Ted leaves London and goes back to Kansas, but as he settles himself in Kansas, little by little he finds himself missing the things he left behind in Richmond. He finds little things that remind him of the life he built in Richmond all around him, of the neighborhood he loved, the team, Rebecca… He finds himself baking a batch of Rebecca’s biscuits one night because it’s familiar and it’s comforting. There’s a small part of himself that wishes he was back in Richmond… but he’s scared to listen to that part of himself because the whole reason he came back to Kansas to be with his son. Kansas is where he has to be. He can’t leave Henry again.
Henry notices how sad his dad is. Ted is trying to hide it from him. He brings it up with Michelle.
Michelle talks to Ted, asking him if he’s happy being back in Kansas. Ted tries to say that of course he’s happy. Michelle ‘Oklahoma’s’ him (and that reminds him of Rebecca). The floodgates open.
Henry overhears it. He has the power to take a sad song and make it better, Beard once told him. A day or two later, he tells his dad that he should be able to do what makes him happy and if going back to London would make him happy, maybe that’s what he should do. Henry can move to London with him (it would be an adventure), and maybe Michelle can move there as well.
A month or two later, Ted and Henry get on a plane to London. Rebecca invited them to come see the final AFC Richmond match of the current season.
Rebecca (who either broke up with Dutch Guy or never got together with him in the first place because Dutch Guy who? never heard of him) is waiting for them at the airport gate. She stands in the same spot as she did the last time, but instead of watching Ted leave, she gets to watch Ted come back, with Henry right beside him. Her tears are happy ones this time.
As soon as Ted is right in front of her for the very first time in too long, she lets the tears fall and smiles as she says, “Welcome back.” And softly adds, “I’ve missed you.”
It’s nearly drowned out by the sounds of the airport around them, but Ted hears her, and with tears of his own coming to his eyes, he smiles and says, “I’ve missed you too.”
They stare at each other without saying anything for a few seconds before Henry cuts the tension with a “Hi, Rebecca!” Rebecca laughs and greets and him back, happily listening to Henry’s chatter as the three of them leave the airport.
(And Rebecca, who hasn’t had a single biscuit since Ted left, later tells him that he owes her a year’s worth of pink boxes filled with biscuits.)
—
This came from thoughts/headcanons that came to me in a rush last night, after days of struggling to get an idea for Tedbecca-y fix-it fanfic to write so I can move on from the finale. This is so that, in case I never end up writing out this fanfic idea and putting it out on AO3, at least I’ll have written my idea out somewhere and been able to share it.
I might’ve had Sleepless In Seattle in mind when I thought of that last part with Rebecca meeting Ted and Henry at the airport gate.
