The oncoming storm
Robin settled down behind the news desk and waited patiently while Kara, a production assistant, fiddled with her microphone. Her mind wasn't really on the job, not really on the story about the man who'd taken in a street full of strangers whose cars had gotten stuck in the snow. Nor was it on the story about the video of the cute cat on the ice skating rink at the Rockefeller center.
Her thoughts weren't even focussed on her co-anchor and soon-to-be fiancé, Don Frank.
Robin Frank, she doodled on her notepad with a flourish. R. C. Frank… Robin C. Frank… Robin Stinson.
Crap. Where had that come from?
Certainly, what Robin was thinking about went deeper than she realized and it made her angry. It made her angry because when she'd brought all her friends together at the bar the previous night and told them that Don had proposed to her, she'd hoped for some good advice from at least one of them.
To be truthful, she'd hoped for some decent advice from Barney.
It was pretty obvious that Marshall and Lily would be one hundred percent Team Don in this. Marshall in particular had been cheer-leading her fledgling relationship from even before Robin herself had developed any feelings for Don. It all seemed a little too predestined for Robin's liking. She never did well with expectations. When things became too predictable, Robin tended to get itchy feet.
And yet she liked Don, she really did. He already had a kid and didn't seem inclined to want more. Perfect! And he really seemed ready to settle down, to commit to her in a way that Barney never really seemed to want to.
Barney.
Now with Ted, Robin had expected some kind of negative reaction. After all, the entire reason for them splitting up had been Robin's unwillingness to do the whole marriage thing. It was hard not to feel guilty when she looked back on that time and her own optimism. She'd been so insistent that she wanted to travel the world when all she'd done so far was to have a vacation in Argentina. Maybe she was settling for too much now? Maybe she was settling for Don? She just didn't know.
And Barney was absolutely no help. He'd just sat there, silently, not even offering up some snarky, acid-tongued comment about the Platinum Rule, or her getting fat, or throwing her life away. He'd just sat there, looking like he wanted to bolt, but somehow unwilling to. He'd sat there and watched her and she'd felt like he was silently judging her. It was infuriating and it had gotten under her skin and she'd wanted to scream at him to say something, say anything.
But there was nothing, certain no big Mosbian gesture of romantic defiance. Maybe there was nothing deeper there than him feeling awkward about things because she was his ex? Maybe he was just showing some uncharacteristic sensitivity? She knew he was capable of that, it was just that lately Barney had seemed to devolve into a sort of Robo-Bro, living the dream of being a crass idiot that he formally seemed to carry off with a sense of irony and self-awareness.
It was like he'd become a parody of himself.
Robin huffed out a breath and tore the top sheet from her notepad just as Don collapsed into the seat beside her. She smiled as he reached under the desk to squeeze her hand and she whispered "Later?" before the floor manager counted them in.
As she read the first few lines on the teleprompter, Robin Scherbatsky was pretty sure that later she'd say "yes".
*--*--*
"And now it's time to go over to Lou to tell us more about that big storm that's coming our way," Robin said, mostly on autopilot. She could feel Don's anxious eyes on her, even when she wasn't looking at him and it made her nervous. Therefore she was a little distracted when the screen didn't split-fade to Lou's cherubic face, but instead was filled with someone entirely different.
In fact, it took a couple of moments for Robin's brain to catch up with the familiar voice that rang out, confidently, his words at odds with those scrolling down the teleprompter.
"Good morning New York!" The voice said cheerfully. "Some of you may recognise me from my New York Times Bestselling Bro Code. Others of you may follow my wildly popular internet blog. My name is Barney Stinson, and I'm here today to talk to you about something way more important, not to mention cool, than the weather."
Robin looked up sharply, to see in the monitors that the director had kept the shot on split screen and that her shocked reaction was being broadcast live. "What the hell?" She said.
"What I'm here to talk to you about today is a story of meteorological significance. It's the story of your wonderful news anchor, Robin Scherbatsky," He grinned into the camera as Robin looked frantically around the studio. She couldn't see him anywhere, not on any of the regular stages.
"Barney!" She growled, warningly, even though she knew he probably couldn't hear her.
"Robin Scherbatsky, the most awesome-est chick I know, is about to make a gut-cracking, life-shattering, lame-o mistake. She's about to marry a guy she doesn't love."
"What?" Robin flushed deep red with humiliation. How could he do that? In front of their hundreds of- well, certainly tens of- loyal viewers?
"Robin," Barney said, then he moved out of shot and Don got to his feet beside her.
Robin nearly jumped out of her skin as Barney appeared in person around the front of the news desk, seemingly out of nowhere. "Robin, don't marry him," Barney said, skilfully ducking Don's lunge across the desk. "If you're gonna not-marry a loser, then please, not-marry me!"
He dipped down on one knee right in front of the news desk and produced a tiny white box, which he slid across to her.
"Robin, please! Not-marry me! I love you and I think I know what we did wrong last time. We let everyone tell us what to do and how to act and it was completely wrong for us. You don't want to get married!" He sneered as though the word was a curse. "At least, not yet. You want to be out awesoming! With me!"
Robin shook her head, but at the same time, she reached out and took the tiny box and opened it. Inside was the most beautiful, understated emerald and white gold ring. It took her breath away. She slipped it on her finger and it fit perfectly.
But in the meantime, Don had clambered over the desk and had grabbed Barney, pulling him away, off camera.
"Robin!" Barney shouted. "I love you! Don't marry me!"
That word, love, always seemed to come so easily to Barney. Normally it would irritate the hell out of her, but right now, with him giving her that adorable puppy-dog look even as Don punched him in the face, well her stomach lurched, her heart beat faster, she even felt a little sick. And it wasn't bad.
She hadn't felt any of those things when Don had proposed.
"Don!" She shrieked when Don hit him again, sending a spray of blood over the front of the Come On, Get Up New York logo.
If Don was trying to find a way to put her off Barney, leaving him with a bloody nose and a black eye really wasn't the way to go.
Don didn't know her at all, she realized.
"Barney!" She hurried toward the two men and hauled Don away. "Oh my god!"
Then she also realized that the camera men had moved their camera positions so they were getting all the action.
"You bastards!" She said, hands on hips. "If any of this gets on Youtube, I'm suing your ass!"
"Are you kidding?" Barney groaned from the floor, spitting out a mouthful of blood, and possibly a tooth, which Robin found more than a little distracting. "I'll give you a thousand bucks for that footage!"
"Get this asshole out of here!" Don barked to the security guy who'd wandered in, seemingly out of curiosity.
"Hospital?" Barney said hopefully, as Robin tried to push Don away again before the guy could kick Barney in the ribs.
"I'm coming with you," she muttered, glaring at Don. "You can do the rest of the show on your own, jerk!"
The security guard helped Barney to his feet and they both managed to support him as he limped out of the studio to the sound of several inappropriate words from Don.
"They'd better beep him when they show this on the news," Barney said with a wince. "You realize you're gonna be famous for this? You'll probably be on Ellen or something?"
Robin shook her head, but couldn't help but laugh. Barney… it was such a galactically stupid idea, she knew that. Everything about it screamed mistake. And yet… "You're an idiot," she said with a smile.
"I knew you still loved me," he said smugly. "So, you agree to not-marry me?"
She laughed at his sheer nerve. "I never promised anything," she said.
"You're wearing my ring, dude," he said, blood dripping down his chin.
She shrugged. "It's a nice ring."
"Looks good on you."
"I'm not giving it back!" She smirked, and it felt like she was taking another leap.
"Not asking for it, dude."
"That's good then. Hey, you okay, Barney?"
"I'm awesome." He held up a shaking hand for a fist bump and she pressed her knuckles firmly against his own. "Nice," he said, and it felt like a beginning.