Ioan Gruffudd: Eric Vaughn

The Squab and the Quail

Eric Vaughn

Eric Vaughn: Are you and Castle...?
Kate Beckett: [after a long pause] Yes.
Eric Vaughn: Is it serious?
Kate Beckett: [pause] Yes. Yeah, you could say it's serious.
Eric Vaughn: But the truth is, you don't really know. Otherwise you wouldn't have hesitated.
Kate Beckett: No, it's just, uh... we've never really talked about it, that's all.
Eric Vaughn: Why not?
Kate Beckett: We just haven't.
Eric Vaughn: Then he's a fool.
Kate Beckett: No, it's, uh... It's just- It's complicated.
Eric Vaughn: Kate... there's nothing complicated about meeting a woman like you and knowing what to do.

Eric Vaughn: You know, with your bedside manner, you could've been a doctor.
Kate Beckett: Me? No. No. A lawyer, maybe. I was, uh, in pre-law. I could have represented you in your case against the cork.
Eric Vaughn: But instead you became a cop. Why?
Kate Beckett: Uh, someone close to me was killed, and that just... changed things and changed me.
Eric Vaughn: Mmm. You know, I was supposed to be an architect.
[Beckett looks at him skeptically]
Eric Vaughn: No, seriously. But my sister died when I was in college. Heart defect. So I dropped out and invented a new heart valve. That was my first patent. It's amazing how fate changes lives, isn't it?

Kate Beckett: This is a big mistake. The best way for me to keep you alive is to get out there and catch the guy that's behind this.
Eric Vaughn: You underestimate yourself, Detective. I'm quite sure you can do both.
Kate Beckett: And are you willing to bet your life on that? You don't even know me.
Eric Vaughn: I know enough. You graduated the top of your class. you're the youngest woman in the history of the NYPD to make detective. you have the highest closure rate of anyone in the department. And earlier this year, you bucked every protocol to save a Senator's life.
[Beckett sighs heavily]
Eric Vaughn: Do you have any idea how remarkable you are?
[pause]
Eric Vaughn: You don't, do you? If anyone can keep me safe, it's you.

Eric Vaughn: Saxitoxin?
Kate Beckett: Yeah, are you familiar with it?
Neal Morris: Well, the Vaughn Alliance partnered with a university lab to develop a next generation antidote to that entire class of neurotoxins.
Kate Beckett: And have you had troubles with anyone associated with the lab?
Petra Vasker: [approaching] Cindy.
Kate Beckett: Who's Cindy?
Eric Vaughn: [sighs] Cindy Paralti. She's our lead researcher.
[pause]
Eric Vaughn: A few months ago, we were presenting at a conference in Singapore, we had a few drinks, and...
Kate Beckett: And it ended badly. I get it.
Eric Vaughn: Actually, it started badly. She expressed some deep-seated feelings for me, ones that I didn't share. So when I declined, she took it hard.
Petra Vasker: He is being polite. She went "Fatal Attraction" for a couple of weeks.
Kate Beckett: And you still worked with her?
Eric Vaughn: [sighs] She's a very talented researcher. Detective, we're all misled by our heart sometimes... It shouldn't end a career.
Kate Beckett: It shouldn't end a life, either.

Kate Beckett: [in Vaughn's hotel suite] Wow. This is the nicest safe house I've ever seen.
Eric Vaughn: Well, if someone's trying to kill you, you might as well make the most of it, eh?

Eric Vaughn: Pour you a glass?
Kate Beckett: Uh, no, thank you. I'm on duty.
Eric Vaughn: You take your work seriously. I like that about you. Makes me feel safe.
[opening the champagne bottle, the cork pops him in the eye]
Kate Beckett: Oh, my God! Are you... Are you okay?
Eric Vaughn: [laughing] Yes. I think you're gonna have to protect me from myself.

Kate Beckett: It's gonna be fine.
Eric Vaughn: I know it is. I've worked with the best and you'd run circles around any of them. Before your first cup of coffee... I feel completely safe in your care.
Kate Beckett: After knowing me for just two days?
Eric Vaughn: No, after knowing you for two minutes.