PART 3
beta: roland44
A/N: My cure to the "Barney's dead in the future" theory. =)
"Well, here we are..." Ted fell back into his couch after putting his two kids to bed.
"Yup," Robin said, flipping channels. There was a long silent.
"So did Barney ever?..."
"No, can we not talk about Barney, please?" Her eyes left the television, pleading with him to not breach the subject. Their actions last night; this whole situation... The awkward pain was still too fresh in her memory.
"Okay," Ted agreed. He felt bad. He felt guilty. He felt sad. But right now, he was happy to watch a rerun of 'Law and Order' with his friend.
--
"So, he's still alive?" Linda asked. The girl never gave up, did she? Her mother had the same determination.
"Yes, he's still alive." Robin said hoping it was true.
"Then what happened to him?"
"We... grew apart..." She focussed on the road. Two blocks away from the house, one more 'til there's a right turn, stop sign ahead...
"Does he still talk to Aunt Lily and Uncle Marshall?" Linda continued her questioning.
"Maybe, yes..." She saw the girl nudge her brother. "Why?"
"We want to meet him."
Robin slammed on the breaks.
--
"Barney, I'm sorry. I'm so, so very, very sorry. It was one time and he was just so devastated and then one thing lead to another and – and I'm sorry..." They had met up in a hotel, a nice one, not ridiculously pricey but decent and clean and big and fancy enough.
Barney and Robin hadn't seen each other in three weeks. During which time Barney had worked and traveled and worked, but most of all – most of all he was thinking of her. He was thinking about the fight they had, and about their compromise. She would spend another month helping Ted get back up on his feet and coping with his wife's death, meanwhile he took that offer at work to re-hack at some contract across seas. But he missed her. He missed his girlfriend and he looked forward to their evening calls the same way he looked forward to his next breath.
The first week was fine; a little distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? The second week she had to skip two of their calls. The third week, three more were missed.
He couldn't wait any longer, so he finished early, passed the buck to the new guy – he could handle – and headed home for a surprise visit.
He got a hotel room, booked a romantic dinner and even thought about bringing up that tricky question.
Sure, he felt bad for Ted. Sure, he wanted to help him out. (He paid for most of the hospital bills, didn't he?) But he still had the love of his life, and he wanted to take advantage of it.
That was before he knew what had happened.
--
"What did you tell them?" Lily asked over the bathroom phone.
"Nothing," Robin replied, "what was I supposed to tell them?" Lily stared at her friend, clueless about what to tell her – she knew what she wanted to say but it wasn't what Robin needed to hear – knowing the sensitivity of the issue at hand.
"If you want I could take them to see him..."
"Lily –"
"It's not like they're going to forget about him very easily, and it'll be good for hi –" she managed to stop herself and replace her words without too much trouble, "for them."