Robin watched as Ellie ran as fast as she could, but then stopped right before finally jumping into the foam pit.

It made her laugh.

"That was awesome Ellie, you were so fast!" She praised her as she squatted down and reached her arm out to her.

She pulled her out of the pit, and Ellie asked, "again?"

"I think I heard the bell ring, which means we need to meet with everyone else in the middle." Robin explained.

This was her first time taking Ellie to the open gym, but Barney had been going with her before so this wasn't exactly new to Ellie.

"'kay!" Ellie started running and was already half way to the meeting point before Robin had even gotten up.

"She's so cute," a mom next to her commented.

"Thanks," Robin grinned proudly.

"I'm Sara by the way," the mom introduced herself.

"Robin. And that's Ellie."

"Oh we know her and Barney, my little girl is also in the same swim class as her." Sara smiled.

"Oh okay," Robin was caught of guard, everything was still so new to her that she hadn't really given any thought about people knowing Barney and Ellie around here.

"Is she going to start swimming back up too?"

"Not sure yet," Robin replied, she wanted to do as much normal stuff as possible with Ellie, but hadn't figured out what that would entail exactly.

"I'm sorry to pry but…she just dropped out of everything so quickly that it's hard not to wonder what caused that, I mean Barney never missed anything."

"It's fine, Barney had a stroke and so things have been chaotic. We are just getting back to normalcy."

"Oh my god, is he okay?" Sara was visibly shocked.

"He's…" to Robin, seeing Barney in a coma had become normalcy and so as long as he was at home, making progress, even if that only entailed some eye fluttering or reacting to pain, she thought of it as him doing okay. Because he could be so much worse right now. "He's hanging in there. He's been in a coma ever since it happened."

"I can't believe this, he always looked so healthy."

They had reached the other mom's and kids, but Sara signaled her to follow her instead of joining Ellie.

"It's circle time, the parents usually just wait by the door during this part."

"Oh okay. Thanks. This is all still very new to me."

"I bet, I've never seen you in any of the courses before."

Robin simply nodded, briefly wondering whether or not she thought that she was Ellie's biological mom. But no-one would just think that, right?

She wasn't sure whether or not she should point out that she wasn't, but then decided against it, she didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and making sure everyone knew that she wasn't actually genetically connected to Ellie seemed like a betrayal to the little girl.

Robin listened to the gym teacher telling them what a good job they had done today while going around, handing out stamps.

She completed the circle and told the kids that they were free to go and should run to their mom's.

Most of the kids started running right away, but Ellie was clearly unsure of what to do.

Robin squatted down and waited until they had eye contact before spreading her arms to signal Ellie to run to her.

Ellie started to grin and came running, throwing herself into Robin's arms upon arrival.

…

"Finally, where were you?" Loretta charged towards her the second Robin stepped into the apartment, carrying Ellie on her hip.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked surprised, wondering whether or not she had forgotten something.

"I've been waiting for an hour!" Loretta pried Ellie out of Robin's grasp and she let go of the little girl.

"What for?" Robin asked.

"To see Ellie, where the hell were you all this time? Carol said you've been gone all morning, I thought the point of pulling Barney out of a controlled and save environment was so that you could make yourself feel better by taking care of him, but now here we are a couple of weeks in and you are abandoning him all over again."

"Okay hold on, I'm not abandoning anyone and Barney is in very capable hands, I don't have to be here 24/7."

"He'd be in much more capable hands if you would have submitted him to a specialized clinic." Loretta replied angrily.

"What's really your point?" Robin asked.

"Your behavior! And have you looked around the apartment lately? You aren't even working, yet this place looks as if it hasn't been cleaned in a week. And there are dirty dishes everywhere!"

Robin sighed, "we were running late Loretta, I didn't have time to clean up after breakfast. Big deal."

"The bedroom, which is virtually Barney's hospital room, looks like a play pen. That's not save or hygienic."

"Ellie played in there while I got ready this morning, so what?"

"So what? You are risking Barney's life with your careless behavior and I'm sick of it."

"Loretta, what does it matter whether or not her toys are in there on the floor? It's not like he's going to get up and trip over them."

"You are not taking this serious Robin."

"Depends on the definition of serious, am I going to treat Barney and the bedroom like a hazard zone? Of course not, the whole point of this was that he could be a part of his daughters life. But I'm not jeopardizing his health in any way by having her play in there."

"You cannot treat him like that, he's in a severe medical condition."

"I know that Loretta, probably way better than you or anyone else, because I'm the one who takes care of him."

"Please, don't play that card, the nurses take care of him, not you."

"The nurses aren't going to stay forever, in fact we are probably going to cut back on the hours here soon."

"Oh that's just great." Loretta rolled her eyes, "is this a financial thing? Cause I'm happy to cover some of the costs to ensure that Barney lives."

"It's not. My goal has always been to take care of him myself, to need as little outside assistance as possible. I'll always need some help, simply because I obviously can't leave him alone while I'm out doing things with Ellie, but I still want us three to be alone and have that time together."

"Your goal and what you want! I'm so sick of hearing this Robin!"

"Well then leave, no one is forcing you to be here."

"Yeah you would like that wouldn't you? I'm not going to roll over and let you win."

"I never said you should, I am more than happy to text you the times I'm gone so that you can spend alone time with Barney."

"And withholding Ellie from me? I don't think so."

Robin rolled her eyes, "whatever Loretta, I know you hate me, and I know that we have our differences, but I'm not trying to be a bitch. I'm sincerely trying to put Barney's and Ellie's needs before anything else, and I know that he would want you here and in Ellie's life. Which is why I wouldn't withhold anyone from you. We can discuss this like two adults, but I'm really sick of you constantly picking fights."

Robin walked passed her, to get herself a glass of water.

There was silence for a moment before Loretta addressed Ellie, "I've got to go, but I'll see you soon Ellie. I love you."

She kissed the girl before setting her down and finally leaving the apartment.

…

"Hey, thanks for doing this." Robin said as Marshall sat down in front of her laptop.

"Sure, I wonder why it wouldn't let you play the video."

"It's the wrong format I think but I didn't have the patience to fix it myself." Robin replied.

"You might have to do it via a cable after all, I know the pictures streamed fine via the wifi connection but it might be easier just to connect the laptop to the tv."

"Okay." Robin shrugged.

"So the pictures work, right?" Marshall blindly clicked on the shuffle option and a picture of a small Ellie appeared on Barney's giant scream.

"Yeah." Robin looked up, she usually let the pictures run for an hour or two while she was busy elsewhere and no one else was in here to keep Barney company. Just in case the eye fluttering was more than just that.

"That's cool." Marshall watched this screen as well, and how it changed into the next motive.

Robin inhaled sharply when she realized which picture was loading, but it was too late to stop anything.

"Is that…was Barney in London with Ellie?"

Robin starred at the selfie they had taken in front of the Big Ben, Barney's arm was tightly wrapped around her shoulder and she was holding Ellie between them, all three grinning widely.

"I..." Robin didn't know how to respond. She had fought so hard to keep the details of Barney's and her relationship a secret.

"Oh my god you guys were a couple, weren't you?" Marshall asked shocked.

"No we...look I … I don't want to talk about it."

The next picture loaded it was another one of Ellie.

"Why not?" Marshall asked softly.

"Because I don't."

"Because it hurts too much?" Marshall asked.

Robin didn't know how to respond and finally said, "because it's between us."

"He flew to England with his one year old daughter to be with you, yet you are insisting that you weren't a couple…so is there…was there…"

"No. I'm not blocking talking about it because I did something I regret while they were visiting."

"Okay…so you were really just friends, and you are afraid that everyone is going to interpret too much into this if they found out that Barney flew across the Atlantic to spend time with you."

She sighed, "can we just drop it Marshall?"

"I think people would treat you differently if they knew that you spend time with Ellie even before this happened. I mean that picture said more than thousand words Robin, the three of you looked like a happy, young, family on vacation."

"I don't care how people treat me Marshall. This isn't up for discussion, I don't want everyone gossiping about any of this. Please promise me you won't tell anyone about that picture."

"I don't get why that would be so horrible. We are your friends Robin."

"Since Barney had that stroke, yes. Beforehand you were Barney's friends and yet he didn't tell you anything about me, did he?"

"What are you getting at?"

"That Barney didn't want to talk about it then, and that I don't want to do it now. And that has nothing to do with how Barney and I were standing to each other either, we just preferred to keep things to ourselves and that hasn't changed. So please keep this to yourself Marshall."

He sighed but finally nodded, "fine Robin."

"Thanks."

"So what's this video you want to show."

"It's on my phone, Ellie and I went to the open gym for toddlers and I recorded about twenty minutes of it so Barney could be a part of it or at least see it."

Marshall smiled, "Barney is so lucky to have you, you know that?"

"Not according to Loretta he is." Robin replied.

"Don't even listen to her Robin, she's just scared."

Robin nodded, easier said than done though.

…

Robin was sitting next to Barney in bed working on her laptop, the apartment already dark and quiet.

Ellie's birthday was only two weeks away and she wanted to get everything just right, which was why she was scrolling through party supplier sides to pick out the perfect theme.

"What do you think of curious George? She really loves those books." Robin asked and looked over to Barney, "she'd probably be thrilled if we went with that, huh?"

Of course he didn't react, but she still continued, "we should get at least one big Curious George balloon too."

There was a knock on the door and Carol stepped into the room a moment later.

"Is it already time?" Robin asked as she closed the laptop.

Carol nodded and Robin moved the covers back and sat up. Carol was currently teaching her how to stretch Barney's muscles but Robin didn't want to do it in front of Ellie, which was why they were doing it thirty minutes after her bedtime to ensure that she wouldn't interrupt them or see anything.

"Starting with his arms?" Carol asked, Robin nodded. It didn't really matter, she hated this no matter where they started and so did Barney.

Robin moved closer to Barney, getting the tubes out of the way before reaching reluctantly for his arm.

"It's important to do this." Carol reminded her.

"Yeah, I know, I just don't like hurting him." Robin replied.

"You aren't really though, he's asleep."

"But he reacts to it." Robin whispered, as Barney started to moan.

"Because he has entered the vegative stage, his body is reacting, but he himself is still fast asleep." She reminded her.

Robin had heard it all before, in fact a doctor had given her an hourlong speech on the whole subject right after the eye fluttering started.

It was progress, but not the leap she had hoped it would be.

Still, she reminded Barney of why they were doing this, just as she did every night. Because maybe, just maybe, everyone was wrong and he was able to hear them after all and if that was the case then she wanted him to understand what was happening.