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Bodyguard Crush / Live-Action TV

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  • This is basically the premise of Amor en custodia, an Argentinean telenovela which has been remade in other countries, included México, where it was remade twice: One time in TV Azteca and Its fourth remake, which is currently on air in Televisa under the title "Amores Verdaderos"
  • The Angel episode "Guise Will Be Guise" depicts Wesley getting involved with a girl he's been hired to protect. The guy who hired him apparently knew about this trope, because Wesley was impersonating Angel, who was wanted specifically because he can't have sex. He needed her for a Virgin Sacrifice - as it turned out, he should have started paying attention to this possibility a lot earlier.
  • Babylon 5:
    • G'Kar may have been trying to invoke this trope when he insisted that the rogue telepaths leaving B5 have Narn bodyguards. Given G'Kar's attempt in the premiere episode to get telepathic genetic material for the Narn race via the old-fashioned mating method, one wonders if he wasn't trying to set up a few Interspecies Romances.
    • Lennier isn't a bodyguard per se, but he does have a crush on Delenn and he does consider himself honor-bound to protect her.
  • In Bodyguard (UK 2018), PPO David Budd is assigned to Home Secretary Julia Montague after the country increases security of government officials following a foiled terror attack. In the aftermath of an attempt on Julia's life, she and David have Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex. This turns into a series of one-night stands which present complications for both parties. In addition to being a violation of his professional ethics, the truth would destroy David's already strained marriage. Julia has aspirations to be Prime Minister, but her counterparts see her as too aggressive. The reveal of a sex scandal with her married protection officer would be seized upon to block her political. After Julia is killed in a bombing, the illicit relation is used to question David's actions and motivations.
  • Bones: Booth, a trained FBI agent, often plays bodyguard to his forensic anthropologist partner, Brennan. While rarely the main plot of an episode, this trope is played completely straight in season one's "Two Bodies in the Lab," when a threat is made on Brennan's life, and Booth presses himself into service as her round-the-clock sentry. Much to her annoyance. Despite this, it's played for Ship Tease.
    Angela: So, how do you like David? It's not often you can interrogate a guy on a first date.
    Brennan: I like him. Booth still doesn't approve but I told him to mind his own business.
    Angela: Booth is a big, strong, hot guy who wants to save your life. I mean, you actually have a knight in shining FBI standard-issue body armor, so cut him some slack
  • In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel was originally supposed to act as a secret protector for Buffy the Slayer - but, while watching over her, fell in love.
  • In Charmed, the Elders mandate a strict law against relationships between witches and the Whitelighters (effectively guardian angels) who are supposed to guide and protect them.
    • When Piper and Leo fall in love The Elders are even more against it than usual due to Piper being a Charmed One. Despite everything The Elders throw at them, from stripping Leo of his powers to outright teleporting him out of their attempted wedding, their love remains undiminished. The Elders eventually relent and allow them to marry in season three, although that doesn't entirely put a stop to the meddling the couple have to deal with.
    • In season two the sisters learn that their mother, Patty, had an affair with her own Whitelighter after she broke up with her husband (the sisters' father). They had to keep the relationship a secret to avoid punishment but it was cut short anyway by Patty's untimely death. In season four, due to backstage issues, it's revealed that the affair produced a fourth sister who had been given up for adoption to escape the Elders' wrath.
  • Chuck and his bodyguard, Sarah. Chuck has a massive crush on Sarah. Sarah seems to entertain the idea of a relationship with Chuck, but there's the whole CIA thing getting in the way, and it's causing a few problems. Especially considering that they have to play the roles of boyfriend and girlfriend and occasionally a married couple on certain missions. Less overtly (this is a family show after all), the other bodyguard in Chuck's life...John Casey, played by Adam Baldwin. Scroll up this page a tad...
  • As Echo's fourth official handler in Dollhouse, love interest Paul Ballard has one of these, though the crush began long before he actually started work as a bodyguard.
    • Done much squickier with Sierra and her original handler.
  • In an episode of The Equalizer Robert McCall chews out Mickey Kostmeyer for sleeping with a Swedish foreign student he was supposed to be guarding, pointing out that if the killers had chosen to strike at that moment they both would have been killed.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • King Renly Baratheon is the object of affection for both Ser Loras Tyrell (an unusual reciprocal example because they form a same-sex couple) and Brienne of Tarth (a rare gender inversion of the trope), who are members of his Kingsguard. Brienne later rues the fact that she only held him once, as he was dying. Jaime later figures it out.
    • And, "The King of the Friendzone" himself Ser Jorah Mormont qualifies after he develops one for Daenerys, even if All Love Is Unrequited. He takes this trope to the furthest, being exiled by his beloved twice and threatened with death, he takes extreme measurements to return to her and beg to become her bodyguard again.
    • Daario Naharis is also one of Dany's bodyguards, and she keeps him close partly to have him as her lover.
    • In the first two seasons, Sandor Clegane served as Joffrey's bodyguard and his duties contained guarding also Joffrey's betrothed Sansa, for whom Sandor seemed to have some mixed feelings.
  • In Heroes, this APPEARED to be the case for Peter and Claire. This was squashed immediately upon the reveal that they're actually each other's long-lost uncle and niece. Of course, this didn't actually stop the shipping or the sexual tension between them. The fact that the actors portraying the two got involved surely contributed to the shipping and tension. Hayden's young age (relatively) added some risque' spice, as well.
  • Ice Fantasy: Ka Suo says that the moment he fell in love with Li Luo was when she told him she'd come to protect him.
  • Miami Vice: Crockett meets his second wife Caitlin Davies because she's testifying against her former manager for payola and needs protection. At first, she dislikes him, calling him the "fashion police" and asking him, "What are you going to protect me with? A blowdryer?" They don't resolve their differences until after he saves her from hitmen.
  • The NCIS episode "Defiance" had a character of the day fall in love with McGee. She then used this to catch him off guard in order to stage her own abduction, and the episode leaves open whether or not she was acting the entire time.
  • The Night Agent: Peter becomes Rose's protector against assassins. The two fall for each other while they're on the run.
  • The Outpost: Garret was recruited by Gwynn's adoptive father to be her bodyguard. He later falls hard for her.
  • Person of Interest: Reese and Sophia were clearly going down this trope's path, as well as with other women Reese protects, but it's always pretty one-sided. He eventually does end up in a Friends with Benefits relationship with Zoe, but it is only after he is no longer guarding her.
  • Starsky & Hutch: Hutch gets into one of these with a visiting Russian ballerina who's received death threats.
  • In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, while there isn't anything romantic going on yet between John and Cameron, a lot of John's growing attachment and protectiveness of her is stemming from her own protectiveness of him. Then there's the second season finale, in which John, against the advice of both his mother and Agent Ellison, travels into the future to retrieve Cameron's chip. Cue Fangirl Squee.
  • In Tin Man fandom, DG/Cain plays out like this most of the time. DG is Princess of Oz, named for her ancestor, Dorothy Gale. Cain is a Badass Normal by Ozian standards, a commoner, and a law enforcement man/soldier by trade. Sweetening the deal is that, in the first part of the series, Cain's former boss forced him into a promise to "not leave her side at any cost."
  • Inverted in season 5 of 24, with First Lady Martha Logan, fully disgusted with her husband's actions, falling for Secret Service agent Aaron Pierce. Season 6 finds the Logans separated (divorced?) and Pierce retired from the Secret Service and romantically involved with Martha.
  • In The West Wing, CJ Cregg and her bodyguard Simon Donovan (better known as Gibbs) when she's under Secret Service protection while being stalked. When they catch the guy CJ needed protection from in the first place, Simon is promptly shot and killed. Thanks, Aaron Sorkin. Thanks a lot.
  • What We Do in the Shadows (2019): After his promotion to bodyguard in season 3, Guillermo is heavily implied to have this on Nandor.

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