Part 3

-- Friday --

There's definitely someone following him. Barney looks out of his window and sees the same truck parked out in the street, the same one that's been there these last few mornings and the same one that's been outside the GNB Building.

It's not like he hasn't been followed before. He's not new at this. Usually it's internal affairs or FBI and it's about something work-related.

This time he suspects it isn't. Yeah, it could be those annoying ex-friends, sticking a private detective on him. But more likely it's those Dollhouse jerks checking up on him: Topher buckled and came clean, or he's been found out.

Whatever, it's not his problem. The procedure was one-hundred percent successful. It's just… He's fed up of being followed. Barney glances behind him, where the latest in a long, long line of blonde bimbos is stripping off her tiny dress. He considers reaching out and grabbing his samurai sword, charging downstairs and threatening the truck driver with serious violence if he doesn't go the fuck away and leave him alone. His fingers clench into a fist, his heart races and he really wants to do it. Then the girl chirps in the background, pleading with him to get on the couch with her, get on the floor with her, get on the bed with her, get between her legs.

But Barney is still staring at the sword, wondering, wondering. What would it be like to see it slice through human flesh? The driver's? The girl's?

He's just curious.

What would it be like?

*--*--*

Topher was summoned into Adelle's office. He'd only ever been there when bad things happened and his latest news wasn't going to endear him with the boss. Especially after Dominic had decided to tell her everything after all.

"So," Topher said. "I've been tracking Mr Stinson like you asked. He's working way outside normal parameters right now. I think we're going to have to bring him in."

"Or eliminate him," Dominic replied, curtly. Adelle did not look happy. Topher considered himself lucky that she hadn't eliminated him already!

"Laurence…" She said, smoothly. "I hardly think we need to go to such extremes. I agree with Topher. We bring him in and wipe him completely. In fact, I think we may be able to salvage this situation." She paused, allowing her gaze to pass over both men. "We make Mr Stinson an active."

"What?" Dominic exclaimed. "That's… ridiculous. He's far too old, for one thing."

Adelle gave them both a tiny smile. "I was actually thinking of expanding our market. Very young men make some people uncomfortable. There's a large number of very rich, very bored women out there who want someone a little more mature, a little dashing, a little… debonair…"

Topher laughed. "You sound like you're speaking from personal experience."

She shot him down with a glare but then she settled herself, smirking. "You must admit. He does look rather good in a suit…"

Dominic shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't agree to this. If we do bring him Stinson in, we just wipe him then… the attic…"

Topher shuddered. "No way… I agree with Adelle - Ms DeWitt."

She smiled. "You see, he's confident we can make the best out of a bad lot. Aren't you dear?"

Topher smiled nervously. There was a very definite threat in her steely gaze. "Um… sure."

-- Monday --

"Dead end… they're all dead ends…" Marshall said, his cell phone jammed against his ear as he typed on his computer keyboard.

"Marshall…" Robin's voice came over the speaker. "I'm worried about Barney too, but I don't want you risking your job putting so-"

"Good point," Marshall cut her off. "We probably should talk about this on an unsecured cell. They might be bugging us!"

He could hear Robin sigh on the other end of the line.

"It's not like I've got anything more to tell you anyway. Barney spent an obscene amount of money on what looks like… real estate… when he was in California. But I can't find anything in the land registry. It just looks like the money's gone missing, which is impossible. But I've no way of telling unless we go to California ourselves…"

"We?" Robin asked. "Why we..?"

"Because I'm a bad-ass fighter and you can handle a gun. And I have a feeling we'll need both skills when we get there."

"Marshall that's ridiculous-"

"Gotta go, sorry!" He said, snapping shut his phone. Billson walked past and gave him a grin.

"Hey Erikson. You're still friends with that son'f'bitch Stinson, right? Take a trip up to ninth and give him this?" Billson tossed a contract on to his desk.

"Hey, what do you mean?" Marshall asked.

"Guy's a douche. He stuck me in it with the Boss today, but good. Dude's days are numbered at GNB. You can tell him that from me."

"Well, he doesn't listen to me-" Marshall began, but Billson had already walked away. Marshall watched him go, wondering what the hell was going on. Billson and Barney were tight, had been ever since Barney got Marshall that intern job just before he graduated from Law school. He'd never seen them get into a fight.

This situation was going from weird to freaky, but fast. And the worst was yet to come.

When Marshall got up to Barney's floor, all hell had broken loose. Sheila was crying and the place was crawling with police. "What happened here?" Marshall demanded.

He pushed his way through the crowd to Barney's office, which was in disarray. His laptop was smashed on the floor and there was a spatter of blood across the carpet.

"Oh my GOD…" Marshall said, clamping one hand over his mouth. "Oh my god, oh my god!"

"Move back, sir," one of the police officers told him.

"Where's Barney?"

"Marshall…" Sheila called out. "I was only gone for five minutes and when I got back…" She pointed at his office as a cop dragged her away. "I think he's been kidnapped!"

"Oh my god…" Marshall said, backing away.

This was serious shit. Really serious shit. He had to think about Lily now, and getting the hell out of there. He had to think about his wife and his future.

But Marshall couldn't do it. He couldn't abandon Barney, even after his friend had acted like a dick. He trusted Barney implicitly. If his friend was in really bad trouble, it would be just like him to push all of his friends away to try and keep them safe.

So, no, Marshall couldn't leave Barney to his fate. He needed to get involved. But for that, he also needed Robin.

-- Friday, two weeks later --

"Marshall, I cannot believe I actually agreed to this…" Robin said in hushed tones.

"Yeah, all right, shut up already. I heard you the first fifty times."

"Then you agree this is stupid and we should fly back home?"

Marshall sighed and just looked at her. They'd made a breakthrough when they'd searched Barney's apartment and Robin had thought to look in the Storm Trooper (apparently someone had already removed the metal briefcase from under the bed) and found a couple of DVDs containing backups from Barney's laptop. Luckily, they both knew Barney's password so the encryption wasn't hard to break.

There were files, diagrams, most of it pretty unintelligible - but after two hours of searching Marshall came up with a couple of copies of a contract and some google map search results dated the day before Barney had first flown to LA. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

And so, here they both were in California, on an actual stake out!

"This is so exciting!" Marshall grinned, biting into a donut. "It's like we're detectives or something! CSI Eriksen and Scherbatsky!"

"It's boring!" Robin exclaimed, taking a gulp from a bottle of water. "Hold on…" She sat up, staring at an old warehouse building across the street, where a van was parked. "Hey, isn't that Barney?"

Marshall shielded his eyes from the bright sunshine. "I think it is."

"Barney?" Robin lunged for the window crank but Marshall leaned over and grabbed her arm. "Ow! What the hell, Marshall?"

Marshall stared at Barney, or the guy who was very definitely Barney's twin. He was even wearing a suit in ninety degree heat.

"He doesn't look like he's in danger. If you go out there right now and he goes all Vader on your ass, then we're back to square one."

Sure enough, Barney turned the corner, walked casually down the block and ducked into a coffee house.

"Marshall!" Robin said, grabbing her purse and shrugging him off. "No! That's Barney and I'm going to go ask him what the hell is going on!"

Before Marshall could stop her, Robin opened the door and was running across the street. Heart in his throat, Marshall was torn between going after her and staying in the car. If something really bad happened, they might need a quick getaway.

As minutes ticked by, Marshall came closer and closer to cracking and just leaving the car.

Then Robin emerged from the coffee shop. Slowly, far too slowly, she walked across the road and got back into the passenger seat.

She just sat there, folding her hands across her lap.

"Well?" Marshall insisted. The suspense was killing him.

"I saw him. It's definitely Barney."

"And…?"

Robin took a deep breath. Marshall could see her eyes were shining with tears. She sniffed and rubbed her nose.

"He looked right through me, Marshall. As if he didn't know me at all."

--

They agreed to follow Barney, although Robin itched just to throw herself under the wheels of the damn van that seemed to drive him everywhere and demand an explanation. Marshall held her back, inexplicably being the voice of reason after he was the one who'd dragged her on such an unreasonable quest in the first place.

So they followed Barney. For a whole week.

Marshall rang Ted and Lily every night to give them an update. The three of them acted like it was this huge great adventure but the longer it went on the more terrified Robin felt. She wanted to run away, run home, but something prevented her.

It wasn't the mystery which so fascinated Marshall. The big guy had relentlessly hunted down clues and whispers of clues from Barney's old laptop until he came across a couple of conspiracy nut-job websites which mentioned this urban myth - the Dollhouse - a place where human beings were programmed to be the ultimate slaves, the ultimate sex toys. And, yes, Robin could well imagine how Barney would get himself mixed up in all that, he was foolish enough and was pretty much three-quarter dick. But it didn't explain his change in behaviour and the way he'd treated everyone recently unless…

Unless…

Robin didn't want to voice the "unless" - certainly until Marshall realised it.

But nope, none of that was what kept Robin in LA. What kept her there for a whole week, following Barney as he was driven around, meeting different people, going on "dates", staying in expensive hotels, what kept Robin there was…

Barney.

The more she watched him, the more she worried about him. And from the second day, when they'd seen him step out into the street wearing a t-shirt and kakis, Robin had know in her heart of hearts that they were dealing with the "unless".

Finally Marshall said it out loud.

"What if the Dollhouse wiped his memory?"

She was ready for that. "He remembered us, okay, back in New York. He was just mean to us."

"I don't mean back then," Marshall said, "I mean after they kidnapped him and brought him here."

Ah… there it was. The "unless" she'd dreaded for three days.

"Yeah." She said simply. "And if they have, what do we do about it? We can't fight these guys. If they can walk right into GNB and drag one of their senior executives out without anyone stopping them, what can you and me do?"

Marshall turned towards her. "We just have to watch and wait. Something'll come up."

Robin shook her head. "You always have such faith, Marshall!"

Marshall shrugged. "Hey, it's Barney, right? He'd do the same for us?"

Robin swallowed, feeling tears well up again. "Yeah. Yeah, he really would."