Pros Novel Read-Along - Waiting to Fall by Rob - Chapters 11-15

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

This weekend's chapters were 11-15, carrying on where we left off. *g*

We start with Bodie in trouble with his girlfriend, and eventually realising that it's actually Doyle he wants - that Cowley's gone and trapped him into caring about Doyle, which was not Bodie's plan. Bodie comes up with a plan in turn - push Doyle and Ann into resuming their relationship and getting married, and then Bodie can escape the clutches of everyone who's trying to tie him down.

Doyle seems to be playing into Bodie's plans too - he finally plucks up the courage to go and visit Ann, and tell her what really happened to him, and she does exactly what he'd dreamed, and falls back into his arms, feeling incredibly guilty for having disbelieved him. Before Bodie came up with his plan, he was nowhere near as forgiving of Ann, to the point of physically grabbing her and threatening her.

Meanwhile, Doyle feels that he's still being treated as the incompetent new kid in CI5, and then Day, with whom he'd had confrontations before, drags up someone who worked in Doyle's old police station and is terrified at the very sight of Doyle. Why would that be true, Day wonders, if Doyle had been as innocent as he claims? In the end Cowley decides there's not enough evidence to get Internal Security involved - but someone is watching Doyle, keeping tabs on him, and there's no one else it can be.

We pass through Cry Wolf, with Susan Grant, in the course of these chapters, with Doyle being unhappy about the attention that Bodie pays Susan, even if he can't articulate why. So the lads are coming together to some extent - in that delightfully negative way they do in alot of Pros fic, subconciously, until it becomes conscious for one of them. *g*

And I think that's the crux of it all this time. You can probably guess what I'm going to say - I don't like the way Doyle is being treated by Bodie as an incompetent newbie, which he is. Bodie has to give Doyle instructions about keeping his head down, and we see Doyle being cross with Bodie because he didn't understand what Bodie was doing, and... argh! Okay, Doyle's supposed to be new, but I can't see him taking that long to get up to speed if Cowley decided he was ready for the squad. He's quick - of mind and of action, as I see him in the eps.

And of course the flip side to that is that Bodie's a bit too super-Bodie still, always right, the one that Doyle follows around (when in the eps it's usually the other way around). He's also a bit too thuggish to Ann too - I believed him with Kathy Mason, because she was really threatening Doyle's life, and I get that Ann is threatening Bodie's Doyle (*g*) but I can't see him threatening her physically as he does when Doyle's out of the room.

The two of them end up as conspirators too - which I can't quite believe on Ann's part, after Bodie's physical violence against her - when they're forced to have dinner together, and Ann points out that Doyle eats perfectly well when it's food he's cooked himself, but doesn't like to eat food that anyone else has cooked. They cook dinner between them, and offer some to Doyle when he comes back, who refuses it and says he'll get a sandwich, proving Ann right. I can't at all see where that comes from in the eps - we see Doyle eating perfectly well, surely? (Even if he does give the crackers he filched to Bodie in First Night, but that's another reason entirely... *vbg*)

So - we end with Doyle engaged to Ann (through no volition of his own actually, as Bodie tricks Lake into announcing it in a room full of CI5 agents), and Bodie wondering what he's going to do once they're married and he's free to leave CI5 and England... and Doyle's mysterious watchers still out there. I wonder what will happen next!

So - did anyone read with me this week? Any thoughts? Please talk to me! *g*

Comments

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

I read along, though I only got to the beginning or middle of Ch 15. I agree that this story plays newbie-Doyle much too hard. I'm familiar with the hostile baseline between Bodie and Anne, but this does seem too extreme. While I am waiting for the lads to get together, I do find the "I have never never NEVER had FEELINGS for a MAN" thing sort of tiresome. Well. All the waiting-for-them-to-fall myst come to an end eventually.

I ought to like "Cry Wolf" more than I do. Susan is pleasant and clever and brave, and which of us have not had one of those "it's nothing, little lady" mansplaining moments? And Bodie is respectful and kind and not creepy. And I am bored. Maybe because Doyle isn't there much?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I think we had a hint that Bodie had been involved with men at one point, although I think it also hinted that it wasn't something he pursued. And Doyle has that big "Why have men always made passes at me?Do I look gay?" which I must admit I don't like — but it was probably of its time...

I totally agree with you about Cry Wolf — I always think I should like it more!

I'm not being thoughtful or talkative at all — sorry. I had my covid jab yesterday, and I must admit that I'm feeling rough. I've been in bed most of the afternoon, and could still go back there now... But I'm determined to have dinner (I'm still hungry!) and watch The Voice. Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow, and then I'll come back!

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

Have a good meal and a good night! I hope you feel better.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Starting to feel like I can lift my arms again now! *g*

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

Good!

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I make that a third. The whole "I'm not gay, I just love so-and-so" is tiresome in this day and age. I didn't see the hint about Bodie. But if he had, why did he go off the deep end with Carole? She, at least, got the impression that he was about to hit her because of what she said. And what guy would actually think it was totally cool to take a friend along on a date? Same with the sleeping arrangement. That's pretty weird.

There's a lot of that in the story, though. Things being done that would make no sense, or would absolutely not happen, in real life. Like Doyle being allowed to leave prison in his prison clothes. Hello, they reuse them! They would have had him dress in the clothes he'd been wearing when he got there. And because it would look like a prisoner escaped.

All that said, I am finding the going getting easier. But I'm not really seeing the Doyle from the series.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

The whole "I'm not gay, I just love so-and-so" is tiresome in this day and age.
That's the trouble with reading a fic written in 1989 — it's not "this day and age", it was still on its way...

And lol — my ex's mate came out with us quite often and I never thought anything of it, but I suppose if we'd made what I thought was a specific romantic date and then he'd said "Oh, N's coming" I might have been a bit peeved...

I did wonder about the prison clothes, I must say! Although Doyle's whole release was pretty rushed, and I don't think he was even told he was going to be released, so he couldn't have changed - was there a reason he wasn't told what was going on? Ah... yes! Of course! If Cowley wanted everyone to think that Doyle was still guilty, then he wouldn't want the prison to be under the impression that he was being released - maybe just transferred, in which case he couldn't be given his clothes etc. That makes sense!

[tinturtle]

If Cowley wanted everyone to think that Doyle was still guilty, then he wouldn't want the prison to be under the impression that he was being released - maybe just transferred, in which case he couldn't be given his clothes etc.

He was given his belongings, which I would expect to include his clothes. It makes sense that he wouldn't be given time to change into them if he were simply being transferred, and it also makes sense that he would be too dazed to remember to do it after talking to Cowley. On the other hand, now that I think of it, it's surprising that he didn't have anything else to wear the next morning.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I tend to think that Cowley would have had the wherewithal to make sure that Doyle changed clothes. He is, after all, trying to keep it all under the radar. Having someone run around in prison clothes certainly isn't going to do that!

And, yes, Doyle would have been given the clothes he had on when he went to prison, so he should have had something to wear! And when you think about it, him showing up at his brother's in prison garb is sort of funny.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Cowley would have had the wherewithal to make sure that Doyle changed clothes. He is, after all, trying to keep it all under the radar.
But he also wanted people to think that Doyle was a convicted criminal... he didn't want people to think he'd been freed from prison... And I imagine Doyle's clothes would be one of the last things on his mind at the time, too. Fanfic makes Cowley out as all-seeing (and Cowley claims to be in the eps *g*), but he's really just a man too.

him showing up at his brother's in prison garb is sort of funny
My reading was that in the rush of everything he'd just forgotten he was wearing prison clothes. They're not like US prison clothes, all big stripes or bright orange to make people stand out - when the story was set they would have been jeans and blue-striped shirts (https://socialengagementffm.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/the-prison-uniform.pdf). That make sense when Cowley says that he had calls from probation officers and ex-prison guards, because they're the ones who would have been able to recognise the clothes as prison uniform - I don't think most of us would have. So it's not as if Doyle had little arrows printed all over him, or anything like that. *g* And he decided on the spur of the moment to go and collect this things from John, so he didn't have anywhere to get changed, either...

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I still can't buy it. Apparently it was a problem because weren't people staring at him? And didn't someone call in about it? And that it became a big part of the story makes me think that the writer wanted it to be one more thing that poor Doyle had to put up with. Which also implies that it wasn't something he could casually walk around town wearing. So either it was no big deal or it was.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I think there's a middle ground between no big deal and being a big deal that applies in this case. *g*

There were two separate things - people who recognised the prison uniform because they were familiar with it, and then Doyle's own, understandable paranoia about having been "marked" by prison.

When Doyle's first turned over to Bodie, Bodie won't tell him what's happening, so he's focused on that. Then Cowley tells him he wants him in CI5, so he's focused on that — and Cowley's purposefully keep him off-balance so that he doesn't have a chance to sink into depression/memories/despair etc. Then Bodie rushes him all around CI5 hq, signing his life away — and then at the end of the day basically dumps him on the street (even if he does offer Doyle a lift and to join him on the date). To me it's totally understandable that what he's wearing is the last thing on his mind, since he's got so used to it.

The shirts weren't designed to stand out and mark people as prisoners to the same extent as striped or orange jumpsuits or 19th century arrows - here's a pic of one on the blog of an ex-prisoner (http://prisonuk.blogspot.com/2014/08/uniformity-and-institutionalisation.html) (and a bit of history of prison uniforms over here). Here's a pic of one that was sold as an "ex-HMP shirt":
(https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/byslantedlight/8284114/4138275/4138275_original.jpg)
So they don't really stand out — unless you know what you're looking for.

Doyle only realises he'd still been wearing his prison clothes the next morning when he consciously has to look at them to put them on - and then he gets paranoid about it, and thinks "everyone" was staring at him - "the women in the CI5 canteen, the office staff, the ticket collector and the hard-looking man who had stared at him from Hounslow to Knightsbridge", but in fact that's not "everyone", it's a selection of people who might well recognise a uniform like that (people who work for CI5, the ticket collector, who might have been trained to keep an eye out for suspicious characters, and someone who was presumably an ex-con himself. And the people who phoned Cowley about it were "retired prison officers, an ex-probation officer and several ticket collectors".

But Doyle is really conscious of being an ex-prisoner, so it makes sense that when he realised about the clothes he'd be extra conscious of them as a part of that. Cowley doesn't have any of those considerations though - when Doyle's with him, he's looking at a man wearing jeans and a blue striped shirt. It's not entirely unlike the shirts that Cowley wears himself in some eps! And he's focused on getting Doyle to sign up to CI5 and keeping him off-balance, not making him feel comfortable. He leaves Bob-whatsit in the Home Office to sort out Doyle's practicalities.

I think the author included it in the story to show us that Doyle wasn't just shrugging off his experience and joining CI5, he was traumatised by his time in prison, and that was going to be dealt with in the story - yeah, one more thing that poor Doyle had to put up with. *g* And I can see Cowley realising about it after the fact, when he'd been bugged by all the people who had noticed, and then feeling guilty enough about it to be cross with Bodie - but only because it had caused a fuss, which was also partly down to Doyle's brother John being unsympathetic. I bet he wouldn't have thought about it otherwise.

Long rambling reply - I guess that's me avoiding work again! *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

it's surprising that he didn't have anything else to wear the next morning.
It is, especially because his belongings were "a tatty holdall and brown paper carrier bag", which suggests a reasonable amount of belongings (although I suppose they could have been almost empty).

[tinturtle]

Hm. I agree that Doyle remains too passive, though that is slowly improving. He showed initiative in contacting Ann, at least.

Bodie's behavior is still kind of weird. His reaction to realizing he cares about someone is to try to hustle them into a marriage he believes they will regret? Why can't he just leave as seems to be his ultimate goal? :-/

I found Day's hostility toward Doyle over-the-top. He was cartoonish, and I don't think that was necessary for him to fulfill his role in the plot. I am interested to see how the mysteries of Alan Weston and Doyle's unknown watchers resolve, though, and what they have to do with Day.

(As for Cry Wolf, I rather like it. Susan and Bodie have a good dynamic.)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

There's flashes of initiative, it's true, and occasional teasing of Bodie and all, but yeah, still not the Doyle I see in the eps - or the Doyle I think we were shown in the first couple of pages, even!

Bodie's behavior is still kind of weird. His reaction to realizing he cares about someone is to try to hustle them into a marriage he believes they will regret? Why can't he just leave as seems to be his ultimate goal? :-/
I don't think resigning is Bodie's ultimate goal - I think having Doyle is Bodie's ultimate goal. If Cowley hadn't manipulated him into caring for Doyle, he probably wouldn't have thought twice about it, but we get this:

Doyle was his partner. Cowley had given him to him.
Doyle was his!
The anger that welled up inside was as big a shock as the sensations that had initially woken him. Bodie slammed the tumbler down on the table and swore, quietly but vehemently. Damn Cowley! he thought bitterly. Damn the man with his intricate, devious schemes. Cowley's Grand Plan had worked all right, had worked better than Cowley would ever know. Would never know! Never! All the scheming to bind him to a partner, to snare him with bonds of loyalty had backfired. Cowley had chosen well. Too damned well!
The anger was easier to handle, the emotion more familiar. Bodie knew how to make anger work for him.
He didn't return to bed until after dawn with his plan of action already firmly mapped out, the battle lines drawn up. The solution had been ridiculously easy. All Bodie had to do now was make sure Ray got what he thought he wanted. Marriage and CI5 made poor bedmates and Doyle would leave the squad--if not the department completely.
Once Doyle was no longer his partner, Bodie could resign, and to hell with George Cowley and his damned loyalties.
He recognises that he wants Doyle - but he hates it too, and so he hates Cowley for (he thinks) manipulating him into it. He won't leave Doyle himself because he cares - but if he can make Doyle leave him by leaving the squad, then he can stick his fingers up at Cowley in his turn...

Day's hostility toward Doyle over-the-top. He was cartoonish
Sadly I've seen quite alot of people with that kind of cartoonish bigoted behaviour... :( It doesn't seem real because it shouldn't be (and I appreciated that Rob gave us a reason for it rather than just leaving him a black-hatted villain...)

[tinturtle]

He won't leave Doyle himself because he cares - but if he can make Doyle leave him by leaving the squad, then he can stick his fingers up at Cowley in his turn...

I find this very confusing. What is the difference from Bodie's perspective between leaving and inducing Doyle to leave? Or is this about Doyle's feelings--preventing him from feeling abandoned? If Bodie cares about Doyle's feelings, then, as I said before, trying to hustle him into a marriage Bodie believes he will regret is odd behavior. ("By the time Mr and Mrs Doyle realised their mistake it would be too late.")

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

What is the difference from Bodie's perspective between leaving and inducing Doyle to leave? Or is this about Doyle's feelings
I don't think it's about Doyle's feelings at all, particularly since Bodie presumably thinks Doyle won't reciprocate his feelings, based on the evidence so far (Doyle's traumatic experience of m/m sex in prison, and apparently struggling with it before that too, and his sorrow about losing Anne etc./wanting to get back together with her).

I think it's about Bodie knowing his own strength of will. He can't bring himself to leave Doyle now, but if Doyle chooses to leave of his own — apparent — free will, then Bodie can use that to force himself to do what he thinks he should do. I suppose it's the difference between knowing what you should do in your head, because you've reasoned out the circumstances (in this case Cowley's manipulation for his own purposes) and wanting something with your heart. If your heart wants it badly enough, then the head will lose every time.

Like... tricking yourself into a diet, or physical exercise, perhaps! I might know that I shouldn't eat things with sugar in them, but if they're within reach then my desire will almost always (eventually!) get the better of me. If I can manipulate the situation so that the temptation is almost impossible to give into, by not buying them in the first place, or giving them away to someone else, then I'm more likely to free myself of that desire in the end.

[tinturtle]

I meant that Doyle might feel abandoned because Bodie is his only close friend and the person who has helped him adjust to freedom, not because he has a romantic interest in Bodie.

I remain confused, but I'll take your word for it that things make sense.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I meant that Doyle might feel abandoned because Bodie is his only close friend and the person who has helped him adjust to freedom, not because he has a romantic interest in Bodie.
That would worry me, but Bodie doesn't seem to give it much thought, and I can see that not being his focus - he'd assume that Doyle will be happy with Anne and eventually make new friends and settle down. I mean, people who get married tend to drop most of their socialising with single friends, and Bodie will no doubt just assume that once they're married Doyle will be happy with Anne ("Mr and Mrs Doyle realising their mistake notwithstanding - I think that's Bodie subconsciouly believing that Doyle should be with him, not Anne. Well, not even all that subconsciously... *g*)

I dunno — that's all my reading, anyway. Other mileage may vary, as they say. *vbg*