"But why would you ever do that?" Kate's mouth dropped open, trying to process the words that she saw on the slide presentation.
"It would be the easiest way to destroy the fan base." Castle said; seeming to have a look of confusion.
"Why do you want to alienate your fans?" Kate could not believe what Castle had just shown her. What had she done to warrant what he desired to do with the Nikki Heat books?
"Honey, this is for my presentation at the college. I'm teaching on how not to alienate your fan base."
Kate stood up and lightly punched him on the arm. "What? I thought that you were showing me your plan for the next Nikki Heat book. I couldn't believe what you were telling me."
Castle met her eyes and laughed, "Honey, of course not. Can you imagine?"
"I was trying to, I mean you were telling me you wanted to kill Nikki Heat," Kate said, her voice barely a whisper.
"Then I wanted to still call it Nikki Heat, but not have her exist anymore." Castle laughed. "Can't you see how ridiculous that is?"
"The fans would riot," Kate pointed to the screen. "I was about ready to disown you as my favorite author."
"Still your favorite author," Castle eyed the bullet points on his presentation. "I only wanted the students to know that there is no quicker way to destroy your fan base than destroy the story that you have been telling for the last several years."
"What would you even do if you killed Nikki Heat?" Kate asked.
"I guess you would need to introduce a new love interest or make it solely about Rook's adventures." Castle responded, making a note in his stack of papers.
"But then you should call it something else," Kate pointed out. "Make it a new book series or something. Don't destroy the love story that you have been building for eight years."
"But that's the point I'm trying to make," Castle said. "There are so many places you can take a story that don't involve alienating your fan base. But some writers are so lazy that they think people will read anything they put out there. They don't take the time to come up with something new, but instead they tear down something they have already built, leaving a bunch of hurting fans in their wake.
"Has anyone ever done that before?" Kate asked, still reeling from thinking that Castle was trying to kill off Nikki Heat.
"I've known some writers to do it. Sometimes they do it on television shows and get a rude awakening when it doesn't work." Castle played with his pen, making notes next to his presentation.
"Does it sometimes work?" Kate leaned her head over Castle's shoulder, veering at his notes.
"Sometimes. It's one thing to kill a character when you have a revolving door of characters in your story or if you are writing a really dark story. But it's another thing when you have been telling only one love story for eight years and it's the only story. Plus, Nikki Heat is supposed to be light-hearted fun. My fans would feel I basically gave them the finger if I wrote something that dark." Castle declared.
"Castle?" Kate bit her lip.
"Yes, love?" He responded.
"Nikki Heat is safe, right?" Her hand tightened on his shoulder.
Castle turned around and pulled his wife into an embrace. "Don't worry, honey. Only someone who forgot how important their fan base was would ever compromise the integrity of their story. I would never do that. Besides, you are the inspiration for Nikki Heat, and you certainly can't be replaced."
"I was hoping you'd say that." Kate pulled him in for a kiss.