crack_van | Ninety-Nine Yew Trees by Draycevixen (Explicit)

Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Length: ~34050
Author on LJ:

draycevixen5
Author’s Stories: Automated Hatstand; The Circuit Archive;AO3
Why this must be read: This story has a bit of everything I love about Pro’s. There is anger, hurt/comfort, betrayal, introspection, a silly race with cheese, a bit of a myth and a very interesting take on what Bodie’s actual past might be.

The story starts with Ray very angry at Bodie. There were some truths he discovered about his partner that shook him severely. He wants absolutely nothing to do with Bodie. Bodie was badly injured and is recuperating, alone. Cowley needs to get some information to Bodie and bribes Doyle with time-off if he’ll deliver the papers. Ray is stunned at what he finds.

Bodie’s head dropped to look down at his hands. It gave Doyle a chance to look him over more closely, from Bodie’s uncharacteristic beard to the fact that he’d never seen Bodie looking this thin, his shirt hanging off him, his trousers loose through the hips. Even after days on a stakeout he’d never seen Bodie look this rough.
“He gave you eight days? Eight days? You really didn’t want to come here.”
Bodie’s voice was rusty sounding, like he hadn’t had much cause to use it in quite a while. There was an underlying tremble in it too, that almost made Doyle feel guilty about it but Doyle wasn’t having any of that. He pulled the basket towards him and peered inside. It contained a tennis ball, large rubber bands and a big ball of what looked like Play-Doh.
“So what’s all this then, thought you’d had enough when you left the rehabilitation centre?”
“Had enough with CI5, but I’m not stupid.”
Doyle didn’t even try to hide his snort of derision.
“Physio made it clear, keep doing the hand exercises or end up crippled. I’ve got plans—”
“Mercs hiring again are they?”
Bodie ignored him. “Still got a lot of life to get through, with or without... CI5.”
Bodie’s eyes met his for the first time since he’d slipped through the hedge. Doyle didn’t like the reproach he could see there and he wasn’t going to stand for it.
“Christ, that beard. Looks like a rat died on your face.”
“I find it stops strange men from getting funny ideas. Right, Doyle?”
Doyle wasn’t going to be talking about that either.
Bodie waited for a moment and then slowly wrapped both hands around the glass of water in front of him and sipped from it before carefully lowering it back to the table.
“Fine host you are Bodie, not even going to offer me a cuppa?”
“If you want tea, you’ll have to make it yourself. Although I’ve got no milk. Or sugar. Or even tea for that matter.”
Doyle wasn’t going to ask, it wasn’t like he was concerned about Bodie or anything, far from it. “So what do you have in your kitchen?”
“Some lovely tap water and a few cans of soup. You can have that if you want, think I’ve got some oxtail.”
“You should have stayed in London if you didn’t want to stay at the centre, not come out here to the middle of nowhere.”
“I wouldn’t have had any more help there than I do here, would I?”
Doyle couldn’t stop himself from flinching and was irritated to realize that Bodie had seen it.
“Look, I’m sorry, I’m sorry about everything, Ray. How’s the squad doing?”
Now Bodie was trying to change the subject and Doyle wasn’t here to chat.
“I bet the local shop in a village like this one would still deliver your shopping for you.”
“No phone.”
“How about that Mrs. Hammond next door, bet she’d—”
“I don’t like to impose on her any further. She’s already kind enough to change my bandages for me, stalwart of the local St. John’s ambulance brigade she is.”
“Christ Bodie, you’ve got to do something, you look like shit.” Doyle hadn’t even known he was going to blurt that out.
“Thanks for the lovely visit Doyle, I feel loads better now.”
“Not here to make you feel better, just to deliver this envelope.” Doyle rose to his feet, intending to say goodbye and slide back through the hedge but his feet wouldn’t seem to move. He ran his fingers across his own jaw line. “You could at least shave that off, tidy yourself up a bit.”
“It’s painful to raise my arms up high enough to shave or to wash my hair.”
“Hands?”
“Ribs too. There’s no shower, the cottage is too old. I could get in the bath all right I think but I’m not strong enough yet to be confident about getting out of the bath on my own. If I ended up having to shout for help Mrs. Hammond would be the only one who might hear me and I think me in the nude might be a bit much for her.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”
“So I’ve been taking sink baths, at least managing to get clean enough so I can stand myself.”
It didn’t matter to Doyle any more, nothing about Bodie did. “I’m here, you can take a bath at least. We’ll see if we can find an old shopping bag to keep that cast dry, get you settled in there and then I’ll nip up the road to the shop I saw on the corner and get you some stuff in. I might even make you some dinner.”
“Why would you do all that?”
“Because I wouldn’t leave even my worst enemy in this state.”

Throughout the stress-filled scenes, we still get a taste of the lad’s banter. The touch of humor gives the reader a bit of a break from the tension. The characterization is well written and spot-on. These are definitely ‘canon’ Bodie and Doyle. There are too many good bits to pick out excerpts but I do have to share one of the most moving passages I’ve ever read:

“See, I said you were a stupid bugger.” Doyle leaned forward and again took Bodie’s face in his hands, only this time he kissed him. Little more than a brush of lips at first, Doyle withdrew but stayed close enough that Bodie could feel the puff of air against his lips as Doyle spoke again. “Wherever you’ve been, whatever you’ve done, whoever you are, whatever condition you’re in, I still want you.”

Give this one a try. It's a well written,heart tugging story. You won’t be disappointed. (and as a bonus you get to read about Ray chasing a cheese that’s rolling down a hill… *g*)

Ninety-Nine Yew Trees