Reading Room X - Crossover Stories - The Tangled Web by Jack Reuben Darcy

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Title: The Tangled Web
Author: Jack Reuben Darcy
Pairing: B/D
Link to story: at the Circuit Archive

The Tangled Web is a Pros/Chief crossover, written sometime before 2003. There seem to be two kinds of Pros crossovers - those that take both our lads, B/D as we adore them, and combine their universe with some other, and those that take one of our lads into another universe so that they can have a relationship with the main character from that universe. This means of course that they have to somehow get rid of the other lad, killing him, or marrying him off, or the like, and so from the very start it's rather lost me a bit. I'm interested in B/D, and that's who I want to know about.

This story does neither, which means that as soon as I realised Doyle wasn't really missing - quite early on - I could carry on reading with a happy heart, and that's one of the first things I like about this story! It doesn't cram the CI5 universe into Alan Cade's universe, it slides the two beautifully together, and it slides our B/D together too - eventually.

The next thing I like about this story is that it's interesting! The cross-over has been carefully, and I think realistically done. I can see that Bodie and Cade might not have crossed paths in fourteen years or so, particularly as Bodie wasn't head of CI5 until Cade was out of the country, and I really like the way the author seems to have paid attention to details like that, making it all plausible so that I didn't have to stop and think really? (Of course I *headdesked* over various Americanisms, such as Cade's schooling, but because the rest of the story worked, I could get past that.

As a result of some dirty work on the part of Willis and MI6, Bodie is sent on a cross-organisational operation to Africa just as he and Doyle have embarked upon a sexual relationship, just as they've realised that they're not just friends but are in love as well, with all the passion that new love means. Not long after, however, Doyle is told that Bodie has been killed. Trying to deal with it, he leaves CI5 and finds himself in Liverpool, where he comes across a man who looks just like him - Alan Cade, working undercover. In the course of finding out more about each other - there's a distant family connection - they become friends, and when Cade is beaten to death, Doyle takes on his life as an escape from the emptiness of his own, and to avenge the death of his friend, so that Ray Doyle is dead, and Cade's own work can contineu. From there it snowballs for both of them. Bodie returns to CI5 to find that Doyle is dead, and they both bury themselves in coping and surviving as best they can.

Until Alan Cade comes back from a holiday in Africa, where's he'd finally gone to try and lay Bodie's ghost to rest, to find that there's a new head of CI5 after many years, and that the man is doing the rounds of the regional police as a meet and greet. He's then planning to attend Cade's conference on policing the drug problem.

Bodie, meanwhile, has been befriended by Kate Ross, who is worried about one of his coping strategies - taking male lovers who look like Ray Doyle...

Sure enough, there's a spark between them, and although Doyle knows who Bodie is, he's determined that he can't destroy the lives of everyone Cade loved by revealing who he is - and besides, Bodie left him, so easily, when Willis asked him to. Didn't he?

Eventually Bodie recognises Doyle from the way he draws his gun whilst on an armed police/CI5 operation, and from then on the story is about how the lads can reconcile what happened to them, and how they can begin to forge new lives, whilst at the same time keeping Alan Cade's secret safe.

Jack Reuben Darcy occasionally falls into slush which has me wriggling uncomfortably in my seat:
Cade lifted an idle shoulder, "I know last night was a one- off."
"Oh?" Bodie's ire was ignited immediately, having simmered since he'd woken alone that morning. "Why? Decide you didn't like getting fucked on your first date?"
Cade froze but didn't look at him. The cool control of the other man only drove Bodie's anger further.
"Didn't feel like that to me last night, while I had my cock inside you. Especially when you were lying there like a hooker, begging me to do it."
"Bodie..." the voice was low, warning but he paid no attention.
"What did you expect? Sweet nothings in your ear? A bunch of roses?"
Cade slowly shook his head, pulling in his bottom lip - the lips Bodie had not been allowed to kiss last night - even though he'd wanted that more than anything else. The sight sent him black inside. "You're either the greatest actor I've ever seen - or you screw around a lot. A virgin usually only gives something like that to a man he loves!"
Now Cade turned - but away from Bodie. His feet took him two steps and then paused, head shifted slightly to murmur sword- like words in return. "How do you know I didn't?" And then Cade left him, walking back towards the hotel, his shoulders stiff, his head held high.
(I can't see our lads thinking, doing or saying many of those things - assuming that a man who's not had gay sex before does it for the first time only because he loves someone? That being fucked is about love, not sex? And that Cade, being so careful about everything else, would suggest that he was in love with Bodie after just a few days?) But in general she handles the story lightly and yet with a depth of feeling that has you aching to read more. Well it did me, anyway... *g*

And the lads were the lads, which is absolutely the best thing I can say about any author's writing... *g*

What about you - what did you think of this story? Did you believe it? Did you believe Doyle as Cade, and Bodie as the head of CI5, and Cowley's role too? And did it have your heart yearning with every word to find out how it all ends...?

Comments

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

"And did it have your heart yearning with every word to find out how it all ends...? "
It still has! Because I'm only half through. ;-)

And I'm yearning to kick Doyle in the ass all the time and force him to stop being so stupid! First to say Bodie who he is, and now to risk his career.

But despite that urge... I love the story!
It's (so far) the most beautiful I've read for a long time! Though dark and tragic, it's romantic.
The dialogues are spot on and witty, and I never thought that they were boring or repetitive. Your 'yearning to find out' is really a good description!

Your questions?
Yes, they are my lads. Not always - but most of the time.

I do believe it. There are more and more explanations to make it believable. Now I even can understand why Doyle thinks that being quiet about his real indentity is the right thing to do.
It's realistic. Far away from romatic musings. And Bodie has done the same, when he vanished to Africa, hasn't he?
(Of course he hasn't! ;-))

I don't know if Doyle is a good Cade, because I don't know 'The Chief'.

But I think Doyle is a good Chief in this story, as much as I think that Bodie is perfect as head of CI5. That description at the beginning for example is brilliant!
"As with most natural leaders, Bodie inspired trust in those around him not by what he said, but how he said it."
Yeah! Well... :-)

Cowley's role is (still?) a very small one. And for me there is no need to reveal more details of the circumstances in the past.
(Maybe some little tale about how Bodie did kill Willis... ;-))

What I like about the story are also the strong women. They are good friends, not just birds, or agents, or just 'capable'.
I hope there will be some more place for them, especially for Elena, in the rest of the story.
And what a strange/good idea to make Kate Ross of all people Bodie's best friend...! :-)

So much for now.
LOL! When I read on screen I make a copy of the story, and then I always delete the parts I've read so that it's easier to find where to go on. But I cut parts I love and paste them at the end to reread them later. And somehow this story doesn't seem to diminish in the number of pages... ;-)

Thanks for this story!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It still has! Because I'm only half through. ;-)
Heee - it's lovely and long, isn't it... *g* I'm really pleased you're liking it though - I like your description of it as dark and tragic and romantic, that's just what I thought about it!

I've always rather liked Kate Ross, but I thought it was odd to see her as Bodie's friend too - and yet not unbelievable, either. Jack Reuben Darcy convinced me that they might have met up, and that Bodie had been affected enough by this grief to make him talk to her. I liked the way that JRD developed the lads over the years too - she didn't have them stand still, she showed us that they'd changed through what happened to them, because of course we change over time anyway, and when something that tragic happens, then the changes would be even more noticeable...

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

First of all, thanks for the rec and review. I hadn't come across this author before. I haven't seen The Chief, either, so this was a new experience!

I think I like the idea of the story - or the summary - better than the actual fic. I found myself skimming a lot, and I'm not sure why. The writing was competent (apart from the occasional non-intrusive Americanisms), the lads were the lads and the storyline was just about plausible enough to let me suspend disbelief.

So why am I lukewarm about it? It's a very long story with almost no other characters (other than walk-on parts) except Cade's daughter, and Kate Ross. And yet those two are, for me, never fully developed in their own right. There's a great deal of over-romantic angst and deliberation/introspection both between the men and when they're alone, and it is rarely offset by banter or everyday ordinariness. There is also very little excitement - the whole plot turns on whether or not the new relationship will work. All the cases CI5 and Cade's police force deal with are well in the background, even the one where Doyle gives himself away in the way he handles the gun.

None of this is exactly criticism, just an attempt to find an explanation for my lack of enthusiasm. If I hadn't been reading it for the Reading Room I wouldn't have finished it. Once they were together again I would either have stopped reading or continued in the hopes of some further crisis, which of course never occurred.

A good story which failed to hook me?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Lol - I think we generally tend to end up at opposite ends about stories, don't we?! I wonder if knowing The Chief helped though, because Doyle's character fit in with Cade, and part of my enjoyment was seeing how he'd changed enough to become Cade, and why.

But then I definitely saw different things in there than you did! I saw "banter" between the lads, and I didn't have any problems with the walk-on characters, because they weren't my focus, and I didn't need to know more about them than we saw. The "excitement", for me, was in seeing how the lads dealt with what had happened to them, such a dramatic thing that of course there was angsty deliberation/introspection, which is what I was interested in. Any police/CI5 cases were irrelevant to the story itself, so I was glad they were well in the background - very glad, I think they would have been intrusive. I do agree that at times they were a little "over-romantic", though not often enough that I had to stop - examples like that above were pretty rare. Of course it depends what you call "over-romantic", and if what you really want is a case-fic, then I can see where you're coming from!

We all have to be under-enthused about some kinds of stories! I'm often under-enthused about heavily case-based stories, for instance, because what interests me most about Pros and B/D is the B/D relationship, and how they're able to make it work... *g*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Yes, we're often on different 'sides' about stories, which is odd when you consider that I like your stories. But maybe not so odd when I remember that the ones I like most of yours are the ones with lots of action, case-fic or otherwise. I'm not keen on long periods of introspection etc. in any fandom or in original fic and it usually sets me skimming. I suppose I like world building, and seeing how characters interact with that world, and like their relationship to be set against that rather than concentrating on the internal dynamics of the relationship.

I think some knowledge of The Chief would probably have helped here. But I didn't actually dislike the story - just wouldn't re-read it.

[murphybabe]

No, this one never really grabs me, I'm afraid. I like the writing, and some of the descriptions or phrases are beautiful. The spelling mistakes set my teeth on edge, and some of the Americanisms grated. But it's more that I find this totally unbelievable in its whole. Some bits work very well, such as Bodie taking over CI5 after a caretaker who's not terribly competent. The premise of 'Bodie killed in Africa' and 'Doyle killed undercover' (or whatever: I didn't read the details) just didn't do it for me. I can recognise our lads, and in a way that's worse, because our lads, as I see them, would have moved heaven and earth to check, prove and grieve.

I think I have read the whole thing before, and I tried to reread this time, but I got about a fifth of the way through and thought, 'Oh, no, it's this one!' and then just skimmed the rest in about 3 minutes.

I enjoyed your review, though!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

The Americanisms and spellings grate on me too, but I don't have a problem with the way the author explained what had happened to separate our lads. I thought it was pretty realistic, to be honest - more so than Hollywood blockbusters where the husband/wife/partner is wealthy and free enough to move heaven and earth to prove (ie, fix to their liking) what's happened... In the eps, too, I think our lads do trust Cowley enough that they'd believe him if they were told their partner had been killed and the body was gone - either in Africa, or months/years later in a very bad beating. Bodie would have had a grave to visit, after all, and there are unmarked graves all over this country, never mind the wilds of Africa - it's not necessarily that easy to find a body, and prove a death. Ultimately you'd have to dig up the grave, if you could find it, and depending how much time had passed, and the conditions of the soil/temperature etc...

But then it took me a long time to get into reading Pros crossovers at all, and even now I only really want to read them if I know the other characters/series/etc, so... *g*

[merentha13.livejournal.com]

This is going to seem a bit contradictory, but I really enjoyed the story, but wasn't able to buy into it. First, even with your explanation above, I find it very hard to believe that Alan Cade NEVER heard the name WAP Bodie in the years they were separated. With both of them in some form of law enforcement, the name had to come up. And then, and this was the big one for me, why couldn't Cade/Doyle admit to Bodie who he was when they met in Cade's office that first day. He goes on remembering how much Bodie meant to him, how much he missed him. If he couldn't trust Bodie not to reveal the things he felt he needed to keep hidden, they they had no chance. As for the excuse that Bodie had left him to go with Willis - Doyle would never have let that silently slide by if he had a chance to the reason why. And, one last thing - how could Bodie not recognize his Ray? Especially after they got into bed together. No - not buying that.

BUT - I did like the story. The two supposed deaths and rebuilt lives were well done. I like the writing style. The story kept me interested. (If only to find out when and how Bodie was going to learn that Cade was Ray - and I liked that reveal as well.) The story was well written enough for me to get past some big holes and just enjoy the ride.

Thanks for a good review!

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

And, one last thing - how could Bodie not recognize his Ray? Especially after they got into bed together. No - not buying that.

I'm with you on this one......Despite really liking this story when I first read it a long time ago, the one thing I did find a bit hard to believe was Bodie failing to recognise Ray after 14 years? (I think it was 14?) They'd worked together closely for a long time, were close friends out of work and then lovers, it doesn't get much closer than that. But having said that I still think it's a great, meaty read which kept my attention throughout and I only wish Darcey had written more in Pros as I've loved both her stories.

[merentha13.livejournal.com]

I agree! It was a good read and I did enjoy it - but Bodie would have "known" Ray! (and now I have to find her other story!)

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

It's here at the CA and I'm sure it's at The Hatsand as well:

http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/4/saintsand.html

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

"I did find a bit hard to believe was Bodie failing to recognise Ray after 14 years?"
I thought about that, and why I had no problems to buy it.
Do we really 'see' our family and friends when we meet them every day?
Last week I found some old family pictures. And I was very surprised how much my 'little' brother has changed(the others not so much). I'm really not sure if I would have recognised him after 20 years of separation.
Another thing. Doyle has probably not only changed his hair, but also his gestures, his speech, his opinion... - his whole 'inside attitude'.
Yes, I can believe that part of the story. Especially because Bodie knows that he can't trust himself in this matter.
How can he believe that 'a living Doyleit' is not just 'wishful thinking'?

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's possible, I don't know. Physical appearance is one thing but I just can't imagine that once they started spending more time with each other there would be nothing there to trigger some sort of long lost memory in Bodie e.g. the voice? All kinds of small mannerisms/characteristics... Also the gap wasn't between boy and man where there is a lot of change but between them as men in their 30s and late 40s (presumably) where I think there would be less change than previously. Maybe. Dunno.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Do we really 'see' our family and friends when we meet them every day?

Sorry forgot this. No, we probably don't but I don't think Bodie and Doyle had that kind of relationship! Also, they were often alone together for hours at a time in a car or on stakeout and I think you get to know people very well in those circumstances.

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

Good point! And if you are in love with someone you pay even more attention.

Ok - I would have probably thrown away another story - but not this one! :-)

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

I'm with you here. At least partly... ;-)
"...I find it very hard to believe that Alan Cade NEVER heard the name WAP Bodie in the years they were separated... why couldn't Cade/Doyle admit to Bodie who he was when they met in Cade's office that first day.... how could Bodie not recognize his Ray?..."
About the last part I have answered S2K, I can buy that.

The other things... - I think that it IS possible.

We all want that Hollywood kind of love between them. Absolut trust and eternal love.
And the moment they meet again, after assuming the other dead, they should immediately hug and squeeze each other and never let go... *sigh*
But Doyle has a good! new life, and 14 years is a long time, and he thinks that Bodie wanted to leave him at that time - and he is no teenager in love... - so he prefers to be on the safe side.
I don't like it - but I can buy it - for the sake of the story... ;-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I dunno - I think the police and CI5/MI6 are separate enough that the lads wouldn't necessarily have met unless they were both at very senior levels - and Bodie's only just entered that senior level at CI5, before that he's been a field operative with MI6. It's only as he's become head of CI5 that he's had any duty to get to know the regional heads of police - and Eastland is "rural" in many respects, and we only once or twice saw CI5 working outside London and/or the Home Counties, so... I really didn't have a problem with that. They met very shortly after Bodie became head of CI5, and as an MI6 operative he'd've had no reason to deal with a rural police chief, so... and even as Chief, Cade might never have come into contact with MI6 - they're separate organisations... Would every police chief know names of CIA operatives, for instance?

People can change alot in 14 years, too, physically. It wasn't actually 14 years after the end of Pros that MS played Cade, and a year later he was playing Cecil Rhodes, and the year after that Chauvelin - if you've not seen someone for that long, and have an image of them as young, then are they really that easily recognisable? Especially if you're expecting that person to be long dead, and you're told that they're someone else? And Bodie does baulk at the similarity, even in the cheekbone, and Doyle/Cade is making an effort to be someone other than Bodie remembers...

I thought the story explained most of your other objections enough that I believed it, too - I really didn't see holes as you have... but we all have different ways of seeing things... *g*

Thanks for reading! *g*

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

I read the story, and overall it was entertainng, though a little long. But it left me wanting.

One beef I had was with the declarations of love. I admit I'm picky about that, and the 14-year separation and older lads does help explain it, but that seems to move them away from being B&D. One or two, okay. But there were a LOT in ths story.

And Doyle was a wee bit off... A little hard to describe, but... he seemed more quietly strong than tough. And Doyle (to me) comes across as a very very tough guy.

One question, and maybe I'm overthinking this, but Bodie knew that Doyle would have bakled at endangering the work he'd spent years putting together. Wouldn't he have known that Doyle would have taken his secondment (with no explanation) badly as well? Didn't he know that about Doyle?

Okay, it took me a couple of days to post this, but there you have it. Those are the basic things I came up with; sadly I can't spend more time expanding on this.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree about declarations of love and our lads, and I thought there were a few overly-smooshy bits in the story (such as the example above) but to be honest there weren't as many as in an awful lot of other Prosfics, and I thought they were pretty well tempered with reality here... but we all have our personal limits about that sort of thing! *g*

And Doyle was a wee bit off... A little hard to describe, but... he seemed more quietly strong than tough. And Doyle (to me) comes across as a very very tough guy.
Yes! But that was part of the cross-over! Doyle was making an effort to be someone else - to be quietly strong rather than tough, and Bodie even remarked on it when he thought that the fierceness of the blaze had left Doyle, that although the fire inside him was still there, seen in his fight against the drug laws, it had been "banked", was now warming and steady rather than dangerous and sparking out. I really liked that analogy, especially because they'd both grown older. I know there's a big difference between me now, and me 13 years ago! *g* Do you know Alan Cade ("The Chief") at all? I wonder if that makes a difference - I quite enjoyed reading the explanations for how one man could have become the other...

Bodie knew that Doyle would have bakled at endangering the work he'd spent years putting together. Wouldn't he have known that Doyle would have taken his secondment (with no explanation) badly as well? Didn't he know that about Doyle?
Yeah - I read it as him deciding it was a risk worth taking, that he thought Doyle's desire for him would outweigh his fears when Bodie'd worked so hard to mitigate each of those fears...

ANd it's okay, I only posted yesterday, and I wasn't able to reply straight away in any case, so... *g*

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Okay, fair enough - I've never seen The Chief.

One thing that I think got flipped: I was thinking that if Bodie is sensitive enough to know Cade would be upset about disrupting her currently-day work, wouldn't he have been sensitive enough 14 years earlier regarding Doyle's reaction to his leaving with Willis? THey weren't at all strangers then, and I would think that even if WIllis was threatening Doyle, Bodie would have worked out some way of contacting Doyle - or Cowley.

I might be misunderstanding you, too - I'm kind of wiped out right now...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the delay again - I'm in deepest, darkest Cornwall (by the seaside, but with not much internet access)... *g*

I would think that even if WIllis was threatening Doyle, Bodie would have worked out some way of contacting Doyle - or Cowley.
No, I can see that in the worry of the moment, when their relationship was new and so on, Bodie might well have had a moment of panic. Our lads don't always react rationally and sensibly about things in the eps (Doyle saying he'll resign over Ann Holly; Bodie running off against orders and interfering in the investigation in Man Without a Past; Doyle torn between doing what CI5 needs him to do and Bodie's obvious involvement with Marrika in Fall Girl; Bodie checking out Ann Holly even though he would "have known" Doyle wouldn't like it...). In all of those situations they could have sat down and very rationally realised that they'd be better off discussing the best plan of attack together - but they don't, because they're human, and they sometimes react first and think later...

Well, that's what I reckon, anyway. *g* (Hope you've managed some sleep in between and are all refreshed now! *g*)

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

I´m really late this time, but I just couldn´t get myself to finish the story.
Too much said with too little content. And I just can´t get over the fact that Doyle is LYING! To Bodie!
He´s oh soooo happy that Bodie´s alive, but he can´t tell the truth?
Nah, doesn´t work for me at all.
I like the crossovers with The Chief I´ve read so far, but this one - *shakes head*
Maybe I´ll finish it one day, but I don´t think it´ll happen this summer.
Or this year. But never say never, and maybe I´m missing out big time, and maybe I will LOVE it the next time I start it....

It´s fascinating though to read the thoughts of so many other readers.
And how many people like it.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I should have chosen any week other than last week to do my review - sorry for the delay!

I just can´t get over the fact that Doyle is LYING! To Bodie!
But... they lie to each other in the eps, and keep secrets from each other - we've all got our thinking about how we need to do things, and how other people might or might not be able to keep our secrets, or how much trouble they might be in if they knew them, and all sorts - I don't think our lads would be any different. And Doyle has reasons for keeping the secrety from Bodie at first - it's not just himself and Bodie who'd be hurt, it's Cade's family, his friends and colleagues, and all the work that he's done - and done well - as the Chief of police. And his previous convictions etc as a policeman would be endangered if it was found out he wasn't who he said he was. It'd be a huge thing, with massive impact.

And he also still thinks that Bodie chose to leave him, that he was more in love than Bodie can have been, because he didn't know that Bodie was threatened to make him leave, he thinks Bodie left by his own choice. So he's balanced all the harm to others against the fact that he thinks Bodie didn't really want him - I can totally go with that lack of faith.

I just don't think the lads' relationship is a perfect one, and I don't think they're superheroes either - I love them because they have flaws in the eps, they're just as human as you and I, and don't always think straight, or get things right. But they do by the end of this... *g*

[anna060957.livejournal.com]

I’ve cheated by preparing this earlier knowing that I was going to be away and off-line ... Consequently, this doesn’t follow any of the previous comments or answer any of the original questions – at least not in a comprehensible way. But ....

OMG! I so nearly didn’t carry on reading this when I thought Doyle was dead .... but I did carry on and discovered a story which will be a keeper! I love Jack Rueben Darcy’s style of writing. Despite her (I presume she’s a girl) occasional errors (reign/rein; week/weak and discrete/discreet) and the odd typos the story was a joy to read. Of course, with any crossover, a degree of reality has to be suspended. I’ve watched all The Chief series and I just cannot see Alan Cade as homosexual so although Alan is actually Ray Doyle, the fundamental series image of Alan Cade kept creeping in. Part of me regularly questioning why Alan didn’t just come clean and tell Bodie that he was Doyle, if not right from the start, at least once they got to bed – but of course, that would have ended the story long before I was ready to stop reading and long before the plot had unfolded .....

I loved that both Bodie and Doyle considered their exchange of vows to be a marriage, although neither managed life long fidelity!

The conversations between Bodie and Kate Ross were high spots for me and I thought it was good that she had a positive role in this story. Most of the stories I’ve read with her as a minor character – as with the episode Wild Justice – she is portrayed in a mainly negative light.

I did have some concerns for Cade’s daughter, though. At no time was the substitution properly explored and consequently there was no resolution to this fundamental deception or revelation of Doyle’s knowledge of her father’s death. Given the complications, I guess that would lengthen the story considerably to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, although she is depicted as a very rational and understanding person having accepted her “father’s” homosexuality very easily and believably. The series is, after all, set in the 90s when homosexuality was becoming, if not publicly acceptable, certainly its existence publicly acknowledged.

Best for me, a happy ending .... yeay!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

You did better than I did with your cheating - I chose entirely the wrong week to do my review! *g*

I do agree about the spellings, and there's Americanisms that grated and so on, but I could get past them for the story in this one. I could see Cade as Jack Reuben Darcy's Cade as I read this, though I don't watch The Chief and think "Oh yes, he's gay" at all (of course I don't with most shows, I watch the story as it is!) But as a crossover I could buy into it - because I liked that Doyle wasn't pushed aside to make way for Cade, Doyle is Cade...

why Alan didn’t just come clean and tell Bodie that he was Doyle, if not right from the start, at least once they got to bed
I've just given my understanding of this above, to Milomaus - I think there are many good reasons, and I think it would have been a much more wishy-washy story if they'd just fallen in love with each other all over again, ignored their past and spilled their hearts out - in fact I probably wouldn't have believed that. Life is far more complicated, and people, even when they love each other, are more complicated...

At no time was the substitution properly explored and consequently there was no resolution to this fundamental deception or revelation of Doyle’s knowledge of her father’s death.
But... she doesn't know, she never finds out. Her father isn't dead, Alan Cade is alive and well - in love with a man, but then she's presumably come to terms with her parents' separation as she grew up. And any differences she saw in her father would be explained by the fact that she'd mostly grown up with her mother - her father wasn't the at-home, familiar figure that our dads often are, he was much less known to start with anyway, so she would have grown up with Doyle-Cade just as much as with Cade-Cade, and never really known the difference...

Anyway - so glad that you liked it, it's good isn't it! *g*

[anna060957.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the Elena explanation - you are quite right that as far as she is concerned, her father isn't dead. That doesn't change the fact, though, that Doyle/Cade is perpetuating an untruth ... I think it might have helped to have had that tiny omission explored, if only using your theory that Elena simply didn't need to know.

I have read a number of JRD's works, but some time ago and this has reminded me what a good author she is.

Thank you for the rec and all the time taken to respond to the comments.

[nypagan.livejournal.com]

Sorry I haven't commented until now. My thoughts on this story are long and jumbled and gushy, so I will keep my post short. I really like this story. I wish I knew how JRD does it. Complex, gorgeous fics. The style and depth of character are awesome. I like The Chief and its easy for me to believe the transition of RD to Cade and Bodie to CI5 head, each thinking the other dead. Bodie's recognition of Doyle by this: "When you pulled your gun. I've been in this business for almost thirty years, Doyle and I've never met or seen or even heard of anybody who pulled his weapon from a left holster with his left hand first before he transferred it to his right ready for firing. I worked alongside you for six years and almost never saw you draw your weapon any other way." almost made me weep.

I also like Kate and Bodie as "frenemies". B&D setting up housekeeping at the end. Lovely.

Good choice my friend! It's long, but it is worth it and is one to print and keep for rainy day/bedtime reading followed by pleasant dreams.

eta: Everyone needs to get over the "Americanisms". We Americans don't whine about the "Britishisms"!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I'm still catching up - sorry for the delay!

I'm very glad you like this story - as you say it's a pleasant dreams fic! *g* I'm amused that you say "It's long but it's worth it" though, as the fact that it's long is an added bonus for me - I adore good long Pros fic, no buts about it! *g*

Everyone needs to get over the "Americanisms". We Americans don't whine about the "Britishisms"!
Actually I have seen Americans complaining about Britishisms in American-based fandoms, and so they should!

I'm afraid I don't think it's a case of just "getting over" this kind of mistake though - you might as well say "get over bad spelling" or "get over the need for capital letters and full stops"! Bodie and Doyle are English - they were born and grew up in England, they work there, they speak English, they are English. Everything they think and say and decide in the eps is affected by that - that's where their outlook on life comes from. It's a very different outlook from an American person's outlook, for instance. They might sometimes speak French or German or in an American accent - but only in the context of what they're saying or doing at that moment (Bodie pretending that he's John Wayne, for instance). They don't just suddenly start speaking another language mid-sentence. They didn't attend "college" in the USA, "high school" in Australia, or even study for their "highers" in Scotland and so they don't have memories of those things. They're English, with all that means, and if you take that away from them, then they're not Bodie and Doyle any more, they're other characters - Starsky and Hutch perhaps, or more likely two original male characters loosely based on the B/D dynamic.

I can read through an Americanism (or an Australianism or a Canadianism or South Africanism or whatever) or two in a story, if the rest of the story is good enough to hold my attention. But I want to be reading about the Bodie and Doyle that I see in the episodes - and those characters are everything that growing up and living and working in England has made them. If an author makes them too something else then I'm not going to want to read/finish that story, because when I read B/D it's because I want to read B/D.

There do seem to be fans out there who are more focussed on the m/m aspect of a pairing than which (if any) fandom it belongs to - people have even written "fanfiction" without ever having seen, let alone being familiar with, the original source material (tv show etc). Those fans probably wouldn't mind even if they realised that a story was out of character or time or place for the original show - but they probably wouldn't realise, cos they just want a good story, not actually a good fanfic story. Which is fine. But other fans are looking for actual fanfiction about specific characters in a specific show and I think it's fair enough for them to explain what they're looking for - and in Pros, for instance, that's likely to include a lack of Americanisms... I wouldn't expect Sentinel fans to happily read about Jim/Blair tucked up under a duvet discussing their A-levels and drinking Bovril. In the same way I'm not happy reading about Bodie/Doyle sitting on the Chesterfield discussing their SAT scores and drinking hot buttered rum. Some things are just culturally specific, and have never (or not yet) crossed to other cultures. Pretending that they have also takes away some of their meaning and value - I like that I'd have to go to America to have a proper American breakfast and buy gas and hear people talking about Saturday Night Live and keg parties, those are some of the things that make it America - a special place of its own! And in the same way there are special things about other countries too - including Bodie/Doyle's England.

[nypagan.livejournal.com]

You make some very good points and I do agree with 99% of them. However, as you stated, I try not to let a few Britishisms in US based fanfic detract from the story overall. Unless its very poorly written. An author who doesn't bother to convert their idea to the proper setting probably isn't worth reading. For example, any B&D story that I would want to publish I would have beta-ed by a UK fan and change the language at their suggestions.

I wouldn't expect Sentinel fans to happily read about Jim/Blair tucked up under a duvet
Funny you should say that, because I have read some Sentinel stories which mention duvets. And lifts, jumpers, trainers, biscuits, and they drink a lot of tea. =) I've only come across a few stories where the author didn't seem to bother to proof read for proper context.