What If John Jr and Mary Married - Little House on the Prairie is a Little House on the Prairie fanfiction by Lukas Miller
. Exploring the exact premise it says on the title, it's set on alternative set of events following what if John Sanderson Jr and Mary Ingalls never broke up and became a couple.
It's set on two parts, Part One covering the equivalent events of Season 2 to 4, from the death of John Jr.'s mother, his and his siblings adoption, Mary's blindness and the town going bankrupt as in canon, with the difference of John Jr.'s relationship continuing throghout these events.
Part Two starts during the equivalent events of Season 5, with Mary's period at the Blind school in Winoka and the other events of Season 6 to Laura and Almanzo's wedding.
There are also a few one-shot set in the same story, one involving the aftermath of Sylvia's death and Albert's recovering from the events, one where Laura finds a message from Anna Mears, and another covering the events of Season 3's Blizzard, only with John Jr.'s presence taking part in the search for his siblings.
The story is now also published in Archive of Our Own, titled ''My Highland Mary and I'' and split into two parts, with separate chapters.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Averted here, the main change is that John Jr. never stops loving Mary, and they remain a couple throughout the entirety of the series.
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Thanks to John leaving Chicago to marry Mary, his death never happens so his family isn't haunted with his loss nor with his father's alcoholism destroying their family peace. Also, Mary's tragic loss of her baby is prevented, both in the original version where her equivalent child survives the fire and in the revised where the fire never happens.
- Adaptational Badass: John Jr. is still a fairly peaceful guy, but he's more prone to engage in fighting if it's to protect Mary or his students when he's teaching in Walnut Grove.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike in the show, John never loses his love for Mary during his stay in Chicago and remains faithful to her.
- Adapted Out: James and Cassandra, Percival and Jenny are left out of the story.
- Age Lift: Mary was 15 when she got blind in the show, but here, she's seventeen and is already married to John when in happens. Albert is also aged up from 14 to 17 during the equivalent events of "Sylvia".
- Big Brother Instinct: In the extra chapter The Blizzard has John Jr. participate in the search for his younger siblings when the children are lost at the snow, fixing his unexplained absence from the episode Blizzard.
- Cool Teacher: John Jr becomes the schoolteacher in Walnut Grove during the equivalent events of Season 6, and is a pretty popular one. In one such incident when a group of bully boys wreac havoc at class and beat him when he tries to intervene, John gets help from Almanzo, whose father once helped a teacher with similar students and learns to use a bullwhip to scare off the delinquents.
- Demoted to Extra: Adam only has a minor role while tutoring Mary at the Blind School, since she's already married to John and doesn't romance him. She's still implied to have some feeling for him during their classes, but then she asks to be tutored by a woman and his role when the Ingalls arrive at Winoka is filled by Mary's female tutor, Suzanne Parker.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Sylvia still dies from a fall while trying to escape her rapist, but she falls off a tree instead of a ladder.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Adam is implied to be still blind when he'd briefly mentioned at the end, since not only did the incident which restored sight not happen, but he mentions he lost his sight to a bacterial infection rather than the concussion which was undone in canon.
- Fix Fic: The story follows a version of events where John Jr kept in love with Mary rather than lose his interest while living in the city and have an affair with another girl and be written out of the story, and here, he participates in the events he was absent from in canon, such as the rebuild of Walnut Grove and the search for the missing kids in "Blizzard".
- George Lucas Altered Version: The author altered the story excluding his version of "May We Make Them Proud" in which Andy Garvey was involved with the pipe incident that caused the fire and, overwhelmed with guilt, takes his own life. Now there's no indication of any fire and Andy is implied to be alive and well.
- Mythology Gag: In one part based on a chapter from "Farm Boy" about Almanzo's childhood, John Jr learns to use a whip so he can handle some thuggish students who were disrupting class and bullying the younger kids.
- Original Character: Suzanne Parker, a tutor at the Blind School Mary befriends after she becomes her tutor.
- Elvira Standish, Miles Standish's wife who tries to seduce John Jr. when he's hired as a butler at her mansion.
- Point of Divergence: John Jr. and Mary remain a couple, boosting several changes in the following events:
- The Edwards family stay in Walnut Grove a little longer, and Isaiah never falls Off the Wagon due to John not dying, so he and Grace never divorce.
- Because the Blind School was never transferred to Sleepy Eye and Adam never married Mary and moved with her to Walnut Grove, the incident where he got his sight back never happens and when he's mentioned again, it's implied that he's still blind.
- John becomes the schoolteacher instead of Eliza Jane when they return to Walnut Grove.
- The Ingalls family don't move from Walnut Grove to Burr Oak, but Laura and Almanzo move to De Smet, Dakota after marrying, and Mary and John move to Philadelphia when John is offered a job as teacher at the local University.
- Spared by the Adaptation: John Jr. isn't killed in Chicago here, having left from there after graduating to marry Mary. The epilogue shows that he's alive as of 1951, having even outlived Mary.
- Alice Garvey doesn't die in the school fire, neither does Mary's son with John Jr.
- What If?: ...John Jr. never stopped loving May and they eventually got married?
