This is my version of an ending to HIMYM. One shot. It may not be 100% compliant to everything as I have written this very quickly and may have missed some facts, but if so just please look past that and see the story how its meant to be seen.
Please let me know what you think!
"Kids," Ted began. "Do you remember how I told you how nothing good ever happens after 2am?"
Both of his children nodded, remembering clearly the story their father had told them quite some time ago.
"Well, one of the craziest things I have ever done happened at 2.05am on the morning of your Aunt Robin and Uncle Barney's wedding. Everyone else had gone to bed but your Aunt Robin and I were still having a drink in the hotel bar."
The large bar was completely deserted apart from Ted, Robin and the bartender, yet neither of them cared, they we're having too much fun. It was a setting that was far different from MacLaren's; in their local pub they were used to the faded chairs, slightly faulty jukebox and the few areas where the paint had started to peal away from the walls. Here in the Farhampton Inn however everything seemed fresh and new, seemed almost too perfect and pristine for the likes of two people like Ted and Robin.
"What cocktails have you got my fine fellow?" Ted asked, ungraciously placing two empty scotch glasses on the bar.
The bar tender rolled his eyes, longing to get rid of his last two punters and to retire to bed.
"Here's the list" He began with a forced smile pointing at the menu propped up at the edge of the bar. "We've got pina colada, sex on the beach … well you get the general idea."
"General Idea!" Robin and Ted saluted with a giggle.
It felt so amazing to be connecting again in a way like this, to be having drinks and laughing as friends like the two of them alone hadn't done in years. Ted brought back the two well presented cosmopolitans to the table and made a toast.
"To the bride!" He slurred.
As the glasses clinked together he looked her in the eye. It hurt far more than he expected. As much as he tried he couldn't get Robin out of that place within his heart. He'd been through so much while trying, he'd shed tears and shared smiles; but neither had gotten him anywhere, not even after all this time. Robin caught Ted's longing gaze and stared back in confusion. Ted knew, this was it … his very, very last chance.
"I love you Robin." The drunkenness in his voice had suddenly seemed to disappear.
Robin slowly put her glass on the table; the sobering effect of Ted's sincere words had brought her back to earth with a bang.
"I'm getting married in just twelve hours Ted." Robin sighed in confusion.
"I know …" Ted said. "I just … I couldn't let you get married without knowing."
Robin smiled weakly, but the air between the two had gotten unbearably thick. The heartache was two much for either of them to handle, they drank the rest of their last drinks almost in silence and went up to their rooms with hardly a word.
The day of the wedding had finally dawned and Ted shook of as much of the effects of last night's alcohol as he could and gingerly put on his suit. He reflected on the previous night with a tear in his eye. This was undoubtedly going to be the worst day of his entire life, yet he had to put on a smile … for Barney … for … for Robin. He'd been practising the 'I'm absolutely fine' grin for years; today was the time to perfect it. Attending the wedding as a lone stag while loving the bride more than the groom … well, all you could do was wear your heart in your throat. Anything to keep your heart away from your sleeve, after all it really does get destroyed while living there.
In the mean time Robin was pacing her room in her wedding dress. How could this have happened? Like most brides she had barely slept the night before her wedding, but unlike most brides it wasn't out of excitement but of out a mix of unbearable heartache and undeniable guilt. Until Ted had said those words she'd been as happy as any other bride to be … she believed Ted had moved on quite some time ago and that she had to move on as a result.
"You look stunning!" Lily gushed in sheer excitement as she walked in the room.
Robin smiled as convincingly as she could and asked Lily to fetch Ted. With a skip in her step Lily bounded out of the room to do so.
"You asked for me?" Ted cautiously stepped through the doorway.
Robin turned around, looking far more beautiful than she had ever done in her entire life, quite literally taking Ted's breath away.
"I can't do this!" Robin cried.
Ted's heart bounded uncontrollably back to his sleeve. Could she be saying what he thought she was? Could it mean what he thought it meant?
"I can't marry Barney knowing I could have a life with you." Her words couldn't help but bring a smile to Ted's lips. "But I can't have a life with you knowing how much it would destroy Barney." The smile faded away as he began to understand. "I can't be with either of you … I have to just be me … that's the right thing. It just has to be."
Ted took out the handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. He hugged her and told her it was okay … his time to cry would come.
The wedding was called off. There were many angry guests to deal with and a groom who was adamant that it was the best thing that could have happened to him. Whether Barney was in denial or not no-one could actually tell. Robin had wanted to get back to New York as soon as possible so Ted had given her the keys to his car. Lily was left to pack up Robin's things and Ted was left to catch the train home. The rain was pouring heavily so it was lucky that Farhampton train station was just a short walk away.
Ted got to the station still in the wedding suit, soaked through to the skin. He was alone. There was no shelter so he sat on the bench under the pouring rain and began to cry harder than he had ever cried before. The sound of the torrential rain made it hard to hear anything, so Ted didn't hear the footsteps slowly approach. The rain seemed to stop, though he could still hear it. He wiped his eyes and looked up, seeing nothing but the shelter of a yellow umbrella.
"Are you okay" Came a soft voice.
It was at that moment that he saw her, such a pretty innocent face with big eyes looking at him in a way that told him she really cared. She pulled out a tissue from her pocket and gave it to him.
"And that …." Ted sighed, looking at his daughter; she had the very same big eyes that had comforted him that day. "Is how I met your mother."
He gave a watery smile to his children. They'd heard the story of how their mother had offered their father shelter under the umbrella at the station … but the full story and the heartache behind it wasn't the fairytale that they had expected this story to be.
"So … was it love at first sight?" His son asked, looking for some light within the story.
Ted shook his head.
"It was three months from there before our first date and another month after than before our second." He explained. "We had an awful lot in common, your mother and I … and in a way I loved her … but …"
"She wasn't Aunt Robin?" His daughter suggested.
Ted nodded. The children began to understand. Their parents were more like friends than soul mates.
"So that's why you and mom never married?" The boy looked at his father, Ted nodded again.
Both children knew that their Aunt Robin has moved abroad long before they were even born, to Japan first of all and then working on TV shows in several different countries. Uncle Barney had moved to a different GNB branch in Missouri after a promotion and was slowly making his way to becoming one of the most important members of Goliath National Bank. Out of their father's friends it was only Aunt Lily, Uncle Marshall and their three children that lived in New York. Marshalls dream job as an environmental lawyer had finally made them financially stable enough for Lily to follow her dreams as an artist. Their father was doing well too, he'd lived in Chicago for a short while but their mother had soon brought him back to New York to live in the house he'd crafted. And he had begun designing some of New Yorks latest and most amazing buildings. He had really started to make a good name for himself as an architect.
It had been ten years since their mother's death. Ted tried to keep her alive in his children's hearts, but since he'd brought his children up alone from such a young age it was so difficult. They were both such credits to their father and Ted loved them so very dearly. It was a few hours after telling the story when Ted's mobile rang. He stared at it in disbelief as he read the name 'Robin Scherbatsky' from the screen. It was such a coincidence. He hadn't spoken to Robin in months.
"Hello" He answered.
As he waited for a response, Ted took a seat on the sofa. His heart in his sleeve once again.
"Hey Schmosby!" Robin responded, enthusiasm echoing through her voice. "Guess whose back in New York for a week?!"
Ted's grin was from ear to ear and his heart slipped back into his sleeve as they arranged for Robin to come over and visit.
When Robin came over and met her niece and nephew for the first time, the past and lay momentarily forgotten. There were lots of laughs, lots of stories to tell and the night soon started to close. It wasn't until Ted and Robin were left alone for the very first time since her wedding day did things start to change. Ted poured another glass of scotch and looked her in the eye for the first time in so very long. Her eyes caught his glance and he could once again see everything he ever wanted, and maybe she was seeing it in return.
"You know … I have something of yours." Ted exclaimed, desperate to break the awkward silence.
He got up, walked towards his bookcase and picked up a race car pencil case. As he opened the pencil case in front of her she gasped. Inside was her necklace, the necklace she wanted as her something old in her wedding.
"I would have given it back to you sooner but … you know."
Robin was shell shocked; she couldn't believe Ted could have done something like that.
"You're amazing Ted!" She exclaimed, taking the necklace in her hands and running it through her fingers. "This is not something generally people do!"
"General-ly people do!" Ted saluted.
Robin laughed as she placed the necklace on her neck.
"It was nothing Robin." Ted smiled "I do crazy things like steal blue French horns and …"
Ted didn't have a chance to finish that sentence as it was at that very moment when every emotion Robin ever felt came to the surface. It was the moment where she truly realised she loved him. It may have taken her a lifetime to truly realise it, but Ted Mosby was the only one for her. It was only then did she really realise how much Ted loved her, and that a love like that deserved the very best in return. She kissed him; he kissed her back … the rest as they say is history. You see, Ted's true love story was not how he met their mother. It was the part of him that never gave up on Robin that was the real tale that Ted always wanted to tell his children and now that Robin had finally truly fallen in love with him, the story had the ending he had always craved to tell.