Fic: Something Old, Something New
Title: Something Old, Something New
Summary: Just a tidbit I thought up after watching the last two episodes of Season 8
Characters: Ted, Robin, Barney
Note: Spoilers for 8x23 and 8x24
“Robin, I... I have a gift... for you,” Ted managed to stammer out, heart beating at a million miles an hour.
Don’t do this, don’t do this Ted. Don’t be a jerk, don’t do it, a voice screamed at him inside. But staring into Robin Scherbatsky’s panicked tear-filled eyes, he forced himself to pull the box out of his bag anyway, swallowing down the guilt filling his heart at what he was about to do, knowing full well deep down, the true meaning behind this outwardly innocent act.
“Ted...” Robin was speechless, mostly with curiosity as to why Ted had chosen this moment now, minutes before she was supposed to walk down the aisle, to give her a wedding gift. She took the neatly wrapped box into her hand, eyes never leaving Ted’s as she unwrapped it, opening the smaller box inside to reveal her treasured locket, her something old that she had been so desperate to find just a week ago.
“Ted,” she uttered again, this time a gasp of surprise.
“It was with me all this time, on my desk inside my race car pencil case. After you dug it up back when I was about to marry Stella...” he trailed off, searching her expression for a sign, any sign, that perhaps her heart was beating as fast as his was.
Ted Mosby, you jerk! You despicable friend! How could you do this to Robin? ... to Barney? The voice inside ranted again, and Ted briefly shut his eyes tight to shut it out.
“I...I thought... maybe you could... wear it today. As your something old...”
Or run away with me, because it’s what the universe is telling us. All this time, the locket was with me... your sign of marriage from the universe, with ME. You, with me. You wanted me to marry you instead of Stella, remember... please remember...
“Ted...” Robin was smiling through her tears now, and he felt his own breath leaving him. “Thank-you...I can’t believe... I mean...” She paused, and all Ted could hear was the rapid beating inside his heart, an anticipation that made him feel euphoric, yet terrible at the same time.
“But I can’t wear this,” she finished, looking at him apologetically.
A week ago...
“So after that, we just grouped together and cleaned up the game. You should’ve been there, it was awesome!” Barney joyously finished his recount of the day spent playing laser tag with her father, grinning proudly from ear to ear. Robin managed a half smile for his sake, taking a shaky breath to try and ease the tension inside of her, the emotions of the day still hanging on and dragging her along. The locket was gone. Her sign from the universe. Maybe they weren’t supposed to get married so soon...maybe they weren’t ready after all...
“Robin?” Hearing him say her name broke her out of her reverie, and she glanced up questioningly at him.
“I... asked you how your day went...” he trailed off, looking at her with worry in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts before she smiled at him, pushing her feelings back down. “Nothing... nothing... I mean... “ She took a deep breath, his trusting eyes causing her heart to clench with guilt as she recalled at all she had said about him, about them, to Ted.
“Don’t worry, it’s stupid,” she tried to brush him off, out of sheer habit, but those familiar unfortunate words caused tears to prickle at the edge of her eyes, and she bit her lip tightly, struggling to hold them back.
“No, what’s wrong?” he persisted, wide blue eyes searching her.
She turned away from him, an unsettling anger making its way into her heart. Now, he nags her, but this afternoon, when she needed him...
“Nothing, just...just leave it,” she told him.
“You won’t understand...” she added softly, though unable to hide the bitterness in her tone.
“Robin, that’s not fair!” he retorted sharply, surprising her enough to look up and see the hurt in his eyes. “We agreed that we needed to talk to each other, that we needed to tell each other when something was up. We agreed it was the only way to make this relationship work...and... and you know how bad I am at this stuff, at reading emotions. But you’ve been pushing me away this whole night, and I can tell something IS wrong, because you didn’t even pick out the onions in your nachos tonight, and you always pick out the onions... that’s not the point. You can’t expect me to just know what is up if you won’t tell me... I’m not a Ted...”
She almost gasped at his words, at how close he came to the truth of what she had said of him in the park, the very words that still stung in her mind. He was right though, it was unfair to him.
“So please... tell me,” he spoke again, gentler, almost regretful of having burst out at her, “What’s wrong?”
Robin took a deep breath to calm herself, allowing herself to stare intently for a moment into bright blue eyes that made her heart skip, before letting go. She told him about how she had buried the locket all those years ago in hopes of using it at her wedding, how she had tried to find it all afternoon, digging up Central Park desperately, and finally, how the universe had only left her an empty box.
“As I said... it’s stupid. It’s just a locket,” she finished, remembering what Ted had said to her.
“Let’s go find it.”
“What?” she exclaimed, staring at her fiancee as though he had grown an extra head. “Barney, didn’t you hear me, I found it, the box was empty, it’s gone.”
“Maybe you got the wrong box?”
“I didn’t.”
“Maybe someone else buried a box there that looked exactly like your box...look Robin, this locket obviously means a lot to you. Let’s go and find it,” he declared once more, before taking her by the hand and pulling her out the door.
She protested a few more times in the cab on the way there, but he persisted, and she relented, allowing herself to be led until they reached the area she had spent the afternoon digging up, patches of fresh dirt still visible on the grass.
“Barney, this is crazy. We don’t even have anything to dig with,” she protested once more, but he shushed her, magically pulling out two spades from his suit jacket.
“Here,” he exclaimed, handing one to her before kneeling down to drive his into the ground. “Come on, Robin, did you want your locket or not?”
Sighing, she knelt down beside him, pushing the spade into the ground before her. Of course she wanted to find her locket. If she found her locket, then she would have her sign... her sign that everything was right and maybe the universe was rooting for them after all...
It seemed like they had been digging for at least half an hour, when her spade finally hit upon the familiar box, which she had reburied after the disappointment in the afternoon.
“It’s here,” she called out to her fiancee, who by now was smudged with dirt in various places. He had been digging furiously the whole time, as though intent on unending the whole plot.
“Well... the box is,” she muttered, wondering all over again why she had agreed to this futile exercise after all.
“Awesome!” he exclaimed, crawling over to sit himself beside her on the ground.
She smiled sadly at his enthusiasm, placing the box back into the hole.
“Wait, aren’t you going to open it?” he asked her.
“Barney, I opened it this afternoon, remember? It was empty,” she told him, taking his hand into her own. “But thank-you... for trying. I mean it.”
He took a deep breath, giving her his earnest look that they both knew melted her heart.
“Open it.”
“Barney-”
“Open it.”
Sighing, she picked up the box again, rolling her eyes at him as she pulled it open.
She gasped as she revealed a beautiful silver pendant hanging off a delicate necklace sitting daintily where her locket should’ve been.
“Barney...” she started, but the words died inside as she swallowed hard to contain her emotions.
“Look! It’s your lock-” He paused as he focused on the box, staring quizzically at the necklace inside. “Excuse me, Robin...I er... need to make a phone call,” he hastily muttered, before pulling his phone out from his pocket and walking away.
Robin continued to stare at the necklace before her, a lump rising to the back of her throat at what it all meant as the truth began to dawn on her.
“Jose, I said a locket, not a necklace...yes I know it’s beautiful...I don’t care if it was the most expensive thing you found in the store... what do you mean you couldn’t find a locket in time, I gave you a two minute head start on us!” she overheard Barney whispering sharply in the background, and smiled in amusement, not bothering to hold back the tears that now slipped from the corner of her eyes.
“I know they are closed already, but I trusted you to-”
“Barney,” she walked over to him, interrupting him from his tirade. Reaching over to take his hand into hers, she took the phone from him, hanging up to relieve poor Jose.
“Robin, it’s... it was... your...meant to be your locket,” he stammered, looking like an eight year old who had dropped his ice-cream.
“Barney, it’s beautiful,” she reassured him, affectionately reaching out to brush at a dirt smudge on his cheek. He grinned at her approval, a heartbreaking smile that melted her.
“I know it’s not as special as your locket.. and... it’s probably not even old.. but I thought maybe.. maybe you could wear this instead? It’ll go great with your ear-”
“Barney Stinson... just shut up and kiss me.”
Present time
“I’m sorry, Ted,” Robin concluded her recount, lightly fingering the silver (white gold actually, Jose wasn’t kidding when he claimed it was the most expensive item in the store) pendant hanging around her neck. “It was a really sweet gesture...but, I promised Barney.”
“And now,” she continued, sniffling one last time to clear the remaining tears of panic away, “I’m going to go out there, walk down that aisle, and marry the man...because I...” she declared, pausing as a moment of truthful enlightenment seemed to wash over her, “I love him.”
“Thanks Ted.” She turned to him again. “I needed that. You’re a good friend.”
Ted swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the lump in his throat...though to his surprise, it felt kind of...right. He had expected the pangs of heart break as soon as Robin had rejected his gift to her, similar or even worse than the pain he felt when he first found out that Barney and Robin were engaged. And yes, he wasn’t going to deny, it hurt. Seeing the joy in Robin’s eyes, the small hint of a smile that would creep in every time she mentioned Barney’s name, the content affection that Ted had never seen in her before as she recounted the story... their story... it was plain for him to see. Robin loved Barney, and that was just the simple truth of it.
And somehow, he was alright with that, because it felt...right. It was as though the universe was screaming out at him all at once, Robin was not his soul mate. She was Barney’s... and Barney was hers. And Ted’s soul mate was... somewhere in the world. Maybe she was in Chicago... or New York, or perhaps, even in this very building at this very moment.
He just needed to meet her.
And to be honest, as all the doors on Robin closed for one final moment, he hadn’t felt so optimistic about it in a long time.
“Come on, Robin...let’s get you down that aisle,” he told her, taking her hand and pulling her up.
She smiled, pausing to savor the moment, before following him out the door.