Reason to Believe

Fanfiction
Title:	Reason to Believe
Author(s):	Sally Fell
Date(s):	2007
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Professionals
Relationship(s):	Bodie/Doyle
External Links:	online here
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Reason to Believe is a Bodie/Doyle story by Sally Fell.

It was published in Secret Agent Men #7 and is online.

Reactions and Reviews

I can never get enough of Sally Fell’s warm, human, loving characters – besotted Bodie and wild, passionate Doyle, completely in love, but still managing to be tough and masculine and independent. Sigh. In ‘Reason to Believe’, Doyle has made up his mind, after nearly dying once before, that he won’t risk coming that close to death again without telling Bodie his true feelings. But by the time Doyle manages to speak, and Bodie to respond, Doyle has lost so much blood that, when he comes around in hospital, he cannot be certain how much of it was his imagination. Bodie is suspiciously absent, however. There is some delightful plot following the convalescent Doyle’s manipulation of CI5 routines to trace him, with frightening results. Bending the rules in a very Doyle way, he makes contact. After some piquant angst, they are soon back in harmony and we have the usual perfectly written porn to look forward to.

What really brings these two fics together for me is the way both describe Doyle’s recollection of how Bodie looked after him in hospital. In ‘Reason to Believe’, it is a shorter stay, but with no visits from Bodie, and Murphy has to step in. If Murphy visited me in hospital and drove me home, I would have no complaints at all, I must say. Doyle’s disappointment at Bodie’s absence is vividly portrayed in the contrast between Murphy’s dutiful care and his recollections of Bodie’s flamboyance:

…the plastic carrier bag which contained all his worldly goods; toothbrush, toothpaste, shaving gear and other essentials, all of which had been purchased by Murphy on his behalf. Not to mention a brand new pair of pyjamas which were two sizes too small. It wasn’t quite what Doyle was used to; his previous hospital stays had seen Bodie turn up with a sizeable holdall full of gear that he’d purloined from Doyle’s flat. Clean underwear, most of the contents of his bathroom cabinet, books, packets of biscuits, magazines purchased from the hospital shop on his way in. Still, he couldn’t blame Murphy for that.