I honestly have no idea where this came from or where this is going. Uhhh, hopefully this is a decent concept. I don't know. This just came to me last night while I was going to sleep and I had to write the whole chapter out in my head before I could go to bed. Anyway, the first chapter kind of focuses on everyone but I think I'm going to focus more on Barney and Robin eventually. We'll see how it goes. If you're confused or have any questions or anything, just let me know! Okay, hopefully you liked this? Let me know what you thought!


After Stella leaves work, Lucy for school, and before Aidan wakes up for the day is the best time for Ted to think about everything. About his life, where he is, how he got here. If you had asked him when he married Stella how he thought his life would turn out, this would not have been his guess. Maybe some of the things he could have predicted, like their son, but other than that nothing ended up like he thought it would. Actually, he thought everything would stay the same except he'd be married with kids. But he hadn't spoken to Marshall, Lily, Barney, or Robin in almost seven years. He moved to New Jersey and had to start focusing on Lucy, then Aidan, and he had less and less time to take trips to the city. And of course, they never wanted to come to Jersey. Although, they had a couple times, but eventually contact tapered off. He started doing less and less actual architecture work and by the time his son was born, he was basically a stay-at-home dad. Since Stella's income was more than enough to support them as a family. Of course he got random offers here and there from family or friends, but never any real work.

Even though his life isn't what he thought it would be, he's pretty happy. He got what he always wanted: a wife and kids. He and Stella might not be as in love as he thought they'd be, but they're happy. And the kids are perfect. After Ted and Stella married, Tony came around less and less and Ted became the sole father figure in Lucy's life. Their son, Aidan, is four and Ted can already tell he's going to be a genius.

Of course he always thought his kids were going to be close to his old friends. And Ted always thought he would be close to their kids as well. Although, he's not even sure that Marshall and Lily ever had kids, he hopes they would have at least sent him an announcement for that one. After all, he told them when Aidan was born. He knows Barney and Robin haven't had kids. He's sure they're still out there enjoying the single life, still unwilling to commit. At least he can count on them to not change. He can't imagine a world where either of them would ever settle down.

He shakes his head, as if clearing away memories of his old friends. He doesn't like to think about them. He regrets that whole situation. But he has new friends. The suburbs is a great place to meet people and they fit his lifestyle better now. Sometimes things just don't work out, he tells himself, standing up to go check on his son. He knows he needs to stop dwelling on the past, after all his life is pretty great. Sometimes he almost calls them. He almost does a lot of the time, but he's never gotten the nerve to do it. But maybe this time he'll call Marshall and Lily or just stop by the old apartment. He's sure at least Robin is still living there. Yeah, maybe he'll do that.


"Marshmallow?" Lily asks in a sweet voice from the kitchen.

"Yeah?" Marshall replies walking into the kitchen, a giggling Marvin hanging off his arm.

"How are my boys this morning?" She greets momentarily distracted, tickling Marvin's stomach.

"I'm great, Mama!" Marvin proclaims wiggling out of his father's arms and running back towards the living room.

"Hey, do you think you could take the kids to daycare today? Robin convinced me I need a personal day, so we're going to the spa."

"I want to come to the spa." Marshall says with a pout.

"Aw, next time. It's a girls day."

"Okay," he concedes giving Lily a quick kiss. "Enjoy your day with Robin."

"Marvin! Jamie!" Lily calls to her suddenly absent children. Her youngest son peeks his head around the corner of the couch with a finger to his lips.

"Hide and seek!" He whispers quietly crawling back to his hiding place.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Marvin shouts from his bedroom and he comes tearing out into the living room, flipping over couch cushions and ducking under tables. He cheers loudly when he peeks under the couch, spotting his younger brother.

"Alright kids, get your stuff. Daddy's taking you to school today," Lily instructs and the kids run off to their room grabbing their backpacks and jackets.

"That kindergarten teacher voice really works for you." Marshall comments, as their two kids come back less than five minutes later. Lily smirks proudly and bends over kissing the kids on the forehead. "Have a good day!" She smiles, giving Marshall one last kiss before he heads out the door. As soon as they're out the door she picks up the couch cushions Marvin knocked over and reorganizing the table. Not surprisingly, Lily was made to be a mother. She loves it. In fact, her and Marshall barely wasted anytime between Jamie and Marvin since Jamie was only a year and three months younger than her brother.

Sometimes she misses the old days though. The nights where they would all sit at MacLaren's until Carl told them to leave, but those days were long over. Ted moved to New Jersey, her and Marshall had kids. At least, they hadn't disappeared like Ted had. Lily can't help but feel a little angry at Ted for simply disappearing from all their lives like that. He had missed so much and she was sure he was completely unaware. Ted always has a tendency to worry about himself first and others later. But Lily knows if Ted showed up at their door, they would welcome him back with open arms. Well, maybe not Barney, that whole thing was a littler harder on him than the rest of them. Still, Ted is always part of their family even if he's never met their kids or been to any important events in the last many years. Lily's happy that Ted got what he always wanted, even if it didn't include them. She's happy for him, she really is.


Robin rolls over in bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Hi," Barney smiles already awake leaning over to kiss her.

"Mmmm hey," She mumbles back snuggling into his arms.

"How'd you sleep?" He asks tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Amazingly, this is the most I've slept in the last two months." She laughs and he nods in agreement.

"I know, this is nice." He says gesturing between them.

"Mhm," she rolls over onto him kissing him softly. Almost on cue, the baby monitor on the bedside table lights up and cries can be heard. "Ugh," she groans her head landing softly on his chest.

"I'll get it," he assures her as she rolls over and he climbs out of bed. He comes back in the room a couple minutes later with a baby in his arms. Robin smiles, sitting up, and taking the baby out his arms.

"Hey, baby girl." She says as the baby grabs hold of her hands.

"You're going to go out with mommy and Aunt Lily today, but then when you come home daddy's going to teach you a magic trick and it's going to be legend wait-for-it…" The baby coos and Barney breaks out into a wide smile.

"Robin?! Did you hear that?! She just said her first word! It was dary!" Robin smiles and shakes her head slightly, but doesn't say anything else allowing her husband to have his moment.

"You know, normally kids don't speak until at least a year." She informs him, but he ignores her instead.

"Yeah, well Aubrey Sparkles Stinson is a smart one. After all, look at her parents." Robin rolls her eyes at the use of the full name. She had put up a fight on that one, but eventually Barney won out. Or she let him win. Even though she and Barney never planned on having kids, she was happy with the outcome. Aubrey is one of the best things that happened to her, along with Barney. She is actually happy for once in her life. She's not fighting it, she's not waiting for the other shoe to drop, she's completely happy. She has Barney and she has her daughter and she has Marshall and Lily and their kids. Her career is actually going really well. She's a legitimate reporter, not a morning talk show host. And she's so happy. Of course sometimes she thinks about how Ted isn't there, how there's an integral part of their group missing, how Aubrey won't have an Uncle Ted. It makes her a little sad. But, hey, if Ted is happy where he is then she's okay with it. Barney holds a bit of grudge, which she totally understands, but she knows she could welcome Ted back into their group if he showed up. Although, it's probably a moot point considering she hasn't heard from him in years, but she'd accept him back nonetheless.