Hell Hath No Fury (Professionals story)
| The Professionals Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Hell Hath No Fury |
| Author(s): | Jane Carnall and Ann Johnson |
| Date(s): | |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | The Professionals |
| External Links: | online here |
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Hell Hath Nor Fury is a Bodie/Cowley story by Jane Carnall and Ann Johnson.
It has a sequel called The Price of a Soul.
Reactions and Reviews
If there was no other reason, to get another take of the theme already treated in the previous recced story, for it's exactly the same topic, in another background, but with the same stake and the same players but one (Doyle is left outside). Actually this story could more rightly be given the title: The Devil and George Cowley; This time the fight is really between the Controller and the Prince of Darkness, for the possession of Bodie's soul."I have a proposal for you. Are you a gambling man?"
"No."
"A pity. I had a wager in mind that I thought might interest you." (...) spread his hands. "A game of...chess, I think. For double or nothing; if I win, your soul as well as Bodie's; if I lose, I'll give you Bodie. All of him: body and soul."
There was a long, stretched pause. Cowley could not take his eyes from (...)'s opaque face, though he wanted to look at Bodie; "Done," he said at last.
I suppressed the Devil's name on purpose, because it's a nice idea from the authors, well worth to be discovered in the text.
Once again the Master of triple think is to be the winner of the challenge; how could it be otherwise? The charm of the story is not in its expected outcome but in its setting (a strange mix between realistic and fantastic) and its clever dialogs. Not to speak of some slashy undertones:
"You're a damned brave old bastard," Bodie said, and Cowley grinned.
"Ach, I hope not."
"You could have lost--everything."
Cowley was still holding Bodie's hand; he let their eyes meet. "Not so much as you think. And now; you belong to me."
Alas, alas, alas, the enticing promises of this piece are not held in the sequel, The Price of a Soul by Jane Carnall, where an unwelcome (for me, and no, it's not Doyle) intruder comes in and spoils the whole picture. What to say? nothing is perfect. But read it anyway; only the fanatic B/C lovers like me will complain.[1]
How could you [addressing the author] write a sequel which was so cruelly deceptive? Next time you ask for a challenge in your LJ, I'll ask for an alternate ending! [2]
Because I'm not a very nice person and I really enjoy unpredictable twists in the story?Because at the time I wrote "Hell Hath No Fury", though I was working on "Lest These Dark Days", it was still the first (almost) Bodie/Cowley story I ever finished, and I never thought of there being a sequel to "Lest These Dark Days" - I didn't (at that time) think of myself as a Bodie/Cowley writer particularly. I just had this one cool idea for a short story, and this one lovely idea for a long angsty story... and that was likely to be it. I thought. (The Professionals was also the very first fandom I got into - not counting Star Trek, which was always around - after Blake's 7, which was my first and for seven years my only fandom.)
Which is to say: I probably wouldn't have written the sequel quite that way later on, but (given my love of strange twists) I still might. ;-) [3]
Seriously, what is most disappointing for me is not there is Murphy involved and not Bodie but all the terrific potential wasted. Given the premises, it could have been Tristan and Isolde but it was only Tom and Sally; I mean the trite story of the boss taking his subordinate to bed (a secondary and rather dull character) while we could have with Bodie and Cowley both trapped against their will in a mad and mortal passion, something weird, maybe slightly ridiculous, thus pathetic, even tragic with all the unavoidable conflicts between personal power and collective responsibility, duty and sentiments, lust and love, public authority and need of an equal relation in intimacy, and so on...That is what makes the B/C relationship fascinating to me. The B/D one is too obvious, too easy. And the fantastic setting would add a mythic perspective (Wagnerian Orchestration in the backstage!) [4]