Chapter Text
“Is it just me or has Robin been really quiet lately?” Ted announces to the gang the next day. They are hanging out at Ted and Robin’s apartment with the TV on, but no one is really watching.
“Huh?” Robin turns to Ted.
“Yeah, you have been quiet, and it’s like your mind is somewhere else when we’re all talking,” Marshall adds.
“Something on your mind, sweetie?”
“No, I’m fine. I don’t know what you guys are talking about.”
Lily looks at her curiously but drops the subject. She knows that pressuring Robin to talk would never work, especially with Ted and Marshall around. She makes a mental note to find some alone time with Robin.
Robin quietly scolds herself. And Robin sits up, and starts paying attention to her friends’ conversation and tries to join in.
Later that night, Robin finds herself in front of Barney’s door again. She had never known that without Barney, she doesn’t enjoy hanging out with the gang as much as she thought she would. After a few moments of hesitation, she knocks on the door.
“Scherbatsky?”
Robin gives Barney a smile, noting that his appearance is still unkempt. She wonders if his job, whatever it is that he does, is taking a toll on him. She doesn’t say anything, instead lifts a bottle of scotch to Barney’s eye-line. She sees a glimmer of a smile and that shouldn’t make her this happy, she thought.
Barney steps aside and lets Robin in, then closes the door behind them. Robin goes straight to his couch while he retrieves two glasses and picks up the ice bucket. “What’s up?”
“Just one of those days. Do you mind if I hang out here for a while?”
“Uh, no, it’s fine.”
“I just haven’t seen you in a while, Barney.”
“You were here a couple days ago.”
“I meant... I haven’t talked to you in a while...” Robin looks at Barney.
“Oh. Is there something you want to talk about?” Barney sits down next to Robin and pours the scotch, handing one glass to Robin.
“No – not really. I just...” Robin quickly shuts her mouth before the two words stuck in her throat could slip out. She averts her gaze from Barney to her scotch and takes a sip.
Barney picks up his TV remote and turns his giant screen on. They sit there, not really watching, but not talking either, for hours. Both of them feels comfortable with each other’s company, without the pressure to find topics to talk about. The bottle of scotch is slowly emptied. Robin suddenly realizes that it’s past 2 a.m.
“Oh, crap. It’s late. I should go back,” Robin stands up.
Barney looks up and sees that she was at least a little bit tipsy.
“You sure you’re gonna be okay going back?”
“Yeah, I’ll just call a cab,” she grabs her phone from her purse and dials a number.
Barney bites his tongue. He’s not sure if he wants her to stay or if he just wants to be a gentleman and offer her his bed. He doesn’t say anything.
“Cab should be here soon. I’ll wait downstairs.” Robin starts walking to the door.
“Uh, I’ll walk you down.”
The next day, Robin is alone at the bar, waiting for her friends. Yet again, her mind wanders to Barney. She still can’t figure out why he’s acting strange – it must have something to do with Ted siding with Zoey, but he’s not acting out like he usually would; he’s just... distant. Robin is glad that the previous night, Barney was at least willing to just sit there with her through the silence.
Robin turns around when the door opens and sees Lily and Marshall walk in. She gives the both of them a smile that is returned instantly.
“Marshall, why don’t you go sit at the booth, baby? Robin and I will get drinks and we’ll be there soon.” Marshall obeys, and Lily walks up to Robin.
“You’ve been acting strange lately.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been really quiet, not paying attention to any of our conversations. It’s like your body is here and your mind is elsewhere. What is it, sweetie?”
“Nothing, Lily.”
“Come on, Robin. Now that Barney’s not here as often, it gets really quiet. We need you to be here and help us make things less awkward.”
Robin responds with a little nod.
“Is this about Barney?”
Robin’s eyes darted to Lily. “No–” But she leaves the word hanging and Lily caught it.
Lily smiles softly, “I miss him too, Robin. We all do. But don’t worry, he’ll come around and he’ll be back soon!” She throws one arm around Robin and gives her a half-hug.
“Three beers please, Carl?”
“Our friends suck! They’ve all went to bed already,” Robin says, when Barney opens his apartment door. She passes the bottle of Johnnie Walker she’s holding to Barney.
“Huh. The bar must be lame without my awesomeness present,” Barney smirks, seeing the clock on his wall pointing to 11 p.m.
“It kinda is.” Robin thinks that she shouldn’t be this delighted that they’re talking again. They’re friends. Bros even. Talking shouldn’t have felt this important.
“So, you think you’re gonna come down to the bar one of these days?”
“Yeah, I’m just really busy right now.”
“Barney...”
Barney locks eyes with Robin. He doesn’t say anything, but Robin feels his expressive eyes trying to tell her something. She can’t decipher the information hidden behind the blue eyes.
“Fine. Let’s just talk about how lame our friends are,” Robin lets it go. Just a couple more glasses, Robin thought.
“Let’s talk about something else.” Barney looks down, but he feels Robin’s gaze on the side of his face.
Robin talks about work, about nothing in particular. Barney makes some throw-away comments, but neither is really focusing on the subject. She is just filling the void. Just until Barney finishes his third glass of scotch.
“Now you’ve had three. Time to spill, Stinson!”
Barney looks at her, and then straight ahead to his wall TV. But she can see that he isn’t watching. She can see him thinking.
“What does this all mean?” Barney asks, very quietly.
Robin can barely hear him, but she is touched by the sincerity of his voice. “What does what mean, Barney?” She is now sitting sideways, facing Barney.
Barney is still staring at the wall in front of him. “Everything?”
Robin doesn’t know what to say; she doesn’t know what Barney wants to hear. So she puts one hand on his shoulder and gives it a squeeze.
Barney turns his head to look Robin straight in her eyes, “what’s the point of doing anything, if everyone keeps hurting you and leaving you?”
Robin starts to understand him. “No one is leaving you, Barney. I’m really sorry we hurt you, but we still love you.”
Barney smiles at her, “you don’t have to be sorry, Robin. You didn’t do anything.” Barney takes Robin’s hand from his shoulder, and holds it in his hand on his lap.
“We’re still here, Barney. We’re still your friends. You should come out and hang out with us again, we’ve all missed you very much?”
“But what’s the point?”
And with that, the pair falls silent. Barney pours each of them another glass of scotch and they drink them quietly.
Robin is awaken by Ted’s voice from their living room. Sleepily, she tightens her robe around her and walks out.
“What the hell, Ted? It’s not even 7 a.m.”
“Oh, hey. Sorry. I’ve been trying to call Barney but he’s not picking up.”
Robin is shaken awake from her sleepy haze when Ted mentions Barney. She walks towards the kitchen looking for coffee – or any other form of caffeine she can consume, now.
“Why are you calling him this early?”
“Uh... Hold on a sec.” Ted talks into his phone, “Barney, it’s Ted, again. Where the hell are you?! Come on, dude. Call me back. I need to talk to you. NOW!” Ted glances at Robin, then back at his phone. “I was called in to GNB. Most likely about, you know, me single-handedly destroying their project. And I usually have Barney backing me up whenever I have to face the higher-ups.”
Ted is staring at his phone, hoping to summon one Barney Stinson through it. And Ted is getting irritated. He dials Barney’s number one more time. His call goes straight to voicemail.
“Okay, seriously, Barney. I have to leave for the GNB in a few minutes. Dude, I really need you, buddy. You’re gonna be there, right? I’ll just see you at the office, I guess?”
Robin watches Ted scramble around the living room a little bit before he waves her goodbye and runs out the door. She has to restrain herself from running out herself and going to Barney’s place to see if he’s okay.
Ted never realizes how scared he is in meeting with his bosses when Barney isn’t around. Especially since he is acting against his employers. Throwing away his job for his girl. Throwing away a job that Barney got him. Barney... where is he?
Ted goes upstairs to see if Barney is in his office. He sees quite a few people inside Barney’s office, but the man he’s looking for isn’t there. Ted stands by the door and randomly asks anyone in the room, “um, sorry, but is Stinson here?”
The people glance at each other among themselves, then go back to doing what they were doing, ignoring Ted’s presence. What are they doing? It looked like they were looking through Barney’s files and other belongings. Questions fire up in Ted’s brain, but he is late for an important meeting and he is sure that everyone would just keep ignoring him even if he stayed. So he saves all his questions, for the next time I see Barney, he thinks.
Walking into his apartment, Ted finds Robin, Marshall and Lily sitting on the sofa watching TV while drinking beer.
Robin notices his long face. “Hey, Ted. How was the meeting?”
Ted sighs, loudly, and drops his suitcase on the floor. “Terrible,” he says, sitting down at the chair and stealing Robin’s beer. “Without Barney there, I’m just another low-level employee. One who had cost them one of their biggest projects this year, no less. They didn’t fire me, because that would be too simple. I’m still tied to their contract and basically I’d get sued if I help Zoey make The Arcadian a landmark. Or at least that’s what I understand.”
A pause.
“But where the hell is Barney?! How could he just leave me hanging like that? I must have left him at least 15 messages telling him that I need him to back me up or at least show up as a friend to support me!”
Ted goes on a rant about how Barney should have been a better friend. Robin tunes him out. She is doing everything she can to not throw the TV remote she’s holding at Ted’s head and defend Barney.
After Ted is done, Lily and Marshall try to calm him down, but Robin isn’t listening. She has her eyes locked onto Ted and her brain is filtering away words she shouldn’t say to a friend. The only ones that finally come out of her mouth are, “stop taking Barney for granted, Ted.”
Three pairs of confused eyes fall on Robin.