Epilogue Part III – Dirt

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“Hi,” she greeted eagerly, lowering her sunglasses and peering up at him seductively over the black rim. “Eamon, Eamon Coleman of the Coleman & Colemans?”

 

“Yes,” he replied with only the slightest hint of hesitance. “Can I help you?”

 

“You can say that,” Pam grinned, her finger running down the length of his tie. “I’m told you’re the one to ask.”

 

“Ask what?” he replied, following the pink digit that left his body to trace the curve of her cleavage.

 

“Is it true?” she whispered huskily into his ear, letting her hand rest on his shoulder a moment too long. “My daddy has a lot of stock with those Brigants, he doesn’t quite know what to do with it. I hear you might be interested.”

 

He grinned down at her, eyes lifting ever so slowly from the display of her breasts, “We should probably discuss this elsewhere.”

 

“Yes,” she agreed, twirling her hair and letting her gum pop loudly between her lips. “Elsewhere.”

 

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“Ugh,” Pam complained, “Help me wash the stink of rich douchey ass away!”

 

Jason stared at her, nodding obediently, but not quite sure what he was agreeing to. It was far too cold for her to be hosed down in the yard and while he had tried to get in her pants more than once, it was highly unlikely that she’d just invited him to shower with her. The thought, however, had him dreamily staring at the blonde beauty in front of him who looked extra nice today.

 

“Stop looking at me like that!” she snapped angrily. “Ugh! Men!”

 

“What did I do?” he yelled after her, though she refused to acknowledge him any further in her angry stomp out of the room. With some difficulty he managed to find her in her room, door firmly closed. Gently he knocked, asking if she was okay, receiving no reply. “Should I get Eric?” Jason asked tentatively, pushing the door ajar slightly. The last time he had ever seen Pam close to emotional Eric had intervened and she’d seemed fine moments later. Jason had no clue how to look after the woman he considered his best buddy, but suddenly resembled a girl with actual emotions.

 

“Just leave me alone,” she sniffed on the bed, her back turned to him.

 

Ignoring her request, realising seeking out Eric would be useless while he was away with Sookie for a makeshift honeymoon of a few days, he entered the room, coming to sit behind her on the bed. “What did I do?” he requested softly, unsure whether the hand he wanted to place on her shoulder would be welcomed or not, coming to awkwardly rest it on his own thigh instead.

 

“It’s nothing,” Pam tried again, hoping he might be stupid enough to actually believe it. One could hope plenty with Jason after all.

 

He surprised her, coming to rest behind her and throwing his arm around her waist, “Come on, tell Uncle Jason what’s wrong.”

 

Her entire body stiffened under him, rendering her uncharacteristically mute until she finally managed to hiss out, “Don’t ever say that, especially when you’re holding me!”

 

“Sorry,” he replied, half swallowing the apology with the awkwardness of it all while removing his arm around her. This time she surprised him by holding onto it and, in turn, he tightened it around her, pulling her closer, surprising him even further that she’d let him. “Tell me what happened, please?”

 

“I just feel dirty, okay?” she breathed out, continuing to stare vacantly at the blank wall.

 

“You didn’t sleep with him, did you?” Jason said, tempering the outrage he felt about that. He knew Pam could go far to unravel something or get it done. He was a testament of that himself. Whenever his own recovery wasn’t going as planned and he threatened to become despondent about it all were it not for Pam’s odd brand of encouragement.

 

“No, I didn’t have to,” she sighed. “He gave it up pretty easily. Claudine was supposed to run that place into the ground, Rogan sweeping in with the solution in the form of being bailed out by the lovely people over at Coleman & Coleman, meanwhile they’re messing around with shares betting against the company in some insider trading scheme while considering Brandon a minor hiccup.

 

“They don’t buy the shares, they just want to ‘borrow’ them bet against them, then sell them back sharing a tiny profit with the owners. He even recommended Cataliades as my business contact, anyhow, so to the other Brigants it will appear that it is only through Rogan’s wonderful ‘negotiation skills’ that they don’t lose their fortunes and be spared the humility of a hostile takeover and keeping the Brigant name high, the ‘mismanagement’ kept quiet and ‘merging’ instead. No matter that Coleman & Coleman is one of their longest standing competitors. Claudine would be spared general humiliation by falling in love with Eamon ‘at first sight’ and appeasing the traditionalists by sealing the difficult to sell deal with a good old fashioned marriage contract. Rogan and Claudine come out heroes and rich to boot. They’ve been working it for years, I guess Eamon really likes her, his eyes may have been on my tits, but all his interest was in the shares my ‘Daddy’ has.”

 

“Shit,” Jason replied, not quite sure what to do with that overload of information, surely it would be useful to someone beside himself. Instead he refocused on the reason why Pam was being vulnerable with him of all people, “Why do you feel dirty then?”

 

“He reminded me of someone, that’s all,” she replied in a clipped tone, indicating this was all she was willing to reveal. “Like father, like son, or some shit like that.”

 

“You mean?” Jason demanded, suddenly very angry, he’d never been one for book smarts, but he had instincts that spoke to him clearly enough. Pam had shared much of her past that had her escaping Lorena and Bill’s clutches after horrific experiences, in a rather matter of fact tone that had stunned Jason into silence each and every time. It was that silence that made Pam perfectly okay with sharing an odd anecdote now and then. He knew there was only one man that could have her so worked up, and Pam wasn’t as fortunate to be spared the fate his sister was headed towards if it weren’t for running into Eric, and he knew Pam hadn’t willingly accepted that fate either.

 

“Yeah,” she whispered. “Saw a picture on the mantelpiece to confirm it and all. Smiling bastard!”

 

“I’ll kill him!” Jason fumed, pulling away from her to see to it then and there, handicap be damned, Eric surely had a weapon tucked away somewhere in the house.

 

Her hands held onto him, stopping him from moving away any further, turning around in the process to look him in the eye, smiling back melancholically, “Too late.”

 

“Please, tell me at your hands? Tell me that’s why you feel dirty, which you fucking shouldn’t. Motherfucker deserved it!”

 

She shook her head sadly, “Russell promised me he’d do it a long time ago, but he was already dead when he finally found out who it was. Damn heart attack.”

 

“Come here,” he beckoned, letting her suddenly small body nestle up into his without another word. She didn’t cry while he held her, Jason knew she was far from okay, but had faith that soon enough, if only he remained quiet enough, she would be again.

 

>

 

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A/N: I know… rather sad but I wanted to explore the side characters a bit too and Pam’s backstory isn’t a pretty one unfortunately and if anything she’s found a great friend in Jason. Last installment will be up tomorrow so go on and speculate what’ll happen next 😉

 

Thanks to msbuffy again!