New York: 8am Termination Day
For Marshall and Lily the nightmare began with someone knocking on the door repeatedly.
"Hold on." Marshall yelled, coming out of the bathroom in only his boxers, wondering who was interrupting their morning routing.
"What in the world is going on?" Marshall asked as he opened the door.
James walked right past him, "have you heard from them?"
"From who?" Marshall asked while closing the door.
"My brother and Robin, have you heard from them?" James repeated his question.
Lily appeared, she was still wearing her pajamas, "what happened?"
"Did you or did you not?"
"Not in a couple of days, they are visiting Robin's parents in Vancouver." Marshall answered, "why, what's wrong?"
"So neither one of them called you last night?" James checked.
"I don't think so." Marshall walked off into the bedroom, to retrieve his phone.
"Nope, no missed calls." He said as he entered the living room a second later.
"You neither?" James asked Lily, she shook her head.
"What's going on James?" Marshall asked again.
"I am not sure, but something bad happened." James started pacing the room.
"Why would you think that?" Lily walked into the kitchen and turned the coffee pot on.
"Barney called at 2am last night. He was frantic, and extremely panicky. He asked me – no scratch that – he ordered me to come to Vancouver right away. Well, no, let me back up." James tried to catch his breath.
"He texted me around 1am asking me to pick Robin up at the airport the next day. They were coming back, and he had to go to an important court hearing or something and wanted me to pick Robin up."
Marshall and Lily exchanged a quick look, both wondering what in the world it was that Barney did for a living.
"But then at 2am he called, telling me to come to Vancouver right away, that I needed to get Robin out of there for him. He made me promise to get her and keep her save, hide out with her somewhere. He said he had enough money with him to make hiding easy, and that she would have it with her. He wanted me to promise to protect her, and to always be there for her."
James paused, and put his head into his hands, "he was freaked out... I have never heard him even remotely as unhinged as this. And he has called me from bad places before, trust me, something really bad happened last night."
The color had drained from both Lily and Marshall's faces.
"What happened then?" Marshall finally asked.
"Nothing. I mean something happened, he stopped talking abruptly…the line went dead afterwards and I haven't heard anything since. I am booked on the 10am flight to Vancouver, but he never said where they were and what was going on. I was really hoping you had more information."
"We don't, but let me call Ted, maybe he knows something." Lily ran into the bedroom.
"Neither Barney nor Robin would have contacted Ted." James said.
Marshall nodded, they most likely wouldn't have.
New York: 8:15am Termination Day
For Ted the nightmare began with Lily's call.
"No I haven't heard anything from them at all, I wouldn't even know they are in Vancouver if it wasn't for you guys." Ted answered Lily's question upon answering the phone.
"Why? Something wrong?" Ted added.
"Yes, something happened. Can you come over?"
"Tell me Lily, what's going on?"
"We don't know yet, but James thinks Barney and Robin are in serious trouble."
"Serious as in another shooting and life threatening?" Ted asked alarmed.
"Yes. But we don't know anything yet."
"If Robin gets hurt, I swear I am going to kill Barney!" Ted exclaimed, seriously worried for his ex-girlfriends safety.
"I'll see you in a bit." Lily said and ended the call.
New York: 8:20am Termination Day
"He hasn't heard anything either." Lily reported when she came back into the living room.
"Okay, I got to get to the airport. Can you please try to find the address of Robin's parents house? I will start looking for them there. Just text me." James got up.
"Wait, should we come too?" Marshall asked.
James shook his head, "I think you should stay in New York, just in case they show up. I will call you later."
They watched him leave their apartment. Marshall walked over to Lily and drew her into a tight hug.
"I am sure they are fine." He tried to reassure her.
"It doesn't sound like they are." Lily replied softly.
"Yeah but we are talking about Barney and Robin, they can take care of themselves. I am sure they are fine."
Lily clunked to her husband, hoping and praying that he was right.
New York: 9:am Termination Day
"I could kill Barney, seriously!" Ted was outraged after hearing what had happened earlier.
They were sitting around their breakfast table, and now both Marshall and Lily were fully dressed too.
"Let's just focus on the task on hand, shall we?" Marshall interjected. He was starring at his laptop, trying to find Robin's parents address.
"All I know is that she grew up in close proximity to the Vancouver city limits." Ted answered, still fuming.
"I'd widen the search to more than Vancouver, I mean who knows whether or not her mom kept the name Scherbatsky after the divorce from her dad." Lily interjected.
Marshall nodded and started typing again.
Ted had pulled out his cell phone; he had already tried to call Robin six times. He decided to try it with a text.
Where are you? Please just send a quick reply, we are really worried about you!
"I got it." Marshall yelled out, pulling his own cell phone out to text James the address.
"See if you can find any news stories linked to that address." Lily suggested.
"That's a great idea, a home invasion must have made the news!" Marshall eagerly started typing.
"Not if James is the first one to arrive on scene." Ted swallowed.
"Should we have gone with him?" Lily asked.
"I think James is right, someone should stay in New York in case someone shows up. I mean Barney said he had an important court case today, right?" Marshall said.
"I agree, let's see what James finds out, and go from there." Ted agreed.
Vancouver: 1:35pm Termination Day
The flight from NYC to Vancouver was the worst in James' life. Just sitting there, not being able to do anything had driven him crazy. He couldn't even try to call anyone to find out if they had heard anything.
Which apparently no one had.
He ran through the airport, got a rental car and headed towards the address Marshall had texted him.
His mind had come up with the craziest scenarios of what he would find. He briefly tried to calm himself down by trying to convince himself that this was just a crude joke. He knew it wasn't, Barney had been dead serious last night, this was serious. And he really hoped that he wasn't too late.
He double checked the address before driving through the gates, this wasn't exactly what he had expected.
Getting out of the car he heard dogs bark, he looked around but didn't see any other cars that looked like rentals.
Ringing the bell he prayed that Barney and Robin were here, that the call ended as abruptly as it did because Barney didn't have his charger.
"Yes?" A teenage girl opened the door, trying to push the dogs back with her leg.
"Hi, my name is James Stinson, I am Barney's brother, is he there?" James asked.
The girl let the dogs pass and James let them sniff him.
"No, Barney and Robin left for New York." The teenager answered.
"Who is it Katy?" another female voice asked.
"Barney's brother." Katy opened the door completely and James greeted the middle-aged woman.
"Did something happen?"
"I am not sure, I'm trying to find Barney and Robin and was hoping they'd still be here."
"They left two days ago. Why? What is going on?"
"Oh okay, I am sorry, I didn't mean to worry you." James tried to back out.
"I deserve to know if something is wrong with my daughter." Mrs. Scherbatsky demanded.
"Of course." James nodded.
"Why don't we go inside and talk about it there?" Mrs. Scherbatsky suggested and ushered him in.
James nodded, he might as well try to get some more details on Barney and Robin's stay.
"Coffee?" Mrs. Scherbatsky asked.
"No that's fine, thanks. I am actually a bit in a rush, my flight to NYC leaves in three hours." James lied.
"I take it they never arrived in New York then?"
Katy had entered the kitchen as well, and was standing in the door frame, watching the adults.
"No, not yet. Which knowing Barney and Robin doesn't have to mean anything." James tried once again to reassure her.
"Yet you flew here to search for them."
"So you said they left two days ago, did they say anything about wanting to stay another couple of days in the city?" James decided to start asking crucial questions.
"No, of course my daughter never tells me anything."
"Did Robin say something to you?" James asked, turning towards Katy.
"No, she didn't."
"I think it's plausible that they were secretly planning to stay a few more days." James said.
"Sure, Robin wanted to show Barney where she grew up."
"Where else could she have taken him?" James asked.
"Well, I doubt she would have showed him her dad's house. Especially after the awkward dinner we all shared last week. She already showed him everything around here…" Mrs. Scherbatsky shrugged.
James nodded, "they had a rental car, right? Do you happen to know where which company they used? And what kind of car it was?"
He noticed that the question unsettled Mrs. Scherbatsky.
"I'd just like to check in with the company and ask whether or not they have returned the car already. It'd give me a better idea where they could be." He said, hoping it would calm her down.
"This has something to do with the shooting, right?" Mrs. Scherbatsky asked.
James didn't answer, and so she continued.
"That wasn't just a freak accident, someone was after them. I knew Robin was lying when she said that Barney had been beaten up during the shooting, the wounds looked way to fresh for that to add up."
"Wounds?" James asked surprised.
"He had a black eye and a few scrapes in his face." Katy pulled her cell phone out and showed him a picture.
Barney, Robin and Katy were standing in front of a lake, all smiles. Barney did look as if he had just gotten out of a boxing match.
He handed her the cell phone back, "I may just be overcautious, I mean the shooting unraveled all of us."
"It was a black Range Rover Sport…their rental." Katy said.
"Are you sure?" her mom asked.
Katy nodded, "Liam was drooling all over it when he visited last week. He would probably know all the details, if you need them."
James shook his head, "thanks, but that's fine. Just knowing the model helps a lot."
He got up, "well, I better get going. Sorry for worrying you, I am sure they are fine and just decided to have stay a few extra days in the city."
Mrs. Scherbatsky wrote her number down, "would you please call me when you hear something?" she asked while handing him the paper.
James nodded, "yeah." He noticed Katy and asked, "can I get your number too?"
Katy hesitated for a second, looking over to her mom, "ähm…I guess so." She finally said, scribbling her number down on another piece of paper and handing it to James.
"Thanks. I will let you know as soon as I know more."
New York: 5:10pm Termination Day
"It's James!" Marshall exclaimed before answering the call and turning the speaker on.
"Did you find them?" He asked, skipping any form of greeting.
"No. They left Robin's mom's house two days ago, apparently wanting to fly back to New York that night." James voice flowed through the room.
"But Barney said they were still in Vancouver, right?" Marshall double checked.
"Yes, I mean… I got the impression they both were, but now I am starting to think that maybe Barney flew back alone, maybe he attended whatever he had to attend in New York and left Robin in Vancouver. Maybe that's why he wanted me to come get her."
"But wouldn't he have called you then?" Marshall asked and Ted interjected,
"and why wouldn't Robin answer her phone if she was just waiting for you in Vancouver."
"You are right, it doesn't add up. I will go back to the airport and cross check with the car rental agencies. It'll help to know whether or not they returned the SUV. Can you guys go to Barney and Robin's apartments and check if someone is there? I highly doubt it, but we should still check."
"You got it." Marshall agreed.
"Okay, perfect. I'll call as soon as I know whether or not they left Vancouver."