"What woman in California?"
"Don't know. The cowboy never got a name. But I'm showing Dusty's picture around at hotels and bus stations. Eventually I'll run into someone who's seen him."
"Keep me posted," Clayton instructed him and hung up the phone. It didn't make any sense. Why would Dusty travel all the way to California to find some woman then follow her back to Dallas? Clayton didn't even think Dusty knew anyone in California.
"Where are you, son?" Clayton muttered. "And what are you up to?"
***
"I still think we should tell," John Ross said thoughtfully. "We could tell Mama. She could go with us."
"No!" Christopher stomped his foot. "You read the note. Mommy says they won't let me see her!"
"Our daddys yeah, but Aunt Pam trusts Mama. She'd probably be happy to see her."
"Please John Ross," Christopher begged, "this might be the only way I'll ever get to see my mommy again. We have to go by ourselves."
"I don't know. What if the note isn't even from Aunt Pam?"
"It is!" Christopher insisted. "I know it is!"
"Okay, Christopher, but you have to promise me we'll be careful. If it's not Aunt Pam or if anything looks wrong, we'll come straight back to the house, okay? You have to promise."
"I promise!" Christopher smiled and hugged his cousin. "I can't wait to see my mommy again!"
***
"I believe her," Cliff said sadly. "I don't want to, but I do."
"It actually makes sense, Cliff," Bobby sighed. "I don't know why Pam is so determined to cut us all out of her life, we'll probably never know. But if she really needed help accessing her money, she wouldn't come to us."
"Maybe. But Katherine?"
"Everything Katherine said checked out," McSween told them. "There's no reason to doubt one word or her story."
"Pam's motives aside, that means Katherine isn't involved in anything going on here," JR said.
"I agree," McSween said. "JR we were finally able to get some information on the guy who had the explosive device on the rig. We have his phone records. He made a lot of calls to a diner just outside Dallas. Going there tomorrow to talk to the owners and employees."
"Good," JR replied. "And find out who could have had access to the sealed records in Christopher's custody case."
"Already on it, JR. And I want to go back and talk to that Winger woman again. She's the only suspect without an alibi for the night of the shooting at Southfork."
JR felt Sue Ellen's body stiffen. They were sitting together on the couch in Ray's living room. He moved closer to her and placed a soft, reassuring kiss on the top of her head. "Alright, Harry. That might not be a bad idea."
"Is there anything else any of you can think of that I need to look into?" McSween asked.
"No, I think we've exhausted our list of suspects, Harry."
"Alright," McSween said, standing up. "Please give me a call if anyone thinks of anything."
"I'll walk you to your car," Bobby said, standing up to lead McSween from the room.
"It could be anyone you know," Cliff muttered. "All the enemies you guys have - hell I'd be a suspect if I wasn't sitting right here."
"You'd never be a suspect," JR shot back, "you're not smart enough to pull something like this off."
"JR!" Sue Ellen admonished him by lightly slapping his leg. "Cliff, Ray and I are making a huge pot of spaghetti for dinner. Would you like to stay and eat with us?"
"Well," Cliff looked at JR with uncertainty, "I'm pretty hungry. And I'd love to see Christopher."
"Don't look at me," JR shrugged, "if my beautiful wife invited you, then you're invited."
"Great. Thanks," Cliff smiled. "Hey, mind if I use the phone? I'd like to call April and let her know I got back to Dallas okay."
"Of course, you can use the one in the study," Sue Ellen said, getting up and showing him the way. "Invite her for dinner too, if you'd like."
JR waited until Cliff was safely behind the closed study door then shot up off the couch and quickly moved stand in front of his wife. "I don't think Mandy did this," he told her. "But if she did, I want you to know I'll strangle her with my bare hands."
"Will you?" Sue Ellen asked softly, leaning into him. She stood on her tip toes and placed a soft, feathery kiss behind his ear.
"Sue Ellen…" JR shuddered and reached for her. He pulled her roughly against his body, "I want to take you upstairs."
"Mmmmm hmmmmm," Sue Ellen teased him. "You have to wait. Let me go, JR. We've already been caught making out once today."
JR reluctantly loosened his hold on her. "This better be a short dinner," he grumbled.
"The wait will only heighten the anticipation, JR," Sue Ellen laughed. "But don't worry, I promise I'll find a much more pleasant use for your bare hands than strangling Mandy Winger." She kissed hotly, full on the mouth then quickly backed away before he had time to react. She winked at him and walked away toward the kitchen.
"Oh, I know you will,Miss Texas," JR grinned. "And I can't wait."
***
