A/N: This idea sprung from two places (please see the author's note at the end for these two places). The two ideas randomly melded in my mind recently and I couldn't resist this one shot. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Not mine. Never was. Never will be. And it's probably even been done before. Oh well.
Rick felt his jaw twitch in irritation as he listened to his ex-wife drone on and on- harping about why Nikki Heat needed a good, light-hearted ending instead of one so full of angst. It wasn't light enough, it wasn't happy enough, shouldn't they be getting married, solving cases... he couldn't take it any more. He slammed his palm on the table loudly, making the people across the table from him jump. "Dammit, Gina! I don't- I can't deal with this anymore!"
Gina's mouth hung open in shock and she glanced over to Paula and the surprised intern taking notes carefully in the corner. She stumbled over her words for a little bit before gathering herself. "Wha- uh, Rick?"
Rick closed his eyes tight, frown lines creasing his brow as he thought hard about what he was trying to say. "I just- I can't do it anymore. I've tried... so hard... writing Nikki and Rook their happy ending but I just... the words won't come!"
Gina looked too shocked to be able to say anything more, so Paula stepped up to bat. "So what are you saying, Rick? You're done writing Nikki Heat? You know you're still under contract for at least three more books."
"It's not- ugh." Rick rubbed his eyes in frustration. He couldn't make them understand. The amount of hell he'd been through, struggled with- he had been kidnapped, missing, presumed dead for nearly four months! He hardly thought he had to apologize if his thoughts turned a little dark sometimes. All he wanted was a little bit of peace and a little bit of time. Time to spend with his wife, to relax, to get used to his life again. And also, to do what his therapist asked of him. He'd been reluctant at first to go visit Kate's therapist, but as time went on Castle found himself incredibly grateful for the man. Dr. Burke could really work some miracles sometimes. Of course, that didn't mean he didn't have to put in a lot of work himself. That's one of the reasons he wanted to step away from writing Nikki for a while- he didn't want Paula or Gina to know about his therapy, but it was a lot more time intensive than he'd imagined going in.
Which brought him to his second reason: his writing.
Dr. Burke, knowing Castle's profession and so much more already, suggested that he channel his thoughts and experiences into his writing. At first it had been difficult. Unbearable, even. He could hardly find a reason to put his pen to the paper. But as time went on, and Rick kept trying, he found the words just flowed from him. So much and so fast that he didn't even know what he was writing most of the time. He didn't dare look back even, until one night a few weeks ago. And the words sang like a ballad- painful, beautiful, and tortured. That's when the idea first came to him. It took him another few weeks and some stilted Nikki Heat writing before he finally called Black Pawn for a meeting. And instead they jumped down his throat with all this garbage.
Rick paused before speaking again, this time much more calmly. "I'm not done writing Nikki Heat. There's enough there for me to write Nikki forever. I just... need some time. I need a little break from Nikki. Especially if you want the characters to last long enough for me to write more."
"Okay, fine. Say we give you the time. How much time do you need? What are you supposed to do, Rick? Sit around at home, twiddling your thumbs and squandering your advances? Need I remind you, we can't just let time go on forever without a new Richard Castle mystery."
"Need I remind you that I've only been back from being kidnapped for three months!"
That shut Paula right up. Gina picked back up again, placing a hand gently over his. "Rick," she soothed in a calm voice, "We know that. And I know how excruciatingly difficult this must be for you-"
"Gina, I appreciate the sympathy, but you have no idea."
"-But," she cut in again, this time giving him a warning look, "We want what's best for you. For this office, for your family. You need to do your job still."
Rick sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I know that. I do. But that's why I think I came up with a solution."
He glanced at the two women and saw that he had their rapt attention, and he quickly glanced away. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come. He clamped it shut and huffed in frustration. He tried again. "I... I have been writing again. Not Nikki, but... writing."
Gina nodded encouragingly, shooting a warning glance at Paula before she could tear into him. "Okay. So what have you been writing?"
"I... it's not much. It's not very specific either. But it's different. Much more serious. And I- I think I want to try something new."
He shifted uncomfortably as the silence wore on. He'd expected some sort of reaction from one of them- particularly Paula. But so far, they were quiet, thinking. He appreciated that, even if it didn't mean they were going to agree with him. Even if they were just using the time to figure out how to let him down easy.
"Richard," Paula broke the silence, her voice carrying his name on a sigh. "Look. I understand you've had an extremely rough time lately. But this is a big decision. This is your career. Do you really want to put it all on the line, just to get some of that off your chest? I know you've asked us to cut back on your whole bad-boy persona recently, but this is something else entirely."
Castle nodded soberly, expecting all of those reasons to come up. He could feel his shoulders slumping, his mood falling. His eyes dropped to the desk. "I know, I know."
"So what if we did it under a different name instead?"
That pulled Castle out of his temporary slide into depression really quick. He snapped his gaze up to meet his publicist's incredulously. "What?"
"We wouldn't want to jeopardize your career as Master of the Macabre. Richard Castle- he's an icon. You're an icon, Rick. But on top of that, considering you live such a public life, we wouldn't want to put you back at risk with anything that might come out. The emotional trauma alone, I imagine, would be terrifying. I don't want to see you go through any more than you've already had to."
Castle felt his heart warm at the sentiment, and he sent a genuine, grateful smile to his PR rep. "Thanks, Paula."
"So. What do you want to do? Ball's in your court."
Rick thought about it for a moment. He honestly hadn't thought he'd get this far. He fully expected to be thrown out of there, never to return to Black Pawn Publishing again and subsequently spiral into a deep, draining depression. Boy, was he glad to be wrong.
"I could write under a different name, maybe. If it does well, I could come out and say I, Richard Castle, wrote it."
"What would you write under?" Gina asked, curious.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet," Paula cut in again. "We'll worry about that when the time comes for it, and I could come up with a plan to make this work. It doesn't all need to be decided tonight. Rick, go home, get some rest, get some writing done. But you're still going to have to have a deadline to meet."
Castle nodded eagerly. "How about two weeks? I can get you enough together by then for you to have a feel of it."
"Two weeks sounds perfect. I'll pencil it in and give you a call."
Rick stood up to leave, saying his goodbyes and thank-yous before coming to a realization. Something clicked in his brain. "Oh, and Gina? I have an answer for your question."
Gina's brow furrowed in slight confusion. "O-kay. Shoot."
He took a deep breath. It was perfect- it sent the right message, with just a hint of power, of threat behind it. Even though it would likely be republished under his current name, he found it incredibly appealing.
"The name. For this new book? I think I'd like to go by Alexander Hunt."
A/N: Inspired by the cliffhanger of the season six finale, and Doyle's line in 6x05 about Castle writing serious literature in the future. Please review!