AN: First of all, big thank you to the guys who answered to my post about the weird codes in two of my chapters. The problem should be solved now, I hope you can read the chapters properly now. My mistake: I saved the documents on a cloud and not on my laptop which seems to have been a big mistake.
I hope you guys will continue to read my story, despite this mistake. R&R
(I didn´t want to drag the hospital scenes out too long, so I hope you won´t mind the time jump)
Barney and Robin rush to the hospital as fast as they can. They storm into James´ room and see a nurse standing right next to James´ bed. His eyes are open, but he looks horrible. As soon as he sees his brother his eyes lighten up and he tries to smile. It comes out as a rather crooked smile, but for Barney it´s one of the best smiles he´s ever seen.
"Hey!"
"Hi", James answers.
"How do you feel?"
"Tired", James states the obvious as he has to try very hard to keep his eyes open.
The nurse interrupts them, "Mr. Stinson still needs a great deal of rest. You might want to come back later."
TWO WEEKS LATER
"You don´t have to stay any longer, Robin. My mom and James are on the road to recovery now and I think I can manage to look after them until they can look after themselves again."
"Barney, please. I´ve told you that I want to support you. Just accept it, you can´t get rid of me. And I was in New York for work last week."
"It´s not about work. I want you to rest a little bit. You drove to New York, stayed there for two days and came back right after that. You should do something fun and relaxing as well."
"You don´t do anything fun and relaxing either."
"Yeah, true. But it´s my family."
"Yes and you are my friend."
"You are veryyyyy nice to your friends."
"Haha. Talking about friends…."
"No!"
"You don´t even know what I want to say!"
"Yes, I do. You want to tell Ted, Lily and Marshall what happened."
"Well…yes!"
"Robin, no! I mean it."
"Barney, listen to me. Just for a sec."
"Second´s over!"
Robin rolls her eyes at him, but continues to talk, "I know you always want to be legendary and want your friends to believe you have such an adventurous, mysterious life and that they are not worried when you are just disappearing for a few weeks, but this situation is different. Your family was in an accident and you could need some moral support."
"I´ve got you. That´s all I need."
"But you didn´t even tell me by your own choice. You waited forever to tell me about the accident."
"Because I didn´t want to bother you. And I don´t want to bother my friends."
"Oh come on, you bother them all the time."
Barney makes a face at her, "Touché. But not when it´s concerning stuff like that."
Robin sighs. She has no idea, why Barney is so stubborn. Ted, Lily and Marshall have already called a few times and Barney doesn´t answer them. When she was in New York the week before, she met them at the bar shortly because Ted flooded her with calls and messages. When Lily asked her, where she has been lately, she stammered something about work. It got even worse, when Lily asked, if she knows anything about Barney´s whereabouts. When Ted commented on that question with "Probably banging some bimbos", Robin got pretty mad and answered harshly, "Maybe he is working a lot or visiting his mother or James."
That has been a big mistake. All of them looked at her like she has gone crazy for reacting so harshly and wondered about Robin knowing about Barney´s family.
"You guys have talked a lot, huh?", Marshall asked.
"What? Why?", Robin tried to play it down and act like it´s not a big deal.
"Because you know Barney has a brother. And obviously you also know he only has contact with his mother, but not with his father", Lily pointed out.
"He mentioned it on his birthday. He talked to them on the phone.
Marshall and Ted seemed to buy her excuse, but Lily eyed her suspiciously. She didn´t answer any more questions though and they dropped that special topic.
Robin stops her chain of thoughts and turns her attention back to Barney, "Should I tell them?"
Now, it´s Barney´s turn to roll his eyes, "No, I´m good."
"Okay. But what do I tell them, when they ask me where I am? You are aware that I´m a news anchor and although my show is on awfully early, I think Ted watches it. They will get suspicious when I´m not on TV, but keep telling them I can´t come to the bar for a drink because I´m working so much."
"Tell them you´re in Canada to visit your family."
"Ha!", Robin suddenly points her finger at him.
"Ha what?", Barney asks confused.
"You didn´t tell me to go back to New York to spend time with them which means you totally want me to stay here with you, although you said I should go before."
Barney smiles, "Fine. You got me. I really like that you are here with me, but I don´t want you to hang around here, if it´s too much for you."
"It´s not too much. Your mom and James are getting better every day and they don´t need that much help. Plus, I´m totally capable of cooking soup or ordering pizza and help them to go from one room to another."
Barney chuckles, "I know. The chicken soup with cocoa powder in it was one of a kind."
"For the hundredth time: I thought it was pepper! It´s not my fault you keep cocoa powder in cans next to the salt!"
"But you can read, right?", Barney teases her.
She pokes him in the ribs and Barney laughs.
Later that day, Barney and Robin sit at the dining table with Loretta and James. They do some small talk and enjoy their meals, when they hear the ringtone of an I-phone. Barney doesn´t answer it, but a few minutes later they hear the ringtone again. Eventually, Barney gets up and picks up the phone, "Go for Barney"
"Barney? Why are you answering Robin´s phone? Where are you?", a confused Ted asks.
Barney drops the phone like a hot potato. He should have known that someday, it would be a problem that both him and Robin have an I-phone with the same ringtone.
