DOOC Challenge - Options and Actions

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Another entry for the Discovered out of Context Challenge. The prompt I used was:-

Clever fellow, Death is. I've tried to find him on my terms, and God knows I've tried, from 'Robin and Marion'.

Header info is at the bottom under the cut. Concrit welcomed, as always.

Options and Actions

 

 

Death has been following Bodie around like a shadow since he was fourteen years old and witnessed his cousin knifing a man in a back alley because he wouldn’t hand over his wallet. Bodie was a thin and weedy teenager, and when his cousin informed him of ‘what happens to annoying little gob-shites who squeal to the pigs’, Bodie weighed up his options and took the one least detrimental to his well-being.

 

He stowed away on the next ship out of port, and Death stepped into the shadows.

A year later had Bodie weighing up his options again. He was taller now, broader in the shoulders, with well-defined muscles from working on board ship and an air of self-confidence. Some of his crew mates appreciated the change in him and didn’t hesitate to let him know by pinning him to a convenient surface whenever they got the chance. Tired of fending off unwanted advances from men who turned his stomach with their grubby fingers and halitosis, Bodie fought back one day, not realising his own strength, and broke the First Mate’s neck.

 

His best option this time was to jump ship, and Death took a step closer.

 

The next few years saw him fighting in other men’s wars, serving the side that paid him the most. He was a natural soldier and eager to learn, bartering with the skills he had in order to acquire new ones: sewing patches on worn trousers for some knife tuition, taking over cooking duties for a week to learn pressure points, or a quick fuck under the tarpaulin in the back of a jeep to learn how to kill a man with his bare hands.

 

Death followed him, watching and waiting, close enough to touch.

 

Bodie came back to England when his father passed away, mainly to spit on the old man’s grave, but also to escape the bounty on his head put up by a government unwilling to turn a blind eye to his gun-running activities. Deciding to fight for the ‘good guys’ was as good an option as any he’d considered, and he joined up with the Paras who valued his expertise and encouraged his resourcefulness.

 

The SAS was a natural progression after that for a man of his abilities and Death patiently marked Time.

 

 

He’s in CI5 now. An organisation where its agents don’t expect to make old bones, even though they repeatedly buck the odds trying to do so. Bodie has been partnered with Ray Doyle, an ex-copper with high morals and an ideal for justice – the complete opposite of Bodie himself. It shouldn’t work, but it does and the two gel together to form an efficient and deadly fighting unit whose allegiance is to CI5. It doesn’t take long to discover their first loyalties are to each other, and that either man would step in front of a speeding bullet if it meant saving the other.

 

Death knows when it’s outclassed. It takes three steps back and allows Bodie to live again.

 

- - - - -

 

Title:  Options and Actions
Author:  Hambel
Slash or Gen: Slash
Archive at ProsLib/Circuit: Yes/Yes
Disclaimer: They’re not mine. They belong to others who would be horrified at the things I have in store for them.
Notes:  Written for the Discovered Out Of Context challenge. Prompt I used was:

Clever fellow, Death is. I've tried to find him on my terms, and God knows I've tried, from Robin and Marion.

 

 

Comments

[schnuffi.livejournal.com]

Oh, very nice and intense. Death is quite a clever guy, eh? Outclassed indeed - love those last 2 sentences.

Also reminds me of one of my favorite quotes ever (though I can't remember its origins right now):

You can't run away from Death forever.
But you can make it damn hard for the bloody bastard.

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I like that quotation :)

Thanks schnuffi.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I really like the structure of this, the danse macabre that Bodie's been participating in since such an early age and then the sudden hope that it might NOT be inevitably leading to a premature and violent death.

The details are wonderful too, the halitosis and the sewing for instance.

Thank you! ♥

Apparently, this story makes people remember quotations:

But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near Andrew Marvell.

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

God is in the details ... as a wise man once said *g* I can just see Bodie with needle and thread in hand, his gun by his side :D

Thanks Drayce ♥

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Very nice, thank you!

*tries desperately hard to think of a quotation*

Ack! All I've got in my head is Because I could not stop for death - he kindly stopped for me - and that's not quite what you've got going on with our lads!

So I shall just say thank you again. *g*

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it :) Thank you!

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Death knows when he's outclassed, eh? And Bodie ran from everything until he found Doyle. Yeah, I like that idea. *g* Thank you! You're on a nice roll, aren't you?

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, it's practically canon that Bodie didn't find stability until he was partnered with Doyle ;)

Thank you :)

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Talk about a rough ride - but Bodie's very resourceful .... I like the fact that it's taken being teamed with Doyle for him to discover loyalty and likely set him on a whole new track.

.... and since we're doing death quotes - ;-)
“"I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worth while?" Death thought about it "Cats," he said eventually, "Cats are Nice” *g*

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Cats are very nice, but I'd rather have Doyle. So would Bodie.

Thank you :)

[zamaxfield.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. Death has met its match. Move along death, nothing to see here...

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Yep, Doyle has staked his claim. :D

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this, that is a terrific last line! I loved the central image in this, death stalking Bodie and knowing when to back off. And you created such a flavour and history of Bodie's life, too. Really different - great sense of a 'dance' came through.. does that make sense??!

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

The quote immediately made me think of Bodie's past life rather than Doyle's, simply because we have been given more of an insight into it. I love making canon fit into a story. :)

Glad you enjoyed it. Thank you. :)

[bistokids.livejournal.com]

I really do adore 'Bodie's backstory' fics, and this is an absolutely smashing example of the genre. The movements of Death as he patiently stalks Bodie lend a delightful precision to the structure, and how fantastic that he knows he's beaten when he sees Bodie teamed with Doyle. Lovely stuff, Hambel. :DD ♥

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Bodie has so many stories to tell - if only we could believe half of them!

See, even Death knows they're meant to be together :D Thanks BK ♥

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I liked the idea that Bodie was barely cheating death until he meets Doyle. Now they're a formidable team so that even death has to wait. Good one. Thanks.

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, Doyle will keep him from Death's clutches a while longer. Thank you :)