discoveredinalj | Fic: Uncle Bodie

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Yay for Pago Pago time!

Uncle Bodie

“Tell me again why I’m giving up a perfectly good Saturday to drive up the M1 in the rain, would you?”

“Because I’m telling you to.”

“Right. Knew it was something logical.”

Doyle turned in the passenger seat to grin at his partner. And stayed where he was to look his fill for a moment. They were both smartly dressed, but in a dark blue suit, starched white shirt and narrow grey tie, Bodie was having an interesting effect on Doyle’s blood pressure. In fact, add on a pair of sideburns, take away the flecks of grey around the temples, and there was the man who’d run around abandoned warehouses in Saville Row’s finest when they’d first been partnered.

“What?” Bodie took his eyes off the road to glance at Doyle.

“Was just thinking how nostalgic you look, mate.”

Bodie turned his attention back to the road ahead and smiled. “Wish I could say the same for you, sunshine, but the mongrel look always was more your style. I still can’t believe you managed that tie all by yourself this morning.”

Doyle cuffed him good-naturedly across the shoulder, and then let his hand move up to rest on the back of Bodie’s neck. Bodie said nothing but after a second or two he twitched, lifted a hand off the wheel to pull at his collar yet again, and if they hadn’t been driving in the rain at top speed up the M1, Doyle would have kissed the bugger senseless for such a blatant display of nerves. Instead, he tugged on the short ends of Bodie’s hair above his collar.

“Oi. Relax, you. No one’s going to bite. Well, not till afterwards and only if you play your cards right and ask me very, very nicely.”

Doyle expected and got a withering look for that. But Bodie at least left his tie alone long enough to put both hands back on the wheel as the needle nudged the wrong side of seventy.

A minute or so passed with nothing but the lull of the windscreen wipers between them, and with one last squeeze to the back of Bodie’s neck, Doyle took his hand back. A sigh sounded out to his right, rather long and resigned and he tried not to smile.

“So who am I being charming to again?” asked Bodie.

******

“My sister, Maude. Maude, this is Bodie.”

A tall, rather heavyset woman with a riotous mass of red curls, and a baby tucked into her hip smiled and put her hand out to Bodie. He raised it to his lips instead of shaking it.

“Charmed,” Bodie said, without a trace of Scouse.

Bodie got a once over for that, from head to toe. “Well, well, aren’t you the dashing one, just as Ray said. Handsome too." She leaned towards Bodie as she spoke. "‘Bout time we met, I was beginning to think Raymond here was ashamed of us or something.” She elbowed her younger brother sharply in the ribs and glared at him.

Doyle scratched his nose. “Never, Maude. Well, not of you, anyway.”

“Cheeky bugger,” she said easily, turning her attention back to Bodie again. “It really is lovely to finally meet you, and I’ll make sure you’re next to me at the reception so we can catch each other up on this one here.” She elbowed Doyle again. “But for now I’m going to have to do something really rotten and dump Harry on the pair of you for five minutes. My daughter wouldn’t know a decent hairstyle if she fell over it, and I will not have her walking down the aisle looking like an electrocuted scarecrow.”

With a bright smile, an ‘all right then, love?’ and a ‘cheers, be back in a tick’, a sleeping Harry was promptly handed over to a clearly poleaxed Bodie. Maude then barrelled off towards the back of the church, to fix whatever coiffeur disaster awaited her there.

Doyle watched her go, reeling a little in her wake – an effect of Maude he always forgot until it was upon him once again. “Bit of a force of nature, my sister.”

When there was no answer, he turned his head to see Bodie still staring at the path Maude was cutting through the wedding guests, his mouth endearingly ajar. And then of course there was Harry, wrapped in a blue blanket and about as blissfully oblivious as the man holding him.

Doyle got his face under control before he nudged Bodie carefully. “You take your bundle over there and sit tight. I’ll be back.”

That broke Bodie out of his trance.

“No! Ray, don’t you fucking dare leave me with—”

“Tut, tut. No swearing you. What will Harry think of his Uncle Bodie?”

The look Uncle Bodie shot Uncle Ray told its own story.

“Doyle,” hissed Bodie under his breath, looking down at Harry and adjusting his grip. "Where the bloody... where d'you think you're going?"

Doyle backed up a few more steps, keeping Bodie in sight. They were in a churchful of his mad clan with Bodie clutching an unknown baby and looking as if he'd like nothing better than to fix it all with a sweep of a shotgun – Doyle included.

And Doyle couldn't ever remember wanting to wrap his arms around the man quite this much.

But some things would always take precedent, so he mimed a clicking motion and grinned. "Camera, mate. You don't honestly think we're leaving here without a picture of you rocking Harry to sleep, do you?"

Bodie's groan was loud as Doyle spotted the official photographer and waved him over.

******

"Maude liked me, y'know. Got a filthy sense of humour, sunshine. Worse than yours."

"Worse than yours, you mean. And are you not going to brush your teeth before climbing in here?"

Bodie raised his head off Doyle's chest, blinking slowly. "But I am in here. I've already climbed in."

Doyle patted the arm slung across his chest and shook his head. The logic of a boozy, over-tired Bodie was not to be trifled with. Doyle had been the one to stay sober enough to drive back, an unshakeable condition of getting Bodie to go in the first place, and one which Doyle had been only too happy to agree to. Alcohol in large quantities was by far the best way to cope with anything involving his relatives, and he had generously foregone that necessity, just this once.

Bodie rubbed his cheek against Doyle's collarbone. "Don't think Frank liked me much, though," he said around a yawn. "Or you for that matter."

Frank was Doyle's cousin. An arrogant blowhard who had never had the time of day for Doyle when he was growing up, but who seemed to think he could make up for it as an adult by giving him loud unwelcome lectures on everything from double glazing to car engines to queers, all the time while glaring at Bodie.

"I wouldn't worry, mate. Not even his own dog likes Frank."

Bodie was still drunk enough to find that hysterical, so Doyle had little choice but to hold on tight while Bodie hiccupped and snuffled into his T shirt.

He lay back and shut his eyes contentedly. Daft sod was probably drooling all over him.

"Thanks, Ray."

Doyle opened his eyes again. That had sounded perfectly sober and more than a little serious.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Bodie curved the hand he had around Doyle's ribcage a little tighter. "Was good. I like that I know her now."

Doyle swallowed. "I'm glad," he said quietly.

Maude mattered. In the fractured mess of his family and youth, she was the only one who did. She was the one who had clipped him round the ears and cared enough to drag him to school, day after day, the one who had made him salad cream sandwiches for his lunch and soup and chips for his tea when she was eight and he was three and there was nobody else sober enough to do it. And she was the one who with tears in her eyes on her wedding day, had married an arsehole at sixteen for the chance to escape and take her younger brother with her.

So yeah, if anyone deserved to have Bodie in their life, it was Maude.

His smile got wider in the dark as he remembered something.

"So it's a good thing that I accepted her invitation to Harry's christening next month then. What with your excellent baby-minding skills on display today, I think she's got you in mind for godfather, mate."

But the godfather was gone, a deadweight snoring softly into his neck.

Doyle relaxed his grip on Bodie's shoulder and settled back, still smiling. No matter, he could wait till breakfast to have his fun with Uncle Bodie on that score.

******

Title: Uncle Bodie
Author: Callisto
Slash or Gen: Slash
Archive at ProsLib/Circuit: Later – I might add to this
Disclaimer: Not mine
Notes: Thanks to

ancastar for the beta and suggestions, which were spot-on as always. Time-wise I kind of ran out here, so if anything glares at you, it's down to me. And down to Ancastar, actually, for filling up my writing time with delicious crab dinners, Maggie Moos ice cream, and Veronica Mars. Oh, and also down to Milo while we're at it, for just filling up my time with himself.

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From:

sc-fossil.livejournal.com

Ahhh, sweetie, that was just wonderful. I swear to God, you have this delicate touch with romance that just makes me so damned happy. When Bodie gets the kid and Doyle needs a picture, that was precious. But honestly, Doyle's reasons for wanting Bodie to know Maude made me sniffle. It was so lovingly done.

I had enough time to read this little gem before I head to the airport. Thanks for putting a smile on my face. Watch out for those little Milo eyes. I have a feeling you're under the influence. *g*

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Fic: Uncle Bodie

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