Zeno's Paradox
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| Bodie/Doyle Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Zeno's Paradox |
| Author(s): | Miriam Heddy |
| Date(s): | 1999 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | The Professionals |
| External Links: | online here |
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Zeno's Paradox is a Bodie/Doyle story written by Miriam Heddy.
It was originally published in Living Pros and is online.
Reactions and Reviews
A gorgeous, eloquent, evocative tale that beautifully captures Doyle in all his prickly, bad-tempered glory. Miriam's language is wonderfully descriptive, and her portrayal of the guys as they truly are — not idealized, not "prettied-up" — is always one of the things that I enjoy most about her stories. And the ending to this one — ye gods, it's a thing of beauty. [1]
This is an older lads story. Bodie wakes up on the morning of his fiftieth birthday; Ray cooks him breakfast, gives him his presents and the two go back to bed. This is a lovely, gentle story in which nothing much happens -- but it happens beautifully. The deep love between the two is brought out in almost every sentence, but never obviously, and the writer has both men nailed, from Doyle's snarky tongue and complicated personality to Bodie's reluctance to talk about his feelings and mixed feelings over growing older. [2]
Just the most charming older Bodie and Doyle story I've yet found online. Set on Bodie's fiftieth birthday, the lads are still very much the lads in this - rough and ready, with just the right touch of understated tenderness. [3]
I love Miriam's B/D work (from around '99 - '01, I think). "The Joy of Camping" and "Fancy That". I gather she still writes in other fandoms but, stuck as I am on Pros, I haven't investigated her more recent stories. [4]
I wish she would write more in Pros again, then. Her characterisations and dialogue are so perceptive, I enjoyed every single one of her stories up at the archive. Picked this one out bec it just totally charmed me - that image of Bodie looking at the picture, then telling Ray he's going to get his glasses to see it better - his understanding of Ray's reactions then - just melted me. [5]
One of the things I really like about this story is the way they're aging. In the series, both men are at their peak as beautiful, dangerous male animals and they know it, exuding confidence in their skills and their attractiveness. I've always thought it would be hard to age gracefully from that. And this story shows the awkwardness, the awareness of not being what they once were. Still very much in love and loyal with it, but unsure of their charms.Particularly since it's a birthday, the theme is reassurance. Ray's gift is designed to show Bodie unmistakably that he's still beautiful to Ray and then Ray wants the words from Bodie as well.
It's such a charmingly married portrait of them (even if they don't want to admit out loud to it). *g* [6]
It's such a charmingly married portrait of them (even if they don't want to admit out loud to it). *g*- Oh, absolutely. That whole bit at the kitchen counter when Bodie wraps his arms around Ray as he's setting out the cups and saucers is delightful. Both feel so much in character - particularly that kind of begrudging, bolshy, scratch-the-surface-to-get-to-the-sweet-stuff Doyle that she writes. And if the following isn't *married* then I don't know what is :))
"There'd never been any grand declarations. Never any statement of intentions. He'd never signed anything, the way he had for every other commitment. No, this crept up and just suddenly was." [7]