"What do you want me to do, Ted?" Robin asks, throwing her hands up into the air. Tears prick at the corner of her eyes, threatening to fall, but she chooses to ignore them for the time being. "Run up to the roof, knock the ring out of Barney's hand, and say, 'sorry to interrupt, but you should be with me?'"
Ted looks at her with sympathy. "Is that what you want?" Her eyes begin to turn a dark shade of red and she contemplates her answer.
Is that what she wants?
The possibility of rejection? The humiliation? The uncertainty? Does she really need that right now?
"No." She states firmly, not even bothering to wipe her eyes. "I don't. I can't keep making," she takes a deep breath, "an ass of myself." Ted grins slightly now, despite the situation.
"Well, a word in defense of making an ass of yourself, it's underrated." He declares. Robin sniffles, which prompts him to continue. "Eight years ago I made an ass of myself chasing after you, and I've made an ass of myself chasing after you a bunch of times since then. But I have no regrets. Because it led to something that I wouldn't trade for the world." Robin looks at him questionably, and Ted's smile widens. "It led to you being my friend. So, as your friend and a leading expert in making an ass of yourself I say to you, from the heart," he places his hand dramatically on his heart and his tone suddenly grows gravely serious. "Get the hell out of this car."
Robin exhales loudly. Her hand reaches up to fiddle with Ted's bow tie, and tears begin to fall down her face. "But Ted," she begins helplessly, moving her hand so that his tie is now slightly crooked. "Your big night." Ted shrugs, and right then and there she realizes that he is truly an extraordinary friend.
"It's just a building."
Robin grins in thanks and quickly grabs her coat. Holding it closer to her, she opens the door and steps outside. The tears exit her eyes and her heart quickly races, however she is calmed by Ted's reassuring smile from inside of the cab.
The light radiating from the sun nearly blinds her as she makes her way inside the World Wide News building, and she silently wishes that there was not an issue involving the pluming at the new GNB tower prompting Ted and her to leave for the opening early. She climbs the familiar stairs up to the roof- her favorite spot in the city- and takes a deep breath, her hand hovering nervously over the handle. Robin turns the handle and pushes the door open as she exhales, and the sight in front of her makes her want to scream and cry and throw every chair in her path.
On the rooftop stands Patrice, amidst rose petals and candles, and in front of her is Barney. He is on one knee with a ring in his hand. She hears him ask the question, "will you marry me?" and her blood boils furiously.
Not taking the time to catch Patrice's reaction to the proposal, Robin slams the door loudly, causing Barney to turn around unsteadily and Patrice to step back.
"Robin," Barney says, his eyes widening and the ring still in hand. She waits for him to say more but he remains silent, and suddenly Robin becomes very nervous. The anger exits her body immediately and replaces itself with hurt and despair as she makes her way over to Barney and clears her throat.
"Um, sorry to interrupt." She tells him, repeating the words she spoke to Ted in the taxi only minutes before. Her hand flies up and softly nudges the ring out of Barney's hand, and the sound it makes when it hits the ground engraves itself in her memory. "But you should be with me." Her voice is quieter now, and tears begin to form once more in her eyes.
Barney's silence prompts Robin to continue speaking, and she looks him in the eye directly as he remains on one knee, frozen. "I know that I have hurt you in the past, and that I don't deserve another chance, but I... I love you, Barney. I love you so much that it, it hurts. And you up here, proposing to another woman- especially Patrice- it's killing me. So please," she's begging now, so much so that she nearly bends down onto one knee herself. "If you have any shred of love left for me, please don't do this." She waits for a reaction hesitantly- and maybe even a declaration of some type of romantic feeling- but Barney is still silent, his face seemingly portraying immense shock. Suddenly, the reality of what she has said and done hits Robin like a million bricks, and she turns around, muttering a simple apology as she makes her way towards the door.
She is stopped, however, by Barney's voice coming from behind her. She rotates her body to see that he is now standing, a piece of paper in hand. "Step one," he reads, "admit to yourself that you still have feelings for this girl. Step two, choose the completely wrong moment to make a drunken move after hanging out at a strip club. And get shot down on purpose."
And suddenly the pieces all fall into place, and Robin stands, stunned into silence as Barney reads aloud to her his master plan. Her mind is reeling and her body cannot seem to form any sort of motion, and- oh my god he did this all for her.
"Step fifteen," Barney goes on, looking up at Robin as he reads. "Robin realizes she's standing underneath mistletoe." Sensing Robin's confusion, Barney points his finger behind him. "You were supposed to be standing, uh, over there while reading this." His hands fall to his sides. "It was going to be the evening, you know, during Ted's party, and you were supposed to enter through the door. You'd come in, and see these rose petals and candles and this piece of admittedly expensive paper on the ground." He waves the paper in the air, creating a whooshing sound. "You'd read my play, and, well..." Barney pauses, suddenly nervous. "Patrice was helping me to rehearse. You know, prepare and stuff, I guess. Then you walked in early," he shakes his head, "and now here we are."
A minute or so passes before Robin regains full function of her own body again. Once she does, tears immediately spill rapidly down her face. "How could you do this to me? You lied to me! Manipulated me for... for weeks!" Her hands move around as she speaks, but then suddenly find their place back at her sides as she stops talking. Both people are consumed by silence until Barney begins to walk closer towards Robin. She glances towards the ground, studying the movement of his feet, which is how she finds herself staring into his eyes as he bends down onto one knee.
"Robin Scherbatsky," the ring is back in his hand now and it is shining brightly in Robin's direction, "will you marry me?"
More tears cascade down her face, but this time they are driven by pure relief. She nods vigorously, and Barney stands up and smiles. "Yes." Without warning, she feels his arms wrap around her middle, engulfing her into a tight embrace, and her hands find their way to his neck.
"I love you." Barney mumbles into her hair, and she pulls away to smile at him.
"I love you too." She tells him as he slips the ring onto her finger. "Idiot." Instead of getting offended by her remark he simply grins at her, love completely overtaking his features. Her watery smile widens as she looks down to admire her new ring, and his lips are only a mere few inches from hers until...
"Aww!" Patrice gushes from across the roof, causing both Robin and Barney's heads to snap upwards and turn towards her. Truthfully, her presence had been forgotten by the both of them, but neither Barney nor Robin choose to inform her of this fact. Instead, Robin opens her mouth and yells the completely expected.
"Dammit Patrice!"
A/N: This kind of sucks but I came up with the idea at four am this morning and I wrote it really quickly I AM SORRY.