The Pudding Series
| Bodie/Doyle Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Pudding Series |
| Author(s): | multiple (see below) |
| Date(s): | 2001 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | The Professionals |
| External Links: | |
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The Pudding Series is a group of four The Professionals stories that were originally published in Roses and Lavender #5, published in 2001 by Allamagoosa Press. The stories were written by several authors and are part of a shared universe. The stories are described by the authors as featuring "older lads" (Bodie and Doyle as older men), having an "outside POV" and are slash, Bodie/Doyle.
- 1) Rice Pudding Again by Irene, 6 pages.
- 2) The Proof of the Pudding by PFL, 5,900 words.
- 3) Stir the Pudding and Make a Wish by Elizabeth O'Shea, 21 pages.
- 4) Christmas Pudding Again by Irene, 1 page.
This series was reviewed by Pen aka Istia on Prosrecs on February 23, 2010:
"A series of three inter-related stories, plus a coda, set in the future, seventeen years after the events in the episode You'll Be All Right. This sequence is a wonderful example of what happens when a fanfiction story catches the imagination of other authors. Irene wrote the first story as a standalone, which then inspired both PFL and Elizabeth O'Shea to write companion pieces, and all were published together.RICE PUDDING AGAIN by Irene. 6 pages. The sequence starts with an introduction to Linda Stone, the little girl from the episode, who is now grown up and in the Met. The story is written in Linda's pov in the first person. She's presented as a strong personality who has weathered the pressures put on her because of her criminal father's past--pressure not only from her fellows in the Met, but from her own family for not being true to her background. Despite it all, she's persevered, true to herself before all else:
Protecting people, that was my thing. Even if I never made it past wopsie, I needed to defend. Little kids, old ladies, wild-eyed drunkards sleeping on the street, didn't matter. Ever play that game where you pick what kind of tree you are, what kind of flower? Well, if I were a dog, I'd be pure Alsatian.
The breaking point comes at a bigwig wedding, where her attention to her duty gets her into trouble with her superiors. At that raw moment, she has a serendipitous encounter with a "middle-aged gent" who gives her a card with "W. Bodie, Assessment" printed on it. And so the story begins....
THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING by PFL. 9 pages, and the only one of the stories available online. This story is Bodie's and Doyle's view of their encounter with Linda Stone, told in the first person from Doyle's pov. While the first story allows us third-party views of the Lads in middle age, this story takes us into their shared home. We get insights into elements in this world introduced in the first story, and hints of the conflicted past that lies behind the committed peace they've now achieved together, though not without struggle. Humour and tenderness imbue their very solid partnership.
STIR THE PUDDING AND MAKE A WISH by Elizabeth O'Shea. 21 pages. The first-person narrator here is Chrissie Stone, Linda's mother, as she receives an unexpected visit from Bodie and Doyle, two reminders of her own darkest time (familiar to us from the episode) who now appear to be the key to her daughter's future happiness. To Chrissie, CI5 is a "bunch of thugs". Her struggle is the need to reconcile her bitterness about the past with her love for her daughter, who wants to be in CI5 more than anything else.
Chrissie is a beautifully realised character, yet the story's strength lies in using her to illuminate the characters our interest primarily centres on: Bodie and Doyle. Through Chrissie's naive eyes, we gather further information both about Bodie's and Doyle's present jobs and their joint pasts. While she has no idea the pair are lovers, her thoughts allow us poignant if oblique views of the emotional ties between them:
Doyle unlocked his gaze from Bodie's and turned back to me with his smile still lingering in his eyes and, as I do sometimes, for no reason at all, I found myself suddenly, horribly lonely for Jack. This story, like the others in the sequence, rewards rereading, full of subtlety and detail.
CHRISTMAS PUDDING AGAIN by Irene. 1 page. A charming coda in which, with coded aplomb, Linda introduces her partner on the squad, Finlay, to her mother in a letter. If Linda comes across in the sequence--as she does to me, at least--as a young version of Doyle, Finlay has the earmarks of Bodie, all offered up succinctly with Irene's light and masterful hand."