In Season 6, Barney meets one of Robin's friends, Nora. He likes her right away, although he does not notice it when he tries to sweettalk her pretending to be a romantic. However, the next day they play laser tag and he begins to like her even more but is reluctant to know this. He begins dating her when the group (especially Robin) urges him. Yet, when he actually almost begins to love her, he ends their relationship by lying about his feelings. Barney then wants to fix the relationship, but is too scared to, when he realizes that he does actually want to settle down one day in the future.
Barney finally meets his dad (John Lithgow), but is disappointed to see that his dad is not what he expected him to be. Marshall resigns from GNB, and signs up for unpaid volunteer work at the NRDC. Robin encounters a crush and Ted impulsively proposes marriage to her when he finds out that she liked that guy when they were dating.