The Best Lines

[tinturtle]

My previous question has set me wondering: Are there any lines from fics you have read that you find particularly memorable? What are they, and why do you think they have stuck with you?

Comments

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

Briefly his consciousness sharpened as Cowley called out, and he very clearly heard Ray's reply.

"No way. I'm staying with Bodie."

Absofuckinlutely, Bodie agreed silently, and passed out as they lifted him into the waiting ambulance.

(Anne Carr, Death and Life)


What a good question! :-)

This one came to my mind - h/c at it's best! And no chance for Cowley to separate them. :-)

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

Bodie," said Ray, now using that immensely appealing 'talking to morons' voice. "Where. Are. You?"

"Phone box," said Bodie, annoyed. "Bateman Street. West End. London."

"England, Earth, and Milky Way," snapped Doyle. "Where on Bateman Street, Bodie?"

"Jus' look for flashing lights."

(Rebelcat, A Widening Gyre)


Just perfect! :-)
Funny. They care for each other. And a snarky Doyle.

[tinturtle]

Three lines spring to mind for me.

"Rather than looking like an eccentric street tough, the bracelet made him [Doyle] look like a psychotic ballet dancer."
This line comes from lezlies's fic Camouflage, which I read quite recently. I remember it simply because it made me laugh out loud while I was reading, which is uncommon.

"Bodie’s in it [CI5] because it’s what he’s good at."
This one's from Loyalties by Stew. I find this line wonderfully apt. When I first read it, I was brought up short by how true it felt and how essential it suddenly seemed to any explanation of Bodie's motivations. I had written a fic that dealt somewhat noncommittally with Bodie's reasons for being in CI5, so I experienced the impact of this line especially keenly.

"You - we - don't kill them for the same reasons they kill us."
This is a line from Happiness is a Warm Gun by byslantedlight, which I read very soon after I first discovered Pros; it was among the first Pros stories that I added to my archive of favorite fanfics. The line beautifully summarizes what I think is an important concept for people with jobs like the lads', and I've thought about it often since first reading it.

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

..he eased forward past the first corpse, eyes intent on the man with the knife. As he
neared, he slowed, bending his knees until he stopped, kneeling, in front of the man. As his hand reached with excruciating slowness to take the knife, he asked, gently, "Ray? Ray-mate? You in there, love?"

(Reunions by Brenda Antrim)

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Of Tethered Gods and Tigers, by Tarot:

"What do you need from him, damn it?" he shouted. "What the hell can he do for you that I can't?"

That is the pivot point of the whole story, and the most awesome group of words ever spoken in the Pros universe (or my Pros universe, at least). :D

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

An almost impossible task(!) and I don't think I *can* explain why they're memorable other than for some reason they hit me between the eyes as I read them. (All these stories can be found at The Circuit Archive and The Hatstand.)

"Could you live without me?" he asked Doyle, no flippancy in the question.
The answer came immediately, hushed and sincere. "I could exist."

Night Moves: Courtney Gray


Doyle propped his elbows on the railings and gazed out. His skin had turned an easy brown and his teeth looked very white; he looked fit and strong and healthy. His shirt, shortsleeved white aertex, was damp here and there; the hairs on his honey-coloured forearms were stiffly raised, trying in vain to bring his body heat down. There was nobody about; on impulse Bodie ducked his head and laid his cheek there for a moment on Doyle's arm, breathing in the warm scent of the other man's body, always a familiar background to a life where he was often confined in small spaces with Ray Doyle: sweat and soap and sometimes, but not today, gunsmoke. Here in Italy he and Doyle were just men, just tourists: but they had something very special about them today: they had kissed in the night and made each other come, and nobody in the world knew it, a secret they would never share with another living soul.

Et In Italia Ego: Sebastian


6.05am
There was blood on the bus, darkly black against the scuffed vinyl of the back seat.
Doyle wanted to touch it, because it was Bodie's, to have something of Bodie's against his skin, even if it was his blood -- even if it was the blood of a dead man.
No. Bodie wasn't dead. Think it, believe it, believe it.

On This Day in History:Slantedlight

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

You do the most fabulous job with lines and illos. I couldn't pick out a "best".

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Oh thank you! There's so much good material in Pros.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I couldn't possibly remember the best line I've read but the best opening line in any fic ever written is:

"Sit down," Cowley said, and they sat, as obedient as dogs at Crufts.

http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/16/masquerade.html

Masquerade by Tarot

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I remember that one and I've always wondered if the author was thinking of the scene in Cowley's flat when Bodie and Doyle are sitting on a couch looking up at Cowley (from the episode about the gay youth organisation, In The Public Interest).

[cim3745.livejournal.com]

Doyle seems to be dead...

The door opened and the air positively cracked as the tension in the room increased. Bodie walked in, CI5's own walking, talking, unexploded bomb.

.........

Doyle staggered towards his partner and Turner guessed rightly that Doyle knew who needed comfort most at that moment.

( Not Even Good Bye by Rob )

Death or it seems to be often creates powerful lines.

Good question :-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I've been trying all day to think of one or two or even ten - but as soon as I do that they all fly out of my head... I'm going to try concentrating really really hard... *g*

"No," said Doyle. "Jessie's in the kitchen, jamming and Ashley's at school, so you can put down that bloody curry-comb and come over here. If you don't think it will frighten the horse?" (One Bright Morning by Rhiannon)

This could really be any story, but it's the context of the lads, so it means something:
The devil stepped into the room and stood looking, interested. (Velvet Underground by Sebastian)

It's really the last four words of this, but of course it has to be in context again.
Bodie lost himself in the kiss, and after a while Doyle started to rock gently under him, and Bodie fucked Doyle then, just as gently, moving in and out of him, carefully, kissing him and holding him tight against himself, then trembling and finally coming, shaking so hard, shaking inside Doyle, mute, oh for so long. (The Snowman with the Dark Coat by Castalia)

I was trying to find a line from Facets II: Stolen Moments by Maggie Hall, but... pretty much all of that one... *g*

Hard to pick lines from my favourite Voice-Over by Elizabeth O'Shea too, but this one always makes me smile:
"That something they teach you in the SAS then is it? How to start a fire by rubbing two CI5 agents together?"

Oh, now I just want to read all the stories again! *g* Excellent question - cheers!

[ali15son.livejournal.com]

I have two favourite lines well more paragraphs really from pros fic that have stuck with me and they are both from the same story "october" by Rowan. One of my favourite pros fics ever because this for me is the partnership and friendship and everything that detrmines the lads.

Doyle pushed the voice-switch and just held the line open. Already he half -knew.
"Doyle. Please can i -?"
"Come straight up." He snapped the connection shut and went to the living-room window. "Thought i recognised that" he murmured, looking out.

The other line is ."Bodie, you have to tell me, listen mate, did they follow you ?" He didn't know whether to be relieved or alarmed at the offended look he got for asking. Bodie said hoarsley, "i wouldn't lead - not here" and choked on the rest of it.

"Doyle don't call anyone"
"Oh fuck no"Doyle swore lightly enbracing him and rocking him. "Just give you a cup of tea and stick you back into your car, you'll be fine"
"I mean it are you - are you be yourself"
There was a lucid desperation in the demand. "No julia's here. Why?'
"Get rid of her Doyle if you ever did anything or cared anything for me"


And this is why i love this story so much.