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What If Joel Left Ellie On The Operating Table?

What If Things Were Different - Chapter 2 - Airfried_DinoNug - The Last of Us (Video Games) [Archive of Our Own]

What If Things Were Different - What If Joel Left Ellie On The Operating Table? - Wattpad

April 28, 2034

Joel opened his eyes in a hurry. The scent of iodoform, a fragrance found in soaps and cleaners, filled his nose. The last thing Joel remembered was preforming CPR on Ellie after she drowned. 

"Ellie!" Joel yelled panicked. He stood up, ignoring the throbbing pain in his head.

"She's safe. They are prepping her for surgery now." Marlenes voice echoed in what appeared to be an old hospital room.  Joel violently turned his head to look at Marlene. "How did the two of you manage to find us here? The guys we had stationed at the capitol building that you were supposed to meet up with went MIA. I'm going to assume since Tess isn't with you and that my guys are missing, things went south." Marlene looked down at the ground. Sorrow encapsulated her. 

"Well, aren't you so smart." Joel regretted accepting this run just for some guns. He regretted not protecting Tess even more. He regretted not leaving Boston when he had a chance. "Ellie, she...she fought like hell to get here, to help you with your hope of a cure. Don't let her down." Joel now standing up, brushed the debris off his pants. His gear and coat were lying on the raggedy hospital bed. He swiftly grabs his coat and pulls it over his arms. It's the end of April, spring was here, flowers were blooming but it was raining almost every day. He pulls his backpack over his right shoulder and starts to head for the door.

"Don't you at least want your payment?" Marlene was talking about the guns. The guns only Tess had saw. How was Joel supposed to know if they were all there.

"Fuck it. You keep em. This was a waste of my time." Joel reached for the doorknob only for it to be opened from the outside. A younger male figure stood in his way. He was armed and looked to be muscular. "Watch out Hulk, you might tear your shirt." Joel noticed how the man looked to be wearing a shirt two sizes too small for him.

"Ethan, please escort him so he can see the payment in the upper floors." Marlene nodded at the man standing in Joels way.

"Of course, ma'am'" At least Hulk Hogin had manners Joel thought. Joel unwilling obliged. Falling in Ethans footsteps they walked to the 7th floor of the rundown hospital. This part of the hospital looked like it was routinely cleaned every day since the start of the outbreak. Joel could see people in scrubs walking around in front of Ethan and him. As both men walked further down the corridor, Joel could hear a series of beeps growing louder. He saw a woman walking out of an old operation room. 

As he walked behind Ethan, Joel stopped dead in his tracks. He looked into the operation room full of surgeons and nurses. Ellie was hooked up to a series of random machines. Joels eyes flicked over to the Holter Monitor Ellie was hooked up, her heartbeat was so strong. He questioned whether he should actually leave Ellie here. Marlene wouldn't have had joel bring Ellie here is she wasn't safe, right? Joel fulfilled his promise to Tess, he brought Ellie here, but by doing that it got Tess killed.

"She's doing humanity a great service. She'll be remembered by everyone for years." Ethan was now standing behind Joel looking into the operating room as well.

"Remembered? What do you mean remembered?" Joel turned to face Ethan. By the look on Ethans face, Joel knew what he meant.

"The Cordyceps mutated in her brain. The only way to extract it is for her to die." Ethan looked worried, afraid Joel would retaliate. Fucking Marlene, knowing an innocent child would have to die. "It's the only way to save humanity. We can't go around infecting everyone just to see if there's an off chance someone else is immune." Ethan was hoping to convince Joel not to do anything hasty, but Joel didn't need to be convinced. He wanted this girl and all of the fireflies involved in this operation out of his life.

"I'm leaving." Joel muttered as he turned around and went back the way they came. Ethan stood frozen in place, baffled that Joel didn't care about Ellie in the slightest. Joel walked down all 7 flights of stairs and past Marlene, whose hands were on her resting on her hips. Marlene watched as Joel left through the hospital's double doors, never to look back.

August 2045

Harmonic sounds of windchimes seep through the rooms of a homestead. The house is empty, no people are rustling around inside of it. A shadow moves past a window in the kitchen. Outside the back door of the house lies an enclosed space, hording a flock of sheep. A man appears to be walking out of a storage hut inside the cage. He walks out of the cage and walks towards the homestead. As he walks closer, he stops and grips the bucket he was holding, tighter.

"What the hell could you possibly want, Marlene?" The man sneered at the woman on the porch. He walks forward towards the porch.

"It's a beautiful place you have here Joel." Marlene is sitting on the porch's glider. Joel sets the bucket on the steps and leans against the railing facing Marlene.

"You got your damn cure, and the world is perfect. Cut to the chase, what warrants you coming to my house? I'm done with the fireflies." He was furious that Marlene would think it was okay to bother him after all he did for her.

"It didn't work Joel." No, she has to be lying. It's been 11 fucking years. 11 years since Ellie died...11 years since Tess died.

"Bullshit Marlene. I have seen one damn infected in 4 fucking years." Joel hoped she was lying because if she wasn't that meant Ellie's death would have been for nothing.

"I'm sorry Joel. I believed it was going to work, we all did but it just didn't." Marlene was looking down at her feet. She stood up and pulled her shirt up to her ribs. On her stomach was a bite mark. judging on how far the spreading went across her stomach she only has a few hours left.

"Jesus Marlene." Joel never really cared for Marlene but felt compassion that she was suffering.

"It mutated. It didn't cure the Cordyceps, it fucking mutated it." Marlene let her shirt hem drop back down. She looked up at Joel who had aged since the last time they spoke. "Before, there were runners, clickers and bloaters but now...now there's ones that can see your heart beating in your chest, ones that eat clickers Joel."

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What if Sarah Never Died?

What If Things Were Different - Chapter 1 - Airfried_DinoNug - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own]

What If Things Were Different - Request(open) - Wattpad

"The Last Of Us" one shot (Mix between video game and tv show)

August 2019

"Hey old man." Sarahs voice rang through the tiny living room. Sitting on the old grey recliner was her father, Joel. He had spots of grey seeping through his hair. His face, wrinkled from age and stress. Sarah was walking into the living room when she kicked the chair Joel was sitting on.

"I am not that old" Joel responded with a playful annoyance on his lips. Getting up he sat an old, wrinkled magazine that he had reread countless times, on the table. "I heard from Tess that a resistance group is making moves against FEDRA. You uh wouldn't know anything about that would you?" His eyes trained on Sarah, watching her every move.

"Now, why would I, an innocent 19-year-old girl, have anything to do with a resistance group?" She smirked while cutting an apple. Her involvement was no secret in their house. What Joel didn't know, was how involved Sarah actually was.

After a sigh Joel smirked, hidden behind his unkept beard. "I know your involved. I don't think I want to know how involved, but Sarah, I need you to be safe. You know just as well as I, what FEDRA does to resisters." Without communicating what Joel actually meant, Sarah understood. They hung people. To make a statement. Sarah broke the gaze they held. She looked at the warn wood floor. 

"I am being safe dad. Instead of worrying about me, how about you worry about Uncle Tommy and yourself. You two are out running "Errands" when everyone knows you guys are just mercenaries." Sarah runs her fingers through her curly black hair. "I have spent the past 5 years worrying about the both of you. Now I am doing something so you both can stop killing, stealing and doing deals." Sarah raised her voice. She didn't do it often so when Joel straightened his back and took a step back, it wasn't a surprise. Sarah looked at Joel. Her expression was of sullen disappointment. She left her apple slices on the table, turned on her heels and left their apartment. Joel leaned against the living room window and ran his fingers through his speckled hair. He thought to himself on how that conversation took such a major turn. He was ashamed of what Tommy, and he had to do, but they had to do those things to survive. To keep Sarah alive. He knew she wasn't the same 14-year-old girl, but she was still his daughter.

August 2033

Sarah wasn't at home as much, but neither was Joel. Joel and Sarah didn't talk much when they were both at their apartment. Sarah was off working on tasks for the resistance group known as The Fireflies. Joel, he was still running deals, not with Tommy but with Tess.  

Sarah, her black curly hair pulled back into a ponytail, walked into their apartment. It sits empty. Joel must be with Tess, Sarah thought to herself. She audibly scoffs.

"I am doing something to make an actual change, why can't he just see that." She doesn't understand why her father doesn't accept that she is a firefly. She has the key that they need to make a difference. She sits in the old, now torn grey recliner. She needs a runner and the only person she trusts is her father. She knows Joel won't do any business with the fireflies but maybe if she gave him the puppy dog eyes, she used as a child he just might do it. That or she will do the run herself. Its nearing nightfall, instead of waiting for her father to come home, she graps a water and heads to bed.

The front door barges open. Joel walks in, dirty, and sweating head to toe. His hair is now more grey than brown. "Why the hell can't Kirk just do that damn run on his own. We only get 30 rations from it. It's the same fucking run every month." Joel throws his backpack and sweat stained coat on the kitchen table.

"I don't know, maybe it's because he knows you couldn't care less about going outside FEDRA walls, or you know, getting hanged." Tess follows suit. She closes the front door checking to make sure they weren't followed by FEDRA guards. She steps behind Joel and wraps her arms around him. Joel lets his head hang down.

"I do care. I do all of this for you and Sarah." They never talked about what they were to each other, but Joel and Tess were something.

"She isn't 19 anymore Joel. Shes 33. She can handle herself more than you think." Tess had known Sarah since Joel and Sarah had arrived at the Boston quarantine zone 17 years ago. She knew about Sarahs involvement with the fireflies and how much of a fighter Sarah was. Sarah was just as hardheaded as her father. She loved that about them. So arrogant, so stubborn.

"She's right. I'm not a little girl anymore. I can hold my own." Sarah walked into the kitchen. She loved that her dad had Tess to look over him, even if he thought he was looking over Tess. 

Tess took a step back as Joel straightened up. "You're home?" Joel asked with a shakey voice. Seeing Sarah always brought Joel happiness. He remembered that night when the outbreak happened. The soldier pointing his gun at Sarah and him. Ready to shoot to kill. Joel pleading out for the soldier not to kill them, Sarah crying in his arms. Tommy had made it just in the nick of time to save them both. 

Sarah was worried about this conversation might go but it needed to happen. "Yes, but it's for business." Sarah watched as the little bit of happiness on Joels face melted away. "I need you both to help me with something, firefly related. I only trust you two."

"No." Joel was stern. 

"Maybe we should hear her out Joel." Tess was trying and Sarah appreciated that.

"I don't do business with fireflies. I'm sorry but no Sarah." Sarah knew this might happen. She had run this scenario in her head countless times.

"If you don't help me, I'll have to do the run with some idiots who might get me killed. Dad, this could change the course of history please. If it wasn't important i wouldn't have asked for your help." Sarah was worried if her father had still stuck with the same answer. She was hoping that pulling the life card had helped persuade him a little. 

"Don't. You don't get to pull that card Sarah." Joel had pushed back his tears. Sarah knows that was a cheap shot. But it was a cheap shot that worked. After a few moments of unbroken silence. Joel nodded his head. He looked up at Sarah, her light brown skin gleaming in the morning sun. "I need to know what it is we are running, and you, you're not coming along. Me and Tess do this alone."

"I can't tell you. At least not here, I have to show you. And that last part? Its nonnegotiable. I have to run this with you. I'm the only know that knows where to go." Sarah could see on her father's face that he understood. She motioned for Tess and Joel to follow her. 

They left their apartment and walked to the edge of the QC walls. They walked inside an old, abandoned hotel. Down a set of corridors and into a hallway. Outside a set of doors sat three men. they all looked to be Joels age. They unlocked the door and let Sarah, Tess and Joel inside. Inside sat a girl, who didn't look any other than 15, on a ratty, torn bed.

"So what? Are we running this girl? What is she? Some FEDRA leader's daughter?" Joel scoffed at the notion of smuggling a girl.

"Yes. Shes the "package", We need to get her west. Out to St. Louis." Sarah walked towards the girl sitting on the bed. "Are you okay Ellie?" Sarah handed her water and protein bar from her backpack. 

"Who the fuck is this dude? And you know what fuck you old man." Ellie stood up and flipped off Joel. Sarah and Tess had both snickered causing Joel to look at them.

"This is Ellie. She is important dad." She pleaded to Joel with her eyes. "Ellie, this is my father Joel and Tess." Sarah looked over at Ellie and winked. Ellie sat back down with her eyes still stuck on Joel. She quietly opened the protein bar and started eating. Sarah, Joel and Tess walked about out of the room and into the hallway.

"What is the deal, Sarah? Why are we smuggling a girl all the way to St. Louis?" Joel needed answers, he knew Sarah had them.

"Shes immune. She got bit 8 weeks ago, she was fucking around and left the QC. I got some Fireflies out there who think they can make a cure." Sarah knew from the moment it left her mouth that her father wouldn't believe her.

"Bullshit Sarah. No one survives getting infected." Joel barged back into the room where Ellie sits drinking her water. "Let me see it." Joel grabs Ellies water and throws it down. Ellie pulled up the sleeve on her right arm to show a fully healed bite mark. It is scarred. Joel takes a step back and looks at Sarah and Tess. "You're not lying. When do we need to leave?" Joel believes Sarah but is still skeptical. 

"Tonight, Less guards and less patrol." Sarah is relieved that her father and Tess are willing to help her.

The four of them leave the QC in the middle of the night to avoid any FEDRA guards. Ellie won't stop asking Joel questions about what Sarah was like before the outbreak. He sees so much of Sarah in Ellie.

"How did she become immune?" Tess asks Sarah hoping there may be others who are immune as well.

"We're not sure. We think she was just born immune." Sarah always wondered how Ellie become immune and hope the people at the lab in St. Louis can tell them. Sarah zones out while listening to Ellie talk to Joel. She hears Ellie asking Joel why people slept outside willing when they had homes. Sarah laughed, she never thought about how weird the world must be to someone born after the outbreak. While Ellie was making Tess, Joel and Sarah laugh, Ellie had unknowingly stepped on a fungus root. 

"Joel." Tess stops and looks at where Ellies foot had just landed. Joel and Sarah both turned around, their faces drop into despair.

"Run." Sarah yelled at the group. Sarah grabbed Ellie's arm in a hurry. As they are running, they hear a trembling coming from in front of them. They stop dead in their tracks. A small group of infected came up behind them. Ellie screamed. Sarah, Tess and Joel whipped around to stare face to face with the infected. Sarah lets go of Ellies hand to help her father and Tess fight off the small group of infected. Ellie had run inside the small cafe next to them. Sarah followed pursuit. She pushed Ellie towards the back looking for a rear entrance. Tess and Joel had both caught up with them.

"We need to go Sarah." Joel said out of breath. 

"I need you to take Ellie and run." Sarah lifted up her pant leg to show a scratch. Joel and Ellie started to tear up.

"I'm not leaving you!" Joel screamed angrily. He wasn't mad at Sarah, but mad he agreed to let Sarah come along. While he was trying to open the door in the back of the store, Tess put her hand on his shoulder.

"Joel, you have to go, now." Tess said with her soft voice. Joel already knew what that meant. He didn't want to turn around, but he needed to see it for himself. Tess pulled the shirt off her shoulder to reveal a bite taken out of it. Joel let the tears fall onto his cheeks. He couldn't lose anyone. 

"Take Ellie. If she's the last chance we have, you need to keep her safe." Sarah was crying now. The trembling had grown louder, they had 30 seconds at best. She pulled out the grenade she had, and Tess did the same. Sarah pushed Ellie and Joel out the door. "I love you, old man." Sarah said before shutting the door. Joel was stuck in place. Ellie had to throw herself at Joel to get him moving. They ran for what felt like forever. Ellie tripped on a log that had become rotten, causing Joel to stop and pull her up. 

Joel heard the screams from the horde of infected. He turned just in time to see the grenade blasts. It threw Joel and Ellie backwards. Joel hit his head on a rock and passed out.

May 2035

"Joel, wake up. Joel!" Ellie yelled at Joel. Joels eyes fluttered open. "You were mumbling her name in your sleep again." 

It was just a dream. How can you live an entire life in 8 hours, just for it to be a damn dream? Joel hates those dreams. The ones where Sarah never died, ones where the outbreak never happened. If only there was a way to go back in time and redo it all.

The End