Chapter 43- A Delivery
A/N: Sorry for the late chapter once again. I tried to finish this one up last night, but I fell asleep. Oops.
"Mrs. Stinson?" Robin hears from the doorman as she answers the phone one afternoon. "There is a freight delivery here for you. Is it ok for me to send them up?"
"Sure," she answers. She is excited, because unless Barney's got a surprise for her, there isn't anything that could be coming besides the nursery furniture. "Can you come up with them?" she asks. She's not sure how she feels about having the delivery men in the apartment alone with her.
"Absolutely Mrs. Stinson."
"Ummm.. hey?" Barney utters as he enters the apartment that evening. He's confused, because there is something different about it all. Not only is she in the living room, which is unusual, she's in a piece of furniture that he doesn't recognize.
"Hey!" exclaims Robin gleefully, from her seat in the new glider and ottoman for Brianna's room.
"How? Why?" he asks, curious as to why she didn't tell him earlier.
"The delivery men were here this afternoon. I asked the doorman to come up with them. The rest of the stuff is in boxes in the suit room. I had them let this out here for now."
"Oh," he murmurs. It's all pretty reasonable. "What did we have planned for tonight?" He asks her.
"Nothing. Why?" A big smile covers his face.
"I think I've got some redecorating to do."
"Are you saying-" she asks before he cuts her off.
"Let's go set up her room."
"Barney? Where am I going to sit?" Robin asks, looking around at the now half empty suit room/nursery.
"Oh crap," he mutters. "I didn't think that far ahead. Uh…give me a second." He darts out of the room, turning towards the living room. Robin can't help but wonder what his solution is going to be. She feels incredibly sorry when she sees him turn the corner, struggling with the small glider.
"How's that?" He asks.
"Awesome. You didn't have to though."
"Gotta move it in here anyway. Might as well do it now so you're comfortable," he says with a shrug of his shoulders, like it wasn't a big deal that he just carried fifty pounds back the hallway. "Ooo!" he shouts with an outburst. "Hang on! I've got to go get the ottoman still!" He energetically runs back out of the room. Robin can't help but chuckle, cause he's just so excited. It takes him less than a minute with the lighter piece of furniture.
"So what do we have to do?" he asks, looking around the room as he puts the ottoman down at her feet.
"First things first, we have to empty this out," she says while gesturing around the room. "What are you going to do with the suits?"
"I don't know," he mumbles. "I think I can get about half of them in our closet now, things will just be tight."
"What about the other half?"
"I was considering getting someone in here to somehow fit them in the space that is the porn shelves." He hopes she likes the idea. He hadn't gotten rid of the shelves when they moved in.
"That's good," she reasons, "because that was one of the things we were going to have to get rid of anyway because of baby proofing."
"We have to baby proof?" he asks, offended that she wants to get rid of it. His poor fortress is going to be overtaken by all things baby.
"Of course we have to baby proof," she groans, not enjoying his attitude. They both have to make sacrifices here, and he isn't doing as good of a job in keeping up his end of the bargain.
"What does that even mean?" he asks flippantly.
"Come on. You know from Marshall and Lily. You should have read the books. The locks on the doors, covers on the outlet, latches on the cabinets deal," she says while he rearranges suits on the racks.
"Do you think we could put one of the racks in our bedroom for now?" he questions, ignoring her previous thoughts, still sorting the suits.
"Yes. Do you think you can get away with one?" she asks, hoping that it isn't a permanent solution. As much as she hates to see the porn shelves go, she knows they could be dangerous if she pulls them down on herself. "The room is already pretty cluttered from me being in there all the time."
"Yeah. I'm pretty sure the rest will fit in the closet."
She watches and surfs the internet on her phone as he carries the suits, a few hangers at a time, and one of the two racks over to their bedroom. She feels bad that she can't help him, but at the same time, he had the last three months to move his suits. He didn't have to wait until the last minute. After 20 minutes, the room is left with the one remaining rack and the boxes from that were delivered earlier in the day.
"I forgot about all that baby proofing stuff," he says, returning to the room for the final time. She can tell he's admitting defeat here. "That's sure going to take away from the look of the Fortress, and the beauty of the Fortress's design." Ok, maybe not enough defeat. She isn't ready for a fight on this. She's just too tired.
"Okay, I have to ask you something, and you need to be honest."
"Yeah?" he's a bit worried about what's going to to come of this. She does not sound happy.
"Is there anything else the apartment does that I don't know about?" she interrogated.
"What do you mean?" he asks, genuinely confused. He thought she liked all the inventions.
"Like the escape hatch and the sprinkler system. Any other Stinson patent pending inventions I should know about?"
"I'm positive that you know all of them." He's skeptical, but she really does know them all. Doesn't she know by now that he shares every part of himself and his life with her. "Why?"
"Because most of them are going to have to go," she announces certainly.
"What? Why?" he whines.
"Because most of them are dangerous?" she says obviously, as if he should know that already. And he should. She sprained her wrist the one time they did use the escape from lame mountain.
"No, you just think they're stupid," he retorts. He doesn't see why things should need to go, just because they are having a baby.
"Uh, no Barney. Think about it," Robin argues, just about ready to storm out. "She's crawling, she slides down the escape lame mountain, and she's in the dumpster."
"Oh," he mutters realizing he is wrong and this really is about making things safe for Brianna. "Oh. I didn't think about that." He sighs. "So we have to get rid of everything?"
"No, not everything," she answers. "Just the stuff that can hurt her."
"Does this mean we have to get rid of the sex lounge too?" he questions. He really doesn't want that to be the case. Yes, he's survived without it for the past five months, but he wants to be able to explore that again.
"Uh, no, because you have the mechanism for that high up," she says unsurely. "We just may want to, uh, put a lock on it or something. For when she's older. We don't want to scar her. She is going to need enough therapy as it is with us for parents." He certainly doesn't want that to happen. They can be good parents.
"I hope not," he shudders. "I want to do this right. Which inventions need to go?" he asks willingly.
"The Escape from Lame Mountain and the sprinkler system are the only inventions that really need to go," she explains. "We also have to secure anything she can pull down on herself, and either get rid of or cover any sharp corners on furniture. Which is a lot of the things in the apartment."
"Oh," he mutters. "Well, that's not that bad," he shrugs. It's not that big of a deal.
"Not that bad?" she shouts. "That is almost a major renovation project!" It clicked in her brain, and she wants to do it, but she knows how much Barney hates it.
"Come on, Robin," he taunts. "I know you want to."
"Ughhh!" she groans. "Major renovation," she salutes.
"It's not going to be major," he says, trying to comfort her, because it's really not a big deal to him. Is he going to miss it? Yes, but he's sure she'll be worth it. "I'll just get someone in here to close up the hole in the floor. And the sprinklers just need rewiring. I can get it done tomorrow if you want. What else do I need to do?"
"That's the only big stuff," she admits. "We can decide about the other stuff later, sword and storm trooper included."
"So you want to put together her crib?" he asks.
"You sure you want to do this?" she asks him. She can't imagine him putting together a crib. "You've never done something like this before."
"Ok. Yeah. Maybe you're right. Maybe we should just have someone do it tomorrow," he acquiesces. "No," he shouts abruptly. "No. I'm going to do this. This is something a dad needs to do. I can put together her crib."
"Alright. I'm going to go pee then," Robin announces.
"Wha- wait!" he whines. "Where are you going?"
"I'm just going to go pee, and come back. Why is it like a tragedy that I'm leaving?"
"Cause I need you to read the directions to make sure I'm doing this right!"
She can see it in his eyes that this all has to do with his childhood. The way his father abandoned him. The way he never learned how to use a screwdriver until he stole the basketball hoop from his dad. He's as insecure as hell about this. He needs her help because he can't let those things make him a bad father. He needs her to make sure he doesn't screw this up and let his child down.
"Barney, I'm going to be gone for three minutes," she explains sweetly and calmly. "Just get everything out of the box and figure out which pieces are which and I'll be back before you know it."
When she waddles back in the room, she finds him surrounded by pieces of wood, as well as various nuts, bolts, and screws, looking extremely confused.
"You okay?" she asks, treading the subject carefully.
"Yeah," he sighs.
"It's okay to say you don't know how to do this," she tells him. "It's completely okay. It's not going to make you any less of a father." He looks at her with wide eyes. He should have known that she could read him so well.
"No," he resigns and motivates himself. "Marshall and Ted can do this kind of stuff. Why can't I? If I can't do this-" She interrupts him mid-rant to motivate him.
"You can do this. I will help. Give me the directions and we can do this together."
"Well that took forever," Barney groans sarcastically.
It took him two hours to put the crib together, which was twice as long as the recommended setup time on the side of the box.
"I don't care," Robin says lovingly.
"Why?" he wonders, because he is stressed and exhausted, and they didn't even get to open the rest of the boxes. Of course she doesn't care; she didn't do any of the heavy lifting. She just read him the directions and made sure he did it all right, which he has to admit, he was gracious for, if nothing else than for the company.
"Because we can do this," she utters happily. "We put her crib together. By ourselves. We can be parents just like Lily and Marshall and Ted and Tracy. Sure, it might take us longer to get it, but we can still do it. Imagine what they are all going to say when they find out we did this by ourselves."
"That's true," he says, his smile starting to match hers. "I just assembled a crib." He gazes fondly at his handiwork.
"It really fits in well here," she sighs, looking at the crib. It's even more perfect for the gray walls now that it's here.
"That's what she said," Barney shouts enthusiastically.
She shakes her head and she can't help but laugh. "I meant the crib."
"I know," he grins at her. "I just couldn't help it."
"Where are we going to put it?" he says, looking towards the crib once again.
"I don't know," she says, "but I don't think you are going to be able to move it by yourself. We can call Marshall and Ted tomorrow."
"I'm going to agree with that," he's done enough today. "Moving the chair was enough. We could open the rest of it and see if any more needs assembly." As an afterthought, he adds with a chuckle, "I hope to god not, though. I might find a guy to put the rest of it together if there is."
1/8/15
Week thirty-four. I'm officially at week thirty-four. It's hard to imagine that in six or less weeks, I will be a mom.
We spent the last few nights setting up the baby's room. It took my husband a long time to put the crib together, but he is far from a handyman, so I was quite proud of him, and he did it all by himself. Not too shabby for someone who only learned how to use tools a few years ago. Thankfully, the crib was the only piece that didn't come assembled.
For the most part, we have all the furniture set, and now we are starting to decorate. It's not nearly as exciting to decorate a nursery when you aren't supposed to stand, so I've mostly been directing from the new glider and shopping for things online. But if it wasn't real before, seeing her room almost ready to go makes me realizes how close she is to arriving.