Your Turn

"I think Ellie will be done with her homework in another 15 minutes or so, do you want to go and grab something to eat or just order something?" Barney asked as he entered Robin's kitchen.

Ellie was sitting at the dining table, concentrating on the math equations in front of her.

Robin looked over to her and said, "let's order something."

Barney nodded, "pizza? I don't think Ellie will be up for Chinese."

"Sure."

"The usual?"

"Yeah."

Barney got his phone out and ordered their things, while Robin watched him.

"Twenty minutes, that's perfect." Barney said.

"Yeah…can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure." Barney followed her into the bedroom, and Robin closed the door behind her.

She had just arrived from Taiwan the day before and they hadn't really had a chance to be alone yet.

Barney started to loosen his tie.

"I thought about your book tour." Robin said.

"What?" Barney asked surprised as he discarded the tie.

"What are you doing?" Robin asked.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to talk to you."

"Oh…I thought that was a euphemism."

"Ellie is next door."

"I just wanted to greet you properly, you know…make out a little." He waggled his eyebrows.

Robin sat down on the bed and signaled him to sit down next to him, "I've something important to talk to you about."

Barney sat down as well, "you know I'm not doing the book tour."

"Yes you are." She replied.

"What do you mean? I'm not, I can't travel all over the country while Ellie has school."

Robin looked up and met his eyes, "I quit the evening news, Barney."

"What?"

"15 years ago you put your own career on the backburner to support mine, now it's my turn." Robin smiled at him.

"Robin, no."

"Yeah, you are going to do the nationwide book tour Barney, you worked so hard on the 'Bro Code' and you should get the chance to really promote it. It's only fair."

"Robin you can't quit your job because of this."

"I already did. But WWN didn't want to let me go completely so they offered me an one-hour show on the weekends, pretty much a recap of what has happened in the world that week. But I will have a lot of flexibility with that gig." Robin took his hand and squeezed it, "this is my answer Barney…I want to be a bigger part of Ellie's and your life."

"I would be gone for weeks Robin." He replied.

"So? That's what they invented skype for, besides, Ellie and I could fly out to some of the closer cities on the weekends."

"Are you sure? I mean you would have Ellie a lot. And it wouldn't just be fun and games either, she's a good kid but she's got her moments too."

"We'll make it work."

He shook his head in disbelief, "wow."

Robin grinned and leaned in to kiss him, whispering, "I love you", after their lips separated again.

"I love you too." Barney replied.

"So I was thinking, maybe we should set up a room for her here, I know the walk-in closet doesn't have windows and is not that big, but we can probably figure something out to make it cool, right? She just needs a bed really."

"You could just live at the fortress." Barney suggested.

Robin smiled, "I'd like to enjoy my apartment for a little bit…and I am thinking about adopting dogs again."

There was a knock on the door and seconds later Ellie burst in.

"Hey Ellie, guess what!" Barney asked.

"What?"

"You'll see Robin a lot more from now on."

"Really?" Ellie asked excited.

Robin nodded, "and we are going to set up the spare room for you, so you have your own bed and toys and stuff here."

"Can I pick out the bed?"

"You can pick out everything! Starting with the color of the walls." Robin replied.

"We're painting too?" Barney asked surprised.

"If Ellie wants to."

"Yes! Yes I want to paint." Ellie ran through the bathroom to get to the spare room.

Robin got up to follow her but Barney got a hold of her hand.

"Thanks…you have no idea how much this means to me."

Robin smiled and said, "thanks for letting me be a part of your daughters life."