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If she was being humble (and she never is), Tina would say she knows Gavin pretty well. If she was being realistic, she’d say she knows him better than anyone else, including Gavin himself. They’ve been friends since their days at the police academy, instantly gravitating towards each other with Gavin being the only openly gay man and Tina being the only woman. They were both outliers and outliers stuck together. They’ve been there for each other through the highs and lows, the good times and the horrible ones. She was there when Gavin called her, crying, because his shitty boyfriend had broken into his apartment and assaulted him. She drove him to the hospital and helped him file charges against the man. He was there for her when she got evicted from her apartment, lending her a place to sleep until she got her finances under control. They found out that, while they’re great friends, they are terrible roommates, Gavin being a bit of a neat freak and Tina never touching a dishwasher before in her life and she sure as hell wasn’t going to start now.
Suffice to say, she’s seen every side of Gavin there was to see. Or so she thought. As it turns out, there is one side of him she thought she had seen before, only to be completely blindsided by the reality of it unfiltered. Every other time she had seen it, it had been a pale comparison to what it could have been the whole time. And the real beauty of it is, he doesn’t even know.
Maybe she’s getting a little ahead of herself. It all started with Connor, if she’s being honest. As much as she knows he’d deny it, Connor was the one who really kickstarted everything for Gavin. The day that uptight, clean pressed, perfectly sculpted android showed up at the precinct, everything changed. Not directly, of course. At least, not for Gavin. Hank Anderson was a whole other story.
Gavin hated Connor. And Tina has seen Gavin hate a lot of things. He hates tequila. He hates corn that is still on the cob. He hates traffic, people who don’t use the crosswalks, the smell of car exhaust, and people who are taller than him (which, unfortunately, is most people). But more than anything, he hates androids. Secretly, Tina thinks it’s because of his much more successful half brother, Elijah Kamski, than it is because of the androids themselves, but she’s never brought it up. She’s not looking to get her head bitten off during one of Gavin’s tirades about him.
So when Connor walked into the precinct, throwing orders around to their Lieutenant of all people, Gavin was instantly up in arms. Then Connor started bagging criminals. And conducting interrogations. And processing evidence in real time. And generally being a better cop than any of them could have been. And it grated on Gavin. Tina was subjected to more than one drunken tangent about ‘how hard the rest of them had to work to get where they were’ and ‘who the fuck does he think he is’ and ‘Anderson is wrapped around his stupid little fingers! Well, not me. I would never let a fucking android make me his bitch.’
So imagine everyone’s surprise when another Connor showed up. Except, he wasn’t Connor. He was Connor but better. Taller, broader, more severe. Connor introduced him to everyone as RK900, the next prototype in the RK line. And the last, with Cyberlife no longer producing military droids. Gavin scoffed, loudly proclaiming they didn’t need another ‘plastic prick’ on the force. Naturally, Captain Fowler assigned RK900 to be Gavin’s partner, to much sputtering and cursing from the latter. It was a rough few weeks for everyone. Gavin’s fowl mood grated on everyone, even Tina. She was used to his shittiness, but this was a whole new level. He snapped at the interns, he chain smoked more than usual, he yelled at the patrol officers, and every chance he got, he tried to leave RK900 behind. But RK900 was like a silent shadow, always just a foot behind Gavin, his icy, calculating eyes following his every move. He never said anything, not even when Gavin was cursing him out.
But something must have finally broken the camel’s back. A young officer had just dropped a file off at Gavin’s desk, scurrying away before he could be noticed. Gavin lazily flipped through it, tapping a pen against a coffee mug. It was incredibly annoying, even Tina could admit. The longer it went on, the more she began to ready herself to tell him off. But RK900 got to it sooner. With incredible speed, his pale hand snapped out and snatched the pen from Gavin’s hand, where he then cracked it in half like it was nothing (which, okay, hot) and tossed it into the wastebasket. Gavin stared at him in shock before red started creeping up his cheeks. Tina could spot a tantrum from across the room, so she leaned back to watch the show.
“What the fuck is your problem?” he growled at the android.
“Your fidgeting was grating on everyone around us. I simply put an end to it,” RK900 replied calmly. Tina realised it was the first time she’d ever heard him speak. If she closed her eyes, she could almost mistake it for Connor, but she could tell his voice was a touch lower, richer, and somewhat smoother.
“By breaking my shit? Fuck you,” Gavin said, standing up to glower at RK900.
“It was a pen, Detective. If you require another, I shall provide it, unless you plan to continue your incessant tapping.”
“You don’t get to decide what I do, fucker. You’re just an android,” Gavin poked a finger into RK900’s chest, a snarl on his lips.
RK900 grabbed Gavin’s hand and stood up, almost a full head taller than him. He pushed him back into his chair and leaned over him.
“Detective Reed, you have done nothing but act like a child not getting his way since I started here and I will not tolerate it any longer. You are rude, immature, and, frankly, almost wholly incompetent as an officer. The amount of mistakes and rash decisions you make are appalling and, were I not there to intervene, you’d be dead a dozen times over. Like it or not, we have to work together. So you are to address me as an equal from here on out, do I make myself clear?”
RK900’s voice was so low and menacing, Tina had to strain to hear him. Had that ire been directed at her, she probably would have shrank away into nothing. But Gavin, being who he is, only bristled at his tone.
“Fuck you, you’re not the boss of me,” he spat out, glaring up at him. RK900 looked him up and down, a deadly calm expression on his face, before yanking him up and dragging him towards the evidence lockers in the basement. Gavin dug his heels in, doing his best to pull his arm out of RK900’s steel grip, but the effort was futile. As the heavy door swung shut on Gavin’s insults and curses and demands to be released, silence fell over the precinct. Nobody moved or said anything for a few moments.
“Well,” Connor finally said, breaking the tense atmosphere, “RK900 held out much longer than I had anticipated.”
Lt. Anderson barked out a laugh, clapping Connor on his shoulder and Connor smiled as if pleased with himself for making a joke.
RK900 and Gavin didn't come out of the evidence locker for almost an hour and no one dared to go in. When they finally emerged, RK900 looked much the same, but Gavin, on the other hand, looked like a mess. His clothes were rumpled, his hair no longer brushed back, his cheeks were still red, and his expression reminded Tina of when her nephew got in trouble and had to go to timeout. Gavin looked pissed off, but he didn't say anything. He stomped back to his desk, sitting down with a huff, and began quietly going over the new case file again.
RK900 stopped at Connor’s desk, their LEDs spinning as they held a silent conversation between them, then RK900 walked away, leaving Connor behind with a light blue blush on his cheeks. Everyone assumes Gavin got the shit beat out of him by the android, but Tina knows Gavin best and she can tell something else must have happened. But any attempts she made at asking about it were shrugged off. But something had changed between them. Gavin stopped bitching about everything and everyone. He went out on fewer smoke breaks. He stopped trying to leave RK900 behind. Hell, he even went and got a haircut, making him look less like a disheveled vagrant and more like a messy, chain-smoking detective.
But the biggest, most significant change? He started calling RK900 ‘Nines’. Gavin never gave people nicknames. But suddenly he wasn't “that plastic asshole I have to cart around” anymore. He was “Nines, my partner.”
And like she said, Tina knows Gavin better than anyone. She knew that ‘partner’ meant more than just work partners. Gavin wasn't the only one who changed, however. Nines was much more relaxed now. He wore casual clothes, stopped styling his hair in that strict, smoothed back look. He fucking smiled now. Whatever happened in that evidence locker was a good thing . Tina had never seen Gavin look so happy and healthy. Or in love. And this is the side of him she thought she knew. She's seen Gavin date many people and some of them, she would have sworn he was in love with, but that was nothing to how he was with Nines. He laughed more, joked around more, had more patience than before. Captain Fowler let slip to her that Gavin had started volunteering on the weekends at the police academy, helping train the young newbies.
Almost a year after Nines joined the DPD, Gavin invited Tina out for drinks, just them, like the old days, and confided in her that he wanted to ask Nines to move in with him. After being roomies with Gavin, she knew what a big step this was for him and she encouraged it wholeheartedly.
A few months after that, she went with him to pick out rings. She scolded him for picking up smoking again when he got anxious that Nines would say no.
“Don't be stupid. Why would he say no? He loves you so fucking much.”
Of course, he said yes and the pictures Tina got of the engagement were framed in her living room. She picked out a nice dress, as Gavin’s Maid of Honor and helped Connor plan a bachelor party for Nines.
When the big day came, Gavin cried. And Tina has seen him cry before, but never from such happiness. The ceremony was beautiful. Most of the precinct was in attendance. The reception was just as wonderful, people dancing and laughing together. When it was time to give speeches, Tina was ready.
“Hey everyone. Most of you already know me, but I’m Tina Chen, Gavin's best friend. I used to say I knew Gavin better than anyone in the whole world, and I did. That was, until Nines.”