Hello and thank you for taking an interest in this fic of mine

This is my first attempt and I would love to know your views!

Please Enjoy!

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She found herself standing here yet again, a place she had been little than twelve hours ago, only this time she was fully dressed, and angry. It was this anger that drove her here and overpowered her embarrassment at the previous encounter she'd had with him.

Her closed fist pounded against his solid door.

Once.

Twice.

On the third collision she stopped and waited. Her foot tapped whilst her hands trembled.

She could still be here. This realisation suddenly hit her. What if she was in his bed? What would she do? It was hard enough to see that overly happy face of hers yesterday sitting casually on his sofa but if she had to see her covered only in his silk sheets she's loss it. What little control she had left.

She needed it to be just the two of them, only then could she say it all, for this was perhaps the only time they couldn't hide from it. With the others they would put on a façade; smile and laugh, but when alone they had the freedom to say whatever needed to be said, and today, she certainly had some things to say to him.

She raised her fist again, ready for yet another impact. She didn't care about the neighbours; she didn't care about anything at the moment.

Her fist came down just as the door swung open, causing her to jump.

He looked tired; she'd noticed that more about him recently. It was his eyes; they lacked something they used to have; only now they looked surprised.

"Robin –"

"Are you alone?" her voice sounded strained.

"Yes. I –"

She pounded her way in, not waiting for him to finish.

Closing the door he turned to face her "Look, I'm really sorry about what happened last night. I hated to see you leave like that –"

He was trying to be understanding and apologise for his rejection, but that wasn't why she was here, if anything she deserved what he had done to her, for she had rejected him many times before. It was good for her in fact as it made her realised that he wasn't just her 'lobster', he was more than that, he meant more to her than he knew, then she had even known herself before that night.

She could understand his rejection; she just couldn't understand her replacement.

"Why her, Barney?" her voice quivered.

"What Patrice? What do you mean?"

"You know god damn well what I mean" she couldn't keep still and found herself to be pacing his apartment.

"No I really don't" he shook his head lightly and stood his ground, hands in the pockets of one of his thousands of suits, waiting for whatever she had to say.

"How could you possible like her" you pointed at him accusingly.

He seemed to take offence "Look just because you find her annoying doesn't mean that I should too. She is a wonderful woman, she listens to me. She gets me"

"What and I don't?" Her voice loud against his calm and collected tone.

"When did this become about you Robin?" he was treating her like a child having a tantrum, which only added to her anger. Only a couple of years ago he could have entered into this slinging match and gave as good as he got, only now he seemed to have taken control of this argument without raising his voice once.

He'd changed and it was only now that she realised that, but it didn't matter to her. Not now.

"It's always been about us Barney, even when we weren't together there was this thing between us, there always has"

Silence deafened them for a moment as the sentence hung in the air.

"Robin, what are you saying?" she couldn't even begin to open that door, one that she had played with only the day before; her feelings for him, something that had confused her for years. But that door had been bolted the moment she saw Patrice and she needed answers before she could ever reconsider opening it. If she ever could.

"Just tell me, why Patrice, of all the women in New York. Why her?" her voice had suddenly lost all anger and she realised just how drained she felt.

She felt as tired as he looked. Tired of this whole thing between them. It was becoming exhausting. There is only so long that you can chase after somebody before it all catches up with you, and that moment was now. Maybe it had happened a little earlier for Barney and perhaps that was the reason behind his decision to be done with her.

"Look I'm sorry you don't like her, but just because I've been on one date with her doesn't mean that I'm a bad guy"

"No. that's not what I'm saying"

"Then what is it Robin?" his voice showing the first signs of frustration.

"She…" Slowly she inhaled deeply, the anger had subsided slightly more to form a dull vibration beneath the surface and the pain it had been masking was beginning to pull through.

Her eyes burned, but she wouldn't cry, forcing them back she tried again "She is just so different to me, in fact she is my complete opposite"

"Yeah… And?" her reason seemed to truly confuse him. He just didn't get it and strangely this hurt her more than she expected it would, because of everyone she could always count on Barney to understand her, if nothing else.

"I just don't see how only a couple of weeks ago you kissed me, you wanted me and now it's her you want. I gave you signal after signal and yet still it's her you were with at the end of the night. I… I just don't see how you could have ever liked me truly, if you want her now" her voice quivered towards the end.

The burning in her eyes increased. An intense pressure was beginning to build in her chest.

She needed to leave, but she needed to hear his response first.

"That's crazy"

"No Barney, It's not. If you have feelings for her and if she 'gets you' more than I ever did then I don't see how you could have ever had feelings for me, why you chased me for as long as you did"

He opened his mouth to speak but she wasn't finished.

"Maybe it was just because I could handle my scotch and liked cigars that made you assume that we could work, and maybe that's why we couldn't because what you really needed was someone like her, someone completely different to me"

It was getting harder to speak as the pressure built inside her. His eyes tired as they were seemed sad, why? Because what she said was right?

Her voice had fallen to little more than whisper as she desperately tried to control the tears that threatened to spill "It's okay. It's okay, I'd just wished that you'd realised sooner, it would have saved me from fall –" the first tear fell as she caught herself, not wanting to speak those last few words.

She couldn't cry in front of him. She had to leave.

"I need to go"

She began to storm towards the door, needing to escape these walls that appeared to be closing in on her. Her breathing became rapid as she neared the door, her only escape, but as she approached it he blocked her path.

She had no energy to stop the tears the dropped freely upon her cheeks and had not the strength to move him "Barney, let me go" her voice defeated.

He stood like a stone statue, not moving, just staring at her.

"Barney what are you doing?"

"What were you going to say?"

Her heart stopped; she had hoped that he hadn't picked up on that and that she could avoid those words she wished not to speak.

"What?"

"What you stopped yourself saying just before you started doing… this" he gently wiped one of her tears away with his thumb. He let his hand linger on her cheek causing the skin to burn as if it were on fire which soon spread through her body. She didn't understand what he was doing, or why but in that moment she knew she had already gone too far to come back and so she resigned herself to the idea that this would be her life from now on; unrequited longing and that he may as well know the truth, maybe then he could understand how much he had hurt her.

She inhaled deeply, ready to say the words that she had never really said to him, words she once thought that he would say to her and yet now she knew this to be a false reality.

She looked up at him, his blue eyes staring deep into hers "I was going to say that it would have saved me from falling in love with you"

She felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest but the pain that soon followed made her realise that she had in fact opened the dam and soon the tears rolled from her cheeks again.

"Are you?" He was doing that crooked smile thing he did, was he finding this amusing in some way?

"Look at me Barney, yes of course I am. I'm a mess" she had surprised herself tonight; never thinking herself as one of those girls that become repulsively attached to a man and yet here she was sobbing in from of him, her only wish for him to hold her.

"I think you look beautiful, well… I always think that – " he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear causing her to push away from him. What was he doing?

"Why are you saying that, especially now that you're with Patrice? After everything I've told you do you not realise that you can just say things like that and –"

"– Robin. I'm not with Patrice"

"No let me finish… Wait. You're not. Not with Patrice?" she could barely believe her ears, but she had seen them.

"Are you joking, the woman annoys the hell out of me" he shrugged nonchalantly, retaining that air of casualness he often held.

"But Barney when I came here you said you were on a date with her"

"I was"

"So my point still stands"

"No it doesn't"

She needed answers and fast for the tears had subsided and anger had replaced them. The fact that he dared to even play a riddle with her at a moment like this annoyed her, but then could she ever expect any different from him?

"What are you talking about Barney?" her teeth gritted, her voice strained.

"I had to choose someone you wouldn't hate me for using" again, she saw the crooked smile.

"Using?" her voice expressing the shock she felt.

"I have been known to do it now and again" this time he smiled his full pearly whites at her, causing her stomach to flip involuntary. He ascended on her, closing the gap between then once more. He was almost too close. Her heart pounded.

"Why?"

"It was the only way I could get you back here with the intention of staying more than one night" he gave her a knowing look, because of course that was all she had come here for; turning up at his door in her finest lingerie ready to get him out of her system and it was only because she had seen Patrice that she had re-evaluated her feelings towards him. It was only because she had seen Patrice she had come to realise that she was in fact in love with him, but he could possibly know her that well, could he?

"How did you know?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets, but you were the ultimate challange" he winked seductively at her resulting in her stomach to again perform another involuntary flip.

"So… so you were just using her to make me jealous" she fought the urge to smile, but she could still feel the corners of her mouth flicker upwards. She literally felt as if euphoria was pulsing through her veins, he had wanted her all along, all this time.

She looked up into his eyes once more and felt him hold them with such intensity that she appeared to have lost the ability to breathe for a few moments. She felt her body tremble lightly at the surging arousal pounded through her, turning her innards into mush.

He was all she could see.

He was her only thought.

He was all she wanted.

He heart pounded dangerously fast, turning her mouth to sandpaper.

Her eyes flickered to his lips.

She needed him.

"I could never be done with you Robin; I was just waiting for you to catch up"

Suddenly he grabbed her with such passion that she could almost feel the heat seeping from his skin and pulled her to him. Their lips collided and clothes were removed. It was the night that their lives would start again, having spent most of the recent years waiting on each other.

His ultimate challenge completed; getting her back, for good.

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So there we have it… I very much hope that you enjoyed reading that and would absolutely love to know what you thought and so if you would be kind enough to leave a review I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you!