Chapter 10

Loretta and James were waiting in front of Barney's hospital room when Robin arrived an hour later.

"Good morning." Robin said while slightly shifting Ellie's weight on her hip.

Besides Ellie, she was also carrying a back with books and other knick-knacks.

"She's not going in." Loretta skipped the greeting.

"Yeah, she is." Robin replied and continued walking towards the door.

"Leave Ellie out of this!" Loretta hissed, cutting in the way, while simultaneously trying to grab the toddler.

Robin turned away from her, "stop that Loretta."

"Oh, so you won't even let me hold her? My own granddaughter?"

"Not like that I will."

"Okay calm down everyone." James finally stepped in.

Robin shifted Ellie's weight once again, the little girl and book bag were getting heavy.

"Robin we really don't want Ellie in there with Barney." James said.

"I thought I'd made myself clear this morning: She's not going to be isolated from this." Robin said and took another step forward.

"Robin, she's not even two years old. This isn't a good place for her." James tried to reason with her once again.

"I disagree, now will you please get out of the way?" She looked from Loretta to James, and back to Loretta.

Ellie, who had been surprisingly calm during all this was starting to stir in her arm, wanting to get down and Robin moved her second arm around to steady her.

"How about we get a drink in the cafeteria and talk about this?" James asked.

"She's not going to compromise James, she doesn't even know the meaning of that word!" Loretta hissed.

"I really won't compromise, not on this."

Loretta shook her head, "this isn't a child friendly environment."

"Barney would want to have her with him."

"What do you even know about what Barney wants? You made it perfectly clear that you neither cared about what he wanted, or felt when you filled for divorce."

"We both filled for it, it was a mutual decision." Robin replied.

"Mutual because he loved you enough to let you do this to him. If he would have been selfish then he would have shown you how miserable and hurt he was by the divorce."

It always sucked to talk about her divorce, but talking about it with Loretta was ten times worse than usual. Partially because deep down Robin knew that she was right.

"Loretta, we can discuss the reasons for Barney's and my divorce another time, right now I think we should all be with him, rather than arguing out here."

"You are still a heartless bitch."

"Mom." James interfered.

"Good morning, can I help you?" a nurse came around the corner and noticed the three of them standing there.

"Yes, you can, are there any news regarding Barney Stinson's condition?" Robin asked sweetly.

Both Loretta and James turned to the nurse and Robin used the distraction to slip into Barney's hospital room with Ellie.

"Thanks for being such a good girl just now." Robin whispered and kissed Ellie's head.

"Daddy!" Ellie pointed towards the bed.

"Yes, we are visiting daddy. But first we need to use this special soap right here."

Maneuvering Ellie, and the bag around while trying to get her hands under the disinfectant proved difficult.

Another hand ended up pushing the lever to dispense the fluid. Robin looked over and into James' eyes.

"I still don't agree with this." He mumbled.

"Still, thank you." She replied, "okay Ellie, now you have to rub your hands against each other like you do when you wash them. See how uncle James is doing it?"

Ellie looked over to James and mirrored his actions.

"Perfect." Robin knew she couldn't disinfect her own hands while holding Ellie but she didn't trust James to stay in the room with the toddler if she handed her to him so she started walking towards Barney's bed.

"Daddy sleepy." Ellie announced.

"Yes he is sleeping." Robin nodded and sat down on the chair next to Barney's bed.

Loretta had entered the room as well and was watching her, just as James was.

"Shh." Ellie made and put her finger over her mouth.

"It's okay, you can talk." Robin told her as she put the bag down, "do you want to give him the monkey?"

Ellie nodded and quickly wiggled herself free to find the stuffed monkey in the bag.

Once she found it, she held her arms out so Robin could pick her up again.

Robin grinned and kissed her in the process of heaving her onto Barney's hospital bed.

"Robin." Loretta warned but Robin didn't let it bother her.

"Here, let's tug it under the blanket with him." She whispered into Ellie's ear and pulled the blanket back a little.

Ellie placed the monkey there and then put the blanket over it, padding it a couple of times for good measure.

"That's perfect." Robin said and picked Ellie back up before sitting down with her in her lap.

"How about we tell daddy how our morning went?" Robin suggested, and started them off, "we made breakfast together, didn't we? Scrambled eggs, you in your little kitchen and I in the big one. And then we ate mine, but quite honestly there probably wasn't more flavor in them thnn in yours."

Ellie was still watching Barney and put her hand out, pointing at him, "daddy."

"Yeah, daddy is sleeping." Robin explained once again.

The door was opened and Lily appeared.

"I can't believe you are really here." Lily exclaimed and quickly walked over to her and Ellie.

The two women gave each other a hug, as best as possible with Ellie still sitting on Robin's lap.

"And she's in here after all, huh?" Lily asked, pointing at Ellie and giving Loretta and James a questioning look.

"Her guardian insisted." Loretta informed her and Lily looked back to Robin.

"That would be me."

"I heard, Barney made you her legal guardian. Why didn't you guys tell anyone that you were back together? It would have made things so much less awkward."

"Stop assuming stuff Lily, and no offense, but we aren't close anymore, why would I tell you about things like that?" Robin replied quickly she didn't want to get into all that right now. Her and Barney's relationship status was no one's business but theirs.

Lily was clearly caught off guard by her harsh reply.

Robin turned back towards Ellie, and whispered, "how about we read one of the books you picked out to daddy?"

Ellie was on board and Robin pulled one out and started reading it.

She could feel the eyes of the others on her, judging her. But she didn't care, she wasn't here to make friends, she was here for Ellie and Barney and the less she had to deal with the others and their opinions on her live and what she should do, the better.