Brass Tacks

The Professionals Fanfiction
Title:	Brass Tacks
Author(s):	Gloria Lancaster
Date(s):	1995
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	The Professionals
External Links:	online here
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"Brass Tacks" is a slash story by Gloria Lancaster set in the The Professionals universe. The series was published in the fanzine Uncharted Waters #12 in 1995 and was posted to the Circuit Archive in 2004.

The story is told and retold through two points of view: "Brass" for Bodie and "Tacks" for Doyle.

Reactions and Reviews

This is one of the older stories on the Hatstand, and has a hard-edged feel to it which I like. It is written first from Bodie’s POV, then Doyle’s, which also shows how each of them can get things wrong about the other, and the ending is satisfying although possibly a little too sugary-sweet. Not enough to ruin the rest of the fic though!

It does have rather a hard edge to it, which I like in theory, but I'm not quite sure of the execution here... I think I ended up feeling that the hard edge came at the expense of Doyle's character to some extent - Bodie believes, and Doyle seems to think his own actions back it up, that Doyle doesn't really care about Bodie, and although I know this is proved wrong (to both Bodie and Doyle) we're never really given an idea of why Doyle might feel like that. Okay, he's very defensive about the idea of being called "gay" - but why? Without any hints, the only thing I can presume is that he grew up with that intolerance in him, and never managed to leave it behind. Trouble is, this isn't the Doyle that I see in the eps - I don't get the impression that he's prejudiced like that against any group. He tells Bodie off for racism, and he doesn't hesitate to defend Whatshisname and the Gay Youth Organisation in In the Public Interest - in fact it's Bodie who makes a slightly off comment about that - "My reputation remains intact" (actually to me he's being ironic there, so... *g*) Doyle even feels for Mickey Hamilton, who's murdered how many people - he seems to have quite a compassionate nature, so I just can't see him being so strongly anti-gay without any explanation for it... So I don't quite see Doyle as Doyle in this.

Oh - and he's red faced and panting from trying to lift Bodie out of the chair? What?! I get a touch of the frail-Doyle's here - I can't quite see the Doyle who shoves and fights his way through dozens of thick-set bad guys on Pros as being unable to shift Bodie - Bodie might be solid, but he's not that much bigger than Doyle, and even if he was - a fit CI5 agent at the top of his game unable to shift one man from a chair?!

Bodie... I like Bodie's matter of fact attitude to sex, and the slightly sad but practical way he deals with his idea that he'll never get Doyle to come round. I can't quite hear him seriously describing something as "smashing" - that's a bit jolly-hockey-sticks for our lad from Birkenhead, I'd've thought... Not that he wouldn't use the word, but there's something about his tone through this that sounds posher than I think he is, somehow - or at least portrays himself in the eps... *g* More proper in some ways...

I like that they mirror each other's way of thinking about the recuperation centre, and about each other - "smug, arrogant, just how he liked his..." (sorry - paraphrase that, can't get to story again right now!)

Well, I really enjoyed the first part, but... I didn't feel the need to reread the same story from a different POV. I'd have preferred a give and take or a switching of sections, which I was actually expecting, rather than a rehash of the same story from another POV. It's not a favourite style of mine in general, having nothing to do with this particular story. But once I'd read Bodie's story, I felt no desire to read further. It was written nicely, but I wasn't crazy about Doyle in this story. Bodie seem to come across as arrogant. I believe Bodie has his moments, but it was just a touch off to me. I did enjoy the first half from Bodie's POV. I admit I started Doyle's POV but didn't finish.

But strangely I enjoyed the story immensely! :-) It’s very intense and it’s very different... The story provokes compassion, laughter and grief. I could imagine the author loved to have her own ‘wicked way’ with our heroes but also with her readers! :-)

There is a bit [of frail-Doyle], but I read this as Doyle (when we see his pov) being conscious that Bodie is nearly naked and he doesn't want to manhandle him too much, in case Bodie gets the wrong idea, so he tries to shove him. But how did he think he was going to transport him to the bedroom without him waking up? It's an odd scene, but to me it conveyed rather well the awkwardness of their relationship. About Doyle's anti-gay attitude, again I read that as Doyle not wanting to be gay himself, rather than homophobia. He's continued to work with Bodie and been quite sympathetic to Bodie's predicament.

Irresistible to compare with "What Friends are For" by Georgina Kirrin [recced] a couple of weeks ago. I like this better for the timing - we have both povs of exactly the same events. Only disadvantage is that the ending is spoiled from half-way through.

Like that fic too, Bodie comes over a bit more sophisticated and articulate than Doyle, who has more 'rough-edges' somehow - apart from that odd lapse into being a connoisseur of regional cheeses near the end.

I had prob's with characterisation too. Bodie and Doyle could be like that, it's just that - they're not.

Y'know, that's really interesting, because the first time I read this story, in a British multi-fandom zine ('Uncharted Waters... erm... can't remember which issue!) there was only Bodie's POV! I was quite surprised to find it online years later with a whole extra bit. Delighted, mind you - but surprised. I wonder if originally there was only ever supposed to be Bodie's POV, and then the writer added Doyle's POV later?

I quite enjoyed this but like some of the other commenters I didn't feel it was quite Ray Doyle! There was a sense of frailness - not just physical (the chair incident) but mental - a sense that he won't confront things, which is not something I have ever thought about him. Also, although I don't mind having more than one version of the same story and can even enjoy the differing p.o.v. I'd prefer the ending to appear only once - at the end.

I had to abandon this fic halfway through... it didn't seem like Doyle (as mentioned the puffing to lift Bodie out of a chair) and it didn't sound like Bodie. The 'sacrificial virgin' scenario never works for me either. Of course, it could have got better as it went along, but I stopped reading. Too many fics, so little time. Next! :)

With the writers ability this could have been material for a longer piece.

What is difficult for me to like this one as much as other fics from the author (On guard by example) is that the two povs are in their cynical view of life too similar, I can hardly see a difference between Bodie and Doyle here. I also can't see Doyle as vulnerable and weepy as he is here.

Maybe it's one of the author's early writings.