This is my first Clannad fanfic, so I apologize if anyone is out of character, I'll do my best to keep everyone as in character as I can though. Anyway, I felt like writing this as a what if scenario, basically what if the wish the light orbs granted for Tomoya didn't bring him back to when Ushio was born, but instead saved Ushio from dying. Also, as a heads up, while this is going off of the Ushio death scene in the anime, I have yet to be able to watch the anime's version of After Story, my experience with After Story is through the visual novel. Other than that, I hope you enjoy! Feedback will be very much appreciated!

As Tomoya Okazaki held his sick daughter in his arms, he was doing his best to stay calm, he wanted to stay strong for his daughter in her final moments. He had a feeling Ushio at least somewhat knew that she was dying, hence the request to go on a trip with him, she wanted to go on one last trip with her daddy. As Ushio spoke, Tomoya could tell that the fever had taken a lot out of his five year old daughter, she was probably exhausted from trying to fight off the fever, she seemed to have given up fighting it in fact.

"Daddy?" Ushio asks her father "I love you." she tells him as Tomoya runs his hand down the back of Ushio's head in an effort to comfort her, now unable to hold back the tears as he responds to Ushio.

"Yeah... Daddy loves you, too Ushio, very much." Tomoya tells his daughter. Ushio, shortly after hearing her father's words, loses her life, as Tomoya begins to desperately plea for someone to save his daughter, as the snow continues to fall. "No! Anything but this! Nagisa! Please save Ushio! Nagisa!" Someone, someone help! Help her! Nagisa!" the man pleads in tears, as he falls to the ground, still holding Ushio, as orbs of light gather around the two. Tomoya, losing consciousness thought he heard someone's voice saying something about a wish being granted.

"... Addy!" a girl's voice calls out. She sounded like she was crying

"I can't make out everything she's saying, but she sounds really scared." Tomoya thought as he felt someone, possibly the girl, shaking his body as he continues to hear the girl call out to him.

"Daddy! Please, please wake up Daddy!" the girl pleads, "P-please!" the girl pleads.

"Ugh." Tomoya groans as he slowly opens his eyes, waiting for his vision to stop being blurry, he now saw who was calling out to him, it was his own daughter, Ushio Okazaki. "Ushio?" Tomoya asks, in disbelief blinking a couple of times as he sits up, when the realization hit him, that his daughter was, in fact, alive, on her knees, in tears as she had been desperately trying to wake her father. Upon the realization, Tomoya feels tears welling up in his eyes, and tightly embraces Ushio with a hug, confirming to him that this wasn't just his mind playing tricks on him. "Ushio! Oh thank goodness your alive! I... I thought I lost you!" he exclaims.

"D-Daddy, you're hugging me too tightly!" Ushio exclaims to her father, who loosens the grip of the hug.

"Oh! I-I'm so sorry Ushio! Daddy's just really happy that you're alright!" Tomoya apologizes. He noticed that Ushio seemed to have regained some of her strength, and, it seems like her fever went down a little. Tomoya then remembers that they both were still outside while it was snowing, and decides to bring Ushio back home as he stands up. "Come on Ushio, let's go back home, we don't want you to get more sick than you already are." he gently tells the five year old, with a smile, as he takes her hand. Ushio, to his surprise, doesn't refuse, and walks home together with her dad. While on the way back home, Ushio suddenly breaks the silence.

"Um... Daddy?" the girl asks, she seems to really have to say something to her father, as she looks up at her daddy, clearly still tired from the fever, her breath visible from the cold.

"Yes sweetie?"

"I had a dream before you woke up." Ushio answers, catching her father's attention.

"Oh? What happened in it? Was it a bad dream?" Tomoya curiously asks, raising an eyebrow. Ushio then shakes her head before answering her father.

"I saw Mommy in it." Ushio answers, making her dad go wide eyed, he wasn't expecting to hear that his daughter saw Nagisa in a dream.

"M-Mommy you say?" Tomoya stutters, taken aback by what he just heard.

"Yeah, Mommy talked to me in it."

"What did Mommy tell you?"

"She told me to keep fighting against my sickness, to not give up, and to stay strong." Ushio answers

"A-anything else sweetie?" Tomoya stutters, still in shock of what he just heard. "Could Nagisa have saved her?" he ponders while listening to his five year old daughter talk about her dream.

"Mommy then helped me wake up." Ushio recalls from her dream, "If she hadn't come to me in my dream, I feel like I would have stayed asleep forever." she adds as the two of them reach their home.

"Nagisa, you saved her, you saved our daughter, thank you Nagisa, thank you for watching over the two of us." Tomoya thanks his wife in his thoughts, smiling as he went inside with Ushio and tucked her into a futon. "Ushio, you go rest, I'm going to call Sanae-san, she'll help us get you better." Tomoya says, he didn't want to risk anything now that Ushio had nearly died. Besides, Sanae has more experience when it comes to dealing with the illness that both Nagisa, and Ushio have. With that in mind, Tomoya heads for the phone, his legs wobbly, not much of a surprise really, he hadn't exactly been taking very good care of his body lately, he had been putting all his time and energy into helping Ushio get better. Upon calling Furukawa Bakery, a woman's voice answers the phone.

"Furukawa Bakery, how may I help you?"

"Sanae-san, it's Tomoya. I'm sorry to bother you, but Ushio still has her fever, and I wanted to ask if you could help, the fever is still really high, and I'm really getting worried."

"Oh don't worry, it's no trouble at all! I'll be right there!" Sanae replies. A few minutes later, and Sanae is at the door.

"Thank you for coming Sanae-san." Tomoya thanks "I tried taking care of her myself, but I aren't as familiar with her illness as you are." he admits. Back when Nagisa was still alive, he hadn't really helped her with dealing with her illness all by himself, Nagisa's parents helped him out a lot with fighting off the fevers and everything Nagisa's illness threw at her.

"Like I said Tomoya, it's no trouble at all. I'm happy to help, especially when it comes to Shio-chan. After all, we're family." Sanae assures Tomoya, wearing her usual warm smile. Tomoya couldn't help but smile back at Sanae, she always was able to put him at ease, in fact, Tomoya thinks of Sanae as the mother he never had, since he had never gotten to know his own mother. Both adults then go over to Ushio to help her with her fever. The next day Ushio's fever had finally gone down significantly.