Chapter 7
A Month later:
A month had gone by since they had the pregnancy confirmed, and Robin was now 11 weeks along. According to the book that Barney had recently picked up, during the eleventh week the baby was developing the bones in their face and developing their earbuds.
After the pregnancy was confirmed, Barney and Robin had a serious discussion regarding their plans for their immediate future. Barney had been visiting his mum's grave when he realised that he truly wanted to be part of his baby's life and that night he once again told Robin of his intentions. Robin in turn promised him that they were in this together. That same night they also decided that at this moment in time they would keep their apartments and closer to the due date Robin would move in with Barney. They had also decided to tell the gang about the pregnancy, but they had not been able to meet up as Ted was busy with Stella, Marshall was trying to cope with unemployment and Lily was busy with work.
One other discussion that they had that night was about their relationship, Robin stated that she did not want them to be together just because of the baby, and Barney agreed with her. Together they decided that they would continue with their relationship as it is.
The rest of the month had been just as busy, the case against Altrucell had started and thanks to the evidence that Barney had provided to the FBI that most of the senior management has been convicted. Now that he was out of the job, Barney had been contacted by an old friend about a job at Goliath National Bank (GNB) as a managing executive in marketing, with a good healthcare plan and the first thing he did was put Robin on his plan.
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Robin was starving, she could not wait to get to the bar and get something to eat. Also, she was finally going to see the rest of the gang after so long. Barney had messaged saying that he would meet her there.
She slid into the booth next to Barney, she greeted the gang. As she settled in, Barney settled his hand onto her thigh. Before anyone could say another word, Ted asked the question that caused her to groan in dismay.
"So, what do you guys want to eat now?"
"Oh, come on guys. You always do this, you argue and, in the end, you always order from here, so can we please cut the bullshit and order already?"
Everyone stared at her, Barney tightened his hold on her thigh, trying to keep her calm. In the past few days, he recognised that Robin tended to get headaches if she did not eat in time.
After a few moments, the other three went back to their conversation. "How about sushi?"
"Nope, we had sushi last night"
"Italian?" asked Barney
"I had Italian for lunch"
"We got a new cook and he makes the most amazing burgers" piped up Wendy, she had been waiting for the group's order.
Ignoring Wendy, Marshall asked, "Mexican?"
"Nope, nope, we always do this. We always argue about where we are going to eat and end up ordering here anyways," said Robin.
Seeing the look on Robin's face, Barney decided to make the decision for everyone by ordering for them, "Wendy can we get five burgers, one with extra pickles on the side." Robin squeezed Barney's hand in thanks, as the rest of the group chatted, catching up.
An hour later, Wendy finally brought out the burgers, except there was one missing, "Of course, mine come last" snarked Robin. Barney quietly took out his pickles and put them on the side of his plate next to the chips. He then squeezed Robin's hand, bringing her attention to the pickles and chips on his plate. While the rest of them were busy eating, Robin picked up the chips from Barney's plate.
"Oh my god this burger is so good" moaned Lily.
"It's like Christmas in my mouth," said Ted, crumbs dropping from his mouth.
"It's ok" grumbled Marshall.
"Are you kidding me?" "What do mean it's ok?"
"Guys once you've had the best burger in New York, the rest just taste like feet," said Marshall.
"Oh, like you've had the best burger in New York" Robin regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. Marshall had taken Robin's words as permission to tell his story of how he came across the best burger in New York.
In the middle of Marshall's story, Wendy finally placed the burger in front of her. Robin attacked her burger with ferocity. When Marshall's words registered to her mind, "Green door and a red neon sign saying burger", Robin's mind whirled in remembrance and mumbled, "I'm pretty sure I know that place."
Marshall stared at her, his eyes pleading with her to carry, as she leaned down to take a bite of her burger. She did not see Marshall's hand reaching out to SMACK the burger out of her hand.
"Dude, what the fuck?" gasped Robin, staring at her burger forlornly on the floor next to her feet.
"Tell us where to find the damn burger, Robin!"
"Calm down dude, it's on West 12th right off 7th" Robin snapped, still staring at her burger.
Barney quietly placed his hand on her leg, to comfort her, he had personally had his head bitten off in the past couple of weeks, especially when Robin is starving.
Marshall grabbed Lily and Ted's burgers and threw them to the floor to join Robin's burger, and stood up, pulling Lily up with him. "If any of us is gonna eat a burger tonight, it is going to be the best burger in town," he called out as he dragged Lily to call a cab.
Ted left to pay the bill, while Robin continued to stare at her burger in despair, Barney stuffed his fries in a napkin and into his pocket for Robin to munch on. He then gently pulled Robin up and they headed over to the door where Ted was waiting for them.
To keep the group's attention off Robin, Barney started to list the benefits of his new job at GNB, he had recently started his job. To be very honest he loved his new job, catching up with old friends and leaving the chaos of Altrucell behind him.
Only for Lily to burst his bubble. "Barney, I hate to break this to you but working for a bank is lame."
"Oh yeah, how lame is free automatic bill pay, Lil? Hate to make you look stupid" Barney chuckled, not noticing Robin glaring in Lily's direction.
"Oh, Regis we should call him," said Ted from the front of the cab.
"Right Regis, god that scares me, I think I will message him instead," Barney mumbled to himself, not realising that Robin had heard him.
Twenty minutes later the cab finally came to a stop in front of the green door with a red neon sign. Marshall was the first one out of the cab, "Red neon sign and a green door. Guys this is the place. I have prepared—"
Robin pushed past him, "I will eat your hand!" she snapped. The rest of the group followed her in, once they sat down at the first table available. The group ordered their food, and once again the rest of the group's food arrived before Robin's did. The most irritating thing about this was that she was not sitting next to Barney so there was no way she could sneak into his fries and on top of everything else she had to listen to their comments.
"Oh my god, I'm never brushing my teeth again" moaned Ted, with Barney and Lily moaning in agreement, with their mouth full of meat.
However. Marshall spat out the burger and said, "This is not it!"
"Ok, Marshall you might not want to hear this, but maybe this is the burger but it just doesn't live up to your expectations", theorised Ted.
"It's just a burger," pointed out Robin.
"It's just a burger" whispered Marshall, repeating Robin's words, "Robin, this is so much more than a burger. I mean the first bite...it's pure heaven. This is more than just a sandwich of grilled meat and toasted bread. It is God speaking to us through food."
"And you got our vows off the internet"
The group watched in slight worry as Marshall slowly backed out of the door, it was then that Lily disclosed to the group that Marshall was struggling without having a job and slowly losing the will to get dressed in the mornings, instead choosing to walk around in his underwear. Deciding to talk to the waitress to see if she had any insight into the burger place. The waitress informed them that they were based off a place uptown. With that, the group and a slightly forlorn Robin left the burger place without even having a bite. She instantly gravitated towards Barney, who placed his hand on the small of her back. He knew that she was starving and was trying very hard not to lose her temper with Marshall, he passes her a bar of chocolate that he had in his jacket, which she devoured in seconds.
It wasn't long until they reached the place, Regis called Barney, once he had gotten to the previous place only for Barney to say, "I'm sorry. I forgot to call you. Yeah, that's not the place."
"That poor guy, you could have told him about this place."
"Nah, if it's not the place, we will have gotten his hopes up for no reason."
"Right" scoffed Robin, "It has nothing to do with the fact that he scares you."
"SHHH" Hissed Barney, "There is no need to announce it around." He looked over to the rest of the group to see if they heard the conversation between them.
The closer they got to the place, Marshall got more and more excited. Then as they got to the corner of the street, instead of seeing a green door, there in front of them was a GNB ATM. Robin watched as Marshall's face dropped and Lily's face showed her anger and turned it towards Barney, she punched him on the arm. Robin stepped forward to get in between the two of them but Barney caught her by the waist and pulled her behind him.
Lily hadn't noticed the interaction in her anger and continued shouting, "This is all your fault, you and that stupid bank. You did this!"
"Ow, Lils stop it, geez calm down," he said, before snapping at Marshall, "Would you just tell her already."
Lily instantly whirled to look at Marshall, who was sheepishly looking at her, "Tell me what?"
"I got a job," said Marshall, rubbing the back of his neck.
"What? Where?"
"At GNB. That's why Barney has been trying to sell you on how great GNB is" explained Marshall, "He wanted you to be excited for me."
Lily walked over to Marshall, while the rest of the group walked away from the couple, to let them talk in private. Ted went to ask the man handing out leaflets about the burger place. While Robin wanted to make sure that Barney was ok, and had not been hurt.
To which Barney responded, "Ppfhh, she couldn't hurt me even if she tried." Brushing off Robin's concerns.
Thanks to Ted's chat with the man, they had figured out where they were heading. While the married couple had talked and were finally on the same page. Lily apologised to Barney and thanked him for being a good friend. Together they headed to the burger place and finally order their food.
As soon as they were sitting at the table, Ted cautioned Marshall, "Now Marshall, remember it might not taste the same. This place has changed, you have changed. So don't get your hope up too high."
As Marshall finally found the burger that he had been searching for since his first month in New York. Robin let out a sigh of relief and as soon as the food came out, she picked up her burger and finally took a bite out of her burger. After a while having finally eaten the gang sat there, generally chatting getting to know more about Marshall's new job, how Barney was finally getting on with the new job and how the wedding planning was going for Ted and Stella.
"So, Robin what's new with you? It feels like we haven't had a catch-up in ages" Lily said.
Robin and Barney shared a sideways glance, and silently the two of them decided to tell the group their news. "Um... Guys, I... Barney and I have something to tell you." Barney grabbed Robin's hand, giving her the support, she needed. When he saw that she was not sure how to share their news, he squeezed her hand and announced," Robin and I are going to have a baby."
There was silence for a few minutes, before, "WHAT?"
"You're having a baby?" confirmed Lily, "With Barney?"
Robin nodded, eyeing Ted wearily, as his face seemed to be getting redder by the second, at her nod, Ted exploded "You're pregnant? You? and with him?" Ted stood up violently, the chair went crashing to the floor and he stalked out of the burger place. Marshall and Lily looked at the unexpected couple, unsure of what to say, "We should go make sure Ted is ok" Lily said, the two of them stood up before they left, "Congratulations guys, just give Ted some time and he will come around."
Robin scoffed, "Well that went well."
"We knew there was a chance that could happen" reasoned Barney, reminding Robin of the talk that had a couple of days ago. Barney pulled Robin closer to him, she tucked herself into his side and let him order her a large bowl of ice cream.
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Meanwhile outside, Marshall and Lily found a steaming Ted. "That wasn't fair."
"Fair? Lily the whole reason that Robin and I broke up was because I wanted to get married and have kids with her. But she didn't want that, she wanted to travel. Can you imagine how I feel? Can you? the girl of my dreams is having a baby with one of my best friends." Ted shouted,
"The girl of your dream? Then what is Stella to you? You can't say that Robin is the girl of your dreams, while you are getting married to Stella at the same time."
Marshall stepped closer to Ted, holding his shoulders, "Robin is having a baby with Barney. Ted, you are getting married to an incredible woman, but if you can't say that she is woman of your dreams then maybe you shouldn't have proposed to her. But the biggest thing is if you can't be supportive of your friends and listen to their side of the story, then you are not the person I thought you were."
"Ted, we understand that this was a shock and that you need some time to wrap your mind around it, and I think so do we. But I promise you that I am speaking for me and Marshall when I say we fully intend to be the supportive friends that Robin and Barney need," said Lily, she felt slightly ashamed that she didn't say this to her friends who were clearly in a situation neither had planned to be in. At that moment Lily planned to be the supportive friend that her friends needed and intended to say that to Robin and Barney the next time she saw them.
Ted looked at his oldest best friends and seeing the look that they had on their faces made him freeze. What Marshall and Lily were saying did clear some of the anger that he felt, but he needed time to understand what was happening and his feeling about it. he needed to do this before he could go and talk to Barney and Robin.
The three of them silently got into the cab, which Marshall had flagged down, each of them wrapped up in their thoughts.
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Inside, Robin had just finished her second bowl of ice cream, while Barney was on the phone with Regis, letting him know that they had found the original burger place. Once he got off the phone, Barney wrapped an arm around her shoulders and whispered, "Are you ready to go? Look like the coast is clear."
Robin nodded her head in agreement and as she got herself ready, Barney headed to the front to pay. As she got to him, she heard him say "- Philbin is going to be heading down here soon and I would like to pay for his meal in advance." Hearing that Robin, gazed at the man in front of her, it was very rare for him to show how kind he is.
"That was very nice of you" she commented lightly.
"It was mean not to tell him, the moment we heard of this place, it's the right thing to do," he shrugged. "Let's head out, your place or mine?"
"Mine, I haven't got any clean clothes at yours."
Barney hummed in agreement, as they got into the cab, he had ordered. The two of them quietly got into a conversation about Robin's job and the frustration she was feeling like her career was a joke. The two of them ignored the conversation that they need to have, waiting until they got to Robin's apartment and the privacy it provides that they need for the talk that needed to have.