New York, 2020

"Want to get a drink or something?" Barney's question echoed in the empty nave of the chapel.

Robin's pulse skipped. "Don't you have to get back to your daughter?" There. He couldn't refute that. Only a couple of seconds now, and she could be out the door, in a cab and off in whatever direction the traffic would allow.

"She's with James and Tom for the day. I'm not allowed back until I spend at least six hours in a row in the company of adults. Back to MacLaren's?" He tilted his head in the direction of the exit, and Robin knew she couldn't refuse. The man still had it.

"Where else?" She answered with the gamest smile she could muster. "Cab or walk it?"

Barney shot a quick glance at Robin's feet. "Think you can handle it in those heels?"

Relief coursed through her. They had a history with cab rides, her and Barney. The only more dangerous location would be hospital rooms. If she could avoid both, she had a chance of getting out of this with what was left of her heart intact. "Walking's good. Nice weather for it."

"Then walking it is." He held the door for her then, and again at MacLaren's, his hand resting for the briefest of moments in the small of her back both times. They traversed the blocks in between in an uneasy silence, stealing looks at the other, then looking away.

She knew this dance. Had done this dance. Done it with him more times than she cared to count, and damned if it didn't always end the same way. She was too old for this stuff. They both were, but damned if they didn't slide into the same old booth as if nothing at all had changed. As if there had been no divorce, as if Barney didn't have a baby. A baby. Robin's heart clenched. Her stomach soured. The one thing she couldn't give him puffed his chest with pride. For the thousandth time, she gave herself a mental smack for picking up the phone when Tracy called. The only thing worse than going to an ex's wedding was being in a wedding party that included two exes. She should go. She would go. She scooted to the edge of her seat, one hand braced on the table to push herself away.

"Still drink Scotch?" Barney asked.

Probably too much. "Do you really need to ask?"

"That's my girl." Robin didn't want to think about how long it had been since that grin was aimed at her. Warmth pooled in her stomach. "Not my girl," he corrected himself with a playful roll of his eyes. "We're over all that, right?"

"Totally," Robin answered with her best news anchor smile. "Yeah. Same here. Done. Totally over. We're so much like strangers that you could pick me up right now, take me to a cheap hotel and do me until my eyes roll back in my head before I had any idea who you were." She clapped one hand over her mouth. Oh God, that was her truth voice.

Barney's brows shot up. "I was kind of hoping for friends, but strangers is better than enemies."

"Yeah. Friends. Friends is good. Are good. Know what else is good? Scotch. Lots and lots of scotch." Maybe she could offer the first round and make a break for the door.

"Scotch it is. First round's on me." He was out of the seat and at the bar before she could protest. "Glen McKenna," he announced minutes later. He set two glasses and the whole bottle down on the table before resuming his seat.

Robin's eyes widened. "You didn't have to do that."

"Au contraire, I did. This is a special occasion. Ted Mosby got married." He splashed a generous portion of the amber liquid over the ice in both glasses.

"Finally," Robin added.

Barney's jocular mood sobered. "Are you okay with that?"

Robin forced a smile. "Yeah, of course I'm okay."

"Are you sure? Because I saw you getting a little misty there during the wedding."

Robin scoffed. "I didn't cry during Ted and Tracy's wedding. You cried during Ted and Tracy's wedding. Crying is stupid. Weddings are stupid." She picked up her glass and took her first drink. First of many, she guessed. It was going to take more than one to get through this.

"So you weren't thinking about our wedding, not even once? Not even during the vows?"

Robin rolled one shoulder and stared down at her drink. "Nope."

Barney turned his own glass in his hands. The ice cubes clinked and slid apart. "Must've been just me, then, huh? I thought we might have had a moment. Guess not. No big deal."

"You're all soft and emotional now that you're a dad. You're so soft that you're halfway to being the mom."

The smile Barney gave her then didn't reach his eyes. "Guilty."

"Got any pictures?"

In that instant, he brightened, the impish grin that still haunted her nights now blinding her with its intensity. "Only like a million." He moved into Robin's side of the booth and scrolled through the pictures on his phone. His voice washed over her as he narrated each one. She didn't catch the words, only the tone. It was enough.

Robin knew that tone of his voice, that look of complete and utter devotion on Barney's face, all too well, both in the picture and in person. It hurt. That tone, that look used to be for her. It had been, on their wedding day and so many days after until she pushed him away. When he came to the end of the pictures, and turned expectant blue eyes on her, she had to say something. The silence between them would suffocate her if she didn't. "You said Ellie was staying with James and Tom, not her mother. I noticed you don't use her name."

Barney winced. "Had to go right for the tough question straight out of the gate, didn't you?"

"That's why they pay me the big bucks." Pause. "Unless you'd rather not say. It's none of my business. This isn't an interview. I'm just in work mode pretty much all the time. Forget I asked."

A sad smile played about the corners of Barney's mouth. "No, my therapist said it's good to talk about it."

"You're seeing a therapist?"

A muscle twitched in his jaw. "Therapy guy. Sounds better."

"Right. Therapy guy."

"Ellie's mother has issues. More than I do, if you can believe that. Remember all those empty headed twenty-two year olds I used to bang? She's their queen. We don't even like each other. Don't even use each other's names. She's #31 and I'm Sperm Donor. Which doesn't make any sense, considering she waived her parental rights before Ellie was even born. I am legally Ellie's only parent, and that is probably far more than you wanted to know. How about you? Lily says you got a dog again."

"Do a couple of specials on dog rescues and look what happens. I can't say no to those big sad eyes." Especially, she added to herself, when they were bright blue and sitting right next to her.

As if on cue, Barney's brows shot upwards, mouth curving in the shape that only came with one of his infamous genius ideas. "Ellie should have a dog. Maybe you could point me toward a good rescue? What breeds are good with babies?"

Robin swallowed. "There's a list of reputable rescues on my website, but sure. I love helping dogs find good homes. A baby and a dog at the same time are a lot for a single person, though. Maybe wait until Ellie's a little older?"

Disappointment chased the brightness from his eyes. "That's probably best. I should start doing the research now, though, right? So I'll be able to make an informed decision later?"

"That's the best way to go. Dogs aren't toys; they're for a lifetime. Do you know what kind of dog you, um, Ellie, might like?"

"Um, Canadian?"

Robin blinked. "Canadian?"

"You know, those yellow dogs that look like Golden Retrievers but not as shaggy? Do they shed a lot?"

"Labrador Retrievers? They're a pretty energetic breed. They'll need lots of exercise. Maybe you should spend time with different kinds of dogs. I'm hosting an adoption event in Central Park next Sunday. You could bring Ellie and see how she does around dogs. Get her used to them early. The official start is at nine, but I can get you and Ellie on the VIP list. Come early and get a peek behind the scenes?"

The smile came back, cautious this time. "It's a date. Not a date-date, I mean. A dog date. For Ellie."

"For Ellie," Robin echoed and took a drink. The Scotch slid down her throat, but didn't do anything to warm the empty coldness that gripped her stomach. Not a date. Of course it wasn't a date. He didn't think about her that way anymore. She couldn't think about him that way either. Not her Barney anymore; Ellie's dad.

They drained their glasses in silence. Robin tipped her glass forward, tapping it against the side of the bottle.

Barney filled first her glass and then his. "Can I ask a quick question?"

"Sure."

"If I had, hypothetically speaking, asked you on a date-date, you would have said no, right?"

"No."

"That's what I thought." Barney pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for the briefest of seconds. "So, you think Ted and Tracy are doing it in some airport bathroom right now, or fighting over who gets to call Virginia and Clint to check on the kids first?"

Robin reached across the table to lay a hand on Barney's sleeve. "Ask me again."

"Do you think Ted and Tracy-" He broke off as she closed her hand about his wrist.

"That's not the question I want you to ask me."

Three deep furrows crinkled his forehead, lines fanning out about his eyes as he regarded her with keen interest. "The only other question was about us going on a date, and we both know that's not going to happen."

"Barney." She let his name hang in the air, only long enough for the energy that prickled between them to overpower the hesitation that wanted to drag her out of the booth, out of the bar, back into her safe, solitary life where Barney Stinson could never break her heart again. "We don't know that."

The eyes he raised to her now were guarded, the purple shadows beneath them standing out against his fair skin. "Please don't make this into some kind of joke."

"I'm not. We did share a moment during the wedding, and it scared me. It scared me a lot, because it made me realize something." She closed her eyes and took three deep breaths before she could look at him again. "When you looked at me like that, it was like being right back there at our wedding."

"Was that a bad thing?"

Robin released Barney's sleeve and laced her fingers through his. "No. It wasn't. Ask me again. Not about Ted and Tracy."

"Okay. Robin Sherbatsky, would you like to go on a date with me?"

"Yes, I would."