CHAPTER 12 – "ARGENTINA"

Aaahhh, I'm at 12 chapters already! For my first HIMYM fanfic ever! Big hugs and thanks to everyone who's been reading; those amazing reviews are what's been keeping me writing more! I am so glad people are enjoying this; I'm having a blast writing it! I hope you'll like this latest update…and have a great day!

2015

(Ted, Tracy, Marshall and Lily are at the bar. Lily is on the phone, crying.)

Future Ted (VO): Kids, in the summer of 2015, your mother, the whole gang and I hopped on to a plane to Argentina just hours after we found out your Aunt Robin was sick.

Argentina

(Barney is in the waiting rooms in the hospital just outside Robin's room when Ted, Tracy, Marshall and Lily are walking in looking sad.)

Future Ted (VO): You Uncle Barney, as expected, was acting a little…weird.

Barney: (loudly, excited) Hey, guys!

(They all stare at him, confused.)

Lily: Barney, oh my god! (runs up to him and hugs him) How've you been?

Barney: Great! How've you been? The boobs are getting bigger, bra-vo, Lily. (gives her a thumb-up)

Lily: (hits him) What-what is wrong with you?!

Marshall: Seriously, bro. I mean, there's no wrong time to mention Lily-boobs but…c'mon, bro.

Barney: (excited) I am serious! Argentina is ah-mazing, guys! Let's go sightseeing, come on!

Ted: (stops him) Barney! We're here to see you and Robin. This isn't some vacation.

Barney: Why can't it be both?

Tracy: Where is Robin, and I'm gonna be the only one of us with literal balls to ask you, are you high?

Barney: Robin's great! She's sleeping now so we can't really see her right now and I mean, she's not really great. I mean, it's cancer so it can't be really great, am I right fellas? (chuckles) But she's great. We're great. I am…you know… (looks up, confused) what's the word?

Marshall: Great?

Barney: YES! Thank you, Judge Fudge!

(Marshall smiles; Lily looks at him, annoyed, and hits him)

Marshall: (to Barney) No, but seriously, man, tell us what the hell happened.

Barney: My…wife got cancer…is what happened.

Lily: Yeah, we're gonna need a little more than that.

Ted: How did you guys even find out?

(They all take seats, in the waiting room)

Barney: It all started two months ago…

Barney: No, see, this isn't gonna be one of those times where we have a flashback, and the caption reads "a few months earlier" leading to the events of where we are now.

Ted: When have we ever done that?

Lily: You know what, Tracy and I are gonna go wait for her to wake up in there.

Tracy: Good idea. It'll give these three girls an opportunity to sit and "talk about their feelings".

Barney: (sniffs) Pfft, we don't do that.

Marshall: Like, never.

Ted: Yeah.

(Barney points to the room, and Lily and Tracy walk in, leaving the guys alone in the waiting room)

(Ted and Marshall trade looks)

Barney: (quieter now) It just happened, guys.

(They look at him now)

Barney: She was feeling sick one day, we went to a doctor. He asked for some tests and then some other tests, and then it took us to another doctor, and then another. Then we found some great drugs in Milan, went there; it didn't work. We came to Argentina because we heard of another trial that is not FDA-approved. And…it was going great.

Ted: Until…?

Barney: Until it wasn't.

2 days earlier

(Barney is wheeling Robin who's in a wheelchair into their hotel room.)

Robin: I feel fine, Barney. I swear, I could've walked.

Barney: You were just injected with all sorts of drugs and poison. You can't just walk out of the hospital no matter how fine you feel. And we seriously have to start telling people. The guys have been calling me every couple of hours; I can't keep hanging up on them.

Robin: Oh, I'm sorry, if keeping my cancer a secret from all of our friends is too much for you then maybe—

Barney: (interrupts) Oh my god, can we have one conversation without you telling me to leave you because you're sick? (walks away and into the kitchen which is connected to the living-room, kinda like Barney's apartment)

Robin: I am not sick, Barney! (sternly, voice cracking) I am done! I'm freakin' exhausted! I can't have a conversation without telling you to leave me because it is all I think about. Cancer is all I think about, day and night. When I can't breathe and it hurts to even stand-up straight, it's all I'm thinking about. When I wake up in the middle of the night and I see you Googling new and different kinds of drugs—

Barney: (crying, puts his hand up in the air) STOP.

Robin: (continues) …it's all I think about. Or when Lily calls me or sends me 20 texts a day and I'm staring at the phone, thinking of what to tell her—of how to break the news to my best friend… (takes a deep breath) So when I say I'm fine now, that I can walk, it's not because I actually feel fine. I'm not fine!

Barney: So just let me—

Robin: (interrupts) But I say it because I know that, later, I'm gonna be worse. And I'm not gonna be able to even tell you that I am.

(Long Pause)

Barney: Okay.

Robin: Thank you.

Barney: (grabs a glass) I'm gonna pour me a drink. You want one? (chuckles)

Robin: (chuckles) I'm gonna go change.

Barney: You want me to—(he stops and they trade looks)—not help?

(Robin smiles)

(She slowly gets off the wheelchair and walks to the bedroom)

(Barney pours a glass of whiskey and has a sip while his eyes keep staring at the bedroom door, in silence)

Robin (VO, from the bedroom): Uh, Barney?

Barney: (quick) Yes, what's up?

(He quickly puts his glass down and rushes to the bedroom)

(There, he finds Robin sitting on the floor, grabbing on to the bed with one hand, and crying)

Robin: (sobbing) I can't get up. (He tries to walk towards her) No, don't! I have to do this on my own.

Barney: What can I do?

(Back to present-time, at the hospital waiting room with the guys.)

Barney: She fought hard not to, but I had to bring her back in. That same night, she almost ran out of oxygen and she could've—and you know, it's just—it's been… This is something that my magic tricks can't fix. (gets up and starts walking, takes a deep breath) You know, it's just hard.

Marshall: Of course it's hard, Barney. But the fact that you're here and you're with her is pretty amazing.

Ted: Yeah. You have no idea how much it's helping her that you're on her side all the time, always ready to hop onto a plane with her. Believe it or not, having a support system that amazing can be effective in her healing.

Barney: I know, I just… (sighs heavily)

Marshall: What, Barney?

Barney: (looks at them, sternly) I hate this. I hate how depressed she is about it, and how I keep trying to pull her out of it. I hate how tired she is, how tired I am. I hate that this is happening to us. I am…(sighs)… exhausted. And I hate Argentina. And just… (sighs again)

Ted: What, Barney? Just get it all out.

Barney: No, I-I can't.

Ted: You can tell us anything. We are all here because we want to do whatever we can to help.

Barney: Well that's the problem; we don't want you guys here.

(Pause. Ted and Marshall look at him, confused and shocked)

Barney: I didn't want to call and tell you guys because…well, it just sucks that everything worked out for you and nothing's been going well for us. I mean, we couldn't be happier for you, Ted, that you're finally having a baby and you're getting married in September and all—and, Marshall, that you and Lily have 2 amazing kids and have this practically "perfect" relationship, but Robin and I never had it easy. And the punches just keep comin'.

Marshall: Don't say that. This is just another bump in the road for you, guys. You can get through this easily.

Ted: Yeah, maybe this is a sign. Maybe this is a way for you guys to reflect on your marriage after the 3-year-mark. I mean, if this didn't happen, you never know—maybe your marriage wouldn't be as strong as it is now.

(Argentina hotel-room—dream scene. Barney and Robin are arguing.)

Robin: I know I'm always traveling. We both hate it when I'm gone, we both hate it when I drag you with me. Neither of us are happy. Is this just not working anymore?

Barney: What, this this?

Robin: If I gave you an out, right now…if there was an exit ramp right here at the 3-year-mark, would you take it?

(Back to present-time, at the hospital.)

Barney: You really think so?

Ted: Yes, and you know what? Marshall and I are gonna take you out on a guys' night. The women will stay here tonight and we'll go out, have a good time, just like old times. We're gonna go put you in a much better, much cleaner suit. (Barney smiles) And we'll go out to a strip club—(Marshall gives him a look) Too inappropriate? Okay, we'll go to a bar.

Barney: We don't have to do this.

Marshall: No, we do. We came here to help you feel better—that's our job.

(Ted and Marshall tap Barney on the back, and he hugs them.)

Future Ted (VO): Kids, I wasn't lying. I really believed that if Robin didn't get sick, something else was gonna come in between Barney and Robin's marriage and, instead of making it stronger, I like to believe it would've destroyed it. Of course, this doesn't mean I'm glad she got sick.

(Lily and Tracy are sleeping, each on an armchair, when Robin opens her eyes and wakes up in her hospital room.)

Future Ted (VO): In fact, if there was something I could've done to prevent it, or if I could go back and use the medical advancement and technology that we have now—I would gladly do it.

(Robin sees them and smiles; Lily and Tracy wake up as well)

Lily: Good-morning, sunshine.

Robin: (teary-eyed) Hi.

Tracy: (smiles) You look good.

Robin: Yeah, I feel good. I'm not tired or anything.

Lily: That's great.

Future Ted (VO): Because what Robin and Barney went through—scratch that, what we all went through during that long summer we spent in Argentina…

(Flash-forwards; Barney is alone, sleeping at the chair, with Robin in the hospital room.)

(Robin's heart monitor starts beeping really fast)

(Barney wakes up and sees that Robin is now flat-lining.)

Barney: Nurse! NURSE! Get someone in here right now! (opens the door and screams) Someone GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!

(Two nurses rush into the room as Barney watches from the side in horror)

(Flash-forwards; the whole gang is with Robin in the room as the doctors are wheeling her out to surgery.)

Marshall: You're gonna be fine, Robin.

Ted: You're gonna kick some cancer-ass in there. (smiles at her)

Robin: (smiles back) Thanks, guys.

Lily: (crying) I love you.

Robin: Me too, Lily.

(Barney grabs her hand and kisses it gently as tears stream down his face)

Barney: You come back to me, you understand? You come back.

Robin: (cries now) I'll do my best.

(Flash-forwards; Robin is sleeping on the hospital bed, attached to all sorts of monitors and ventilators and tubes. Barney is speaking with the doctor.)

Doctor: Currently, the ventilator is breathing for her.

(Barney, teary-eyed, covers his mouth with his hands)

Doctor: She can't breathe on her own right now, but we can keep waiting. Or…

(Barney turns around to avoid eye-contact)

Future Ted (VO): It was excruciating.

So tell me what you think! I hope this wasn't a disappointing chapter to many of you… I would love to read your reviews! Thank you so much for reading all the way to here…you're kind of awesome.