Chapter 13
Six Months Later
Robin read through the email that had been sent by her boss's secretary, the electronic sound of the guitar had her looking up. Arlo was now eight months old and had grown so much in the past couple of months. At this moment he was lying on his tummy on a play mat, where when he touched certain buttons would make musical sounds. Every sound made Arlo giggle and hearing him giggle brought an automatic smile to Robin's face.
Going back to the email she sent back a reply letting them know that she would be happy to come in for a meeting a week from now. This would give her time to talk to Barney and also to figure out who could babysit Arlo.
Seeing the time, she realised that she still needed to get Arlo ready. They were planning to join Barney for lunch at his office. Barney had planned to order takeaway as Robin had planned to make dinner tonight. The plan was to put Arlo down for a nap after lunch and use that time to get dinner ready.
"Hey baby," Robin kneeled next to Arlo, who instantly turned his head at hearing his mum's voice. Arlo smiled at seeing his mum next to him and cooed. "It's time to get ready and go see Daddy." Robin picked up her happy baby and took him to the nursery. She changed his diaper, put on a knitted cardigan with cute bear ears on the hood and a pair of red baby converses. Once she got her coat on, she put on the baby carrier and got Arlo settled in the carrier. Robin loved using the carrier, she loved that Arlo was close to her and he seemed to be more settled this way. This was also a great way for her to feed Arlo and she still felt more mobile using the carrier. She left the apartment after making sure that she had everything. This had started to become routine for her because a couple of months ago she had gone out with Arlo, only to realise that she had forgotten to take spare nappies when Arlo had a huge explosion that day, his mess seeped onto his clothes. Robin had to ask a random person in the bathroom to buy some nappies and clothes for Arlo that day, she had been so embarrassed.
Once they got to GNB, Robin greeted Barney's assistant and was told to head right in as Barney was waiting for them. As soon as she entered the room, Barney pulled her into a light kiss, which became hot and heady she moaned as their kiss became more frantic and desire bubbled in her. Her hand tangled into the nape of Barney's neck as he wrapped his arm around her and lightly tugged on her hair. They only parted when Arlo let out a squawk in protest of not being the centre of attention and not being greeted by his daddy. They whispered a quick hello to each other and shared a quick peck before Barney turned his attention to his son who was resting his head against Robin's chest. Robin loosened the carrier so that Barney could easily take Arlo out.
"Hey buddy, Daddy has missed you so much," Barney easily took Arlo out of the carrier, while lifting Arlo's cardigan, and t-shirt and blew a raspberry on his tummy. Arlo giggled in response and held on tightly to Barney's hair. Robin smiled and carefully untangled Arlo's hand from Barney's hair. She passed him one of his toys, which Arlo instantly popped into his mouth, Arlo sucked on the rings of the toy. Barney chuckled and guided Robin to the sofa on one side of his office, where their food was laid out and ready for them.
"Oh nice, we haven't had Thai food in ages" Robin sat down and started to open the containers. While Barney got Arlo settled on the sofa in the middle of him and Robin. Barney got a few more toys for Arlo to play with so that they could eat. They were lucky that Arlo was sitting up with the support of a cushion and wasn't crawling yet.
Robin handed Barney the container of Pad Thai while she took the papaya soft-shell crab salad, she was so glad that Barney's assistant remembered her favourite. "So how was your day?" she asked taking a bite of her salad.
"Stressful, I might have to fly to London in two days. It won't be for long" Barney hurried to reassure her after seeing the look of dismay and panic on her face, "Most likely I will be there for a couple of days just to meet with Johnson and Smith. Anyway, I will keep updated if anything changes. How was your morning, with His Awesomeness?"
"Great, I was thinking we should have him join the baby swimming group. You know he loves the water and at the end of every bath how upset he is. Plus, I was talking to Beth, you remember her son Max and Arlo had a playdate last week, anyway, she is planning to put Max in too."
Barney nodded, "That's a great idea, plus he will be awesome."
"Also, I had an email from Mark's secretary, he has asked me to come in for a meeting next week. It is about me coming back to work after my maternity leave because that ends at the end of the month," Robin looked at Barney, "We need to plan what happens once I am back at work, Barney."
"Yeah, I get it, well we talked about hiring a nanny. You still agree that Arlo is too young to be in daycare, right?"
"Yes, I don't want Arlo in daycare just yet. I still think that hiring a nanny would be a good idea. What about you working from home? Have you spoken to Bilson about it?"
Barney nodded, swallowing his food, "I spoke to him when my paternity leave ended, and he has agreed that I will be able to work from home for two days a week once you go back to work." Robin smiled; they were lucky that Barney's job was flexible enough that he could work from home. "What are you planning to tell Mark? I am guessing that you have some sort of plan about how it will work from you go back to work."
Before Robin could answer, Arlo grunted when his soft playbook fell and he couldn't get to it, Robin tickled Arlo before giving him back his book which he instantly grabbed with his chubby little hands. "I want to go back to work, but I am going to miss this," She whispered, "I am planning on asking Mark to let me ease into travelling, when I was talking to some of the other foreign correspondents, they said that most of the time they are in foreign countries for 4-5 days unless there is breaking news or if it's a planned long-term assignment."
Barney had heard all of this before this is a conversation that they had when Robin first found out that she was pregnant. It was better that they have the conversation again so that they are both on the same page. "It sounds good to me. Let's hope that Mark goes for it."
The rest of the hour was spent talking about their plans for the weekend and their plans to go to Canada to visit Robin's mum and sister for Christmas. Genevieve had also talked to Robin about her getting in contact with her dad, Robin was still very hesitant about contacting her dad and telling him about Arlo. Barney surprisingly had been the one to convince her to reach out and contact Robin Sr. and that Christmas would be the perfect time as all the attention would be on Arlo. Robin finally agreed to it, however, she still had concerns over how her dad would react to the news about Arlo. Genevieve had decided to take the pressure off her daughter and informed Robin Sr. that he now had a grandson. She invited her ex-husband to come over to celebrate Christmas with his daughters and meet his new grandson.
The rest of the hour seemed to fly by, Arlo had kept them entertained. Barney and Robin used the time to catch up, Bilson had invited the couple out for a double date. Robin had made some new friends in Arlo's baby group, they were planning a girl's night, which Robin was quite excited about. Soon it was time for Robin and Arlo to head out. They stopped by and said a quick hello and bye to Marshall before mother and son headed back home for Arlo's nap.
/-/-/
A week later
Robin walked into the CNN building and headed up, "Robin you're back!" called out some of her co-workers. Some of her co-workers stopped her to ask if she had any pictures of Arlo, which Robin was more than happy to pull out and show off.
It took her a while to pull away from her co-workers, and she headed to Mark's office. "Hey Alison, is Mark ready?"
"Yes, just head in."
Robin knocked on the door before poking her head in, "Robin, come on in" Mark said waving her in.
"Hey Mark," Robin walked into the office and took a seat opposite Mark.
"It's good to see you back in the office. Congratulations on the new addition and I hope everything has been well for you and the family."
Robin smiled, "It's been a learning curve for sure, but I have to say I loved it."
"Well, I hope that you are ready to get in the swing of things. I know that you are still currently on maternity leave. However, I thought it would be a good idea for us to plan for when you come back in the new year" said Mark, he pulled out some papers and passed them onto Robin. Robin quickly skimmed through the pages. "We will try to make the transition as smooth as possible for you."
"Great, I understand that there will be some adjustments to be made. However, I am excited to be back," Robin reassured Mark.
"Great, there have been a lot of changes in the past couple of months, but Grace will go through that with you when you are officially back. For now, we should plan how your transition will work."
"That sounds good, what do you have planned? I am fully committed to the work, but I need to ensure that my family is also a priority."
Mark a look of understanding, "I respect and understand that. To support you Grace and I have decided to help you phase into your job role. Your job was quite flexible when you were offered the job, this will still stay the same. At the start, you will be covering the local news, once you are more comfortable, we will then get you started in reporting news around the country and the final phase in getting to reporting around the world."
Robin looked at him sceptically, "What is the timeline for this plan?"
"The timeline for the plan is six months, however, the plan is flexible if you are ready then the plan can accelerate or be more spread out if needed."
Robin looked through the plan more carefully, thinking that it seemed almost perfect, "How long would assignments in foreign countries be?"
"That would depend on the situation, but most of the time shouldn't be more than three or four days long. However, this could of course change as said before depending on the situation or the news."
Robin agreed and asked for some time to talk it through with Barney, Mark agreed, suggesting that she email him with her answer and send the signed contract to HR. With that Robin left the CNN building after saying goodbye to her co-workers. Robin decided to meet up with Lily, seeing as she had a half-day.
Later That Evening
After lunch, the two women went and got a manicure and pedicure. By the time they finished, Lily had convinced Robin to join them for dinner. Lily had to guilt-trip Robin into agreeing, as the couple had distanced themselves from the group since Ted had returned. Robin messaged Barney to let him know that they were meeting at Lily and Marshall's place and to remember to bring Arlo's milk. While Lily let Marshall and Ted know that they were all meeting at the apartment. The two women picked up Indian food for dinner.
The whole group sat in front of the TV, watching the most recent game, while they ate. Arlo was sleeping; he had conked out as soon as he had his milk.
"So, how much longer until the divorce is finalised?" asked Robin to Ted. Ted and Stella tried marriage counselling however with Tony still part of their lives Ted had realised that he would never be able to trust Stella. In the end, he decided to ask Stella for a divorce, and he was trying to get back on his feet. With the help of Marshall and Lily, Ted got his apartment back and was in the process of creating his own architecture company called Mobius Designs.
"A couple more months. I have a meeting with the lawyers next week."
"Are you still going out with that girl Royce? Because if not then I know a girl at work who would be perfect for you," said Lily,
Ted swallowed his food, "I have a date with her tomorrow night, we are going see some new chick flick that has come out."
"Oh, I have heard about that, it's called The Wedding Bride and people have been raving about it," Marshall commented absentmindedly, his eyes widening as he realised what he said and added hastily, "Lily was talking about it last night."
Lily rolled her eyes at Marshall's embarrassment. While Barney just shared a quick look with Robin, "Sounds boring."
"To be honest it would be nice to just watch a movie from start to end for once," shared Robin, with Arlo now in their lives, there was always something to do, and there were days when the two of them would just crash as soon Arlo was asleep.
"Hey, your meeting was today, wasn't it? How did that go?" asked Marshall.
"It was very positive. They have a plan where they have phased my return. It seems very flexible and manageable. But I have asked for some time to read through the plan and the contract."
"Do you want to go back to work?" wondered Ted.
"Of course, I want to go back. As much as I love staying at home with Arlo. But that doesn't mean that my career goals have changed. I want to make something of myself," there was a fierce tone in Robin's voice.
"I get that, I do. But don't you think that the travelling will be too much? Especially with Arlo now?" added Ted. Robin's face tightened with Ted's question.
This time Barney rolled his eyes, he knew that the rest of the group would still struggle with Robin's decision to continue with her job after her maternity leave ended. "Arlo is young enough that it won't affect him as much now, he will get used to it as well, Plus, I will be here with him. This is something that is between me and Robin. All you guys have to do is be supportive of any decision that we make," Barney said in a calm voice, Robin relaxed, and her heart expanded even with love for Barney. She couldn't believe how lucky she was that Barney was so supportive of her career.
Since Ted had come back, Robin and Barney had distanced themselves from the group, with Arlo in their lives they only joined the group once or twice a week. But with Ted back on the scene, they had only joined the group once every two or three weeks. The only reason she knew what was happening in their lives was because Marshall worked in the same building as Barney and the lunches she had with Robin. Lily did not want an argument to start between Ted and Barney, the two of them had only just started to go back to normal. "I agree with Barney, of course, we will support both of you on what you decide. Plus, we will be around to help with anything. So, do you agree with the plan they have proposed?"
"The plan seems thorough, there may be some things that I might need to discuss with Grace, but I think once me and Barney have gone through it, I will most likely sign the contract," Robin shrugged, she knew some women quit their jobs after having a baby because their bosses were unsupportive, at least Mark and Grace were supporting her. She looked at Barney, who understood the look she was sending him because he nodded and wrapped his arm around her waist.
To avoid the awkward quietness that seemed to envelop the group whenever Ted and Barney disagreed, Marshall jumped in to change the subject. "Did you guys catch the documentary about the ghost of Captain Dearduff?"
While Ted and Lily jumped into the conversation with Marshall about the validity of the documentary about the ghost of Captain Dearduff. Robin and Barney had a quiet conversation about their plans to discuss the plan that Mark had proposed and not to worry about Ted's questions. Once their quiet conversation wrapped up, they were drawn into the conversation about whether ghosts were real or not.