Yeah, I've read it a few times, because I really do want to like it more than I do, and I agree that the writing's good, and powerful and there's a nice build up of atmosphere and emotion and so on - it just doesn't seem like the lads somehow... I'd probably need to read it again to put my finger more firmly on why (it's probably a bit unfair of me to have joined in the discussion when I've not had a chance to read it recently), but...

I can absolutely go along with the idea that Doyle was somehow abused as a youngster - that temper of his comes from somewhere (although of course it doesn't necessarily follow!) - but... it's something about the way it manifests, or the way he handles it or soemthing... But we all have our own readings of the lads, so what's true to one person is bound to seem wrong to another, and I guess that's what's happening here...

I think my ultimate Doyle-psychologically-damaged story is probably Heat-Trace, which I think is brilliantly done - and even though it's actually an AU I think HR has captured Doyle and what his reactions would be all the way... The sense of heavy melancholy and foreboding that runs through it works better for me than Angelfish's verging-on-melodrama atmosphere too - absolutely as powerful, but somehow not so over the top to me...