It was Christmas Eve, 2013. Ted was sitting alone in the booth when Barney walked in, dressed in his tan trench coat and brownish black scarf, looking slightly more depressed than usual. Ted had seen this look on Barney's face before several times actually- and more often than not, Ted knew, the look directly related to Barney's state of affairs with Robin.
"You okay? You look a little upset," Ted asked Barney as Barney approached the table.
"Upset? Why, may I ask, would you think I'm upset? I'm totally fine, Ted," Barney responded, clearly pushing down any true feelings he had and lying to Ted so that Ted would stop bothering him.
"Oh, I don't know, it's just, you look kinda sad, maybe like you've been crying, and, you know, it's not like I haven't spent way too much time with you these past nine years, time enough that could perhaps cause me to immediately be able to tell what's wrong with you at a first glance," Ted replied, sarcastically though with a bit of sympathy in his voice. "Come on buddy. You can talk."
Barney was silent for a few minutes, then denied his feelings once again. "I'm not upset, Ted." He quickly shook his head. "I'm fine."
Ted sighed. "You know what? I know what you need." He got up and returned a few minutes later with two glasses of scotch. "You know what they say- if the man doesn't talk, then the whiskey will," Ted stated.
"Who says that?" Barney asked.
"No one, I just kinda liked how it sounded," Ted answered. "Drink up. You need to talk to me. For real. And be honest."
It took more than one glass (And a shot of something slightly stronger) to get Barney to open up and speak. Eventually though, he did. "You want the truth, Ted?" he asked quietly. "Fine, I'll give you the truth. It's the anniversary."
Ted was absolutely silent for a while. "The anniversary? As in, when you and Robin got married? As in, the weekend earlier in the summer that actually felt more like six months? That anniversary?"
"Not that anniversary, the OTHER anniversary!" Barney snapped. "Geez, Ted! A guy can't even keep up with his dates any more, then what CAN you expect from him?"
"What other anniversary?" Ted inquired.
"The one year anniversary of when I proposed to Robin," Barney said in a softer tone. "For too long I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how I could possibly live up to that, you know, how I could ever invent something so genius and so legendary again, how I could keep doing awesome things every Christmas a tradition. I know that proposals aren't nessecarily something that most people celebrate every year, but I feel like that particular proposal is something to celebrate. I need your help."
Barney did look truly desperate this time, and Ted could see it in his friend's troubled, pleading blue eyes. Nevertheless, Ted had never seen Barney, a man who was once bent on picking up every woman in the city for one lonely and even somewhat unsatisfying night, look so forlorn before, and this, Ted knew, meant that Barney sincerely did need his help. Plus, Ted figured, the situation must have been desperate for Barney, someone who once carried an entire book of elaborate set ups, to ask for Ted's help in developing a plan.
"Alright," Ted said a few minutes later. "Here's what I think you should do." Ted suggested the idea he had in mind, and when he was done, Barney smiled- a proud, sure, half smile.
"I think that'll work. Thanks, Ted." With that, he left to further devise the plan, and Ted smiled a little bit as well.
"Glad I could be of help," he said.
Though the Playbook had long been destroyed, for the purpose of what Barney was going to do, a play of sorts would have to be written anyway, and for these kind of situations, Barney kept several sheets of manila paper stacked underneath his desk. Christmas Eve night, while Robin was asleep, Barney quietly sneaked out of bed and gently pulled a sheet from under the desk. Then, with incredibly careful and precise movement of his quill ink pen across the paper, Barney scrawled onto it the name of his next play- The One Year Anniversary.
The following day, at around eight, Barney woke up to see the snow falling heavily outside of the apartment. And upon noticing this, Barney realized that he couldn't have chosen a more perfect day to set his play into motion.
After getting dressed (Specifically in a dark gray suit, with his favorite red Christmas tie that played Jingle Bells when a button was pushed- an exception the 'cutesy' ties, such as the Ducky Tie, that he didn't usually like to wear- as well as a sprig of misletoe clipped to his suit jacket), Barney made his way back into the bedroom to awaken Robin. He tapped on her shoulder. "Robin," he called. "Psst! Robin!" It wasn't particularly easy to wake Robin up, in fact, it never had been. But by now, it was something that Barney was just sort of used to. Eventually though, Robin woke up. She turned over with a snort and opened her eyes to see Barney standing by the bed.
"Merry Christmas," he said, smiling that slight, boyish, half smile, the way he often did
"It's awful early for you to be up," she muttered tiredly, looking towards Barney.
"Psh, are you kidding?" Barney scoffed. "You know me. I drink a can or two of Red Bull a day and I only sleep about three hours a night, this is actually a late wake up for me. Also, I figured that, since it's Christmas, y'know, I should probably wake you up earlier. There's some presents out there." He jerked his head towards the door, then added, "Like, some super awesome presents. Get dressed and come out!"
By the time Robin had entered the living room, Barney was gone. But by the tree, he had seemingly left a large note on one of the boxes. Robin knelt down and read the note. It said "Open this one first." Though puzzled, Robin did what the note said and began to tear the paper, peels of it fluttering to the floor like snowflakes until the box was bare. Once it was, she unfolded the top of the box and pulled yet another small piece of paper from inside. This one said only two things- "bundle up and head outside. It's cold." She shook her head slowly. "Barney, what are you getting me into now?" she asked herself as she put on her black peacoat and opened the door.
The snow had started to fall heavily outside- similarly to the way it had that one magical night one year ago. And through the snow, to Robin's surprise, she instantly noticed a carriage parked not far away, however, this clearly was no ordinary, run of the mill, New York horse- drawn carriage. This was a reindeer drawn carriage. Upon seeing the sight, Robin couldn't help but smile, especially not after she spotted Barney holding the reigns, proudly sitting atop of it all, now donning a Santa hat.
"You rented reindeer!" she panted in shock. "You RENTED reindeer, Barney! How?"
Barney smiled. "Please. You know me, Robin. I've got my ways." He winked. "Hop on. We are going for a ride."
The reindeer carriage ride stopped in Central Park, near the zoo. "Don't say anything yet," Barney told her. "But do you, by any chance, remember telling me how badly you always wanted to pet some real, live penguins, even though I insisted that since you lived in Canada that should have been really easy for you?"
"Yeah, I actually do," Robin said quietly. " Even after I told you that we didn't HAVE penguins in Canada."
Barney hopped off of the carriage and, from seemingly nowhere, presented Robin with a bucket of raw fish. "Robin Scherbatsky," he said. "You are about to get your wish."
"I wondered what that smell was," she said, smiling a little bit in endearment. Barney shrugged as they walked towards the gates of the zoo. "Now you know."
Once they reached the gates, Barney stopped, turned to Robin, and said, "This is where the real magic's at." The gates suddenly and slowly opened, and all around the zoo, it appeared that Barney had somehow managed to sting up endless strands of Christmas lights. Everything in the zoo was decorated, from the lampposts to the benches. Robin's jaw dropped open as she gazed at the sight. Never in her life had anyone done anything this spectacular, this elaborate for her, not even Ted, and never before in her life had she appreciated the company of someone so much.
Barney led her to the penguin exhibit, which had been left open specifically for them. "They had no problem just letting some guy in to pet the penguins?" Robin asked him.
"Nah, not really," Barney answered. "Besides, I bribed them. And I'm Barney Stinson. You try saying no to me."
"I couldn't imagine it."
"Exactly."
They passed the no trespassing sign, which they normally wouldn't have given any mind to regardless (During the summer, they had spent half a day at the zoo trying to sneak into the prairie dog enclosure because Barney wanted to see if he could take one home- naturally, this had been a challenge from Robin that he had accepted), and continued on to the penguin pen. Once they arrived, Barney stopped. "Wait for it," he said.
In a few minutes, a horde of small penguins, about five or six, came waddling out, and Barney tossed them a fish, watching with a childish delight as they dove after it. He chose the penguin in the center of the horde and scooped it up.
This truly was Robin's dream. She stroked the penguin's slick, smooth, black and white coat of feathers as Barney held the docile bird firmly in his gloved hands, wishing almost that she could take it home with them.
"I love you so much," she said to Barney, leaning in to give him a kiss that, due to the nature of the atmosphere, didn't last half as long as either of them wanted it to.
"We'd better go," Barney said afterwards, placing the penguin down. "You didn't think that was the end of it all, did you now?" He winked again. "Come on. It's way too soon for that." He closed the penguin gate behind him and they headed off once more.
As soon as they were back in the carriage, Robin asked Barney, "How is it that you're able to drive a carriage so well? Back in Canada, we had classes on that stuff. Where I lived, that was called daily transportation."
"Who knows? Maybe I took one of those classes," Barney joked. "I am, as you like to brag, one- quarter Canadian. Remember?"
"Ah, yes, I remember," Robin replied. "But that's only one quarter. You weren't there."
Barney shrugged. "Guess there just isn't anything I can't do." Robin smiled, knowing that her husband was right.
It was around twelve when they decided to stop for lunch- at MacLaren's, respectively, and they ate quickly, both grabbing a hot toddy they had specifically prepared for them to go.
"You'll really love this next place," Barney told Robin as they hopped back into the carriage. "May ring a few bells. Heck, may even ring a few sleigh bells." And when they pulled up, Robin knew instantly what Barney meant. The carriage stopped directly in front of the World Wide News building, a place that was very familiar to both her and Barney. It was the very place where, one year ago, it had all began. For Robin, this was now the most iconic place in the city, and at this point, she was rendered entirely speechless.
For a few minutes, the only sound in the air was the honking of cars in the distance and the whistle of the wind, until Barney spoke up. "I knew how much you love this place and how it's your favorite spot in the city, so…I reserved it for you." He smiled warmly and Robin, still shocked, stared back at him and the kindness in his eyes, something that she had only seen very recently.
"I can't believe you did this," she said quietly, still somewhat breathless.
"What, this? It's nothing," Barney replied nonchalantly, as if it really were nothing. "That's what being a magician's all about- stunning people, shocking them beyond their wildest dreams. You ready to go?"
Robin nodded and Barney could see the tears begin to well up in her eyes.
They walked the staircase to the top of the building, which had once more been thoroughly decorated with strands of light and sprigs of misletoe.
Once they had arrived there, Barney presented Robin with a manila sheet of paper with his all-too-familiar, elegant cursive handwriting on it. This time, the paper read, "The One Year Anniversary."
"Just in case you didn't, ya know, catch onto that already, this whole day was just kinda one giant play," Barney admitted. "I never said I'd give 'em up entirely. But as for the hoodwinks, strategems, flim flams and bamboozles? They're pretty much over. Unless I use them on you- always be careful, Scherbatsky. Seriously, watch yourself. Stinson's still out there."
"You drove me in a reindeer pulled carriage just to end up at the place where you proposed to me one year ago," Robin said. "I cannot believe you."
"And there's still one more thing left," Barney said happily.
The two arrived back at their apartment not much longer, kissing heartily and passionately as they opened the door, jackets falling off in the process. Barney stopped for a minute and gently pushed Robin off of him. "There's one more thing, remember?" he said. He bent down and picked up a box in shiny green foil. "Open it."
Robin slowly unwrapped the box and Barney watched intently as she discovered what was inside. Her face was a picture of happiness as she pulled out a shirt, just the right size, a pale pink color with a Canadian flag on it, and in bold, white lettering, the words "Mother Canada", scribed across the front.
"Do you like it?" Barney questioned. "I had it custom made, but if you don't like it, I could take it back."
"Are you kidding? I love this!" Robin answered instantly. "I can't even begin to tell you how much I love it! This shirt is a religion, Barney!" She held up the shirt, looking at it, taking in just everything that had happened that day, taking in the way she felt and realizing that she hadn't ever really felt this way before. This would have been one of the best gifts she'd ever received.
"You know what I realized about today?" she said a few minutes later. "How did I ever have second thoughts about going through with that wedding? If I didn't go through with it, if I'd decided to call off the whole thing, none of this would have happened, and do you know how much that would have affected me?"
Barney placed his hand on her back and rubbed it gently against her body. "Robin, what matters now is that you did go through with it. And I'll never let a day go by without being thankful for that. You made the best decision of your life. You, my friend, married Mr. Awesome. How many people can say that?"
Robin smiled, for what felt like at least the tenth time that day so far. "Not many."
"Oh, and the reason I did all this today?" Barney continued. "It's because I wanted to honor last year in some way. I think I'll always wanna honor last year somehow. The real challenge is gonna be coming up with awesome ways to."
"But this year, you succeeded."
Barney, proud, smiled once again as well. "I guess I did." He paused, then said, "Merry Christmas, Scherbatsky." Barney leaned in and they kissed once more, passionately, feeling the warmth of each other's bodies, experiencing something that neither of them had ever experienced very much before. Hands locked together, they fell to the floor, the reflection of the Christmas tree's lights gleaming in each other's eyes. Best Christmas ever, they thought as they realized what they had and how they never wanted to lose it again.