Title: Brilliant Bodie
Author: lucy_roman
Rating: Teen and up
Summary: There are lots of reasons for Doyle to leave CI5, but only one to stay. Set after the episode Discovered in a Graveyard
Pairing: Doyle/Bodie
Word Count: 550

There are lots of reasons why Doyle chose to swap the police for CI5. More excitement, more freedom, more bad guys to vanquish, not to mention the better pay.

Over his years with the squad he has enjoyed the excitement, the not knowing at the start of the day where he might end up by the end. Even the terror of facing gunfire hasn't fazed him.

Just recently though the shine is beginning to wear off. Perhaps he has just seen too many friends killed or wondered how long it will be before it is him. Perhaps it is the realisation that he cannot trust Cowley as much as he would want to. That his boss always has his own agenda and that no one is safe from being sacrificed for the greater good.

Doyle has been thinking about leaving for some time now. Mulling it over in his head for months. But getting shot and almost dying has brought the situation into sharp relief. All those doctors and nurses doing their best to bring him back from the brink and for what? So that tomorrow he will be shot at again? Or in six months a lucky bullet will find his leg or his shoulder? Or in just over a year he will be killed outright by some madman (or woman) with an unknowable grudge?

And what about Bodie? Because while Doyle can find a million and one reasons to leave CI5, he can only find one reason to stay. That reason is Bodie. But Bodie is leaving too and they are both going on to a new phase in their careers and in their lives.

Doyle tenses as he hears footsteps behind him.

"It's okay, Ray. It's just me."

He's been doing that more and more. Jumping at shadows, worrying Bodie.

"Done yours?"

"Yeah." Bodie puts a sheet of paper down in front of Doyle and reaches around him for a pen with which to scrawl his name.

"That's all you wrote?"

"It's all that's needed." Bodie folds the paper neatly. "Shall we use the same envelope? We should economise now we're going to be unemployed."

Doyle tugs his own letter from the typewriter. He uses the same pen that Bodie used to sign it. "You don't have to do this, you know?" Doyle looks up at Bodie. "Walking away from CI5. It's a big step."

"Not that big," Bodie says. "We've taken bigger steps than this." He folds Doyle's letter up over his own and shoves them both into an envelope. Then he seals it and flips it over, writes the words George Cowley in large letters, underlining the name with a flourish.

"Do you think he'll accept?" That is Doyle's biggest fear, that Cowley will refuse to let them leave.

"Yeah. He doesn't have a choice." Bodie smiles but Doyle can see the tension in his eyes. "And if not... Well, there are other ways we can convince him." Bodie leans down and presses his lips against Doyle's. "It'll be okay."

"Yeah," Doyle says and he finds he is blinking back tears. "Thanks. Did I tell you you're brilliant?"

Bodie grins and sweeps a bow. "That's me. Brilliant Bodie."

Doyle smiles back. He's not afraid of the future. Not if he has Bodie by his side.