Frere Jacques

The Professionals Fanfiction
Title:	Beasts of Burden
Author(s):	Dinah
Date(s):	1990s? 2000s?
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	The Professionals
External Links:	part one, part two, part three.
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Frere Jacques is a Professionals story written by Dinah.

The story is gen, though there has been much discussion if it is het as well. See comments below.

Reactions and Reviews

The weirdest thing has happened... the first time I rec for Reading Room, I rec a gen story. And this is very weird, because I don't read gen. It's dull (sorry genners, but I am all about the B/D slash and if it's not there, then I'm happy to leave the fic to you!) Except that there are a few gen fics that I've (usually accidentally) read that I think are so true to the show that they catch the slash vibe beautifully, whether they mean to or not - and Dinah's Frere Jacques is one of them.

There's alot of touching, they go away on holiday together, they're both desperate to stay together as partners, and they're desperately scared for each other's safety. The only thing Frere Jacques doesn't have is explicit sex, but you just know they're building up to it... *g*

Okay, first some of the "slash" that I adore in this story: 1. ‘Did you have to insist on that last round?’ Doyle complained, tripping over an uneven paving stone as the two agents made their way back to Bodie’s flat. ‘Relax. Enjoy it. And be grateful. I could have got you paraplegic if I’d wanted to.’ ‘Yeah, sure you could.’ ‘It has been known...’ Bodie smiled a slightly inebriated smile as Doyle debated whether to smack him or not. ‘I suppose at least we got a night off. And a day off tomorrow. The old man must be going soft.’ ‘Deserve it,’ Bodie said, grabbing Doyle’s arm. ‘Yeah, I know they got away but we’ve done the ground work. Anson and Murphy and ... well, someone’ll sort it out,’ he finished vaguely, not really bothered about mundane work details at this stage on a Saturday night.

This is so like the eps to me - they went out together, they got drunk together, they're going home to Bodie's flat together. Bodie's "It has been known..." is so a leer, and Bodie is already grabbing at Doyle.

2. When the bloke dies on Bodie's doorstep, Doyle's loyalty to Bodie in not saying anything to the police, is absolute and unquestioned.

3. Doyle brings Bodie pizza. And chips (these are proper chips, by the way, not crisps, cos Bodie eats them with tomato sauce...).

4. Bodie takes Doyle with him on holiday. For back-up, perhaps, but because there's clearly no one else he trusts, knows, is part of enough to take - even though he wants to keep his real reasons for going a secret to protect Doyle. And all the time they're there, Bodie thinks about how he can't do it without Doyle. Doyle is absolutely a part of Bodie in this story - it's unthinkable to him that Doyle isn't there with him, the other part of him, keeping him safe, balancing him.

5. Doyle is slightly oblivious to Bodie's devotion as far as we're told by the writer, but we sometimes see that in the eps too... and who doesn't adore (currently) unrequited love...? There's a bit of going on about the girls in Cannes, and dating, but obvously they're in denial still. Only we get to hear their thoughts and feelings in the fic, and they speak much more loudly than their actions do... Doyle is not oblivious to Bodie, and his own feelings are so clear when he realises what's going on - see below.

6. The girls mean nothing to them - but they gravitate towards each other after every encounter, and are constantly thinking of each other, even if they're thinking that the other wouldn't be thinking of them when they're about to get laid... *g* Still in denial - but sometimes isn't the promise just as wonderful as the getting?

7. Doyle leaves Bodie tomato juice for his hangover. He brings him croissants. He's so looking after him. *g*

8. Doyle touches Bodie too, under guise of complaining about Bodie's lack of exercise. And in reassurance, when Bodie is afraid that Doyle's loytalties are too torn.

9. Doyle bristles at Bodie's old friend, Jack - and he immediately jumps in to defend him, to claim him when Jack suggests that Bodie's deepest loyalties are really to him.

10. Bodie, about Doyle, when asked if they're close: Yeah. Suppose so. Don't think I could just walk away from him. He adds or the job and realises he couldn't walk away from Cowley either - but his first admission is that he couldn't leave Doyle, even for a long-held dream of love and freedom. His love now is stronger.

11. Doyle could feel himself shaking in a mixture of disbelief and a sense of horrific inevitability. His mind was a mass of seething red clouds, terror and fury combined, expecting the bullet from Jack's gun to cut Bodie down any minute. He shoots Jack twice, to make very sure that Bodie is safe...

Okay, apart from the slash, what else do I like about this fic? I like that the slash (*g*) is going on around real life, about something in Bodie's past that has returned to haunt him, and I like the way their feelings and thoughts and attitudes are revealed through this. A lot of fic puts a hold on real life, closets them in a separate world for a while to talk about the lads and their relationship, but here we see things emerge, as they tend to do, through their place in the outside world.

I like the little moments, beautifully captured, such as that feeling of lazy recovery after a hangover in a foreign place, when you make do with whatever food you're desperate enough to find - bad soup and stale bread - because you really can't bring yourself to go out. Their rooms both being in a state. Bodie's faith that Doyle can blag tickets. That they talk when they're alone together. That they sit in cafes on their own, reading papers, drinking coffee, thinking about each other.

I like the characterisation of the lads - it's very much the way that I see them. Bodie is a basically good man who had a wild and irresponsible past - but he's good enough and competent enough that Cowley fought beaurocracy to have him in CI5, good enough that Doyle is unswerving in his loyalty, even when he knows Bodie's dodgy background - even if he's conflicted about the fact that he should be so loyal, at the very end. (See, slash! *g*) But Bodie isn't portrayed as some god-like character either, he has weaknesses, he makes mistakes - he'll turn a blind eye to things he doesn't want to think about, to old loyalties that he wants to be real, even though it's clear to everyone (even him) that they never really were. (And oh god does Doyle know this about him, and cover for him, protect him from it...)

Doyle is great - his desire for the hedonism of Cannes sitting uncomfortably with his innate sense of what is right, what is just and real. He wants to relax and enjoy things, as Bodie does, but he sees through to the reality all too often. He wants to want the girls, but ultimately his loyalty is totally with Bodie - he always comes back to him, Bodie is home. (Slash! *g*) He believes unswervingly in the justice system too - in Cowley and the protection of the law. He doesn't feel that he's betraying Bodie by following Cowley's orders to keep an eye on him, rather he's protecting him with the force of CI5 behind him. That said - he's right there to back Bodie up in all the dodgy moments, legal or not.

I love that there are such contrasts between them - where Doyle grew up you Had to have a bit of fire or you'd get your head kicked in... In my case, [by] grammar school kids, mainly. And Bodie went to grammar school... - but they know each other so well in other ways that all Bodie has to say is "Don't" when Doyle makes the wrong kind of joke, and Doyle knows immediately that he's hit something serious, backs off, "Sorry." And with all these contrasts, despite all the unknowns between them, they balance each other perfectly.

Adore the scene at night on the boat, where it's just the two of them waiting for Jack, and Bodie's finally telling Doyle what's going on. Again there's a deeper understanding between them, and although they're talking about Bodie's feelings, his motives, and Doyle's reaction to it all, there's not a hint of soppiness in it. I always was respectable, says Bodie, Kind of. Inside. But sometimes you get carried off on a different wave, end up doing things you didn't mean to. - I wouldn't know says Doyle, a gentle tease, So it's the respectable Bodie who's lying in wait on someone's private yacht, is it?. And without any fuss, Bodie admits that it's Something about Cannes... Doesn't make you feel respectable, does it?. Doyle admits things too: This is not the night to ask me... There's too much of you I don't know..." - he's confused about the new things he's learned about Bodie, but here's his blind spot - he's not going to leave Bodie, despite the way it messes with his own sense of morality.

I could probably go on forever - even more forever - but I won't. *g* Frere Jacques had freshness to it, something different, that elusive something that makes me sit up and want to read on and on. It's well written (despite the odd dodgy sentence, and a sometimes creative use of commas) and flows perfectly, and for me it captured not only the atmosphere of an op to start with, a secret backstory and Cannes itself, but of the lads as they move further into the inevitability of a deeper relationship. And I'm really curious about whether anyone else sees the same things in this story... That old debate - where does gen end, and slash take over..? *g*

...the lads' relationship is central. At some point, Bodie actually acknowledges he couldn't operate without Doyle anymore.

I like the way Bodie's relationship with Jack prefigures his relationship with Doyle. It is good backstory, and also a good compare and contrast exercise. Ooh, and Jack's reflection near the end of how much he'd enjoyed it when Bodie, Jack and Cara had been an incestuous little family. How close did they really come, we wonder?

Also very enjoyable is the reminiscing about Bodie at 22. Mostly we see him as having nothing but a grim life before CI5, so it was a pleasant change to imagine this charming, handsome, wild and free 22 year old swanning around the Riviera.

As to the gen aspect, I completely agree that the lad's relationship here is all we would expect minus explicit sex. The only squick for me was Bodie in bed with Cara. Obviously they do go to bed with girls, even in slash fic, but it was *caring* about the girl that made my innards lurch. It was a great relief when they met again, on the boat, and Bodie inwardly acknowledged he no longer wanted a relationship with Cara, and left her with a chaste kiss on the forehead.

I remember reading the first paragraph and thinking, she means paralytic (very drunk) not paraplegic (spinal paralysis), then some pages later I had a bad feeling that it was going to turn into one of those Bodiecentric pre CI5/dark deeds in Africa stories that I generally dislike so I got off slightly on the wrong foot with this story. :-)

By the end I decided I'd read a good episode type story with action, adventure and mystery, but it was firmly a gen piece with Bodie and Doyle's friendship, loyalty and partnership as the central theme.

To be honest, I don't fully understand why Bodie didn't take Doyle into his confidence in the first place. Bodie is as sure of Doyle as Doyle is of him. They're men, they don't do 'feelings', but they both know they are good mates as well as working partners and you don't let your mates down. I did like the contrast between Doyle's morality and law abiding nature and Bodie's more carefree and ambiguous nature. I also enjoyed the Cowley interludes. Generally, everyone seemed very in character which is always a great plus. :-)

I tried, I really did, but I did find myself skimming for all the good (for good read slashy) bits. But in the end I had to give up. It just wasnt holding my interest at all.

Aww - there was definitely no sex in it, but for me there was enough deeper relationship stuff that it was totally pre-slashy! I wonder if you'd've liked other bits more if there hadn't been the "Warning" that it was gen...

I dont have to have sex in all my slash stories, you know *g* What I do have to have is a closeness and warmth which I didnt really get from the short part I read skimmed through. You could be right, though. Because I *knew* there wasnt going to be any kisses, hugs or sex in it, maybe it did put me off from the start. But hey, my time is precious so I want to read what I *want* to read if you know what I mean.

I wouldn't mind reading gen, 'cos if it was well done it would be like watching an ep. But there is so much slash out there which can also deliver the plotty stuff as well as the slashy stuff, I would never have time to try it. So really I'm grateful to BSL for giving me a good reason to try some gen which comes with a recommendation of quality plot and writing. And I did like 'Frere Jacques', *except* the het bit with Bodie and Cara. Ahem, 'there was definitely no sex in it'? There was, but it was the wrong people.

It's not het! There is no het! They sleep with girls but it's all off-camera, like on Pros. I don't read het! At all! I can't believe Jaycat keeps describing it as het because there's no description of m/f sex. Bodie has an old girlfriend called Cara that he sleeps with once - but we get no details about it! I've written het-ier stuff than is in this story!... Lol - sorry, was I a bit vehement there? *g* May be slightly stir crazy here... *sighs* But really - it's not het by any definition I've ever seen. To me "het" focusses on a relationship between m/f and slash focusses on a relationship between m/m, and get focusses on something else - like Bodie's past in this case...

If the description of Bodie going to bed with a girl with whom he has had a passionate relationship and, for all the reader knows, he would still like to have such a relationship with, is not het, what is? And it is described, if not graphically, enough to give one an all too clear picture of Bodie enjoying her physical attractions. I am as ever ready to be corrected - is 'het' in Pros fic to be defined as the lads being entirely and exclusively heterosexual? And what is there is in this fic to say they aren't? But I am talking about the particular episode of Bodie and Cara. In other words, if a distinctly heterosexual episode occurs in a fic, why is that not het, as an episode, within a longer story?

Usually saying that something is "het" suggests an explicit focus on and description of m/f sex. There wasn't any description of m/f sex in the story, and Bodie wasn't in love with Cara except in memory. "Het" to me, and as far as I know to Probodie, implies that explicit focus and description, and that was the context in which I was commenting.

The eps themselves are "gen", despite the fact the lads are portrayed as having sexual relationships with women, because the focus of the eps is never on those sexual relationships - not even Involvement or Fallgirl.

People being people we could argue a million ways for many different definitions - the only one I'm defending in this case, is the definition of "het" that I understand between myself, Probodie and this particular fic. When she wrote OMG het too?? Thank god I didnt read on!!!!! I'm 99% sure that she will have thought you meant an explicit sex scene, which as you can tell really puts her off! I was explaining to her that I would never rec a het story! Which I wouldn't!

I tried, like probodie. And unlike her, I sometimes deliberately read gen - in more than one fandom! Sometimes it's great! I didn't enjoy this. Maybe the grimness of the yellow background colour put me in a sour mood? (There's a reason most stuff is printed on white or cream 'paper'.) Then the long flashbacks in italics annoyed me - I really hate reading more than a sentence or so in italics.

All sorts of minor things jarred - not necessarily wrong but somehow unlikely, like Bodie finding a villa not already taken in Cannes at festival time, however many 'friends' he has. Wooden plot device - they should have stayed out of town and travelled in... It was hard to get Danish pastries or cans of beer in France in 1983. Not impossible - just not staple stuff. Those big houses along the coast aren't chateaux. Why would a non-actor from Derby adopt a Yorkshire accent? Bodie's mum wouldn't have stood much chance of an abortion in England during or just after the war and how come she was fraternising with soldiers in Ireland? It implies Eire if she needed to come to the mainland to access abortion and the war didn't touch Eire.

There were some irritating sentence constructions and a lot of less than smooth changes of point of view. They wouldn't have bothered me much if I'd been enjoying the story.

Then some of the plot just didn't ring true. Would Bodie have risked the photo after finding the dying man on his doorstep, which was, after all, the reason he was there? And would Doyle not have made the connection? He asks 'why chase it now?' as if it is all old history and there was no dying man. Bodie gets all nostalgic about his friendship with Jack but in the first flashback he despised him. Would Bodie really have risked Doyle's safety without at least an explanation? If he would - and the Bodie of this story obviously would (I was nearly sick when I read the casual flashback about Johnson)- would he have been the sort of person Doyle would feel such loyalty to? The characterisation just doesn't ring true to me for either of them. They aren't my Doyle and Bodie and I didn't, by the end. much care what happened. I got the impression that the Bodie of this story didn't much care, either.

Hated it! Sorry! But it's interesting reading how other people see it all the same!!

... I found the plot devices etc. were a little too obvious for me. But then I wasn't enjoying the story to begin with. And I think it boils down to the characterisation. They didn't seem like my Doyle and Bodie (isn't it odd that we can watch the same people and come away with different ideas, in real life and on screen?!) so I wasn't 'hooked'. I then probably looked for things to annoy me!!! *g*

I agree that they aren't portrayed as superheroes but I prefer them not to be portrayed as villains. I hated Bodie in this story!

Thank you very much for this rec! I think without you I never would have read it, although I knew where to find it!

Just look at the summary: "Beneath the stylish, champagne-soaked facade of the Cannes Film Festival lurks a story of drugs, betrayal and political intrigue." That's exactly the stuff I avoid. Betrayal and political intrigue... Shivers! But the author doesn't get into boring details of it - she is always close to Bodie and Doyle, their feelings and thoughts.

IMO it is a very good story! And it is beautifully written. It makes you curious from the beginning. An ordinary day in CI5 routine, then a shadow of 'Bodie's murky past'. (I love the word 'murky'!) Doyle wants to know more - but as usual Bodie is a master of hiding as much as possible - and Doyle knows him too good to push his friend.

I like it when the boys work occasionally outside of London! And the imagination of Bodie and Doyle taking sun baths and go swimming... sun, the south of France, glamour and glittering water... who would complain? And it is nice that Cowley and CI5 are involved in this story. Cowley kind of keeps Bodie on the long line! I like that!

The story builds up slowly, but your fear for Bodie is growing the more he gets involved. Bodie is aware that he can lose everything that is important for him. And for me it was absolutely not disturbing that the showdown is done with only two or four sentences - for me it is much more interesting to understand Bodie why he is ready to commit murder... I could nearly agree in all points of your description, BSL - you can do it so much better than me!

Except... For me there is absolutely no slash in it! It's a wonderful description of friendship and l loyalty. But they never even lost a thought of romantic feelings for each other.

For me that's enough. It's a lot!

And there are enough other beautiful stories with slash in it.

The idea that the lads' relationship will develop from here... On the positive side, Bodie having resolved this episode from his past - his remembered love (well, desire) for Cara, his fear the shooting on the boat will come back to haunt him - might clear the way for him and Doyle.

But this makes the assumption, like a lot of slash fic, that it takes until 1983, at least, for the partnership to develop explicitly into love/sex. It was simple mismanagement that the last eps were even screened as late as 1983, for heaven's sake, when they were filmed in 1980/1. The reason often seems to be it takes the shooting in DiaG for Bodie to realise his feelings etc. etc., and gives the author all the eps as points of reference for the lads' history together. But I just find it improbable they would have been partners for so long, 8 years, before this happens. Or is the reason that the author (I mean authors generally) doesn't see their relationship as being like that in the eps, so they imagine the change occurring afterwards?

If DiaG had been an earlier ep it would have been a boon to slash writers!

Well ..... I thought the characterisation (of all the main characters) was consistent and believable, I liked the whole thing with Bodie's loyalties and the fact that Doyle knows and understands him well enough to realise that he's going to be heavily swayed by misplaced loyalty - to someone prepared to kill him, yet! And the plot was fine, and ... and I know perfectly well why it didn't really grab me. And I did read it all through, mainly because of BSL's lovely review! But it didn't grab me, because although the closeness is certainly there I didn't really get a strong enough feeling that their relationship is developing. I'd be perfectly happy to read pre-slash - I mean, I don't have to have sex in every story! (some (a minority, I'll admit) of my favourite stories don't have any!) - but I think I wanted just a little more here ... more sense that they are not only close but getting closer, and getting closer to realising what they are to each other, even if they don't get there within the story. Ultimately I'm with probodie and some of the others on this: there are some wonderful stories that offer plot, characterisation and relationship growth too - so even two out of three leaves me feeling less than satisfied. Good slash trumps even perfectly decent gen for me, every time. Interesting discussion, though!