Prosfic Rec Advent Calendar, Day Nineteen:

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Mea culpa! Mea very very culpa - sorry! I completely spaced that I was reccing on the 19th of December!

More importantly - it wouldn't be Christmas without reading a fic by Lizzie, and so without any shame at all I am reccing again what I'm sure I've recced before:

Join the Queue
by Lizzie

Lizzie's got such a lovely way with the lads - she puts them right where they live, and they're just them... just not in Ci5. This is the sort of thing they get up to when they're at home together. Or when Bodie's off to the Post Office for his Doyle... *g*

Prosfic Rec Advent Calendar, Day Twenty: Two by Elspeth Leigh

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Here I am, with today's Advent offering: two - count 'em, two! - stories by Elspeth Leigh:

• Fairy Tale
• The Cow’s Christmas
  

They *are* related; The Cow’s Christmas is an alternate take on Fairy Tale, from what I can tell, written a year or few afterwards. Rather than true fairy tales, they're more a blend of a few Christmas stories.

Both start off with Bodie working on the crossword at Doyle's. They're already a couple, they're lazing through a rare-ish Christmas break – but it then veers off in another direction entirely. Almost.

The second makes the first story a bit more CI5-centric – and making it hit home that much more. I think it’s the better story, though rawer.

Even though these two stories comprise a take and a retake of a certain situation, I think they should be read together, and in that order.

Don’t want to spoil it too much; but in the end, maybe it's more about CI5 itself, as its own character.

Hope you enjoy!

ETA: As tinturtle points out below, The Cow's Christmas seems to have come first - I inadvertently switched the publish dates. A teeny tiny shame but CI5 is still the central character - and it's remit *is* beyond its members, after all!