Anon prompted: How did Gates know about Caskett?
Victoria Gates knows she has a bit of a reputation. As a martinet. A hardass. Even a bitch. She has no problems with that, since she has cultivated it. Becoming a precinct captain in the NYPD as a black woman, twice a minority, has been a hard cliff to scale. She's had to be better than good every step of the way, better than her peers, more capable at politics. Excellent at reading people, at guiding them to conclusions she wants them to arrive at. The thing people often forget about her, especially these days now that she's running a precinct, is that she's a damn good detective. She doesn't mind, in a way, being underestimated. It allows her that crucial element of surprise in many a situation.
Her new team is guilty of the same old failing. Too used to Roy Montgomery, his wit and his charm and his light touch. All her old IA instincts scream that something is a little off about how Beckett, Esposito, Ryan and the others rally around his name, screen her from asking questions about him. Their loyalty is admirable, if somewhat blind. No matter. He is dead, and secrets rarely stay buried for long. She will try and shield them from the fallout when it all comes out.
She's too old-school, too thin-blue-line to get behind Castle's involvement in her turf easily, but begrudgingly she can see why Montgomery allowed him to stay. Managing a police precinct is about managing personalities as much as it is about paperwork, and she can see what he brings to the table, the way he thinks outside the box, tries to connect the dots that lead the rest of the team to the perpetrator. It's hard to acknowledge an outsider can help so much, but she can't resist the sheer weight of numbers, the cases they close and people they put behind bars.
Mostly she can see how he makes Beckett tick, and vice versa. Together they are vastly more than the sum of their parts, and Beckett was no slouch as a detective to begin with. In her first year at the 12th, she could sense the tension there, the way he looked at her and his eyes lit up, the way he never failed to bring her a coffee when she needed it…often before she knew she needed it. They way an unconscious smile danced over her lips when he looked away, the way she stepped ever closer into his personal space with no reason to, just to be near him. She can also cut the tension between them with a knife, if she wanted to, the magnetic force that draws them together…and yet they can't take that last step to be together. Frankly her precinct is better than the ridiculous reality TV shows she likes to unwind with, a glass of red in her hand, at the end of a tough day at the office.
That changes in the second year, after Beckett comes back from her suspension. Small things fall into place, like pieces of a puzzle. The way that Beckett laughs more, some tension inside her eased. The way Castle will sometimes brush her hands, or the small of her back for no reason. The way they'll arrive or depart from the station within moments of each other on certain days of the week. The look on Beckett's face when they have to arrest Castle during that Tyson nonsense. Gates has seen that fear, that desperation, that love before. It cannot be hidden, and it cannot be faked. Messing with Castle's head on Valentine's Day (how the hell had that idiot managed to put Beckett's present in her coat anyway?) is just the icing on the cake. She hopes he doesn't get into too much trouble at home but she just can't resist twitting his nose. Especially after that Gemini dolls fiasco.
Her heart breaks for him when his daughter is kidnapped, but any last doubts about their relationship is laid to rest when Beckett embraces him without hesitation, without fear of consequences. There is a boundary that can only be crossed by lovers, not just partners or friends. In the aftermath, really, she is glad for them. Beckett has clearly had to navigate some stormy seas (which reminds her, she needs to follow up with an old friend at the Justice department about Bracken…something in that interrogation room had been all too real, no matter how much Castle had tried to convince her otherwise), and Castle acts as her anchor, her compass and her north star, all at once sometimes. In turn she can see how Beckett grounds Castle, brings out his inner depths and shows the world that the manchild he pretends to be is just that, a pretence…mostly. They're good for each other, and it makes her happy that they've managed to discover that while at her precinct. Gates is pretty sure they haven't snuck into a maintenance closet for a make-out session either, so it's not really an issue to let them keep working together. Helping Becket t out with his surprise party is hardly onerous, and watching her detective's nerves flutter just reminds of her the own romance while at IA, when Andrew would send her flowers on random days, or come meet her after shift, even if it was late at night or early in the morning.
She can't keep it hidden any more after the bomb incident though. That's as close as she's come to losing a part of her team since she joined the 12th, and it was with desperation and tears in the corner of her eyes that she watched the seconds tick down on her phone, alone in her office. Castle had somehow managed to pull one last trick out of the book once again, and in the aftermath, even she's not cruel enough to deny them the kiss they are desperate for.
Gates smiles as she walks away with Ryan and Esposito. She hopes she'll be invited to the wedding.