Chapter 10

Robin spend the entire flight looking at the ipad.

She started with browsing through the pictures.

There were a ton of pictures of Ellie, depicting the little girl throughout the years.

From a tiny baby laying on Barney's breast, to a toddler grinning widely into the camera.

Barney, or Ellie, had made sure that every big moment that had been caught on camera were on the ipad.

It took Robin a long time to go through them all, seeing Barney as a father was still odd, but she enjoyed seeing that side of him, and seeing Ellie grow up right in front of her eyes was great.

The next folder was full of pictures of Barney and her. She was surprised that he had kept them all. There were pictures from their wedding day, from their travels, from hanging out with the gang.

In some they were posing, in others kissing, and some were just snapshots of their lives together.

She didn't dare to open the folder "!For ur eyes only!" on the plane where other people could potentially walk by and see them.

There was a folder full of little videos and she plugged her headphones in and started the first one.

Ellie and Barney were waving in the camera, "Hi Robin, I hope you will have a great time in London." Ellie started out and Barney nodded and added, "have fun and awesomize that place!" "And have a good flight!" Ellie added, "we hope you are enjoying the ipad and we can't wait for you to come back to the States and hang out with you again, right Ellie?" Ellie nodded, "yeah!" "Bye!" Barney finished and Ellie waved in the camera once more.

Robin starred at the screen. How was it that Barney's daughter was so okay with her, when Penny and Luke weren't.

Or maybe that's just what happens with time. They used to be excited about her moving in and being part of their family, but then something changed.

Probably just because normalcy set in eventually.

She clicked on the next video and literally laughed out loud when "Let's go to the Mall" started playing and a much younger Ellie was dancing to it.

…

"So glad you and Ellie could come tonight." James said as he handed Barney a beer.

Tom and the kids were outside barbequing, while Barney set the table in the dining room.

"I know." Barney nodded.

"So what's been going on?" James asked.

Barney hesitated but then decided to tell him about Robin.

"Well, earlier today I did something extremely cheesy and romantic."

"What?" James asked surprised.

"In an attempt to get a girl who is in a committed relationship with another man." He thought about it for a second, "huh, that sounds a lot more pathetic when I say it out loud."

"Hold on, you've met a girl? Where?"

"The banquet I went to a few weeks ago."

"Did she seem into you too? Cause if not then doing something cheesy and romantic for a girl who's in a relationship with someone else is kind of worrisome."

"I think so…I mean we hooked up a couple of times."

"No way!"

"Yes way, but it's complicated."

"Well duh, please make sure the other guy doesn't catch you two in bed and shoots you or something."

Barney grinned and tried to imaging it, "I don't think you have anything to worry about there."

"I can't believe you are actually smitten for a girl. I honestly didn't think I would ever see the day of that happening again."

"What? Why?" Barney asked amused.

"Because it seemed as if you were never going to get over Robin." James replied matter of factly.

Barney swallowed and turned around to hide his face, "we are still missing the butter for the corn."

He could tell that James was watching him, "you aren't really over Robin, are you?"

"I don't want to talk about the past James, instead I'm looking forward to what the future may bring."

"It's just…don't be selfish, I mean this girl could give up everything to be with you, it's not fair if she does so without knowing that you have a ton of package, and feelings, good and bad, towards your ex-wife."

"As I said, it's complicated. But I want the trouble, for her I do."

James nodded, "she must be pretty special. What about Ellie? Does she know?"

Barney shrugged, "not really. She has met her, and I guess she has seen us kiss too, but I don't think she understands the whole dimension of this. Right now it's just something new and exciting, and she's kind of playing mini cupid, but I think I'll have to sit her down and really talk to her about it at some point."

"They have met?" James asked surprised.

Barney nodded, "yeah. They went on a shopping trip together too."

Barney chuckled when he remembered what Ellie had told him that night at the dance, "apparently Ellie asked her whether or not she had feelings for me," he grinned and added, "she does. But don't tell anyone about it, Ellie made me promise that I would never tell anyone that she spilled the beans."

"So do you think she'll leave the other guy for you?" James asked.

Barney shrugged, "I honestly don't know. And neither do I know what would be if she actually did leave him."