AN: This fic is a crossover between Lewis and The Professionals. It assumes that CI5 was real and that, by the timeline, Bodie will be 61 and Doyle will be 63 now. Lewis is 60, Hathaway is 33.
James sat at his computer on that Monday morning, thoroughly dispirited. It was Monday, he was tired and to cap it all off, Lewis seemed to be in quite a good mood. Which wasn't helping his. He downed the lukewarm cup of coffee that he had forgotten about since he brought it up, accompanied by one for his boss. Wincing at the undesirable temperature, an email caught his eye. He smirked, suddenly aware that he was about to ruin his superiors good mood.
"You seen this email sir? The one from Innocent?"
"Nah. What's it about. We got all our reports in on time didn't we?"
"Yeah, nothing like that. Its says we have to be in the briefing room at half six this evening for some compulsory talk." James sighed as he realised that he wasn't particularly enamoured of the idea. He looked up as Lewis walked over to him, reading the email over his shoulder.
All CID officers are required to attend the talk in Room 14a, commencing at 1830 today. The talk is entitled "Special services in Ordinary modern policing. It will be will be given by two guest speakers from the old service CI5.
Attendance is compulsory. That includes you both James.
"CI5? Heavy mob back in the day. Wonder what they've come to talk to us for." Lewis smiled as James looked at him, curiosity plainly written on his face.
"Never even heard of them sir."
"You wouldn't have James. You were probably about nine when they disbanded. Nineteen eighty six it was I think."
"Eight sir."
"What? I'm pretty sure it was ninety six."
"No I was eight I mean. Either way I had no idea about them."
"Watch the news much when you were a kid?"
"Nah, more interested in building a tree house or whatever it was I did when I was kid." If Lewis found this phrasing odd, he didn't comment.
"Yeah well, It all blew up in eighty six. The head of CI5 was killed and no-one could be found to replace him. There was rumours that he agents weren't all that happy with the idea of working with someone else. Whatever the circs, it was gone within a week."
"Fascinating history lesson sir" James smirked at Lewis' offended expression. "But what did they do?" Lewis saw a fantastic opportunity to get his sergeant back for the dig about his age.
"I dare say you'll find out later James." James scowled at him, knowing that Lewis was taking great delight in keeping information from him. Although when he heard Lewis' disbelieving mutter as he walked back to his desk, he couldn't help but chuckle.
"Eight?...Blimey, I was thirty five."
William Andrew Philip Bodie, or Bodie to anyone that didn't want a punch in the face, glanced at his watch. It was an expensive one. If you were to see only his hand, you'd be forgiven for assuming he was rolling in it. Take a look at the whole man however, and you'd see the truth. He wasn't poor, he just wasn't exceedingly wealthy. He valued life too highly to save money that he could use to make it worth living. Drink, food, women...well more so in his younger years, but he wouldn't turn down offers. Much the same could be said for his friend in the driving seat. Except that he saved more and he had a wife. The drink and food though, that was a shared passion.
"I'm starvin' Ray. And we're gonna be late." He added as an after thought.
"Bodie, I have never known you not to be hungry. We'll be there in about 10 mins anyway. If this map is anything to go by. Where'd you get it from again?"
"Printed it off Google maps." He sighed, sinking back in the passenger seat. "I still don't see why we're doing this. I mean we don't work for the mob any more. Why I we trawling round police forces talking about bygone days?"
"If you'd ever listened to Cowley mate, you'd know that you never leave the service. Someone up top reckons that Local police forces need to be educated more about bigger stuff. You know, like the stuff we used to deal with. Anyway, this is the last one. Was thinking we could stay up here a bit" Raymond Doyle had fond memories of Oxford. He'd been seconded up there for a few weeks as a PC. Couldn't remember the case but he had liked Oxford and its people.
"Yeah..but Oxford? What ever happens in Oxford? Its all posh professors and smartarse students." Doyle turned to face his friend.
"You know, for a man of the world Bodie, you can be very narrow minded." Bodie stuck his tongue out with a grin.
"There's nothing narrow about my mind old son. Nothing narrow about any part of me." Doyle snorted, shaking his head at the wit of his partner. He supposed they still were partners, whether they were on active service or not. They were both in an advisory capacity. Still watched each others backs. He turned to look at the slightly younger man beside him
"Bodie"
"Yeah?"
"You are an arse"
"Ray."
"Yeah?"
"Watch the road."
Half past six saw the various members of Oxford CID filing into Room 14a. Most of the younger members looked bemused or plain bored. James himself was included in the former. The latter, well he didn't really have any place to be tonight. And he had to admit he was intrigued by this "CI5" that the older colleagues seemed to remember. He thought back fondly to the spy books he read when he was younger and smiled. Well he had waited since he was six to meet a real spy. There was nothing in the rules that said that he couldn't be a little interested at the age of thirty three.
Six year old Hathaway would have been disappointed. The two men that walked in were hardly James Bond. They seemed to be opposites of each other. One was smaller, wiry and looked good for his sixty odd years. The other was much broader and a little taller. He held a boyish sort of face and an air of nonchalance as if he had not a care in the world. Both of the men looked relaxed, even in the new environment. But James had seen alertness in their eyes, the sort of look he supposed you'd never lose if you were a spy at any point in his life.
As they walked into the room, both Bodie and Doyle instantly took stock of their surroundings. Bodie swept his eye over the room of coppers. He decided he would leave it to Ray to start it off. He was an ex-copper after all.
"Er Hello everyone. I'm sure you're all aware of CI5 and what it was." He stopped and looked around the room. It had suddenly occurred to him there were a lot of youngsters in the room. Sure they were probably all thirty to forty, but he reasoned that at sixty three, they still were youngsters to him. "Well those of you born before nineteen fifty anyway." There was a murmur of humour throughout the room and Doyle had instantly relaxed. Some places they had been to, the response had been frosty, CID departments resenting the 'heavy mob' coming in to give them advice. But here, there was an atmosphere of easy acceptance and he wondered how his life would have turned out if his days on the beat had been somewhere like Oxford rather than some decidedly dodgy back streets of London.
The talk went without a hitch. They explained why they were there (some pen pusher had decided that the UK police force needed advice from two old criminal intelligence operatives, according to Bodie) and they'd answered all the questions. Bodie had been pleased to note that it was a good mix of younger and older people asking questions. Always a good talk if everyone engaged in it.
The session ended at half seven and Doyle turned to Bodie as cops started to leave the room. It was Friday night, most people had places to go, families and lovers to get back to.
"Went well don't you think. Nice bunch eh?"
"Ray I'm not gonna think anything till I eat." He tapped a copper on his way out. Old bloke. No, not old, Bodie thought as he realised the guy was probably about his age. "Er sorry mate, D'you know where we can grab some dinner?"
"Yeah. There's a good Chinese restaurant around the corner. Does amazing duck." Bodie had just been about to give the man his thanks when the tall, blond man behind this other one piped up;
"S'closed down sir. Refurbishment or something. What about the Trout sir?" The older man smiled
"If you like pub grub, Trout's as good a place as any. Better than most in fact." Bodie watched the smile turned into a grin as he felt his own face light up. "We're on our way over there now. Your stuff'll be ok in here if you want us to show you the way."
"If you like pub grub?" Bodie rubbed his hands in glee. Shouting over to Doyle he made to leave the room. "Oi, sunshine! Leave that, we've got a pub to go to." Rolling his eyes, Doyle walked over.
"Sorry, this greedy git been bothering you?" although there was no malice in the voice.
"Nah. Just wondering if you fancied a pub dinner. We're heading to the local now, you're welcome to join us."
"Yeah Ok. Cheers." Doyle said, looking up to see Bodie was already out in the corridor.
