A/N

This chapter has been a long work in progress, but is by far my favourite in the divorce universe. It's much happier compared to the other ones. Also, I adore the Ellie/Robin relationship. Ellie deserves a mom, and I love that Robin is kinda that figure to her. Please R/R, and enjoy! :)

Your Heart Is Safe With Me

I won't let no tears get near, no baby, I'll be here. And your heart is safe with me.

2034

Robin laughed as she tried to complete the second braid on her niece's head. Ellie wasn't great at sitting still, much like her father. She was wriggly and giggled a lot, telling jokes and commentary that made Robin laugh so hard she messed up the braid and had to start over. This had happened multiple times already, and both girls were trying hard to be silent, but it was just making them laugh harder. Ellie had definitely inherited her father's humour. Not the dirty jokes, but she had the ability to make Robin guffaw with very little effort.

"Elle, you gotta hold still." Robin advised.

"Sorry." Ellie giggled.

As Robin managed to finally complete the second braid, she couldn't help noticing how homely this situation felt. It was alien to her, yet felt like she'd been doing it her whole life. Her relationship with Ellie was fantastic, and she felt like a daughter. She'd never had this good of a relationship with Penny. Maybe it was because Ellie was younger, or because she had never had a mother figure before, but the fourteen-year-old was more willing to let Robin in then Penny ever had.

"Hey Aunt Robin?" Ellie asked, as Robin put a band in the blonde braid.

Robin smiled and shifted on the couch, allowing room for the girl to climb on beside her. She'd been sitting on the floor in front of the couch while Robin worked on her hair. "Yeah Elle?"

"Are you and dad dating?" She asked with such ease and zero hesitation.

Robin shook her head and laughed. "Nope, we're not. Why do you think we are?"

Ellie's face fell slightly. Robin guessed she had been looking forward to potentially getting a stepmother in the near future. She hated to disappoint, but she and Barney hadn't even discussed the possibility of a relationship. Ted and her break up was fresh, the two only being separated for six weeks so far. She had had more fun with Ellie and Barney in those six weeks then she'd had in her entire four year relationship with Ted. "You live here with us, and stuff…"

"I live here because of Uncle Ted and our breakup, honey. I don't have my own apartment yet. You know that."

"And Dad doesn't want you buying an apartment, because he's scared that if you're on your own, Uncle Ted might come over and hurt you because he's mad at you for demanding a divorce." Ellie added.

Robin laughed. "Not quite, Ellie. You and I both know Uncle Ted would never do that."

"But Dad still wants you here because he wants to protect you. Aww, that's actually the cutest thing ever!"

Robin snickered. "You're such a hopeless romantic. Where the heck did you get that from?" Ellie was right, though. Barney was trying to protect her from the Mosby boys. She thought back to a few weeks ago, when she and Barney went to get her stuff.

Four weeks ago

Robin looked over at Barney. He was stubborn and she knew she wasn't going to get her way. She had moved out from Ted's and into Barney's after asking Ted for the divorce. That was two weeks ago. She had left a few belongings at his house, and she wanted to go pick them up. Barney wanted to come with her.

"I'll be fine, Barney! I'll be gone for half an hour, tops."

"Okay, but I'm coming."

She sighed. "I'm perfectly capable of doing it on my own."

"Robin, you're fifty-four years old-"

Ellie looked up from where she was packing her bag in the kitchen while eavesdropping on the conversation. "You're fifty-four!" She exclaimed. "You look like, thirty-nine!"

Robin smiled. "Thanks, Elle."

"Ellie, you're going to be late. Leave, or you'll miss the bus." Barney's dad side took over.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Okay! Okay! I'm going. Bye dad. Bye Aunt Robin."

The two waited for the front door to close before continuing. "-you're fifty-four years old. You're not nearly as strong as you used to be. Luke, he's a sixteen-year-old boy. And before you say he won't do anything, we both know he's capable of hitting you."

"May I speak?" Robin asked. He had kept talking every time she opened her mouth. Barney nodded. "Okay. Say hypothetically, Luke did try to hit me, what would you being there do?"

Barney grinned and pulled a sleeve up, flexing his left arm. "I'm a lot stronger than I used to be. My daughter's a teenage girl, I need to be able to fight off boys. But, I can always use it for disciplining sixteen year old boys."

Robin rolled her eyes, but Barney knew she was trying not to smile. "Okay, okay. You can come."

…

They arrived at the Mosby's house, and Robin walked nervously up to the front door, Barney right behind her. She knocked on the door.

Ted answered. He looked shocked, then angry to see her. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked, furiously.

"I want my stuff." She tried to step past him, but he blocked her.

"Where the hell do you think you're going? This isn't your house anymore. You wrote in the divorce specifically, that any assets in the house are mine."

She rolled her eyes, and tried to step past her. "I just want some clothes."

Ted blocked her again. "No."

"Jesus, Ted. Let her get her stuff." Barney interfered.

Ted looked over at Barney. "Why is he here? Did you feel the need to bring a bodyguard? God, Robin, he doesn't need to protect you from me."

"Oh yeah, because neither you or your son has ever hurt her." Barney snapped. He looked meaningfully at Ted. The day after Robin had shown up crying on his doorstep after Luke had hit her, Barney had come to the Mosby's place after dropping Ellie at school. He found Luke, and threatened him, saying if he ever touched her again, he was dead. Ted had caught him, and had obviously been furious.

"Shut the hell up Barney." Ted replied.

"You shut up. Let her in to get her stuff."

Ted sighed. "Fine. Robin, you have five minutes. I'm checking everything before you leave. And Barney's waiting in the car."

He let Robin in, and Barney pushed him out of the way so he could come in. "I'm not leaving her in the house alone with you. You're really a sick man, Mosby."

Robin ran up to the bedroom she used to share with Ted, Barney following her. He closed the door behind him, and sat on the bed. "It's horrible that that's the man he is now. The man we knew never would've done that."

"I know." Robin sighed. She was on her hands and knees, stuffing her possessions into one of her tote bags. She got clothes, shoes, accessories and a few picture frames. Barney picked out one of the things she pulled out. A photo album. The front was custom made, with a drawing printed on it of a man in a suit and a woman in a dress that was nearly identical to the one Robin wore to their wedding. The woman was holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand, the other one wrapped around her groom's neck as he had his arms around her waist, and his forehead to hers. There was something printed below it in cursive, but it was in a handwriting that was incoherent to Barney.

He smiled, and tried not to laugh. "Hey, Robin. What's this?" He thumbed through it, seeing pictures from their wedding weekend. Along with that, there were dried flowers and labels from scotch bottles.

"Lily gave us that as a late wedding gift. I just never showed you, because it's lame." She went back to sorting through the wardrobe.

Barney pulled it onto his lap and looked at the photos. There must have been at least fifty pages. Lily must have been secretly taking them that whole weekend. The first picture had been taken the day they got to the Farhampton Inn. He and Robin had gone out to the balcony for a pre-dinner drink, and were drinking scotch, while standing at the balcony, his arm around her waist and her head on his shoulder. There were other ones taken in their room while they were both asleep, her snuggled in his arms. Lily's a creep. Barney wondered how she managed to get into their room and take pictures while they were sleeping. He turned to later pages, and saw pictures of the wedding ceremony, and some of them slow dancing at their reception. He smiled. It wasn't lame, and he knew she didn't think it was either. He could tell she'd looked through it a few times.

Back to the present – four weeks later

"Hello? Are you listening?" Ellie asked.

Robin looked up. "Sorry, what?"

"Would it even be such a big deal if you and dad got back together?"

"Back together?" Robin questioned, confused. Barney had never told her that they dated, let alone were married. She knew for a fact that he kept that Robin was his ex-wife a secret from his daughter.

"You were married, duh." Ellie replied, laughing. "You're not that old! You should remember your marriage!"

Robin looked at her niece, still confused. "How…how did you know your dad and I used to be married?"

Ellie shrugged. "Dad tried to hide it from me, but Marvin told me. Plus, there's a photo album at Aunt Lily and Uncle Marshall's with pictures of you guys from your wedding weekend. It's not really a secret. Aunt Lily has showed it to me a few times. You looked really pretty on your wedding day." Lily must have a copy of the photo album she gave to Robin and Barney.

"Thanks." Robin smiled, unsure of what else to say.

"I don't know why you got divorced though. Or any of the story." She looked up at her aunt with pleading blue eyes. "Please tell me."

Robin shook her head. "Sorry, Ellie. Your dad obviously doesn't want you to know, and I should respect his wishes. Besides, you wouldn't understand, honey. You're only fourteen."

"So? I'm not a baby. I'm fourteen. I think that's old enough to understand. Plus, I already know how much dad slept around. I know I was the product of a one night stand with a girl he can't remember the name of. Also, I watch a lot of rom-coms and read Nicholas Sparks, so don't 'you're too young to understand' me."

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you." Robin said. The teenager had a point. "In 2005, your Uncle Ted locked eyes with me across the crowded bar. Your father introduced us and Ted and I danced around our feelings for a few years. Then, your dad and I slept together. He started slowly developing feelings for me, and realized he loved me after he was hit by a bus. A year later, he confessed to Ted, which I overheard. I realised my feelings for him, and after some help from Aunt Lily, we got together. We dated for six months but broke up because we weren't right for each other. Our feelings for each other didn't go away though. A few years later, your dad met another girl named Nora, who he fell in love with, but he screwed things up. A little while after that, just after Aunt Lily fell pregnant with Marvin, your father and I danced at Uncle Ted's friend's wedding. At the time, he was trying to fix things with Nora. I felt the chemistry, but before we kissed, Nora called him back. I fed him lines to tell her which were actually about my real feelings for him. After that happened, I started dating a guy named Kevin. A few months later, I was with Kevin and he was with Nora, and we cheated on them. We decided to tell them because we wanted to be together. I chickened out, but your dad told Nora and they broke up. A few weeks later, we had a pregnancy scare, and that was when I found out about my infertility."

"You're infertile?" Ellie asked quietly. "Is that why you and dad didn't work?"

"Kinda. But it wasn't only about that. I also didn't really want to have kids."

Ellie nodded. "Sorry, go on."

"Kevin proposed to me, but broke it off when I told him I couldn't have kids. Soon after, your dad started dating a stripper named Quinn. They got engaged around the time Marvin was born. By then, I was dating this incredibly stupid but gorgeous man named Nick. Quinn and your dad broke up because they didn't trust each other. I was planning to break up with Nick because we didn't have real feelings for each other, but backed out, so your dad came and delivered this beautiful speech about how we were in love. I thought it was fake, but later found out it was completely real. A few months later, after some weird back and forward feelings, your dad proposed to me, and I found out the last few months were all part of his plan. I said yes, and we got married in May 2013. We were good for a while, but by the time Penny was born, he was thinking about a family, and I wasn't. We started fighting a lot and weren't happy. One morning, we were in Argentina and super hungover, and asking if he wanted out of our relationship just slipped out. He agreed and that was that. It was what he wanted. We got divorced."

"Wow." Ellie whispered when Robin finished. "So, a lot happened."

"Yup."

As Ellie opened her mouth to ask a question, the front door opened and Barney came in. "Hey girls!" He wandered over to the couch and kissed Ellie's head, then hugged Robin. He was so tempted to kiss her too, but behaved himself. She had gone through so much in the past few months. They couldn't start a relationship, no matter how much he wanted to. "What have you been talking about?"

"Aunt Robin was telling me about when you two were married."

"Aunt Robin told you what?" Barney yelled, turning towards Robin.

"I already knew, I just asked her to explain what happened. Aunt Lily isn't very good at hiding things." Ellie replied. Barney calmed and looked apologetically at Robin.

"As long as she isn't telling you bad things about me."

Robin grinned mockingly. "Barn, it's hard not to say bad things about you."

"Take that back right this instant, madam!" He yelled, trying to mask that his heart was melting.

…

Barney looked across the table, wondering if this was making Robin uncomfortable. He hated that she was forced into this date. He knew she wasn't ready, and accepted that. She had only been single for six weeks. And technically, she was still married, as the divorce hadn't even gone through yet. She didn't deserve to have her love life be a constant battle between Barney and Ted, competing. As much as he'd love to get back together again, she had literally dated Ted, then him, then Ted again for a short while, then married him, then married Ted. Barney really wishes he was still married to her. He knew they could've made it work.

But, here they were at the restaurant, on a date with each other, eighteen years after their divorce. The only reason they were here was because Ellie set it up, and neither wanted to disappoint her.

"I'm really sorry, Robin."

She looked up from her meal, confused. "For what?"

"I'm really sorry about what you've had to deal with for the past few years with Ted, and the past few weeks living with my daughter and me. And, for what Ellie did. She shouldn't have set us up on a date. I'm really sorry for that." He hesitated, really wanting to add on, and I'm sorry for letting you go in the first place. I love you, but he bit his tongue. "I just want what's best for you. I want you to be happy."

"I wish we hadn't given up so easily."

Barney sighed. "Me either. I was so selfish. I was jealous of everyone else. You were doing so well in your career, I felt like I never saw you anymore. I was so proud of you, and wanted to spend all my time with you. It wasn't fair that I took my anger out on you when you were stressed. I never should've said yes to the divorce. I'm sorry I was so selfish."

"And I'm so sorry I made you feel like second best to my job. You were always important to me. It was just that weekend in Argentina, I was under a lot of pressure at work. It was all so stressful." She felt herself tearing up, and prayed something would get her out of this situation. She really didn't want to cry right now.

Fortunately, a waiter came over with the cheque. "Can I get you anything else, or are you ready to pay?"

Robin looked up gratefully. "We'll take the cheque, thanks."

The waiter handed her the bill. Robin opened it, and signed the receipt. "Just put it on my tab. Stinson." He nodded and left.

Barney eyed her from across the table, his credit card already in his hand. "I could've gotten it, Scherbatsky."

She waved him off. "It's all good. This place is close to my office, so I come here a lot. Hence why I have a tab."

They got up from the table and started walking back to the apartment. It was only fifteen minutes, and it was a nice night. Barney looked over to Robin. "Hey, how come you never changed your name?" After they got married, she had kept Scherbatsky for on air purposes only, but legally changed her surname to Stinson, and as he discovered recently, she kept it after the divorce.

"You know what a nightmare it was when I changed it the first time. I didn't want to go through the hassle again after we divorced." She explained. It was true. He remembers how hard of a time she had when they got married. "It was something that really pissed Ted off. We fought about it a lot. He's so traditional, and he wanted me to change it to Mosby for on air and legally. I didn't. I like Stinson better anyway. Everyone misspells Scherbatsky."

Barney laughed, and the two kept walking in the direction of the apartment.

…

Ellie leapt off the couch as soon as she heard the door open. She watched her father and aunt enter, eyes gleaming when she saw them holding hands.

"So, how'd it go?" She asked.

Barney smiled. "Good. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be."

"Duh! You guys have been friends since the stone age." She smiled. "But did you have fun? Do you love each other?"

Barney looked at Robin. "We never stopped loving each other, Elle." His voice was quiet.

Ellie grinned. "Bedroom is all yours. Have fun guys, but keep the moaning to a minimum please."

"ELIANA ISOBEL STINSON!" Barney yelled, dropping Robin's hand, and tackling his daughter onto the couch. Robin grinned as she watched the fourteen-year-old squeal and laugh. "Go to bed, you dirty little minx."

"Okay, okay." She giggled. "Night Aunt Robin. Night dad."

Ellie left the room, and Robin sat beside Barney. "I guess it's safe to say we have your daughter's blessing to date."

Barney smiled, and turned to look at her. He couldn't help thinking about how beautiful she is. Even in her fifties she was still gorgeous. He gently pressed his lips to hers gently. To his surprise, she didn't pull away.

She deepened the kiss, then pulled away for a second to mummer, "Let's figure this out later."

"Good plan." He whispered, as he pulled her back in to kiss her again.

…

A/N

I've missed this story so much, but this chapter took a long time to write. Hope you guys enjoyed, and it was always going to end up with Swarkles. You knew that :)