TNV5: Argentina

After a the long flight, Robin was eager to check into the hotel and crash. She'd gotten some sleep in on the plane, but it wasn't substantial enough to last her more then a few stops.

Fortunately for her, and all of them (she assumes), they were able to wrap up all their preparations in one stop.

"Beer!" Marshal announces, placing a ridiculously large carton of it on the counter.

"Will that be it for you today, good sir?" The clerk asks.

Marshal looks back to the rest of then. No objections.

"That's it." He nods.

Once that they'd collected all the necessities they'd need for the week- oh, and their luggage too... The group waited as Barney made arrangements for them to be picked up. As much as Robin wanted to give up waiting and sleep on the ride there, she knew she's get a better rest if they'd gotten to the hotel first. Besides; even if she'd wanted to, it was impossible to sleep with Lily's ever-so /subtle/ hints.

"Wow, isn't this great you guys?" Lily gleams. "This is the kinda trip you just /dream/ about going on, right?"

"Um, okay?" Barney questions.

"Baby are you feeling alright? You didn't catch some wired sky sickness, did you?" Marshal questions, cautiously placing his hand over Lily's forehead.

"Oh I'm fine!" Lily insists, swatting his hand away.

"You're sure you're feeling okay?" Ted checks, just to be sure.

"Like a dream." Lily nods.

Robin flinches this time.

"Oh check it out- you can see the ocean from here." Ted notes, ignoring Lily's strange behavior for now.

"You guys think we'll be able to make a trip to the beach before dark?" Marshal asks.

"Psh!" Lily laughs. "In your dreams!

"Yeah, i guess you have a point." Marshal sighs. "But we can go tomorrow, right?"

"Don't see why not."

"Sure." Ted shrugs.

Lily taps Robin on the shoulder. "You're coming too, right?"

Robin looks at her- her question not quite registering right away.

"I mean, you're not gonna stay all cooped-up in the hotel all day, right?"

"Wouldn't dream of it..." Robin grumbles.

Though she'd claimed otherwise, she almost did want to remain in the hotel, and for the entire week. She was really starting to regret her decision now that she was here. /Gotta relax. Obviously Lily's ready for me to talk about this but... Am i?/ she sighs to herself. /looks like i'll have to be if i want to make it through the week./ already she'd made a commotion of things- first with passing out on the side of the road, and then by claiming she wasn't coming along. Now that she was here- and even before that, she knew her friends would understand if she'd just explained her situation. Still, they'd been so accommodating as of late. For now, she'd speak to Lily, and hopefully go from there.

First, though...

It took less than a minute for Robin to fall asleep once they'd arrived at their room. She literally dropped her bags on the floor and herself on the bed, and she was out. Barney explained on the ride over that she was the odd one out by random draw, so she got a room to herself. She couldn't have been happier, too. Right now, all she really needed this trip was to wind down and-

*knock knock knock*

...

*BANG BANG BANG*

"Whaaaaaat...?" Robin moans from a half-conscious state. Who the hell was knocking already?

"We're headed out to dinner. Are you gonna come with?" Ted asks from the other side of the door.

/Dinner...?/ "Ted we ate on the plane." She grumbles, lazily sitting up.

"Yeah. That was like yesterday." He reminds. Then, there's a pause. "You didn't sleep all did, did you...?"

Now she was awake. She grabs at the alarm next to her bed- wait... No electricity here. Right. She sifts through her things for a watch instead, while answering "uh- no! I've just... Been having so much fun here time flew by." She gives up on the watch, and checks herself in the mirror quickly. /dreads... hair beads... check/ she goes to answer the door.

...wait...!

She zooms back, nearly stumping over her feet as she once again checks her reflection. She was relieved when she saw, staring back at her, her hair was in a ratty, /non-beaded/ mess as if she'd just rolled out of bed.

"Robin?" Ted calls, knocking once more.

...or, she WAS relieved for a couple of seconds. She tumbles to the ground to search her bag for a brush, but Ted had already entered.

"Wow, you really have been having some fun!" He laughs. "Did you already go swimming?"

Robin pauses. "Uh- yes! And, um- that would be, you know..." She runs her hand up the side of her head. "why my hair looks like a disaster."

"It's alright, i got ya." Ted smirks. "I'll tell the gang you need a couple more minutes to get ready."

"Oh- um, okay." Robin nods. "Hey, what room are you guys in? I'll stop by when i'm ready to go?"

He holds up his finger, signaling her to wait a moment as he pulls his room key out of his back pocket. "We are in room 13B, aaaand... Marshal and Lily are just across the hall from us." He explains.

"Got it." She nods again.

"So how was it?"

She looks at him.

"...the beach? Was it crowded, or...?"

"Oh!" She says, as if to recall her 'trip'. In reality, she was recalling her trip from before. "Not at all. We, um, should all go after dinner."

After that, Ted left Robin to get ready. /get ready... More like wallow in fear. I can't go back to that beach! And i already lied and told Ted i was there today. There's no getting out of this one.../

She's just have to talk Lily into staying behind with her. Unfortunately, she knew exactly how to convince her.

"Of course we can talk about 'that thing' that was bothering you." Lily says sympathetically. "I'll just pretend i caught that plane-sickness or whatever that Marshal was worried about."

"Right!" Robin complies. "And as your best friend, i /have/ to stay behind to make sure you're feeling better."

"And we just /couldn't/ ask the guys to put off their dinner, so they'll just /have/ to go without us."

Robin puts her hands up to visibly shrug. "I suppose so." She laughs, and loses the sarcastic tone. "Thanks Lil."

Lily playfully nudges her on the arm. "No problem."

Just then, Marshal returned to the room. "You ladies ready to go?"

"Uh- ooooooh... Ahhhhg..." Lily moans, and Robin immediately puts on her concerned face. "Marshal sweetie, i think i caught something on the plane. You guys will just have to go without me." She crunches herself over with her arms crossed over her stomach.

"Oh no..." He takes a seat on Lily's other side. "Baby we're not gonna leave you behind."

"We can't just go without you." Robin insists.

"But you guys were so excited to go to- uh... That place..."

"The fish shack we passed on the drive here...?" Marshal reminds.

"Yeah! That place! Uh- ooooohg..."

"How about this? You guys go, and i'll stay here with Lily." Robin offers, and Lily nods.

"That's really sweet of you Robin but I'm her-"

"GO EAT FISH." Lily demands, and Marshal literally flies out the door. "So you were saying?" She says; making an immediate flip back to her regular self.

"Right. So i told you about how i had been keeping myself up intentionally because of the disturbing dreams i've been having." Robin re-caps, but before she could continue into detail, Marshal opens the door again.

"Lilypad do you think i could-"

"Gyooooohg...!" She howl's, and again Marshal doesn't hesitate to leave.

"Well..."

"The dreams?" Lily reminds.

"Right. Dreams..." Robin sighs. It... Sorta went something like this.

/How the hell did she get here? Last she knew Robin was safe and sound in New York, and suddenly she's on a beach? Soon enough though the dream effects took over, and it was no longer a question of what she was doing here but /why/ she was here... And... What the hell is going on?

This must be one of those dreams where she could see herself from a 3rd person perspective, because from a distance, Robin could see herself sitting cross-legged on the beach, staring at the ocean. She watches herself until taking a step forward, and she realizes she was still in control over her own body. /what in the world? There's two of me?/

Then Robin thought back. She's seen this before; this scene, this girl. It was her- that much she knew. It was still /Robin/ staring out at the ocean. She walks closer, though.

Closer...

The dream Robin was now clearly visible. The second dream Robin, at any rate. She fully recognized the calm, laid-back aura of the girl staring out at the ocean; this wasn't just any second-duplicate-reflected-dream-Robin. This was a special kind of Robin.

Closer...

Vacation Robin notices her city-self. She doesn't acknowledge the real her, though. Just returns to gazing at the ocean.

Closer...

"Why are we here?" The real Robin asks, unsure if she could even get an answer at this point. She doesn't, though. All she receives is a glance, and a half-hearted laugh of pity.

"I don't know you." Vacation Robin scoffs, then stands to meet eye level with her other self.

/i am you!/ Robin wanted to shout back. She felt the effects of the dream keeping her silenced though. All she could do was shift uncomfortably in objection.

"I think i used to, though." Vacation Robin continues. "We used to be friends, but something happened to you. We used to be good, Robin. We used to be"

Closer...

Robin strides closer to the other women- no, closer to herself. She finds herself reaching out despite her own objections. Robin places the palm of her hand on her dream-clone's shoulder.

"It's time to come back, stranger. It's time we come together again. Don't try to fight it- you know it's what we both want."

Closer...

Closer.../

Lily's on the edge of her seat- well, at the edge of the hotel bed, at any rate. "What happens next?!" She says, almost too excited.

Robin shrugs. "Then... I woke up. Abruptly. I sat up in bed and i knew immediately that these dreams had started again.

"Again?!" Lily clarifies. "Wait... You were having these kind of dreams /before/ this?"

Robin nods. "It was back when i'd returned from Argentina the first time. Her image haunted me for a while, but eventually i got over it."

"That's why you didn't want to come." Lily notes. "You were afraid that you'd have to go through all this again."

"But it doesn't matter anyway." Robin sighs. "I'm here now, and, i had that dream before Barney even announced that we were traveling here."

Lily thinks for a moment. "You don't think that dream you had was for-telling us coming here, do you?"

"Whaaat?" Robin laughs. "Don't be ridicules, you know i don't believe in those types of things."

"So, what? You're saying this is all just a coincidence?"