The Last Cherry

Bodie/Doyle Fanfiction
Title:	The Last Cherry
Author(s):	The Hag
Date(s):	1999
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	The Professionals
External Links:	online here
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The Last Cherry is a Bodie/Doyle story by The Hag.

It was published in Motet #3 and is online.

Reactions and Reviews

This is not the type of story I normally recommend. I love really long, meaty, relationship-driven stories - while this story one does indeed focus on the relationship between Bodie and Doyle, it's only about 3 pages. I like smut - not just any smut, well-written, in-character smut, but still, I like sex in my slash, and smutless stories are seldom my favorites - and this story has none, though there are allusions. I like somewhat drawn-out resolutions - in this story it's all implications and inferences; there's no room for much more.

In fact, I hesitated to use one of my precious crack_van recs on such a small story. But in the end I simply couldn't omit it, because this little story has stuck with me since the first time I read it, and I've never been able to get it out of my head. The author manages in such a short space, with so few words and virtually no exposition, to sketch a clear and complete (or complete enough) picture of the situation Bodie and Doyle find themselves in and to capture the essence of their characters, especially Doyle's, and of their relationship. The interaction between Bodie and Doyle rings so very true for me here - true to canon and true to my own personal vision of their love, the way I want it to be.

This story moves me, and even with repeated re-readings its power hasn't faded. If I had to identify a single story that epitomizes the very heart of Pros' appeal for me as a slash fandom, this little gem would be it.

Although I do like this story, generally I don't care for The Hag's style of writing - so disjointed it often is quite difficult to follow what's going on. I like to think I'm relatively intelligent, but I have given up on more than one of her fics because it was written with such convoluted language that it was impossible to sort out who was speaking or thinking. I confess I will stop reading a story if I have to re-read a passage more than twice. This story is more accessible than most.

I haven't had the same experience you have with finding myself unable to follow her fic, though I haven't read all of it. My bigger issue with her fic is that most of it is humor, and while I think she has a deft touch with the humor and the banter, and often portrays B/D interaction of a sort that I can buy, humor generally isn't my favorite type of fic. Maybe I'm too literal or something, but humorous fic that others love (likeLezlie Conch's Pros stuff) generally leaves me flat.

But this story - like I said in the rec, I've never been able to get it out of my head. I wish desperately that she'd write more fic along these lines and less of the humor, but of course that's just my personal perference :-)

One of the great things about fandom is that there's something for everyone...

You know, you may have hit the nail on the head why I don't generally like her stories - the humorous ones have a bantering, shorthand style that just doesn't reel me in. I thought it was because she had so many British idioms, but 1)I have no idea if she's really British and 2)I've lived there, so it seems unlikely I wouldn't understand most of them. This story is much more emotional, and more streamlined, and though the style is unusual, the bantering serves to further the drama.

Although I think she does it unusually well and often quite wittily, I generally don't care for that almost "slapstick" banter (that's not the right word, especially not for something so British, but hopefully you know what I mean) that characterizes many of her stories (and some of the Pros humor by other authors). I like banter, but I think I just generally don't have much of a funnybone for the extreme, I don't know, silliness - though I know many people do. So I agree with you totally - in this story the banter furthers the drama, and there is a drama, and that's what makes it work for me.

I on the other hand love this story and The Hag's work in general, party because it is just plain witty, and so little fanfic can boast that but partly because the Lads are British and will say with humour what cannot be said out loud. At least not quickly and even slowly - over say several weeks - cannot be said without going all red and squirming and not being able to look the other in the face.

I definitely agree with you about the wittiness, or rather the lack thereof in much fanfic. I very much appreciate it - and I admire her greatly for her deft touch with it. It's just, I don't want too much of it - I like the wittiness to be a foil for the drama.

partly because the Lads are British and will say with humour what cannot be said out loud.

Actually, that's a really great insight. American men really aren't necessarily any better at saying that type of thing without going red and squiriming - but I think the use of humor to disguise their discomfort, particularly that type of humor, is more characteristically British.

And good authors manage to let you know what the guys are really saying, no matter what the actual words are - to me that's the mark of the best stories. And that's what I think The Hag did so amazingly effectively in The Last Cherry in particular. I like it less when the humor takes over the story - but again, that's just personal preference and no comment on her talent (and perhaps it's also a product of my American-ness?). She has a wonderful ear for that kind of humorous interplay, and to me at least it always reads as very in character for Bodie and Doyle.

This story moves me, and even with repeated re-readings its power hasn't faded. If I had to identify a single story that epitomizes the very heart of Pros' appeal for me as a slash fandom, this little gem would be it.

This story keeps ringing in my back of head since I read it first time on Proslib list. It gave me so vivid visualization of the scene -- Bodie bleeding and Doyle keeping him pressure on, nagging him with anxious -- that I wanted to make this into a comic story. Also I loved this line; "Till death if you want me," you said that first morning. "Sixty seconds or sixty years, whatever time we've got,"

-- and the way it being brought up again at the end. So beautiful.

This was most powerful shortest story I've ever read in Pros. (well, at least so far. ::g::)

Yes yes yes, that sixty seconds or sixty years line - gah. It just gets you right where it hurts, and in such a short little sentence tells you everything you need to know about them - especially when it's brought back up again at the end. And I love Doyle's remorse about being too cranky and impatient to let Bodie finish his drink, and how regretful he feels; I love the gruff, entirely guy-like way they express their affection, and the joking about cherries. I love all of it, in fact :-) I, like you, have never been able to get this story out of my head. Those who know me know how absolutely unlikely it is that I'd ever rec such a short story - but this one is simply so lovely and so moving - as you say, the most powerful shortest story I've ever read, not just in Pros but in any fandom!