AN: So there may be a teeny tiny bit of dark!Kent in this, over protective of Chandler as ever.
"Did someone hit you sir?" the bruise on his boss' cheek and the slightly bloody nose answered Kent's question for him when Chandler stepped into the light off Buchan's dining room. Chandler simply grinned, not exactly the answer expected. Kent leant forwards, trying to unravel the mystery of Joseph Chandler and to see the true extent of his injuries. A small part of Kent felt anger at whoever had injured Joe and whether they were still breathing. Miles simply slapped Chandler on the back, with a matching shit eating grin on his face.
"Your boss here just beat up Jimmy Kray and got some DNA. Bloody excellent boxer as well. Jimmy didn't see it coming." The Sargent replied, earning a round of applause from Mansell, who was leaning back in his chair with a smirk on his face. Kent didn't want to mention it looked like Chandler had been beaten up, not the other way around. Then again he never really understood all these weird sports anyway.
"Didn't peg you for a boxer boss." Mansell said, earning a huff of air from Chandler and a wider grin from Miles, who was slowly starting to remind Kent of a proud mother (not that he'd say it to his face).
"Alright alright, enough of the chit chat, we have some Krays to catch. Kent, you help the boss clean up and me 'n Mans will go down to the morgue." Sarge announced, ever the businessman, prompting Mansell to grab his coat from the back of his chair and Kent to move towards Buchan's slightly excessively sized bathroom.
"No no, I'm fine. I can clean myself up. Kent you go to the mortuary with the others or carry on looking for info on Dukes. I'll sort myself out." Chandler uttered, holding his hands up to get Kent to put his crutches down. Of course, Kent wasn't about to do that.
"Its fine sir I can help. By the state of your face you'll need another set of hands." Kent protested, doing his best to look steady on his feet, even with two crutches supporting him. He wasn't about to get pushed out of helping when he was perfectly able and help was needed.
"No, no…" Chandler continued to protest, before Kent rolled his eyes and intervened. It must have been the casual clothing and the fact they weren't in the office that caused Kent to forget Chandler was his boss. As in he was the man who could happily fire him without a words notice or suspend him again (Kent didn't want to think about that) or any other traumatising thing Kent could think of. Maybe that was why Kent didn't take a second to think about it before the words came out of his mouth.
"Oh shut up and let me help." Silence followed the small outburst. What Kent had just said dawned on him in the form of a blush and he couldn't bring himself to meet Chandler's eyes even if he tried. "…Sir." He added on the end, hoping it would make the smallest difference. It really didn't.
Kent slumped back down into the chair, quest to help forgotten, as he tried to sink in on himself and let the floor swallow him. But the floor didn't swallow him (damn the floor, damn it to hell) and they all stayed in the position for a few seconds, silence threatening to drown them all. Until a bark of laughter was heard, making Kent's head snap up so fast he was almost worried of whiplash. Trying to locate the source of the laughter, Kent peered round to Mansell who was looking eerily similar to how he felt: wide eyed and confused. Then the young DC's eyes shot over to Miles, whose mouth was a thin line of concentration and definitely not humour. Gulping, Kent braced himself to look to the final person in the room, unless he himself was the culprit without knowing and was more mentally unsound than he had previously thought.
True enough, Chandler was standing (barely) before them, chuckling and shaking his head, before making eye contact with the traumatised DC.
"Alright. And technically we're not at work anymore so please Kent, call me Joe." Cha- Joe said, making a small smile worm its way onto Kent's face. He began the climb to get up onto his crutches again, ignoring the light blush now covering his face (not just his cheeks, he was way too embarrassed and pale for that story time bull).
"So… Can I call you Joe too?" Mansell asked, turning the attention back to him.
"No." Joe simply said, short and sweet, bringing a snort of laughter from Miles along with a pat on the back for Mansell. The pair soon left, leaving Kent and Joe to travel to the bathroom, Joe grabbing his spare suit from his bag along the way. Kent settled himself onto the toilet in the bathroom, leaving Joe to sit on the spare stool as he couldn't imagine the pristine man sitting on a grubby toilet seat in someone else's bathroom no less. He looked like he was about to argue before simply sitting, giving the DC a small but grateful smile.
The pair soon got to work, Chandler taking off his now not so white shirt and placing it behind him while Kent assessed the injuries to his boss' face and chest (trying very hard to pay attention to the situation at hand). After making sure nothing was broken Kent set to work wiping away the blood, murmuring apologies every time his current patient winced.
"Emerson." Kent said, breaking the comfortable silence that had passed between them. Chandler looked into said man's eyes, mirth and confusion shining in them.
"Er, I mean. 'Cause we're not at work, you can call me Emerson. Or Em if that's too much of a mouthful. I mean, my friends call me Em. Well, yeah." Emerson ended weakly, wishing he'd never opened his mouth and damning his poor social skills. Chandler smiled, amused at the young man's fumbling.
"Thank you, I will. Em." Brought an abnormally large smile to Kent's face which he tried to beat down immediately after. He nodded, getting back to work.
"So why'd you do it?" Kent asked finally, more comfortable with the DI so could talk to him, "I mean, why did you pick a fight with Jimmy?" Kent finished, knowing that a fight with Jimmy Kray had ended more than enough people's lives and wondered why Joe would go so far for a DNA sample he would've been able to get elsewhere safer. Chandler hummed.
"For the DNA. I knew it would be difficult to get into their house to get it and this way it was perfectly legal and we couldn't be reprimanded for it should we get to court." That was good reasoning, Kent thought, knowing how much this case meant to all of them and they couldn't risk it being thrown out of court by the reasoning that their evidence was gathered illegally. They also technically weren't on the case so wouldn't have been able to get a warrant either.
"Also for revenge." Chandler finished.
"Revenge sir?" Kent asked, running through his head what Chandler wanted revenge for. Yes for McCormack's death, but a fight doesn't equal his life and Chandler didn't seem much like the violent revenge type anyway, more the lay in silence and wait to strike. Kent ran through everything that had happened to his boss, wondering which out of them was the reason for him wanting retribution.
"For you." Joe replied, his gaze firmly on Emerson, cleaning process now almost completely forgotten. Kent did his best to hold in his gasp, waiting for his DI, the only DI he'd truly looked up to, to continue.
"The way they hurt you, was… unacceptable and. The way I reacted was even worse. I made you cry, and I can't forgive myself for that. Hurting Jimmy, gave me a rush. Like I was protecting you and punishing them for any wrongdoing done to you. It was the first time I could truly protect you." The pair didn't talk for a while, Kent mulling over what to say and trying to ease the shock from his mind while Chandler chastised himself for his outburst.
"I'm Sorry-" Chandler began, trying to apologise for his outburst but Kent wasn't gonna listen, putting his hand up for Joe to shut up.
"Don't be. I- Thank you. And I forgive you, you know. You had fair reason to fire me." Kent said, berating himself for the light cloud of tears he felt raging in his eyes. Chandler lifted his thumb and wiped the tear from Kent's cheek, not allowing it to roll further down his face.
"Never again." He whispered, making Kent believe that maybe, just maybe, everything would be alright.
AN: Shitty ending I know, I can't do all that romantic stuff so yeah, you're stuck with this. Soz.