Glenmorangie

Fanfiction
Title:	Glenmorangie
Author(s):	The Hag
Date(s):	2001
Length:
Genre(s):	slash, Bodie/Doyle
Fandom(s):	The Professionals
Relationship(s):	Bodie/Doyle
External Links:	Glenmorangie
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Glenmorangie by Professionals story by The Hag.

It was published in Priority A-3 #3 and Discovered in a Letterbox #17.

Reactions and Reviews

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.

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.