Stealing Home by Sandy K. Herrold

[birggitt.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Length: ~ 15.100
Author on LJ: sherrold/sherrold
Author Website: Confessions of a Fannish Butterfly
Why this must be read:
Ah, this is a discovery story, and who doesn't like this kind of story? Cowley assigns Bodie to guard an old acquaintance of him. And Doyle is not really happy to know this is a solo operation. But, as Cowley asks him to stay on close touch... well, we all know Doyle. :)
He spent the whole day with Bodie and his charge, and something happens, something that force Doyle to ask himself a lot of questions, and find some startling facts he must to face and deal with.

Let's have a peek at the story here:
Bodie grinned at him, wrinkling his nose and motioned towards the absent Jerry. "Should have known you two’d get along. Wish I’d called you last night; you could have shared our Cowley-approved scotch."

Doyle felt a twinge of guilt over his activities last night, but nowhere near enough to require a confession. He felt some apprehension as well: he wasn’t sure that this day spent together was exactly what Cowley meant when he’d told Doyle to stay in touch. But after all, he might help Bodie entertain an old friend from out of town—though he realized suddenly, he never had before. Any old friend of Bodie’s he’d ever known, he’d met because of work, just like this Jerry/Donald character. He frowned, but turned it into a brilliant smile as Jerry came back from the loo, deciding to go back to his first plan: charm and distraction.

He mentally riffled through their non-classified cases and found the perfect one. "Thanks for driving today. It’s bad enough that I have to risk my life driving with this loony when I’m on the clock."

"I’m a great driver," Bodie protested. "Safe as houses!"

"I’ve quietly watched him run into trees, buildings, people—both innocent and guilty—" he winked at Jerry, ignoring Bodie’s objections, "and never once complained, but I drew the line the day he ran over an innocent little writing desk."

Bodie easily caught his cue—they’d told this story countless times. It was working like it always did: Jerry, caught between them, was turning his head back and forth like a spectator at a tennis match.

Bodie passed the story back effortlessly, and Doyle followed it up with another. Jerry barely got a word in edgewise except when Doyle or Bodie stood to get a round. The Bodie and Doyle show, he called it to himself. It had worked on petty crimos and pretty ladies, hard men and Cowley himself, more than once.

It was how he’d caught Laura, Bodie’s girl before ’Becca. After watching them interact for a while, retelling their worst cases as if they’d been Avengers episodes, complete with silly bad guys and strange technology, she’d laughed, "You’re like bookends!" When Bodie’d got up to check in (one of the joys of being on standby), Doyle had just leaned forward, smiled and said, "Think that’s true? You won’t know until you try us both."

He turned that blissful thought into a smile at Bodie’s triumphant conclusion, smiling happily at his partner-cum-competitor in love and war, taking Jerry’s laughter as their due.

Sandy asks that her stories not to be linked directly, but to her disclaimer page, so that's what I'll do. So go here Pros stories by Sandy K. Herrold, and, as you already are there, you should check her other stories. You won't be disappointed :)

Comments

[dorinda.livejournal.com]

Belatedly, I was talking to Sandy and mentioned this rec (which made her very happy, btw!), and she says she's fine these days with people linking right to her stories, which she's putting up on AO3. "Stealing Home" is up at http://archiveofourown.org/works/74138 .

And thanks for reccing it! Definitely a good one!