Sorry for the grim beginning, this is where the story truly starts.

Chapter 4 Abby

"Abby wake up." A voice said. "Abby."

The voice started gently shaking her, as she opened her eyes she saw the owner of the voice was Owen. He looked a lot younger. 'How strange to dream of a younger Owen. Wait. What is going on here? I was shot by the dark haired one. I shouldn't be dreaming.' Abby didn't know what to make of what was happening.

"Abby are you ok?" Owen asked and she nodded. "I'm sorry to wake you given you had the graveyard shift but your dad has ran off again and Marlene is furious.

Abby sat up and looked around her, she was in her old room in St Mary's. She wanted to pinch herself to confirm whether or not this was a strange dream or not. Owen was looking at her suspiciously so she quickly told him that she would go look for her dad. Owen left her room after that. She got up and went to the closet to grab some clothes. It was confusing to see herself in the mirror, she looked like she did when she lived in Salt Lake City with the fireflies. Since she couldn't remember if you could see yourself in a mirror or not during a dream, she resorted to pinching her thin noodle like arm.

"Fuck that hurts!" She shouted out loud after pinching herself hard.

She knew two things, this couldn't be a dream and she shouldn't pinch herself that hard, it was going to leave a mark. Abby finished getting ready, performed a brass check on her glock before holstering it and left her room. It was hard to believe she was really here, she saw some of her old friends as she made her way outside. 'If this is real then where would dad have gone? Of course the zebras. He was always obsessed with them because part of him had wanted to be a veterinarian.' While making her way to the familiar part of the old zoo, she came up with the idea for a test.

"What the fuck is going on here." Abby said out loud as she held the quarter she found exactly where it was supposed to be.

She kept looking for her dad and found him after she jumped a small wall onto a overhang that collapsed, causing her to fall off and land with her ass in the mud. It was exactly how it had happened and also exactly where he was supposed to be judging from her memories. He laughed at first because she was covered in mud. Seeing him was overwhelming, Abby wanted to go over and give him a hug but was frozen in place. She wanted to say something but was frozen in place.

"Abs are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost." Her dad asked as he helped her up.

Abby flew onto him and hugged him as hard as she could, whatever was going on she intended to enjoy every second she had with him. Feeling his warmth as he hugged her back, hearing his heartbeat whether it was real or not put a smile on her face.

"I'm glad your safe, they were worried because you disappeared." Abby eventually said after letting him go.

"Come on Abs, these woods are safe. I'm sorry that they nagged at you again." her dad said.

"It's ok dad." Abby replied, still enjoying whatever the hell was going on.

"You're sure that you're ok right?" Her dad asked.

"I'm always ok when you're around. Let me guess you're here because of the zebra?" Abby asked.

"She's been hanging around here and you know she's due any day now, let's just go make sure she's ok." he said.

It was strange to relive this. Just as she remembered They found the zebra entangled in wires. Owen arrived right when he was supposed to according to her memories and gave them the news after helping them free the zebra that was now reunited with it's young. The three of them rushed back to the hospital, her dad joining his team as soon as they arrived. Abby went to the room where she knew Joel had been admitted after they pulled him out of the tunnels. A fellow firefly was standing guard, he was one of those that had made the journey from Boston to Salt Lake City with Marlene, the illustrious leader of the fireflies. She observed the unconscious man through the window in his room's door. Her right hand was gripping her glock so hard that her knuckles were turning white. She hated that man with a passion. Just when Abby was about to unholster her glock, the guard asked her if she was okay. Without answering his question she walked away. If this thing was a second chance then the Joel lying in that room hadn't done anything wrong. At least not yet.

She thought back of how she had found Ellie's body, everything that happened to both of them had been set in motion today. Killing Joel now would only result in Ellie dying on a maybe, that wasn't good enough, unlike anyone here Abby couldn't stand by and watch such madness happen. She dropped by the canteen, quickly made a tray with food and took it to her dad's office. He was already arguing with Marlene.

"You can't have it both ways Marlene. If the vaccine is to be developed quickly then we have to do the surgery and that will mean the girl will die. Otherwise it will be a much longer development time." He said.

"Fast is the only way, Do the surgery. But you better have that vaccine quickly, we need it to get more people on our side if we want to defeat FEDRA. I wish I had known years ago that she was immune, we would have never lost our foothold in Boston." Marline hissed just as Abby entered his office.

"I'll inform the man who brought her." Jerry said, causing Abby to panic.

"No no i'll do it, his services are no longer required." Marlene said.

Abby set down the food tray on his desk while Marlene gave her the stink eye and walked out of Jerry's office.

"Dad, you can't do this." Abby said after making sure Marlene was gone.

"Abs I have no choice, Malene makes the decisions you know that." Jerry said followed by a sigh.

Abby could see that his heart wasn't in it.

"Dad you said you could develop a vaccine without killing the girl, did you mean it?" Abby asked.

"Yes, but it could take years, Marlene isn't giving us that much time anymore. Not now that we found somebody that is immune." Jerry replied.

"Dad I can see that you don't want to do this." Abby said.

"Abs, I'm the only one here that can do the surgery and give the girl a chance of living. If I don't do it, someone else here will."

"Dad the girl deserves to live, you can't stand by and allow this madness to happen. You're not doctor Mengele or something. We need to help her and the man get out of here." Abby pleaded with him.

"Abs we can't, if we get caught." Jerry started.

Abby was getting desperate to solve this without any unnecessary deaths. Ellie saved her and Lev from the fate the rattlers left them to, she owed her.

"Dad what if it was me? What if I turned out to be immune? Would you let them kill me or would you get me out of here and find another way?" She asked him.

"Abs.. fine I'll go postpone the operation. Get that man to the parking garage. You're sure that he'll get her to safety?"

"He will, he cares about the girl." Abby replied as she left his office.

She made her way back to Joel's room. Time was already of the essence. It would only be a matter of time before he'd go off on his rampage. Being short on time was confirmed when she got to his room. Marlene was in there arguing with him. Abby didn't disagree with the importance of a vaccine, but not at this cost. Not to mention she was starting to fear what Marlene's intentions were. 'Is she really going to use it as a recruitment tool?' Service in turn for the vaccine?' She walked into the room just when Marlene ordered the guard to escort Joel out.

"What are you doing here?" Marlene demanded.

"I was passing by and heard an argument. Do you need help getting this bum out of here?" Abby asked.

"Wouldn't be a bad idea." The firefly guard said.

Marlene agreed and mentioned she had better things to do. Together with the guard, Abby started escorting Joel. Making sure he got the opportunity to take out the guard.

"Stop. I'm taking you to her. I want a vaccine as much as the next person but not at this cost." Abby said before he even got the chance to turn to her.

"Why should I trust you?" He demanded.

"Because I would have killed you otherwise." Abby said coldly.

It took some effort to convince him but eventually he grabbed his backpack and weapons and followed her sneaking to the parking garage. They waited near the elevator in a dark spot in case a patrol came by. 'Come on dad, you should be here already.' As she thought it the doors opened and her dad came out with Ellie in his arms, setting her down gently on the floor.

"Thank you, both of you." Joel said as her dad unloaded a backpack and a duffel bag from the elevator.

"Don't thank me, thank my daughter. She appealed to my better side. I got her back pack and some supplies, her sedation will wear off soon. Take the car over there and get her to safety." Jerry said. "Abs were you seen with him?"

"Yeah Marlene had me and one of the Boston fireflies escort Joel out. Joel took him out." Abby answered.

"I'm sorry for this Abs." Jerry said before hitting her so hard she went down, "I'm really sorry but we need to be able to sell it. Get back to where that guard is and play unconscious."

She got up and started leaving, her dad asked Joel to do the same to him before he got back in the elevator. She had only just gotten on the floor next to the dead guard when an alarm started buzzing. It wasn't long after that Manny found her. It was fortunate that it was him and not Nora or Mel who probably would have recognized that she was faking it. A little later she found out that Marlene had been shot by Joel in the parking garage when he was putting Ellie in the car, her dad who had been found in the operating room worked for hours operating on her to save her life. Aside from the one dead guard it had ended as good as it could have. Given both her and her dad were found injured and 'unconscious' there weren't under too much scrutiny. Marlene had sent out search parties as soon as she regained consciousness, she was thanks to her dad under the false impression that Joel mumbled something to Ellie about taking her back to Boston.

Abby was happy to spend time with Owen, excited even that they could have a future together now without her lust for revenge driving a wedge between them. It was clear that something strange had happened and she was given a second chance for some reason. Having helped Ellie and Joel escape brought her some peace, more than having killed Joel ever did. Months passed and there were no results from the searches. Marlene was driving a lot of people up the walls, there was a lot of talk about leaving due to the low morale. Her dad kept working with the samples he had gotten from Ellie, while Marlene pushed him and his team to the breaking point demanding they'd get quick results. At least until an overworked member of his team had made a mistake that resulted in the samples becoming contaminated. Marlene shot the woman on the spot for treason. It had really rattled everyone's cages, when Marlene headed with a team to Boston to go look for Joel and Ellie, the rest of them decided to disband. People had lost their hope for a cure. Some chose to head back to where they had come from. Some chose to stay in the hospital, to wait for Marlene's return since they still believed in the original reason the fireflies were founded. Abby had convinced her friends to go to Seattle, not wanting to lose his daughter Jerry went with them. The one thing she hated about being on the road was not being able to train. It was bad enough already that this was the third time now that she had to get back into fighting shape after all. After a few months on the road, they had finally reached Seattle, half a year later than in the previous timeline.

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