Life or Death?

THE NIGHT BEFORE

"Scoot over?" Lily smiled at her best friend, and sat down next to him. Women often called Lily crazy for having Barney Stinson as a good friend but they didn't know what was underneath the womanizing exterior, unlike Lily. Anyway, he was engaged to Robin now, proving he was more than what people thought.

"You two are so cute," Marshall said, noticing the adorable smiles Barney and Robin were giving each other from across the table.

"We prefer to be called awesome, not cute. We're not you and Lily," Barney scoffed, raising an eyebrow. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Oh really, well how come you two are holding hands underneath the table then?" Lily giggled, nudging Barney slightly.

"Just..just..okay?" Barney whined, immediately letting go of his fiancé's hand.

"So, where's Ted?" Robin asked, changing the subject.

"He said he's stuck at school, something about trying to convince a student not to drop out of his class," Lily explained, while taking a sip of her gin and tonic. The normal, interesting booth discussions were dead ever since Marvin had arrived. No matter how much the five of them tried to deny it, they all knew it was true.

"Is your mom sure she's okay with having Marv for the whole weekend, Marshall? Did you tell her about the certain formula he has to have and his 4 o'clock naps?" Lily rambled on, listing off things she had hoped Marshall had told Marv's grandmother.

"Ugh, baby talk. Let's get out of here," Barney scowled in disgust at Lily's motherly worries.

"Yup!" Robin agreed, and they both sped out of MacLaren's as quickly as possible.

"What do you want to do tonight then, Scherbatsky?" Barney smiled his flirtatious smile.

"Hmm...I have a feeling you want to answer that question," Robin giggled, knowing what was going through her soon-to-be husband's mind. Barney put his arms around her and kissed her gently. What Marshall said earlier was true and he knew it, they really were cute.

"And I'd love to but I promised Sandy I'd cover his shift at work tonight," Robin finished, her smile fading.

"I'll be waiting 'til you get back," Barney winked.

"I love you," Robin smirked, and bit Barney's lip, before running off into her bedroom to get changed for work.

When she came out she looked effortlessly beautiful, with her perfectly curled hair that just touched her shoulders and her gorgeous, knee-length dress.

"Wow," Barney breathed, "my girl is gorgeous."

"I'd like to think so," Robin winked, picking up her jacket that was laid on the couch.

"I'll see you later," Barney kissed her forehead.

"Bye, I'll be back at about 12," Robin smiled, before Barney smacked her ass. She turned around and smiled flirtatiously. As the door closed Barney smiled to himself. He couldn't ignore how content he felt now he was with Robin. A year or two ago he would have thought he was crazy; settling down with a girl, but now it couldn't feel more right. Perhaps what Ted had been talking about, about 'The One' actually was true. This was crazy talk coming from someone who had slept with over 200 women, Barney knew that. But maybe his days of banging random chicks was over. He knew what he had with Robin was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and after all, they were getting married. Should he be feeling worried that he was only ever going to wake up to the same person every morning? Should he be worried that there'd be no more fooling bimbos into sleeping with him? All of these thoughts flew around his mind but he could only concentrate on one thing: he was in love with this girl. Robin Scherbatsky was no random skank, she was the love of his life and he couldn't deny it. Barney's thoughts were cut off by his phone ringing in his pocket. It was Ted.

"Hey, bro, what's up?"

"Wanna hang out?"

"Sure."

After a while of drinking beer and catching up with his best friend, Barney got a cab back to his place. He swore to himself that he would wait up for Robin but by the time 2am rolled around he was already fast asleep. Before he fell asleep he had been a tiny bit concerned of how late it was getting, as Robin said she would've been back around 12am but he didn't think too much of it. However, when he woke up to a knock on the door and no Robin lying next to him, he knew something was up.