BroTP fic idea...

[timepiececlock]

BabyFic



Summary - Robin gets pregnant in early season 4, but not by Ted or Barney. By a one-night stand named... Cooper Reynolds. Or something.


------

Robin is pregnant.

For angsty reasons that will be skimmed over, she decides to keep it. How old is she right now in canon? 29? 30?

Talks it out with a dog in a pet-shop window. She misses her old dogs.


----------------
[flashback scene]
Robin realizing she’s pregnant.

-------

back to the dog in the window. Robin gears up to tell the others. She calls Carl first and tells him to have the booth clear when they get there because they will need a lot of drinks.

-------------------

She tells the gang. People react.

---

Robin flashes back to the night she slept with Cooper Reynolds, cameraman for Planet Earth 2.

---

More reacting.

Who’s the father?

"Does everyone remember Cooper?"

---------------

[flashback scene ]

[Lily remembers] Robin brought Cooper to the bar. Everyone met him, he talked about his amazing travel experiences. He was applying for a job with the Discovery Channel to work on the sequel to Planet Earth. He knew Robin through a mutual friend from Metro News One. It was their only date, because in the middle Cooper had to leave since his little brother’s appendix burst and needed emergency surgery, and Cooper was the only person in NY who was next-of-kin.

----------

R: "Yes, Cameraman Cooper."
M: "And why isn't Cooper at the table for this?"
R: "He's occupied somewhere else, with something else."
B: "Where? With what?"
R: "South Africa. With his camera. I sent him a text message."
L: "What'd he say?"
R: *shrug* "I'm told the reception is terrible on his side of the mountain."
T: "I didn't realize there were mountains in South Africa."
M: "I don't see why there shouldn't be."
R: "Hello, baby?"
T: "Well, not every country has them."
M: "Yeah? Name one that doesn't."
R: "Babyland! Where there are babies. Population: me."
L: "And Cooper Junior."
B: "Noooo. We're not calling him that." everyone stares. "What? We're not." looks at Robin. "Are we?"

---------


Someone asks how Robin even hooked up with him again, because they only had one date, right? Robin said two days before she left someone at Metro news one mentioned to Cooper that Robin was flying to Japan.

---------

[flashback] Cooper calls up Robin and says that after talking to mutual friend he realized they were leaving America on the same flight, as he’d fly to Japan, pick up some equipment and a coworker, then take another plane to Africa. Did she want to go have a drink with him as a way to celebrate their last night in the states? She said yes. It was a charming date, and they went home together.

-----

the same person asks if they sat together on the flight. Robin makes an awkward face

---
[flashback] Robin is on the flight to LA and they’re sitting eight rows away from each other, each awkwardly pretending the other doesn’t exist. On the flight from LA to Japan they’re now fifteen rows away and pretending even harder.

---

forward two months.

Barney starts to help out Robin. Because she's his friend, and her being pregnant hasn't made his feelings infection go away. Plus he can rationalize away his involvement because he's not the father so it doesn't really count.

----------

Robin has the baby. It's a girl. Robin names her Leslie after her mother, which is anti-climactic after weeks of group discussions about exciting and trendy baby names.

---------

In the hospital, after the delivery, Robin confesses to Lily that she's got a crush on Barney. She's nervous, though, because she can't play games anymore. Not that she wants a serious relationship (she's got that in a crib a few feet away), but just that she can't be so casual anymore, either.

----

Barney gets Robin to go out with him on an Escape The Baby Date while Lily & Marshall babysit, because he convinces her she needs a break.

-------------

He starts to take her out regularly, on a weekly basis. This is too keep her from (jokingly, haha, except maybe not) pulling a gun on the lil' one. He also visits a lot, and sometimes watches the kid, because he's good with babies, and babies are good with him. There are several months passing this way.

--------

Barney is talking to someone (Ted or Marshall) and they point out he's in a non-relationship relationship, but instead of blowing up, he just says that he already knows that. and they ask him if he missed it, or how he reacted when he realized it, and he flashes back to a moment where he realized it, freaked out, tried to go do something crazy, but it failed or he was unhappy or whatever. Then you're back in the conversation and Barney brushes it off.

------

Marshall, Lily, and (reluctant) Ted plan an intervention for Robin. Barney is not invited.
Lily: "You've got to make up your mind, Robin. You've got to sort out what you want from the guy."
Robin: "I'm not in love with Barney! And I don't want a relationship with him. And besides, I don't have to just worry about my needs right now, I have Leslie. Barney isn't father material. I know he's okay to babysit, but can you imagine him raising a kid, for real?"
Marshall: "Two things. One, you're already in a relationship with Barney. It may be some weird, sex-deprived relationship based around brunch escapes and mock-violence in the form of group sports with fake guns and lasers, but you're in it. Two: Barney--"
Ted: [interrupting] "Barney already is raising a kid. He's raising your kid."
Robin: "You're all helping me raise Leslie."
Lily: "I'm sorry to say it, honey, but count the days. Think of the last few months, and do the math."
Marshall: "Compare and contrast."
[robin mini flashbacks]
Robin: "Oh my god."
Ted: "Yeah, us too."


Every intervention has a desired outcome. What do you guys want?

----

Ted talks to Robin

----
----------

Comments

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Marshall: "Two things. One, you're already in a relationship with Barney. It may be some weird, sex-deprived relationship based around brunch escapes and mock-violence in the form of group sports with fake guns and lasers, but you're in it. Two: Barney--"

I love you so much for that line.

Please, please, please god write this fic.

And let the one night stand be hot.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad you think it would work. I hadn't thought about actually writing the one night stand, but I might do a drabble-sized flashback. I was thinking I could work to make this disjointed, like the show. I'd have to work out a pattern, though...

I was thinking, and it seems pretty clear that the only way Robin would feel comfortable in a relationship with Barney was if she initiated/controlled it. I think Barney already knows that, which is why he hasn't explicitly hit on her again and why he's saying things like "maybe she'll sleep with me again" this season, instead of "sleep with her". And while Barney usually controls his one night stands... it was pretty clear that 23-year-old Barney's only long-term relationship was controlled by his girlfriend.

I kind of like the idea of writing a story where Barney, maybe consciously, maybe unconsciously/instinctively, sets up a situation for Robin where she eventually feels comfortable choosing him. Plus... I want to write Barney interacting with babies, because it amuses me.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I kind of like the idea of writing a story where Barney, maybe consciously, maybe unconsciously/instinctively, sets up a situation for Robin where she eventually feels comfortable choosing him.

*nods* Agreed. And I think you hit the nail on the head when you were talking about Robin already being in a relationship, because that is how I think it'd happen - Robin would get in a relationship without realizing, because she'd never consciously pick a relationship with Barney.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It'd have to happen slowly, so that when it did come to light, she'd already be somewhat okay with what it feels like, and she'd have a picture of what it means instead of it being a looming, threatening question.

I think it'd have to sneak up on Barney, too. I can imagine him changing slowly a lot more easily than changing cold turkey from one day to the next. And it might be a surprise to him when he realizes it (because he's not self-aware enough or insightful enough to go through it deliberately), but he'd weigh the options and, if he's really in love, he'd keep going in that direction until it pays off. Robin's a long-road girl. She was for Ted, and Ted's more conventionally date-able than Barney by anyone's scale.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

*nods*

Yeah, it would be slow change motivated by self interest - like he spends more and more time with Robin and the baby because it's just more fun than being in bars picking up girls, and then one day it hits him that he's Ted he's basically in a commited relationship, and then he flips out and tries to go back to his old ways but hates it, and then finally bows to his fate.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

You just gave me a thought! Barney is talking to someone (Ted or Marshall) and they point out he's in a relationship, but instead of blowing up, he just says that he already knows that. and they ask him if he missed it, or how he reacted when he realized it, and he flashes back to a moment where he realized it, freaked out, tried to go do something crazy, but it failed or he was unhappy or whatever. Then you're back in the conversation and Barney brushes it off.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oh, that would be a great way to do that!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

ooh, maximum angst idea! It depends on how long I want to stretch the timeline, though. If it's long enough for the kid to learn to talk (year and a half?) then I could have an awkward moment where the kid calls Barney daddy, and robin gets really pissed and is all "did you tell her to call you that?" and of course Barney didn't and says the kid must have picked it up from day care or something. But Robin is very angry, and she goads him into a really big fight. This could be a catalyst to Robin deciding what she really wants from him--because she's realizing in a very real way how present he is in her life already, and in her daughter's life.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I wrote some more details in, jumping flashbacks and such.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks for the heads up.

You are SO going to have to write this.

Tangentially, Barney is reacting very, very similar to how I imagine Kakashi would react in Sakura got knocking up by Sasuke (assuming, of course, that Sakura has massive ephipany regarding the Uchicha had either just before or just after she realizes.)

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Let me know when you find a good rivalry fic!

[irrel.livejournal.com]

Wriiiiiite iiiiiiit.

[chase820.livejournal.com]

That sounds really awesome. And very authentic to the show.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The only unauthentic thing I think would be Robin having a kid, but I'll chalk it up to "accidents happen" and see if that flies.

[gypsyjr.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I really like this idea.