Pros Novel Read-Along - Painted Angels by Angelfish - Chapter Three

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Apologies - I'd hoped to post this morning, but I've had a migraine all day, which is only just fading, and I couldn't bear the screen... (If anyone would like to volunteer to help with the introductions sometimes, then that would be great!) But here we are at last!

Painted Angels by Angelfish.
Cover art by firlefanzine

Chapter Three

Chapter Three
The lads are off on another test, this one apparently to find their way from Point A to Point B in the wilderness, and this time they're working alone. Doyle has reached the end, but instead of the comforting light and warmth and human companionship he's been looking forward to, the clearing is empty - except, he eventually realises, for Bodie peering around in a similar way.

Bodie makes himself known, and seems to be trying to be friendly - but Doyle is wise to this now, and determined not to open himself up to betrayal again. When he heads off to get some water from the river, though, Bodie follows him, and they end up trying to work things out together.

Sure enough, there are further instructions hidden for them in the clearing, and they set off together to find what they hope really is the final end-point. All does not, however, go wrong. Doyle is determined to prove to Bodie that he's equally as capable - which he's already doing with ease - to the point that when Bodie tries to hand him over a rocky outcrop, Doyle refuses his help. Unfortunately Bodie didn't explain why he was trying to give it, and so Doyle lands on a brittle ledge, and plunges them both down the steep hillside into the river below.

Bodie is knocked out by the fall, but Doyle is alert enough to be able to pull him from the river and administer CPR. Bodie revives, Doyle it turns out has four broken ribs and has lost his jacket, and they both limp on as far as they can go - which isn't all the way.

Doyle is becoming dangerously hypothermic, and so Bodie stops them and makes a shelter and a fire so that they can see out the night. They cuddle up close to share body warmth, and Doyle falls asleep. He dreams - and calls out to Gabe, and in his dream they're obviously very close, because Bodie finds himself the subject of sleepy sexuality. Knowing that any response on his part would not be a good idea, Bodie's just about to move them apart when Doyle falls silent and his dream takes a completely different turn - then finally he relaxes into sleep again.

With light comes a searching helicopter, and they hike out a final mile to meet it. Bodie makes the mistake of asking Doyle about Gabe, and Doyle immedately attacks - "Don't you ever... ever even fucking think of saying that name to me again." The lads are rescued - sure they've failed out of CI5 this time - and they're taken back to civilisation. Doyle is hospitalised for a week, although Bodie is passed fit even after his near-escape. Cowley is surprised to find Bodie staying close to the hospital, and in fact to Doyle's bedside. The lads are even more surprised, when Cowley speaks to them, to find that not only have they passed CI5 recruitment - but that it is on the condition that they work together as partners.

So - what do you reckon?! Does this read as our Bodie and Doyle? Is it realistic? What do we think of Bodie's apparent change of heart after the revelation of the last chapter - "Thinks he's made a friend. Spare me." Are you believing in the story?

Comments

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

The first time I read this chapter, I was so happy to see a Bodie I could recognize that I just gulped it down. But on rereading, I find this transition very hard to follow.

The action scenes are great, and I love the rescue. When Bodie was thinking "why didn't he just obey," I wanted to ask him, "This Ray Doyle, have you MET him at all?" But Bodie has been guarding himself so hard, I think he really hasn't given any thought to what makes Doyle tick.

When Bodie realizes, maybe with some compunction, that his efforts to build a shelter and a fire have been mostly for his own good, and when he observes Doyle's sex dream/nightmare, it seems to trigger an increased consideration for Doyle that, when I view it apart from my own concern and involvement with Doyle and with the two of them together, I don't understand. Why does Bodie hang around the hospital? Later in their relationship, I get it, but now?

What happened to all that deep damage? Is it just gone now? Because they saved each other this time?

[cim3745.livejournal.com]

I don't understand. Why does Bodie hang around the hospital? Later in their relationship, I get it, but now?

I had the same thought, and expected a change all the time.

What happened to all that deep damage? Is it just gone now? Because they saved each other this time?

It isn't gone, it's only covered, and I am quite sure it'll show up again.
What about the point being alone with this tough guy Doyle in the wilderness ? There is nobody else, so Bodie can't lose his face, what he defenitly doesn't like.
I screwed up yesterday, all right? I am aware of that, you know. The old man made it perfectly fucking clear for me, in front of all of you

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, being alone makes a difference, I'm sure, the way I do think it made a difference on the rope bridge before Bodie denies it to Murphy. The waiting-around-in-hospital while Doyle sleeps still seems strange to me, though.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

The waiting-around-in-hospital while Doyle sleeps still seems strange to me, though.

Doesn't Cowley think it odd as well so perhaps we're supposed to find it a bit puzzling (at this stage).

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

When Bodie realizes, maybe with some compunction, that his efforts to build a shelter and a fire have been mostly for his own good

This is true and even the writer says:

It occurs to Bodie with a faint shock that all his measures so far have been towards his own survival.

And yet Bodie's given Doyle his jacket... and the fact that he's stayed and built a shelter (when he could probably have walked on to safety) seems to contradict what the author would have us believe of Bodie, given what she writes of his thoughts.

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

"...And yet Bodie's given Doyle his jacket..."
Exactly! And he has noticed quickly the signs of Doyle's hypothermia. And of course is the fire not only for his own benefit - so I can't understand these thoughts about '...have been mostly for his own good'.
Bodie seems very insecure about himself and his social competence!

[macklingirl.livejournal.com]

Bodie seems very insecure about himself and his social competence!

Excatly. I think it is because of the life he lived before he joined SAS and CI5. I think he has to learn to be social like a kid when it joines the kindergarten. They also don't know how to behave on a social level. Maybe for Bodie it's the same.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Bodie seems very insecure about himself and his social competence!

I must think about this. I know what you mean but I'm really undecided and that's what makes Bodie such an interesting character: who is the real Bodie and what makes him like that?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Bodie seems very insecure about himself and his social competence!
He does a bit - or maybe he knows that he's putting on an act about being "too tough for the SAS" and so on - that it's all image. I think we were told early on that the other recruits are rather conflicted by him - they don't know if he's really one of them, or part of CI5 sent to test them even further, or what. And if you can't trust someone to be "one of you", then you treat them like an outsider, and Bodie must pick up on that and then almost encourage it by being defensive and acting even more tough...

(And just to go back to our previous discussion, it makes Bodie less-Bodie to me, because we see him being really friendly with everyone in the eps!)

I can't understand these thoughts about '...have been mostly for his own good'.
I wonder if Cowley and Murphy made him start thinking about it - it might not be entirely true, but leaving McCabe behind so that he could win was pretty awful, and Cowley just told him off for abandoning his partner in the other race, so maybe he's extra-conscious around other people right now. Especially since he's been somewhat abandoned (as he sees it) by Cowley and Murphy now...

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was thinking about the sentence you quoted. But do you think Bodie already cares more than he admits to himself?

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

But do you think Bodie already cares more than he admits to himself?

I don't know.... I'm sure there's an awful lot of things Bodie doesn't admit to, probably his actual default, but I'm trying to think what would it be about Doyle, so far, which would make him care? Or maybe it's just carnal and he fancies him?!

[macklingirl.livejournal.com]

Why does Bodie hang around the hospital?

For me it's about guilt. I think he feels guilty because he realised to late that Doyle had hypothermia. Maybe he thinks he should have done more to help Doyle. And I must admit that I like him sticking at Doyle's side in hospital.

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like it! It just seems ... premature for this Bodie.

[macklingirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't think that's a conscious thing, it is in his supconscious and he wouldn't know what you mean when you ask him.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It is good to see a Bodie who feels more familiar, I agree!

I think my first blink was when he took back his words to Doyle at the very start - he does his super-Bodie-obviously thing at first, saying "Yeah, I saw you ages ago" but when Doyle then ignores him and just takes off on his own business, Bodie backtracks and is the one to try and make it up between them. He actually apologises! He confesses that he only just got there! He even asks Doyle for his opinion. It looks like he's being friendly again, and Doyle isn't believing it this time. But then the author shows us how frustrated Bodie is at suddenly being on his own - he's not got Cowley and Murphy backing him up now, he's been thrown into "the other", and now he's having to deal with it. Maybe this is what's pushing him outside his normal behaviour. He knows it too, because "He more than halfway means it, too".

Doyle's copped on though - he reckons that Bodie might well mean it right now, but then regret it later and slam his shields back up. So I don't reckon that deep damage is gone at all - but the author's showing us that actually he does have reasons for letting himself change.

He does go a bit back-and-forth like this in the chapter too - he decides to build the fire, realises that he wanted it for himself rather than Doyle anyway - but then he also realises that he's abandoned Doyle to do it anyway, so no matter who it was for he wasn't properly thinking about Doyle. So we do see him working his way to being more considerate. I reckon the hospital thing is an extension of that - he abandoned Doyle to make the fire, when he might have got worse, and he had the realisation that he could have spared five minutes to make sure McCabe was alright the session before, so he hangs around the hospital to make sure that Doyle's okay too.

I also like the odd bit that the author throws in, like "There is something about Doyle which makes him question why he is currently behaving like - what had Murph said? A dinosaur with piles..." I think he's realising there's more to Doyle than he'd originally thought - Doyle can run faster than him, and seems to have beaten him to the clearing (or at least got there at the same time), and doesn't give up like McCabe did, and so on. I don't think the damage has gone away, but we're maybe getting through it a bit...