Pros Novel Read-Along - Waiting to Fall by Rob - Chapters 2-5

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Waiting to Fall by Rob
Also available on the ProsLib dvd

Back to the Pros Novel Read-Along! I didn't post last night, because no one commented the week before when I rushed to do it, so I'm guessing Saturday is a better day to start chatting (but if you'd prefer a post on Friday night then I can do that - let me know!)

Chapter Two starts with Doyle being properly sorted out for life outside prison again. The nice civil service chap at the Home Office makes sure he's not been coralled into joining CI5 by Cowley's persuasiveness, checks he's got somewhere to live, and knows that he'll be supported even if he decides to leave CI5, or isn't accepted, and then not only explains that Doyle will be due three years back-pay and additional compensation, but arranges for the bank manager to give him a hefty advance. Doyle can finally get out of his prison clothes!

Meanwhile, Doyle's prison clothes have been causing Bodie grief too - apparently half the world had called the night before, wanting to report an escaped prisoner - including Doyle's brother John. Was Cowley wrong in entrusting Doyle to Bodie?

Bodie has set out a training schedule for Doyle, expecting him to fail in a couple of weeks, but of course Doyle doesn't - he staggers through it, until one day he's sent for a five mile run in the rain, and comes back smiling, to Bodie's surprise. Bodie's also more impressed with Doyle's marksmanship than he'd expected to be, and by the end of Chapter Five he's not only accepted that Doyle will be joining CI5 after all, he's prepared to be Doyle's partner too.

Outside training, however, things are a bit more complicated. We find out that Doyle was sexually attacked while he was in prison - at first a constant, wearing attempt to be made the partner of the prison's "baron", and then when Bert was released, by the men trying to take his place - a gang of them, in the shower room, until he was knocked unconscious when his head hit the tiled floor hard, and then... Well, that's one of the problems. Doyle doesn't know if the men went through with it and he was actually raped or not, because it was over a week before he came around in hospital, jaw wired up, cheek broken, and in pain all over. When questioned, the doctor said that the guards had got there in time to save Doyle from that, but Doyle isn't convinced - it's surely what the doctor would say, to try and help his patient heal.

So Doyle's nightmares and skittishness are explained - who wouldn't be jumpy after three years of having to be constantly on their guard to avoid being felt up, or worse? And not knowing something of that magnitude would certainly prey on your mind to the point of constant nightmares, especially when your world has been turned upside down again, and you're being constantly physically pushed to exhaustion in training. But when Bodie finally gets this story from Doyle - what's he going to do about it?

Bodie's solution is eventually to get into bed with Doyle himself - platonically, of course - so that he can help him wake up after the nightmares, and perhaps calm them down. He goes so far as to cuddle up to Doyle, in the hope that a solid, unthreatening presence in bed will help even more. And by the end of Chapter Five - well, that might be working too.

So...
- have I missed anything important in these chapters?
- there were complaints for Chapter One - does Doyle still seem not-himself, character-wise?
- what about Bodie? Do you believe his solution to Doyle's nightmares?
- what did you think about it all? *g*

Comments

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

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[macklingirl.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm trying to sort out my thoughts, might be a bit difficult.

I like the nice civil servant guy because I have the feeling he really is the first person who sees Doyle as the victim and not as a nuisance. And I could feel how overwhelmed Doyle is when he hears about the money he will get.

About the thing with the prison clothes. Yes, it's okay for Bodie to get a telling off from Cowley, but I think everyone in CI5, be it Cowley, Betty or even Doyle himself, would deserve it. None of them registered that Doyle was wearing his prison clothes and said anything about it. So how was Bodie meant to register it? I mean, Doyle only thinks about his prison clothes and the odd looks when he gets dressed at the beginning of Chapter two. So if even he has forgotten that he wears them and Cowley forgot it (and I think he did forget it) why should it be Bodie who realises it?

I like the scene where Doyle tells Bodie about the nasty things that happened to him in prison and that the reader has the same information Doyle has. If you don't know the story you will wonder if it really happened or not. That's a clever way of building up the curiosity of the reader. You really can't stop there, you want to know what's happened, so you have to go on and read the rest. That's something I like very much. And I started to wonder what Bodie would do too when I read the story for the first time.

No, I don't think you missed any important thing here.

And yes, I think Doyle is still himself. I mean, we know him when he is an established agent in CI5, who is self-confident and knows what he's worth. We never get a clear description of Doyle before CI5, so why shouldn't he be a man who has nightmares and feels wrong in his own skin and isn't at ease with strange people? (Oh, how I hate it when I don't know how to express what I mean) So yes, for me it fits Doyle's character.

As for Bodie's solution to Doyle's nightmares, I'm not sure that would really work. It can only work if the other half (here it is Doyle) is willing to cooperate. But on the other hand, I imagine that Doyle would be willing to do almost anything to fight the nightmares. So that might be the reason why he goes along with Bodie's idea.

I think it could be the beginning of a deep, deep, special friendship.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I agree about Doyle's prison clothes actually - if Doyle forgot that he was wearing them, why should Bodie think of it? How many prisoners does Bodie come into contact with (considering his previous job was army, not police)? I don't think I'd recognise prison clothes, so why should Bodie? Cowley perhaps could have, as he's supposed to be "the boss" - although I do wonder if he has much experience of visiting prisoners himself. We see Doyle visiting prisons in the eps, but I don't think we see Bodie or Cowley doing that.

we know him when he is an established agent in CI5, who is self-confident and knows what he's worth. We never get a clear description of Doyle before CI5, so why shouldn't he be a man who has nightmares and feels wrong in his own skin and isn't at ease with strange people?
I think you expressed that very well! I think you're right too, this could well be Doyle pre-CI5 because we don't know his exact skills etc. when he joined. Although... *g* I must say that it doesn't quite sit right with me that Bodie was in CI5 before Doyle - for some reason that just doesn't make sense to me. I think it's probably because in the eps we see that they both have some strengths but also both have some weaknesses. Bodie claims he's never been on a stake-out in the eps, and he's also more inclined to follow Doyle's lead, so I'm more likely to believe the other way around, that Doyle was in CI5 before Bodie was. (Actually I think they joined at the same time *g*)

I think it could be the beginning of a deep, deep, special friendship.
You know, I think you might be right.... *vbg*

[macklingirl.livejournal.com]

I must say that it doesn't quite sit right with me that Bodie was in CI5 before Doyle - for some reason that just doesn't make sense to me.
For me, it makes sense because even in the eps sometimes it seems as if he knows at least Cowley better than Doyle does. I think it's clear that he mostly (if not completely) worked solo before he had to pick up Doyle at the prison. That would also explain his injury, he hurt his neck because there wasn't any backup (he had no Doyle, hadn't he? *g*)

(Actually I think they joined at the same time *g*)
Hmmm, no. I don't think so. I really think that there are at least three, if not six months difference between their start with CI5. And at least in this story, I think it might have been six months for Bodie working as a solo agent. In the episodes it might be that they joined at the same time, but I'm not totally convinced. Don't know why.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

even in the eps sometimes it seems as if he knows at least Cowley better than Doyle does
I'm not sure about that — what about the scene where Doyle is the one who knows where Cowley's leg was injured, and Bodie has no idea?

Cowley seems more tolerant of Bodie than he does of Doyle sometimes — but on the other hand I think he trusts Doyle better when it comes to operations. I think that's because Cowley and Bodie both have military backgrounds — Cowley understands that about Bodie, and vice-versa. I think he also appreciates the way Doyle questions things, because that's what Cowley does himself - it's frustrating for Cowley when he's the head of CI5, because he doesn't want to be questioned, but he sees himself in Doyle too.

So I don't think his relationships with the lads are because one has been in CI5 longer than the other...

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to believe Bodie's solution. On one hand, he's the right degree of impatient and reluctant. On the other, if there is an older slash trope than having to share a bed, I don't know it. If we dug into the first K/S letterzines, I bet we would find a crashed shuttlecraft and Kirk needing Spock's body heat to hang on until the Enterprise can save them.

I'm finding these guys more recognizable all the time. I want to see Doyle excelling more. I find the training ups and downs believable, but I want to see Doyle take off and, I don't know, dave Bodie's life or something.

[tinturtle]

On the other, if there is an older slash trope than having to share a bed, I don't know it. If we dug into the first K/S letterzines, I bet we would find a crashed shuttlecraft and Kirk needing Spock's body heat to hang on until the Enterprise can save them.

I read the first of those sentences and thought, "I dunno. What about cuddling for warmth?" Heh.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Or "but the hotel room only has one bed" *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I went to a Slash con where academics were arguing for much older fandoms than K/S... all the way back to Ulysses, even... *g*

And yeah - I'm struggling a bit now with all-wise-Bodie compared to fairly-subservient-Doyle. In the first chapter Doyle was still fighting back, I thought, by being bolshy to the prison guards and to Bodie too. I get that he's been knocked sideways by everything, and that he's fighting back by proving he can hold his own while jogging/shooting/in fights etc., but.. yeah, I want to see Doyle take off again like he did when he refused to get out of the car unless Bodie told him where they were going... And save Bodie's life! Something to dispel all-wise-Bodie and bring back equal-Doyle!

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

Well, it's got to happen sometime. Right?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hope so!

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[tinturtle]

Sherlock Holmes has had an organized fandom since the 1930s, at least. I'm not aware that it had a slash fandom until more recently, but there must have been isolated slash fans.

[tinturtle]

Now I am sad thinking of the isolated slash fans of the past.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

And isolated slash fans now, even - I can't believe that we still can't all be interested in what we're interested in without our partners/"friends"/colleagues etc. telling us it's not okay, but for some people it's still true...

I've seen so many people claim "I slashed them since I was a child, before I knew there was slash..." — you'd have to presume that if that's true, and without any other influence people were automatically slashing their m/m or f/f pairings, then it must always have been going on. It it's that inherent then it can't be a new thing.

I don't think the slash fandoms the academics noted were necessarily organised, but... oh, I know I have my notes somewhere, but I'll have to go and find them!

[tinturtle]

I will feel sad for the isolated slash fans of the present, too. I think most of us run into some level of esthetic or moral opprobrium, if we bring slash fandom up in real life, but I don't doubt that it is much worse for some people than others.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised during a recent conversation, albeit an online one. I was trying to shock a new acquaintance with my terrible taste in literature, but apparently fan fiction is "outsider art" in their world and therefore cool.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ha - someone has taste! *g* (And yeah - I'd say we're the margins still, us groups of mostly-older-women who read and write fanfiction for shows that aren't currently cool and hip, but because we love them... *g*)

Saint Bodie

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

Saint Bodie.

Isn't he? :-)
For being so patient with Doyle's nightmares?
For not breaking up with Doyle? For not involving Cowley and Ross?

After all he wasn't looking for a friend — he needs a partner he can trust, who watches his back, and who doesn't start crying if someone just mentions the word 'prison'.
So: Hats off Bodie! :-)

"William Bodie is an insensitive, callous, immoral thug and surely no one's idea of a perfect solution," Ross said forcefully, her eyes glittering angrily.
(Dr.Ross, Chapter 4)

*g*

My summary for these chapters?
Still good, still interesting and rich in variety.
Just the prison part in chapter 4 confirms why I don't like such stories! ;-)

Re: Saint Bodie

[macklingirl.livejournal.com]

Just the prison part in chapter 4 confirms why I don't like such stories! ;-)

That's a phrase I'll sign too. It's okay when it's told the way it is here, but I really don't want to read a story that only is about such things in prison. Here I could imagine someone sitting in a room with a mate who's listening to "the story of his life" and that's okay. But to imagine a longer story with only the prison thing is something that would put me off the story.

RE: Re: Saint Bodie

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

to imagine a longer story with only the prison thing is something that would put me off the story
It would me too, mostly because it would mean the story was only focussing on one of the lads, not both of them... Hmmn, I wonder if there are and Pros stories where the lads are both in prison... now that might be an interesting fic! Hmmmn!

RE: Re: Saint Bodie

[tinturtle]

In Light of Day by PR Zed, they both go undercover in a prison, for a relatively short time.

RE: Re: Saint Bodie

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I had a vague memory that PRZed had written a prison fic, but couldn't remember who was in prison - cheers!

RE: Re: Saint Bodie

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

I had an online friend, a wonderful writer, who had a kink for prison stories. Whatever. I don't like them either.

RE: Saint Bodie

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Lol - you can describe him as "Saint Bodie", but it's more that he's written as the one with more experience/skills/training etc. than Doyle which bugs me, when I don't see that in the episodes at all (I know, it's an AU - but that's something the author chose that I don't like..). They've got different experience/skills/training, but they're equal. It's the idea that they're not equal that I don't like in this fic - the power imbalance between them.

And yeah - prison's a fairly brutal place by all accounts...

[tinturtle]

Well, I read through chapter 5 during the first reading period, but I've only managed to review 2-4 in preparation for this discussion. This week was not so good.

I liked Chapter Two. Bodie and Doyle's wary dynamic as new flatmates and prospective partners was believable.

Things seemed a little disorganized in Chapters Three and Four. I think Bodie's attitude toward Doyle was supposed to be progressing from just wanting to be rid of him, through grudging respect, to actually thinking that a partnership might work, but I wanted that laid out more. It just wasn't clear a lot of the time what stage he was in. As for Doyle, he didn't get to do a lot, besides sticking with the training and having bad dreams, and we mostly saw those things from Bodie's perspective. Hopefully Doyle will show more initiative later.

Honestly, I thought Bodie's solution to Doyle's dreams in Chapter 5 was just weird. Sharing a bed so that he could wake Doyle without having to get up was somewhat logical, but sleeping wrapped around Doyle was not. Someone has nightmares about being held down and you fix it by...holding them down? Huh? I also think that those scenes would have made more sense if by that point Bodie had decided that he truly wanted to be partners with Doyle. Those are pretty extreme measures to take otherwise, especially for men of Bodie and Doyle's time and place, who were not brought up to offer each other physical comfort.

One thing I did think was workmanlike was the way that the story of Doyle's experiences in prison slipped from his drunken account into smoother and more vivid third-person narration. I hardly noticed that happen, but it was very effective.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It just wasn't clear a lot of the time what stage he was in.
Yes, I know what you mean. I suppose in theory it could reflect Bodie not really knowing what stage he was in — people don't really progress tidily through stages, it's all blurred of course — but yeah.

As for Doyle, he didn't get to do a lot, besides sticking with the training and having bad dreams, and we mostly saw those things from Bodie's perspective. Hopefully Doyle will show more initiative later.
I'm hoping that too. We're told that he's working hard to prove Bodie wrong, but then that was demolished pretty early on. I miss Bolshy Doyle from Chapter One! *g*

Bodie's solution to Doyle's dreams in Chapter 5
I must admit I can't really see someone doing that in real life, let alone someone in CI5 who's already been dubious about said person! As you say Bodie and Doyle's time and place... not that people don't go against their own times and places, or else we'd never progress, but... it felt a bit slash-contrived to, I have to say.

[tinturtle]

I noticed when I was writing fic reports last year that “workmanlike” is one of my highest terms of praise when discussing fanfic. That’s a little incongruous given that most fanfic is written by women.

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

Workwomanlike?