Disclaimer: I don't own How I Met Your Mother and never will. No copyright infringement intended.
Lily couldn't stop going over Barney's words to Nick – and Robin – in her head. She had never thought Barney Stinson could be that honest about anything, ever. The last time she could remember him being this vulnerable was after he had found his biological father. Now that she knew how Barney truly felt about Robin, she wanted to find a way to reunite them. They belonged together, and although they had failed at a relationship last time, Lily was sure Barney and Robin could make it work this time around. So after she and Marshall finally had sex for the first time in months, she corralled her husband and Ted in her plan.
"We probably shouldn't meddle, Lil. This isn't any of our business." Ted wanted his two friends to be happy, but at the same time, he didn't want to interfere. It never led to anything good when they meddled. Besides, Barney and Robin had tried several times to make a relationship work and they kept failing. That should mean they needed to give up on another attempt because if they didn't work out, the group would be dealing with the fallout for a long time.
Marshall would go along with whatever Lily wanted, but he agreed with Ted. "If he feels that way about her, why didn't he tell her sooner? It's been years since they've been together," he pointed out.
"Actually, that's not entirely true. Last November, they had a backslide and cheated on Kevin and Nora with each other. They agreed to be together, so Barney broke it off with Quinn. Robin stayed with Kevin, though." Ted left out the fact that she had broken Barney's heart in the process because this really wasn't his story to tell.
That sounded vaguely familiar to Lily, but she wasn't sure why. "Wow. They seemed off after that for a long time, but I didn't know why." Robin and Ted had also had their own issues, so she hadn't really paid any attention to Barney and Robin's problems, which she should have done. Maybe this whole Quinn and Nick mess could have been avoided if she had interfered sooner.
"What makes you think Barney is going to admit to anything in the first place? He's going to try and say it was a fake out." Ted knew Barney and his friend didn't open up very much. He had clearly reached a point where he might be ready to, however, especially if he loved Robin that much. And he had a hard time processing that – He had known how Barney felt about Robin, but he never knew that he loved her that much. It was shocking, but not really at the same time. They had always been close.
"Because he opened up tonight and that's a huge step, especially for Barney. And Robin's probably reeling right now, and she's going to want talk to someone. I'll be that person and I'll encourage her to act on her feelings. Hopefully those feelings will lead her to Barney." Lily smiled and tried not to squeal. All she hoped for that was Barney and Robin were happy and actually made it work this time.
"She is right. I don't want to do this, but fine, I'm in. They should be together." Marshall was now having flashbacks to four years earlier, when Barney had just realized his feelings for Robin. Seems like they had gotten stronger in the years since.
Ted sighed. "Fine. I'll help you two, but I'd rather not be in on the plan when this inevitably blows up in our faces." He hoped it didn't, but their plans never seemed to work out very well. Plus, this was Barney and Robin. They were both emotionally screwed up on so many levels, and it'd be hard to get through to them. Especially Barney because of the playboy persona he had perfected.
"It's not going to. I'll talk to Barney first because you two are just going to fuck it up and I want to make sure this goes off without a hitch." She ignored their cries of indignation, and after kissing Marvin goodbye, headed over to Barney's apartment.
When Barney answered the door and found Lily on the other side, he wasn't surprised. He had remembered a little too late about the phone still being on and had been expecting her to show up any minute now. "What's up?"
"Don't do that, Stinson. You know exactly what's up. Now spill please." She held back her laughter because of the terrified look on his face. Barney was clearly panicking and she didn't want it to get any worse.
"Spill about what?" He desperately didn't want to have this conversation because he'd inevitably have to talk to Robin, and it would most likely lead to his heart getting broken again. He had barely recovered the last time and didn't think he could go through it again. Desperately burying himself into his relationship with Quinn hadn't worked for very long.
"Barney, don't play that game. We all heard what you said. You're still in love with Robin and you always will be. And Ted told us about last November. Why didn't you ever mention anything?"
Barney shrugged. "Because you and Marshall were preparing for Marvin and I didn't think anyone would care. Besides, I got over it," he lied.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, nice try. That confession we heard proved that you are clearly not over it. You need to tell Robin that you meant it and get back together with her. You two belong together!" She hadn't meant to say that last part, but it was the truth.
"What if she rejects me again? I can't take that chance. And I don't want to be her rebound from Nick because I can't handle another Kevin situation. Sooner or later, Robin's going to end up leaving me." He might as well be honest again – He had already spilled his heart out once already today.
Lily's heart broke for him. "Barney, she's not going to leave you. You two have grown up so much in the past few years and have changed. If you're honest with each other – like you were tonight – you won't have those problems you did before. Take the chance. You're not going to regret it. Now please promise me that you're going to talk it over with Robin tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
She wanted a chance to talk to Robin, but didn't want to tell him that. "It's pretty late at night and not the time for huge confessions." Lily impulsively hugged Barney, and after extracting the promise from him that he'd talk to Robin in the morning, left the apartment. She called Marshall and Ted, and had them meet her over at Robin's apartment. Luckily, her father agreed to watch the baby for them for about an hour and half while they did this.
"What are you guys doing here? It's pretty late." Robin had a feeling about why her best friends had showed up when it was so late, but she wasn't ready to have that conversation.
"Lily made us!" Ted wanted to get that out of the way immediately so she wasn't mad at him when this plan ended up backfiring on them.
Robin rolled her eyes. "Is this about what Barney said tonight?"
Marshall nodded. "It definitely is. Lily's right – You guys need to talk to each other and clear the air. And that's all I'm going to say."
"Traitors," Lily muttered under her breath. She understood why they were against the plan, but she didn't appreciate them sabotaging it.
"Barney and I are fine." If she kept telling herself that, maybe Robin would start to believe it. But she wasn't ready to deal with the issues Barney's confession had brought up.
"Keep telling yourself that. Barney loves you, sweetie. I don't think he's ever felt that way about anybody before, even Shannon. And she broke his heart, just like you did last year. But if you two try and are actually adults about this, you can make it work this time. I know you can." Lily smiled encouragingly at her.
Robin wasn't sure how they knew about last year, but she didn't care about that at the moment. "How do you know we can make it work this time? We constantly keep fucking this up. Our timing sucks ass, and it just doesn't work. Clearly we're not meant to be together."
"I don't think so. Robin, when Barney told me about what happened between you, he clearly didn't blame you. He loves you too much for that, even with all the pain. He's so in love with you that it's surreal. You need to work this out and stop dancing around the issue." Ted clapped a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it.
"You really think we can work this out?" Robin was grateful for the encouragement even though she was slightly annoyed by the fact that they were meddling.
They all nodded. "Go for it, sweetie." Lily hugged her.
"I'm going to go over there now. I can't wait any longer – I have to talk to Barney." Robin couldn't believe she had just let him go home after Patrice had called. What was she thinking?
Lily squealed while Marshall and Ted – right next to her – winced. "Oh, that's so great. Can we come along, please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?" Lily really didn't want to miss their reunion.
"No. Now you three go home and I'll tell you all about it in the morning. Maybe." It depended on how this conversation with Barney went. Lily might be receiving a tearful phone call if it ended badly.
"Fine. Come on, let's go." Lily reluctantly ushered Marshall and Ted out and then followed the two men home. She was buzzing in excitement and anticipation of what was going with Barney and Robin. All she wanted was for them to be happy.
When Robin knocked on the door, Barney froze, but he had also been expecting it. He had figured out that Lily wasn't going to let this go and had probably gone over to Robin's. He opened the door nervously and waited for her to start talking.
Robin took a deep breath to prepare herself. "So we both know why I'm here. We need to talk. I know you weren't being my bro when you broke up with Nick for me. You meant every word you said."
Barney closed his eyes and then opened them. "I meant it." It felt nice to admit it, but his heart was pounding from fear.
"I can't believe you feel that way about me." She really didn't know how to respond to the level of his feelings for her – How could she?
"It's the truth. I am so in love with you, Robin, that it's unbelievable. And I want to be with you, but I don't know if I could go through another November."
"I know because me neither."
"No, you don't know. Do you know how much it hurt me when you walked through that door with Kevin? I left Nora for you and you decided to rub it in my face that you didn't love me, that you didn't want to be with me." He hadn't meant to say all that, but what the hell? He had already laid his heart out tonight so it didn't really matter what he said.
She tried not to start crying because now wasn't the time for tears – She had made her bed and now she was lying in it. "I do love you, Barney, but I was – am – still completely fucked up. Kevin said all the right things that night and he was the safer option at the time. I'm so sorry that I hurt you that much – I never meant to."
"I'm fucked up, too, and I'm terrified of what could happen. I was so desperate that I rushed my relationship with Quinn when I didn't want to marry her. But my head was spinning from everything that happened and I couldn't handle it. So I buried myself in other things and tried to pretend that I was okay. It was hard not to talk to you for all those months. It really isn't a good day when I don't get to talk to you, you know that?" He wiped a tear off her face.
"We have to make it work this time – No fighting and letting everything pile up. It's not good for us." She choked back a sob and grabbed onto him to pull in him for a hug. She burrowed into Barney's chest.
He rubbed circles on her back to calm her down. "I love you, Scherbatsky. I want to do it right this time."
"I love you too, and so do I." She'd have to tell him about her infertility but that could wait until tomorrow morning, especially since she was so exhausted now. It had been an emotional few hours for her all around.
The timing was finally right for Barney and Robin, and this time, their relationship would go better. And a little ways down the road, they married and ended up adopting several dogs.