Special Skills - Episode 14, The Possimpible

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1. Tingles

She couldn't just leave it with one quick hug. Even as she threw her arms around Ted, squealing, practically bouncing with excitement, Robin felt weird and tingly from touching him.

So she stood in front of Barney, glad and oh-so-grateful and put her hands on her hips because she was so giddy that she didn't know what to do with them. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, feeling light, so light, like she could float away. She sighed, willing herself to sink back to earth a little. She just couldn't help it though. The enthusiasm bubbled inside her and she was grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh God… How did you pull this off?" She asked him.

He shrugged, of course, too cool to let on how hard he'd worked for this - for her. But she knew, of course. Oh yeah, she knew. "I am the master of the possimpible…" He replied with a wry smile, stretching out his hands.

She nodded. He really was.

"You really are…" She said, a little tearfully. "Thank you." She reached out, fingers touching the soft cloth of his jacket, one hand sliding around him of its own accord until she could pull him in for a hug, a real hug, a thank-you hug. She held him tightly, both arms wrapped around his neck and let the tingle spread through her, warming her. God… if only she could stay here, stay in his arms, enveloped…

Robin felt his arm hook around her back, felt the chill of the beer bottle he held as it bumped her side. Then he was stroking her hair, close, so close as she buried her face in his neck.

This wasn't a thank-you hug.

She slowly pulled away to see that he was smiling - a soft, genuine smile and something twisted a little inside her stomach.

She told herself not to be so stupid. But the tingles didn't go away.

2. Dance off

Much later, when Barney had gone home and Lily and Marshall were saying their goodbyes, Robin went into her room, put "Let's go to the Mall" on her iPod and began to dance. At first, she just kind-of jumped up and down like a mad thing, throwing her arms and legs around, trying to burn off the tension of the last three days. Then once she got a rhythm going, she began to remember some of the old dance moves, the choreography she'd learned over an intensive twenty-four hours as a teenager and that still felt natural to her ten years later.

She was so involved that she didn't hear the door open and didn't realise anyone was there until she stopped spinning around.

"Hey," Marshall said with a wry smile. "Guess I'm not the only one who does that?"

Robin pulled out her ear-buds and laughed, her cheeks colouring. "Oh God…"

Marshall waved a hand at her. "Nah, don't be embarrassed. Just watch you don't get an injury, yeah?" He winked. He looked like he was itching to join her.

She shoved her iPod into its dock and switched it on. "I think you know this one?" She said as the poppy sound of Robin Sparkles blared from the speakers.

Marshall laughed and they both started pogo-ing, laughing hysterically and drawing the attention of Ted and Lily. "Come on guys!" Ted said, laughing.

"Marshall!" Lily protested, wrapping her coat around her. "You'll hurt yourself!"

But both of Lily and Ted started goofing around, dancing just outside the door to Robin's bedroom (avoiding Marshall's flailing limbs) and singing along to the familiar tune.

"It's a shame Barney's missing this!" Ted shouted above the music, taking Lily's hand and spinning her around. "The first live performance from Robin Sparkles since the early nineties! And it's not even in a Mall!"

Marshall slowed down a bit, gulping for air. "Yeah, that's what he must have meant!"

The track finished, to be followed by the first strains of "Sandcastles...". Robin hurriedly switched off the iPod just as Ted asked. "What's what who must have meant?"

Marshall grinned, sweating as Lily pulled him into a hug. "Barney! You know, when he said he couldn't use the footage of Robin that he already has. He must have meant the Robin Sparkles video."

Robin frowned. She'd forgotten all about that comment, what with the stress of interviews and imminent deportation. Damn Marshall and his lawyer's memory.

"Yeah, it was either that or a sex tape!" Lily declared, laughing.

Robin gulped, looking up nervously at Ted, expecting him to scowl. The whole her-and-Barney-hooking-up-thing was still a delicate subject between them.

But weirdly, Ted laughed as hard as Lily did.

3. Ominous

Robin went to visit Barney the next evening, to tell him all about the first meeting she'd had with her new employers. She still felt like something was lodged inside her, like something was unfinished between them.

He got her a glass of chilled white wine and sat her down on his couch. She felt a little awkward asking him about the tape, what with him just having saved her ass and everything.

"Barney…" She began, taking a large sip of her wine.

"Ooo, that sounds ominous!" He said, flippantly.

"What does?"

"That tone. Sounds ominous." He flashed her a pin-ball grin.

"Well, it's not. I just need to ask you something."

He sat back and spread his hands in front of him, casually.

"It's about that sex tape..." She began.

He was immediately alert. "Really? What sex tape? Scherbatsky… Did you make a porno? Was I right all along… God! I'm going to get Marshall back for that one… What do you think's fair? Fifteen slaps? Twenty?"

"Barney, shut up," She said, crossing her arms. "I meant the sex tape you said you have. Of us!"

He froze and for a split second a look of guilt flashed across his face.

"Oh my god!" She said, feeling a little ill. "You do have one!"

"No I don't."

"You do! I saw that look, Stinson. That's so gross, I can't even-"

"Robin, I swear I don't have a sex tape... of us!" He said, his voice panicky.

"Oh really," She drawled. "So if I was to check, say, your iPhone!" She grabbed it from him and darted across the room. "I wouldn't find it on there?"

"Not of you!" He chased after her.

"Oh yeah?" She said, trying to navigate through the damn thing while simultaneously keeping it out of his reach. Wow, there were a lot of numbers on his phone…

"Robin, give that back…" He said in a low, dangerous tone.

"What's this?" She said, flipping through the videos. Ew! And Ew! "Barney, it's not as if you haven't shown me videos of your skanky bimbos before…"

"Robin, I'm serious. Give it back!" He lunged at her just as she saw her own face on the screen for a split second and he grabbed at the phone. It flew out of her hands and time seemed to slow down as both of their eyes followed its path through the air until it smashed against the wall.

"Oh. God…" She said, hand covering her mouth.

Barney bent down to pick up the pieces. He looked utterly bereft.

Robin found herself giggling, partly out of hysteria, partly out of guilt. "Oh, dear lord. Barney, I'm so sorry."

He stood there, looking at the broken phone in his hands, not at her.

She shrugged. "But hey, you deserved that. I saw my face on your phone. I want the original copy of that sex tape and I want it now."

Barney shook his head. "Wasn't a sex tape."

She scowled at him. "Barney…"

Barney sighed and dropped the broken iPhone into the trash can. "Robin, I promise you. I never made a sex tape of us."

"Then what was that-?"

"One of your crappy teenage pop star videos, probably…" His voice was dull, weird.

"Barney!"

He looked up sharply and frowned. "It was probably one of your old Metro News One shows."

"What?" She laughed. "Why would you have those on your phone?" She moved closer to him with a neutral expression. She wasn't sure that she believed anything he was saying.

He closed his eyes briefly. "I downloaded a couple. You know, to see if there was anything salvageable for your video resume."

It was a lie, she knew. You couldn't download her old news reports from anywhere. They weren't worth the network archiving them! But Robin didn't call him on it. Barney looked so strange. So awkward. Like he had been a few weeks before when she and Ted had hooked up.

Something tickled the edge of her consciousness. Something just out of reach.

"Uh, right…" She said, shrugging. "So, no sex tape."

"No sex tape," He said with a slight smile that would have made her suspicious even without him freaking out about his phone.

"Okay, well… I guess I gotta go…" She said, backing away. "I'll uh, see you tonight?"

He shrugged. "Sure. See you around Scherbatsky."

She couldn't just leave it like this. "And hey, now I've got this new job, I'll replace your phone, okay?"

He looked confused then shook his head. "Nah, work'll take care of that. Don't stress it."

She stood and looked at him. She felt a weight between them - of stuff that was unresolved. What she wanted to do was give him a goodbye hug. What she wanted was tingles.

What she did was turn around and walk out the door with a casual wave.

She got a text from him about five minutes after she left his place so she called him. "Wow, new cellphone already? That was fast..."

She could practically hear him grin. "Robin... didn't you hear? I'm awesome."

Robin laughed fondly. Perhaps tingles were a bad thing. There were a hell of a lot of numbers in his phone. "You know, I did hear that somewhere." She grinned. "You're a good friend, Barney."

He snorted. "A good friend who happens to have a sex tape of you..." She could hear something in the background. It sounded like... heavy breathing... Son of a bitch!

"Barney-!"

"Robin, I'm kidding!" He laughed. "Jesus, you're no fun any more!"

"I'm going to get you for that!"

"Promises, promises..." He said with a filthy chuckle.

It gave her tingles. God damn it!