Kids, the beginning of the fall of 2012 was an interesting time for all of us. Your Uncle Marshall and Aunt Lily were enjoying every second with their newest addition, while your Uncle Barney was blissfully happy with Quinn. Meanwhile, your Aunt Robin had just started a new relationship with this guy Nick, you see, Robin and Nick dated for four months before any of us found out. It's not so impressive that she was able to keep it a secret for so long - we all knew how private Aunt Robin could be - but rather that she chose to keep it secret.

Nick flipped through his menu, never forgetting to throw pleasant smiles towards Robin from across the table. His eyes widened and his lips pulled into a smile after turning onto the sandwich page of the menu.

"I think I know what I'm getting."

"Yeah, me too." She said with a nod.

"No, Robin. Look." He faced his menu towards her and pointed excitedly to her last name, printed in bold letters midway down the page. "The Scherbatsky. You never told me you got a sandwich named after you."

"I didn't think to mention it. It was after a landed that helicopter. Actually, about that -" Robin began, before cutting herself off and shaking her head, "Never mind. It's no big deal."

"What is it?" Nick hated seeing her brush off things that mattered to her, it was as though she feared that it wouldn't matter to anyone else. He reached his hand across the table and placed it over hers, looking at Robin sincerely.

She looked away, smiling slightly to herself. It was nice to see how much he genuinely did care. "World Wide News is throwing me this stupid dinner party to celebrate my promotion and everything."

"Great. What color tie should I wear?"

"You really don't have to come. It's stupid."

"I'll be there." He said with a smile on his face, his hand tightening around hers.

Robin smiled back, "Thanks."

"Of course. I mean, they named a sandwich after you. Explains why you're so smokin'."

"Not since college." Robin laughed.

"What?" He asked, taken aback, "No, I mean, you're really hot."

"Oh. Yeah, I am."

"So, what time should I pick you up?" Nick asked, she grinned in response. Robin felt almost giddy with anticipation, something she hadn't felt in a long time. It was refreshing.

Like I said, Barney and Quinn were happy, and enjoying every second of their engagement.

"Okay, so that puts us up to one-hundred and twenty three." Barney said as he held a yellow legal pad and pencil, both of which had labels that read Property of Ted Mosby.

"Only one-hundred and twenty-three?" Quinn asked, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"I know, after four months of being engaged you'd think we would have done it in more rooms than that."

They sighed in unison. "I think its because we keep doing it in the same place. We've got to do it somewhere new"

Barney gasped excitedly, "Does that mean—"

"No, Barney. Not that." Quinn shot him a look of disproval, and he pouted childishly.

"Fine." They sat in silence for a minute, as the two thought about this.

"Hmm, what about Marshall and Lily's kitchen?" Quinn asked.

"We did that the day we told them we were engaged, remember?"

"Right. Ted's kitchen?"

"Remember his Fourth of July party?"

"Talk about fireworks." She said with a smirk, to which Barney lifted his hand for a high five. Quinn slapped her fiancé's hand, and laughed. Their eyes met, and it wasn't long before Barney's hand was up her shirt, and his lips pressed against hers.

Barney sat up abruptly, breaking their kiss, "MacLaren's bathroom!"

"Really? We haven't done it there yet?"

"I know! You'd think that would be one of the first places."

The two hurried out the door, "One-hundred twenty-four, here we come." Quinn stated proudly.

"Literally." Barney added, to which they high fived again.

Kids, a funny thing happens when your friends are blissfully happy. You begin to second guess everything about your life, and your own happiness. This happened to me shortly after Barney had gotten engaged to Quinn. Six weeks after the engagement, Aunt Lily could tell I'd been a bit mopey. I really did want to be a good friend and support him, I just didn't know how, I'll admit it, I was jealous.

"Let's cut the crap, Mosby. Just say it and we can go downstairs," Lily stood on top of the roof of their apartment complex, pressuring Ted to speak.

"Say what?"

"Say how much you hate that Barney is getting married before you."

"What? No. I- I'm happy for them." he said defensively.

"I know. You thought you were okay with it, but you aren't."

"I am happy for them," he insisted.

"Is all you'll let yourself say out loud," she implicated, "because if you said anything to the contrary, well, that would make you the most awful person on this rooftop. So, I'm gonna give you an out."

"And how are you gonna do that?" he asked.

"By saying something that is even more awful," Lily said, trying to hold back tear.

"Like what?"

"Sometimes I wish I wasn't a mom," she admitted quickly, and tearfully. "Sometimes I want to pack a bag and leave in the middle of the night and not come back."

"Barney shouldn't be getting married before me," Ted confessed. There was silence for a moment, as the words they'd each said truly sunk in. "You serious?" he finally asked Lily.

"I don't know," she sighed, "I mean, I love being a mom, and I love Marvin so much. But do you remember when I wanted to be an artist? Art was my whole life. And-and now it's been months since I've even picked up a brush."

She shuddered, appalled by her own words, even worse was the thought of what her life would be like when she had to go back to work. "I-I spent the whole day taking care of kids at my job, and now at home it's more of the same. It just - It never lets up. It's just really, really hard, Ted."

"Have you talked to Marshall about how you feel?" he questioned.

"Have you talked to Barney about how you feel?" she replied, turning the question back on him.

"Fair enough."

"I just think we have to accept our lots in life, and I have to be a mom to a beautiful, wonderful— if slightly constipated— little boy, and you have to let Barney get married."

Thankfully, by the time Fall of 2012 had rolled around, I had done as Lily said, I'd accepted the fact that Barney was getting married. I was even able to feel happy for him, plus I had something entirely different to be happy about. So, I've told you kids that I did some pretty crazy stuff before I met your mother, but stealing Victoria away from her fiancé was by far one of the craziest. The whole thing had happened a few weeks after Lily and I had spoken on the rooftop, it was a spontaneous decision, but at the time, I really thought it was best.

Victoria forced herself not to look back in the direction of the church. Their hands were still intertwined between them, yet much more loosely than they had been a moment ago.

"Ted," She said quietly, "I hate to ruin this super romantic moment and everything, but I think we need to talk about this."

He looked at her expectantly, unsure of how to respond. Being spontaneous had felt so amazing, and horrible all at once. He knew that talking would do anything but continue to suppress those guilty feelings, but you don't mess with a bride on her wedding day. Even in these circumstances, he assumed that rule still applied.

"Where does this leave us?" Victoria asked. "I mean, I know it's early to talk about this, but I just ran out on my wedding and am kind of panicking right now. I just think I need to know where we're headed. I'm leaving everything behind for you, and I'm happy to be. You have no idea how long I've wondered if we could ever have another a shot to ride into the sunset together…" Her voice trailed off.

"But?"

"Are we going somewhere with this? Or are we just driving aimlessly here."

"I don't know if you're speaking literally or not."

"Ted." She gave him a serious look.

"I thought we were just being spontaneous." He admitted.

"We were." She said, "We are, but now I think we need to think this through a little more."

"Do you remember the night we met?" Ted asked her.

"Of course I do."

He smiled at the memory of meeting her, how simple everything had been on that first night compared to now. "We had this perfect evening together, not even knowing each other's last names. And at the end of it, when I tried to kiss you, you insisted on only a drumroll-"

"-To keep things from becoming too real." Victoria finished. "What are you saying?"

"Can't we just live in that honeymoon phase, just for a little while?"

Victoria shook her head. "Ted, I need to know that you're serious about being with me, before we go any further."

After a moment, Ted tightened his grasp around her hand, "Okay."

"You're sure about this?"

He nodded.

"And what about Robin?" She asked, knowing it needed to be addressed.

"What about Robin?"

"Ted."

"Robin was the one who told me I should call you. I know this may seem hard to believe, but there's nothing between us anymore. For a while I was just trying to force something that wasn't there, but I'm done." He said earnestly.

"And you can promise me that nothing will ever happen between you two again?"

He turned to face her, "She moved on ages ago. And since then, I've moved on too. There isn't any part of me that wants to go down that road again."

Victoria smiled, "So, we're really doing this."

"We really are."

The four months following Marvin's birth had been most difficult and wonderful of Marshall and Lily's life, nonetheless, it was an adjustment. The first week home was the most exhaustive, even beating the times when they would pull all-nighters with your Uncle Barney. But after that first week, things started to return to normal, at least for Marshall. He returned to work, leaving Lily at home with Marvin until she would end her leave, four months later.

It had been another long day of work for Marshall, he came home to find Lily in the kitchen, making a dinner that he knew was going to be scrumptious. He flipped through the mail on the desk, and happened to find a letter from Lily's school. Being that it was already open, he removed the letter and began to read it.

"Hey Lil?" Marshall called out to Lily.

"Yeah?" she answered, her attention elsewhere.

"What's this letter?"

"What letter?" she answered, still preoccupied in the kitchen.

"This one on the desk from the school?" It wasn't a question, but he'd said it as though it were.

"Oh shit." she mumbled quietly to herself. It had been the one thing on her mind all day."What letter?" she asked again, despite knowing exactly what he was talking about. Her paid maternity leave came to an end on Monday, and she had ignored the letter for as long as possible. Most of all, she didn't want to have this conversation. "There was no letter on the desk from the school."

Marshall appeared in the kitchen doorway, holding the letter in his hands, and looked her in the eyes.

"Lil, this letter, it's open. Do know what it's about?"

If she hadn't known any better, she would've thought that he was accusing her of something. She sighed, wanting to get this over with, "Yeah."

"How long has this been here?" he asked.

"Two weeks," she admitted quietly.

"Lily, it says you have to go back to work on Monday."

"I know."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Marshall asked, his voice holding a supportive tone. "I could have helped look for a nanny, I could have helped you get everything ready…"

"I don't want to go back, Marshall," she blurted out, interrupting him mid-sentence.

"What do you mean you don't want to go back? You love teaching!" he responded, distraught and confused.

"I know, but I don't know that I love it love it anymore."

"Lily-"

"It's fine, Marshall," she responded, almost somberly. "Really."

"It's obviously not fine, Lil. Tell me what changed," he insisted. He wanted to know, he wanted to feel like he could help.

Lily continued with the same tone, "Nothing changed."

"Is it Marvin? Do you want to stay home with him?"

"No," she scoffed. He knew that being a stay at home mom had never been a part of her plan. "No, I don't."

"Because we've always discussed you going back to work."

"I know. I just can't do it," she finally admitted.

"Marshall, I love you and I love Marvin so, so much, but I can barely handle it. I'm barely surviving. If I had to add a new group of kindergartners on top of it, who I have to teach to sit, and raise their hands, and wipe their noses, and be quiet, I just don't know that I won't snap. There will be nothing left of me."

"Lily," he muttered, his voice cracked. He'd had no idea she felt this way. "I am so sorry. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I was afraid of how you were going to react," she replied quietly, looking away from him, her eyes tear-stained. Lily now realized that it had been a stupid idea, but at the time, telling him the truth was a scary thought.

"Lily," he muttered in response to her tears. "Come here." He pulled her into a hug and leaned against the counter. "I'm never going to be upset at you following your heart, as long as we talk about it first. Okay?"

She nodded into his shoulder, staining his shirt with tears. Marshall sighed, before adding, "I knew I would have to go back to work really soon after Marvin was born, but I'm really sorry for not being there with you."

"Marshall, there was nothing you could've done."

"I know. I just wish I would have known so that I could help you make that decision. You don't need to hide things like this from me. I want to know. I want to be part of the big decisions. It's our family's future on the line." he insisted.

"Okay," she said as she wiped the corner of her eyes, finally feeling a little better.

"What do you want to do?" he asked, letting her go and picking up the knife behind him to help her cut the carrots and potatoes for dinner. "You don't want to be a stay at home mom, you don't want to teach… So what's your plan?"

"Maybe stay home a little bit more with Marvin, and take up painting again." She said with a shrug, while stirring a pot on the stove. "I miss it. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I got that letter."

"Okay, so you paint." he agreed, Marshall knew this would make things tough for them, but he didn't mind.

"I um… I also want to get back into the art world. I want to go to gallery openings, and talk with other artists and-"

"That sounds great," he interrupted. "We can make it a point to go to galleries."

"Then maybe, when I'm ready, I can get a job at a gallery," she shared hesitantly. "It's an idea that I've been thinking about lately, it would keep me involved in the art world, and I'd make more money than through painting alone."

"You've given this a lot of thought." There was a smile on his face, and a congratulatory tone to his voice.

"I have."

"That's wonderful." Marshall set the knife down, and closed the short distance between them. "I love you, Lilypad."

Lily looked up at her husbands hazel brown eyes, and smiled. "I love you too, Marshmallow."

Their lips met and all cooking and futures were forgotten. Despite spending the majority of their summer alone together, they'd had little time to themselves. Marvin never let them be alone together.

Right as Marshall's hand reached up her shirt, as if on cue, Marvin started to whimper from the nursery. Marshall groaned, pulling his hand away.

"It's not a bad thing," Lily said with a chuckle, as she turned to go out of the kitchen. "I was in the middle of cooking dinner anyway."

"No, wait," he called. "Let me go get him."

"Thanks," Lily sighed. She realized that maybe she should have had this conversation months ago, because the future didn't look nearly as bleak as it had an hour before.

Meanwhile, Aunt Robin was arriving at the World Wide News building with Nick on her arm. The two of them looked happy, and they were happy. Robin introduced him to all of her colleagues, even Sandy Rivers.

"I can't believe this is all for me." Robin said in amazement as her and Nick sat at the head table.

"You deserve it all." Nick replied, and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm glad you came."

"So am I." They both smiled and looked at each other in silence before Nick spoke once again.

"Robin, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure?"

"Why aren't any of your friends here?"

"Oh, they're busy." She lied.

"Robin, this is an important night for you." Nick paused for a moment, before adding, "Did you even tell them?"

"No, I didn't want to bother them with it, they all have a lot going on right now."

"I think they can spare one night. It would have been nice for me to meet them too. Plus they'd want to come."

"Can we just forget about them tonight, please? I just want to enjoy myself and avoid all the issues going on right now."

"I'm sorry for bringing it up, but I think you need someone who's going to make you confront things you want to avoid. And as of right now, that guy is me."

"I hear that guy doesn't get laid a lot."

"Funny, I've heard otherwise."

"Oh, is that so?"

They both chuckled at their little banter before kissing sweetly.

For the rest of the night Robin was bombarded with people congratulating her, telling her how they always knew she'd be a famous news anchor. There were speeches; lots of them. People Robin had worked with years earlier, people Robin worked with now, even people who knew Robin but Robin didn't seem to know at all. They all talked about Robin and her career. She felt proud, accomplished.

Finally, her years of hard work had paid off. But she couldn't enjoy any of it, she was too busy thinking about how much she missed her friends.

"Bar. Now." Ted spoke with urgency into his cellphone.

An exhausted Marshall yawned on the other end, "Eight or higher, bro."

"I called Victoria, she showed up at the bar in a wedding dress, and ran out on her wedding to ride off with me into the sunset." He said, much faster than usual.

"I'll be there in five minutes."

Marshall arrived at the bar with much more energy than he had seemed to have over the phone, but there were still bags under his eyes. "Dude, that's huge." He said as soon as he sat down in the booth.

"I know."

"She left her fiancé at the alter?"

"Yes."

"And you are okay with that?"

"Well, I mean-" Ted began.

"What were you thinking? I mean, after you went through the same thing?"

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I think I made the right decision. This isn't just some selfish thing. If there was any part of Victoria that wasn't ready to get married, I only did her and her fiancé a favor. Besides, it was half her decision. I'm not the bad guy here."

After a second, Marshall's expression softened. "That's fair." He said. "I'm happy for you two."

Ted smiled, "Thanks buddy."

"And one more thing before I go back upstairs", Marshall said, "Would you mind asking Victoria if she could make a cake? You know, as a getting-back-together celebration or something."

He laughed, "Sure."

As Marshall turned to leave, Ted stopped him. "I think I'm going to ask Victoria to marry me."

"Marry you? Ted are you—" Marshall stopped mid-sentence as Barney and Quinn joined them at their usual booth.

"Marshall! You're finally back at the bar!" Barney exclaimed joyfully,

"No, I'm not Barney, I was actually just about to—"

"Quinn, be a doll, and get us some Scotch. We need to celebrate, Marshall's finally off house arrest. He found his balls and told Lily he needed some guy time."

Quinn walked over to the bar, and Barney lifted his hand for a high five. "Nice one, bro. I'm proud of you. The kid's not even one yet and you're already ditching it for us. Awesome."

Marshall shook his head at Barney, and turned to Ted. "I'm going to head back upstairs, I can't deal with this much Barney at once."

Ted nodded, "Goodnight."

Marshall waved meekly and walked out of the bar, as Quinn returned with four glasses and a bottle of Glenn McKenna.

"I've gotta go too." Ted told them, "There's something I've got to do."

Barney sighed in defeat, finally putting down his hand, he'd realized that no one was going to high five him in that moment.

"Nooo! This is so not awesome. Marshall is barely here for five seconds and now you're leaving too? Come on, bro, let's play laser tag, or go to the cigar bar. Don't leave me alone here!" Barney whined.

"Dude, Quinn is right there with you."

Barney looked over at Quinn, who sat beside him, her arms crossed in annoyance. "Yeah, but we already did it in the bathroom. Plus she doesn't like cigars."

She shrugged, "Its true, they remind me of Creepy Chris from The Lusty Leopard. He always smelled of a Cuban cigar and got way too handsy."

"Yeah," Ted said, stretching out the word. "Victoria is waiting for me at home, so …"

Barney looked up at Ted, "Whoa, Victoria? You mean, you took Robin's advice? You really went after her?"

Ted nodded, "Yeah, I kind of stole her away from her wedding …."

"Wait, you what?"

Quinn could see the hesitation on Ted's face, and knew it was her cue to leave. "Barney, I think I'm going to go get a pedicure. I'll meet you back at the apartment."

Barney kissed her lightly on the lips before turning back to Ted. Once Quinn had left, Ted told him the whole story. Barney smiled approvingly, "This is great. No its better than great, its legend-wait-for-it—"

"Wow, Barney, I never thought I'd see you so excited about me getting married."

"I know, I'm really warming up to the whole marriage idea. Ooh and Ted, we can be each other's best men!"

"Well, actually, I think—" Ted's phone rang, interrupting him mid-sentence. He looked at the caller ID and back up to Barney. "Speaking of, its Victoria. I'm going to head out."

Barney poured himself and glass of Scotch and tipped it up towards Ted, who nodded as he answered his phone.

Kids, had your Uncle Barney not interrupted Marshall and mine's conversation, I probably would've received a lecture, one that would've stopped me from what I did next.

Ted walked into his apartment, and placed his thin jacket on the hook beside the door. He walked into the kitchen where Victoria was, icing a batch of cupcakes. They'd decided that while they were figuring things out, Victoria would stay at his apartment. Ted dipped his finger into the icing and Victoria playfully slapped his hand. He licked the icing off his finger and walked into the living room.

"You know, I was thinking about what you said, about things needing to be serious between us." He said casually, calling to her from the other room.

"And?" She entered their living room, wiping her hands on a dish towel. She placed the towel on the coffee table, and stood in front of Ted, awaiting his response.

"Victoria," He went down onto one knee, "Will you marry me?"

Her face was full of shock, yet still with a hint of a smile. It took almost a full minute before she opened her mouth to respond.

Robin walked up to the bar, still dolled up from her WWN event. Nick had dropped her off at her apartment but she'd ended up at MacLaren's as she often did when she needed to be alone. Although she had enjoyed having Nick by her side all night, she was ready to be alone. Barney sat at the gang's usual booth, nursing a scotch. He waved at Robin as she entered. She ordered a drink and joined him on the opposite side.

"You look nice." He remarked.

"Thanks I had a thing." She said, brushing it off.

"Work thing?"

"Yeah, it's not a big deal." Barney didn't respond, but she could see him prying with his eyes. She rolled her eyes and sighed, "They were throwing a little party in my honor, I guess." She thought about it for a second, and smiled, "And I officially got my promotion." Robin added. Finally saying the words out loud, sharing her news with someone, made it feel real. She could hear the excitement in her own voice, and was grateful that Barney was the first she told.

"That's amazing! Congrats. Why didn't you tell any of us?" The was an undertone of hurt in his voice, one that Robin tried to ignore.

"Thanks. And I don't know, you're all kind of in your own little worlds right now. You and Quinn, Ted and Victoria, Marshall, Lily and Marvin, I didn't want to bother you with my thing."

"It just sucks you had to go alone."

"I, uhh, I didn't..."

"Work guy? Escort?"

"No, no." Robin laughed it off. "I've been seeing this guy for the past few months, Nick."

"Scherbatsky! You little minx, you're finally getting laid, and didn't tell anyone? Congrats, bro! I'm sure it's nice to fill the non-metaphorical hole in

your pants." Barney joked and they both laughed. "Seriously, I'm happy for you."

"Thanks." Robin smiled. "It's been a good four months for me."

"You haven't told the rest of the gang about him?"

"I always tell you things first," Robin paused, trying to think of a way to recover from the awkward moment that she'd just placed them in, "…bro."

"Lily's going to kill you, she loves your sex life." Barney said, changing the topic quickly.

"It seems everyone in our group is concerned with my sex life."

"Well we all know I've been hittin' it every night. What up!" He lifted his hand for a high five, she shook her head with a smile, and Barney cooly placed his rejected hand back on the table. "The engagement sex is so good, I almost don't want to get married."

"So I'm taking it you guys haven't set a date yet?"

"Nope. But, speaking of Quinn, I promised I'd meet her at home, so I better be going."

"Oh, okay. Have fun."

"You have fun with Nick." Barney smiled, then left.

Robin finished her own drink before heading home. She laid in bed on the verge of sleep when she received a "goodnight" text from Nick. Robin smiled and drifted off to sleep.