John Ross and Pamela, Season 1, Episode 6 - Boxed In
John Ross woke up with a start. Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning he had dozed off on the roof while watching Pamela. The sun was already high in the sky and made it hard to see through the skylight. But when his eyes adjusted and he looked, she was gone. He got up quickly and walked back to the window he had come out of the night before. He ran down the stairs to his room. He stopped in front of the door to collect himself. He let himself in quietly. She wasn't there.
"Alright, don't panic." He told himself.
He went to the kitchen and found his aunt there.
"Have u seen Pamela, Aunt Annie?"
"Last I saw she was headed for the pool."
He felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. When he approached the pool, though, he heard her and Emma laughing.
Quickly, he retraced his steps and got on some swimming trunks in the bedroom and grabbed a beer in the kitchen and sauntered out to the pool.
"Ladies. How's the water this morning?"
He ignored Emma, whose eyes were sliding down his body like an addict in withdrawal, and looked straight at his wife. She smiled at him so unreservedly he wondered if he had imagined all that had happened the night before.
"You okay, baby?" He asked.
"Never better. Emma's been cracking me up." She looked at her with real affection.
John Ross purposely didn't, when he said, "You move back in Emma?"
"No John Ross, I just stuck around because I'm going to the football game this afternoon with y'all," she answered.
He looked at Pamela. "Did u want to go to that, darling? You don't have to."
"I'm looking forward to it." She said, and leaned over to squeeze his hand. He held those fingers ever so slightly, but they were his lifeline.
Emma got up, stretched her body and walked into the pool.
He sat back in the lounger, still holding Pamela's hand. "This is pretty nice." His heartbeat was beginning to normalize. He wouldn't bring up last night unless she did.
Pamela thought it was pretty nice too. She loved him. She wanted to be near him all the time. It was like a fever. But look at how messed up she was. Full of freakish contradictions. She wanted John Ross but couldn't let him love her. And he was being so patient, like he had always had been. So loving and unselfish, always concerned about her well-being. She felt it even when he didn't show it. He was her knight in shining armor. God, how she loved this man. Nothing would ever change that.
Weeks later
John Ross was in his office, but as usual he was thinking about his wife.
Pamela was now in more danger than ever. All because of the company. They were circling her like buzzards around a carcass. Now that she had been released and was better, there were any number of attacks to be expected. Not only could someone try again to send her video of his affair, someone could also try to talk to her about their framing of her father for JR's death.
She was the only thing standing in the way of a complete takeover of Ewing Global by Nickolas Trevino and his shady backers. The fact that she had become incapacitated by a breakdown and he had had to assume control of her shares had been the only glitch in their perfect plan to take over during the IPO. He had had bum trace the source of that videogram to Pamela's cell. Their nefarious plan, instead of turning her against the Ewings, had caused her to have a breakdown.
But now, if they got wind that her precarious recovery was because her memory had been boxed up, they might try to do it again. And even though Emma had not been the one to send the tape the first time, he didn't trust her as far as he could spit. She might think it was to her advantage somehow, to let it all slip to Pamela again.
He didn't feel he could talk to anyone about the danger she was in. His uncle Bobby was so disgusted with him for what he had done to her he couldn't bring it up. Christopher didn't know the real reason for Pamela's breakdown. He still thought it had something to do with her father and the babies. In fact, Christopher had become very tender toward Pamela since she'd been in the hospital. He felt somehow, that her suffering was his responsibility. He'd told John Ross he hadn't protected Pamela when she needed him. When she was pregnant and being battered by her supposed brother. He been so angry at her for her betrayal he had failed to pay attention to the signs of abuse. No, he couldn't talk to him either, without revealing that his part in Pamela's breakdown was much worse than his.
His mother, well, he would probably cause her to go back to the bottle if he talked to her. Hell, she could be drinking right now and hiding it. And even though she loved him he couldn't trust her anymore. Besides, he bore a lot of guilt for sending her there, with all his misbehavior.
He was dueling in the shadows, without backup, and the worst of it was that he himself had given their enemies the ammunition with which to bring them down, and to hurt the woman he loved.
Funny, the company wasn't his first love anymore. He would give it all up, if he could keep Pamela. But there were no guarantees she would even want to stay with him once she knew the truth, and he was getting so damn sick of all the lies.
He was caught between wanting to tell the truth, the corporate intrigue and danger to her, the fear of losing her, and his love for her. He was completely boxed in.
Pamela knew she had to go see Dr. McNamara today, but she didn't want to. She had such mixed feelings about him. Sometimes he put his hand on her arm or on her hair, and it felt creepy. But there was no way she could explain to anyone that she sometimes felt like her psychiatrist was hitting on her. She couldn't tell that to John Ross because of his temper. "He'll probably go and beat the doctor," she giggled.
Dr. McNamara had explained to her that they had a lot of work to do yet, in order for her to be well. He told her that the reason for her breakdown was that she couldn't face the things that happened in her life, and that had made her try to commit suicide.
He said perhaps it would take years for her to be able to face it all and that she should not be too curious about those causes. He would lead her into that territory gradually as he felt she could handle it. She was okay with that. She knew there was a lot of fear there, that sometimes overwhelmed her, and that she didn't want to know what was in the box.
She went to her sessions religiously because she knew she had to get better. She wanted to be a complete person so that she could love John Ross the way he loved her.
"C'mon, this is your job now." She got up, resolute.
When Pamela left her session with Dr. McNamara she didn't go home right away as usual. She felt icky. She couldn't explain the feeling, it just made her feel desperate. She wanted to see John Ross right away. He was the only one who could calm down this anxiety she felt, so she went to the Ewing Global offices, a place she hadn't set foot in in many months.
As Pamela walked out of the elevator she immediately felt all eyes on her. She straightened her back, and tried to look serene, answering the greetings of the secretaries who spoke to her. She was Pamela Barnes Ewing after all, and she should not forget it.
John Ross came out of his office as soon as he saw her. She could have run in to his arms. But he did not seem so inviting.
"What brings you to Ewing Global darling?" He asked, as he close the door to his office.
"Oh, I just wanted to see you," she said, "I can't explain why, but I had to."
"Wait here a minute, baby," he said and walked out to his secretary. She heard him ask her to cancel all his meetings for the rest of the day. She felt guilty.
"John Ross I didn't mean for you to do that. I only wanted a minute of your time."
"Well you've got all of me, darling," he said, smiling in his devastating way. She worried about what he expected but then relaxed as he said, "I'll take you out to lunch, or we can go to the rodeo, or go-cart racing. Hell, anything you want!"
John Ross hurried her out of the office and into the elevator as quickly as he could. But just as the door was closing, a voice said "Hold it!" and stuck his hand in. It was Nicholas Trevino and he got into the elevator with them.
"Mrs. Ewing," he smiled, as he took Pamela's hand. "What a pleasure it is to see you here at Ewing Global again. I hope this means you're coming back to us?"
"Uh..."
"My wife will let us know when she's made a decision." John Ross put him down right away and changed the subject to get him off Pamela. But he kept coming back to her.
"Mrs. Ewing, Pamela, I remember our dance at Southfork, the two step. I enjoyed that so much. I wish we could go out sometime and do it again." He said, dripping with charm.
John Ross remembered he hadn't liked that dance. "Hey, is that what you do down in Mexico? You invite another man's wife out dancing?"
"Certainly not. How rude of me. Obviously I was inviting both of you. As I recall you're a very good dancer too."
"When exactly have u seen me dance?" John issued a thin smile to acknowledge the compliment.
"All the time you are dancing." Nick said, enigmatically.
"Oh, is that what you call that two-step you did to me to convince me to put up my company for an IPO?"
"Exactly." Nicholas gloated.
"Well you needn't feel so smug about it," he said, "Because it didn't work exactly how you planned, did it?"
"Well, it still could," he said, looking at Pamela as if she were a favorite desert.
John Ross had had enough. He was violently angry and it wasn't just jealousy. He smelled the blood in the water and he did not intend to let anyone use his wife as prey.
"Well, you have to excuse us now," he said, in the parking lot. "I'm taking my wife out on the town. Three would be too many."
"Quite a shark that man," John Ross said, as they got in the car. "But I suppose you ladies find him charming."
"He's pretty smooth, but I can see through him," Pamela said, looking at him.
"Can you?" He wondered. How was he going to warn her? How to protect her? The noose just kept getting tighter. From that guy's behavior he would bet a monkey's uncle they were just about to spring the trap. He had to keep Pamela away from that guy by any means necessary.
The very next day something else happened that convinced John Ross he had to take drastic measures.
He came home a little early, to spend time with Pamela. He parked the car and walked by the pool on his way in, just in case she was there. He looked over the hedges and stopped in his tracks.
"Oh, that feels so good. Don't stop, don't stop. You've got magic fingers, Emma."
Pamela lay face down on a towel while Emma gave her a backrub. The look on Emma's face is what arrested him. She was smiling like a cat about to pounce on the canary.
"Emma you're amazing." Pamela continued to praise her.
Now John Ross saw something in Emma's face he couldn't quite identify. It was some kind of ecstasy. She was moving Pamela's hair back with great care and she bent down to smell it.
He walked in at that moment and sat down right next to them and never moved from that spot. When Emma left for the stables a little later though, he told Pamela he was going to change clothes and followed her.
"Careful now," he told himself, "you don't want to antagonize her."
Emma was brushing her mare's hair. "What do you want, John Ross?"
"I want to know what your intentions are towards my wife," he answered her truthfully.
She scoffed, "Why?"
"Because I want to know if you plan to hurt her."
"Not if you don't make me," she said.
He inhaled first, to calm himself. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He asked.
"Leave us alone, don't interfere."
He went very still, "Don't interfere in what?"
"In our relationship."
"Which is?"
"Still to be defined," she said, smiling.
"Are you crazy? What are you hoping for? Look, Pamela and I are happily married," he said.
"Ha! That's a joke." she issued a hysterical laugh.
"It's not a joke to me, and I will defend our marriage with every breath of my body. I am not the same John Ross of six months ago. That night, that horrific night changed my...perspective."
She reeled on him now, showing her true colors. "Well you're not the only one. You think I don't think about it? That I don't fantasize every day about what we did together?"
"Are you insane, girl? That was a suicide attempt! How can you fantasize about that? She was trying TO KILL HERSELF! Pamela's NOT a lesbian!"
"We'll see." She shrugged.
Again, he took a breath, "What will we see?"
"Who she chooses."
He turned around and walked away.
Emma was a clear threat. She was obsessed with Pamela. And she could not be reasoned with. If she did not get her way she would do damage.
There was clear and present danger to Pamela from several directions. He had to get her out of here. On the way back to the house he called to get a private charter plane.
While John Ross was in the shower Pamela had gotten a dinner tray for them from the kitchen. "Oh good, darling, cause you and I have got to talk."
Sitting across the small dinner table from her reached for her hand, "Pamela, do you trust me?"
"Yes, I do, John Ross."
"Would you come away with me if I ask you to?"
This time she had to think a little. "Yes."
"Without telling anyone where we're going? I mean it, not anyone."
"I'll come." She played with his fingers. "But are u sure you can leave?"
"If it's for your protection, I can. I can't explain everything right now. But I'll try to on the plane."
She started packing right after dinner while he went to talk to his uncle Bobby.
Pamela wasn't stupid, she knew, she sensed things. She knew what she couldn't remember had to do with John Ross. It was the only thing that could make her want to take her life. But she had to be patient, to wait for him to let it out. She was judging him now by his present actions, by the love and concern he was showing her. The truth could come later. She knew, from her own past actions, what it was like to be boxed in by your own lies, to want to come clean but not to be able to. She could see his insecurity without his telling her. He was terrified once she knew, she would leave him. He really didn't understand how much she loved him.
John Ross laid it all out for uncle Bobby, the corporate intrigue Nicholas was engaged in, the imminent danger to Pamela, the fact that Ewing Global was hanging by a thread. "That's the only thing I can think of to do, Uncle Bobby, is to take her out of here and let you and Christopher fight to get control of things in the company again. I'm leaving you my power of attorney."
"For how long?"
"Indefinitely. Pamela's got to come first. I've got a lot of straightening out to do."
The last thing Bobby said to him was, "John Ross, even though this royal mess is partly your fault, it takes a real man to put his family above everything else and fight for it. I think you're doing the right thing."
"There's one more thing, Uncle Bobby, and I can't say this in front of aunt Annie but you need to know it. Emma is crazy and she's dangerous. She's obsessed with Pamela."
"Obsessed how?"
"She wants her for herself."
"What?" Bobby looked like he'd never heard anything so …unusual.
"She thinks she's in love with her. Pamela's always been kind to her and she's misinterpreted that. You know that coming from the family she comes from she's messed up in the head. She's looking for love in all the wrong places. Anyway, she's unstable. And she's made threats. I can't take any chances with Pamela's sanity. That's another reason I got to get Pamela out of here. I think leaving Dallas is our only salvation."
The flight was scheduled for seven in the morning. He wanted to get Pamela out of the house before everyone was up. Unfortunately, Emma had stayed the night again. It would have aroused her suspicions for Bobby to have asked her to leave. He had been about to do it when he'd stopped him.
John Ross was up and dressed by five am. He put the suitcases in the car quietly, while it was still dark. He looked at his watch and then at his sleeping wife. All he was waiting for was five more minutes to wake her up.