Katherine angrily slammed the dresser drawer shut. She had been organizing and putting her things away in this fashion for at least ten minutes now.
Katherine had only been at the Fairview hotel for one night and half a day now, and she was already sick of it. This place was supposed to be a luxurious hotel, and yet the food Katherine had ordered last night had more closely resembled burnt rubber than an actual gourmet meal. For reasons that Katherine could not possibly fathom, the designers of the rooms seemed to have thought that it would be a great idea to place the bedroom area right next to the door leading to the hallway. She had gotten quite tired of listening to about fifty pairs of feet clomping through the hall all night while she was trying to sleep. To make matters worse, Katherine had been forced to listen to Christopher while he had wailed his head off practically all night long from Pam's suite next door. Luckily though, Katherine wouldn't have to stay here much longer. She had already made an appointment with a realtor to look at three different houses tomorrow. With any luck, she would be on her way to peace and quiet soon.
What Katherine couldn't understand was why Pam was here at all. She was married to the most loving, understanding, and overall perfect man in the world. Pam had told Katherine that she just needed some time away from Bobby in order to think about things. She had even went so far as to say that the whole contest for Ewing Oil had somehow changed Bobby. This was ridiculous to Katherine. Ever since she had come back, Bobby had still been the same gentle and caring man that she had met last year. It was true that he spent a lot more time at the office now. But didn't Pam realize that it was only because of the contest? Once that was all over with, Bobby's schedule would return to normal again. After all, Katherine didn't think that it was very likely that Bobby would win against JR and become the new company president. It made Katherine so mad that Pam was just taking Bobby for granted like this. Didn't she realize just how lucky she was at all!?
But the overall frustration that Katherine was feeling about this whole situation wasn't even the worst part of it for her. Ever since she had heard about Pam leaving, Katherine hadn't been able to stop herself from stupidly hoping that this separation might turn out to be permanent. She had already been indulging herself in ridiculous fantasies about Bobby divorcing Pam and eventually marrying her instead. Katherine knew that it was completely idiotic, and that she was only torturing herself with these unrealistic ideas.
The most difficult problem of all so far had reared it's ugly head just two hours earlier today. Katherine had been dreading the reading of Rebecca's will more than anything else today. She had been terrified that her mother would have left everything with the name Wentworth entirely to Cliff. She had even actually had a nightmare about it last night. As it turned out, that hadn't happened. But what had happened was still pretty awful.
Rebecca had left separate trust funds for Pam, Cliff, and Katherine. Katherine thought that this was a pretty normal thing to do and didn't really have a problem with it. While it was true that Rebecca had mostly gotten that money from her husband, Katherine had decided that she could still live with that. After all, Pam and Cliff were Rebecca's children, too. As far as Katherine could see, money could always be made either way. It wasn't the same thing as having ownership of an actual company.
There had also been a trust fund provided for Christopher, as well as any future grandchildren, should they happen to be born. To Katherine, there were some things about this that bothered her. She didn't have any problems with Christopher receiving any money. But the sad part about this situation was that he would probably end up being the only grandchild, ever. Pam wasn't able to give birth to any children of her own. Cliff was a carrier of a rare genetic disease that made it too risky for him to try to attempt to have a family of his own. He had inherited it from his father, and it was a miracle that he had even survived himself. Rebecca had lost two children of her own to the disease while she had been with Cliff's father. And Katherine? Katherine was the only one of the three who could safely produce a true genetic heir. But thanks to her horrible luck with men, she didn't see how this could ever happen. Even if by some miracle, Katherine managed to have a chance at a life with Bobby, for some reason she just couldn't picture herself ever having children with him. Katherine didn't have much hope about meeting another Mr. Right, either. But the harsh reality of this situation was that if Katherine never had a child of her own, there would be no one left to continue the Wentworth family line. It was something that she tried not to think about too often.
Still, when it came to the monetary assets included in the will, all of this was still bearable. What had enraged Katherine was the fact that her mother had chosen to leave a handsome sum of money to Cliff's little money-grubbing, live-in girlfriend, Afton Cooper. How could she have done this!? Cliff and Afton weren't even married! How could Rebecca have not seen that this had probably been the outcome that Afton had been hoping for in exchange for her putting up with Cliff and fooling people into believing that she actually loved him!? And now, Afton was free to leave Cliff after collecting this nice little payout! Katherine knew that her father would have been appalled if he had known that Rebecca had spent his money on something like this! It just felt so horribly wrong to Katherine.
The oil company that Rebecca had purchased for Cliff, Barnes-Wentworth, would still belong to him. This didn't really mean anything to Katherine. Barnes-Wentworth had nothing to do with what her father had owned. The only problem that it might present was that Cliff would probably end up trying to use it as weapon against the Ewings. But it wasn't like Cliff could actually do anything to hurt them, anyway.
For Katherine, the worst problems with the will had to do with Wentworth Industries and Wentworth Tool and Dye. Wentworth Industries would still be run by it's board of directors. Katherine was glad that Rebecca had at least honored that particular wish of Herbert's. After all, Wentworth Industries was simply too big for any one person to run by themselves.
The company's voting shares and income were now split evenly between Katherine and Pam. Katherine was thankful that Rebecca had at least been smart enough to not include Cliff in this part of the will. Even though the board of directors were the ones who managed things, family members still owned the actual shares so that they would be the ones who would have control over any major decisions about the company itself. This meant that Katherine would have to make trips to Wentworth Industries' headquarters in Houston to attend their board meetings. With Pam. Katherine did not understand why her mother had set things up this way. Katherine was the one who had studied and learned about the company for years, not Pam! Pam had no experience with the tool and dye business whatsoever. In fact, Pam had spent a good portion of last year living in a mental institution! From what Katherine had heard, Pam had been there because she had been depressed about not being able to have a baby. To Katherine, it made no sense that Pam should be depressed about that when she already had the perfect life and husband waiting for her back at Southfork. So now, while Katherine would be busy trying to review the company's progress and present ideas at the board meetings, Pam would just end up sitting there and smiling uselessly while contributing absolutely nothing. The worst part about it was that Pam would be getting paid for it! But when Katherine really thought about it, she realized that she would actually prefer that Pam did nothing at the meetings. Katherine was terrified that the board might end up liking Pam and her ideas, which would then lead them to stop listening to anything that Katherine suggested herself. After all, Pam did have a way with people.
Last but not least, there were the changes that had been made to Wentworth Tool and Dye, the small company that had meant so much to Katherine's father. It had been decided that the company's shares would be evenly divided between Katherine, Pam, and Cliff. This meant that any major decisions in the company would have to be agreed upon by at least two of them. To Katherine, this also meant that she would never have a say about how things in the company were handled, ever. Katherine could not see either Cliff or Pam agreeing with her about anything when it came to the company. This had probably been exactly why Rebecca had set it up this way, too. Katherine had to accept the fact that her dream of running Wentworth Tool and Dye was now gone forever.
But not everything here is bad. I have a friend now. Katherine told herself.
Yesterday, Katherine had been one step away from going back to New York and working herself to death in order to help her forget about everything that had happened. But then, JR had somehow managed to talk her out of it. Katherine couldn't figure why JR had been so desperate to get her to stay. Maybe he needed a real friend just as much as she did. That made sense to Katherine when she thought about just how different JR seemed to be from his own family. But for some reason, Katherine had never really thought that JR was the type of person who would actually feel the need to have friends in the first place. Clearly, she had been wrong.
Katherine realized that JR would probably be the only person she knew that would actually understand how she felt about the will. While Katherine would have liked to talk to Bobby, there was no way that he would ever agree with her about the will being unfair. Bobby would think that everything had been divided up fairly. Especially for Pam. But JR would understand. Katherine was sure of that. Katherine decided to call JR and ask him whether he would want to meet with her somewhere to talk. At any rate, she had to get out of the hotel for a while.
"Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today, JR. I'm sorry that it's such short notice. After all, with work and the contest, I'm sure that you are quite busy already." Katherine said.
"Don't worry about it. It's no trouble at all. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?" JR asked.
"Well, I don't know if you have heard about it yet, but it's about the will-reading that was today." Katherine said.
"Yes, I heard about that dreadful business. Word travels pretty fast in this town. I think that it is absolutely criminal that everything in that will was not left solely in your name, Katherine. I don't believe that your father worked so hard all of those years just so that huge portions of his legacy and fortune would end up in the hands of people that he never even knew existed." JR said with conviction.
Katherine was touched by JR's words. "Thank you for saying that, JR. I feel like you are the only person who understands just how hard this is for me. I think that a lot of other people would just think that I am being selfish for believing that the will isn't fair." Katherine said.
"It's not selfish of you to want something that should've been yours in the first place." JR said.
"I know that you have also gotten a rough deal yourself with all of this contest nonsense. After all, you are your father's oldest son. Not to mention the fact that you have a true Ewing heir to pass things down to. It seems obvious to me that Ewing Oil should be yours, JR." Katherine said. No matter how she felt about Bobby, Katherine truly believed that JR deserved to have Ewing Oil.
"Wow! Hardly anyone else has ever agreed with me about that!" JR said in amazement.
"But at least you have been given the chance to fight for it. Everything has already been decided for me." Katherine said sadly.
"Oh yeah? Says who? You can fight for yourself too, Katherine." JR said seriously.
"That's a nice thought, JR. But just how am I supposed to go about doing that?" Katherine asked helplessly.
"You could take this to court." JR answered.
"Court? And just what sort of evidence could I use for my case?" Katherine asked curiously.
"Well, I'm no lawyer. But for starters, you could point out that Cliff embezzled money from your father's company, and that Pam spent a good amount of her time last year locked up in a looney bin. Also, I don't want to say anything bad about your mother, Katherine, but she was married to another man while she was with your father. Add all of those things to the fact that your father had no knowledge whatsoever about your mother's other family, and I would say that you have a pretty decent case to present in your favor." JR said.
"Don't worry, I'm not offended by what you said about mama. I'm still shocked about it even now. But I don't think that I could go to court for this. It would only start trouble. Plus, even with all of that evidence, I still don't think that I could win. Everybody loves Pam and Cliff." Katherine said sadly.
"Well, then I guess that "everybody" must not include me, because I sure as hell don't love them. They are always trying to cause problems for me. They try to make people believe that they are the "poor Barnes family", even though I have seen them get away with just about everything." JR said bitterly.
"Wow. You are actually pretty scary when it comes to that, JR." Katherine said with an amused grin.
"I most certainly am. But anyway, it looks like we will have to find another way to do this." JR said thoughtfully.
We? Katherine thought to herself in confusion.
"Since Pam was given the most power here, I think that we should take care of her first." JR said.
"That is true. As long as I have at least two of the shares, I can become the president of Wentworth Tool and Dye. That has always been my dream. Plus, taking care of Pam first would also mean that I wouldn't have to worry about Wentworth Industries anymore, either. But how would I go about doing this without her suspecting anything?" Katherine asked.
"Why don't you just try asking her for the shares?" JR suggested.
"What!? There is no way that that would work! It's too simple!" Katherine said in disbelief.
"But that's the beauty of it. You may not see it, but your sister is quite protective of you. As long as you present your idea the right way and explain how much it means to you, I don't think that Pam could bring herself to say no to her darling little sister." JR said slyly.
"Well, when you put it like that, it actually sounds like it could work." Katherine said thoughtfully.
Katherine paused for a moment to think.
"I'll try it. It seems like the best way to pull this off without causing a mess between all of us." Katherine decided.
"Great! I wish you the best of luck, even though I'm sure that you won't need it." JR said with a smile.
"Thanks, JR. And not just for trying to help, but also for taking the time to talk to me about all of this, too." Katherine said gratefully.
"I'm happy to help you in any way that I can, Katherine. Especially since I was the one who caused this mess in the first place. I have to make things right again." JR said.
"I'm happy that you want to help me, but I really wish that you would stop blaming yourself, JR. We're really going to have to work on that." Katherine said.
"I'll try. Let me know how it turns out, though." JR said.
"I will." Katherine promised.
The next morning, Katherine and Pam were both sitting at the kitchen table in Pam's hotel suite with two mugs of coffee in front of them.
"So, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about, Katherine?" Pam asked curiously.
"Well, it's about something that has always been very important to me. It still is." Katherine answered truthfully.
"What is it?" Pam pressed gently.
"You never really knew my father, Herbert Wentworth. He was the nicest man in the world. Usually, people wouldn't think that someone who built a business empire out of practically nothing would be like that. But daddy really was special. He loved his job, but he always put us first before anything else. That was why he decided to let the board of directors run things at Wentworth Industries. He wanted to spend more time with us. Even at work, daddy always made sure to treat everyone who worked for him fairly. He didn't want them to feel like he was the boss or that they were below him. To him, the workplace was also like home. Daddy loved Wentworth Tool and Dye, and he wanted me to feel the same way about it too. He taught me everything he knew about the business. He wanted me run things in his place once he was gone. Daddy always believed that I could do it. Mama never liked the idea of me being a businesswoman. She always wanted me to settle down and start a family instead. But like daddy, I did end up falling in love with the business world. I love Wentworth Tool and Dye more than just about anything. But the fact is that now, we are in trouble. The company still hasn't recovered from what happened last year. This brings me to yesterday. On the surface, dividing up the shares of the company between the three of us may look like a good plan. But it actually isn't. If we have to stop what we are doing every five minutes just to vote on how things should work, then the truth is that we will barely end up getting anything done at all. And time is a luxury that the company does not have right now." After her long explanation, Katherine had to stop talking for a minute because she thought that she might actually start to cry.
"I know that this is a really horrible and selfish thing for me to ask, but I have to. Pam, would you consider selling your share of Wentworth Tool and Dye to me? I know that it's wrong, but I really think that I could help the company if I could run it myself. It has always been my dream to follow in daddy's footsteps by being the company president. And I don't mean to say anything bad about Cliff, but after what happened last year, I don't ever want to see this company to be used as a weapon again. But more than anything else, now that mama and daddy are both gone, I feel like it is the only thing left from my past. It would help me feel more at home here. And I feel like I am going to go crazy if I don't have something that I can work on right now! So, please! I am begging you to sell me your share. I'll pay you anything that you ask for it! Please?" Katherine begged Pam with tears in her eyes. Katherine didn't have to act. This really was important to her.
Pam looked a little startled by Katherine's outburst. She paused for a minute before responding to Katherine. "I never knew that you felt so strongly about this, Katherine. I guess I just thought that you were okay with everything yesterday since you didn't really say anything about it. But now I know that I was wrong. I don't know why mama decided to split up everything between us like this. These are companies that your father built, and I don't really understand why mama would give any part of them to me or Cliff. I only met your father one time, and he didn't even know who I was. And having anything of his just feels wrong, somehow. I just wish that mama had understood that she never had to give me any money or shares from a fancy company. The only thing that mattered to me was that she had come back into my life again..." Pam said tearfully.
Pam continued on after she had managed to compose herself. "I'll give you my share of Wentworth Tool and Dye, Katherine. I'm sure that your father would want this. You don't have to pay me any money, either. And I'll also give you my voting shares for Wentworth Industries as well. After reading everything about it in the will, I know that I wouldn't want deal with that kind of responsibility. All of those meetings and flights to Houston sound exhausting, and I know that it would especially be hard on Christopher. So, we can meet with our lawyers to get everything worked out whenever you want, Katherine." Pam said.
Katherine couldn't believe her good luck. Everything had gone just as easily as JR had thought that it would.
"Thank you so much, Pam! This means so much more to me than you could ever know! I promise that I will take good care of everything! Thank you..." Katherine said tearfully. She couldn't help it. Katherine actually hugged her sister.
"But there is just one more thing. I really think that we should not tell anyone about this until it's all done. I don't think that Cliff would be happy about this, and I know that he is probably going to be very hurt when he does hear about it." Katherine said. She didn't really care about Cliff, but it would be a problem if he found out about all of this first.
"You're right. I think it's better that way, too." Pam agreed.
"Since I'll already have ownership of the company, there really is no need for me to ask Cliff for his shares." Katherine lied. Even though she didn't really need them, Katherine still planned on trying to take Cliff's shares as well.
"Well, I'm glad that we managed to settle that. I imagine that it must have been very hard for you to bring that up in the first place, Katherine. But more than anything else, I'm happy that you actually felt like you could talk to me about all of that. I just want you to know that you can always talk to me about anything, Katherine. I know that we haven't known each other for very long, but you are my sister and I love you. And I hope that someday, you will be able to feel the same way about me, too." Pam said with emotion.
Katherine was a little stunned by Pam's reaction. Now, she almost felt guilty about how easily she had pulled this off.
"I think that I will be able to feel that way too, someday." Katherine said. Katherine didn't know if she would ever feel like she was Pam's sister. But right now, it did seem like it could be possible for her to feel that way someday.
It was now nighttime. Katherine was back in her own room. She had decided to try calling JR to tell him about the good news. Katherine didn't know if JR would be at home right now or not, though. For all she knew, he could either still be at work or out enjoying the single life.
JR answered the phone on the first ring. "Hello?" He asked.
"Hi, JR. It's me, Katherine. I just thought you would like to know that everything worked out perfectly! You were right! Pam had no problems at all with everything I asked her!" Katherine babbled excitedly.
"Really!? That is great news! I'm so glad that everything worked out for you, Katherine. You deserve it, and I know that your father would want this for you, too. Now, all we need to do is take care of that weasel brother of yours. Then you'll have everything back. It will probably take me a little time to come up with a plan since the contest is still on, but I promise you that I will get those shares back for you." JR said.
Katherine felt a little embarrassed for some reason.
"It's okay, JR. You have already done more than enough for me. I'll never be able to thank you enough for everything that you did. Once I get Wentworth Tool and Dye open for business again, you'll have to come by and see everything!" Katherine said.
"Thanks! I'll be looking forward to that! I know that you will do a much better job of running things there than that idiot Barnes ever did!" JR said happily.
Later that night, Katherine went to sleep with a smile on her face. For the first time in a long while, she was happy with the way her life was turning out to be.
Author's note: Some things in this chapter were based on the season 6 episode, "Legacy". But I am not entirely sure if I was completely accurate when it came to how the companies worked. For example, I do not know for sure if being a majority share holder of Wentworth Tool and Dye means that that person could also become company president as well. But since this is an AU story, I don't think that this is really something for me to worry about too much. I just thought that I should clarify that point. Thanks for reading!
