The Reading Room - 'Gay undercover' theme

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

Title: The Path Not Taken
Author: Meridian
Link to story or zine/ProsLib info: http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/11/thepath.html
Originally published in More Priority A-3, IDP Press, 2000
Pairing: B/D

Putting a finger to Doyle's lips again, he shook his head. "It's pretend." He pleaded silently for Doyle not to say anything else, just accept it. As long as what might lay between them was unspoken, as long as they didn't say anything out loud, they could both get through this without being hurt.


I haven’t read this before or anything by Meridian. I enjoyed it well enough, but… well, it ends a bit limply, with Christmas, and ‘Scrooge’ is my middle name. *g*

It’s the classic gay undercover scenario, the lads must pose as lovers to flush out a villain, and not the usual blackmailer but one who is murdering prominent public figures in gay relationships. But Bodie and Doyle are not prominent public figures, you object. Meridian deals with that by adding 10 years or so of career success to canon. The lads are in their mid-40s, Doyle never joined CI5 when Cowley invited him and has made Detective Chief Inspector. Bodie is ‘Deputy Controller’ of CI5, but still active in the field.

"How did you get to be deputy controller with no formal education?" There was real suspicion in his tone and Bodie didn't like it one little bit.

An evil gremlin popped up in him and he batted his eyelashes at Doyle, camping it up. "How do you think? I slept with Cowley." And he sincerely hoped that Cowley never got wind of that little remark. He would no doubt skin him alive for even suggesting such a thing.

Doyle roared. He threw back his head and laughed so loud that people turned around to look at him. After going on longer than he should have done, he finally sobered. "Pull the other one, mate."

Pasting a put-upon look on his face, Bodie folded his arms over his chest and glared. "And why not? He's not so bad looking."

"Whether or not you actually slept with him--and I could care less one way or another--I know that Cowley would never promote you just for that."

Bodie lowered his eyes. Caught. He hadn't realised Doyle would know Cowley so well, but as he thought about it, it did make sense. A man like Doyle would not go into a situation like this without knowing all the players. Which meant that Doyle likely knew something about him as well. "Cowley said I had potential other than for killing."

"Now, that I can believe."

Apart from a bit of Bodie/Cowley titillation, this exchange is an example of the strength of this fic – the tension between what people admit, to others and to themselves, and their true feelings. The quote at the top is the essence of it (so much that I didn’t even notice the ungrammatical ‘lay’ until just now.)

The plot about the murders is rather inconsequential, imho. The story completely focusses on the B/D relationship – as it should be. Thanks to Meridian’s AU device, the relationship begins abrasively, on a personal level, from a professional acquaintance that is mutually respectful but not warm – Bodie gets up Doyle’s nose at every turn. Added to that is some rivalry between the Met and CI5. Perhaps this is especially Doyle’s problem – he often compares CI5 with the Met, finally sometimes finding CI5 the more attractive organisation, despite his distaste on principle – ‘the ends do not always justify the means’. But then, he is being forced to reassess much about his life up to this point.

For me, the tentative developments of their feelings for each other worked well, with alternating pov – falling for each other, but not trusting the other to follow through, each hardens himself outwardly for the end that must come, when the op is over...

[edited to change 'pubic figures' to 'public figures' LOL! well spotted, and thanks, kiwisue!]

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I've not read much Meridian either, but I'm afraid this story hasn't sent me running to make up that deficiency, because it just didn't work for me at all. As you say there's not really a plot, more a series of excuses for the lads to get together in certain ways, hanging loosely around the "gay undercover" theme - and worse still, those excuses are explained to me rather than shown, just as their backstories are explained, and how they're feeling and what they're thinking. I didn't even have a sense that they were falling in love, I couldn't see it or feel it from the way this was written. I could see what I was told was happening - but there was nothing to make me believe it.

I also don't believe the situation - the lads are both so high profile that they're ideal blackmail material, and yet Doyle expected to turn up in a gay club and pass as an unknown, random gay bloke? We know from the eps that he's verging on double-think, I'm sure he would have realised that just turning up would never work! And he's surprised that Bodie got into CI5 without a formal school education? That doesn't fit with the era at all - if Bodie'd been in the army, the SAS and so on, then his school qualifications wouldn't have been an issue by the time he got to CI5. Bodie, Deputy head of CI5, didn't know that Doyle had represented Scotland Yard in shooting championships, let alone won them? Etc, etc. So much just didn't ring true, either in their reactions to things or their apparent backgrounds.

Grammar and American speech patterns - blargh. "Doyle likely knew something about him..." - "Damned straight." - "I could care less"... *headdesk* This was written in 2000, not the wilds of the 1990s...

I felt rather as if the author wanted to write a story about the lads being gay undercover, came up with a reason they might go undercover, and then generally wrote around that reason to pass through various fandom/fic cliches to make a story. I do think you can repeat a plot over and again, and it can be made interesting because we see a different view of the world each time - we're seeing it through the author - but I didn't feel as if Meridian had given us anything of herself at all, there was no there there, as they say...

[gideonbd77.livejournal.com]

I'm skimming through the story now as I haven't read it before, but I'm curious about the following ...

"Doyle likely knew something about him..."

I get why the other two examples are very American (the 'could care less' thing makes me want to headdesk sometimes), but why is the above example American and not British? Just curious.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Brit would more likely be "Doyle probably knew something about him..." or perhaps "Doyle was likely to know something about him."

I've only ever heard "likely" used like that by Americans (though someone here's bound to pop up and say they say it in that way all the time... *g*)

[gideonbd77.livejournal.com]

Probably does sound more British, now that you mentioned it. I never really noticed that before. Thanks for pointing it out!

[scherwood]

I like to read this fic when I have nothing else to read, and I feel in the mood for some gay-men-angst-undercover-love, but other than that... I don't know. It's a good fic, I guess. <3

As he got closer to the door, the world narrowed to the sound of his own desperate breathing. When he reached for the knob, he heard a sharply indrawn breath, a small sound someone might make when they cut themselves. But it was enough.

"You're going to let me leave, aren't you?" Doyle's couldn't control the trembling in the words or the shaking in his hands.

Love this part to bits though. *jumping around* :D

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

yeah, that was a good intense moment. And surely Doyle had cause for hope when he found Bodie had kept his unwashed tee-shirt. Just as well, because without that the ending was getting mushy, which was rather out of character.

[scherwood]

yeah, that t-shirt. *nod, nod* *happy sigh*

mmm, this made it more intense... and I like intense. *grin*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

I liked the reluctance to admit to the attraction and the way the undercover-as-gay aspect was built up. But like byslantedlight I didn't quite believe the story. We didn't even get enough information about the villain to know what they were up against, and why it was necessary for anyone to pretend to be gay. I wasn't quite convinced about them having to have sex, fake or otherwise. I felt as if we were never given full explanations of anything. I was also irritated by the Americanisms - they really do shake the Brit reader of a story with Brit characters in London, especially when the story isn't wholly absorbing. So I enjoyed the slow development of the relationship and the slight AUness of it all but was never completely hooked. I wouldn't go out of my way to look for the writer again, but if someone recced one of her stories I might read it.

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

I didn't see all those plot holes. There was even a red herring in that homophobic police officer, but I didn't understand why Doyle had to be kept completely out of the investigation - and Bodie wasn't.

Thanks for your thoughts - gack, yesterday was such a disaster. After I'd posted this my access to Lj sort of crumbled, then stopped completely. I could only get back in last night by following various links, not from my f'list.

[gideonbd77.livejournal.com]

I'm always wary of AUs, particularly those where one of them is in CI5 while the other isn't. I think it's because any mis-characterization of Bodie or Doyle becomes even more glaring in such a setting.

My question for such AUs is, how is the character written to be in CI5 still the same as his original TV self if he was never partnered up with the other? At least in AUs like historical ones, sci-fi and fantasy, the entire world is different so you know you're in for major differences. I think the partnership between Bodie and Doyle plays a huge role in shaping them into who they are, so if the AU is like the one in this story, the characters would have be seriously spot-on to convince me of the story's believability.

Thanks to the byslantedlight's comments, I was prepared for the Americanism. When I read, "Damned straight," I pictured Starsky or Hutch saying it! (Then I started picturing Starsky speaking like Doyle, which just cracked me up.) I agree with byslantedlight about not being able to believe Doyle's surprise at Bodie getting into CI5 without formal education. With credentials like Bodie's, the last thing one would care about is him never finishing school. Having been a mercenary in Africa, the Paras and the SAS equals 'Don't mess with this artillery-happy sonofabloodygun who's now the deputy head of CI5'. *lol*

I could buy Bodie not knowing about Doyle's shooting champion status ... only if it was before Bodie got to know him in any way and had yet to check Doyle's background out. Him being the deputy head of CI5 and all, he could get info on anybody he liked when he wanted it. On a Met copper? Probably get it at the snap of his fingers.

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

About AUs, I can see what you mean. I really enjoy AUs where the universe is completely different, but I also like one with just a slight difference from canon. I once read somewhere that is the definition of AU - where at one point a decision has been made differently from how it was/must have been in canon.

Look at the title - you could read this a whole story about Doyle's decision not to accept Cowley's invitation to join CI5 back in 1975(ish). He got on well in the Met, made a career and seems to have made his work his life, which is quite plausible for Doyle. But, destiny is destiny - he still manages to get together with Bodie!

[gideonbd77.livejournal.com]

I once read somewhere that is the definition of AU - where at one point a decision has been made differently from how it was/must have been in canon.

Then that means I've read many more Pros AUs than I thought. *grin* I gotta go look through my story collection again and see which ones deviated from canon!

[merentha13.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this story. Like killmedead above, the last scene is one of my favorites in all Pro's fics. "You're going to let me leave, aren't you?" Doyle's couldn't control the trembling in the words or the shaking in his hands. It gets me every time. I took the comment about Bodie's lack of education as a "snarky-doylism". It was meant as an insult more than an actual question. As for AU, most of Pro's fiction is a kind of AU, isn't it? Especially the slash. *g* Just a thought!
Thanks for the review!

[3745rule.livejournal.com]

Hesitantly coming in to make a comment.

When I first read this story, at least a year ago, I enjoyed it on a simple level as a love story but didn't feel it was the lads. To me it is not about the lads I know and love but about two other characters.

(I'll go now before I change my mind about posting a comment....)

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

I think you've summed it up quite well! Nice, but not quite Pros!!