(Sequel to Mr Sandman)

They had been together for a year, partners in the CI5, watching each other's backs. ("And Bodie has a gorgeous one," Doyle thought but he meant the backside, not the upper portion although that was beautiful too.) Bodie's conquests of females were still notorious. Doyle pretended but while Bodie was getting it on with a bird, chatting them up with fancy words and dark looks, Doyle simply sat and talked. Women didn't understand him but they soon accepted the fact that he wasn't going to bed them.

"Hello, Sunshine," Bodie said as he got into Doyle's car.

"Hello, yourself." Doyle waited until his partner buckled up.

Their assignment that day was at an old farmhouse where they were joining a security man who was guarding a teacher. She had seen a murder of a government official, someone in Thatcher's council, and had caught sight of the murderer, and it was the job of CI5 to make sure she wasn't murder number two. Two men waited in the house with her and....

Bodie and Doyle waited on the hill top, lying on the ground, watching the house.

"Well, at least it's a nice time for being mum for the day," Bodie murmured and turned over onto his back. He put his hands behind his head. "I wouldn't mind a cuppa right now." He sighed. "I don't suppose you've got one caught up under your sleeve?"

"No." Doyle looked up into the summer sky and agreed. The air smelled fresh and full of flowers. A bee hovered close by. Birds sang in the tree tops. He glimpsed down at Bodie and almost smiled. The promise hadn't come true and Doyle was beginning to wonder if it ever would. Perhaps that magic medallion hadn't been so magic after all. Maybe it had been simply his loneliness that had produced that dream. He turned his eyes back to the farmhouse and hummed, "Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream...." The dream was here beside him, it just hadn't taken fruit yet. Would it ever? Bodie was so straight, he could have been used as a measuring stick.

"What are you humming, Doyle?"

"An American song from years ago." His eyes met the blue ones again. His face lit up with his inner beauty. Bodie stared at him, unable to speak for a moment.

"Well?" Bodie finally whispered.

"Well what?"

"Give us a kiss, love."

"What?" Doyle asked. His eyes revealed his mild case of shock.

"Aren't you going to kiss me?" Bodie asked softly.

An incredible joy fluttered with Doyle's face only to instantly vanish. "Stop fooling around. We're here to do a job." And to prove that point, his eyes went back to the farmhouse.

"I'm not fooling around."

"It's not funny, Bodie."

"It wasn't meant as a joke, Ray."

It was time to be up front with his partner. If Bodie left, then so be it. Doyle felt it in his gut. "I'm gay, Bodie."

"I know that, Sunshine. I figured that out months ago."

"Then don't tease. I'm gay but I still have feelings."

"I hope so." Bodie reached up and caressed his partner's face. "I want you to kiss me."

Doyle's head moved away from the hand. "Bodie...."

"Well?"

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"I was curious."

"Ah."

Bodie looked flustered. "Do I have to have a reason?"

"I'm not someone to play around with when you're bored."

"That's not what I'm doing."

"Isn't it? This isn't exactly a plum assignment. And don't tell me you're not bored out of your mind."

"No, I won't tell you that, but that isn't why...." Bodie sat up. He gently crushed the dark curls. "Ray...."

"Let go." Bodie did, instantly. Doyle looked away.

"Ray...." He let his hand shift to the slim shoulder.

"You like birds, tall ones, skinny ones, thin ones, fat ones, just as long as they have jutters!" It was not an accusation...not quite.

"Yeah, but...." Bodie stopped, unsure of everything.

"You're straight."

"I know, but...." Bodie lay back down. Nothing made any sense. What was it about this man that drew his very soul from his body? His lips ached to touch his. His hands wanted to...they wanted to.... What did they want? Bodie sighed in contentment. He wanted to touch and explore, to caress and be caressed. He gently touched the other's man arm. "Kiss me."

"Bodie, stop!" Anger was turning into annoyance and mild rage. Doyle got up and walked away. Bodie rose and followed him. Bodie gently pushed him against a tree. Doyle glared at him, now very angry. "Bodie, I'm not ashamed of being gay."

"Why should you be?"

"Don't taunt me. You have no right."

"That's not what I'm doing." He tried to kiss Doyle and Doyle popped him, sending the other man down on the ground, making him land hard on his arse. "What was that for?" he demanded, his face red.

"I'm a human being and I don't like you baiting me."

"I'm not ragging you!"

"Then what was that?"

"Well, you wouldn't kiss me."

"Bodie, I swear...."

"Fine! If you don't want to dally with me, then don't." Bodie turned over onto his stomach and lay stiff, staring at the farmhouse. "I got along just fine without you before you came into my life, and I keep doing it."

"Stop mucking around, Bodie."

"I am not mucking around." His tone was stiff, precise.

Doyle sat back down. His body was stiff too.

Silence surrounded them, a deep, dark silence that was too horrible to contemplate. "Why did I do that?" Doyle asked himself. "So what if he was fooling around? Why didn't I just kiss him?" He cursed himself for being an idiot for he had wanted to kiss him even as he was arguing with his friend. His imagination soared: him naked, Bodie naked, getting it on. He could feel his shaft reacting to his thoughts.

"Did you ever think I could be bi?" Bodie asked quietly.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"You have never shown signs of being half and half."

"It never occurred to me that I might be."

"You're not."

Bodie pulled up a blade of grass and chewed it. "I dream about you."

Doyle's heart stopped. "What?"

Bodie turned to him. He repeated, "You heard me."

Doyle looked away. "This isn't funny."

"I'm not trying to be funny." His hand reached out towards the other man. "Sunshine...."

"Bodie?"

"We'll never know, will we, if we don't try?"

Groaning, Doyle went to his friend--his partner--his...what? Soon to be lover? He didn't know. He did know, however, he was going to take advantage of the situation. If Bodie were pranking around, so what? He wasn't. He kissed Bodie. Bodie's mouth opened. Doyle moved until he was on top of the other man. The kiss deepened. He could feel his penis becoming erect. He listed his head and looked down into the blue eyes.

"See, Sunshine?" Bodie whispered and pulled the other man back to his lips.

Someone screamed and they broke apart.

"Shit!" Bodie muttered. They ran to the farmhouse.

After it was all over and the mess had been cleaned up, Bodie took Doyle's wrist. "Well, Sunshine?" It was dark. They stood outside the CI5 office. Traffic streamed past them but they paid no attention to it.

"It's your move, Bodie." Doyle's eyes were cool, without emotion but his heart was rapidly beating; his breathing was unsettled. What he wanted to do was throw the man down in the street and take him, right there on the sidewalk, hard and fast and without sanity to tell him he mustn't. He wanted to make Bodie squirm and scream in sheer animal wantonness.

"Come back with me to my flat." His eyes begged the slimmer man. "Please."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Bodie, I don't want a one night stand."

"I can't make any promises. I wish I could."

"It's just one day at a time, then?"

"Yeah, Sunshine, just one day at a time."

Doyle remembered his wish, his dream. Suddenly, everything felt right to him. "All right." The look of incredible joy came to Bodie's face. Doyle took that short journey back into the other man's arms. And that song repeated itself:

Please turn on your magic beam
Mr Sandman, bring me a dream.

Maybe that medallion hadn't been such a counterfeit after all.

-- THE END --