The Southfork 3

[stevew]

John Ross sits at a bar drinking bourbon, unshaven, unwashed, nearly drunk, the place around him a dark hole in the wall. A very handsome, tall and blonde young man pats him on the back and says his name. He looks up at the man. "Bo."


"Let's go home."


"That might be possible if I had a home."


"South Fork."


With a chuckle the oldest son of the oldest son of a long forgotten fortune says, "Uncle Bobby took that, remember."


"He's left Southfork."


"When."


"This afternoon."


"Why?"


"Ellie and I took care of that. Come home John Ross."


"Oh Bo. You have no idea."


"Yes I do. Just come home."





A white pickup truck with the Southfork brand on its doors pulls up behind the garage. Bo, driving, gets out and goes around to the passenger side to help John Ross out. "Do you remember when you rushed to Hill because I left you that message?"


"Yeah, sure. I was scared to death."


"You saved my life. No one else came. Just my big brother."


"Well Ellie didn't know about you as none of us knew about her."


"The point is you showed up. No one else did."


"Cally?"


"My mother had her own demons to sort out."


A beautiful brunette, a young Jackie Bouvier, approaches the two boys. "Tank God."


John Ross says to her, "Ellie why do you even bother?"


"Because we're family and this is our home."


"I hate this place."


"Then let's burn it down together."


"But it's grandma's."


"So. She's dead. And your my brother. If it makes you feel better the three of us will burn it down."


"Nothing will make me feel better."


"What if I told you I found Chris and he's always be with his mother."


"What? How?"


"Does it matter. He's safe. They're both safe. And Nicolas Trevino, Harris Ryland and Cliff Barnes are all locked away and will never get out, because of you."


"Because of our father."


"Because of you. The Governor does exactly what we tell him and Senator Brown is a good friend, all because of you. And all those pieces daddy left you, West Star with those refineries and gas stations, Ryland Transit, Barnes Global and its Wentworth Tool and Die, and all that oil you got for us, in Alaska, the Middle East, off the coast of Mexico, here on Southfork."


Bo laughs, "I'll never for get the look on your mother's and Uncle Bobby face when Carlos told them their loan for the company came from a tray set up by our father and it was due immediately."


Ellie says, "It was daddy's master piece. He left us everything we needed to put back together Ewing Oil. And when Bobby found out JR singing over Southfork was fake, classic. You should have seen the look on his face. Turns out Daddy him the Wade Ranch. What's that all about."


Bo says, "And he left West Fork to Gary."


"I don't know. So you're saying JR got Southfork. He left it to us?"


"To you," Ellie tells him. "We split JRE three ways and Bo and I put back together it's largest asset, Ewing Oil, with its West Star gas stations. We did I John Ross. Everything daddy gave us to do."


"And I lost Pamela."


"You said that was a business arrangement." Ellie puts her hand on her oldest brother's shoulder.


"What's it matter. She didn't care about me. Just like Elena."


"We care John Ross." Ellie hugs him and Bo hugs them both.






Sitting by a bomb fire out back of Southfork as the sun goes down John Ross says to Ellie, "I still can't believe our father was a bigamist. He divorced my mother than married your mother and then remarried your mother then divorced my mother then married Bo's mother, while still married to your mother. Actually, knowledge him I can believe it. I'm just glad he left something to James. I thought at first he just forgot about him."


Ellie says, "What I find myself interesting is he knew Aaron Southfork has a codicil to his will that left JR the ranch, mineral rights and all. It was Daddy's all along. He left us each a sixth of the oil, and a sixth to your mother and a third for his further grandchildren. He did really love your mother, didn't he?"


"Just never thought she really loved him. But she didn't think he loved her. Sad really. I'm glad he gave her grandma's pearls. And I'm glad grandma and grandpa Clayton left all their money to good causes. Lord knows this family needs help cleaning up its name."


Bo says, "Too many years of fighting each other."


Ellie chuckles, "Uncle Bobby asked what I'd do if my father's will but him in a contest with my brothers for Ewing Oil. I laughed at him. I said, I'd give it to them, that no one, no how, would ever make me pick anything over my brothers. He also didn't like what I had to say about Aunt Pam."


"And I don't want to hear what you've got to say about Pamela."


"Alright I won't."


Bo injects, "But she loves you."


"Pish posh," Ellie adds.


"It's true."


"And Nassir?" Ellie asks.


Bo says, "The gay Arab prince? Come on Ellie. You don't have to like her, but at least admit she loves John Ross and she's done a hell of a job running JRE."


Ellie gives him a dirty look. "You'd know he's gay."


"Hell ya, just not very good at it." The three laugh. "You know," Bo begins, then hesitates, "She believes you love Elena or at least Emma. She doesn't believe you care for her in the least."


"Well that's something we have in common."


"I hate her John Ross, but if you love her, I'll deal. Just stop this feeling sorry for yourself."


"It's all too late."


Bo and Ellie look at each other.

 

[stevew]

Crowds fill Southfork's rodeo set up, food trucks, the loud speaker announcing the next event in the arena, a tent set up for drinking and gambling. Some old timers talking about the Ewing Boys and Bobby setting out to find Pam and Christopher. "I can believe they're a live." "What would keep them from Texas?" "Ann's with him." "You seen that Emma? World renowned horse woman. Bobby adopted her too. Say Harris will never see the light of day." "Heard Bobby gave Ray Krebs and Jenna's boy, Lucas the Wade Ranch." "You heard Charlotte's a honest to goodness Princess. And Donna's a former secretary of Energy. She and Margret some how powered Washington lobbyists." "What ever happened to Lucy?" "She married Mitch again, moved out to California near her mom and dad and brother and sister." "She was a looker."






John Ross watches as some cowboys wrestle a steer when he hears behind him, "J-Ro." He turns and hugs the man young approaching. He says, "Matt. What the hell. I never in my life thought I'd see you again. What brings you to Southfork?"


"Retired from the service. Twenty and out."


"What a life you've lived. What rank?"


"Captain."


"Captain Mateo Ramos, Seal Team Six. Pretty damned impressive."


"I heard about a company you put together with some CIA contacts. Some are former Navy Seals. Thought you might have a job for me."


"For you? Hell yay. What ever you want. Man you and me and Drew use to get in so much trouble."


"My Aunt Teresa was beside herself with worry. But Bobby always handled things. I'm sorry about you and Elena."


They hug again. "And I'm sorry about Drew. I just can't believe it. Never going to accept he's gone."


"And I'm sorry about Joaquin."


"Let's just leave that all in the past. Let me buy you a drink, get out of this hot sun."







Ellie approaches Pamela sitting round table eating a salad alone. Looking down at her she asks, "Why are you here?"


"I live here."


"I meant at the rodeo."


"Do I have to have a reason?"


"Where's Jay?"


"My son is in one of the horse shows so he's off warming up."


"Well, I'll go look in on him. I am his favorite aunt."


"You're his only aunt."


"By the way. I looked over your projection for next quarter. I'm not happy."


"Well were pretty much tied to the price of oil. Bo and I are talking about greater diversification. It just takes time."


"Good. Keep it up."


"Of course."






Ellie walks away toward the young kids practicing. Bo approaches her. "He's impressive."


"He is. You know Pamela's here."


"I'm sure to watch Jay."


"I'm going to talk to Jay about me bing into the big house with us."


"Are you?"


"I've never meet a couple make each other miserable like those two, and won't even admit it. She live in the cottage across the driveway, busies herself running a billion dollar business and he drinks and takes care of cows."


A commotion turns their attention away to smoke rising up in the far distance. Bo makes a call, asking what's going on. He then turns to Ellie, "There's a brush fire in section 40."


"Oh great. Guess where John Ross'll be."






John Ross and Matt hold tight to a fire hose off a Southfork water truck, pushing forward toward the flames. Ranch hands shovel up dirt tossing it onto the fire, pushing it back. Smoke engulfs them. One of the ranch hands yells. "Tree fell on Pete by the old rig." John Ross leaves the hose with Matt and runs into the fire with a couple of ranch hands. Suddenly the smoke turns black and a series of three explosions rocks the crew off their feet."






A Southfork helicopter lands at a hospital in Dallas.






Ellie and Bo come running into the emergency room. "I'm Eleanor Ewing. Where's my brother."


"Ms. Ewing. He's here. They're working on him, he's been burned severely. Third degree burns. They're with him right now."


"Is he continue."


"No. He's pretty drugged Ms. Ewing. He's in the best care."


Bo holds onto Ellie so she can burry her face in his chest.






John Ross lies in bed, bandaged, unrecognizable, tubes down his throats and nose. Pamela sits, asleep in the chair next to him, looking like she hadn't bathed in days.


Sue Ellen comes in the room and helps her to her feet, "Come on let's get you washed up."


"No I can't leave him."


"Just in the bathroom here. Come on."


"No. No he's afraid to be alone. Please no. I'm fine."


Matt says, "I'll stay with him."







Ellie rides with Jay across a meadow at Southfork. Ellie tells him tails about his grandfather, how he had to fight and claw his way to the top, even fighting his own family, how his own family tried to steal Southfork from him and when his father died after promising him Ewing Oil he had to fight his brother Bobby for it. "But you'll never have to fight your family. We love you and one day Southfork will be yours. Just yours. And we'll all share JRE, and use it to make us all money."


"But I don't understand, why would people like grandpa's mom and brother not want to make money."


"I don't know. Just to fight your grandpa I guess. Some people are like that. They think everything they do is right and everything everyone else does is wrong and they hurt people. And they don't care. It's all about them and what makes them happy. But we're not like that. Look it how your daddy risked his life to save Southfork. He didn't ask anyone else to risk their life. He jumped in there and did what had to be done. That's what it means to be a Ewing."







News report, State Senator Jesse Barnes speaks, "The concern is the Ewing's methane extraction has yet to prove it is safe. I know we are talking about my sister's in-laws but I am responsible responsible to the people of Texas . . ."






Bo sits at a board table with floor to ceiling windows and the skyline of Dallas behind him. On the wall across from him are three oil portraits, Jock, JR and John Ross. A secretary steps into the room. "Mr. Ewing. Marvin Anderson is here to see Ms. Ewing. I explained she hasn't left the hospital and that you're that you're in charge in her absence."


"Send him in."


Bo stands and straightens some papers in front of him. An older man, well into his seventies steps into the room. They greet each other like long lost friends.






John Ross's story: Hamlet has sought his revenge for his father, slain his uncle and banished his mother, yet is still haunted by his father's ghost as he attempts to rule his kingdom.

Pamela is a revived, self-saved, Ophelia. The couple love each other but are torn by distrust of the other and of them selves.

Matt is Horatio, John Ross's true friend.

Ellie and Bo replace Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, often distracting John Ross, but meaning only the best for him, Ellie a comically eccentric socialite (sociopath), Bo a highly intelligent academic (sociopath).

Jesse Barnes is Laertes, John Ross's nemesis and Pamela's half brother.

Marvin is Fortinbras, the Ewing's most fearsome enemy.

 

[stevew]

Pamela walks up to the a young man, ten years or more her junior in the sidewalk outside the Capitol building in Austin. "What do you mean your sister's in-laws. That's my project you're attempting by to shut down and it has nothing to do with Texas. We're out in federal waters."


"Pamela. How's my big sister."


He attempts to hug her and she backs up. "Pissed. How is any of this any number of your business? Any of Texas's business?"


"How's John Ross doing?"


"Like you care."


"A better question is do you care? I mean with him dead you're free to do what you want."


Pamela slaps him. "This whole thing is nothing more than a political point for you, isn't it?"


"Wow. Hit a sore spot for you. Listen, I don't owe you any explanation. You and John Ross took everything away from our father and left me nothing. We've never been friends. You grew up with your mother, I grew up with mine. Speaking of family, how is my Aunt Ann?"


"Last I heard doing well. She and Bobby are in Italy. They've come to a dead end looking for Chris."


"Too bad. Still makes it nice to have them gone."


"I never had any problem with Ann. I never had any problem with you until you struck up this so called revenge for our father. I told you what happened, what he did."


"And I told you I don't believe it. You're the one that let yourself be dragged in the middle by these Ewing's. Just like my mom says of Ann. Her sister let Harris Ryland walk all over her and now Bobby Ewing."


"You don't know Ann if you think anyone walks all over her."


"No but my mother, her twin, certainly knows her. Far better than you. And you profess John Ross doesn't walk over you but you don't even live in the same house while you work for his company. Now you're here in his behalf fighting with your brother on his behalf so he can use a technology that belongs to our cousin. And when he cheats on you again then what? You going to try and kill yourself again? Fear me not sister dear. Fear that husband of yours. One day he'll lock you up too."


"Just you remember this war is between you and me." Pamela gets in the back of her limousine with Jesse watching. Her driver shuts the door and Pamela rolls down the window. "Did you mother, Abby, final settle with Harrison Van Buren's estate."


"She's very comfortable. Thank you for asking."


"I never like that man. Even when my mother was married to him."


"One thing we can agree upon."


Pamela puts her window up and the car drives away.






A plaque next to a glass door reads, 'Anderson Van Buren' and way up on the top floor of the glass building Marvin across from a woman who looks exactly like Ann. She says, "It's not personal with the Ewing's, like it is for Jesse, it's just we want control of West Star and the Ewing Process in particular."


"Just business." He slides two folders across the desk to her. "The McKay shared and the Wendell shares."


"Of course once we take over we've got to call Jesse off. He's not gonna be too happy about that. We've got to figure a way to get him a U.S. Senate seat."


"Next election. The Ewing's are cozy with Senator Brown. It'd be to our benefit to have our own Senator right next to her. Fighting the Ewing Process might get him to Washington. Then we'll need him to pull back. There's a few stings we can pull to put him in the right place."


"Good. Let's make it happen."






At Southfork Sue Ellen sits with Pamela by the pool. She takes the younger woman's hand and asks, "When are you and John Ross going to fix this?"


"There's nothing to fix."


"Oh come on. I saw you in that hospital. You were beside yourself."


"He was an idiot for running into that fire."


"He did what he felt he had to do."


"Well he's got a son to think about."


"And a wife."


Pamela pulls away.


"John Ross always wanted a big family. Kids to fill up Southfork."


"Well then he should have married some else. That's not our arrangement."


"And what is your arrangement."


"I run the company and he takes care of Jay."


"And you don't miss being around your son?"


"Did you?"


"Terribly. I knew every minute he was here he became more and JR's son and less and less mine."


"Well patently bring more like his father isn't such a bad thing. John Ross is the great hero. Saved that man's life."


"And you."


"Why would he want to be like me?"


"What do you mean?"


"Look at me. I'm in a loveless marriage working eighty hours a week. For what?"


"Then stop working."


"And for what?"


"Your family, Pamela."


"Don't you think that's too late? Do you know John Ross and I haven't ever even been on a date?"


"Then go out together. Work on it. Try before one day it's too late and you've lost him. I'm telling you that one day it can be too late."


"I'm sure it already is. Maybe I should just let him go. Give him a divorce and let him find someone who will make him happy."


"Why can't that be you?"


Standing up Pamela says, "Because he doesn't love me. He's never loved me. Do you think JR ever loved you?"


"Yes I do."


Perplexed, Pamela sits back down. "How can you say that?"


"A limousine showed up for me a month after he died. It took me to this little restaurant I'd never been before. No one was there but me. And a letter where JR should have been sitting. He left me with all the right words. Everything I ever wanted to hear. He told me every fear he had, all the anger he aimed at me because he was certain I didn't love him like he loved me. All the foolish times he thought he was in love with someone else. How bad he wanted me to hold him at the end. And how even if I didn't love him at all, that he loved me and always will."


"Oh Sue Ellen."


"We spent a lifetime hitting each other and only in death did he say what he needed to say and I . . . I stood over his grave and told him. He was the love of my life. And now . . ."


Pamela takes Sue Ellen's hands and says, "I'm so sorry."


"Tell him Pamela how you feel before it's too late. I promise you he feels the same way."


"Sue Ellen . . ."


"I know my son. He might not talk to me, and I can't blame him, but I know him. Please Pamela, before it's too late."

 

[Karin Schill]

Finally found some time to read this. First off I loved the conversation between Pamela and Sue Ellen at the end where Sue Ellen adviced Pamela to talk to John Ross before it was too late and how JR and she did love each other even if it was too late for them. It was bittersweet.

Then as for the rest I like the idea of Ann having a twin sister who had a child with Cliff Barnes (I assume her twin was the one night stand we saw Cliff with way back when).

I really can't picture Bobby adopting Emma Ryland though. I mean is it even possible to adopt someone who is over 18 years old and legally an adult?

I am getting a bit confused about some of your recurring characters in your stories. Like for instance in another story I think Ellie was JR and Sue Ellen's daughter but in this one she has another mother, I am guessing Katherine but I am not sure so it's hard to keep up. I do know Bo is JR and Cally's son in your stories though.

 

[stevew]

Finally found some time to read this. First off I loved the conversation between Pamela and Sue Ellen at the end where Sue Ellen adviced Pamela to talk to John Ross before it was too late and how JR and she did love each other even if it was too late for them. It was bittersweet.

Then as for the rest I like the idea of Ann having a twin sister who had a child with Cliff Barnes (I assume her twin was the one night stand we saw Cliff with way back when).

I really can't picture Bobby adopting Emma Ryland though. I mean is it even possible to adopt someone who is over 18 years old and legally an adult?

I am getting a bit confused about some of your recurring characters in your stories. Like for instance in another story I think Ellie was JR and Sue Ellen's daughter but in this one she has another mother, I am guessing Katherine but I am not sure so it's hard to keep up. I do know Bo is JR and Cally's son in your stories though.

Thank you. Yeah I just ideas in my head and try out another mix. It is legal in the US to adopt an adult and while unlikely I figured it's an idea to show while not in the story they grew closer as a family. But I do get your point. I used Ann's twin as a way to on from CC's story but keep the actress. Yep Cliffs one night stand This story is about the lives of JRs three children and how each one is a bit JR. I was unsure of who to make Ellie's mother. Might be a big reveal. Thank you so much for taking a look at it. Maybe one day the executives that control it will take a look and bring a bit of Dallas back. It was obviously a money maker even through the crap they called Dallas.