John Ross and Pamela, Season 1, Episode 2 – Kept Apart
After a short night's sleep John Ross got up and went to the hospital. He didn't like what he heard.
"I'm afraid it's not a good idea for you to be here," Doc Macnamara said. "Now that I know what precipitated the events, I feel that your presence will just exacerbate her pain. I'm sorry Mr. Ewing, but you're going to have to stay away and trust us to do our best for your wife."
He walked out of there feeling worse than anything. In the parking lot he turned on the car radio loud enough to blow out his ear drums and started going through his text messages. There were at least ten from his aunt Annie asking him to call. He shut off the radio to listen to his voice mail.
"John Ross, darling, there's been a fire at Southfork. Your mother…ah…darling, call me. Or come to Dallas General Hospital."
"Jesus!" His mother was in a fire? Was she alive? Was she burned?
He was choking down tears the whole way there, "Please God. Oh God. I deserve it. But don't take my Mama away from me too."
He ran in to the burn unit and immediately found Anne and Emma sitting there.
"John Ross, where have you been?!" his aunt Annie hugged him desperately.
"My Mama, where is she? Is she…is she…dead?" his voice broke.
His eyes connected with Emma's for a split second. She was looking at him with such empathy in her blue eyes. Why hadn't she told her mother about Pamela? Probably to cover her own ass. The same reason he hadn't called everybody at Southfork to hold vigil with him. Shame.
"John Ross, you have to be strong now. Your Mama was in the house when the fire broke out. Your uncle Bobby and Christopher tried to find her, and I guess, I guess they were looking for me as well."
"Cut to the chase, Aunt Annie, tell me how my Mama is. Is she dead?"
"No darling, she's alive, but—"
"Where is she? I want to see her!"
"Down the hall in the ICU. But John Ross, there's more you should know."
He ran to the nurse's station, shouting for Sue Ellen Ewing's room. He was led into a room with a plastic tent around a bed. He looked in it and saw his mother laying there, as beautiful as she had always been. But mortally still. She wasn't breathing on her own. Some machine was breathing for her.
"What's the matter with her?"
"She's inhaled a lot of smoke, they're not sure she'll pull through," Annie answered. "Bobby and Christopher did too," she added.
"Christ!"
"But they're in better shape. As a matter of fact Christopher was released yesterday," she went on. "Pamela's car was gone, so we know nothing happened to her. But we haven't heard from her."
Now John Ross couldn't put it off any longer. "She tried to commit suicide two nights ago, Aunt Annie. Because of something I did," he said, looking at the floor.
The sharp intake of breath made him look up into her eyes. "I know what you did, John Ross. You and Emma. Sue Ellen and I were with Pamela when they sent her that horrible tape."
"What tape?"
"The disgusting tape of you and my daughter having…sex."
"My mother saw that?"
"Yes. She was broken hearted for Pamela. And herself too. She said it reminded her of all the pain your father put her through."
John Ross couldn't take this anymore. He walked out of there to get some much needed air. His throat was threatening to close up. He couldn't breathe.
Outside in the parking lot he walked to and fro. His mother had been hurt by his actions too. After he had done that monstrous thing, having her committed. He'd put her in a place like Pamela was in now. And the reason for it was greed, pure and simple. So that he could have control of the vote on the Ewing Energies board.
He walked slowly up the stairwell again, to go be near his mother. At the top of the stairs Emma was waiting for him.
"Couldn't tell your Mama what happened, huh?" he said to her.
"Never. I don't want her to ever know what happened in that hotel room."
"It's too late. She saw a tape of you and me somebody sent Pamela. Didn't she tell you?"
"Somebody? Who?"
"As a matter of fact," John Ross now grabbed her by the throat and pushed her up against the wall, "How do I know it wasn't you who sent that?"
"Let go of me. I would never do that. I like Pamela."
"Then how come you haven't asked me if she's dead or alive?" he said, letting her go.
"How is she?"
"She's out of her mind. It broke. We broke it. They got her locked up in a padded cell and sedated so she won't kill herself. "
Somehow, it was oddly comforting to be able to talk to the other perpetrator in honest terms. The tears were now streaming down his face and he was wiping them with his fingers.
Emma came closer and took his face in her hands and put her lips on his. He grabbed her hands and yanked them off his face. Then he took several steps back. "You and I are over. This can never happen again."
"But I can make you feel better," she said, moving forward.
"Don't ever put your hands on me again. Stay away from me, you hear?" he pulled the door open and there was Annie. He pushed past her and kept on his way. Let her deal with her daughter.
He met Christopher in Bobby's room and got the scoop on the condition of Southfork and who they thought was responsible. Christopher was pursuing that. He didn't care about it. Southfork was the least of his worries.
He was back at the Psychiatric clinic the next morning.
"Mr. Ewing, I thought I had explained the situation to you," Doctor Macnamara was gentle but condescending.
"I can't be away from her. I need to see her every day, even if it's just on the monitors." He pleaded. "I want to know how she's doing."
"Well, I need to let you know that I'll be trying a new experimental approach with her. It involves hypnosis."
"Hypnosis?"
"Yes. If we can compartmentalize her mind, putting all the painful stuff away in a box, maybe we can make her functional again. It's experimental, but it might work."
"Do it, Doc."
"Mr. Ewing, please understand, I can't just wave a magic wand. It will take months of work to build the walls she needs. And even if we succeed she will always be kind of fragile. You would have to protect her from strong trauma, from people who might talk to her about these things and break down the walls."
John Ross reflected, on his drive out to Southfork. If he could get back any part of her, he wanted it. Even if they had to brainwash her and keep all her painful memories apart. Maybe that would be for the best.
In the padded cell, Dr. Macnamara was trying to coax a wild and cagey Pamela to accept hypnosis. "Listen to me, Pamela. I can get you relief. You don't have to suffer. Listen to the sound of my voice…"
End of Episode 2