A/N: I have my final exam before I graduate coming up and yet the plot bunny for this story wouldn't leave me alone. It came to me when I was out this evening, and it kept bouncing around in my head until I started writing it. It should only be four chapters long if I stick to my plan (five if there's an epilogue or I split one of the chapters into two). I'm in the final weeks of my degree so I can't promise speedy updates but I know where I'm going with this so it shouldn't be too long a wait between each one.

This is only my second HIMYM fic, and it's my first time ever writing Robin. I adore her and I've tried my best to do her justice but feel free to let me know if she seems off at any point.

The title comes from Adele's Someone Like You. Cliché I know but 21 is devastatingly fitting for where Barney and Robin are in their relationship right now, and you can consider that album the soundtrack of this story. It's what I'm listening to as I write this – also Crown of Love by Arcade Fire – so if you want to listen to something as you're reading this then I recommend that.

"True love doesn't have a happy ending, because true love never ends. Letting go is one way of saying I love you." – Unknown

Whoever said that things always look better in the morning was a big fat liar. In fact, as far as Robin can tell, things only look worse. Barney is engaged to someone that isn't her; Ted is back with Victoria who Robin had hardly been kind to the first time around; and now her boss is summoning her into his office after the lunchtime broadcast. All in all, it is on track to be a truly crap Friday.

She suppresses a groan and drops her head onto the desk with a quiet thump, which does little to help dull pounding behind her eyes. Maybe if she lies here and doesn't move then she'll magically turn invisible and be left alone for the rest of the day. Because she really isn't in the mood for a live broadcast, Sandy's suggestive comments, and the cheery mood that's required for her job. Today's the kind of day where she could really use some massive tragedy that allows her to be as dark as she feels. Not that she's wishing that anyone would die or anything. Just a huge factory fire or massive oil spill would do. 'Or a drunk customer manages to set the Lusty Leopard ablaze, killing everyone inside,' a little voice in her head mutters. She quickly crushes that voice though because those sort of thoughts belong to a crazy bitter ex and she's not going to be that girl. Because there might be girls out there who go into a tailspin when their ex gets engaged and who start seeking happiness at the bottom of an ice-cream tub, but that's never been Robin. And so she's going to take a deep breath, lift her head up off the desk, and go and get ready, because that's what she does. She's a grown adult and she was the one that chose not to get back together with Barney so she's not about to start moping over the fact that he's moved on. She will lift her head up off the desk and get on with her life. In a minute. Or maybe two.

"Are you okay, Robin?" Patrice asks from somewhere behind her, a hand reaching out to pat her shoulder in what is obviously meant to be a comforting manner. However, it does little to comfort Robin because the last thing she wants is sympathy from Patrice of all people. So she takes a deep breath and raises her head with a smile.

"I'm fine, Patrice. I've just got a bit of a headache coming on."

Patrice looks like she wants to say something else but Robin takes her pause as a chance to slip away, throwing a comment about needing to get into make-up over her shoulder. She may not be in the best of moods but she doesn't do female bonding and sympathy chats; she never has and she never will. Shooting guns down at the range is far more her style and that's the first place she'll be going after she gets off work. She would normally choose drinking at McLaren's but there's too much chance of running into people that she would rather avoid there. Not that she's hiding or anything. She could just use a little time to adjust before she's required to pull out the 'I'm so happy for you' smile that's going to be necessary when facing her two exes. And if that takes a couple of nights of firing bullets at a target then so be it.

The make-up room is crowded when she gets there, filled with guests and presenters for the various shows that are going out over the next few hours, and she hopes this will equal a little peace and quiet. But that hope is quickly shattered when she sees Sally, one of the more chattier make-up artists, waving her over to an empty chair. The moment she sits down, she's hit with a barrage of chatter from Sally about her weekend plans and whether this guy she likes is going to call her. Robin barely pays attention to her. She mms and ahs in all the right places and idly watches as blusher is brushed over her cheeks and her eyelashes are caked in mascara. Sally's chatter is inane enough that no real input from her is necessary but it's also manic enough that it keeps Robin from being able to fully lose herself in her own thoughts. Instead, the buzz of Sally's voice and the others around her fills her head and it's strangely soothing.

However, a silence falls over Sally after a while and Robin realises that she missed a question that was obviously directed at her.

"Sorry, what?"

"I said that I heard that your friend had a baby."

"Yeah, a couple of days ago. Marvin Eriksen after his granddad."

"Oh that's nice. I love that old names are making a comeback. There's something lovely about a classic name that could have belonged to one of those movie stars from the 40s. I think I'd name a girl Marilyn or Audrey. Something classy."

And she's off again, rambling on about baby names, a topic that is never going to play a part in Robin's life, whether she wants it to or not. She nods along, hoping she's reacting in all the right places, mentally counting down the seconds until she needs to be in the studio. When she's in there, everything comes naturally, and there's no time to think about anything beyond making sure she doesn't fuck up on live television. In there there's no time for thinking about ex-boyfriends or the fact that she's the only one of her friends not in a committed relationship.

Eventually, Sally sends her off with a smile and her best wishes for Marshall, Lily, and Marvin. Robin gives her her most practiced newscaster grin and hurries off in the direction of the studio, only stopping to grab the updated notes for the newscast. She skids through the doors with two minutes to spare, and she lets the buzz that always fills the studio as a live broadcast approaches embrace her. It's moments like this that let her know that journalism was the right career path for her. She's not sure there's anything she loves more than the moment before she goes live on air to the entirety of New York. Clive starts briefing her on a couple of changes to the script, and Adam is attaching her mike and hurrying over to the desk where Sandy is already sat waiting. He's being doused with one final round of hairspray and Robin has to fight a hacking cough as the spray hits the back of her throat. She sips at the glass of water on the desk to clear the taste away, and she smoothes her skirt down even though no one will be able to see it.

The faint sounds of the World Wide News theme echoes through the studio, and the counter to the right of the camera signals that there are only ten seconds remaining until they're live. Robin takes a deep breath, shoves all thoughts about yesterday's events out of her head, and focuses on the camera.

"I'm Sandy Rivers." So what if her ex-boyfriend is marrying a stripper?

"And I'm Robin Scherbatsky, and this is the news at one."

She's Robin Scherbatsky and she's going to get through this.

"Great show," Eric says as she walks into his office, his attention still mainly focused on the papers on his desk rather than her. "You and Sandy, such a great team." Robin isn't sure she'd call a skeevy guy and the woman who's spent seven years fending off his advances a great team but she'll take what she can get. And at least the positive comment means this meeting isn't about her getting fired. She's really not sure she could handle losing her job on top of everything else lately. She's faced the battle to find a job in journalism before and it was not fun. The interview for the naked news show will probably always leave her mentally scarred. "So you're probably wondering why I called you in here," he says, finally looking up from his desk.

"I was," she says tentatively. Eric is far more professional than her boss at Metro News One but she still wouldn't put it past him to start asking her questions about the strange noises his dog is making.

"Well there's no need to look so terrified. It's not bad news, I swear. I'm sure you've noticed that we're slowly expanding our coverage here, both in terms of content and scope. That little trip to Russia we sent you and Patrice on was just the beginning. To really rival the CNN's of this world, we need to truly be able to compete." She nods, still completely unclear as to what this has to do with her. As long as they're not about to make her start presenting the news with a monkey then she's not going to kick up a fuss. "We've been talking about potential changes for the past few months and we've decided to shuffle a few people around. Everyone's in agreement that we could do with a shake-up, and with new roles being created, now is the perfect time."

"So I'm guessing I'm not going to be presenting the lunchtime news anymore?" She tries to sound calm but she crosses her fingers and prays she's not about to get relegated to the early morning slot. Having a proper night's sleep is not a luxury she is willing to give up any time soon.

"Well that depends on you. We love what you've been doing here and that helicopter stuff was just genius. You're exactly the sort of person we want working for us. But we think you're ready for more."

"More?"

"Like I said, this is entirely up to you, and if you'd rather remain presenting the lunchtime and evening news then we'll be more than happy for you to do so. However, what we'd like to offer you is a promotion to foreign correspondent."

"Foreign correspondent?" She cringes and wishes that she could stop repeating the last thing he says, but she's so lost that she feels like she's running just to catch up with his train of thought.

"Yes. Any huge events that are happening, you'd be our eyes and ears on the ground. Obviously you wouldn't be the only one. We've already offered the same role to Patrick, and we're in talks with someone from another channel, which I clearly can't say too much about just yet. But we'd like you to be the other reporter on the team."

"So what would the new job mean? Would I still be based here?"

"Unfortunately, the nature of the job would mean that we would require you to be travelling most of the time. We're still working the kinks out because all we've had before are reporters based here being sent out to the relevant countries. But that just isn't quick enough for us to get the latest news, and it's one of the reasons why we lag behind bigger news stations. We're World Wide News for a reason. The idea is that you move from country to country whenever there's a story. If you're finishing up a report in London and riots break out in Paris then you can be on the scene within a couple of hours. Or if there's a particularly massive event, like the World Cup, then you can be stationed out there for a good few weeks and give us daily updates."

Robin tried to formulate some sort of response but she was coming up blank. It would be a complete change from what she was doing now but it would also be the exact sort of thing she had dreamed about doing ever since she first started working as a journalist. The only hiccup was the part where she would spend most of the year travelling. She wasn't the sort of person that normally got attached to one specific place but she had come to love New York. It had been her home for the past seven years and all her friends were here. Japan hadn't been the great experience she was hoping for, and to leave and have it fail again would be heartbreaking.

"It's a fantastic offer, really. I'm just not sure…"

"Obviously it's a lot we're asking you to give up. It won't be the regular day-to-day schedule you have here, and it'll mean the next few years are rather up in the air for you. We think you can handle it though."

"I just don't know if I'm in a place in my life where I can just pack and up and go."

"And that's completely understandable. But there will be benefits that come with it. All your flights and transport costs will be covered, as well hotels. If you're on a longer report, anything over a month, then we'll cover half the cost of an apartment. And obviously it'll come with a decent salary bump." He slid a contract over to her with a little yellow post-it on top detailing what World Wide News classed as 'decent salary bump.' It made her raise from researcher to presenter pale in comparison. "It'd be a three year contract with the option for another two years. And we'd also be open to negotiations at the end of each year to give you the chance to re-evaluate. If you decide after a year or two that it's no longer for you then we'll find you a job here for the remainder of your contract."

"This is an amazing opportunity," she says, flicking through the contract. The voice in her head is telling her to go for it but there's something stopping her accepting it there and then. "How long do I have to decide?"

"We don't need your answer right this second so feel free to take the weekend to think about it. We do want to get you out in the field as soon as possible though so I will need your answer by Monday."

"Okay. And if I don't accept…?"

"Then we'll be more than happy to keep you on as co-host with Sandy. Your future with us is secure either way. It's up to you whether you want that future to be here in New York or in a variety of countries."

Robin barely pays attention during the afternoon meetings. Instead, she mentally weighs up a pro-con list and tries to come up with an answer for Eric. The only problem is that, while Ted may think that pro-con lists are the best way to make decisions, they don't work so well when you can't put your reasons for not wanting to leave into words. On paper, everything is telling her to accept the job. She's always wanted to travel the world and live in different countries, and here's the chance for her to get paid to do it. She'd be reporting on so many different things while getting to experience life in countries she might never have visited otherwise. Plus the pay increase won't exactly do any harm towards the nest egg her mother encouraged her to start building the moment the first pay cheque came in from her mall tour. But all those logical reasons aren't enough to make her say yes. Because when she thinks about not being in New York anymore and all the things that she would be missing out on, she feels a little sick. When she was in Japan, she was horribly homesick even though she never admitted it to anyone. She took to watching awfully dubbed re-runs of Cheers just for some semblance of home. And she's not sure she could face leaving again, especially with no idea when she'll be coming back. She knows how friendships fall apart when the other person isn't close by anymore, she just as to look at how many of her Canadian friends she no longer talks to know that. She's not sure she could stand that happening with her friends here.

'But isn't it already happening?' the annoying little voice in her head pipes up. Marshall and Lily have Marvin now so they're not exactly going to be up for hanging out at the bar every night anymore. Soon Barney will be married, which will just leave her and Ted. And even he will be gone if him and Victoria end up going the distance. Somehow, without even doing anything, she'll have become the seventh wheel in her group. When her and Barney were together, Ted had told her that couples need other couples to survive. If other couples end up hanging out with other couples then where will that leave her, the only single person in a friendship group of couples?

That pounding headache from this morning is coming back in full force now, and she's sorely tempted to put her coin flipping skills to use and let a coin decide her future for her. How is she supposed to decide what the right choice is? When she tries to picture her future following either choice, she keeps coming up blank. Even her own mind is bailing on her.

What she needs is some external advice but she isn't sure who she can go to anymore. At one time, Ted was her sounding board, but things are still weird between them now, and she knows that he'd tell her to stay because he doesn't understand the urge to travel that she has. And Lily will do the same because her whole world has changed with the arrival of Marvin, and she's not going to want her best friend disappearing off to the other side of the world. Lily told her about how she always wanted to travel, but now her and Marshall settle for their occasional holidays and that's it. Lily is the epitome of stability and something tells her that she isn't going to understanding taking a job where Robin will never know where she's going to be living next. The truth is that there's only one person who Robin knows will give her an honest answer about what she should do, one not clouded by their own opinions or needs, but his engagement means that that door is closed now. She's not stupid; she knows that his engagement marks him moving on from her once and for all. There was a time when she was probably the most important person to him and he would have listened to all her problems and told her what she should do. They'd have drunk scotch and he'd have told her that she was crazy for even considering turning it down. She can almost hear him telling her that New York will suck without his best bro but that she needs to do this. Now though, Quinn is the number one priority in his life, and a brand new fiancée means no more sitting around listening to an ex's problems.

No, she's on her own with this one.

By the time the cab turns onto Lily and Marshall's street, she's changed her mind about fifteen times. When she left work, she was going to take the job. It would mean no more lecherous advances from Sandy, and maybe she'd be lucky and get to spend the winter someone hot and sunny. Then she got to the shooting range and she decided to turn it down. She loved New York, she finally had a great job that she loved doing, and what more was she going to gain from taking the promotion? She still had plenty of time to travel and the idea of not having a proper home wasn't all that appealing. But by the time that she had shot a few rounds and felt the stress leave her body, she was already working out what to do with her apartment and all her stuff. It went on and on like this through the journey back to her apartment, dinner, and the journey to Lily's, who had text her in frantic need of adult conversation. Every time one thing convinced her to choose to take the job, another thing convinced that she wanted to stay in New York. Progress had been made though when she was halfway through switching from her pencil skirt to a pair of jeans and had realised that all her arguments kept coming back to the same two points. Ultimately, all her reasons for taking the job centred around her need to travel and see the world like she's always dreamed of doing. And all the reasons for staying as Sandy's co-host were to do with the fact that she has a home here in New York thanks to her friends. And that's why the decision is proving so hard. Because how do you choose between your dream job and your friends?

The cab pulls to a stop outside the apartment she used to call home, and she hands the driver a few notes, hoping she's given him enough for a decent tip. She's just getting out of the cab when she sees a group of familiar figures coming up the stairs from MacLaren's. Victoria's arm is linked through Ted's, and she's laughing at something Barney has said, who is following the couple up the steps with his arm around Quinn's waist. There's something about the sight of the four of them that hits Robin like a punch in the gut. Because she was telling Barney the truth yesterday when she told him that she was happy for him. He deserves to be happy. That doesn't mean the sight of him having truly moved on doesn't hurt like a bitch though. The sight of her two ex-boyfriends, both who she saw herself having a future with at one point or another, with other women confirms the thought she has been fearing all day. If she is about to become the seventh wheel in her friendship group then how long will it be until she's no longer a part of that group? There's no place for a single thirty-something in a group of married couples. And if there's soon going to be no place for her amongst the people that she'd be staying in New York for then maybe there isn't a place for her in New York anymore.

The foursome spot her before she can take that thought any further, and she approaches them with a smile on her face.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you had to work late," Ted asks.

"I was going to but then Lily text me. Apparently one day alone with Marshall and the baby is enough to drive her to despair already." She laughs and hope it doesn't sound forced.

"Well we were just heading upstairs to tell them the good news anyway."

"Good news?"

"Yeah," Quinn says with a smile. "We've decided that there's no real point in us waiting that long to get married. Neither of us have a particularly huge family, and there's no real need to wait. It's not like either of us have dreamed of the fairytale wedding. So we've decided that we're getting married in September."

And the moment those words leave Quinn's lips Robin makes up her mind; she's taking the job.