Chapter 2 - Fighting for Normalcy

Spring 2025

As the sun shone through the windows of the large master bedroom of the quiet house in Westchester, Ted slowly stretched and reached over to her side of the bed. Then he remembered. Gone.

Just as he was about to sink down into despair yet again, a small ball of pajama-ed fury leaped into the middle of his chest. "Dad, dad, dad! Do you know what today is? Do ya, do ya, do ya?" Luke kept bouncing up and down on the bed and stared expectantly at his father.

Ted laughed at the exuberant look on Luke's face, and played dumb. "Saturday?"

Luke looked offended. "Well, yeah, duh, dad. I mean what else?"

"Hmmm…. can't think of anything that might be happening today…"

"Come on, Dad! It's Spring Break!"

"Oh, so you have some days off school… that's cool, I guess." Ted's face began to break a little at this last little ploy.

"Ugh, Daddy, come on!"

"Ohhhh, that's right. We're going to clean your room." At the look of fury on his son's face, he finally relented and laughed, "Of course I know what today is. We're going to…"

"UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!" shouted Luke.

"Yup. Let's get your sister up, eat some breakfast, and get packed. The plane leaves at 4 pm." He laughed again as he heard Penny yelling at her overexcited brother. Thank you, baby. For our kids.

Ted navigated his way through the busy terminal at JFK, towing Luke, Penny and all their assorted luggage behind them. He was having quite a time of it, when he spotted salvation ahead. "Barney! Thank God!"

"Hey, Ted. Need a hand?" Barney smirked.

"No, I need an extra three. Can you take these two so I can check us in?" Ted pleaded with his eyes.

Barney laughed, "Of course. Luke, Penny! Come here!"

"UNCLE BARNEY!" the kids yelled in unison as they launched themselves at their honorary family member.

"Agh!" was all Barney was able to get out as he was bowled to the ground.

"Uncle Barney, guess what?" Luke asked.

"What?"

"We're going to see the Harry Potter park, and ride the rides, and drink butterbeer!"

Penny joined in "Don't forget, Luke, we're gonna see other stuff too."

"I know that, Pen, but nothing as cool as the Harry Potter stuff!"

Barney laughed at the antics of his niece and nephew. "Yeah, going there will be Legend - wait for it, and I hope you're not a Death Eater, 'cause we're gonna see - Harry! LegendHarry!" He heard a groan from behind him.

"Really, Barney? It's enough that on my one weekend a month with our daughter, all I hear is 'Awesome' and 'Legendary'. Now you're corrupting other people's children?"

Barney turned around and saw his daughter with her mother, the infamous #31.

"Thanks for bringing her. I was hoping having her for a week would make up for missing her this weekend. Did she behave?"

She sighed and handed Barney his sleeping daughter. "Of course she did. Here's her bag, but I'm assuming you have other stuff?"

"Yeah, I already checked it. It's all in with my stuff."

"Barney?" Ted said as he came back from the counter. "Who's this?"

Barney groaned. He had avoided this day for nearly five years, but it looked like one of his friends was about to meet the mysterious #31. "Ted, this is Ellie's mom, Tridesa Jedan. Tridesa, this is my best friend, Ted Mosby, and these are his kids, Penny and Luke."

"Pleasure. Listen, Barney, I can't take her next month at all. I'm going to be out of town. I'll video-call her though, OK?"

"Sure thing. Thanks, Tris." With that , Tridesa hurriedly left the boarding area for another gate, her own bag in tow.

"Wow. She's a real treat," Ted laughed sarcastically.

"Yeah, she's a fashion something or other. Always busy. She's supposed to have Ellie one weekend a month, but she sees her maybe three times a year. I was really surprised she wanted her for this whole week," Barney sighed.

"I don't understand that. How can you have a kid and not want to spend as much time as possible with them?"

"Right? Right? I hate not seeing Ellie. And I have no idea what I'm going to do when she starts at school this fall. What am I going to do, Ted?"

Barney was nearly hyperventilating at this point.

"Calm down, Barney. You'll do what we all do. Cope." Ted looked down at his hands, hot tears threatening to leak from his eyes. "She would have loved this. All of us going on this big trip with the kids... I miss her so much." Ted was fully crying now.

Barney grabbed his friend in a rough hug. "We're here buddy. We're here."

Their flight didn't leave for another hour and a half, so they sat and entertained their kids while waiting for everyone else. Barney watched as Ellie smoothed her dress, and sauntered over to Luke. "Hey there, handsome," and winked at him.

Ted nearly spit out his coffee as he stared wide eyed at his little niece. "Ellie, sweetie, come here, lets play with some of your toys." He glared at Barney.

"What?" Barney feigned ignorance.

Just as Ted was about to scold his friend he heard a loud whack, and saw Barney rubbing his head. "What the..?"

They turned to see Marshall, Lily and their kids standing with their bags, Lily with that inscrutable look of fury on her face. "Youuu son of a b!% #! What have you been teaching our precious little niece?"

Barney finally had the good sense to look sheepish, as Marshall hurried his kids over to the others. "She just told me she thought Luke was cute, and so I, I…"

"What, did you write her a little Playbook, toddler edition?" Lily fumed.

"No, come on. I just gave her some pointers. But, hey, billion dollar idea alert!" He ducked as Lily swung again. "Kidding, just kidding, Lils, give me a little more credit than that!" No one noticed as he stuffed a small booklet deeper into his jacket pocket. "You made it!" He shouted, trying to divert attention away from himself.

Marshall joined them, "Yeah, Marvin and Daisy have been fighting all morning, and Teddy just sits there and watches them fight and laughs. It took forever to get everything ready."

Lily joined in, "That's not even the worst part. The worst part is Marshall was hogging the bathroom all morning." She glared at her husband.

"Honey, you know you shouldn't have made those burritos last night!" Marshall whined.

Ted and Barney laughed as they tried to corral their kids more tightly as the boarding area was filling up.

The adults sat to wait and watch their kids, and chatted about their lives. Just as Barney said something that was sure to earn him another smack in the head from Lily, someone cleared their throat from behind them. "So, this all looks… chaotic."

The four friends turned stunned eyes to the new arrival. "So, I heard you guys were going on a trip. Mind if I come?"

"Robin?" Lily said in disbelief "Is that really you?"

"Yup, it's really me. Here to go on vacation. With my friends. And six kids…" Robin's smile faltered slightly, as she was clearly intimidated.

They all laughed as they surrounded her and began to hug her, except for Ted. "I can't believe you came. I call, and I send letters and emails, but I never expect - but you're here now, so that's what's important." Lily said through her happy tears.

The truth was, Robin had rejoined the gang at Ted and Tracy's wedding, but had fallen away again after the funeral. She had taken Tracy's death almost as hard as Ted and the kids. She and Tracy had become very close, practically sisters in the four years between the wedding and funeral. Robin couldn't deal with seeing her friends family, so she again dove into her work. After seven months, she finally felt able to come back and deal with her own feelings.

Ted stared at Robin with exasperation and not a little bit of hatred. How dare she? She just abandons all of us, and waltzes back in like nothing happened. God, I am so sick of her bs.

Robin could see the anger simmering in Ted's eyes, so before he started to bury it like a good Ohioan, she said, "Ted, can I talk to you… alone?"

"Fine," Ted spat. "Can you guys watch them?"

The other three nodded, and Ted and Robin went to a quiet corner of the loading area. "What?" Ted gritted out through clenched teeth.

"Ted, I'm so sorry. I just -"

"You know what, Robin, save it. I can't believe you. You come back into all of our lives at my wedding, you become Tracy's closest friend, my kids favorite aunt, and then you just effing bail? What the hell is wrong with you? I don't mind you not contacting me, or Lily, or Marshall, and I can certainly understand why you aren't close to Barney, but I will be damned if I let anyone hurt my kids. Their mom had just died, Robin. You were supposed to be there to help me help them. But you just flaked out, like always." Ted stopped to catch his breath, face red with anger.

Robin looked at Ted with tears welling in her eyes, "I didn't know how to handle it, Ted. Tracy was one of my two best friends in the world, and she was gone. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to come over so many times, but I didn't know what to say. I know that I've messed up. Please, please forgive me." She was in a full crying jag now.

Ted looked at her, his fury subsiding just a bit. "No. I can't. Not for this. Not yet."

"What about Penny and Luke?" She pleaded.

"It's up to them. They're kids, so they'll probably be OK. But don't expect a whole lot from me. Not for a long time." Ted thundered back to his gathered friends, Robin following meekly in his wake.

The plane ride to Orlando was uneventful, besides the obvious frost between Ted and Robin. They offloaded their various children and pieces of luggage, got into the bus they had rented, and headed to the hotel for the night.

On the bus, Robin sat next to Penny and Luke so she could talk to them. There were a few tears shed, but in the end the kids forgave their favorite aunt.

The trip was something they would all remember for years to come, as it had brought their little group back together. From Marvin acting drunk on the butterbeer, to when Barney had fallen in the lake, it had, indeed, been LegendHarry. On the flight home, due to kids juggling their seats, Robin and Ted had been forced to sit together. Ted had taken the window seat and had pointedly ignored Robin throughout the first half of the flight. He continued this until he felt Robin get up and a much smaller body take her seat.

"Dad?" Penny asked, "Why are you mad at Aunt Robin?"

Ted looked at his daughter, struck by how much she looked like his lost love in that moment, and smiled sadly. "Honey, Aunt Robin did something very selfish, and I need time to think things through before I forgive her."

Penny looked thoughtfully at her father with those wise beyond her years eyes, and said eight words that were like a knife to his heart. "Do you think that's what Mom would want?"

Ted just stared at his daughter. "What?"

"Remember what Mom used to say? 'Holding onto hate is a poison to your soul.'"

Ted was stunned. How had Penny been able to saw his heart in half so cleanly? He began to tear up as he pulled her close. "You're right, sweetie. Go get Aunt Robin for me. And then stay in your seat, young lady," he smiled.

Penny bounded over to Robin, and Robin came to sit next to him again. He sighed, and continued to look out the window of the plane. "It's going to take time for everything to be ok, but I do forgive you. I'm still mad though."

"I understand. Just know, Ted, I will never leave those kids again. They are too important."

Ted smiled. "That much we agree on."