Been Busy with movie and video projects! Gaaaaaaah! I had no time (sad face), but I got this out! I suck at consistency, don't I?

Chapter 4

What If?

"What if it makes you lose faith in me?
What if makes you question every moment you cannot see?
And what if it makes you crash
And you can't find the key?
What if it makes you ask how you could let it all go?

What if what I want makes you sad at me?"

What If? By Safetysuit

Set After Chapter 1…

"Barney… I've always wondered, how'd you get this scar…?"

Barney glanced over his shoulder to look at the questioning Robin who had Barney's head on her lap and had been playing with his hair. It was 2004 (but felt more like 4002 to Barney) and they were alone in Ted's apartment watching a new episode of The Price Is Right –which Barney had seen practically a billion times by now. Robin's finger traced over the circle scar on the back of his neck, indicating which scar she was talking about.

"Oh. I got shot in the head." He relied casually.

She gave him her "I SO don't believe you right now," faces. "Oh really? Who shot you in the head then?"

He turned to face her and look her in the eye. She shivered, seeing a deep pit of blue darkness.

"Cupid shot me!" He smiles, the darkness suddenly disappearing from his eyes, replaced with his usually baby blue eyes.

He laughs as she pouts at his answer.

"Oh my gosh, that's soooooo cheesy." She groans as she playfully pushes him up off her lap. "And doesn't cupid shoot people in the butt?"

"Oh, Robin," He playfully says in his know-it-all voice while sitting up, "Cupid shot me in the head so I could fall head over heels for you."

"I'm so about to shoot you in the head right now." She laughs.

"But, Robin…! If you shoot me in the head, how are you gonna get ahead in life?" He grins.

She raises an eyebrow at him.

"No, no, how about this! Robin, why don't you go ahead and shoot me?"

Her mouth drops at how ridiculous his puns are. They aren't very punny…

"I think I'm gonna laugh my head off!" He's laughing hysterically now.

She sighs. "I think I'm gonna lose my head…"

"Yeah you did." He winks and raises his fist for a fist bump.

"Had to." She winks back and delivers the bump. "So, got anything planned today?"

"Hmm… actually, yeah, I heard that there's gonna be this awesome party tonight, over near my place. Wanna go?" He sits back into the couch and puts his arm around Robin's shoulder.

"Actually, I was going to ask if you wanted to go to a Sum 41 concert." She says as she slowly pulls away from him. Usually when there is a disagreement, they end up having a pros and cons argument about which place is better and why the other place is stupid, which goes on for about an hour, but ultimately ends up with rock-paper-scissors (which always has them wondering why they just don't do rock-paper-scissors in the first place). She's mentally prepared herself with a list against Barney, and sees that Barney is about to give out his argument, but he suddenly stops. He furrows his eyebrows in thought and she gives him a questioning look. Had she already won this debate? But, usually, if Barney can't think of any pros, he'd just say that his place was (in a high pitch) awesome and legen-wait for it -dary. After a few more seconds of silence, Robin wondered if this was just one of those times when he'd zone out.

"Barney." She tries. It works, he shakes his head as if to clear it, but when he looks back at her, he's still got the thoughtful look on- except it's more like… a thoughtfully confused face, and she's worried that he might be thinking too hard and hurt himself.

"Um…" He blinks hard. "What's today…?"

"Uhhm, Wednesday." She answered, still very, very, confused.

"No… I… I mean, the date." She's a little worried now, why is he stumbling on his words?

"The… 14th, why…?"

"Month?"

She's taken aback by this, and she knows her face shows it. "July…"

He nods. "Year…?"

"Barney, wh-?" She starts.

"Robin, just… what year is it?" He interrupts. She wants to give him a lecture on interrupting her, but he seems a little too worried about something, so she decides to keep it to herself.

"2004." She carefully watches her boyfriend as his face transitions back to a deep thoughtful one. "Barney, is something wrong..?" But she can tell that he is too deep into thought to hear her, so she decides to wait it out.

This is wrong…

Something had to be wrong...

Barney didn't understand it. He's been through this day a billion times. He's done everything he's always done. So, why is it different? She was supposed to say, "Oh, I dig a party alright, but how about at your place?" and he was supposed to say, "yeeeaaaaah you did!" And laugh! And then she'd laugh! And then they'd kiss, and then Lily and Marshall were supposed to enter the apartment and tell them to take it back to his place! And then… and then…

Party or Sum 41 concert…?

They were supposed to have that conversation in 2007- THREE years from now!

He's beyond freaked out right now. Did he do something that he'd never done before to change the timeline? Did he say something different? Think Barney, think!

But… what if… what if he hadn't done anything different?

This whole time, he's thought that things would stay the same and stay in a certain order because of the choices he'd pick. He thought of it as a game of chess, where a certain move will cause the game to go in a certain direction. But, like in a game of chess, the only thing he'd never account for was a loop-hole in a perfect move. He'd never thought that anyone but him could do something unscripted. And this scared him. What if this path led to one of them being killed again? But, what if this time, he doesn't get sent back to 2001? How could he live without her? How devastated would she be if he really did die and stay dead? He couldn't believe he never thought of all these things. But why would he? For as long as he's been doing this, it's just been: make a move, find out what it does, if you die, do the same steps that leads up to where you were, but then change the situation so that you don't die, continue and repeat. So…what if... what if he does die and gets sent back… but what if this time, he wasn't in control of the direction of things? What if he makes a usual move, only to have its direction changed by Robin? Or Ted? Or Marshall or Lily? This was his biggest fear. Not knowing what was going to come next. The only times this fear would come up was usually at the point in the timeline where he had left off in the "last life".

But, he's been here before. So many, many, times before. Maybe… maybe its time for him to just live out life. Not knowing what was ahead was the point of life… right?

"…Robin…?" Robin put on a worried face at how soft and small Barney's voice was, but was glad that he finally came back to earth.

"Yeah?" She quietly answered back.

"Can we just stay in and watch a movie…? I don't feel so awesome…" Robin looked into his eyes and saw something that she couldn't exactly name. But, it still hit her right in the heart, so she motioned him to rest his head onto her lap again. Barney felt his head clear as she began to play with his hair again. It felt… comforting. He wished that they could just stay like this for the rest of eternity. Because, like that song goes, "when there's no more forever, that's when I'll stop loving you."

Been busy with movies and video projects (insert crying face here) sorry! I will update ASAP. Send questions through reviews or PM? Please and thank you (insert smiley face here~!)

Sorry for short chapter BTW...