Chapter 29- It's a …?
A/N: Sorry it took me so long to publish this again. I tried, but this chapter didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I hope you like it!
"Barney? What's that noise?" Robin asks in the middle of their Saturday afternoon movie marathon.
"What? I thought that was just the movie."
"No, that was definitely not McElroy and LeFleur. I know McElroy and LeFleur," Robin declares.
"What did it sound like?" Barney questions.
"Like someone dropped something."
"Do you think there is something in the apartment?" he panics, unsure of what to do. She is the one with the gun fetish. She was the one that would always go check on noises. He didn't want to have to face someone here.
"I don't know. It's possible," she responds, seemingly unfazed by the situation.
"Maybe one of the gang stopped by. I'm going to go out and check."
Barney takes a deep breath at the door before opening it to face the unknown. He walks out of the bedroom, and almost gets to the corner in the living room when he hears a voice.
"Stop! Don't come any closer!" He is frightened for a moment, until it registers that the voice is Marshall's.
"What are you doing here?"
"Nothing," he says, in a way that makes Barney know he is covering something up. "Go back in the bedroom until the end of the movie."
"Why?" he grills Marshall.
"Because." Barney realizes that Marshall is just about as good at lying as Lily is.
"No. Not because Marshall. What is going on?" he demands.
"I can't tell you yet," Marshall blurts out. "Just finish the movie and then we'll be ready." We'll?
"We'll be ready for what?" Barney challenges.
"Just go back in the bedroom and finish the movie," Marshall demands. Barney figures it's not worth fighting over.
"Fine."
He walks back to the bedroom, a little bit annoyed that they can't even tell him what they are doing there.
"So who was it?" Robin asks casually as they enter.
"Marshall, but weird thing was, they wouldn't let me go in the living room," he states.
"Why not?"
"I don't know. He wouldn't say," she sighs, annoyed. "What he did say is that I should come back in here and finish the movie, and by that time, they will be ready."
"Huh? Ready for what?" Robin asks.
"I don't know. I thought the same thing," Barney admits.
"So they are planning something out there," Robin concludes.
"Apparently," Barney agrees. "What do you think it is?"
"I have no idea. Maybe Marshall is making Lily apologize for being a bitch last week and taking the card," Robin guesses.
"Maybe. I guess we are just going to have to wait and see."
There is a knock on the bedroom door five minutes before the end of the movie.
"Damn it! This is the best part!" Robin exclaims.
"Just pause it. We can watch it later," he says to Robin. "Who is it?" he shouts to whoever is behind the door.
"Can you come out to the living room for a minute?" Marshall asks as he peeks his head in the door.
"Uhh sure. Can I come out in five minutes? The movie is almost over, and it's actually pretty good," he admits.
"See, you are truly Canadian after all," Robin chides.
"Shhhh…" Barney sounds in her direction while putting his index finger to his lips. The last thing he needs is the rest of the gang finding out he likes a Canadian movie.
"Uhhh, actually, we need both of you," Marshall responds.
"Both of us?" Robin questions.
"Yes, both of you, and we need you right now," Marshall demands.
"Does it have to be right now?" Barney whines.
"Yes. Lily has made all of the rest of us wait all week too," Marshall whines. "Although, it is the longest secret she's ever kept."
"Wait, are you saying that Lily is going to tell us?" Robin asks.
"Yes."
"Screw the end of McElroy and LeFleur! Awwww!" Barney and Robin shout in unison as they get out of bed and walk briskly to the living room.
"Surprise!" Ted, Tracy and Lily shout as they enter.
They glance around the room. The place looks like a baby wonderland. The sheer amount of pastel blue and pink that overwhelms the normal grey apartment makes him nauseous. That or it could be the fact that in a few minutes, he will know if they are having a son or a daughter. There are pink and blue balloons covering every surface of the room, along with a banner that reads 'It's a ?'. Lily really out did herself on the sign. And then there is the pile of gifts in the corner in green and yellow wrapping. Presuming the gifts are just from the four of them, there sure are a lot of them.
"We thought the place could use some color," Tracy jokes, breaking them out of their funk. "Ok. Maybe not the best joke," she admits.
"I thought it was perfect," Ted pipes up.
"See, and this is why you are perfect for each other," Robin teases.
"So what is it?" Barney asks like a six year old trying to figure out what is in his Christmas gift. Any semblance of nerves he had left has left him now.
"The answer is in the cheesecake," Lily answers. "There is a layer of color in there. It's either pink or blue, strawberry or blueberry."
"So we have to cut it to find out?" Robin asks.
"Yep."
Robin rushes over to the couch and sits in front of the cheesecake. Barney is not far behind. "Geeze guys, don't hurt the baby before it is even out," Lily comments.
"So which one of us should cut it?" Robin asks Barney quietly.
"You. You deserve to. You are the one growing it," he responds.
"Thanks Barney." She offers him a smile as a consolation prize. She knows it isn't easy for him to give up things like this. All she heard for an entire summer once was how he wanted to push the button to demolish the building on the site of the new GNB headquarters.
He appreciates the smile. He knows she has to know how much it means to him to let her do this. But she deserves it. He isn't half as strong as she is. He wouldn't be able to sit in bed all day just focusing on the baby.
"You ready?" Barney asks, worried because she looks incredibly nervous.
"Yeah. You?" Robin responds.
"Yeah."
"Alright then."
She slowly cuts into the cake with the knife that Lily had left there. Barney hands her the cake server and she nervously slides it under the slice. She pulls up on the cake server and quickly moves the slice to the plate without looking at it. As soon as she has the slice on the plate, she clamps her eyes shut, not really wanting to look at it yet.
"It's pink!" Barney shouts, just barely realizing what that all means. It means it's a girl. The baby is a girl. They are going to have a daughter.
Robin finally looks at the plate when Barney shouts. She is in just as much disbelief as Barney. She has been wondering what it is for weeks now, and it just doesn't seem real.
"It's a girl!" she mumbles, as her and Barney lean in for an embrace at the same time, tears filling in their eyes.
The rest of the gang erupts into cheers and hugs while Lily sneaks over to the sign to hang up the word girl that had been hiding behind the couch.
"Ok! Who wants a piece of cheesecake?" Lily yells over the excitement.
"So, Tracy and I did a little shopping," Lily announces later, after they all enjoyed the cheesecake. Barney couldn't say that he wasn't disturbed by the mustard topping that both Robin and Tracy added. Pregnant women.
"A little?" Robin jokes. "There are literally like a hundred boxes over there." In reality there were only about 10 boxes, but for only two people, it seems like a lot of gifts to Robin. She guesses that they are already being great aunts, always spoiling the baby.
"I want to see what's in them Robin," Barney bursts out excitedly.
"Ok, ok. Calm down," Robin scolds. "What should I open first?"
"It doesn't matter," Lily answers.
"Ok. I guess I will pick this one first." She selects a pale yellow bag decorated with bears on the outside. She lets Barney remove the yellow tissue paper covering the top. She reaches in the bag a pulls out a tiny dress that looks familiar. It's the one from that day in We-Be-Babies, with the black velvet top and the white ruffle skirt. She is stunned. It brings back so many memories of that day when they first thought she was pregnant.
"Did you know?" Robin asks, with tears in her eyes.
"Know what?" Tracy asks.
"Know about this dress," Robin answers.
"No. I just bought it," Lily replies. "Why?"
"Nothing. It's not important," she insists.
Barney can't help but wonder what her reaction was about. The dress looks familiar, and it is adorable, but he can't place where he saw it before. He makes a mental note to ask her about it later.
"Ok. Next one!" She exclaims.
"So what was the dress thing about?" Barney asks Robin later after everyone went home. She had unwrapped many girly clothes for the baby, but nothing had struck her as much as that first dress.
"What dress thing?"
"Robin. You know which dress thing I mean. Why did you get freaked out by seeing that dress?" he asks her, intimately curious as to why she acted so strange about it. He hears her sigh about it before she begins her answer.
"It was the one you showed me at We-Be-babies when we went with Lily and we thought…"
"Oh." He can completely understand that. That would have gotten him upset too, had he realized that was what it was. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize."
"How were you supposed to know," she comforts. "And it's not like I could bring it up though, because no one knows that I could have been." Well, Ted knows, he thinks, but it's probably best if she doesn't know that he told him about that.
"Yeah. I guess you are right."
"I still can't believe it's a girl," Robin whispers.
"I guess we are going to have to stop calling her an it now," Barney implies.
"Yeah," she sighs.
"Are you happy?" Barney asks her.
"Yeah," she mutters unconvincingly.
"You don't seem happy."
"I don't know. I guess I was really expecting it to be a boy."
"I thought you said you didn't care what it was."
"I thought I didn't," she sighs. "I don't know." She slumps her head and looks down at her hands, where she is playing with her wedding rings.
"Robin. Look at me." She slowly raises her head to look him in the eyes. "We're having a girl. A healthy baby girl. I know that you were expecting a boy and you are upset because your dad wants a boy, but you need to move past that. Do you know what is going to happen if you don't?" She shakes her head. "You are going to start to wish that she was a boy, and maybe even start treating her that way. Eventually, she is going to want nothing to do with you."
"Oh my god. That's what I'm doing," she scolds herself.
"No," he corrects her. "You're not doing it yet. I am just reminding you what happened to you when your parents were expecting a boy."
"I'm going to screw this up," she insists.
"No. No you're not Robin," he professes. "Are we going to be the world's best parents? Probably not. But are we going to learn from our parents' mistakes? Yes. We love this girl. You know that. You're going to teach her how to be a girl, not be upset with her because she isn't a boy. You're going to buy her dresses and paint her nails and teach her how to put on makeup, because that is what girls do. It's what you never got to do. Her life isn't going to be like yours because you know better."
"How do you always know what to say?" she wonders.
"Because I know what you need to hear." He sighs looking at her and putting a hand on her stomach. "My two girls. I like the sound of that."
10/2/14
So readers, I am halfway there. Week 20, although, it seems like a much shorter time since it has only been about 9 weeks since we found out about the baby.
What was the most exciting part of this week you ask? Well….
IT'S A GIRL!
In a huge display of cruelty, our friends waited an entire week to tell us that we were having a girl, but the way they did tell us more than made up for it. The whole week, they had been planning a surprise party, complete with gifts, decorations, and a strawberry filled cheesecake, which was how we found out it was a girl. She is going to be a fashionista, with all of the tiny outfits that her aunts already bought for her.