Mercs
| Bodie/Doyle Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Mercs (Forget that I Remember, and Dream that I Forget) |
| Author(s): | Pam Rose |
| Date(s): | 1985 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | The Professionals |
| External Links: | online at the Circuit Archive; online at AO3 |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Mercs is a Professionals slash Bodie/Doyle 69-page story by Pam Rose. It won a Huggy Award in 1986.
The story is in the zine Discovered on a Rooftop: aka Forget that I Remember, and Dream that I Forget.
The story has art by Jean C..
Merc is short for mercenary and a reference to Bodie's life in Africa before he joined CI5.
Summaries
In 2000, two fans Cassie Ingaben and Dagger compiled an index of many of the circuit stories. They also wrote brief summaries:
Cassie: Bodie is undercover as a merc when he is hit by a joyriding car and loses his memory. Thinking he is *really* a merc, he goes to Africa to fight. Cowley thinks he may have sold out, but Doyle is adamant Bodie hasn't and goes after him to find out. D enrols as a merc too, and realizes Bodie has amnesia, even if Bodie is trying to cover it up. Bodie defends Doyle, and they eventually start a relationship (they were on the verge of just as Bodie went undercover). Bodie realizes Doyle is coming from his forgotten past but he is scared and reluctant, fearing his amnesia. They are eventually evacuated, as war breaks out in full. Bodie is wounded and it is discovered that he has a brain blood clot, cause of the amnesia. They operate him, but it is too late—his memory is most likely lost for good. Despite that, B&D optimistically decide that they can overcome the problem: Bodie is readmitted in CI5 despite Ross's doubts, and all is shaping up well.
Another reviewer's summary: "Bodie is hit by a car while pretending to be a mercenary called Odell and suffers from amnesia. Believing he is the mercenary, he travels to Africa, and Doyle is forced to follow him to try and find a way to approach this new Bodie, a Bodie who doesn't remember who he is."[1]
Reactions and Reviews
Mercs" was a 66-page story published in "Discovered on a Rooftop".... Pam later revised it, expanded it and renamed it "Forget That I Remember and Dream That I Forget", a 90-100 page novella that was put on the circuit.It's about Bodie going undercover as a merc, getting hit on the head and waking up not remembering who he is, and taking on the identity of the undercover merc role. He goes off to Africa and joins up with a mercenary band there. Doyle goes off to find him, and there is lots of nice angst when he's trying to get Bodie to remember who he is. Some good h/c stuff too.... Excellent story.[2]
Love this story - the only good amnesia story I've ever read. Highly recommended.[3]
Bodie loses his memory in an accident and goes back to the life he knows, as a mercenary in the jungle. Not knowing what happened, Doyle goes after him.... This is my favorite fic by this great writer, and my favorite "amnesia" story.[4]
Jean and I call this one FORGET MY OATMEAL because we can never remember the whole title...anyway, I think this is the best story out of this author to date. Good secondary characters, good visualizations, good plot for the most part - taking a hackneyed idea (amnesia) and doing it well. Great sex scene at the oasis I And I like the fact that the author refused to make everything all right at the end and have Bodie regain his memory, like in every other story of this type. Loved Ray's attitude: "But that's the way it happens in the movies!" Yes, but not in life. It will be interesting to read this when it's published and see what changes have been made...[5]
Amnesia fic! pretty good. long, interesting and fairly satisfying, although the end's a bit shaky. [6]
Painful yet joyful and beautifully written.[7]
References
- ^ Madrigal's FanFiction Recs.
- ^ Alexfandra posting to the Virgule-L mailing list Feb 12, 1996, reposted with permission.
- ^ Madrigal's FanFiction Recs.
- ^ from 2007 rec50
- ^ In The Hatstand Express #6 from a fan listing what was supposed to be her top 10 Pros stories; the list turned out to be 50 stories long
- ^ The Pros recs; archived link
- ^ alicambs Professional Recs, Archived version