Chapter 38- A Miracle on 79th Street

A/N: I was going to do something different last night until I had a horrible night last night. This is what came out of it.

"Get out."

"What?" Barney asks, confused as could be. He had been sitting in the bedroom with her for over an hour, reading the paper and making an occasional comment about it. And it wasn't like his usual comments. It was nice and polite things, like current events and the weather. There is nothing he could have done or said to piss her off. "Get out?"

"You heard me. Get out."

"Huh?"

"GET OUT!" she screams.

"What did I do?"

"Just leave me alone!"

"Alright. I'm going."

As he somberly walks out to the living room, he wonders what that was all about. He considers going back to ask her about it, but he is afraid of flying footwear, even if it is just slippers. Plus, he doesn't want her to get up to retrieve said footwear after said flying incident occurs. Whatever it is, she doesn't want to talk about it, and for the sake of the baby, it's best for her to be calms, so he really doesn't want to push his luck. He hasn't seen Robin that mad since before they found out about Brianna.

He flings himself on the couch, just wondering what he did wrong this time. It seems like this entire week she has been extremely moody. Extremely doesn't even cut it. Everything is pissing her off, and at this point, he is afraid it is going to ruin his plan. His grand plan.

It's not like some of the others where he's had to lie. It's no proposal, no rehearsal dinner, no second wedding. It's just a simple thing where he calls his interior design guy. But now he's worried that even this simple gesture to cheer her up will actually stress her out even more, and that is the last thing he wants for her.

He doesn't know what to do. He can't help. He's stuck out here by himself for now. He wants to go back in there, and apologize for whatever he's done that got him kicked out, but that is impossible. She must have kicked him out for a reason.

Today has just sucked. His voice is just irritating her today. Truth is, he did nothing wrong, but something he was doing bothered her. He wasn't even being his usual irritating self. He was just sitting reading the newspaper, making cute comments. Not even cute comments. Just comments. Just run of the mill Ted comments. Just talking about current events. She doesn't know why it pissed her off so much, but it did.

She is getting the feeling that something is going on, and right now, she is not in the mood at all for any of Barney's surprises. Not even the good ones. She just wants to take a nap, not go to the doctor's in an hour like she's supposed to. She slept like crap, her backache keeping her up all night. Then they ran out of bread, so she couldn't have her usual breakfast of toast and scrambled eggs. A little later, her computer cord dropped out of the computer, causing her computer to run out of battery, losing her entire research for the day. On top of it, it just happens to be the three year anniversary of that horrible doctor appointment. She knows it shouldn't bother her so much, because she is pregnant, but for some reason, it really does. Maybe it's the idea that that specific doctor appointment caused her to be stuck in this situation.

So by the time Barney came home for lunch, she was on her last nerve and the verge of a breakdown. Now, she just feels horrible for kicking him out when he did absolutely nothing wrong other than take the afternoon off of work to go to the doctor with her, which isn't even wrong. It is actually is incredible that he does that for her every week. Just being there for her is even more amazing than any of the surprises he's planned for her over the years.

And now she's crying. Damn it, the hormones. She doesn't know why she is so stupid. She just wants to go to sleep, to put this day behind her. To forget about it all for a while. Why does the doctor appointment need to be today?

Her problem is what to do now. She probably angered him now, so she doesn't know if she can just ask for forgiveness. But how would she anyway? She really shouldn't get up to go apologize, she really should stay in bed, but she has no idea how to fix this otherwise. She makes her choice, figuring she has to walk out there in a few minutes, why not get ready to go to the doctor and ask for forgiveness at the same time.

She cautiously walks out to the living room, and she pauses when she sees him. He seems like nothing is wrong, like he's swept it under the rug and forgotten about it. He is carelessly surfing the web on his phone, shoes kicked off, and legs propped up on the couch.

"Hey," she murmurs, still incredibly upset from earlier.

He isn't expecting to see her at all, so he is a bit startled by her presence. He was so into getting everything ready for the surprise later that he hadn't even heard her walk out to the living room.

"What are you doing up?" He kicks his feet to the ground, giving her room to sit down. He quickly pockets his phone, so she can't see what he's been up to.

"I came out to apologize. I'm sorry," she admits, sitting down on the couch next to him. "I shouldn't have kicked you out. It's just been a bad day, and I just feel all over the place today."

"Maybe you should ask the doctor," he suggests.

"No. It's just hormones. It sucks," she says, shrugging her shoulders, "but there is nothing I can do about it. I shouldn't have reacted like that, and I'm sorry."

"It's ok. I figured it wasn't about me. I love you. There is nothing I wouldn't do for you."

"I know," she says. "I just am not in a good mood today. I just want to go to bed. I'm not really in the mood for anything other than going to sleep." He can only think that he is screwed at this point. Operation winter wonderland will not go over well right now, but really, he doesn't have a choice. He knows it will make her happy, even if it doesn't seem to be the right day. But he really can't wait for her to be in a good mood. He has to do it while they are at the doctor. "And for some reason, I just feel like you are up to something, and I don't like it."

She's really on to him, he thinks.

"Are you ready for the doctor's?" he asks, still trying to decide if he should follow through with the plan.

"Yeah, as ready as I am going to be." Frankly, he's never been quite so nervous as he is today. Almost as if something bad is going to happen.

All through the doctor appointment, and through the entire ride home, he's been nervous. Nervous that this is the surprise that she isn't going to like. And it's a more gentle situation this time, since stress can really harm her and the baby. It's not like when making her angry could be a part of the plan, like the rehearsal dinner. He just has to let her discover it on her own.

He can't wait to see it himself. He had been talking with the guy for a week now. They should have put up the tree and the other wall decorations, and leaving the tree decorating for him to do, so that she can tell him how to do it from her throne on the bed.

Their first Christmas together, they had gotten the tree together, and he even had an ornament made from one of their wedding pictures, but it was something they did together. Ok. She did a lot of the work, but he helped. He knew that this year, it would be impossible to decorate like they did last year, because he really had no idea what she did. He wanted to cheer her up for the holidays, to make it more like normal. So he figured that it would be best to get most of the work taken care of, and let the fun things for them.

He can tell that she is more than ready to get home and take a nap, and really, that's ok. It's not like she needs to do anything when they get there. She can appreciate it after she's slept.

He anxiously awaits her reaction to the wreath on the door throughout the whole ride on the elevator. He can see the surprise on her face when they turn towards the door.

"When did you put the wreath on the door?" she questions, almost positive it wasn't there on her way out.

"A day or two ago," he shrugs.

"Really? You decorated for Christmas? I had to do most of the work last year," she accuses. "I'm calling bullshit."

"I'm serious."

"Yeah. I guess we aren't having a tree this year either are we?" she sighs.

"No. I will put one up. In the bedroom too. I don't know when, though," he says with a straight face as he opens the door to the living room, and frankly he is amazed. They did an even better job than he could have thought, and he hasn't even seen the bedroom.

As she follows him in, she sees just how different the apartment looks, and what exactly he has been hiding from her all day. She knows that she said that she wasn't in the mood for a surprise, but this is pretty amazing. She starts to cry, feeling that roller-coaster of emotions from earlier come back to bite her.

"When did you-?" she chokes out, unable to finish her sentence. She is as overwhelmed as she was three years ago when Ted decorated for her.

"I called a guy to come while we were at the doctor. Do you like it?"

Just like three years ago, she can't do anything other than cry and nod while he pulls her into a hug, although this time, the tears are tears of joy.

"Let's get you back to bed, Scherbatsky."

She just lets him guide her back to the bedroom, where even more tears fall, because the bedroom is even more beautiful. They even left the ornaments for them to put on the tree. She can't believe it.

"Early Merry Christmas. I hope you like it," he whispers sweetly in her ear.

"I love it. Don't be offended if all I want to do is sleep right now."

"No offense taken. Let's take a nap."

12/4/14

One thing I didn't consider when I started my stint on bed rest is that life would be dramatically different. It doesn't seem like it would be that different, but it is. It became even more noticeable this week. Christmas may have been everywhere for you for a while now, but for me, I didn't remember it was close. It did feel to me that something was missing, but I didn't know what it was until after this week's doctor appointment.

While we were gone, my husband had our entire apartment decorated. The only thing they didn't do was decorate the tree, so that we could continue our tradition and do that together. It wasn't the sweetest thing he's ever done for me, as he's given me a lot of amazing surprises over our time together, including a Canadian themed rehearsal dinner, and an on the beach vow renewal, but it was sweet and perfect in it's own way.

To top it off, I had been having a horrible day. I really do owe so much to him. He does so much for me, and I don't know what I would do without him. I've never had a tree in my bedroom before, but waking up to a Christmas tree is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.