Year: 2024.

Robin Scherbatsky-

Things were definitely not going as planned. She was having second thoughts.

It is the dream job.
Getting to be an important news anchor, touring the world. To go different places, to see different things. And to not experience emotions that leave her breathless, as if a big part of her was still missing.
This wasn't anything new. Robin had been receiving such pangs since the time she left New York, which only increased after parting ways with Barney and the birth of Ellie. Further intensifying following Ted & Tracy's wedding.

This was the job she had always wanted.
Robin was supposed to feel free, liberalized and whatever other word that means the same.
Where were the Most-nerdy-bys when you needed them?

Oh, come on! Now it's her cracking the lame-name jokes. Damn it!

There was no denying it anymore. She needed some serious company. ASAP.
Be it the ones back in New York or the ones at the station.
But the latter's idea of fun involved digging up dirt against each other with a daily dose of soap opera supplementing it; everyone sleeping with everybody and inventing news of dogs trying to commit suicide, to get on the news, leads to that.

Yeah, so definitely the New York gang.
Besides it's more like home than any other place ever will be.

With that thought in mind Robin sends in her application for transfer to the head office.

x-x-x-

A flight later...

It's been a while now since the last time they all hung out together, even without her.

What with Marshall & Lily having a third baby, Tracy & Ted settling down as an official married couple in the subs'(that place still gave her the willies) and Barney taking care of an almost-four-year-old Ellie, with brown shoulder-length tresses which fall over her cute little angelic face that boasted the deep electric blue eyes of her father.

Ellie Stinson. His daughter.
It hurts to even think like that.

No need to go there.
She can't back out now considering the fact that the damage was done. New York's resident news anchor can't just be absent for her broadcasts.

It was time to visit again anyways, she thinks to herself.
Well...Welcome Home.


Barney Stinson-

Ellie's spending the weekend at his mother's who wants to spoil her real grandchild for a change, and after dropping her off with a marching band; 'cause come on...she is awesome times infinity, he is on his way to work.

Barney will never admit it to anyone but other than his daughter there is another certain brunette who invades his thoughts, especially since the wedding.
May it be due to worry, want or need; she is always there at the back of his mind.

It didn't help that half of the things in his world were constant reminders of her; his apartment, Mac Laren's and the engagement ring hanging on his chest.
While the other half, Ellie, wasn't any better. With her soft brown hair and slim body frame she almost looks like a mini version of Robin.

Or maybe that's just him.

The troubling thing? Ellie's first word was "mum". And if that wasn't enough she had uttered it while pointing towards the TV screen featuring none other than said Scherbatsky with the evening news.

How do you even react to things like that?

Needless to say, that Ellie was growing up thinking that Robin was her mother. He didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise. So now he has to live with the constant fear that she will end up like him. Playing with the TV, asking it for advice and get her heart broken when it did not respond accordingly.

What her real mom will think about it? He doesn't really know.
Because for starters he has never actually met her. But, what he is sure of is that she must have a rocking body and might be a cougar by now, 'cause he wouldn't have slept with her otherwise.
Secondly, Ellie and him had decided to keep it a secret as the world was not ready for such an overload of awesomeness. It's not daily that you find out that an already awesome Ellie has Robin Scherbatsky for a figurative-surrogate mother.
And thirdly, things were going pretty good so far so why ruin them? Ellie was to stay with her biological mom for three days a week and spend the rest of it with him.

Their lawyers had made the necessary arrangements and there was no need to get married. He would leave Ellie at her house and then pick her up again, along with the necessities required like breast(he he, honka honka) milk, on Monday mornings.

Things would be perfect, if only he could have been able to get over Robin. But even after the, various, allotted periods of distance, time and scotch that one needs to move on he hasn't been able to.

He had tried really hard, dating others with whom he had once connected(at various positions too, what up?!); from Nora to Quinn. Yet all he could think of was how the hair wasn't the right shade, the eyes weren't blue enough, and how none of them was...

Robin.

It all comes back to her in the end. Being with a girl for three years straight must do that to you.
She is still all he can think about, dream of and be with. And if he can't than he will die alone, it seems, but not with someone who isn't her.

The rest of the female population will have to fend off without his awesomeness.


The clock at Mac Laren's showed that it was seven in the evening.
People came and went. From men and women to the ones stuck in between. But all the blonde in a suit did was sit at the corner most booth; trying not to miss his daughter too much and reminisce about the good old days.

The only thing that got his attention?
A brunette who had just entered the bar and proceeded to took a seat near the service booth.

It was hard not to spare a glance, as the moment she sat down a crowd of people consumed her for what seemed like an eternity, or around three-hundred seconds as the clock showed.
And no, this misconception had nothing to do with his heart trying to get out of his chest the minute she set foot in the bar.

She hasn't changed at all. He observes.
Still wearing those dresses that give off the vibe of elegance and yet manages to make her look hot and the slightest bit slutty at the same time.

After the hum-drum of the bar dies down a little and everyone goes back to their respective seats the blonde stands up to make his way towards the minor celebrity.

More than a decade has passed since he had walked the same distance towards the same girl with the same thing to say, but this time he follows her advice, looks at the mirror's reflection to make sure, and then delivers it out, lacing every word with the same seductive tone he had once used-

"100 dollar says, when you turn around I say 'WoW'."