Priority A-3

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Zine
Title: Priority A-3
Publisher: IDP Press
Editor(s): Dana Jeanne Norris
Date(s): 1999-2001
Series?:
Medium: print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom: The Professionals
Language: English
External Links: online zine review
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Contents

Priority A-3 is a Professionals slash hurt/comfort anthology.

Issue 1

cover of issue #1

Priority A-3! has 149 pages and was published 1999. Artwork by Joey Rodrigues and has been uploaded to Fanlore with the artist's permission.

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

[Zine]: This is an anthology hurt/comfort zine, with most of the stories involving Doyle as the hurtee and Bodie as the comforter. Since this is one of my kinks, it is right up my alley. All of the stories are competently and sometimes even very well written. The artwork consists of black and white line drawings and computer graphics by Joey. They are simple but rather nice. I greatly enjoyed this zine and recommend it if you like a hurt/sick Doyle and a protective/comforting Bodie.

TO ERR IS HUMAN by Maiden Wyoming - Bodie shoots Doyle in the knee to prevent him from going on a dangerous undercover op. Doyle recovers but plots revenge until he realizes he loves Bodie and understands that Bodie did what he did out of pure love. First time story.

At first I thought that this insane premise would never work, but I was wrong. The key is knowing that Bodie is convinced he himself will not survive the op (he takes Doyle's place), and so he must do something drastic to get Doyle invalided out of CI5 because Bodie won't be around to watch his back any more. As it turns out, Bodie is severely injured and in a coma for months but recovers partially. He counts himself lucky that Doyle will still have anything to do with him. Doyle is hanging around for the right time to take his revenge on Bodie, but his realization that Bodie has already suffered greatly for what he did and that his motive was the purest possible makes it possible for Doyle to forgive him. I love stories with unique premises and this one fits that bill. It is the most memorable fic in this zine for me.

PERMANENT CHANGE by Jane Mailander - [See that page]

EVENING LIGHT by Victoria Racklyft - Bodie sees a vision of two old ladies who seem to know something about his future. Doyle becomes more and more distraught as the trances keep occurring, afraid that one time Bodie won't come out of it. The lads love each other but in the past Doyle had rejected Bodie's sexual advances. Now Doyle realizes he was foolish and they become lovers. Finally Doyle has a similar vision. With the encouragement of a doctor employed by Cowley, they set out to discover the meaning of the visions, which takes them on a tour of most of the old churches in London.

I enjoy the advice of the doctor, who is based on a canon character. This author is skillful at conveying emotions; Doyle's anguish when Bodie goes into one of his trances is very real. The climactic scene where Doyle must tell Bodie that he loves him in order to get him out of the trance is wonderful. There is a lovely twist at the end which I didn't see coming and is very clever. And finally, the thought CI5 agents are sometimes recruited by a higher power for service in protecting Britain intrigues me. I normally shy away from stories with supernatural elements, but I'm glad I read this one.

THE ORNAMENT by Jeroen - This story of only 7 pages is told in very short segments of mostly dialog. Doyle is cruelly tortured and sexually abused after his cover is blown. Now in hospital, he refuses to talk about it and has a death wish. With a psychiatrist's help he eventually talks to Bodie and decides he wants to live for him.

This story is very painful to read because Doyle is so damaged and Bodie is almost powerless to help him. But I love this Bodie, who is doing all he can to be a steady rock for Doyle to cling to. The story ends abruptly just when Doyle makes a breakthrough and starts talking to Bodie about what happened to him, which leaves me rather unsatisfied.

GUT DECISION by Maiden Wyoming - This author certainly loves to hurt Doyle in unique ways. This time he gets a severe case of dysentery from eating tainted food and lands in the hospital thanks to Bodie's timely arrival at Doyle's flat. Bodie nurses him tenderly even after Doyle returns home, doing even the most distasteful tasks with love (though we don't get a blow-by-blow description, thankfully). Doyle realizes that Bodie's devotion shows that Bodie loves him very much and that he loves Bodie. First time story.

What I like about this author is the way she conveys the idea that the lads are meant for each other. This is definitely comfort fic of the highest order.

HE'LL MAKE IT by Joana Dey - This story recounts the events of "Discovered In A Graveyard" from Bodie's pov interspersed with flashbacks to his life with Doyle as partners and lovers. The last few pages cover the time right after Bodie brings Doyle home from the hospital.

All along we get what is going on in Bodie's head during this time, but that doesn't really mitigate the tediousness of rehashing the episode. I'd rather just go watch it. Then, after they get home Bodie keeps hounding Doyle about why he was so careless with security before the shooting and whether he truly wants to live. I understand his frustration, especially because Doyle is sending him mixed messages, but I just want to smack him and tell him to lay off Ray!

WISDOM TRUTH by Elessar - Doyle needs dental surgery for impacted wisdom teeth. The dentist mistakenly gives him Pentothal as an anesthetic. Under the influence, Doyle makes a pass at Bodie and tells him he loves him. Bodie puts him off but then decides to give Doyle what he wants because Doyle had really gotten him going. However, by that time Doyle has fallen asleep. The next morning Doyle doesn't remember what happened. Bodie thinks about it all day and realizes he loves Doyle too. He tells Doyle what happened and they declare their love for each other.

The scene in the car where Bodie is driving Doyle home while Doyle is under the influence of the drug is hilarious. Doyle is all over Bodie, trying to seduce him and acting sappy and out of character, while Bodie is doing his best to fend him off and keep the car on the road. Then when Doyle finds out what he did and said his embarrassment is very amusing.

PHOENIX RISING by P.R. Zed - Doyle thinks Bodie has been killed in an explosion and grieves terribly but tries to carry on. It turns out that Bodie has only been kidnapped; they rescue him. The next day the lads enjoy a relaxing morning together and talk things over.

One can't help but share Doyle's intense grief over Bodie's seeming death, so skillfully does the author convey his emotions. Her Doyle is a very admirable and brave figure in the way he attempts to hold himself together while he is actually dying inside. Murphy, too, is excellent in trying to follow orders and keep an eye on Doyle while being supportive but discreet and unobtrusive. The final scene is a lovely contrast to the emotional intensity of the rest of the story. This author is great at portraying the lads just enjoying each other's company.

SHARDS by Jeroen - The lads have been in a car wreck. Bodie is pinned down; Doyle has a concussion and is confused. Bodie talks him through calling for help on the R/T. They profess their love for each other. Some days later when Bodie is ready to go home from the hospital Doyle comes and wants to tell him that he loves him. Bodie says he did that already but Doyle doesn't remember doing it. Bodie says that he loves Doyle too.

This fic is only 3 pages. The last line is worth a chuckle.

ANYTHING FOR LOVE by Joana Dey - The lads fall through a hole in a floor and Bodie lands on top of Doyle, who ends up with both arms in casts. Bodie has a broken finger but must wait on Doyle hand and foot. Doyle is embarrassed but Bodie says there's nothing about Doyle that can disgust him. Then it's Doyle's turn to comfort Bodie, who is also tired and in pain.

The vision of Bodie spoonfeeding Doyle scrambled eggs and making a joke out of it is delightful. It seems as though it is far more popular with authors to hurt Doyle, but at least in this story Bodie is also hurt and in need of comfort and reassurance. [1]
[He'll Make It]: "...really too much of rehashing the episode and a tiresome focus on why Doyle left the second set of locks undone. Some writers really belabor this point. Interestingly, in the Pros novelization YOU'LL BE ALL RIGHT, Bodie mentions that Doyle's left the locks a few times before. And that's pretty much my own thought on the matter. It's the old hands that fall from the rigging, not the raw recruits."[2]

Issue 2

More Priority A-3 was published 2000 and contains 180 pages. Artwork by joey and Jane Mailander.

cover of issue #2

Issue 3

A Third Priority A-3 has 125 pages and was published October 2001. Interior art by Joey Rodrigues.

  • Soul Survivor by Lizzie - 16 pages ("I expect to be bought an ice-cream if we're going down to Kent at the weekend." Bodie grumbled, setting himself in the front seat. "Strawberry-and there'd better be a flake in it too." "It's winter. No-one eats ice-cream in the winter, Bodie.")
cover of issue #3
  • The Trunk in the Attic by Tavaran - 11 pages ("Come on, Doyle, if you drink any more of that coffee you'll be on the ceiling all day." Bodie's voice cut through the fug in the rest-room, sounding offensively cheerful at this hour of the morning. "Coming." Doyle frowned at the dregs in his mug, then with a sigh he scraped back his chair and mooched out into the corridor. He could see the twinkle in Bodie's eyes as soon as he got through the door.)
  • Glenmorangie by The Hag - 4 pages ("Flaked out on your sofa, mate." Murphy was drinking tea, eating toast. "Ray awake?" He poured tea for Bodie. "Yeah. Ta." Bodie sat down and drank gratefully. Murphy gazed at him with intense interest. "You get anywhere?" " What ?" "Didn't think you would. Pissed as newts, both of you. Terminal brewer's droop.")
  • Lost in the Feeling by Maiden Wyoming - 6 pages (He dropped below the surface once more, struggling with the leg. Something in the mechanism of the canal's lock had shifted, grabbing him from knee to foot, effectively pinning him for eventual drowning. Near as he could tell, nothing short of amputation with an axe would serve to free him in time, and that would kill him anyway from shock. He was a dead man and Bodie wouldn't know until it was too late.)
  • Handy Pandy, Out Goes The Rat by Rimy - 12 pages ("Stupid-" Bodie yelled, the rest lost in a barrage of gunfire. He tore past me towards the house, flung himself sideways and down as a flash leaped like lightning from the open door, accompanied by the thunder of another shotgun. Two sharp reports inside. And silence.)
  • Highland Comfort by Elspeth Leigh - 11 pages (Bodie backed away, felt the prickles rise on his neck again and a voice whisper in his ear. "Bah! Foolish superstition. It's me grand-mum. Didn't know she was buried down here. Explains a lot." "Ferchristsakes, Ray. Stop doing that.")
  • Damaged Goods by Meridian - 14 pages (Hands lifted him and he heard a foul curse. His heart thudded painfully. But he recognized that voice and pried his eyes opened to see Doyle's green eyes dangerously bright. "Too late," he gasped out. "Like hell, Bodie!" Despite the harsh words, Doyle's hands were gende as he checked his injuries. It still hurt like hell to be touched.)
  • Backlight by Jeroen Richards - 4 pages
  • Trying to Understand by Derry - 24 pages ("What's Cowley done to us this time?" "We're a pair of grammar school teachers. I'm art and you..." His shoulders were shaking with laughter as he continued, "You're biology.")

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 3

Soul Survivor by Lizzie. 16 pages. An established relationship story set when Doyle is 45 years old. Bodie and Doyle are still apparently working for CI5, but nothing is seen of their working lives; all the action is set in their free time and involves neither CI5 nor relationship issues. The Lads are openly living together. The story concerns the events that occur when Bodie buys a mirror that was reputedly salvaged from the Titanic. The story didn't work for me, but I should note that supernatural stories aren't a favourite of mine. I felt a significant lack of tension throughout, in no small measure because, as a story in a zine that is known to publish only tales with happy endings, I never felt any doubt that the Lads would triumph over the evil mirror. Even if there had been actual suspense, however, the premise was too ludicrous for me to care about the outcome. A few other things didn't work well for me personally. For instance, the story has a lot of dialogue, but I could never imagine Bodie and Doyle actually speaking the innuendo and types of jokes that these characters utter. Bodie is characterised by a continual desire for food, and sex rears its head in one form or another with monotonous regularity....

The Trunk in the Attic by Tavaran. 11 pages. Written in sections, the story is set partly in 2044 and partly in the 1980s. The sections written in the future concern two of Doyle's relatives finding out about his life after his death at an advanced age as they sort through his belongings. The sections set in the 1980s are flashbacks that illuminate elements of Doyle's life that his possessions reveal. The story starts well enough. Again, a bias alert: I have a partiality for third-party views of the characters. I generally find such stories rewarding on some level or another. In this story, watching the young couple discover Doyle's nude portraits of Bodie and other paraphernalia of the Lads' lives together is interesting, as though we are there being able to dig through and find out about their lives ourselves. The pay-off in this type of story - the moment when the third party discovers that the Lads were a couple - is delayed in this story far beyond reason, I thought, but other readers may not feel the same. For me, however, interest waned the moment Doyle's ghost spoke to his great-nephew's wife and any sense of "reality" went out the window. I also found the great-nephew's excessive shock at discovering that Doyle had had a male lover 50 years earlier as difficult to believe as the implication that there won't be as much crime in 2044 as in CI5's time. The story is ultimately a peculiar hybrid that did nothing for me.

Glenmorangie by The Hag. 4 pages. A free-wheeling first-time story. It's neither deep nor angsty, but it's entertaining and affecting. It also offers some wonderful turns of phrase... The story offers a glimpse of them at a time of crucial personal change, with Murphy along to add an extra spice of unexpectedness alongside the revelations and mutual coming to terms. I would perhaps have appreciated a little more bulk; but, then, I'm a reader who likes a wallow. What we're given here is lovely, and this story is one of my two favourites in the zine. Tenderness rules, and the wolves are kept from the door.

Lost In the Feeling by Maiden Wyoming. 6 pages. A first-time story that starts with a fast-paced action scene of the sort at which Maiden Wyoming excels. In a near-death epiphany, Doyle under stands his feelings for Bodie with an hitherto unrealised clarity. Later, invalided out of the squad because of his injury, he sets about organising the future for himself and his partner. The story is pleasant and engrossing, though it's also slight. The narrative jumps through three scenes in turn: the accident, Doyle's declaration to Bodie six months later, and Bodie's response one month after that. Major decisions and changes are telescoped into the final two brief visits with the characters. I would have liked to see more of what happened inside the characters - the first section grabs and holds our attention by taking us intimately into Doyle's feelings, whereas the aftermath sections have external foci - but that could be seen as a quibble.

Handy Pandy, Out Goes the Rat by Rimy. 12 pages. Rimyis a writer with a distinctly charming style. She writes with such verve that I just plain like spending time with her narratives. I also, as I've mentioned, very much like third-party viewpoint texts, of which this story is a prime example. To put it briefly, this story works for me on several levels, satisfying my various desires for style, wit, emotional depth, and characterisation: in short, a rounded reading experience. Collier is the third-person narrator who is new to CI5 and through whose irreverent but lustful eyes we get to watch Bodie and Doyle. Within the space of the story, he manages to fall for Doyle, have a fling with Bodie, fall for Bodie, and end up with feelings for both, but in a relationship with - appropriately - neither of them. The tide is a children's counting-off phrase, used to choose who'll be "It" or who should play on this team or that, along the lines of "eeny meeny minie moe." Collier, of course, is the Rat, who, charming as he is, is destined to be squeezed out of any possibility o f intimacy with one or t'other of the dynamic duo. He has, instead, the dubious honour o f being the facilitator to Bodie's and Doyle's becoming lovers, thus fulfilling his narrative function. A fun read from start to finish, and if the story goes over-the-top in a spot or two, it fits right in with Collier's own on-the-edge-of-madness persona. This story andThe Hag's are the two stand-out texts for me in this zine.

Highland Comfort by Elspeth Leigh. 11 pages. An AU in which Bodie is an art dealer who inherits an old pub in Scotland and sets about having it renovated. A slow-moving story. The first six pages deal with nothing but Bodie's plans and doings with the pub. When Doyle eventually appears, the story reveals itself to be another supernatural one. Phantoms and time shifts comprise the rest of the tale. The story offers no relationship insights: lust at first sight is presented as love. Moreover, Doyle has virtually no character. He's as ghostly in depiction as he is in substance, and could be any character with the mane and curls. As well as my already acknowledged lack of patience with supernatural stories, I also found the writing style in this text awkward. A preponderance of multi-syllabic words slow the pace to a crawl at times, and some obscurity of meaning occurs as words are used in odd and not felicitous ways. That might, of course, be merely my failing as a reader.

Damaged Goods by Meridian. 14 pages. After Bodie is seriously injured, he and his new lover Doyle attempt to ease into a post-CI5 life together. The issues that face them consist primarily of Bodie's problems in accepting help from Doyle... I found the story curiously flat, with litde emotional engagement despite the significant amounts of trauma with which the characters must deal. As always, other readers might have a different reaction.

Backlight by Jeroen Richards. 4 pages. More a vignette than a story, it records Doyle's captivity and Bodie's search for him. Sentence fragments and the remembering of colour names from his painter's palette are presumably meant to give the sense of Doyle's frayed mental state as he tries to focus on colours to distance himself from the pain. In Bodie's pov section, we learn that it takes three days before Bodie recalls the name of the grass Doyle was going to meet. This delay struck me as a mere narrative device, present only to ensure time for Doyle to suffer sufficient abuse to up the angst quotient. After that, the boy is found and Doyle is found, both without explanation. The reader is required to do too much of the bridging in the story because of severe underwriting.

Trying to Understand by Deny. 24 pages. The longest story in the zine offers a blend of a stakeout setting that varies somewhat from the usual, a case with a twist that I didn't see coming, and a first-time story. Some nice banter between the characters drew me in; I smiled at such things as Bodie's facetiously calling Doyle, "my little bundle of scrumptiousness." The story offers a variation on the theme of being undercover as a gay couple in that they improvise the cover due to circumstances, playing up the idea to exploit the stereotype that gay men are harmless. In the meantime, close quarters and a prior declaration by Bodie set Doyle to seriously pondering his relationship with his partner. I enjoyed their scrabbling, awkward, sorting-things-out, first- time sexual adventure. No fireworks, but a pleasant mix of tenderness, determination, and total ineptitude. [3]
Just a few things before I begin the review:

The first thing I would say is that IMO the zine is well worth the money--but don't shoot me if you buy it and dislike it, it is after all simply my opinion (as is the rest of the review).

I think that full marks should go to the editors, as well as to the writers, who have produced a very good, very professional zine, that is well put together, and shows that a lot of time and effort has gone into making it as perfect as possible. I didn't notice any errors in it, I wasn't looking for them, I don't, but nothing leapt out at me. I sometimes think that when commenting on the writers, one does tend to almost over look the editors, unless it is to say that they missed an Americanism or something similar, and we forget to praise them. In a way it's a bit like producing a play (which I have done). If it goes really well it's down to the actors, if it's a disaster, then it's the Producer's fault--either way the poor Producer cannot win. So my thanks and praise to the editors.

I wouldn't like to say which story was my favourite, because they all satisfied different needs in me. I personally would not say that there was a bad story in the zine. However, three really stood out as being ones that I would rate the more highly: Soul Survivor, Damaged Goods and Lost in the Feeling. Even though I didn't necessarily like everything about all three stories, they had an edge to them as far as I was concerned, something that made them for me, more enjoyable, not necessarily better, than the others.

The second thing I would just like to say is, be warned this does give away certain aspects of the stories, it's also long.

Finally, just to reiterate that everything I say is simply my opinion.

Finally, finally, I know that the review won't win any prizes for an English composition, essay. However, I'm battling against time and a disability, not to mention company for a week. So please forgive the grammatical errors and any odd typo, and take it as it is meant to be an honest, hopefully constructive review of the zine.

SOUL SURVIVOR BY LIZZIE

An older Bodie and Doyle story, which has links to the Titanic. I enjoyed the story; I enjoyed the characterisation of the older boys and the OCs whom Lizzie introduced. Their parts were not big, but Lizzie managed to make them real, not just characters on a page.

The story is an established relationship one and there is no angst between or within the boys' relationship. It's all set around an antique mirror that Bodie buys and hangs over their bed. The mirror is believed to have come from the Titanic, and was one of the 'survivors' of the sinking. It appears that the mirror has supernatural powers and has been responsible for more than one death, indeed Bodie awakes to cold fingers on his back... no they are not Ray's!

We meet a lovely old lady who takes to them both, asks them in slightly covert terms if they are intimate with each other, and we discover that the mirror is responsible for her brother's death. She calls them William and Raymond and bakes a wonderful Victoria sponge, which Bodie devours.

There's a lovely little sex scene in the back of the car once they get back home, all the more enjoyable because of the slight risk element. Bodie makes a comment about all sex manuals recommending different places and they exchange some fun banter, before Bodie tells Ray to get into the back; Doyle obliges.

The story is a good combination of love, humour, a believable plot, great banter and by-play, tension--the final scene when the mirror attacks and almost kills Bodie, is particularly good, especially because Bodie only goes out into the garden (where they have left the mirror) to do his 'boy scout' act with the neighbours cat--and some overall very memorable lines and good characterisation.

I love the line, "Doyle had 'grown into' his looks," and I also really like the scene when they are visiting the antique seller to enquire about the mirror and the guy is obviously attracted to them both. Firstly Doyle and then Bodie, and another of Lizzie's lines I particularly liked was when Doyle mouths, "mine." Simple, straightforward, and compact, and very in keeping with the Bodie and Doyle of the show. We do see a lot of possessiveness in the show, and Lizzie manages to show that this has continued in one very simple line.

Basically it's a good, gentle, yet totally believable read, a story I will enjoy reading again.

TRUNK IN THE ATTIC BY TAVARAN

A death story with a bit of a difference. The story flips back and forth between the future and the past. The future is 2044 and Doyle's great-nephew and his wife are clearing out Ray's house after his death. They discover a trunk of his things in the attic and bit by bit realise that Doyle was actually 'married', but not to a woman! He had kept his relationship with Bodie a secret from his family for his entire life.

We see the relationship between Bodie and Doyle developing and the important aspects are played out for us.

The flipping back and forth is done well, and the reader is not thrown out of the story by it.

We also discover that Bodie died when he had just turned 60 from a heart attack and that Ray had survived on his own (well he did apparently live with a woman called Sue for a couple of years) until he was 97ish.

I have to say that I personally dislike this kind of death story, I don't dislike death story's as a genre (I read and write them), but for me even though they had 20+ years together as lovers, the fact that Ray then spent nearly 40 alone without Bodie, bothered me far more than the, 'one dies and the other takes his own life or isn't careful enough on the job', stories. I suppose this story saddened me more than the other kinds of death story.

The very ending has Ray and Bodie re-meeting and Bodie telling his partner that he thought he would have to wait forever for him. We also 'see' Ray wandering around his house, watching his great-niece-in-law as she makes the discovery about his and Bodie's relationship.

Nonetheless, I thought it was well constructed, and Tavaran made it believable, even if it wasn't my 'cup of tea.'

GLENMORANGIE BY THE HAG

I have to confess that The Hag is not a favourite writer of mine (sorry). This is not a criticism of her, more of me really. I don't have a particularly well-developed sense of humour (my husband is always telling me that I take things far too seriously), and thus as her stories are mostly humorous, they don't tend to work all that well for me.

Having said this, this is probably the most enjoyable of her stories, for me, and I did rather enjoy it. It's a lighthearted story that is a sort of pre-first timer, if I've read it correctly. It's the morning after the night before, but from what we gather, the night before consisted of nothing more than a very, very passionate kiss, a threat (or promise) by Bodie that he would lay Ray and lay him better than he'd ever been laid before, and then both men passing out, being undressed by Murphy and left to it in Bodie's bed.

It was Ray's birthday, he'd been stood up by his bird and so Bodie and Murphy take him out to help him drown his sorrows and buy him some Glenmorangie. Ray keeps going on about not being laid, hence the kiss from Bodie, to which Ray responds.

It all takes place the morning after and Murphy retells the happenings to Bodie. Murphy and Bodie are clearly occasionally lovers, because when Murph leaves Bodie's flat (he crashed there the night before) he kisses Bodie and Ray asks about it. Bodie confesses his feeling for Ray to his partner, and Ray decides that he does want Bodie. They exchange nice little endearments and Bodie tells Ray he'll still respect him, and promises to buy him a different kind of whisky for his next birthday.

All's well that ends well. The future seems certain for them, no real angst or anything like that in the story.

LOST IN THE FEELING BY MAIDEN WYOMING

An interesting first-timer, with a bit of a different twist (at least I haven't seen this concept in this fandom). It's a first timer and is set after the end of the series. I got the feeling they weren't as old as they were in Lizzie's story, my apologies if I'm wrong.

The story starts after Doyle and Bodie have successfully rescued some kiddies from a canal. Everything seems fine until Ray realises that he is trapped, well and truly trapped, and all the time the water level is rising. Everyone else has vanished, leaving Bodie and Doyle alone. Bodie naturally decides that he is not going to go off and leave Ray, however he cannot free Ray either.

Time goes on and it soon becomes clear that Ray is going to drown (his head is now underwater) despite Bodie's best efforts. Bodie has to try and keep his friend and partner alive, and hope that help does arrive. He does so in a rather novel way, he shares his air and oxygen with Doyle, breathing for both of them (effectively providing the kiss of life but with Doyle still alive). Ray suddenly realises in a moment of total clarity that Bodie will die with him, why? Because he loves his partner, and Doyle realises that he loves Bodie too, and isn't going to let the bigger man die and tries to pull away from Bodie, prepared to sacrifice his life for his partners. At the last moment, help arrives and both men are pulled to safety.

As a result of this though, Doyle is invalided out of CI5, his leg has never recovered. It's six months later, Bodie is still in CI5 and turns up at Doyle's, one gets the impression 'as usual' is added here, they are still not lovers. They discuss Bodie leaving CI5 and Doyle pulls the discussion around to the canal and asks Bodie what he was thinking about and tells him that he loves Bodie and that Bodie loves him. Doyle confesses to being bi, Bodie is surprised and asks time to think about it.

One month later. Bodie has thought and makes the decision known to Doyle in the simplest way. He turns up at Doyle's flat at 5:00 a.m. and tells Ray that he's moving in with him, and that he's resigned from CI5. Bodie reckons that Cowley guessed the reason why.

A lovely sum up at the end: Life was just beginning.

A good story, with all the elements that make a story work for me: togetherness, love, partnership, friendship, a plot, humour, tension and a resolved ending. Well written and flows well from start to finish. Good characterisation and very believable, I could sense Ray's panic as the water closed in around him, and sense Bodie's (even though we only know about Bodie's panic through Doyle) as he saw the man he loved, his partner get closer to death. I like the lack of real angst over whether they should or should not become lovers. Okay, Bodie needed time to think, but we didn't see that time, and I for one was glad, I think it made for a much better balanced story than had we seen what he was thinking and deciding. Ultimately, it seemed to come down to the simple fact that they were as one.

A very good read.

HANDY PANDY, OUT GOES THE RAT BY RIMY

I have to say that I didn't understand that title at all, and in fact reading the title really made me wonder about the story, I was actually put off the story before I read it. However, I was pleasantly surprised and immediately forgot about it, as I began to read.

Sharon has briefly mentioned this story. It's told in first person by an OC. I think that Rimy does a good job with the OC, and I certainly got a feeling for him as a person rather than just words on the page.

It's a simple enough tale, but cleverly done. A new man to CI5 watches the famous Doyle/Bodie partnership, at first (on the shooting range) not knowing who was who, whereas we the reader did from the very first description of the first shooter. I think this is very clever and I think it adds something to the story, that we the reader know something that the narrator does not. We get to see the boys through someone else's eyes, whilst at the same time this other person is carrying on a conversation with another new recruit, cleverly done. There are some interesting insights into Bodie and Doyle, a comment that, "The skinny on doesn't look like he'd survive a bullet. Or anything rough." Interesting and very perceptive, because the Doyle of the series is more than capable of giving this impression. The partners meet the storyteller and he is immediately attracted to Doyle, but warned off by Bodie. We don't know at this stage exactly what the relationship between 4.5 and 3.7 is. I rather liked this not knowing at this point.

Later OC gets warned my Murphy about crossing either Doyle or Bodie, and warns that actually Doyle is the more dangerous as far as anyone hurting his partner is concerned. Murphy also makes an allusion to rumour and them not being true, but still we obviously don't know.

Finally OC sums it up: Bodie loves Doyle; Doyle is only turned on by women. OC fancies Doyle. We see a lot of Doyle and Bodie through OC's eyes, talk about Doyle's temperament, his considerate nature etc. and we see how Bodie's suffers and how he is really besotted, might be a good word.

The three of them end up on an op. together, the OC is shot and then turns out Doyle is badly wounded. Bodie has to go for help because the OC can't. Doyle comes to during this time and is surprised and almost disbelieving that Bodie has gone.

Bodie and OC end up working together and end up in bed, but there is no emotion in it. And Bodie ends up pushing Ray to one side almost and spending time with his new bedmate. Ray goes away on a solo case and... the inevitable happens, he comes back catches Bodie and OC together and seems to be deeply hurt. OC sends Bodie after Doyle and it's happily ever after.

It was a well-crafted story and I thought captured Bodie and Doyle rather well, but somehow it failed to move me as much as it might. I think this was mainly because I didn't quite buy Bodie pulling away from Doyle, thus hurting him, and spending time with Collier, (sorry Rimy), and yet I was prepared to suspend disbelief because it was necessary for the story, and to have the lovely couple of lines: 'We never meant to hurt Ray. It just happened. We damn well never meant him to find out about us. That just happened too.' The fact that Ray turns up at Bodie's flat expecting Bodie to be there for him, was a sign of how close the partners are, how much they regard each other as the others.

I did feel sorry for Collier by the end, he was the loser in the whole sorry affair and yet he'd gone into it with his eyes wide open, and had been warned by Murphy. The one really jolting thing for me was near the very end when Collier says that he is still in love with Bodie! He was apparently in love Doyle earlier on. He admits he may be a bit in love with Doyle now as well. I think for that to have worked for me, I needed more with Collier and Bodie or Collier on Bodie. I needed to see when Collier moved from loving Ray to Bodie.

Nonetheless a nice read, and a very fine insight of Bodie and Doyle. I like first person stories from another person (I like them from Bodie or Doyle too), but I think it's good to see them from an outsider so to speak and Rimy captured them very well.

HIGHLAND COMFORT BY ELSPETH LEIGH

An AU that took some careful reading. We are not 100% sure from the open paragraph that it is AU; it gradually becomes clearer as time goes on. Basically Bodie is a rich businessman who has been left a pub in Scotland. He goes to look at it with a view to selling and falls in love with the place and decides to refurbish it.

We get a good feeling for the scenery and the hard work being put in on repairing the pub, and the hardships being endured, although I did have to ask myself, why if Bodie went for his breakfast at the B&B didn't he sleep there? Again, it was essential for the story that he did stay in the pub, so that was fine.

Not much is known about Bodie's great-uncle, save he was lured away by an auburn-headed, green-eyed siren--you start to get a familiar feeling.

Bodie goes to the B&B and meets the landlady, they talk about the pub and her father and she produces an old map of the underground part of the place, which Bodie doesn't know about. Bodie is captivated by the place and still doesn't really know why. He is neglecting his business and finally gives away parts of it to two of his assistants, because he wants to stay in Scotland.

Bodie has a dream and in it is Ray Doyle, sexy, auburn haired and green eyed. He tells Bodie he is there to seduce Bodie and does so. Bodie wakes up: No Doyle. The day comes to open the basement, Bodie goes down alone... and guess who he finds? Doyle. They make love. He asks Ray who he is and Ray says, "Yours," and vanishes. Very simple language, very concise and very true.

Bodie is called back to London and finds out to his horror that the main people he has been dealing with in Scotland, are actually long since dead. Not sure what to do, he is pondering it, when Ray appears and begs Bodie to come back to him.

Bodie goes back, goes to the B&B and finds a different person, goes to the renovations and finds another different person, finally goes inside the pub and finds Ray, and suddenly everything is back to how it was, the dead people are back. Ray tells Bodie that he (Ray) can never leave the place again. Bodie vows he won't either.

I have to confess that I got somewhat lost with the story; I think I needed it to be longer, which is a way a compliment. I wanted to know more about these people, about Ray; about how Bodie was shifting back and forth in time and about how the shift happened. I guess that it is down to each reader to make of it, as she will. Definitely a story that needs reading more than once, I think to fully appreciate the subtly of it.

DAMAGED GOODS BY MERIDIAN

A H/C with Bodie as the one hurt, in fact is Bodie really seriously hurt. We see Bodie thinking as he lies there waiting to die, expecting to die. Thinking about him and Doyle and how they had only finally, recently admitted what they felt for one another, but how they couldn't whilst being active agents (hmm, this is a difficult concept for me to buy.) We flash back to them sitting holding hands, this time it's Bodie comforting Doyle.

They talk about getting out of CI5, because then there could be a them. Ray is quite nicely naïve, and says he's never tried being anything more than just friends with a bloke; it's a lovely picture of Ray. They kiss and this moves on to them undressing and a nice, gentle sex scene on the settee and then Doyle decides he has to leave. It's a great credit to the writer, because so far in a couple of short pages she has two concepts that I would find hard to believe, and yet she manages them in a really beautiful convincing way.

Back to Bodie and his capture. Then it's Doyle to the rescue and a super line, "If I'm going to all the trouble to rescue you, you dumb crud, then you damned well better live." Superb and so Doyle.

Bodie comes to in the hospital and Doyle is always there, then one time Cowley is and he tells Bodie that he may never walk again without aid. Bodie takes a decision to 'run' from Ray and begs Cowley for help. He agrees and sends Doyle on an op.

Doyle is back, he goes to hospital, but there's no Bodie and no one will tell him anything. He finally goes to Cowley and after a talk he says the one thing that ensures Cowley will tell him where Bodie is, he tells him they are lovers.

He finds Bodie and after much pushing back and forth and arguing, Doyle convinces Bodie that he is going home with him. Now Doyle is certain about the relationship and Bodie is not. He's really doing the 'if you love something, set it free...' and it is something that I personally believed in totally. I could see this happening, could see that Bodie loves, cares for, whatever terminology you wish to use, Doyle so much, that he would put Doyle's interests and future before his own.

We see the difficulty between them and it does look as though it might drive them apart. The relatively short scenes we see of Bodie's attempted recovery, and the problems between the two men are extremely well done and very realistic, not just for Bodie and Doyle but for anyone in recovery. They are both pushing, and pushing each other, away.

Just as Ray thinks he really cannot stand anymore, Bodie finally turns to him one night and kisses him and simply says, "Thanks." At that moment Doyle knew that Bodie was asking him to stay and that if he's honest, he wouldn't ever have gone anyway, there was no where he could go.

There was an inevitability about Doyle's final thought and a binding so strong that he was right, there was nowhere for him to go. I rather liked the fact that although things were now poised to be happy etc. there was this almost flat note to the happiness. We know that it still isn't going to be all roses and happiness, it can't be because Bodie is seriously injured, and is going to be disabled and both of them are going to have their problems in dealing with it. But they'll do it because they're together.

A very sombre story, with little to lift it really, save the total togetherness and deep, deep, partnership and love that the two men had. Without that emotion and closeness the story would have been almost unbearably sad, but their wholeness lifted it and gave it hope, love and a future.

BACKLIGHT BY JEROEN RICHARDS

It's a Doyle captured and hurt story that begins after his capture. Bodie looks for Doyle and challenges Cowley. They find a boy who used to know Doyle and he tells Bodie that he'd sent Ray to this other man, a cop-killer. The young lad still thinks of Ray as a cop. We see Doyle with the man who captured him, who seems to have a need to talk to Ray. Then Bodie arrives and it is all over.

I have to confess to being a little puzzled by this story, I found it somewhat too subtle. It is a very well crafted story and very clever and the writer uses very concise, almost pointed language, with colours being an underlying theme. The use of the imagery and the colours is very vivid, and I could clearly see what she was describing, and felt that it was unfolding in front of my eyes.

The tightness of the language, the shortness of the paragraphs and the provocative use of colour made for a very tense, dark story from beginning to end. Although a well-used and simple theme, the use of colour made it a rather different kind of story.

It wasn't my favourite story in the zine, probably because of its darkness and tightness, again though another story I think might grow on one on second reading. The use of colour wasn't arbitrary; it was very cleverly done and fitted extremely well.

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND BY DERRY

A case and a first timer, a combination that worked. The partners go undercover on a boat as a pair of teachers (Ray art, Bodie biology), and they are watching someone on another boat.

Before the case they go back to Doyle's after an unsuccessful evening on the town, they wrestle, Bodie gets a hard-on, but nothing happens, it's almost joked about. In the morning, the hard-on reappears and Doyle calls Bodie on it, and it suddenly becomes clear that Bodie wants Doyle, but that it isn't returned.

Doyle refuses to talk about it. Again kudos to Derry for making me swallow my disbelief in this scenario and to believe in it for the duration of the story. And yet, although Doyle doesn't want to talk about it, he won't let it go and keeps harping back to it, dragging it all back on poor Bodie. He's clearly not going to let it go, and asks Bodie all sorts of questions.

In between this we see the case and it's nicely balanced, a case and a first timer that work together, not too many of these do. They meet the mysterious Cartwright, the guy they are watching and ultimately decide that they had better camp it up a bit, pretend that they are lovers, basically to explain why they are on the boat.

Doyle starts a drawing of Bodie, and the drawing becomes very erotic, as Bodie is naked. As the story goes on, it is now clear that despite his protests to the contrary, Doyle is starting to think of Bodie as a potential bedmate. However, it isn't going to be simple, his thoughts make him angry and make him say things he probably wouldn't otherwise. Finally he does tell Bodie he fancies him and they go to bed, whilst they are meant to be watching the other boat. It's a dark sex scene, because there seems no tenderness in it, and you get the impression that neither man is going to get any enjoyment out of it, and yet it is inevitable. It ends with Doyle calling it a mistake.

They discover Cartwright has done a moonlight flit and they chase to the pub. A chase ensues, Cartwright catches Bodie, Doyle arrives yells at Bodie to get down, fires and... misses, but it's enough and Cartwright in captured. Bodie can't believe Ray missed and later we discover that Doyle deliberately shot away from Cartwright fearing he'd hit Bodie and is scared by that reaction, thinking he'd got over it when during the Georgi incident.

Finally back at Doyle's all works out okay and they once again kiss and caress and yet again, now there is more tenderness, less inevitability and more because they wanted it.

A good all round, well balanced story.Good case and first time plots that held your attention throughout. Not too much lightness in it, although there was some good banter in it, and some nice little bits, like Ray packing Bodie's polo neck jumper in his own bag. Ray was a good swing back and forth and it was interesting to see him unfold and to see the fight with himself. [4]
A THIRD PRIORITY A-3 is a Pros slash anthology published in October 2001 by IDP Press. It contains nine stories by nine different authors and consists of 125 pages, of which 102 are text. There are twelve illos by joey throughout, each on its own page except one. There's no word count on the zine, but the text is presented in single column with moderately wide margins. The zine has a comb binding, and the front cover features a computer-manipulated photograph of Bodie and Doyle that I find attractive.

The stories in order are:

SOUL SURVIVOR by Lizzie. 16 pages. An established relationship story set when Doyle is forty-five years old. Bodie and Doyle are still apparently working for CI5, but nothing is seen of their working lives; all the action is set in their free time and involves neither CI5 nor relationship issues. The Lads are openly living together. The story concerns the events that occur when Bodie buys a mirror that was reputedly salvaged from the Titanic.

The story didn't work for me, but I should note that supernatural stories aren't a favourite of mine. I felt a significant lack of tension throughout, in no small measure because, as a story in a zine that is known to publish only tales with happy endings, I never felt any doubt the Lads would triumph over the evil mirror. Even if there had been actual suspense, however, the premise was too ludicrous for me to care about the outcome.

A few other things didn't work well for me personally. For instance, the story has a lot of dialogue, but I could never imagine Bodie and Doyle actually speaking the innuendo and types of jokes these characters utter. Bodie is characterised by a continual desire for food, and sex rears its head in one form or another with monotonous regularity. A sex scene in the car outside their own house, for example, seems entirely gratuitous, and not exactly romantic:

Slowly, Doyle recovered.

"What would you like?" he whispered.

"Your arse," Bodie replied, hoarsely. "It won't take long; just show the dog the bone. I'm leaking like hell."

Readers who like supernatural stories with a non-relationship focus, however, might find this story enjoyable.

THE TRUNK IN THE ATTIC by Tavaran. 11 pages. Written in sections, the story is set partly in 2044 and partly in the 1980s. The sections written in the future concern two of Doyle's relatives finding out about his life after his death at an advanced age as they sort through his belongings. The sections set in the 1980s are flashbacks that illuminate aspects of Doyle's life that his possessions reveal.

The story starts well enough. Again, a bias alert: I have a partiality for third-party views of the characters. I generally find such stories rewarding on some level or another. In this story, watching the young couple discover Doyle's nude portraits of Bodie and other paraphernalia of the Lads' lives together is interesting, as though we are there being able to dig through and find out about their lives ourselves. The pay-off in this type of story--the moment when the third party discovers the Lads were a couple--is delayed here far beyond reason, I thought, but other readers might not feel the same.

For me, however, interest waned the moment Doyle's ghost spoke to his great-nephew's wife and any sense of reality went out the window. I also found as difficult to believe the great-nephew's excessive shock at discovering Doyle had a male lover fifty years earlier as the suggestion of less crime in 2044 than in CI5's time. The story is ultimately a peculiar hybrid that did nothing for me.

GLENMORANGIE by The Hag. 4 pages. A free-wheeling first-time story. It's neither deep nor angsty, but it's entertaining and affecting. It also offers some wonderful turns of phrase, emblematic of The Hag's skill with language:

Scent of Ray everywhere. More intoxicating than any single malt. He buried his face in the pillow Ray had used and lay inhaling and listening. He wanted to watch Ray every moment he could, be sure nothing threatened his peace--nothing but himself, who had shattered it. He recalled all too well the fragile terror of first knowing he might be prey to the wolves.

The story offers a glimpse of them at a time of crucial personal change, with Murphy along to add an extra spice of unexpectedness alongside the revelations and mutual coming to terms. The story isn't complex, but what we're given is lovely, and this story is one of my two favourites in the zine. Tenderness rules, and the wolves are kept from the door.

LOST IN THE FEELING by Maiden Wyoming. 6 pages. A first-time story that starts with a fast-paced action scene of the sort at which Maiden Wyoming excels. In a near-death epiphany, Doyle understands his feelings for Bodie with an hitherto unrealised clarity. Later, invalided out of the squad because of his injury, he sets about organising the future for himself and his partner.

The story is pleasant and engrossing, though it's also slight. The narrative jumps through three scenes in turn: the accident, Doyle's declaration to Bodie six months later, and Bodie's response one month after that. Major decisions and changes are telescoped into the final two brief visits with the characters. I would have liked to see more of what happened inside the characters--the first section grabs and holds our attention by taking us intimately into Doyle's feelings, whereas the aftermath sections have external foci--but that could be seen as a quibble.

HANDY PANDY, OUT GOES THE RAT by Rimy. 12 pages. Rimy is a writer with a distinctly charming style. She writes with such verve that I just plain like spending time with her narratives. I also, as I've mentioned, very much like third-party viewpoint texts, of which this story is a fine example. To put it briefly, this story works for me on several levels, satisfying my various desires for style, wit, emotional depth, and characterisation: in short, a rounded reading experience.

Collier is the third-person narrator who is new to CI5 and through whose irreverent but lustful eyes we get to watch Bodie and Doyle. Within the space of the story, he manages to fall for Doyle, have a fling with Bodie, fall for Bodie, and end up with feelings for both, but in a relationship with--appropriately--neither of them. The title is a children's counting-off phrase, used to choose who'll be "It" or who should play on this team or that, along the lines of "eeny meeny minie moe." Collier, of course, is the Rat, who, charming though he is, is destined to be squeezed out of any possibility of intimacy with one or t'other of the dynamic duo. He has, instead, the dubious honour of being the facilitator to Bodie's and Doyle's becoming lovers, thus fulfilling his narrative function.

A fun read from start to finish, and if the story goes over-the-top in a spot or two, it fits right in with Collier's own on-the-edge-of-madness persona. This story and The Hag's are the two stand-out texts for me in this zine.

HIGHLAND COMFORT by Elspeth Leigh. 11 pages. An AU in which Bodie is an art dealer who inherits an old pub in Scotland and sets about having it renovated. A slow moving story. The first six pages deal with nothing but Bodie's plans and doings with the pub. When Doyle eventually appears, the story reveals itself to be another supernatural one. Phantoms and time shifts comprise the rest of the tale. The story offers no relationship insights: lust at first sight is presented as love. Moreover, Doyle has virtually no character. He's as ghostly in depiction as he is in substance, and could be any character with the name and curls.

As well as my already acknowledged lack of patience with supernatural stories, I also found the writing style in this text awkward. A preponderance of multi-syllabic words slow the pace to a crawl at times, and some obscurity of meaning occurs as words are used in odd and infelicitous ways. That might, of course, be merely my failing as a reader.

DAMAGED GOODS by Meridian. 14 pages. After Bodie is seriously injured, he and his new lover Doyle attempt to ease into a post-CI5 life together. The issues that face them consist primarily of Bodie's problems in accepting help from Doyle:

Things with him and Doyle had settled into a routine that revolved around his physiotherapy and exercise programme. Doyle cooked and cleaned and took care of things.

Part of Bodie appreciated what Doyle was doing and was glad to have him there. Another part could not stand for his partner to be taking care of him. He was the one who was supposed to take care, supposed to protect. It wasn't rational; he knew that, and he knew that Doyle was more than capable of taking care of himself.

I found the story flat, with little emotional engagement despite the significant amounts of trauma with which the characters must deal. As always, other readers might have a different reaction.

BACKLIGHT by Jeroen Richards. 4 pages. More a vignette than a story, it records Doyle's captivity and Bodie's search for him. Sentence fragments and the remembering of colour names from his painter's palette are presumably meant to give the sense of Doyle's frayed mental state as he tries to focus on colours to distance himself from the pain. In Bodie's pov section, we learn it takes three days before Bodie recalls the name of the grass Doyle was going to meet. This delay struck me as mere narrative convenience, present only to ensure time for Doyle to suffer sufficient abuse to up the angst quotient. After that, the grass is found and Doyle is found, both without explanation. The reader is required to do too much of the bridging in the story because of severe underwriting.

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND by Derry. 24 pages. The longest story in the zine offers a blend of a stakeout setting that varies somewhat from the usual, a case with a twist I didn't see coming, and a first-time story. Some nice banter between the characters drew me in; I smiled at such things as Bodie's facetiously calling Doyle, "my little bundle of scrumptiousness." The story offers a variation on the theme of being undercover as a gay couple in that they improvise the cover due to circumstances, playing up the idea to exploit the stereotype that gay men are harmless. In the meantime, close quarters and a prior declaration by Bodie set Doyle to seriously pondering his relationship with his partner.

I enjoyed their scrabbling, awkward, sorting-things-out, first-time sexual adventure. No fireworks, but a pleasant mix of tenderness, determination, and total ineptitude. [5]

References

  1. ↑ from Metabolick at The Hatstand
  2. ↑ The Devil's Workshop posted Sept 29, 2007; Archive.is link.
  3. ↑ from Discovered in a Letterbox #24
  4. ↑ from Nikki Harringtong at The Hatstand
  5. ↑ from Nell Howell at The Hatstand
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