2010

Ted walked up the steps to his apartment. He felt bad for what had just happened between him and Barney at the bar. It was crazy, it was all in the past now but thinking about it stirred up old feelings. The way Barney risked his life to get to the hospital for him proved that he was truly his friend. But Ted thought back to his 30th birthday, back then Ted never wanted to see Barney again. Maybe that car accident was a miracle? Ted smiled as he thought about all the good times he'd had with Barney, the liberty bell incident, getting the trail stamp, he was truly grateful to have him as a friend. But still, his 30th birthday party was fun even without him, well, not the party itself.

2008

"Surprise!" Everyone yelled as Ted stepped onto the roof. It wasn't really a surprise, Ted knew it was coming, but he was overjoyed none the less. Marshall, Lily, Robin and Stella all came to greet him and say happy birthday. "Thanks guys, this really means a lot!" Ted said appreciatively.

"The big 3-0, how does it feel?" Marshall laughed.

"I have an uncontrollable urge to go to bed at nine" Ted chuckled. Stella leaned in close and whispered in his ear "hopefully you won't be too tired for the present I got you"

Ted smiled back and replied "never".

Lily looked around confused "where's Barney?" she asked.

"We decided that it'd be best if he didn't come" Ted said awkwardly. Robin looked at him frustratingly "you said you weren't mad"

"I'm not mad at you, and I've just outgrown Barney"

"You've outgrown him?" Lily asked

"Yeah, I mean he's the kinda guy you're friends with in your twenties, when you're young and only want to have fun, but I'm thirty now, I have to mature and he's not willing to do the same thing" he replied before walking off. Stella looked at Robin, Lily and Marshall before following him. She put her hand on him and asked "are you okay?". He looked up, smiled and said "yes! Of course, why wouldn't I be?" before she could reply Ted turned round and asked why everyone was so glum.

Marshall and Lily came over and they too asked if he was okay and he reassured them he was fine. Sure he was gonna miss Barney but this was the right choice. "So... Where's my cake?" Ted laughed. Marshall and Lily smiled and looked at each other. "Oh buddy, you are in for a treat, this cake-"

"-Is the best!" Lily interrupted. Marshall nodded in agreement and said "it's beautiful, we got it from the best bakery, their cakes..." Marshall placed his hand on Ted's shoulder and stared off into the distance "they're like the sugary equivalent of angels, one mouthful will change your life forever... the lusciously smooth base split in two by a sweet river of jam flowing through ever so gracefully, and then... the icing, oh the glory of that icing, resting so softly on the top of the cake like a beautiful layer of snow on Christmas morning..."

Ted looked at Lily for conformation that the cake was really as good as Marshall described, he knew his friend had a habit of giving his approval to things that weren't worthy of praise. Lily looked at him and nodded, making Ted psyched.

"Man... I want this cake!" Ted yelled, unable to contain his excitement. Stella smiled at him and placed her hand on his shoulder, trying to get him to calm down. Marshall and Lily stood there in silence for a moment, both smiling. Marshall nudged Lily and she nudged back. "C'mon Lily" he laughed, looking his wife.

"Yeah?" She said, looking at him confused.

"Ted wants his cake..." he laughed again, smiling at Ted.

"So... Why don't you go get it" she laughed in response. Marshall sighed, looked at Lily and said "alright, fine, just tell me where you put it"

Lily stopped and began to look angry "I didn't put it anywhere, picking up the cake was your job!"

"Uh yeah, and I picked up the cake..."

"But you didn't feel the need to bring it to the party!" Lily yelled, she and Marshall had put a lot of work into finding the perfect cake for Ted, it was shaped like the Empire State Building. "I left it on top of the cabinet and when I went to get it, it was gone! So you must have moved it!" Marshall yelled, equally frustrated.

"Guys, come on, I'm 30, I'm not going to get all upset because I don't have a cake" Ted laughed. Marshall and Lily laughed it off before giving Ted and Stella some alone time.

"So, getting back to what you got me for my birthday..." Ted turned Stella. When he looked her in the eye he knew she was the one. He was so sure that Robin was the one and then when that relationship failed he ended up getting a tramp stamp. Then, out of all the doctors he could of went to, he went to Stella. Ted thought that the reason the universe kept sending him signs to get together with Robin was because if he hadn't, he never would have met Stella. "Well, I was saving it for tonight, but I suppose we could jam in a quickie" she giggled "meet me in your bedroom in twenty minutes?". Ted immediately nodded with glee and Stella slowly walked away.

2010

"Okay, I'm ready to have sex now!" Robin said amongst a sea of snacks. Ted had just entered his apartment and was immediately thrown aback by the sight of Robin. He began to feel slightly guilty for sitting down in the bar while she was up here wallowing in her own sadness. He went over to her and gave her a hug, he was met with a slightly foul smell but he pretended it didn't bother him. "Robin, it's going to be okay" he said while patting her back. Robin immediately broke free and gave him a frustrated look "no, no it's not! I'm sick of people telling me that! I was finally ready to make a commitment, to have something real, before Don I would never have dreamed of putting love before my career but I did, and look where it got me!" She sat back and began to cry. Ted looked at her for a moment, Robin was usually so strong it was really unsettling to see her like this.

"Robin, you will get married, if that's what you want, and if you want a job at World Wide News, you can have that too, maybe not tomorrow, or next year but eventually, if you're honest with yourself about what you want, the universe will give it to you, we've all got a happy ending, we just have to wait for it" Ted smiled, half expecting Robin to lift her hand up to her mouth and make a farting noise. "Yeah right" she scoffed.

"I'm serious, you may have a while to wait but eventually you're are going to be married to an amazing guy and working at World Wide News!" he said placing his hand on her knee. Robin looked at him an briefly smiled before grabbing a bag of Cheetos. "Alright, if we're going to sit here eating junk food, we're doing it right" Ted said grabbing the phone. Robin looked at him, confused, and said "what are you doing?"

"I was just thinking about the cake from my 30th birthday-"

"The first one?! That was delicious!" Robin sat forward with excitement. Ted nodded cheerfully and started dialling Marshall's number to see where he got the cake from. The way Marshall described it really made him want to have it but unfortunately he never got the chance. Ted was about to hit 'call' when he stopped and thought about what Robin had said. He looked at her suspiciously and she turned away, looking guilty. "We never got to eat the first one" he said. Robin turned back, looking apologetic and said "yeah, I know... but umm..."

2008

Robin knocked on the door to Ted, Marshall, and Lily's apartment but once again there was no answer. She had gone to meet Lily so they could go get dinner together and was beginning to get frustrated. She heard her phone go off in her pocket and she quickly pulled it out. 'Sorry! Not going to make it for at least another hour! You wanna wait? -Lily'. Robin shoved her phone back into her pocket and began to leave. However upon thinking to herself she decided to use her key to go into the apartment and get a snack. Upon getting inside she quickly closed the door and leapt into the kitchen. She searched high and low but all she found was a note saying 'we need groceries, Marshall, it's your turn! -Teddy Westside'. She laughed to herself for a minute upon reading Ted's lame self assigned nickname.

She sighed, ready to give up when she noticed a box above one of the cabinets. She gave herself a boost on the counter and grabbed the box. Upon opening she saw a beautiful cake shaped like the Empire State Building. She was about to cut a slice when she realised that it must be Ted's birthday cake. She began to close the box but stopped half way 'Ted, wouldn't miss a little bit of icing, would he?' she thought to herself.

2010

"...and I ended up eating it all" she said, looking down at the ground "I tried to stop but you have no idea how good the cake was!" Ted looked at her a second and then began to laugh "it's okay, really"

"I'm sorry, but I kinda made up for it, I did get you the second cake" she smiled.

"No... Barney got me that" Ted said thinking back.

"Well yes, technically he did but umm..."

2008

"I can't believe Marshall lost Ted's cake? He just went down to look for it and no luck" Lily sulked. Robin looked away feeling guilty. "Are you okay?" Lily asked noticing her discomfort. Robin looked at her but couldn't tell her the truth "uh yeah"

"Robin, I know what's bothering you" she said. Robin looked her in the eyes and began to worry, how could she possibly know? "You do?" Robin asked.

"Yes! Of course, but listen this thing between Ted and Barney isn't your fault" she said trying to comfort Robin, unfortunately she had the opposite affect. Robin hadn't even been thinking about that, she was too distracted, but now her heart sank, how could it not be her fault? She invited Barney to come over, and it was Barney, it was obvious something was going to happen and now because of her he'd lost his best friend and Ted had lost his... really good friend.

"But why isn't Ted mad at me, I'm just as much to blame as Barney, if not more, I mean look at me, I should have known Barney would want a piece" Robin replied. Lily thought for a moment, she knew there had to be more to this than Ted simply outgrowing Barney as a friend. "I don't know... but this whole thing is going to blow over, I promise, they can't-" Lily stopped as she eyed Marshall walking over to the edge of the rooftop "I've gotta go, uh, remember, not your fault". Robin watched Lily scurry over to Marshall who had climbed up onto the edge of the building. "Dammit Lily! I have to do this! It's my fault Ted doesn't have a cake, I ruined his 30th birthday! It's time to make the leap" she heard Marshall scream. She had to fix this whole cake thing. She phoned the only person she knew who could get an awesome cake at such short notice in the middle of the night.

"Go for Barney" she heard the voice on the other end of the line say. "Hi, I need a favour" Robin said, crossing her fingers. Barney laughed and replied "oh boy, here we go, I should've seen this one coming, Robin, look, that night was fun, really fun in fact, but for Ted's sake we can't do it again, it would be wrong"

"No! I need you to get Ted a cake"

"What? Sorry, I can't, I'm a little ways outside of New York" Barney replied, slightly confused. Robin sighed, Barney was her only hope "please, isn't there anything you can do?"

"Alright" Barney said, hanging up.

Robin waited and waited, until eventually she saw an elderly woman climb up onto the roof carrying a box. "Yes!" She said allowed. She walked over to Ted, said something, and opened the box to reveal a cake. Ted thanked the woman but then immediately tried to leave. He was stopped by a crowd of people swarming around him, singing "Happy Birthday'. Robin got up smiling, and walked over, joining in with everyone's singing. However Ted began to look frustrated and screamed "please! I just want to go have sex with my girlfriend" before squeezing past and climbing down off the roof. Marshall looked at Lily and said "What was that all about?" and she shrugged in reply.

2010

"What was that all about?" Robin asked.