Join the Queue

Fanfiction
Title:	Join the Queue
Author(s):	Lizzie
Date(s):	2001
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Professionals
Relationship(s):
External Links:	online here
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Join the Queue is a Professionals story by Lizzie.

It was published in Discovered in a Letterbox #20, Deck the Halls, and is online.

Reactions and Reviews

Lizzie is a newer, and still active, Pros writer. She's perhaps better known for her longer (and often deliciously smutty) AUs, particularly A Birdwatcher's Guide to Cornish Ghosts and its sequels - and I'm especially fond of her AU The Temple of Venus myself.

I've decided, however, to forego those for the moment and recommend instead Join the Queue, a small, unassuming, entirely smutless CI5-universe story, because it is so utterly, disarmingly charming. The premise is simple: Bodie spends his morning waiting in the pre-Christmas lines at the post office to send a package - Ray's package, which he thrust at Bodie earlier that morning with the rather peremptory request that Bodie "pop down to the Post Office with this, will you?" Bodie patiently endures the wait, the screaming children in the line, the brusqueness and impatience of the woman behind the window; he dutifully pays for the stamps, fills out the customs form, and posts the package - without ever seeming bothered by (or even aware of) Doyle's presumptuousness, and without ever questioning his own acquiescence to the imposition, his immediate willingness to do as Ray asks. He's entirely oblivious to the implications of his actions - not to mention the rather pointed hints Doyle has apparently been dropping regarding Doyle's own feelings.

Doyle isn't oblivious, though; he's quite aware that Bodie will do anything for him, and in the staffroom later that day (in an exchange that is so wonderfully characteristic of them; the banter rings entirely true), he finally confronts Bodie with this fact - and discloses his own feelings. Bodie reacts first with confusion, then with stunned disbelief, and finally with irrepressible joy.

It's thoroughly delightful, a feel-good story of the best kind. Bodie's devotion to Ray is so apparent from his actions, his utter cluelessness so endearing, and his road-to-Damascus epiphany about the meaning of Doyle's "dopey" looks so satisfyingly heartwarming that your heart melts right along with Bodie's when Ray finally manages to get through to him. The author conveys all of this with skillful restraint, showing us everything without ever saying too much - a wonderful example of how less can sometimes be so much more.

I really enjoyed this. I've hardly read any post-1999 Pros fic and am thrilled to be pointed to ones as good as this!

This is a charming story. I love how Bodie is perfectly happy to be wrapped around Ray's little finger, but that Ray appreciates it. I too generally prefer CI5-universe fics.

I remember how much I enjoyed when this story was post to Proslib. This is one of those stories I like -- humorous throughout then heart -warming ending. I was giggling most time while reading, especially where the scene of Bodie and the post clerk and Murphy woken up by his own snoring. :g: All the scenes are described vividly. Then the scene of Bodie and Doyle in the rest room...just lovely.

It's true, she has such a nice way with the little details, describing Bodie on line at the post office, and their banter with Murphy at the end - she's really quite good at that. This is one of those stories that just makes you feel good ... and I do hope for more CI5 stories from her as well!

The story is soft and warm and funny and touching and light – uh, quite a lot. At least for me...

It is a good example for a slash-story without describing the sex. Everything is in there, the love, the friendship, the mockery, and a hint for a wonderful future.

I had to laugh about the situation in the post office - it seems to be the same in every country. The choice of the title is really interesting - first I understood it because of the post office situation. But in the end I realized it was really cunning - some sort of closed loop from the beginning to the end.

There was so much to enjoy about this fic. The image of big tough CI5 agent Bodie being intimidated by a Post Office clerk made me smile. And Bodie's thoughts were very in-character, too; It wasn't like that when Bodie was a boy, either, but he didn't imagine his memories were as fond as the old man's, so he just nodded silently, instead, hoping it would discourage him from hobbling down memory lane as fast as his arthritis would let him. And a sweet, sweet ending. Lovely fic

For me both men were in-character, both have occasionally something soft and a gentleness. Lizzie just saw and described it. Of course "just" is an understatement - it is a gift for a writer first to see what is plausible and then to write it in emotional touching words. (My nightmare is a Bodie weeping for hours - there are some things I can't imagine)

Last week I was sitting in the waiting room of my dentist and was dreaming a bit... What if Bodie and Doyle would come in? Would they wait patiently? Or would they try a kind of 'Mercedes-driver-attempt' of queue-jumping...? Would they be quiet and nice, or would they walk nervously around?

I mean - are they suitable for daily use??? :-)

LOL! This story gives the answer! Above all Bodie is a 'nice guy'! Sigh...

And I think it is indeed very interesting which picture Doyle puts into the package!

That was a very nice story...

Sweet and touching, with enough ghastly queuing and Murphy snoring and the like to make it feel just real enough rather than plasticised. "Would it be so awful to tell me?" - I can just see Doyle letting his affection shine through there, just beginning to let Bodie in on the secret that he knows - knows how Bodie feels even if Bodie doesn't quite - and that he returns those feelings without hesitation. This is a fic to warm you up on a cold day, and I'm very fond of it.

I first read this story in DIAL (the now defunct "Discovered in a Letterzine") and rediscovered it with pleasure when it came online in December 2004. The charm and unpretentiousness of this first-time story set at Christmas appeal to me, along with the feel-good quality of the love Bodie and Doyle share. Bodie's sacrifice of a free afternoon to stand in a queue for Doyle's sake earns him the unexpected reward of getting what he most wants in the world.

Reflections like this pepper the text in Bodie's pov and make me grin:

So much for defenceless oaps, the ones he knew would give Hitler a run for his money...oh, that was right, they had--doubtless that explained it.

Lizzie doesn't often write Bodie and Doyle in the CI5 universe, preferring historical AUs for the most part, but I really enjoy it when she puts them into the canonical world. I love her sense of them here, their interactions and their banter, and she fits them into a nicely textured slice of their familiar world. I pretty much smile from start to finish of this delightful story.