A/N: Wow, you guys are great! Thanks for the alerts and reviews, keep them coming please! I would have had this up earlier, but the family came down and visited this weekend, so here it is now! Enjoy, and tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: As if I owned How I Met Your Mother. If I did, Barney and Robin would never have broken up, and the show would be on at least twice a week. Quote belongs to A.A. Milne, he of the awesomely quotable books.

Chapter 3: With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept

There is only one rain cloud in the sky...and it's raining on me. Somehow I'm not surprised.

"Seriously, though, what kind of business trip happens in the middle of the week?"

Barney sighed. The same question had been on repeat since he had told Robin he had to leave for an out of town meeting on Wednesday.

"Once again Robin, I could tell you, but that would be violating several international trade agreements, two non-disclosure clauses and just generally ruffling a lot of feathers. Besides, you zone out in like two minutes whenever I talk about work."

"I do not!" she huffed indignantly.

With a withering look, Barney turned to his girlfriend, wrapping an arm lazily around her waist.

"Okay then, Ms. Concentration. What is the trade agreement we signed two days ago that I spent an hour telling you about called?"

"The...it has something to do with.....it's about...trade....?"

Barney chucked, uncharacteristic warmth in his eyes, giving Robin a kiss on the head.

"Not impressed Scherbatsky. Where's the hot journalist chick who said she was a dirty girl on public television?"

With mock outrage, Robin squirmed out of Barney's embrace.

"Keep talking like that and you will never see her again."

"Beg to differ. I see her quite a lot."

"When is that?"

Barney chucked and gave his usual flippant "Oh, please."

Grinning, Robin smacked Barney playfully on the arm, but the smile quickly disappeared when he let out a quick cry, and his face paled.

Startled, Robin grabbed at his sleeves, preparing to roll them up.

"Dude, what's wrong? That was a girly scream and I barely touched you."

With a look in his eyes that was almost panic, Barney tore Robin's hands away from his sleeves, yanking them back down, but not before she caught a glimpse of dark, bruised skin.

"Barney..." Robin insisted, trying to claw his hands away and get back at his sleeves. "What is that?"

"Nothing," Barney insisted. "Just smacked myself a little bit. Can't hold me down. Thousand percent fully awesome, that's me, Scherbatsky."

"How did you smack yourself in the arm, Barney? To make that kind of a mark you'd actually have to literally hit yourself in the arm, and even you aren't that insane."

"I'm fine," Barney stressed, irritation tingeing his voice. "It's a little bump, it's nothing."

"....and that's a bad bruise, like someone beat you up in a cage fight or something..." Robin's eyes lit up "Have you been cage fighting? Like, just you and another guy...." her eyes glazed over at this point "...fighting to the death or something?"

Barney looked at her wonderingly. "You need help, and no."

Robin's eyes snapped back to the present, as she absently stroked Barney's shirt sleeve.

"You've been acting weird lately, dude. Disappearing randomly, you're always pale and tired and you...actually, you barely drink anymore. You can't lash out at me for being concerned."

"You're not being concerned, you're being paranoid," Barney mumbled, under his breath like a small child. "

Robin threw up her hands in exasperation. "Fine. Act like a five year old. But believe it or not, at certain points, this is actually a relationship, and acting like it wouldn't kill you. And unless I'm very wrong, one of the things couples do is tell each other things."

Barney looked up at Robin, his blue eyes shining with laughter. "So Scherbatsky, you are a girl after all."

Not to be deterred, Robin simply shot Barney a glare. Lacing her fingers through his, she looked directly into his eyes.

"If there was something wrong, you would tell me, right?"

Barney's stomach twisted in a knot that was, for once, not caused by nausea. He despised lying to Robin so much, but his treatment for the past few weeks had side effects that were getting harder and harder to hide. His arms were sore and bruised from all the needle sticks, he was pale and withdrawn, and he could barely get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes, when he and Robin were lying in his bed late at night (horribly domestic, he realized), all he wanted was to tell her about the cancer. The words would rise in his throat; the first syllable would fall off his lips...

But then he looked down at Robin's peaceful face, and his mind jumped to the future, to what would happen should he tell her. The look of pity, combined with sadness and a hint of disgust, was something he could barely stand to look at. He pictured her leaning over his bed, bringing him food, changing his sheets, giving him medication, and in every picture, her face wore that same expression. It was all he could do not to tell her to get as far away from him as fast as possible. Sometimes those were the words that sprung to his lips.

So as much as he hated lying to her, he knew he was protecting her. Not now. She couldn't find out now. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Yes," he whispered. "I'd tell you.

A/N#2: So that was kind of a filler chapter. But hopefully it should set up some of the important stuff. I hope I got more into Barney's reasoning for not telling anyone. On the surface, it seems stupid, but he wouldn't want anyone to pity him enough to rearrange their life for him.

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