"And, as they rode off into the sunset, they realized that the only thing that either of them desired was each other." Barney had just finished reading Ellie a bedtime story, thinking to himself how could you actually like that fluff? But Ellie, of course, didn't mind. The five-year old was snuggled up under her blankets, tightly cuddling her pink teddy bear. She was already asleep.

Barney smiled when he saw that and gently brushed the blonde curls off of her forehead, giving her a small kiss. He slowly got up and, with equal precision, closed the door behind him.

Robin was waiting for him in the living room.

"Is she asleep?" she asked.

Barney, grinning, nodded.

"Thank God," Robin said, and in what felt like a millisecond, her lips were on Barney's. "Bedroom. Now," she breathed out, parting from him for a minute, and he eagerly raced off as she followed behind him.

The alarm beeped, and Barney reached out a clumsy hand to shut it off.

"Barney, we gotta get Ellie up for school," Robin mumbled, her face shoved into her pillow, still mostly asleep.

"Nah, it's Saturday, remember?" Barney replied, stifling a yawn.

"No, it's Thursday," Robin murmured. "Oh CRAP!"

The two were up in a flash as they realized that they had overslept.

"Barney, why did you think it was Saturday?" Robin yelled at him as she struggled with putting a sock on.

"I don't know, the days all blend together now, having a child is super busy work!" Barney replied as he tied on his tie. "I didn't know how much, like, responsibility I'd have with her! I thought kids were just, y'know, like puppies or something!"

"That's why we're never adopting a dog!" Robin responded.

The two were still bickering when they walked our to the living room, then stopped abruptly. Ellie was already up, and she was standing there with a big grin on her face.

"Mommy and daddy overslept," Barney told her with a sigh. "Come on, we gotta get you to school.

It wasn't until the cab ride there, just as they pulled up to the school building, that Ellie asked Robin the last question she expected to hear.

"Mommy, did you have a nightmare last night?"

Robin didn't know where her daughter was going with this, so she casually responded with, "No, why?"

Ellie answered shyly, "Cuz whenever I have a nightmare, I cry out for daddy too…"

Barney and Robin, speechless, exchanged horrified looks.

"Uh…um, well-" Robin stuttered.

Barney just smiled. "Go off to class, kid. We'll talk more about that later." He opened the door of the cab and exited with her, walking her up the steps of the building before she turned around and waved goodbye to him.

He plunked himself down in the cab next to Robin with a loud, distressed sigh, looking slightly petrified.

"Kids, am I right?" Robin joked, laughing nervously.

"Robin, we can't let that happen again," Barney told her.

"She does have a point though," Robin said.

"Yeah, she actually does," Barney agreed. He turned to Robin, eyebrow raised. "Do you wanna maybe get one in BEFORE she comes home?"

Robin nodded. "Yeah. Let's um…let's do that."

Fortunately for the two, Ellie never asked again about what had happened. That was, until the next time…