It turns out this baby growing inside of her is, indeed, almost a miracle. Barney looks annoyingly smug as the doctor explains to them how the chances of her getting pregnant were as close to zero as they could possibly be, and she feels Barney biting the inside of his cheek as he tries to remain serious. She had a hard time at home trying to convince him jokes and remarks about his extraordinary sperm were kind of inappropriate in front of the doctor – what was he, fifteen? – and while he might have thought they were funny, they definitely were not. Barney had pouted a little and whined a few "why", but in the end, he surrendered.
She feels uncomfortable as the doctor tells her to relax for her first ultrasound, and she looks at Barney, who is impatiently tapping his foot and staring at the monitor, waiting for the image to appear. The last few days have been rough: she has done nothing but wrestle with doubts and questions – about her job, about her life, about this kid, about what this means for her – and she can't shake the fear that everything will eventually start crumbling away, because how could it not? She never wanted this life to begin with, and she always felt like her infertility was some kind of sick reward the universe had given to her. But now, suddenly now a child was counting on her body in order to survive – the same body she had thought was broken so many times before, the same body that, apparently, still wasn't completely fixed. She takes Barney's hand in hers, because she still feels as if she's been catapulted in somebody else's life, and she needs a firm grip on her own.
The doctor finally points to a small bean shape on the screen and turns the volume up for them to hear the sound of its heart. Robin realizes she's been holding her breath, and she finally exhales as she starts hearing the steady, fast heartbeat of their baby. Barney squeezes her hand and she notices he's trying to hold back tears, but she lets him have it.
The morning sickness starts to get bad. She's forced to call in sick at work for three days in a row, and when someone decides to bring sushi on set on the fourth day, she makes it out of the studio just in time before she throws up in the nearest trashcan. MacLaren's becomes off limits. She can no longer stand the smell of beer and fried stuff coming from the kitchen, and she would rather not have to kneel down in those filthy bathroom stalls. She feels like crying, and she doesn't know if that's because of the pregnancy hormones or because she already can't take it anymore. The fear of it being the latter eats her alive.
Barney tries to help, but the truth is he doesn't know how to handle it either. She can see him struggling to find the right thing to do every time she runs to the bathroom, but he later confesses to her how useless he feels. When Robin gets sick because he slipped some ginger in her salad, he can't seem to get over how guilty he feels.
"It was supposed to help," he apologizes, over and over, while holding out her hair. "I should never trust other people's blogs!"
"God, this is worse than a hangover," Robin mutters as a second wave of nausea hits her, her head buried in the toilet. At least being hungover meant you had had fun, she thought, and that generally made it worth it.
"I'm sorry," he says for the millionth time.
"Barney," she lifts her head up from the toilet bowl, washing her mouth. "This is the sixth time this happens today, and yesterday –", she closes her eyes, the embarrassing memory coming back to her, "yesterday, I threw up in a freaking cab on my way to work. It's not your fault," she tries to reassure him, and looks at him with sincere eyes.
Barney sighs, sitting on the floor next to her. "How are we going to do this?"
"I don't know," she says, wholeheartedly wishing she had an answer to give him. "But you just sat on a splash of vomit."
There's panic in his eyes as he jumps up, frantically trying to look at the back of his pants without actually succeeding. By the time he takes them off to assess the extent of the damage, Robin's amused smile has turned into a full belly laugh, and Barney realizes he hasn't heard her laugh in weeks. He suppresses a smile and stays committed to his act as he continues mourning his suit, neatly folding his pants and hugging them against his chest with a sad expression on his face.
"Come on," Robin says as she stands up, placing a comforting kiss on his cheek. "Let's go to bed. I'm exhausted."
She walks past him and his eyes follow her into the bedroom. "Goodbye boys," he whispers to his clothes. "That was for a good cause."
