2010
"What're we going to do for Robin's birthday?" Ted frustratingly said for what felt like the millionth time. The gang minus Robin were sitting at Maclaren's discussing one of Barney's many many rules when Ted brought up the subject of Robin's thirtieth once again. "Come on, Ted, we agreed we shouldn't do anything, nobody likes their thirtieth" Lily sighed at Ted's persistence.
"Not to mention she's hit hotness rock bottom since her breakup with Don, wait, scratch that, she's gone straight through the rock and hit the land were showers don't exist" Barney laughed before a punch in the arm from Lily brought his amusement to an end.
"I don't know, maybe Ted's right, maybe a party would actually cheer her up" said Marshall. Ted, Lily and Barney immediately started laughing leaving Marshall confused. "What?" Marshall asked thrown back by the group's reaction. "Aw honey, don't you remember what happened when we tried to cheer you up on your thirtieth birthday?" Lily asked through Ted and Barney's laughter.
2008
Barney limped into his apartment with the help of a young, attractive blonde woman. "I cannot thank you enough for this" Barney said, looking deep into her eyes as he sat down. "It's the least I could do for a hero, I cannot believe you pushed a child out of the way of a moving bus!" the woman said placing her hand on Barney's shoulder. "Unfortunately my friend was not so lucky" Barney sobbed as he thought back to the paramedics cutting through his suit. "You're such a good man" the woman exclaimed. Barney smiled and leaned in for a kiss.
A few moments later there was a knock at the door. Barney pulled away from the now half naked woman and angrily yelled "Go away, I'm busy!"
"It's me, can I come in?" responded Marshall from the other side of the door. Barney sighed before sitting up and grabbing his crutches "Sorry about this, it won't take a minute" he said. Upon answering the door Barney gave Marshall an angry look. Marshall smiled at Barney, briefly looked at the clothes on the floor and the woman on the sofa and cheerily said "What're you doing?"
"That" Barney said, pointing to the woman on his sofa "So if you don't mind..."
"Oh, of course, sorry buddy" Marshall said while he awkwardly remained "it's just..."
"What?" Barney sighed, he loved Marshall but lately he'd been really bored dealing with unemployment which made him kinda clingy.
"Well, Ted and Stella kinda kicked me out for a few hours and Lily's at kindergarten, so I was hoping I could hang here"
Barney knew what he had to do, he thought back to Bro Code Article 1, 'Bros before hoes', and decided he had to let Marshall in.
Later that night
"We have to do something about Marshall!" Barney shouted when he saw Ted, Robin and Stella sitting in the booth. "There's nothing we can do, he needs a job" Ted replied already aware of the problem. "I already gave him a kick-ass job and he threw it in my face, and my company is on the verge of buying a bank so it's about to get even more awesome" Barney said, taking any opportunity to brag.
"Wait, isn't it his thirtieth coming up? We could throw him a party to cheer him up!" exclaimed Robin.
"That's actually not a bad idea, I'm sure he'd love that" Stella said hoping her agreement would help her get on the good side of Ted's friends.
"Great! Violet has started doing house calls to pay for her kid, I'll call her up" Barney excitedly pulled out his phone. "No strippers!" Ted yelled cringing at the memory of Stuart's and Marshall's bachelor parties.
Barney leaned back and gave Ted a confused look "No strippers? But, Ted, it's a well-known fact that boobs instantly cheer guys up, their perkiness will encourage an equally perky response from Marshall!"
"Alright, I've reached my Barney limit, bye" Stella said as she leaned in for a kiss from Ted. "Can you believe I'm marrying her!?" Ted shouted with excitement once Stella had left. "Oh Ted, Ted, Teddy Ted, Ted, don't do this" Barney pleaded.
"Barney, I'm not arguing with you again, someday you'll fall in love and you'll understand..." Ted stopped to reconsider what he had said.
"I am never going to fall in..." Barney paused as he looked into Robin's eyes "Gah! I gotta go... have sex with someone or something". Barney rose to his feet and limped out. "What was that about?" asked Ted.
"I don't know... he's been acting kinda weird ever since the accident" Robin replied. "Yeah, he's probably just-"
"What're you doing?" said Marshall, interrupting Ted as he and Lily sat down.
"We were just talking about Barney, did you go see him today?" asked Ted wondering what had tipped Barney over the edge. "Actually yeah, we had fun, we played Marshopoly with some woman he met, it's a game I invented" Marshall replied sporting a large grin. Ted and Robin looked at each other and smirked as they thought about how Barney must have reacted.
"Marshall, would you mind getting the next round?" Ted asked.
"Sure, what does everyone want?" Marshall left to order once everyone had said what they wanted and once he was out of earshot Ted said "Lily, we were thinking about throwing Marshall a thirtieth birthday party, what do you think?"
"Aw I think that's a great idea, he'd love that!" Lily excitedly replied.
"Okay, great, it's a plan, we'll throw him a party" Ted stated.
