Secrets (Professionals story by DVS)

You may be looking for Secrets, a Professionals story by Lainie Stone.

The Professionals Fanfiction
Title:	Secrets
Author(s):	DVS
Date(s):	1987, 2004
Length:	62K, 11,700 words
Genre:	slash. Bodie/Doyle, Ray Doyle/Original Character (Male)
Fandom:	The Professionals
External Links:	*Story Link on The Hatstand *DVS on The Hatstand *Story Link on The Circuit Archive *DVS on The Circuit Archive
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

"Secrets" is a The Professionals story by DVS. It is a slash story with the pairings of Bodie/Doyle and Ray Doyle/Original Character (Male). This story was published in The Hatstand Express Fiction Supplement 10 in 1987. It was posted to The Circuit Archive on September 30, 2004. It was also posted to The Hatstand.

Reviews/Reactions

A story told from Bodie's pov as he deals with his secret love for Doyle and a secret from Doyle's past that emerges and causes waves in their normal daily lives. Bodie is a delightful narrator, and I enjoy the observations about his life as we follow him through several days, seeing how he spends his day off and the insights we get into how he feels about a new neighbourhood, about safety in various ways, his sense of vulnerability or weaknesses and the steps he takes in accordance. And, as she so often does, DVS captures the sense of their daily work lives in a way that rings very true to me.

It's also a most satisfying relationship story, drawing us from Bodie's unvocalised love to a first-time for them. Bodie is teasing and serious in turn in his dealings with Doyle, occasionally impish, all much as I see him relating to Doyle canonically, but with the added lustre of his love. We get small moments like this which charm me, following Bodie's nicking Doyle's mug early in the story:

Half of Doyle's coffee was in Doyle, and half in Bodie, just as it should be.

This is also a protective Bodie:

Once, when Bodie leaned forward to liberate Doyle's shrimp, he got a glimpse of an expression in Doyle's eyes, a fleeting pain which touched deep inside, in the place where he kept his feelings for Ray Doyle.

I love it when either of them covers the other's back in off-the-job ways. At this point in the story, Bodie doesn't expect ever to have Doyle's love or a sexual relationship, but he moves to look out for Doyle nonetheless. The ending is a little rushed perhaps, but I enjoy the measured pace leading up to it.