A/N: It turns out that all it takes for me to finally be inspired to write again is a romantic proposal in the snow. That plus the season nine renewal news meant I had to write something today. And with the promise of upcoming episodes filled with B/R goodness, it shouldn't be two and a half months before I update again.
The drabble that I was originally going to write next was a lot darker than this one. But it's Christmas and angst and sadness have no place in the holiday season. So you've got this one instead. Expect the sadness and tragedy to come in 2013.
Also, this is the first time the mother appears in this fic. I debated over who she should be - in the original draft of this she was Barney's half-sister - but eventually I settled on Sarah, a character of my own creation. Ultimately this is a story about Barney and Robin so the mother is never going to particularly central. However, I thought I should at least mention it since she is introduced in this drabble.
Have a wonderful Christmas!
"Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that's a real treat." -Joanne Woodward
What Once Was
December 2013
The snow appears suddenly, turning the city into a winter wonderland almost without warning. It falls from the sky and turns the drab city sidewalks into glistening white landscapes virtually instantaneously. As afternoon turns into evening with the speed that is only possible this late into the year, the army of New York's office workers emerge onto the busy streets to find their world changed. They tighten their coats around themselves, tug on scarves and gloves, and brace themselves for the battle towards home. The competition for taxis is fiercer than ever thanks to the need to escape the bracing cold. New York in the winter may be a beautiful sight but it's one that is really best viewed through a large window while taking advantage of some luxuriously warm heating.
Barney puts his superiority to use and forces an intern to give him his taxi. Anyone still wearing a coat that they've clearly owned since their first year of college and a suit that can't have cost more than twenty dollars doesn't deserve a quick escape from the cold weather. The driver greets him with an overly cheery 'Merry Christmas' before taking the address for MacLaren's and pulling out into the New York traffic.
Christmas time traffic appears to be at an all-time high, and the taxi practically crawls up seventh as it starts on the familiar route towards the bar. Unfortunately for Barney, his driver is exceptionally chatty and repeatedly tries to engage him in conversation about his plans for the holidays. Even as Barney only gives the most minimal of murmurs in response, the driver happily keeps on talking. He's moved on to complaining about the fact that his sister is spending Christmas with her ex-husband in Seattle rather than coming to New York when Barney finally tugs his Blackberry from his pocket and turns his attention away. They're in the midst of negotiations with a conglomerate in China and they sway between going exceedingly well and being a borderline disaster. By the time the taxi pulls up outside the bar, there's a chance he may have started a war with China if he's mistranslated one or two words in an e-mail. But that's not even the third worst thing he might have done at work this week so he shoves his phone back in his pocket and hands the driver the fare. And it sounds like he's going to have a really shitty Christmas so he gives him an extra twenty and slips out of the cab before the guy can reward him with another aspect of his Christmas plans.
The snow is even heavier than before, turning the street with its brownstones and bare trees into something akin to a scene from a postcard. The congestion of midtown has disappeared up here meaning the snow is settling rather than automatically turning into grey slush under commuters' feet. Even the footsteps that Barney leaves in his wake as he crosses the street vanish almost instantaneously. Occasional snowflakes manage to slip down his collar, causing him to shiver as they melt on his skin, and he tugs his coat as tightly closed as he possibly can. There's a clear trail of footprints on the snow-covered steps leading down to the bar, and those, along with the noise drifting through the open window, suggest that the level of demand facing Carl and co tonight is higher than normal.
This intuition is proven right when Barney enters MacLaren's to find it almost at capacity. He can barely make out the actual bar from his position thanks to the masses of people stood between him and it. It would appear that every table is full, and late-arriving customers have had to settle for simply standing for the duration of the night. He spots a few regulars intermingled amongst the crowds but the majority of customers appear to be office workers enjoying their first night of holiday freedom. Attempting to navigate his way through the mass of customers, he passes the usual stereotypes like the interns trying to use drink to deal with the fact that they're no longer in college and that adult life is nothing like they expected, and the overworked middle manager grumbling over how unappreciated he is. There's also the usual parade of skimpily dressed twenty-somethings scouting the crowd in the hope that someone will approach them. Unlike a couple of years ago though, they barely register on his radar. Instead he merely waves at Carl and slips past a crowd of guys who are already drunk to reach the booth.
Somewhere over the past year or so, tiny new elements have been added to their routine at the bar. They're barely noticeable to anyone outside of the group but they mark the way their dynamic has shifted over the past two years. Marshall and Lily drink less than before, stretching out one beer to last the length of time that it takes the others to drink two or three. And they leave earlier as well, guilt causing them to hurry to relieve the babysitter of her duties. But for now they're stationed at the booth, laughing at some story of Ted's. Barney grins at them before quirking his head at a couple sat at a nearby table. They push the empty chair towards him and he swings it in his hand, plonking it down next to the one already stationed at their booth. But rather than sitting there himself, Ted slides out of his seat next to Robin and moves onto the chair. To begin with, when Sarah had first joined them at the bar, they had added the extra chair to the other side of the booth. That had lasted only one night. With Ted constantly reaching across the table to hold her hand or kiss her, the group had quickly snapped and moved the chair to the other side. The shift from five members of the group to six had been almost seamless, and it had soon started to feel like that extra chair had always been at the booth.
Barney kisses Robin on the cheek as he slides into the newly vacated seat beside her. Her scotch is easily within his reach and he steals it away before she can stop him. The futile attempt to grab it back is rewarded with nothing but a satisfied grin as he downs what's left of her drink. Ted is too wrapped up in Sarah to pay Barney and Robin any attention, but Marshall and Lily exchange knowing grins as they watch them. They're not like Marshall and Lily with their nicknames and more ostentatious displays of affection. Instead, the way they act around each other is intimate and private, small touches here and the occasional kiss there. She rolls her eyes as he finishes her scotch, and he bumps his hip against hers with a low laugh. Her voice is quiet as she tells him that he's a selfish bastard and his response is to kiss her lightly, stroking her cheek with his thumb. He reminds her that being married means that what's hers is his which causes her to laugh and swat his arm.
Eventually Lily interrupts them, dragging them out of their little bubble, reminding Robin that they're supposed to go Christmas shopping tomorrow, and Barney takes the opportunity to battle his way to the bar for another drink.
The bar is swamped with customers fighting to get Carl's attention, and he finds himself squashed between an overweight guy who is sweating far too much and a shrill woman who keeps yelling for a glass of Pinot Grigio. Thankfully, her constant shrillness brings Carl over for just long enough to give her a drink and get her to leave before Barney loses his hearing. It doesn't take much for him to be able to quickly grab Carl's attention before he disappears back to the other side of the bar, and he takes his order of another round plus his usual with a nod. It's met with groans around him from those who have been waiting longer and don't have the advantage of having been a customer for over a decade, but Barney simply shrugs at them and turns his attention back to his Blackberry.
There's an email from James finalising plans for Boxing Day at their mum's, and he's just starting to reply when he hears someone next to him say, "Barney?"
Rather than the shrieking woman who had previously been stood next to him, there's now a young woman with wild blonde curls and pouty lips stood in her place. There's a crinkle in her brow as if she is unsure whether he is who she thinks he is, and at the exact moment that he finally places her – her name is something that begins with a j - her frown deepens as her suspicions are confirmed. And this time when she says his name, there's far more anger in her tone than before.
The reason he recognises her is all thanks to a night three years ago when he had decided to try out a new play. It was one that had caused Lily to ban him from the booth for the rest of the night out of disgust when he had brought it up. Of course, when it had been successful and he'd landed the girl standing next to him, Lily's issues with his play had gone right out of his head.
It had been a surprisingly simple play that required little more from him than his finest bumbling Ted impression and a cheap ring that he'd picked up at a crappy pawn shop on eighth. After his best sad eyes and a few comments about how he hadn't tried to chat a girl up in a long time, the girl who was now stood next to him had invited him to join her. He'd acted interested in her stories about trying to break into the modelling business and her crappy job at a restaurant downtown. And by the time she told him about her cheating ex and how she hadn't had sex in six months because she just couldn't trust any guys right now, he knew he had hit the jackpot. That was when he had proceeded to spin an intricate story about his wife, Anna, who he'd been his high school sweetheart and who had tragically died in a car crash almost a year ago. His seemingly real tears over how his friends were telling him that it was time to get back out there even though he had no idea how the dating game worked were enough for her to invite him back to hers for a nightcap. The clincher had been when he had twisted his wedding ring around his finger and said that tonight with her was the first time he'd felt truly happy since he'd lost his wife. She hadn't been able to drag him into her bedroom fast enough after that.
His comment about how girls who hadn't got laid in months were even more eager than most to please in bed had caused Lily to exile him from the booth for another night.
The problem had come when he'd been trying to sneak out and her flatmate had caught him. This would have been fine if he hadn't slept with her and sneaked out a couple of years before. That sort of screwed up his play, especially since he had got her flatmate with a story about having just returned from the Peace Corps after three years. Scrambling out of their apartment half-dressed while they threw whatever was close at hand at his head had not been not his finest hour.
And judging from her face, Joanie – Jane? Josie? – is still pretty mad. There really should be a rule that people he lied to in the name of having sex with them are not allowed to ever approach him again.
"Hey, Jodie?" he says slowly, drawing out her name in the vain hope that the right name will jump into his head before he finishes.
"Julie." Her glare intensifies and her hands rest on her hips. "I wasn't expecting to see you here." She pauses. "Asshole."
He glances desperately over his shoulder but Carl is still in the middle of putting his order together. And then Julie says "oh my god," and he knows everything is about to get even worse. When he turns to look at her again, she's no longer looking at his face with that hateful glare. Instead, her gaze is firmly fixed on his hands.
This cannot be good.
"You're tricking another girl with the same lie?" she asks incredulously, gesturing at the wedding ring he's wearing on his left hand. "In the same bar?"
"What? No, this isn't what you think."
She ignores him. "What kind of bastard makes up a sick lie like that just to sleep with somebody? And then keeps on doing it? What the hell is wrong with you?"
And of course that's the exact moment that Carl chooses to return with his drinks. His attempt to explain that he isn't actually here scamming another girl falls on deaf ears. Instead, she ignores his protests, grabs Sarah's rum and coke, and throws it in his face. He jumps as the sticky liquid and ice coat his face, and he wildly grabs for napkins to wipe it away before it can spread any further. Julie storms off without another word, leaving him stood at the bar as the drink slowly drips onto his custom made Italian leather shoes.
"You're gonna have to pay for that," Carl says in a deadpan voice even though there's a huge smirk on his face.
Barney shoves the money at him before carrying the drinks back to the booth, ignoring the snickers that follow him. He's greeted at the booth by all of his friends staring up at him with barely concealed grins. Their attempts to hold back their laughter are pathetic and he drops the tray of drinks onto the table with a bang before staring at them all.
"Go ahead. I know you want to."
The laughter that fills the booth echoes throughout the bar as the five of them crack up at Barney's humiliation. He slips back into his seat and glares at them all as they continue to laugh.
Lily manages to stop laughing just long enough to asks, "A friend of yours?" before bursting into laughter again.
"I don't want to talk about it," he grumbles but that only makes everyone laugh even more.
He drops his head onto Robin's shoulder with a groan. Her laughter is just loud as everyone else's, which he thinks is pretty unfair since surely his wife should be coming to his defence at the very least. Instead, she snorts loudly when Ted asks him just how often incidents like that happen to him.
"Probably at least three times a week," she says, jabbing him with her elbow.
However, as the group continue to exchange jabs and jokes over Barney's manwhoring ways coming back to haunt him, and Robin happily chimes in with her own comments, she reaches under the table and takes his hand in hers. Each time a joke seems a little too mean, she laughs a little less and gently squeezes his hand. And when he finally starts to see the funny side to his humiliation and tells them how Julie thought he was playing another girl, which causes Robin to lean against him for support as laughter shakes her whole body, he can't stop the feeling of thankfulness that overwhelms him at the fact that the ring on his left hand has nothing to do with him trying to trick another girl into bed and everything to do with his love for the amazing woman sat next to him.
