Chapter 47- The Only Thing Missing
A/N: Guest- That chapter is not the next one, but one of the next two after that, depending on how I structure it. But I promise you, I didn't forget about it! It will be out next week regardless.
And on another note- I feel like I need to say this to all the readers out there, even though I know it doesn't apply to most of you. I appreciate that you are reading the stories of myself and other authors in this fandom. I really do. We enjoy writing as much as you enjoy reading, but it is a lot of hard work. I know that some of the authors out there- not me per se- are at the point where they want to stop writing because a few readers are being really harsh about the fact that some of the stories are not going the way they want them to go.
While we do love to hear feedback, both good and bad (but constructive), it really takes the joy out of writing when everyone is bugging us to change our stories. If you want to see one of our stories take another different tone, please try and write one yourself. We won't be offended in the least. Seriously. Not an issue at all. To me, it's actually more exciting because there is more to read. I too started off as a guest reader only a year ago. That is the whole purpose of site, to share the stories we have in our heads. But those of us that post mostly write for ourselves, and we are not going to change our stories to fit what you want to see. Again, we love to see suggestions, but in the end it's our story. Please don't be offended if we don't change our story to fit your suggestion. And I know sometimes, you are excited to see something happen, which through the wonders of typed communication comes across as seeming like you are asking for something. Good things take time, but I know I've been guilty of this in the past. But this problem seems to be a bit bigger than a miscommunication.
The unfortunate part is, if the negativity continues, there might not be any writers left here, which would be a real shame. If you don't like the direction of a story, there are a couple of things you can do. 1. You can stop reading all together, and while we would rather not have this, I won't be offended if you don't want to read. There are stories on here that I don't read, because I don't like the story line. No one likes to read something they don't like. This is why I didn't like reading in high school. I don't enjoy reading classic novels from England. 2. Read the story, and if you have a comment to make about the story line, say it to us once. There is no need to repeat that thought multiple times, because if it hasn't changed right away, it's probably not going to. We got the message. Goes along with the saying- if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. Or my favorite, 3. Write your own story. Give it a try. You may find that you are the next serial writer on here, because I can tell you that most of the people who post on here, started within the last year. We were all the newbies on the board very recently. The best part of doing this is falling in love with the characters and having an imagination enough to think of them in a different and new way. So please, please do give it a try.
Okay, thank you for reading that. Onto this week's story.
"Come on, we need to finish this!" Robin shouts from the bed one night.
"Since when are you in such a big hurry to get this done?" Barney asks as he bustles around the bedroom, cleaning up and getting things ready for the next day. "You're the one that keeps saying, 'No Barney! We should wait a while. We have time yet. I'm not even at full term.'"
"Well," she sighs. "I've changed my mind."
"Um hm. Sure you did," he implicates.
"No, I really did," she insists.
"It scared you to admit that finishing her nursery means were close, doesn't it?" She stares off into the room guiltily. He's hit the nail right on the head. "It did," he accuses, pointing his finger at her. "So what made you change your mind?" he changes his tone, asking sweetly.
"I don't know. It's stupid," she rebukes.
"No, nothing is 'stupid'," he air-quotes, "when it comes to you." He knows her implicit meaning of that phrase. He always knew. Even that day at the carousel right before they got married, he knew. Just because Ted beat him there, didn't meant that he didn't know.
"She just feels," she pauses, rubbing her stomach and searching for the right words to describe how different she is feeling, "well, lower. Like she's making her way down to come out."
"Does that even work that way?" he questions.
"Some women swear it does. It's really uncomfortable though. All I know is that every day I feel a little more like a beached whale," she answers sadly. She's quite ready for her to be out now. She's incredibly uncomfortable.
"Come on," he says, as he sits down on the bed and pulls her into a hug. "You're not a beached whale. Manatee, maybe," he teases, "but not a whale." She smacks him immediately. "Owwww! I'm kidding!"
"You better be," she spurns. "You know I hate your stupid mermaid theory."
"You know you're always the mermaid right? The rule only applies to pregnancy when the baby isn't your own. And that's my baby so…"
She giggles. "You're an idiot." He can always change her from immediately angry and annoyed, to grinning like mad.
"Love you too, Scherbatsky," he answers, remembering her secret code word. "Now, I've got a report to finish up for work. Can you give me like an hour to finish? Then I'd be more than happy to go finish the nursery with you."
"Yeah. I can't wait," she smiles, knowing that he's ready to help.
"5 Canada onesies?" Barney sneers. They are now in the nursery, and he is sorting out Brianna's clothes, and handing them to Robin so she can fold them.
"How many of these did you need to buy? I don't really need to be reminded that my daughter is half Canadian."
"Half Canadian?" she spurns, half offended by the implication, and half teasing him. "Half Canadian? Try five-eighths Canadian."
"Damn it Scherbatsky! You can pick one. We can return the rest."
"But they are so cute!" she argues.
"One," he explicates.
"How about two?" she tries to compromise.
"How much clothing does a baby need?" he asks, pulling more out of boxes and opening up the closet.
"I dunno," she shrugs. "A lot?"
"No," he shoots back. "You only need so much clothing because she is going to outgrow it so fast. I mean the fortress and this room are big, but not that big. We can only have so much stuff."
"But babies are messy!" she argues. "She is going to spit up, and have messy diapers. She going to need to have her clothes changed a lot."
"Uggg…" Barney utters, rolling his eyes. He has no rebuttal to that, even though he swears he is right about this.
"You're complaining about her clothing?" Robin asks. "You have three times as many suits as she has clothes right now. The clothes can stay."
"Fine," he agrees reluctantly. "You win this one, Scherbatsky. What needs to happen next?"
"Well, I can fold and put the rest of her clothing on hangers, and you can hang the artwork."
"You mean the Canadian animals?" he spits.
"Yes. That's exactly what I mean," she retorts playfully.
"I'm still upset that you wouldn't go with the Star Wars theme," he groans. "It's not a boy movie. There are strong women in Star Wars. Look at Leia. God forbid, there is even Padme. She is a queen and a Senator the head of trying to stop that very important take over."
"Uggg! We did both!" she exclaims, very quickly removing him from his rant. "We compromised. We decided not to be lone wolves, and do it on our own, hence, the picture of the three wolves."
"You're right," he concedes. "So I can go get the storm trooper?" he asks gleefully.
"No. You are going to scare her half to death with the storm trooper."
"Hey!" he shouts, offended.
"Until she is old enough to understand the storm trooper, it's not going in her bedroom. She's not going to sleep that much as it is. We don't need to give her nightmares on top of it," she explains. "Besides, you have the mobile and the dolls on the dresser. That's plenty for now."
"But..." he whines.
"No Barney," she chastises. "We made a deal that this nursery is going to be a mix of everything, therefore, it needs to be a mix of everything." They agreed. This is supposed to be a part of both of them.
"Fine," he acquiesces. He did agree to the nursery. She's absolutely right. He picks up one of the prints to examine it. When Robin first told him of her idea for Canadian animals, he thought it was ridiculous, but he has to admit, it was a great idea. "Damn, these are cute."
"I know, I found them on Etsy. It isn't even that Canadian," she continues, arguing her point from earlier. "It's not like I plastered the walls with Canadian flags."
"No, you didn't," he says, accepting her point. She could have gone much more Canadian. The room could look like their rehearsal dinner, but it doesn't. "Where and in what order do you want them in?" he asks, wanting to get her away from the stress of the argument and towards finishing so he can go to bed.
"Maybe on the left wall over the dresser and changing table, with the wolves in the center, the beaver on the left, and the moose on the right?"
He looks around the room. To his left, is the closet. On the wall in front of him is a large window. On the wall on the right is the crib. The changing table is on the same wall as the closet, in the space between the closet and the window. The glider is in front of the window, and the other dresser is next to the crib.
"Okay," he answers dutifully, walking over to the changing table on the left to hang the pictures. He comments offhandedly, "I still can't believe that I agreed to let you put a beaver in our daughter's room."
"Oh, come on Barney! Get your head out of the gutter. It's an animal. A very cute animal," she argues adamantly, hating his constant vituperation against beavers. She guesses that he's never going to grow up on that one.
"Come on, Scherbatsky, take the joke," he teases.
He immediately falls silent, concentrating on measuring and hanging the pictures, as she continues to fold and hang the clothes.
"What do you think?" he asks twenty minutes later, after he has all three prints hung up.
"I love it. It's perfect," she exclaims. She glances around the room, admiring their hard work. At this point, the only thing that needs to be done is moving the clothing into its home.
"So we're done?" he asks.
"Except for moving the clothes, I think so," she mutters.
"So the only thing missing is her?"
"Yeah, the only thing missing is her."
2/5/15
Another week has passed, and that means that we are another week closer to a healthy, full term baby. I'm a little over a week away from my due date, and the doctor is quite surprised that she still hasn't arrived yet.
This week, we finished decorating her room. Of course, there were a few heated debates over where the artwork should be hung and how much clothing she really needs, but in the end, we finished, and it is beautiful. Her clothes are folded, the crib is made, and the diapers are stacked. All that is missing at this point is her.
I can tell, however, that my body is getting ready for her arrival. I would not be surprised that if next week, I will be writing to tell you about her birth!