Hey peeps, this is a multichap fic detailing Tracy's death and her friendship with the gang, two things I feel weren't explored well enough in the finale. Enjoy
"Hey, are you okay? You look stressed, plus I heard you mutter a few words out loud. I heard 'lonely' and 'unicorn', which actually gave me a great idea for a children's book, so thank you. Are you okay?
"No, but there's nothing you can do about it"
"Do you want a cookie?"
"Yes, yes I do!"
The Year 2024, February 25th, 2:32 am
Lily Aldrin awoke, startled by the sound of the phone ringing. She looked over at her clock to check the time, squinting at the light on her tired eyes. 'Who would be calling at this hour?' She thought to herself. She rolled over, tiredly, to check if Marshall had been awakened, nope, he was sound asleep, she'd have to get this herself. She sighed and pulled the sheets off her tired body before quietly tiptoeing into the hallway. She picked up the phone.
"Hello?" She answered, still half-asleep.
"Lily." Came the reply, it was Ted, he sounded upset, as if he was crying.
"Ted, what's-"
"Tracy, shes... she's d-dead."
Oh no, this isn't happening, it's too soon, not yet. "Ted-"
"I'm sorry Lily, I can't... Can you call Barney and Robin for me. I just... I just can't right now."
"Of course Ted." Lily said, tearing up.
He hung up. She walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, the news just hitting her. Tracy. Tracy was dead. She thought back to the day she met her, on the train, how she helped her when she was going through a minor crisis. Even though she was just a stranger to Tracy, Tracy still cared, something they would all come to love about her. Her big heart. She remembered how ironically, Tracy was at a low point the very next day...
The Year 2013, May 25th
Lily had just arrived back from Barney and Robins extravagant rehearsal dinner. She was sitting in the hotel bar sipping her gin and tonic. Or rather what she'd like everyone to believe was a gin and tonic. If she actually was pregnant, then she'd be screwed in her argument with Marshall. She noticed her drink was nearing it's end and looked around for Linus, but who she actually saw surprised her.
"Tracy?" She said to the petite brunette.
Tracy turned around and looked at her, a scowl on her face, one that quickly disappeared once she saw the source of the voice.
"Lily!" She said with a fake smile.
Lily furrowed her brow, there was clearly something bothering Tracy. "Do you want to sit down?" She asked, gesturing towards the empty seat in front of her.
"Actually I have to- yeah sure, why not?" She said, sitting down.
Lily finished her drink. "Thank you, Linus." She said as the bartender came by. Tracy stopped him as he left and ordered a drink for herself, she looked like she needed one.
"So." Lily began. "What's going on? I thought you were staying with your boyfriend."
"Oh yeah." Tracy said. "I came up here to do something. I quit my band."
Lily looked shocked. "Why?"
Tracy looked at the redhead tiredly. "It's a long story. I don't want to bore you with the details."
They sat in silence for a second.
"It all started back in 2009. I had just started college and me and a couple of my friends decided to start a band. My band, lets put an emphasis on the fact that it was MY BAND." She said, shouting the last two words.
Lily was quite taken aback by her screaming, noticing this, started talking again, much quieter, but slowly getting angrier with each word. "Two years later I met Darren. He was really sweet, he kept talking about how much he loved my band so I said hey, why not let him sing a couple songs? Couldn't do much harm right? Wrong. Within a couple months, he had taken over the band. I was the lead singer, now I'm just a bass player." She said bitterly, while producing a phone. "And then, earlier today, I got an email from one of my bandmates. What was in the email? An ad. What did the ad say?" She paused. "Bass. Player. Wanted. That is what the ad said. Can you believe that? After I'm the one who invited Darren into the band. What am I gonna do?"
Lily was now angry too, that bastard, she deserved revenge. Only two words came to mind. Aldrin. Justice. "You need to steal that douche-monkeys van." She paused. "And run my husband over with it."
Tracy thought for a second, while Lily took her phone to look at the ad. "Well that's very tempting, but I've never really been the kind of person-."
"Must be hotter than the girl we have now." Lily said, reading the ad. "Who, in my opinion is a six at best?"
Tracy broke her glass. "I'm gonna kill him, I'm gonna grab him by the neck and-"
"Or, just steal his van." Lily said, worried.
Tracy was snapped out of her dark fantasy. "Yeah okay." She said. "So what about you, where's your husband?"
"That sonofabitch." Lily said angrily. "We had already decided to move to Rome for a year but he took a job in New York without telling me."
Tracy narrowed her eyes. "Men."
"Raise my glass to that." Lily said.
Tracy reached for her glass. "Oh yeah." She said laughing. "I should go get that van now, while Darren's still in his room."
Lily looked confused. "Without keys?"
Tracy looked at Lily with a slight smile. "Please Lily, I know a thing or two about a thing or two." She said, heading towards the door.
Six hours later.
"So are Marvin and I and any other future children we may have just some consolation prize?" Marshall asked.
Lily stopped, tears streaming down her face. 'Future children' those two words repeated themselves in her head. "I have to get out of here." She said heading towards the door.
She reached the bottom of the stairs before she thought about what she was doing. She could be pregnant, she had to find out, it couldn't wait. "It can't wait." She muttered underneath her breath.
She made her way towards the front desk, intent on calling the captain when she bumped into someone.
"Tracy?" She said, recognizing the woman.
Tracy looked up, with a tear stained face not unlike Lilys.
"Are you okay?" Lily asked, not wanting to answer that very question herself.
"I just broke up with my boyfriend." She said, surprising Lily with her honesty.
"Oh." Lily replied, not knowing what to say. "I'm sorry.
Tracy started crying and Lily was conflicted. Continue on with her business or help this poor girl. She decided on the latter and brought Tracy over to sit down, after all, Tracy did do the same for her on Friday morning.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Lily asked.
Tracy paused for a few moments and stopped crying. "Okay." She said and she told her everything. How she met Max, how Max tragically died, how she couldn't date anyone else for a number of years, how she met Louis, how she turned down his proposal and finally moved on from Max.
"Wow." Lily said, taking it all in, she hadn't expected all that when she asked the questions. It made her momentarily forget her problems, they paled in comparison to what Tracy was going through.
"Yeah." Tracy said. "I'm sorry I told you all that, I probably made you uncomfortable."
"No, God no, that's not what I meant at all, it's just... That's horrible, what you went through."
Tracy remained silent.
"I promise you." Lily said reaching out. "Things will get better, you've let go and that's the hardest part. You can move on now."
Tracy nodded. "What about you?" She said, obviously wanting to change the subject. "Why are you up so late?"
"Oh right." Lily replied, not wanting to talk about it. "Well, Marshall and I had a pretty big fight."
Tracy nodded, sensing there was more to this. "And you're pregnant."
"What?" Lily replied, how could she possibly know that?
"I saw you earlier, with those non-alcoholics. You're obviously pregnant."
"Oh." Lily replied, was it that obvious? She decided to change the subject. "I heard Darren left."
Tracy gave a slight smile. "Yeah, the best man punched him and he quit the band."
Lily smiled too, glad that she was able to cheer her up a little.
"I should get going." Tracy said, standing up.
"Tracy." Lily called up to her. "Things are gonna start looking up for you, I know it."
"I hope so, and congrats with the baby."
Lily fake-smiled. The baby. This was a disaster.
Lily remembered that night back in 2013. How Tracy was at her lowest less than 24 hours before she met Ted. She looked around her living room in the dark until her eyes landed on one picture. It was a picture of the six of them, when they officially let Tracy into the gang...
The Year 2013, June 9th
"So when's your new girlfriend getting here Ted?" Robin asked.
Ted looked up, clearly nervous. "She should be here um, any minute."
Barney chuckled. "Ted relax, we've already met her, she and Lily already had a lesbian experience."
Lily rolled her eyes. "For the last time, we did not have a lesbian experience!"
Barney looked at her suspiciously. "Really? Because you're being awfully secretive about what happened when you 'ran into' each other Saturday night."
Lily mentally cursed herself, she had let it slip that they talked on Saturday night, but she knew she couldn't reveal the contents of their conversation in case she hadn't told Ted about it yet.
Tracy walked into McLarens. "Oh look she's here." Lily said, glad she was able to avoid Barney's questioning.
"Hey Tracy." Ted said lovingly, standing up to kiss her as his friends awkwardly looked on.
"So." Barney said as Tracy sat down. "You and Lily."
Tracy looked confused. "What about me and Lily?"
"Come on, you can tell us, this is a safe space."
Lily resisted the urge to punch Barney. "Barney!" She said. "Get the next round."
"But Lily." He said pleading with her, she gave him a look. "Fine, but when I get back, I want details."
"What was that about?" Tracy asked, confused.
"Oh nothing." Robin said. "Just Barney being Barney."
"So." Marshall said, changing the subject. "How long have you been living in the city?"
"I moved here from New Jersey back in 2003."
"Really?" Robin said looking at Ted. "New Jersey?"
"What?" Ted said. "I've got no problems with NJ."
Tracy chuckled. "You cringed every time I mentioned it on our first date."
Ted sighed. "Was I that obvious?"
Tracy nodded and the rest of them laughed.
"So." Robin said. "Seeing as you've lived here for ten years I assume you have your own group of friends."
"Not so much." Tracy said, looking downwards. "I mean, I used to, but things happened and we kind of lost touch."
Lily nodded, knowing exactly what 'things happened' meant.
"Well you do now!" Marshall said without thinking. "You can be part of our gang now."
Tracy chuckled. "Okay, why not." She said, smiling.
"Okay and once you're in, you're in for life." Robin said, remembering what Lily said to her eight years ago.
"I promise." Tracy said, putting her hand over her heart, in mock seriousness. "That I will stay part of this gang, until the day I die."
Till the day she died. It sent shivers down Lily's spine thinking about that day. Tracy did uphold that promise though, every time it seemed that the gang was drifting apart, Tracy would always try her hardest to bring them back together.
The Year 2016, October 13th
"You guys are moving out of the apartment?" Ted asked in shock.
Lily and Marshall looked at each other, they had just invited the gang over (minus Robin who was busy) to break the news that they would soon be leaving the apartment that the gang had called home for sixteen years.
"Yes." Lily replied. "With the baby on the way it seemed like the best choice, we already have a place lined up and we'll be moving out at the end of the month."
Barney looked shocked. "Well if you guys are moving out, then we have to throw a huge party to commemorate the awesome years we spent here. On the roof, just like old times."
The rest of them rolled their eyes, ever since the divorce Barney had been living too much in the past, wanting their lives to be how they used to be.
"Wait, where's Robin?" Tracy asked, noticing her absence in such a big moment.
Barney scoffed. "Robin? Please Trace, we haven't seen her in like two months, why should she be here?"
"Well, it's just that, I'd presume she'd want to know." Tracy said.
"I don't know Tracy." Marshall said. "It's just that-"
"Just that what? Once you're in, you're in for life right?"
They all looked at each other. Tracy had a point.
"Fine." Lily said. "We'll call her. It hurts, the fact that we were friends for so long and then she just left."
"I know." Tracy said, agreeing.
"So." Barney said, smiling. "Don't you have some news Tracy?"
Tracy's eyes darted towards Ted and then at Barney. "What are you talking about?"
"Come on." He said. "You obviously got a boob job!"
"WHAT!?" Lily and Marshall said in unison while Ted and Tracy rolled their eyes at each other. Lily looked at Tracy's breasts, they did look bigger but Tracy wouldn't get a- oohhhhh.
"No Barney." Tracy said. "I didn't get a boob job, why does you're mind always go to boob job? I'm pregnant."
"Oh my God, that's awesome!" Marshall exclaimed as they all got up to hug each other.
Marvin and Daisy came out of their room. "Uncle Ted and Aunty Tracy are having a baby!" He squealed in delight.
"It gonna be girl." Daisy said.
"No, it has to be a boy! Mommy's having a girl and Penny's a girl too." He said and pointed at Penny, who was asleep in her buggy. "We need more boys!"
The adults chuckled at the kids petty argument. "Kids, calm down." Marshall said, walking over to his children.
"We definitely need a bigger apartment." Lily said.
October 31st
"We'll always be friends, but the five of us, hanging out in McLaren's, being young and stupid. It's just not one of those things. I have to go now, goodnight Lily." Robin said, almost in tears. She pulled in to hug Lily.
"Goodnight." Lily said, in tears.
Robin walked out the door, leaving Lily alone in the empty apartment. She turned to look at the empty walls, this really was the end of an era. Robin was gone, possibly forever. She went back up to the rooftop, where she saw Barney sitting in the corner with ice on his crotch.
Tracy walked over, giggling. "Barney tried to do the splits in mid-air." She said, before noticing Lily was crying. "Lily what's wrong?"
"Robin... Left." She said in tears. "She just showed up and left, not without destroying our friendship first."
Ted and Marshall walked over, noticing Lily was crying. "What's wrong baby?" Marshall asked Lily.
"Robin." Tracy said.
Marshall understood and comforted his wife.
"Screw this." Tracy said, handing Ted her cup. "I'm going after her."
"Wait, Tracy." Ted said as she headed for the ladder.
"Just leave her go." Marshall said. "It's Tracy, she'll say the right thing."
Ted nodded his head and walked over to get a drink.
"I think Tracy's the last person Robin would want to talk to right now." Lily said to Marshall.
Marshall was at first confused, but then his eyes widened. "You're not saying that-"
"Yep, Robin told me she still loves Ted."
The Year 2017, March 23rd
"Come on Marshall, drive faster!" Lily screamed. They had just received a text from Ted saying that Tracy had gone into labor. At half two in the morning. In Farhampton. So they decided to drive out to the Hamptons in the middle of the night, leaving their kids in the care of her dad. Crazy idea, but they couldn't miss this.
"I'm trying!" Marshall shouted back. "We're never gonna make it."
"Can you guys keep it down?" Said a voice in the back seat. "I'm trying to sleep here."
Lily jumped, but then relaxed, she forgot Barney was there, they had picked him up on the way, delaying them as he had to pick out the perfect suit.
"No chance Robin's gonna make it huh?" Marshall asked.
"Doubt it." Lily replied. "She's probably in some foreign country right now."
"Robin." Barney scoffed, lighting a cigarette. "When Rosie was born, all you guys got was a lousy phone call. I seriously doubt she's gonna show up for this."
"You're still smoking?" Lily asked. "I thought you and Robin quit on your honeymoon."
"Yeah, but then we got divorced so I started again." Barney said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"You know, you could get lung cancer." Lily said.
Barney shrugged it off.
"And then how are you gonna pick up dumb bimbos in your Clooney years? You won't have any Clooney years."
"But that's the dream!" Barney said, throwing his cigarette out the window. "Okay, you got me Aldrin, that right there, was my last cigarette ever!"
Lily smiled, wow that was easy.
They eventually arrived at the hospital and when they got to the delivery room Tracy was moments away from giving birth.
"Hey, there's the mother." Barney said holding up his camera. "Smile Trace!"
"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE BARNEY!" Tracy screamed.
"Hey, Barney Junior." Barney said to the camera. "This is how you were born."
"WE ARE NOT NAMING HIM BARNEY JUNIOR!"
"Will someone please get this man out of the delivery room." The doctor said.
"Yeah Barney, I would have thought you'd have learned your lesson from last time." Ted said.
Barney winced, remembering the time Penny was born as he was brought out of the room.
"Come on baby, you can do this." Ted said. "Just one more push."
"YOU SAID THAT AN HOUR AGO!"
One hour later.
"I think that went well." Tracy said, looking at her baby boy.
Ted, Barney, Marshall and Lily all looked at each other, sharing the same thought.
"What are you guys gonna name him?" Marshall asked.
"Luke." Ted said.
"As in Luke Skywalker?" Lily asked.
"Hey, she vetoed Leia last time around, we have to have a Star Wars name in there somewhere."
"I still think Barney sounds better." Barney said.
"What about Barney as a middle name?" Tracy proposed.
She looked over at Ted. "Why not." He said.
"Yes!" Barney shouted. "You will not regret this." He knelt down beside Tracy's bed and looked at Luke. "Luke, in twenty-one years I'm gonna teach you how to live."
"I'm regretting this." Tracy said.
Robin never did show up on the day of Luke's birth, in fact she never even met him until he was two years old. But Tracy did manage to get Robin to turn up for her and Ted's wedding. It took effort and a lot of time, but Tracy prevented their group from completely shattering. Something they were all truly grateful for. When Tracy put her mind to something, you would be sure that it would be done, like her book on her experiences in the third world. She spent some time in the third world throughout her life, that was her goal, to end poverty. If she had lived longer that dream would have most definitely become a reality.
The Year 2021, January 24th
Lily knocked on the door of the Mosby house. She had a day off from the gallery and Marshall was busy at court, so she decided to come see how Tracy's book was coming along.
Tracy opened the door and Lily saw the state her friend was in. Her hair was sticking out all over the place, bags underneath her eyes, she was wearing one of Teds t-shirts and only a pair of panties, looking like she hadn't seen the sun in a long time.
"Wow." Lily said, not believing what she was seeing.
"What? Oh this?" She said, commenting on her appearance. "Book."
"Tracy have you slept recently?" Lily asked worriedly.
Tracy shook her head. "But I did finish chapter one, okay the outline of chapter one, okay a doodle."
Tracy walked in and Lily followed, seeing a large amount of empty coffee mugs, crisp packets and red bull. Tracy needed help.
They walked into her study, which had a foul stench and the walls were filled with pictures and mind maps.
"Well, what have you got done so far." Lily asked.
"Well, I've got reports from my time in India in 2018, Nigeria in 2019 and Kenya last year." She said pointing at various binders scattered around the room. "I just can't seem to put it all together in one book thingy."
"Well, you could start by having a shower." Lily said. "And maybe putting some pants on."
Tracy looked down. "I'm not wearing pants? I could have sworn I put some on on Monday. Or was that Friday?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "You're never going to get anything done if you don't get some sleep. Or fresh air, go for a walk, clear your head."
"You're right." Tracy said, tiredly. "I should go for a walk." She stood up and headed towards the door.
"No." Lily called after her. "Pants first, then walk."
Tracy did act like that for a while after, annoying the hell out of Ted, but eventually she got down to business and started writing her book, which came out later that year. Lily got up and walked over to her coffee table where the book lay. Ending Poverty, One Step At A Time by Tracy McConnell was written on the cover.
The book won an award and Tracy appeared on TV because of it. She had become a celebrity and had was about to put her ideas into action when she was diagnosed. She did write another book, a biography while she was sick, but she would never achieve what Lily always knew she was capable of doing.
The Year 2023, November 22nd
Lily and Marshall burst through the doors of the emergency room, they had just received a call from the hospital telling them that Tracy had collapsed and she had been taken to the emergency room. They pushed the doors of the waiting room open. Ted, Robin and Barney were already there.
"How's she doing?" Lily asked, to no-one in particular.
"They aren't telling us anything." Robin said.
Ted was staring straight ahead, in a near comotose state and looked like he had been crying. Barney also looked like he was crying, he wasn't even trying to hide it like he usually would.
They sat in silence for what seemed like hours, nobody knowing what to say until finally a doctor emerged from the door.
"Mr. Mosby." He said. "Your wife is out of surgery but we'd like to speak to the two of you in private."
Ted got up and followed the doctor into a separate room.
"I don't like this." Marshall finally said. "They want to speak in private? That can't be good, that's never good."
"I know baby." Lily said, stroking his back. "But we have to stay positive, for Tracy's sake."
"I'm gonna go get some coffee." Barney said in a small voice.
"I'll go with you." Robin said, following him.
Some time passed without Lily and Marshall saying anything until Ted and Tracy emerged. They looked up at the couple, looking for a glimmer of hope, happiness, relief. But no, they found the opposite.
Tracy sat down, her face frozen in grief, tears rolling down her face. Ted, the same. Barney and Robin ran back into the room, looking for the same reactions Marshall and Lily were looking for.
"What is it?" Robin managed to ask, breaking the silence.
"Cancer." Tracy said in a quiet voice, looking at the ground.
Lily couldn't believe it. Cancer. She heard someone crying and someone leaving the room. This wasn't happening, this wasn't part of the plan, Tracy wasn't supposed to get cancer. No.
Tracy wasn't finished talking. "It's terminal, I have three months to live."
Lily couldn't remember past that moment, it all became a blur. Her best friend would be dead in three months, the woman Ted spent eight years looking for would be dead in three months, a mother of two children, dead before the age of 40. It was a horrible time for their gang, they spent as much time as possible with her, but it wasn't nearly enough. Tracy did everything she had wanted to do before she died, she tried to stay positive. She and Lily went to Pris together, something they kept saying they'd do, but never got around to.
The Year 2024, January 16th
"Woah, what a day." Lily said, walking in the door of the hotel room, she and Tracy had seen all the sights in Paris and spent the rest of the day shopping. The words cancer and death weren't mentioned once, which relieved Lily. "Can't believe we're heading home tomorrow."
"Yeah." Tracy said as they sat down on the couch, exhausted. "There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about."
Lily looked over at Tracy, she had grim expression. "Yeah." She replied, suspecting what they were going to talk about.
"I... I don't have a lot of time left. So I've decided to talk to you each individually before... well, you know."
Lily began to tear up, this was it.
"Lily, I can't even begin to describe how much your friendship means to me and how glad I am that I met you on that train all those years ago. You're my best friend."
Lily felt the tears falling down her face and could see the same happening to Tracy. "Tracy, don't talk that way, you've still got a whole month and-"
"Lily, please, I'd like to do this now."
Lily nodded, wiping her eyes.
"I'd like to ask one thing of you." Tracy said.
"Of course. Anything."
"If Penny ever needs someone to talk to, about something that maybe Ted wouldn't be able to handle. I-I'd like to know that she can always count on her Aunt Lily."
"Of course Tracy. I promise."
The two women hugged each other.
And that was it. After that, Tracy progressively got worse. She lost her hair a week later, her ability to move slowly got worse and worse, she spent the last two weeks of her life on bed rest and for the past week she was barely even able to move her head. They all visited practically every day, but Lily would always regard that conversation in Paris as her goodbye. She looked at the clock, almost 3 am, she should really get going with those phone calls.
That was a loong chapter, it may not have seemed like it but it took me a few days to write it. I'm not so good at concentrating :). Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, I will probably be better once it's put together with the other chapters. There will be ones from Barney, Marshall, Robin and Teds point of view. I'll try to update soon.