Ringing in the Changes
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ringing in the Changes |
| Author(s): | PFL |
| Date(s): | 2001 |
| Length: | 46,650 words |
| Genre(s): | slash |
| Fandom(s): | The Professionals |
| Relationship(s): | Bodie/Doyle |
| External Links: | online at the Circuit Archive |
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"Ringing in the Changes" is a Bodie/Doyle story by PFL.
It was published in the fanzine Roses and Lavender #4 and is online.
Reactions and Reviews
FirstTime stories are my favorite kind, and this is my favorite FirstTime story, so consequently, this is amongst my most favorite stories. It concentrates around the Christmases as the years pass, and it's amazing and has everything a FT story could ever have - friendship, casual sex, humor, fights, even a threesome thrown in, and ultimately trust and love and companionship. The last two Christmases are the best piece of fanfiction I have ever had the privilege to read.[1]
Relative newbie that I am, still, how did I miss this first time around?? Oh man, that was possibly the best couple of hours with clothes on that I've ever spent.*g* I already love this writer - now I absolutely am in awe of her. Really. A stunning, wonderful, wonderful fic. I'm off to email a more detailed gush to her: And thank you so much for helping me find it.[2]
This epic traces the evolution of Bodie and Doyle's relationship from their early days of chalk and cheese through friendship, romance, estrangement, and reconciliation. You get spot-on dialogue (a good deal of it very funny), action, sizzling sex, hurt/comfort and everything in between. This is wonderful, wonderful stuff, and the kind of story you can lose yourself in for an afternoon. Highly recommended.[3]
Another superb writer, I can safely rec anything of hers. But this is ‘the one’ for me. Just the most riveting, entertaining account of the lads through the years, Christmas to Christmas. I have to quote from the very last one, regarding *that* ornament..Doyle looked at Bodie, his hand lying still on Bodie's back. "Do you know why my favourite ornament is that old Christmas bell?"
"Because it was Sally's?" "Yes, because it was hers. But also because it's familiar. Because I love it. Because there's not a new ornament out there that would ever replace it."
Bodie looked into the bright, clear eyes of his partner and the last shadow of doubt flitted away, banished. He reached for Doyle's hand, holding it, bringing it to rest above Doyle's heart. "I'm here to stay."[4]
This novella is the supreme Christmas story: it takes us to visit Bodie and Doyle on one successive day each successive year from 19 December 1975, when they've been partners for only four months, to 27 December 1983, when they've lived through all the events recorded in the episodes. In those eight years, we watch them negotiate personal and professional ups and downs, trauma and angst and happy times all wrapped up in a steadily evolving relationship story that thrills the socks off me every damned time I reread it.Ringing in the Changes is written with PFL's mature aplomb and contains pretty much everything this reader, at least, desires: case story--actually, a number of cases as we touch base with them on the job each of those years; a first-time story; mid-relationship conflict; reconciliation; hurt/comfort; and both action and sex scenes written with PFL's deft touch. References to the episodes thread through the novella, giving us familiar touchstones to expand our understanding of what's happening between Bodie and Doyle as we weave through the years with them. Canon characters, like Murphy and Charlie, make appearances, adding to the fabric of the whole.
Comedy, drama, and poignancy alternate as layers of complexity build up over the years, an apt reflection of real-life relationships. She's my favourite kind of writer, one who respects the intelligence of her readers. She gives us ample clues and lets us draw conclusions and parallels and deeper meaning without telling us what it's all about every step of the way. The story's final line, for example, gains all its punch from a bit of casual info given us much earlier on.
And, as always with PFL, the banter and interactions between the lads bring them to vivid life. The novella is written entirely from Bodie's pov. The first section, in 1975, conveys their early competitiveness and mutual jostling as they get to know each other--not by choice, but because Cowley paired them--and figure out how to work together.[5]
It’s one of the best ever Pros fics in it’s own right, and candidate for head of the class in the 21st century writing school. Charting the relationship between Bodie and Doyle it covers the years from 1975 until 1983, starting 19 December and finishing 27 December, leaping a year and a day each chapter. I gave it to a friend who gave it to a non-slasher fan in her office, who loved it ("You realise there's sex in it?" “oh, that’s just the boys, it’s OK”). Solid story, realistic plotting. Great sex. Just enough angst. Finely tuned relationship dynamics.[6]