What Friends Are For

Fanfiction
Title:	What Friends Are For
Author(s):	Georgina Kirrin
Date(s):	1996-1997 and 1999
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Professionals
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Part 1 online here, Part 2
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"What Friends Are For" is a series of slash holiday themed stories set in the The Professionals universe.

The series was published in Motet #3 in 1999, however both stories first appeared online as holiday gifts (or "pressies") for the CI5 Mailing List. The first story, "Christmas Pudding" appeared in December 1996 and the second story "Half a Loaf Each" appeared in December 1997. At the time of posting the author indicated that the stories were not available for archiving or wider circulation because they were hastily written for the holidays; the stories did appear later, however, in print.

Parts/Summaries

• Part 1 – Christmas Pudding for Two
• Part 2 – Half a Loaf Each

Summaries

Doyle discovers a lonely single-portion Christmas pudding in Bodie's house and comes up with plan to make Bodie's Christmas a happy one.

In 2000, two fans Cassie Ingaben and Dagger compiled an index of many of the circuit stories. They also wrote brief summaries:

• Christmas Pudding: "D finds that B has an "individual Xmas pudding" and is moved to organise a proper Xmas for his friend. All goes well, even though they are tired from the job - but then... "Then the bastard had to go and spoil it all." (This is told from D's pov)"
• Half A Loaf: "The ploy to get B a good Xmas, told from B's point of view. In order to interrogate B about his xmases (poor but happy till 12, then mum remarried and hell broke loose), D has to tell about his - very bad childhood, unstable fighting family alternating between hugs and blows. B realizes D is plotting something and starts to have hopes for his secret love for D. On xmas day, they have the dinner, then D tells B about this man who molested him when he was a kid. After the pudding, B is too moved to stop himself, and asks D to bed. D agrees, but afterwards he thinks it's just lust, and the friendship was just a ploy to get him (just like the man who molested him after being friendly). B says that he is in love and doesnt want to have D as a concession in exchange for friendship - they are not going to have sex until D wants it. The following morning, D behaves as if nothing had happened - and B muses that at least there is the friendship, and the hope for more - half a loaf, but of the best bread."

Reactions and Reviews

I LOVE "What Friends Are For" by Georgina Kirrin (in Motet 3). I am not sure what exactly it is in it that I like, because I like it all: the tone, very understated and no nonsense; the wealth of detail in the depiction of everyday life in Egland; the unsentimental but extremely loving characterisation; the melancholy, half-a-loaf conclusion (life is not an unqualified happy ending)... I go back to it time and time again, and I never tire of it. It's my perfect xmas story.

I really enjoyed these stories - I didn't find them even "sliding dangerously close" to sentimentality, either! They might have ended up there easily enough, in the hands of a less skillful writer, because the plot involves such soppiness as friendship, Doyle wanting to please Bodie for Christmas, and Bodie actually liking Christmas and appreciating what Doyle does for him - as well, of course, as being in love with him... *g* But it's not plot that makes a story sickly-sentimental, it's the way it's written, and Kirrin, I thought, has the lads deal with it all in an absolutely unsentimental way...

Interesting that the "dark edginess" is seen to come into the story only in Bodie's pov - I actually read it first when Doyle mentioned that something had happened with Jack, but didn't actually explain what it was! And then of course the final line of the first part...

But that whole part of the story did bring an intriguing tension - what had happened, and then is that why Doyle seemed to shy away from Bodie's advances, and then he seems to want to, so can it all be overcome for Bodie's happy-ever-after ending? And all those questions compelled me to keep reading, and then to keep thinking about it after I'd put down the actual pages - and for me that's the sign of a good story, does it stay with you once the words themselves aren't in front of you any more?

Telling the same story from two points of view was great, although not sure why we had only Bodie’s pov for the final part. I was particularly struck by the contrasting language used by the two characters, which helped make the distinction very clear. The contrast was perhaps exaggerated – Doyle sounded more uneducated and uncouth, and Bodie more articulate, than in canon (as I see them). Proust and his madeleines, even!

A Christmas story, in two parts. The first is Doyle’s POV and may slide dangerously close to sentimentality, though I don’t think it quite gets there – thankfully. The second part is Bodie’s POV and is altogether darker and edgier, and the ending is deliberately unresolved, though hopeful. It must have been a nice antidote to all the over-sweet Christmas Pros fic out there when it was first published!

Agreed there is edginess to Doyle's account too. Although for me it was to some extent retrospective - Bodie's account made me revise how I'd read Doyle's, knowing that there was a lot Doyle was keeping out of his normal day-to-day consciousness. He's all practical and getting things done, like in the first scene, where he's busy in Bodie's kitchen, and then enjoying all the doing of the Christmas preparations. Christmas fic is a bit of a turn off for me, which is unfortunate with there being so much of it. The exchanging presents is usually the most cringemaking, even here, although Kirrin worked hard to make it relevant. Take your point about how Christmas shows the lads in a different setting, but I'd rather have your holiday fics to that end.

Although for me it was to some extent retrospective

Yes, it mostly was for me too - there was just a slight edginess from the two unanswered questions, contrasting with the lovely normality of the rest of it! I like fic that does that though, makes me re-think assumptions that I'd made earlier in the story in light of new information - it's how the world works, really! *g*

Why do you think Christmas fic is a turn off for you? And the present giving being cringemaking is interesting - does it depend on what the presents are? Does it make a difference whether they're joke-presents or serious presents? I'm trying to think of examples - I like the presents Kirrin chose - motorbike parts for Doyle, and a decent sleeping bag for Bodie - but I do tend to assume that in real life guys wouldn't give each other Christmas presents, or bother with more than the enjoying-food-and-drink-and-laziness side of Christmas... Which could be very, very unfair of me... I don't think the blokes I hung around with at Uni gave each other presents, for example - but then they would mostly have been going home for family Christmases... Which alot of fic assumes that B/D would do too...

I think Kirrin's Christmas presents worked for me because Doyle had made a point of recreating a traditional Christmas for Bodie, which had to include presents in that case - and he'd told Bodie he was getting him a present, so that Bodie then had to get Doyle one... But yeah - very interesting point!

...Christmas fics to me bring out the worst in female writers imposing their own tastes/interests on Pros - baking, putting up decorations, etc. And the present-giving is the most glaring example. I'm sure you're right - blokes would enjoy eating (maybe even cooking), drinking and lounging around watching TV and going to the pub, but not giving each other presents.

"...bring out the worst in female writers imposing their own tastes/interests on Pros - baking, putting up decorations..."

Ouch! Years and decades of feminist movement... all in vain??? ;-)

But you're right, Pros and Christmas was something that doesn't fit - in the past. But I get used to it... :-)

Telling the same story from two points of view was great, although not sure why we had only Bodie’s pov for the final part. I was particularly struck by the contrasting language used by the two characters, which helped make the distinction very clear. The contrast was perhaps exaggerated – Doyle sounded more uneducated and uncouth, and Bodie more articulate, than in canon (as I see them). Proust and his madeleines, even!

I liked both parts. I liked that Doyle was conivving to give Bodie a proper Christmas. I have no problem with either of the lads getting sentimental at Christmas because that's what it's about. Family, friends, being together. To me at least. I don't have a clue if this is a traditional English Christmas, so I'm happy to admit I enjoyed it whether or not it's perfectly portrayed. So I'm accepting the story as is, sweet and enjoyable.