She wasn't going to call him, at least for a week, ok maybe not a week, that was too long, at least a few days then. But he was alone, ok she wouldn't call today, one day. She could do that, all she had to do was keep busy enough. But she should call him and tell him she wasn't calling, afterall they had not talked for a couple of weeks and that had culminated with them sleeping together.

Maybe he wouldn't pick up and she could just leave a message.

It went straight to the machine. Great, result, but at the same time, where was he?

She didn't leave a message, she would just try again later.

By 11am she had tried him four more times and Carl at the bar, and the rest of the gang, nothing, and he hadn't picked up and no one had seen him, the office phone was going to a pre-recording, his secretary kept giving her the run around until she remembered the codeword "manatee", and then she informed her he hadn't come in the last couple of days, and that she was rescheduling everything to cover him, she suggested he was probably in Vegas. planning the wedding.

That sounded plausible, he could still be on the flight, and that could be why the phone wasn't picking up, the more she thought about it though, the more it didn't feel right.

John came by to take her out to lunch, she tried to put Barney in the back of her mind, but found her mind kept going back to him, she wasn't listening to anything John was saying, but she put on her best game face and somehow got through it.

After lunch she tried calling again, still nothing. She tried the airline, but they weren't helpful. She tried the office again, asking if the secretary had any idea of where they were thinking of having the wedding, she wasn't sure, but did know that Quinn had taken a room at the Bellagio, Robin hung up frustrated, the information could have come sooner.

She called the Bellagio, Quinn had checked out, Barney wasn't there, and the Stinson wedding rehearsal dinner that had been scheduled at one of the restaurants had been cancelled. After a bit of pressure, she got the name of the wedding planner. The wedding planner informed her rather rudely that the wedding was off. Robin was shocked, and now really worried.

She took off early, and went to his apartment, maybe the doorman knew something.

She didn't even have to tip him, "They had a big fight this morning, and she threw him out."

"She was here?"

"She returned this morning, the super was a witness."

Robin was mortified, was she responsible for their breakup. "Do you know where he went? He hasn't been answering his phone."

"I asked if I could call him a cab, he refused and just walked off, let me get you the super."

The super was a little more helpful, "I don't think he had it with him, all he had was the clothes on his back, I grabbed his coat, but it wasn't pretty, we had to get out of there."

"Ok, ok, here's my number, the next time she leaves the building, you're going to enter the apartment, get a couple suits and his phone and call me."

"I can't do that "

"You can and will"

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to track him down and get them back together."

"I'm not sure you should Miss, I don't think, she was not in a good place, and he..."

"I'm responsible for this mess, and I've been responsible for far too many messes in his life by now, this one I'm going to fix."

Robin walked a few blocks to be completely clear of the building and then started dialing every other number she had, his mom, his dad, James, his favorite strip bars, his suit guy, his dry cleaners, his guy guy, finally Tom (James' husband) called her.

Barney had shown up in front of their door an hour ago, he hadn't said much, and Tom hadn't been able to get much out of him, at first he had avoided Sadie, and then had had a stand off with Tom, wherein he refused to let her go. After finally giving her up, he had gone outside and sat in the backyard.

It was a couple hours later when Robin got there, the sun had almost completely set. She greeted Tom at the door, and went outside to where James was sitting on the grass next to Barney, who was lying on the ground. James got up when he saw her, she had filled him and Tom in as much as she could on her way.

"Has he said anything?"

"Not much, the first couple of hours he didn't say a thing, then he asked if he could hold Sadie again, I was willing but she was scared. I think maybe Quinn is pregnant?"

Robin didn't respond, James nodded in understanding.

"I don't think this is about that though." she replied.

"Ok. See if you can get anything out of him."

Robin approached Barney, he didn't flinch in her presence and a part of her was relieved, his lack of panic meant she hadn't just wasted the day tracking him down herself. She sat down, taking James' place. "Would I really have been a terrible father?"

Robin's heart raced, surely Quinn wasn't completely cutting him off, not from his child as well, bad father or not, this was way too much damage.

"I think it was the worse thing I have ever done to a woman."

"We didn't actually do anything."

He looked up at her in confusion, then smiled a little and took her hand, "Not that," He held his breath, let go of her hand and started again, "She figured it out," he turned his face away from her, "That I didn't want to be, to be a father."

Robin tried to say something but words escaped her.

"It's worse, she came home this morning, and she was barely through the door and we were arguing again, and then she went to the bathroom, and everything changed." Barney covered his eyes. "but instead of being there for her. I was relieved." Robin looked confused "and I'm still, I mean what I did to her was the worst thing I could have done, but I'm still, if was just going so fast ."

"She's not pregnant anymore," it dawned on Robin. she felt a huge relief as well, like she had been holding her breath for a weeks now.

"I lost her."

"Maybe, this is a lot for one day, let me take you home."

"I can't go home, she's still there, "

"You can't stray here, the kids are traumatized already. "

"Why am I so bad at this? "

"Kids? "

"Relationships."

"You're not as bad as you think you are, just have lousy luck"

"And timing."

"Come back to the city me, you can a stay the night at my place ."

"I can get a room near here,"

"I want you nearby so I can keep a eye on you, it took me all day to chase you down,"

"I'm not ready for the city right now,"

"OK, I'm going to go, work in the morning."

He grabbed her hand "Robin."

"You want me to stay. OK, just this once more. "

Robin went off to call John, got his machine and lied to it "So, I'm sorry to be calling this late, but Lily had a big fight with Marshall, and we're having a girls night in."

She then called Lily to fill her in as her alibi. she got another machine "OK so i found him, he was at James', things with him have gone rather north, not sure if he's going to be himself for a while, I'll fill you in when I get back to the city ."

They never did end up leaving James' house that night, James wouldn't hear of it. she took the couch, and gave Barney the guest bedroom, but after a couple hours when she still couldn't sleep,

"Screw it, " She snuck up, and got into bed beside him. He shifted onto his other side and wrapped his arm around her, "Barney?" He was still asleep, she was going to move, then thought it would be one more night with Quinn for him, she didn't know if she could actually get Quinn back, but she could give him this one night.

That morning when he woke up she was still there, asleep and intertwined in his arms, he should have moved but opted to stay, and for a few minutes she was the only other person in the world .

Robin woke up in a hurry, she wanted to make it to work by midday, and she had to go home and get changed first. the only thing she slowed a little down for was saying bye to Barney,

"Promise me you'll be better today,"

He didn't respond, she continued, "at least come back to the city, we'll go to the bar tonight, or the guys can take you to a strip club, just come home, the commute from here is killer for both of us."

Barney smiled "Both? "

"You think I'm going to leave you alone in the suburbs? "

Barney played with sleeve on her dress, "OK, I'll think about, but I think I may go see my dad today."

"Call me throughout the day ,"

She hugged him probably a little longer than she should have, his suit smelled vaguely of lawn clippings. she took a little step back to look him in the eyes, they were so full of emotion, she shivered a little.

As soon as she left the house, she called Lily and made plans to meet her and Marshall for lunch. Ted was a little harder to persuade, he wanted to bring Victoria, but that just seemed to be too many people.

Just before lunch she called James, she was hoping Barney would have come into the city after all, but thought he had probably gone to his fathers. James confirmed he had left to go to his dad's. She then called his dad, who hadn't seen him, but promised to call as soon as he did. She cursed the super for not having called her yet.

As she was headed out the door to go to lunch with everyone, John stopped her, "I missed you, you've been gone so long. Let's go to lunch, I know a great Dim Sum place." She smiled, after all the craziness yesterday, it was nice to have something so much more calming, for a few seconds she considered ditching her friends and going out with him, but just as she was allowing herself to be seduced, her phone rang. It was the super, she bid John goodbye, saying she was already late, and promised a rain check for tonight, in the back of her mind she knew she had to get Barney's phone to him tongiht, she couldn't deal with a rerun of yesterday.

She had just enough time to stop by the super's and pick everything up. Quinn's friends had taken her out, Robin picked up the suits and the phone.

"What about underwear, socks, shoes? Is this all you got?"

"Hey, I shouldn't be up there at all. "

"Ok," Robin said walking towards the elevator.

"Where are you going?"

Robin went up to the apartment, Quinn had thrown it apart, three of his favorite suits were shredded on the floor of the living room, her clothes were all over the place, there were candles still burning, some of the new wallpaper was peeling, showing the plink stuff underneath, Robin just ignored it and started packing. She went into the bathroom for a few essentials and it seemed every towel they had was wet and in the tub. The was still spots of blood on the floor, she winced and looked away.

There were also still two toothbrushes by the sink, Robin took that as a good sign.

She was about to leave the apartment when the door opened, Quinn walked in. There was nowhere to hide and no good excuses. So she just said, "I'm sorry this happened. "

Quinn responded "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just picking up a couple things, he's sorry too, he feels terrible. "

"I don't really want to hear it."

"He was just having such a hard time, and he didn't know how to tell you he wasn't ready."

"Wasn't ready? Wasn't ready? He proposed to me."

Robin didn't say anything

"You don't mean that do you? You know, don't you? He told you, I asked him not to tell anyone, my mother didn't know, my best friend didn't know, and he told you."

"He was scared he wouldn't be good enough. He loves you, he just wasn't ready."

"He wasn't ready, when exactly was he going to be ready? I don't know why I'm even talking to you."

"No, you're right, you should talk to him, I just feel a little responsible."

"Responsible? Why would you feel like that? Why would you?"

"Nothing, no reason, he just talked to me instead of you, that's all."

"Oh my god, there other night, he didn't just sleep in the bed, he wasn't alone, I thought I smelled something, you were here, weren't you?" Quinn took a step towards Robin, Robin took a step back. The last thing Robin remembered was Quinn shouting "Bitch." and jumping towards her, She woke up in the elevator with the doormen standing over her.

"I think it's time you go." he said.

"What happened?" she asked.

"She knocked your clock out, and instructed me not to let you in again. I think should go."

"I just wanted to get them back together again."

"I don't think, that's not something you should be doing. This building hasn't seen this much drama since, well, since Mr. Stinson was dating."

Robin smiled, "You're right."

Robin got up, her head was spinning again, but for completely different reasons this time.

"She locked herself into the bedroom, while I was getting you out, and I managed to sneak this out." He produced the suitcase.

Robin smiled again, "Thank you, and don't worry, I'll keep my distance." She took the suitcase, walked into the lobby, and called Lily.

"Listen Lily, Barney is at his dad's house, and I think he needs to tell you everything that's happened himself. "

"Ok, we can go out there, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I think I am, This is just too much of someone else's drama for me right now."

"Ok, sweetie, don't worry we got this, is there anything you want us to tell him?"

"There's something I want you to give him, can you swing by his apartment and pick it up from the super?"

"Is that all?"

There was a pause in the conversation,

"No, well, ok tell him to call me."

She hung up, and called John, "I changed my mind, take me out to lunch."

Later that night when Barney showed up at his dad's, he rang the doorbell unsure of what he would say, on one hand he would give anything not to disappoint his father by breaking the news, on the other he wanted his advice, how had he been able to turn his life around and become the father he now was. His dad opened the door, "Come in son, I've heard you've had a tough couple of days,"

It was more than he could take, he took a couple steps inside, Marshall, Lily and Ted were already there.

They embraced him in a group hug. "How much do you know?" Barney asked.

"Not much," Ted responded. "We know you were at James' last night, and by the suitcase Robin arranged, we know Quinn is at the apartment."

"Robin isn't here? Is she coming?"

"No, she asked you call her." Lily produced his cell phone. "We haven't charged it."

He held his phone and blurted out quickly. "She lost it, the baby."

They all huddled again and started telling him they were sorry.

"That's not the part, I didn't want her to, I mean, I wasn't ready for it. Any of it, I wasn't ready to be a father, and I was relieved when she lost it, and she saw my face, she knew how I felt, that I had been going along with things, I don't think that's a path I should ever go down. What kind of father would I be?"

They all insisted he would have made a great father,

"And now I've lost her, and I don't think she can come back from this one."

No one else in that room thought he had a chance with Quinn, but none of them said anything about it.

Until his father said "Maybe she wasn't the one."

"How do you know if she is?"

"There's no simple answer to that, you'll just know, there's nothing else in the world like it."

"Let's go out." Ted suggested.

"I'm not ready for out yet."

"At least let us take you home." Marshall followed.

"We can be two single guys on the town together."

"What about Victoria?" Lily asked.

"It's fine, we're fine, I don't know, she's been sort of distant lately, I could use a night out." Ted said, turning back towards Barney.

"I'm not ready for the city either. Plus Quinn may be camped out at my place still. "

"Stay with me." Ted insisted. "I specialize in broken hearts. "

"Is that what I have?" He turned towards his father. "Can I stay here?"

"If that's what you want, of course son."

Marshall patted his shoulder, "You have a place with us as well."

"A part of me just wants to leave it all behind. Reinvent myself again."

There was no response to that.

They let him stay behind.

After they left, and when he was set up in another guest bedroom, he went through the suitcase and found his charger, he put his phone to charge. The last 48 hours had collected quite a few texts and voicemails, Robin really had tried everyone, The messages seemed from everyone except Quinn.

A little after midnight a text came in.

"Call me in the morning."