Chapter 19- Finally Alone

A/N: I wrote this rough draft while watching my twitter feed during the ComicCon Panel. I was so disappointed that it wasn't a live video to watch...but it ended up being a great panel in the end!

After plenty of celebration, the gang said their final congratulations and finally left Barney and Robin alone in the living room. He carries her back to the bedroom, from the chair she had been sitting on all night, despite her insistence that she is allowed to walk the short distance by herself. He gets her pajamas for her, and changes out of his suit as she changes in bed. He lies down next to her and pulls her close, and as he does, his hand moves protectively down to her stomach.

"I never thought I would see the day that I would be excited to be pregnant," she sighs turning to face him.

"I know. It is pretty amazing isn't it?" He grins at her with the biggest smile imaginable.

"Yeah. It is," she smiles, content in with the situation.

They spend a minute in each other's arms before Barney breaks the embrace apart to ask, "So, how did the talk with your boss go? I know you were really nervous about it."

"It actually went really well. He said he was expecting it."

"He was expecting you to be pregnant? Really? He knew?"

"No, not in a 'he knew' kind of way, in a 'that's usually the next logical thing that happens after a wedding' kind of way."

"Oh," he chuckles, "so what happened? What are you going to do for the next few months?"

"I can do research for a few hours a day," she announces and then pauses before continuing, "but I also have an assignment that I can work from home on," she reveals tentatively, unsure of how Barney will react to this idea. She isn't even sure about how she feels about it herself. She originally wanted to turn it down, but there is something appealing about it. Though, there is something less than appealing about sharing her feelings with the world. She torn between telling him about it or not, because she has a feeling that he isn't going to want her to share the private details of her life any more than she does.

"Really? That's amazing Robin!" he exclaims. He's always been proud of her, and it doesn't surprise him that being pregnant would give her some sort of promotion. She does deserve it, after all.

"I'm not sure I want to do it, though."

"Why would you not want to do it?" he questions. "It will help keep you sane and give you something to do here at home when everyone else is at work, not to mention that it is an accomplishment. I mean, who else tells their boss that they are going out on maternity leave and ends up getting a special assignment."

His words warm her heart, as mostly anything he says about her in private does. The assignment just worries her. "I know. It's just what the assignment is."

He looks at her with a questioning glance. He wonders what exactly she's been asked to do. "What is it?"

"He wants me to start a blog." She hesitates. That doesn't seem that bad to him. "About my pregnancy."

"Oh," He breathes. "Oh." That explains it. He gets the hesitation now. Her boss is asking her to write about the personal parts of her life. Robin has never been one to share things about herself with other people, and her boss is asking her to do just that. There is a part of him that is uncomfortable with it as well, because it is part of his life too. However, there is a part of him that thinks that this might be a good thing for the both of them. It is going to be a long road ahead, one they both never expected to be on, and as exciting as it is, he knows that Robin is going to need a way to work through it all. Writing may be the best way for Robin to express her feeling about it all, even if there are a million people reading it.

"Yeah. I don't know what to think. Part of me wants to do it," he is glad that she thinks this, but he senses the 'but' coming. "…but part of me is really worried about it. I can barely share my feelings with you, let alone with the entire internet. But at the same time…"

"I think you should do it," he declares.

"You think I should?" She stares at him in utter shock. She was entirely expecting him to try to talk her out of it. There is no way that she would have thought he would be comfortable with this.

"Yes I do. Think about it. You have the chance to help someone in your shoes. How to deal with the situation of being stuck in bed, that maybe that they should question what their doctor says. Even if there is just one woman out there who was told the same thing you were, you have the ability to give her the hope to not give up. Think about how upset you were, and you didn't even want kids." She nods. His argument in favor of doing this makes complete sense. Her experience has been an emotional rollercoaster ride that she wouldn't wish on anyone. If she could help one person, it would be worth it. "But, I think it would be good for you to do it for you too."

His comment hits her out of the blue. "What do you mean?" she questions.

"It can be a way to express your feelings and work out your problems without having to talk about it. We both know this isn't going to be easy," she scoffs at that remark. He has no idea how hard this is going to be and she at some point she is going to have to make it worse. She really hopes that she can put that conversation off for as long as possible. "And it would be good for you to have a way to express yourself to people that can't judge you. Actually, scratch that, it is the internet. People can get pretty nasty on the internet. You just have to pretend that no one is reading it. Make it like a journal."

"I still don't know." His comment about the internet just made her more apprehensive about this than she had been. "This doesn't bother you? I would be writing about you too."

"I still think you should do it," he says resolutely. She takes a deep breath, and in that moment, she knows he is right about this.

"Ok. I'll do it. I will call McLaine in the morning." She smiles, surprisingly at easy with the decision to share her private life with the rest of the world. "Thank you. You are right. I think this will be great for me."

"You are the most wonderful woman in the world, and I love you, and I love this," he confirms as he puts his hand back on her stomach. He pauses for a minute and starts to laugh. "I never thought that a woman pregnant with my baby would turn me on so much."

"Yeah, you spent so many years avoiding this and teaching them to swim the other direction. You must not have done such a good job," she implies sarcastically.

"Maybe they knew they were supposed to go the right direction on this one," he replies sweetly.

She smiles at his explanation. "Maybe." There really is a sentimental side in there that no one knows about.

"I wasn't kidding though. There is something very hot about knowing that I was the one that did this to you, and of course, what we had to do for it to happen," he says seductively.

'Crap,' she thinks. She didn't expect to have to address this so soon. She was hoping she would at least have a day, but really, that wouldn't be them. Barney leans his head down to kiss her neck. She lets out a small moan. It feels so good. Why does it have to feel so good?

"Uhhh... Barney?" she says with a worried tone.

"Hmm?" he grunts, continuing what he is doing to her neck.

"You, uhh, kinda need to stop," she wills herself to say, not wanting it to stop any more than he does, but she needs to. For the baby.

"Ummmm..." he moans as his lips are still on her neck.

"Barney, seriously! Stop." she exclaims. "Don't make me Flugelhorn you," she adds sternly.

The word flugelhorn gets his attention. "What?" he whines. "I'm in the middle of my mojo here."

"Uh... well... how do I say this?" Say what? He wonders what could possibly be so important. "Umm... we kinda… well, we kinda can't," she cringes, "we can't have sex," she utters as fast as possible.

"WHAT?" he shouts with his mouth agape. He can't process what she just said. They can't have sex? Really?

"We can't have sex," she sighs. She doesn't like it any more than he does. "It was in the paperwork from the doctors."

"For… for how long?" he implores, still unsure if this is really happening.

"I don't know. I can call and ask tomorrow if you want." He thinks that she is really calm about all of this. She must be completely ok with this. She is stronger for this baby than he is, apparently. He doesn't want to seem as if he wants his own needs to take precedence over the baby.

"Nah…that's ok. We can wait until your next appointment. It is only 7 days away right?"

"Yeah."

A week isn't so bad. Yes, it is on the paperwork, but it probably doesn't apply to them. They are probably the exception to the rule. That is the law of their relationship. They aren't like everyone else.

"I can wait seven days. Seven days isn't that long," he states resolutely. He thinks about it though. There is more to sex than just sex. There are other things they could do. There are other ways to have a good time. "So we just do something else tonight."

"I don't know. I don't think we should do anything. The paperwork said to avoid all sex. I'm pretty sure that means everything." He sighs. It is going to be a long seven days. They hadn't gone that long, well, since they got engaged. But he had gone that long before. He could wait for seven days before they went to the doctor and were clear to go again. "I really wish we had had some time to read the paperwork and talk to the doctor before we left." She pauses because she has an idea. "Although, it doesn't say that daddy can't get any action." She says with a devilish smile on her lips. She lunges for his mouth, and starts trailing kisses down his chest. He knows exactly where she is going with this, and he can't help but feel a little bit guilty because she doesn't get to partake in the fun. But by far, he really does have the best wife ever.