1.15 Game Night.

Now and then I think of when we were together

Like when you said you felt so happy you could die

Told myself that you were right for me

But felt so lonely in your company

But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

- Gotye, Somebody That I Used To Know

Shannon

"You haven't had a night out with the girls in ages," Natasha complains.

"I've got a kid," Shannon reminds her.

"Pack him off to his dad's for a night,"

"It's not who'll look after him; it's that I'm in a different world to you all now". She's the mother of a two-year-old, she hasn't got much in common with her old friends anymore.

"Jeez You can give yourself one night off. Come on, we'll hit up Wrong like we used to,"

"I'm be too tired for clubs,"

"Please," Nat begs.

"I'm telling you, I won't be any fun on a night out. Not until Max is sleeping through the night." He's having trouble sleeping lately and it's driving Shannon nuts...and it's exactly the type of struggle her friends can't relate to.

"Fine- you can give him to his dad for the evening, and we'll all come round here,"

"Maybe,"

"Oh, why not?" Natasha nags.

"Because I'm different to you all now! I'm a Mom; I don't have time to read fashion magazines and keep up with gossip," Sharon insists, but her friends coming over does sound preferable to a night out.

"Don't be silly. We'll hang out- better, we'll hang out and all bring a friend round so you can meet some new people," Nat takes out her diary, "How does next Friday sound?"

Shannon considers the proposal...if people came to her apartment she wouldn't have to dress up. And it would be nice to see all her friends, and meet some new people too. "I'll have to call Rick to ask if he can have Max".

"And if does, you're in?"

Shannon smiles at her, "Yeah, I'm in,"

It's a change to see the apartment full of people. Shannon's having a good time, reconnecting with her friends and their friends, getting to know what's going on in the non-toddler world again. She's on her way to the kitchen to get another bag of chips, when she overhears Caitlin's friend- she's small and redheaded, Shannon had chatted with her earlier, she's a kindergarten teacher and she's applied for an art course in California- say, "Oh, it's just some weird Barney Stinson thing; he brings like three costumes every year,"

Shannon stops abruptly. She hasn't heard that name in years. Her head floods with memories: the scrawny boy skulking next to her on the first day at the Magician's Institute of Teaneck Summer school; him teaching her how to shoot sparks from her fingers; their first date in a grotty college bar; their first kiss waiting for a bus in the rain; him bursting with pride when he got a perfect score on Advanced Card Tricks; sobbing over Titanic together; the Wes Wilson lecture which changed their lives; applying to the Peace Corp; him worrying he wasn't going to pass the interview because he wasn't good at talking himself up or persuading people; getting their jobs at the coffee house and living in the cramped flat above it with three other people; meeting Greg...

"I'm sorry, did you just say Barney Stinson?"

"Oh my God, do you know him? Ugh, you haven't slept with him have you?" says Caitlin's friend, cringing slightly. That cringe was like she's met other women Barney's slept with; she'd said 'slept with' not 'dated'...which implies that he has one-night-stands. Shannon's had one-night-stands, her friends have, it's a normal thing people do- but it's weird to think about Barney like that. Shannon and Barney had tried sex once, but it was awkward; he'd been so nervous. After a few minutes of shaky fumbling he'd asked if they could stop, and they'd agreed to try again another time. "Yeah, like, when we're married," Barney had joked- but somewhere along the way that had stopped being a joke and become the actual plan. And now he sleeps around? It's been years but it still seems surprising. Maybe Caitlin's talking about a different Barney Stinson? Maybe Shannon misheard?

"Blond? Says 'wait for it' a lot?" she clarifies, remembering those little idiosyncrasies of his.

"That's the guy. Let me guess, he left while you were in the shower?" Caitlin's friend deadpans.

"No...no. it was...a long time ago. A really long time ago, and we never...we dated," Shannon explains, "It was ages ago. How's he doing? Did he ever go to- you know what, never mind. I don't wanna know," she interrupts herself, remembering his lip wobbling when she dumped him and that tape he made, "I don't think I deserve to know,"

"Dated? Seriously? When did- "Caitlin's friend asks, but Shannon interrupts.

"Excuse me". She's got that tape somewhere and she needs to give to back to him. She hadn't watched it in years until a few months ago when she'd accidentally put it in the video player instead of one of Max's Thomas The Tank Engine tapes. It had taken her a few moments to realise what it was, and then she'd felt so guilty for possessing it; it isn't right that she own that remnant of Barney looking so silly and sad. He deserves to have it back- he probably wants to burn it, and Shannon wouldn't blame him. She'd tried to break up with him gently, but when he'd barged in on her and Greg, she'd snapped; she can't remember exactly what she said but it must have been cruel. She wouldn't want someone doing that to her son when he's older, and she certainly wouldn't want someone keeping a tape of Max like the one she has of Barney. She dashes off to Max's room, rummages through the box of videos, and returns to Lily with the tape.

"Can you give this to him, please? And tell him..." tell him what? Sorry? It's a bit late for that, "Tell him, I...oh, I don't know. I'm sorry, this is...just give him the tape."

"She gave me the tape,"

Barney takes a sip of his tea and crosses one of his shiny black leather shoes over his grey-trousered knee. Shannon keeps glancing at his clothes; they seem expensive, and he looks good in them. He's taken his jacket off, and Shannon would be lying if she said she wasn't eyeing the muscles beneath his translucent blue shirt. He seems to hold himself straighter than she remembers, and his face looks thinner, cheekbones sharper and higher- although maybe that's because the ponytail and goatee are gone. That hippie phase had looked stupid on both of them.

"Yeah, I told her to. I knew I had it- I haven't watched it in years," Shannon insists, "It just got jumbled with my son's tapes and I found it a few months ago. How d'you know her?"

"I have this bro- my best bro- his name's Ted. Architect, reads books a lot, from Cleveland. He went to college with Lily and her fiancé Marshall; they all live together," Barney explains, "They're cool, but joined at this hip," he pulls a face, "Plus they all went to Wesleyan,"

"Oh, God," Shannon corroborates, rolling her eyes. Wesleyan's one of those fancy-pants SJW places. Shannon hadn't got that vibe from Lily, although her San Francisco art thing had sounded kind of pretentious, "Has she heard back from her application for San Francisco?"

Barney raises a questioning eyebrow (she's forgotten how his eyebrows dance around like that. It's cute).

"You know, that art fellowship she was applying for?" Shannon continues.

Barney shrugs, "She never mentioned it,"

"Oh, I'm...perhaps I'm thinking of somebody else," Shannon shrugs, gesturing in a 'well, whatever' sort of way and happening to touch Barney's arm. She's pretty sure it was the redhead doing the art course, but she lets it go- and before either of them can say anything else, there's a sudden squeal of, "Mommyyy!""

"Ugh, I'm sorry, that's my son. He's not sleeping great at the moment," Sharon explains, getting up, "You don't have to stay,"

"No, it's...it's okay. I wanna," Barney says quietly, giving her a lopsided smile. It's surprising how he easy he is to talk to. If somebody had told Shannon this morning that the ex-boyfriend she hadn't seen since she broke his heart eight years ago was going to turn up at her door, Shannon couldn't have imagined anything more awkward. But Barney's charming and funny and polite and gregarious. He's more smooth and confident than he had been those years ago, and he seems genuinely interested in her. She's already told him all about Rick and Max, and that thing with her dad, and stuff she doesn't usually tell people. Maybe it's just the ex-boyfriend thing, but there's something which makes her feel comfortable opening up to him.

"Well, if you're sure, come on and meet Max,"

He follows her into the bedroom. Shannon takes her son out of his cot and whispers, "Hello, gorgeous. Did you wake up again? He's been like this for weeks, I don't know what's up with him, hopefully it's only a phase," she explains to Barney, then gives Max a couple of kisses, "Mommy's here, Mommy's here". Then she has an idea- "Barney, d'you wanna hold him?"

Max is sociable little guy, and Shannon has the vague idea that since his isn't around his dad most of the time it'll be good for him to be held and talked to by a man.

"Uh...okay," Barney replies, reaching out to take the toddler. His hand covers Shannon's for a moment as she passes Max over, "Hey, buddy. How's it going?"

"This is Barney," Shannon explains, leaning over Barney's shoulder, "We were friends a long time ago,"

"Barba!" says Max.

"Your Mom taught me to meditate. Cool, right?" Barney tells the wriggling kid.

"D'you still do it?" Shannon asks, surprised that he remembers.

"Ah, no," he answers, "You?"

"I'm a single Mom to a two-year-old, what do you think?" she deadpans.

They chat a little more and Barney wanders round the room with Max until he drops back off to sleep.

"You're good with him," Shannon remarks.

Barney shrugs. "I like kids,"

"Remember how you'd always want to teach the younger classes at Teaneck?" she recalls. It's funny, the things you forget until you're confronted with the person you made those memories with.

"Yeah," he says with a wistful smile which perhaps makes Shannon's stomach flip. She can't help but think that if things had gone differently, this would have been their reality; Max could be Barney's kid. Barney puts the now sleeping toddler back in his crib and says, "Goodnight, bro," through the bars, sticking his fingers through to hold the Max's hand. Shannon looks away.

When they're back in the lounge Shannon sits close to Barney while he resumes his commentary about his group of friends.

"They've been a trio since college and they live together so they're super co-dependant. Lily acts like my Mom sometimes which is a pain in the ass, but-"

"Oh my God, how is your Mom? And Jack?". She'd met them both a few times; his doting but slightly wild Mom, and the brother who Barney didn't seem to realise was black.

"James," Barney corrects, casually moving himself nearer to Shannon, "Yeah, they're both fine. Mom had a, um, pretty serious health scare a few years ago, but she's better now,"

"That's good,"

"As I was saying, Marshall's really cool," Barney continues, "But him and Lily just got engaged so they're totally loved-up, "he shudders...Shannon can't help but feel slightly hurt. "Ted's my wingman. We're bros, but since those two got engaged he's on some dumb quest to find his true love. He's just started dating this Victoria chick; wants to marry her tomorrow I'll bet,"

His tone is an irritated one. Shannon's told him a lot about her dating history tonight, and although Barney hasn't said much about his, Shannon's getting the picture. "So you're not interested in-"

"No. God, no. After you, I...I did more than just get a haircut," Barney answers quietly, not looking at her. (He looks achingly handsome in profile, Shannon notes. Her eyes wander down to his pink mouth).

"Well, we were very young, weren't we?" she placates, not paying much attention to what she's saying.

"Idiots," he nods, meeting her gaze again. She'd forgotten a lot of things about him, but not how blue those eyes are. Despite all the other things that have changed, those eyes haven't. Still bring and twinkling and drawing her in.

"Totally,"

"You've got a kid now," Barney adds, his leg bumping hers.

"You've got your Wesleyan friends," she mumbles, feeling herself lean towards him.

"We're not the same people," he says. His voice is gruffer and his face is drifting closer.

"We didn't work out," Shannon murmurs. Barney says something back but she isn't listening because his hand is sliding up her arm and her hand is grasping his lapel.

And then she kisses him.

Author's Note June 2018: Well, it's been 2 and a half years since I updated this series, so I'm going to say that this is The End. Thank you so much to everybody who read and reviewed this story, which started out as a one-shot and somehow grew to 68 chapters and over 70,000 words. Crikey! Thank you all. Feedback is still very much appreciated, so please review. Thanks again for your time, and have a great day.