The Long Run
Ted had been waiting for this day for so long he could hardly believe it had arrived. He wasn't afraid that might happen something as what happened in the first time he had decided to marry - it was a completely different Ted, a completely different woman, and a happy ending that had been announced years back. He was completely sure that not only she was the one for him, but that he was the one for her.
They would move to the house he had bought all those years ago, and raise their children there, with the basketball net Barney had brought from his father's house. One day, he would tell them all about how he had finally met their mother, and they would understand just how complicated life was. They would grow old together, and Lily had already made it clear that she was more than willing to share the front porch. There was nothing standing in the way of his happiness.
It was ironic that he, that was so desperate to find the right person, was the last of their gang to marry. Not that he had ever doubted that Lily and Marshall would tie the knot soon (not even when she was in San Francisco), but he had expected it to be simple, and life hardly ever was.
Still, it had been a good path, and he didn't regret a thing. The dreamer that had first set to fall in love and get married would never have been worthy of this love, this marriage. He had to grow and to learn so much before he could finally commit.
And, all along, they had been by his side - Lily and Marshall, Barney and Robin, together and apart, the best friends anyone could ever hope for. He knew how proud they were, and how much they had wanted him to find the love they had found.
All those years, all that history, they would have been worthless if it weren't for them, it they hadn't cheered for him, and cheered against him; fought and praised him, in every step of the way. He knew that even if they didn't see each other as much as before, they could never be parted. If there was one thing that he had learned during those years was that they were his family - the one he chose for himself.
Sometimes he had believed this day would never come to him, but now he could see how silly he had been. As he watched her walking through the aisle, he knew that he was lucky and that he had been a fool to imagine that this wouldn't happen - it was destiny.
And, as he said yes, he knew it had been all worth it.