Disclaimer: I do not own HIMYM, its characters or anything even vaguely related to it. This is my own what-if imagining.

December 23rd, 2013

"No, Mom, I'm not making this up."

Barney's ears pricked at the sound of Robin's voice. He'd know that voice anywhere, even in a crowded airport terminal. He gestured for Ranjit, pushing the luggage cart, to stop, and turned in the direction of the sound. Robin Sherbatsky leaned against a nearby wall, head tipped back against a green and yellow Tantrum advertisement, eyes closed and one booted foot planted squarely atop her wheeled suitcase. She wasn't okay.

"Why would I make up a blizzard? There are no flights." She drew her hair over her shoulder and wound the ends around her fingers. She hadn't worn it that long in years. He liked it. "All outgoing flights are grounded. I'm not going to make it."

"We should keep going." Ranjit's voice sounded as though it came from miles away. "It is really coming down out there. Winter wonderland from hell."

Barney ran a hand over his jaw. The bristles of a day's travel rubbed against his palm. "In a minute." He couldn't leave without at least saying hello. Without trying to help.

Robin lowered her phone and dropped it into the leather satchel slung over her shoulder. She didn't move after that, only dashed the back of her hand over her eyes and dragged her suitcase flush against the wall.

He strode toward her. "Well, well, well, Robin Sherbatsky, we meet again. Or," he asked, when her eyes flew open and her head turned in his direction, "are you using Mosby socially now? It's weird that I don't know that."

Robin held up a naked left hand for his inspection. "All Sherbatsky all the time."

Barney instantly sobered. His muscles tensed. He had to blink to chase away the image of the princess cut diamond he'd helped Ted pick out in what seemed like another life. She'd been wearing that ring the last time he saw her. She'd been flying to Chicago that time, not out of it, with Ted, who'd promised to take care of her. That was what, a year and a half now? Too long. She wasn't okay. "I'm sorry. What happened? You don't have to say if you don't want."

Robin's shrug sent the tail of her white knitted scarf trailing over the red wool of her coat. Canada colors. They suited her. "What always happens with me and Ted? I'm me, and Ted is Ted. We're better off as friends. For real this time."

Panic flared in his gut. "Hey. You can't give up that easily. Ted loves you." The words caused a physical pain in his gut, burned their way through his throat, onto his tongue, but he couldn't hold them back.

Robin moistened her lower lip with the tip of her tongue and held him with a level gaze. "He does, but not the way he loves Tracy."

The sound of the unfamiliar name rattled him. "Who's Tracy?"

"Ted met a girl in Chicago." She paused for only a moment, as though she knew he'd need time to process the information. "We were on a train platform. It was raining. Ted saw a girl with a yellow umbrella. He said it would be funny if that was his yellow umbrella, so I said he should go find out. He did. It was. She was Cindy's roommate. Ted's perfect girl."

No, Barney wanted to tell her. That couldn't have been Ted's perfect girl on the train platform because I'm looking at the perfect girl right now. He rubbed the back of his neck. Lame. That sounded like the end of some cheesy Christmas movie. Ted could have said those words, and Robin didn't need Ted-speak from him. He didn't know what she needed. "Wow. I don't even know what to say to that."

That seemed to do the trick. "Seriously. I watched Ted fall in love on that platform. Not the way he usually does; this time is different. It's real, and it only took a matter of minutes. Within a week, I knew I had to do the right thing. I gave Ted his ring back and I moved out."

"Have you forgotten everything I taught you? Always keep the ring."

Only one corner of her mouth lifted, but he'd take that. "I'll keep that in mind for next time."

He waved a hand in dismissal. "What next time? What are the odds that there are three guys on this planet dumb enough to let you get away? Four, counting me. Do the math. Next one'll stick. I promise."

She raised herself on tiptoe and peered past him. "Better not let Quinn hear you talk like that."

"Why would Quinn care?" Then it hit him. Robin didn't know. Nobody told her. Now it was his turn to show a bare left hand. "Quinn and I broke up. There was no wedding."

Robin rested a hand on his sleeve. Her brows knit with concern. "Are you okay?"

Barney scoffed. "Please. Never better. I dodged a bullet on that one. Woman be crazy." He looped a finger next to his ear and forced a smile.

Robin's phone rang before she could respond. "It's my mom." She flicked her hair behind her shoulder and put the phone to her ear. "Hi, Mom. Yes, the snow is getting heavier. Yes, all the flights are cancelled. No, I cannot pull strings and get a special flight out. I don't control the weather. I don't know when there will be more flights. It might not be until Boxing Day. I'll get a hotel or something." She and kneaded at her forehead with her free hand. "I don't know. Somewhere."

Barney didn't need to hear Genevieve's side of the conversation. Robin's voice, more weary with every answer filled it in for him. "No. No hotel." Barney pointed to himself with both index fingers, his motions broad.

"Mom? Can you hold for a minute? There's a crazy person here. He may need medical attention." She weighted those last words and fixed Barney with a piercing stare as she lowered her phone. "What?"

"Stay with me."

Robin shook her head. "I can't."

"No, you have to." He gestured to the plate glass windows that allowed a view of the runway. "Look at it out there. All flights are cancelled. By the time you get out of the airport, the only hotels with any rooms left will be those that charge by the hour and change sheets upon request."

Robin tilted her head and gifted him with a saucy curve of her lips. "Oh, so your favorite places?" She slid both hands into her pocket, her posture relaxed.

Barney lay one hand over his heart. "Touché. I'm serious. I have the room and I literally do not have any plans for Christmas."

"Right."

"I'm serious. Marshall and Lily took Marvin to Minnesota. My mom and Sam are getting pretty serious; she and James and Tom and the kids are with his family. Quinn and I were going to spend the holiday with her family, which she is doing, asshole ex-fiance not invited. I'd planned on working through the holiday, but I finished early. Please. You'd be doing me a favor."

Lines formed about her mouth, a sure sign of deep thought.

"If you don't come home with me, all I'm going to do is sit around in sweatpants and watch bad Christmas movies on the giant screen. What else are you going to do?"

Robin's lower lip protruded by the slightest degree. "I don't know. Ted took Tracy to meet her parents in New Jersey. They said I was welcome to come, but that would be weird. I guess I'm just stuck."

"Stuck in the most awesome city in the world. We can turn this snowpocalpyse into a bropocalypse. It can be our Christmas gift to each other."

"Convenient, because I didn't get you anything, but how are we even going to get to your apartment? If all the hotel rooms are already taken, then all the cabs have to be taken, too. You're as stuck as I am. Best we can do is stake out a table in the food court and wait for the storm to break."

"No, I am not stuck, and I don't need a cab. Ranjit?"

"Hello!" Ranjit's greeting chased all the tension from Robin's face. She put the phone back to her ear. "Mom? I have to go. I found a lead on a place to stay. She threw her arms around Ranjit. "It's good to see you."

Ranjit responded with a single pat to Robin's back. "Good to see you, too."

Barney bristled with affront he only half-pretended. "Ranjit gets a hug and I don't? You wound me again, Sherbatsky." He pounded a fist over his heart. "Right here. Do you want me to bleed out here in the terminal?"

There it was at last, the full on Sherbatsky smile he'd been angling for the whole time, complete with eye roll and twitch of her lips. "Nah, wouldn't be fair to the custodial staff. Come here." Robin spread her arms wide and beckoned him into her embrace. She clutched him like a drowning woman would a life raft, fingers digging into him through wool and cotton. "I missed you," she whispered, her breath warm on his ear. He didn't imagine the dampness against his neck.

She felt good in his arms. Too good, soft and warm. She fit like she'd been made for him to hold. "Missed you, too." His lips brushed her hair, his head resting against hers for a fraction of a second. He didn't want to let go, but somebody had to. He'd let go when she left for Chicago. He could do it again now. He stepped back. "What do you say, spend Christmas with me?"

Robin pulled her suitcase away from the wall and surrendered it to Ranjit. "Only until I can get a flight out."

"Duly noted."

She didn't protest when he rested a hand in the small of her back.