ci5hq | Reading Room Theme IV - Older Lads Fic - Fire Held High and Away by Miriam Heddy

starlite876.livejournal.com posting in

Title: Fire Held High and Away
Author: Miriam Heddy
Link to story or zine/ProsLib info: at the Circuit Archive or at the Hatstand Archive or on the ProsLib CD or in The Bisto Kids zine
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle

The title of the story is explained in the first couple of paragraphs which describes how the person who holds the Olympic Torch must to strike a balance when running and holding the Olympic Torch - that the torch must be held high and away or else the torch bearer would be burnt by the fire.

The story is written entirely from Bodie's POV and begins right after Involvement when Ann has left Doyle. The story then skips forward a couple of years and now the lads are no longer part of the 'A' squad but still with CI5. Doyle is being groomed to be Cowley's successor, while Bodie is working in the training centre, having taking over Macklin's job.

Although the lads are no longer partners on the streets, there are still best friends and rely on each other both at work and off work. When Doyle is stressed and frustrated with dealing with the bureaucracy it is Bodie who tries and cheers him up. Most of the time off work they spend together in each other's company. Although Bodie is bisexual in this story, they are not lovers (at least not at the start of the story).

We see the day-to-day lives of the lads both at work and off work, and the sneakiness of Doyle to orchestrate them into sharing a flat together. The move from friendship into something more is well written and I love the fact that Bodie had absolutely no idea of what Doyle was up to.

But what works for me best in this story is the banter between the lads - sharp and witty, and seem so true to what we see of the lads on screen.

Did this story work for you?

Do you think it is possible that either one or both of the lads would/could be groomed to takeover from Cowley? This seems to be a common premise in many Older Lads stories - for example, the story in last week's review had Doyle second-in-charge of CI5. In other Older Lads stories both Bodie and Doyle are "co-controllers" of CI5. Do you think it would take both lads to do Cowley's job? Or would one lad be more successful than the other, and if so who would be more successful as controller of CI5?

I will most likely not be able to access my computer for the next 24 hours due to the time zone differences and work commitments (I'm on a training course to learn about the thrilling subject of Project Management Life Cycle *snooze* ) so please discuss amongst yourselves and I hope to be able to come back to the LJ and read everyone's comments soon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

milomaus.livejournal.com

Reading the comments before commenting makes it real hard to concentrate on the story....
But it´s just so much fun.

I do love this story to pieces, there´s so much love involved, and Bodie is like somebody who would like sth VERY much, but knows he´ll never get it, so when it´s finally presented to him, he goes like: "What? For me? Nah, can´t be true..."

And I sooooo love the way Doyle is contrite about the cherrychocolate episode, it hints, no waves like crazy, that he did sth like that before to Bodie, and that he knows exactly how he affects Bodie with that. He knows that Bodie loves him, or at least desires him, so he plays along and wants to take it further.

And I love the way Bodie get´s a bit mad at him, but can´t stay mad, cause Doyle needs him...
Ahh, I just so love the domestic bliss. And how the reader knows what Doyles up to, even though Bodie still can´t believe it.

I do agree with BSL about the introduction scene, that´s what I thought it explained, too.
Thanks for already pointing it out!

What a wonderful story to be recced, I do look forward to read it again already!

From:

moonlightmead.livejournal.com

The cherry chocolate episode is related to one of my big problems with this story. Food and eating. They're both nagging at each other in this one.

What is this obsession with Bodie and weight? I have one or two dislikes in Pros fic. They include (for example): Doyle as tight-fisted; Doyle routinely taking casual advantage of Bodie (taking deliberate advantage as part of a calculated campaign is somehow okay, though!); and Bodie as constantly on a diet or in need of one.

Bodie's shape changes considerably through the programmes, but I don't think he gains and becomes podgy. If anything, he becomes more trim over the course of the series. Assuming I am watching them in the right order, at least. So why do so many fics go on and on about his weight and weight concerns? And, specifically, chocolate? Does he eat that much chocolate in the programmes? Or even sweet stuff in general? Do men really generally get so excited about chocolate? (Other than as an energy source when in the armed forces and yomping across the Beacons or something.) Throwing stereotypes and cliches around with wild abandon here, I had always understood that chocolate is supposed to be a girlie thing.

Anyway, because I was curious whether it was just this fic I wasn't keen on, or something in the style, I was glancing across others by the same author. And, well.

* Pandora's Box starts off about swiss roll.
* Fancy That starts off with them eating "chocolate rum balls" (plunging to depths of seventies Christmas party buffets that I am glad I never encountered - honestly, I have never heard of anything like these, and I remember the seventies Cordon Bleu party food books) and progresses to "when did you eat the cheddar?"
* The Joy of Camping has more chocolate and scotch (ugh! No whisky drinker should do that!) and Ray considering how Bodie habitually loses weight with Macklin and puts it back on after.
* Losing is an Art gets two screens in before pausing to note that one day, Bodie will have "a real tum on him".

Now, I realise that all authors have their foibles - I have three things on the go at the moment all of which involve Doyle flaunting himself, for example - and I realise that you need background actions to go on with what's going on in the foreground; but there is just so _much_ about people (mostly Bodie) eating chocolate and struggling to avoid weight gain here.

And I can't explain why, but it bothers me more than it should.

From:

milomaus.livejournal.com

I count Bodies eating habits as canon, and he get´s teased by Doyle about them.

And why on earth is chocolate supposed to be a girly thing? *g*
Oh, dear, better never come across my brothers saying sth like that!
My father is very much into chocolates, too, as is Mr. Maus. And most Whisky drinkers like eating chocolates with their drink a lot! Some Whiskys are even discribed to have a chocolatey note.
And the way Bodie takes on the swiss roll is definetly on the greedy side. *g*

Eating choclates can truly be sexy.....

I realised the thing about Bodie and eating, too, but lucky me I´m not bothered by it at all.
I think it is a bit sad that you can´t enjoy the story as much as I did, and I hope you´ll find loads of other fics that make you happy.

I´m really looking forward to your stories, you will post them somewhere soon, right?
PLEASE?
Please let me know!?
Thanks for answering to my comment, it really makes me happy to think it was worth reading and some time of yours answering.

From:

starlite876.livejournal.com

You've picked up on one of my pet hates as well in Pros stores: Doyle being tight with money and Bodie having an obsession with food. I remember vaguely there was a discussion about this either here in CI5 or in one of the other PROS community. I must see if I can find the link on this when I come back from work tonight.

Thank you for your comments.

From:

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

Snap!

Ooh, and with the magic of our CI5 Index, might this be the post you were remembering? (http://ci5hq.livejournal.com/42468.html) In fact there are two posts, one after the other, to try and stop the comments concertina-ing - I've not re-read it yet, but it looks like people were interested! Oh wow - except look how long ago it was, 2007! *g* So maybe not the one you're thinking of...

From:

siskiou.livejournal.com

Bodie and food, and his weight are definitely a recurring theme (some of it in canon), but much more so in fanon.
We do see Bodie go from having a little bit of a belly, to great shape in Mixed Doubles (Macklin) and back to a bit heavier again, and since food/cholesterol etc. is part of their banter in canon, I don't mind seeing it in stories. It doesn't seem to bother Bodie or Doyle, IIRC, nor does anyone in canon worry about Doyle's weight (apart from Bodie in Stakeout, telling him a "little David" like him can't go knocking out a bigger guy, without calling attention to himself).
Sometimes, in stories, Bodie seems to eat nothing but swiss roll, and full english breakfasts and seeing it over and over again can get annoying.
I've seen some people get almost offended at the mention that Bodie weighs a little more than Doyle and am never quite sure what's so bad about physical differences between them. Maybe we are so conditioned to look at weight and diet that we feel protective of a favorite character/actor.

From:

taverymate.livejournal.com

Rather than repeat the info several times, I put some relevant info into a comment below.

I think that you're conflating the way that Miriam deals with Bodie's body, food, and weight, and how other authors may tackle the same topics.

From:

taverymate.livejournal.com

Well, for some unknown reason my comment below is being screened - NO idea why! Sent off a quick email to the mods, so hopefully that will be cleared up and you can actually read the damn thing.

If it doesn't get unscreened soon, I'll just post it as a reply here and cross my fingers that the comments don't collapse.

From:

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

Sorry, was in bed asleep! I'm glad you worked out the spambot-screening thing though, because this is all really interesting to wake up to! *g*

From:

byslantedlight.livejournal.com

The cherry-chocolate thing rings strangely with me in the story too, to be honest, and I can't quite figure out why... We don't see Doyle eating like that in the eps, but that doesn't mean that he couldn't have a fetish for chocolate-covered cherries... I'm pretty sure there were chocolate covered cherries back then, so it can't be that... Maybe it's the way he does it, which I know is all part of his fumbling attempted seduction of Bodie, and it's just not going right at all, so maybe it's that awkwardness I'm feeling...

I'm not sure that chocolate in general is a "girlie" thing - I've known lots of guys who love chocolate! They're not as vocal about it though, and I've never seen/heard any of them treat it in the same way as many women treat chocolate (guilty pleasure/shouldn't-break-my-diet/mustn't-eat-this/hide it somewhere in the house etc), mostly they just get on with eating it, and you can tell they're enjoying it a) cos they buy it and b) cos they look like they're enjoying it as they eat it! *g*

What does bug me in fics is when the lads are given those stereotypically female traits about something like chocolate or dieting or whatever. Men do diet, but they do it in a very different, less vocal way, than women do, from what I've seen. (Same sort of way they use moisturiser etc these days - they just get on with it as a practical thing, rather than talking about it... that said, maybe I've just not heard those conversations since it's a more recent thing - well, except that my ex-, yonks ago in the 80s/90s, used to nick my moisturiser, so not that new... the quantity of choice for them is, I guess, and the openness about it in marketing.... But I digress (who, me?)

So... there are times in fics when I'm perfectly comfortable with the lads thinking about their weight - and actually I was in Fire Held High and Away, because although Bodie thought about it and joked about it, he clearly wasn't angsting about it...) and others when I just want to scream...