It took Ted three days to cool down before he would even be in the same room as Barney or Robin. Unlike the first time around, he blamed them equally for what he perceived to be as betrayal. It was the hardest thing he could have imagined ever hearing, but even in the midst of that blinding rage, he knew that he really didn't have the right to be upset with his friends. It just hurt like hell to know that the woman he had loved most in his life had fallen in love with his best friend. She had given Barney the life Ted had thought that he wanted with her. It didn't matter that he had Stella and a new dream of a picturesque life in New Jersey, he could only see his own selfish loss.

However, after a long conversation with Lily and Marshall at the apartment, he had seen the error of his ways. It had taken hearing it from his two best friends in the world for him to see that it wasn't just a life that Robin was giving Barney, it was her heart. He had refused to see the fact that Robin and Barney had fallen in love with each other. If he had stopped long enough to see that, his anger wouldn't have been so deep. He would have had more compassion for Barney because he knew how intoxicating it was to fall in love with Robin.

With another long conversation over a round of drinks with Barney and Robin at her apartment, he had forgiven them. In fact, he had also asked for their forgiveness as Barney and Ted shared a bottle of single malt scotch and Robin indulged in a sparkling orange juice concoction Barney had invented the night before when she'd had a midnight craving. It was a routine that would become frequent over the coming months. The five of them would move their daily nightcaps from McClaren's to Robin's apartment so that she could throw up in the comfort of her own home and Barney didn't have to worry about negotiating his crutches through the busy streets of Manhattan. He'd missed going out at first, but after the winter nights turned cold and Robin's stomach swelled, spending the night on the couch with her had quickly become his favorite thing to do.

Then a doctor's appointment and a final meeting with a physical therapist found Barney with the news he had been waiting weeks to hear. He had been both looking forward to and dreading the moment that he was given medical clearance so that he could return to his normal life. He knew that he wouldn't be going back to what he had considered the norm prior to the accident. Before he woke up in that hospital bed, his nights had been filled with empty pursuits of even emptier bar skanks followed by Robin's face on the nightly news. Her face was still apart of his nights, but luckily for him, he got to see it in person when she came home after her late broadcast.

Robin had found it equally disarming when Barney was given permission to live on his own and work again. They still hadn't really decided what they were going to do about their future together. They had only agreed that they loved each other and wanted a family. Taking it day by day was important to both of them. She had long feared that he was going to wake up one day and revert to a former version of himself, but all those fears were put to rest one day when she came home from work to find her apartment empty. Only a handwritten note was left behind on the pillow Barney had declared as his. It directed her to a waiting town car idling at the curb as she came back downstairs into the lobby. A short ride across town left her in front of his apartment building. As soon as she stepped off the elevator, she knew that something amazing was waiting for her inside.

She walked up the long, empty hallway toward Barney's door. He had bought half the top story of the massive apartment building a few years ago when it had gone co-op. There was only one other tenant on the floor, leaving both of them with spacious penthouses that overlooked a beautiful New York skyline. Robin had fallen in love with it on sight, and every time she would come by to visit him, she would spend hours staring out over the sparkling lights of the best city in the world. As she reached her hand up to knock, she noticed an engraved bronze nameplate to the left of the door. Stinson & Scherbatsky. She traced the script of their last names with a smile before slipping a key from her pocket. She finally understood why he'd left it with the letter.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Robin's punctuated declaration was the only sound in a completely still room as she came into his living room. The place was completely dark save for the beautiful skyline and the illumination of dozens of candles. Barney didn't say anything as he came forward and threaded his arms around her waist. Robin pressed her forehead wordlessly to his and reveled in the comfortable silence of just being with him. She loved how he could just let her be. Barney pulled away and she felt his absence immediately. Then, just as easily as he had left her embrace, he reached for her hand and pulled her toward the hallway. Robin wasn't sure where they were going, but it really didn't matter. Maybe he was taking her to his bedroom. Maybe he just wanted to spend the night with her in his arms. She only knew that this was the most perfect moment of her life.

Barney smiled mischievously over his shoulder at her as he led her to a closed door just across the hallway from his bedroom. He had never taken anyone into this room. For a long time, it had been empty because he had never known what he was going to use the space for. He'd flirted with making it a home office or maybe a guest room over the months he had lived here. However, in the end, he had never found the right reason to do anything with it…until tonight. He opened the door and grabbed her hand to pull her inside. With a simple flick of the switch, he lit up the small space and showed her what he had decided to turn the room into. He showed her the one thing that could finally transform his apartment from a place he just lived to a place he could call home.

Robin turned slowly in a circle, taking every inch of the room in. The walls were painted a soft shade of yellow with a hockey themed border dividing them in half. There were framed jerseys from her favorite team hanging on either side of a brick fireplace. Two expensive cribs sat along one wall with matching bureaus and changing tables just across from it. There were two rocking chairs in the corner and stuffed animals sitting atop a toy box in another nook. Robin walked around the room, fingering the soft fleece of receiving blankets and cotton of little tee shirts and terrycloth of bibs. She stopped in front of the fireplace and looked at the pair of picture frames sitting on the mantle. Barney had framed the first ultrasound of the twins in one silver frame and a snapshot of the happy parents together at Lily and Marshall's wedding.

"You did all this?" she managed to ask finally as she turned around and looked at him with a frame in hand. Barney's blue eyes were alit as he moved closer to her. Tears flowed freely down her face when he nodded carefully. "Barney, this is perfect. It's exactly what I would have done."

Sliding his arm around her waist, he pulled her to the closet to show her all the outfits and accessories that Lily had helped him pick out on their massive shopping trip that afternoon. "I have to admit that I had a little help. I might have changed a lot these past few months, but I still don't know anything about shopping," Barney confessed as Robin pulled out a tiny suede parka with a fur-lined hood. "Robin, we can't raise two babies in that apartment of yours. It's just too small. You're going to have to move in here with me. You can get those dogs back from the farm. There is plenty of room here. You can do whatever you want as long as you say that the three of you will live here."

Images of Christmas morning with a doting Barney holding their perfect little son and daughter, surrounded by their dogs, flashed through her mind. A year ago, six months ago, even a month ago, that kind of daydream would scare the hell out of her but now, not so much. "All of my dogs? You do remember how big they are, right?" she teased. "I mean, they might knock over some of that electronic stuff in the living room that you covet so much."

"Lily told me that we'd have to get some kind of armoire or something to put it all away anyhow," he shrugged. "She knows a lot about baby proofing apparently."

Robin never did really give him an answer. She just arranged for a moving truck to come the next week, and before they knew it, they were living together. Their friends only really found out one night after Robin had taken a cab back to his place instead of her apartment in Brooklyn. Lily had a sneaking suspicion that Barney was going to ask Robin to move in when she helped set up the nursery, but it wasn't confirmed until then.

Life at the new Scherbatsky-Stinson home quickly found routine. Barney wasn't working as long hours, and Robin had convinced her bosses to move her up to an earlier broadcast when the late hours started to become too much for her. The babies were growing at a healthy rate, and everything was actually fairly perfect between them. He'd gone with her to Vancouver to visit her parents, and they had gone to see James to announce the pregnancy. His brother had been ecstatic. Her parents had been less so. Her father had cornered Barney after dinner one night, demanding to know his intentions toward his little girl. Her parents were traditional and wanted them to get married right away. Robin had assured him that she was happy with the way things were. They'd laughed about it the entire plane ride home, knowing that even if they weren't ready for it quite yet, they would be someday.

That closeness would only grow over the next several months. Robin finally quit working when the director told her that they were going to have to go to a wide lens to film her, and Barney had taken a long overdue sabbatical so that he could stay home with her during those last weeks of pregnancy. Robin finally went into labor in the middle of the night a week past the day she was due. Barney had stayed by her side during the entire twenty-eight hours of labor, holding her hand and urging her to breathe no matter how loudly she screamed and cursed at him. All of the pain and hell that they had gone through over the course of the last nine months was immediately made worth it the moment they heard their son's cries for the first time. With blue eyes like his daddy's and a mess of dark hair like his mommy's, the little boy was the perfect resemblance of the beaming parents. Minutes later, their daughter followed, and it was love at first sight all over again with Robin's eyes and a mop of dirty blonde hair.

Barney had announced the arrival of Patrick Theodore Marshall Stinson and Jamie Lillian Stinson to a waiting room full of their closest friends. James and Tom were there along with Lily, Marshall, Ted and Stella. He'd led them to the big picture window outside the nursery so that he could point to where their newborns laid. Lily had cried in Marshall's arms as Stella and Ted squealed in celebration. Tom had wandered off to check on their own child, while James had slung over his brother's shoulder and whispered, "Welcome to fatherhood."

Lily, Marshall and Ted were there when Robin and Barney held the twins for the first time. Lily had stood by her best friend's side and gazed over at Marshall. They would tell their friends about their own impending birth in a few days after the celebration of Patrick and Jamie had died down. Marshall and Ted were on the other side of the bed. Barney stood in the doorway later on, watching the four other adults interact with his son. There had been a time when he had felt like he would always be on the outskirts of their foursome, now he relished being right in the middle of it. He had a woman that he loved in Robin, two loyal brothers in Ted and Marshall, a crazy but supportive sister-in-law in Lily and a perfect new beginning in Patrick and Jamief. This was his family – their family. This was how his real life had begun.

Fin.

Thank you to all my amazing readers who have had the patience to wait for my updates over the past few months. I have enjoyed writing this story, however challenging it may have been at times. Your reviews have been very much appreciated. I hope to see some of you take up the fandom with a story of your own very soon. Cheers.