Season 1 – Episode 14 – The Departure

SEASON FINALE

Pamela kicked off her shoes so her feet could feel the sand. She started walking slowly, ruminating.

John Ross and Emma. John Ross and Emma. That's what had made her want to kill herself.

John Ross and Emma. When? Had they planned it? Had they laughed at her? She remembered now Emma shopping with her for wedding night lingerie. She remembered her asking slightly intrusive questions about their sex life. Had she been tracking them? John Ross had said it was to get a deal. What deal could have been so important? She remembered now that he had been trying to get a Ryland transportation deal at one point.

But had John Ross been using Emma or had Emma been using John Ross? Obviously Emma was not the young innocent she passed herself off as.

Obviously, if she wanted answers she would have to let John Ross tell her the whole story. Something he had been begging her for months to let him do.

Pamela stopped walking now. She realized she was a little out of breath. She looked up at her surroundings and couldn't recognize where she was. The gentle hill with back yards giving out to the sea, even the ones with long stairs, had ended at some point. Above her were cliffs. Right then she felt a strong pressure bearing her belly down. She grabbed her belly with both hands, then sunk down into the sand yelling "Aaaaoow."

"Calm yourself, Pamela," she self-admonished. "Deserted beach. No cell phone. Nowhere to turn for help. Breathe. Stay calm."

"He'll come for you. He'll find you. He'll notice you're gone and he'll come looking. He's never failed you."

"You hear that, babies? He'll come. Daddy will come. That's right." She felt woozy, like her pressure had dropped, or gone up, or something. "We're just going to take a nap. He'll be here soon."

John Ross was pacing, up and down the driveway, and around his car. He didn't know who to call. He felt that had been the stupidest, most asinine thing he'd ever done.

He called Christopher. "John Ross. How's it going?"

"I told Pamela about Emma."

Pause. "How'd she take it?"

"She locked herself in the bedroom."

"How long ago?"

"Half an hour."

"Did you check on her?"

"I'm trying to give her some space."

"I'd go check. Call me back later."

He went in to the bedroom when he didn't get an answer. He saw the open terrace door and no one in the garden so he went back in, to see if she was in the house. The babies' room was empty. She couldn't have gone out to the street or she would have passed him. Now he froze.

She wouldn't have gone down the steps to the ocean because coming back up them was too much exertion. Pamela knew this, she would not take any risks.

But if she were out of her right mind? He was flying down those steps now. At the bottom, he looked both ways, unsure. Then he spotted her shoes by the water. It was like a boxer's punch in the solar plexus.

He coughed it out, gasping for air, while at the same time scouting the ground for tracks. When he found them he took off running in that direction.

The steps up the hill to other houses were becoming higher and steeper. There was still no sign of her. Her tracks were gone. Either she had been walking in the water or...

"No, no, no."

He jogged out into the next little bay and saw the forbidding cliff side now rising. No way out, only forward. He ran full speed ahead now.

And then he saw the body on the sand.

In another few minutes he was kneeling down beside his wife. Her eyes were closed.

"Pamie?" He touched her face.

She opened fearful eyes. "John Ross. I'm so sorry. I didn't know what I was doing."

"It's okay, Baby. Everything is going to be alright. How you feeling?"

"Faint." She answered, and closed her eyes.

He pulled his cell out of his pocket and dialed Godwin. "Hey, brother. I have an emergency. I need an ambulance. Pamela's...on the beach, the cliffs beyond my house. You probably can't get a vehicle in here..."

"It's okay. We'll find you," Godwin said.

John Ross knew the stakes. He remembered. He had been here before. But he was glad she didn't remember. And he mustn't let it show.

He now picked her up, carefully. He raised himself up from a kneeling position, took a deep breath and braced himself for a mile long walk.

"Is she still after you?" Pamela asked, from nothing, five minutes into this trek.

"Who?" He breathed. But he knew whom she was talking about. It was as if there were nothing but naked truth between them now.

"Emma."

"No. She gave up on me after a while."

"Is that... why we left...Dallas?"

"Save your energy, Baby."

"Need...answers."

"Alright. She seemed to have shifted her affections. From me...to you."

"What?"

"She's in love with you. And unbalanced. You don't really know her."

She didn't really ask anything more. It was just as well. He needed his wind. Where was help? Dear God, help us.

Rounding the cove now he saw Godwin, running for him at full speed.

He'd brought a blanket, which he spread on the ground. "Put her here. We'll make a sort of hammock."

When he tried to put Pamela down she said. "No."

"It's okay, Baby. We'll be there in no time. You just stay calm like you're doing."

"Not calm. Hurts."

He kissed her forehead. "Where?"

"Cramps."

Cramps. That meant the babies were coming. Could babies survive this young?

Only if they make it. God, he'd never really thought about what Christopher had gone through, why he'd fought so hard for all of them to make it.

But Christopher deserved his babies. He wasn't a selfish bastard like him. And still, his babies had been taken.

"Here they come." Godwin alerted him. And they saw two EMTs running down the beach, carrying a stretcher. Behind them was Godwin's cousin, Josiah, still in his tie and office clothes.

They put Pamela on the stretcher. One of the EMTs took her vitals and pressure. Then he shook his head, silent. All four men now carried the stretcher between them at a clipped pace.

John Ross used his free hand to call Dr Anika on his cell. "It's Pamela. She's coming in, in an ambulance. Hold on Dr." He handed the phone to the EMT that had taken her pressure.

At the hospital it was touch and go. Dr. Anika administered some hormone cocktail to keep the babies in. That's all John Ross understood. They stabilized her. When they first allowed him to see her the doctor said, "No strong emotions, we've got to keep her calm. But she's asking for you."

"Baby," he whispered, when he kissed her forehead. She was full of IV's, and surrounded by monitors.

She touched his face but didn't open her eyes. It seemed she was keeping all her focus on holding those babies. "I knew you'd come for us. You've never failed me. I forgive you. For everything. You're my heart, my soul, and my life."

Some monitor spiked and Dr. Anika said, "That's enough for right now."

He was ushered out, and the door slid shut behind him. He'd said nothing to her. And she'd said everything he'd ever needed to hear in his life. Was all this worth it, you sorry bastard?

He leaned on the wall and started sobbing. This is how Mama Joy and Godwin found him. They carried him to the waiting room, where several other family members were gathering. It seemed they had come for a prayer vigil. He was embarrassed, because he really didn't know how to pray. But every time his thoughts threatened to engulf him in lowness it seemed another member of the family would break out in a short, sincere and eloquent prayer. They prayed for Pamela, they prayed for the babies, and they prayed for him. And that's when he would break down all over again.

Pamela stayed in the hospital for two weeks. At the end Dr. Anika said to both of them, "You have resources, right?"

"You mean money?" John Ross clarified.

"Yes. If you do, I would recommend you to move Pamela. To a facility with a crack trauma team and neonatal ward. You might need both. Right here, this is not the best place. Our resources are limited.

"And if you're going to go off island, you have to go now, because I can't in good conscience recommend that Pamela fly after this."

John Ross relied on Christopher to get him a medical transport plane back to Dallas, while he closed up flamingo house. There wasn't much thought given to going anywhere else but Dallas.

"So, they'll be there tomorrow morning. And we'll see you when you land," Christopher said.

"Thanks cousin." John Ross thought of one more thing. "Any progress on Dr. Macnamara?"
There was a pause on the other end. "Nothing yet. Bum got into the clinic video bank, tried to find video footage. There was nothing on Pamela anywhere."

"Listen, I've got to go. See you tomorrow. Tell no one we're coming."

"What about my dad? What about your mom?"

"No, not yet. They're both close to Annie and she's close to you know who. God, I wish we weren't going back into the lions den, the shark infested waters."

And that was the truth. Such peace and bliss and wholesomeness as they'd experienced here. It had brought sanity to their lives. How could they face going back to addiction, dysfunction and constant intrigue?

He put his phone in his pocket and walked into Pamela's hospital room.

"We're going to miss you all so…much." Pamela was saying to Mama Joy. John Ross' heart nearly stalled, seeing his wife in tears.

"That's right," he said, sitting on the bed beside her and putting his arm around her. "You all have taken us in, made us feel like family."

"You are part of the family." She hugged John Ross now, an honest to goodness bear hug. "Just as soon as you can, you bring those babies back to see me. Okay?"

"We don't know how to survive without you." Pamela said, crying harder.

"Well, I'll tell you how to stay out of trouble." She now took their hands. "You, my angel girl, you focus on the babies. And you, young man, you focus on her. Like you've been doing. If you both stay on that track you can't go wrong. And you'll be alright."

End of Season 1

SEASON 2

Will John Ross and Pamela be able to hang on to what they've learned? Will the temptations and pitfalls of Dallas conspire against them? Will their enemies and their secrets finally destroy their love?

Let me know if you'd like to see Season 2.