Author's Note: I claim responsibility for the art of the twins. Lilith's name comes from the flour sack baby episode wherein Sam names her theoretical daughter that; Alan's name is a shoutout to a horror ARG. I will try to stay as medically accurate as possible during this fanfic, but given the concept of Danny's existence defies medical science, I may not always get everything right.

This chapter is more prologue than anything else. Future chapters will be longer. Fanfic updates on Fridays from here on out (sooner if I write a chapter). As always, feedback, comments, criticisms, and questions are appreciated.

Gingerly, Maddie opened the door to her grandchildren's bedroom.

The twins slept better when they were together, usually, and this morning was no exception. They were quietly breathing in and out in sync, small bodies curled up together as if huddled for warmth. Checking the thermostat, Maddie frowned and flicked the temperature up, a wave of guilt rolling over her. She'd have to separate them, again, which they hated, and then at least one of them would be awake and huffing at her. But that wasn't the real cause of the guilt that made her stomach twist into knots as she walked over to the crib and carefully picked her grandson up. His grip on his sister's hair took a second to undue before she could get him in her arms properly, carefully slipping out of the bedroom to get him into cooler air.

Radiation from the Ghost Portal had done a number on them both. Lilith needed heat, craved it, would latch onto anyone to stop the shivers that ran through her body. Alan, however, was always running hot, only truly at ease when given cool baths or allowed outside in the crisp spring mornings. He'd let Lilith cling to him until inevitably he woke up crying, uncomfortable in ways he didn't yet have words to verbalize. The twins were hard to look after in that way, constantly keeping their parents awake at all hours, so it was with a heavy heart that Sam and Danny had let Maddie talk them into letting her and Jack take care of the children at night.

Of course, body heat was the least of the twins' problems. There were blackout curtains on their windows for a reason; as Maddie made her way to the living room and sat down with Alan in her arms, he squinted at the morning light on his eyelids. His skin caught the light, a pale white reminiscent of many a ghost in Amity Park, and when his eyes opened, they were a ghastly purple not much darker in hue. He blinked sleepily up at her, making a grabby hand for her hair. Smiling sadly down at him, she tilted her head forward so he could tug at it. Alan was always grabbing something, it seemed. Unlike his sister, his grip was fairly strong. She swallowed back a lump in her throat.

There was no rationalizing this away to herself, especially not in the early hours of the morning. The Ghost Portal's ectoplasmic radiation had done this to both of them, and that was on her. She'd designed it more than Jack had, had pushed for continued attempts at repairs when the project failed, had never thought to keep Danny away from it, had let Sam be near it-

"No," Alan muttered, because that and 'Lil' were his only words at the moment. She pursed her lips as he thwacked his hand against her cheek, squirming. "Mmm." He gestured with his head to the window, wanting to go outside, into the cold that soother him.

She wondered what he would have looked like if she hadn't exposed Danny to the Ghost Portal. If he were unaffected by it, would he have had his mother's eyes? It seemed most likely. Unlike Lilith, whose hair was white and perpetually tangled, his was black; he reminded her of Jack in his own baby pictures, which was a painful thought sometimes. God, he was so small, and Lilith was smaller, both of them growing so slowly it sometimes seemed they would never catch up to other kids their age. How big would he have been if she hadn't insisted on having a lab in her house all those years ago? Would he and Lilith be able to sleep regular hours, in regular heat, like normal twins?

Maddie forced a smile for Alan, for whatever it counted for. The twins' vision tests weren't promising. A lack of pigmentation in their eyes meant they were struggling to see already, but were still far too young for glasses. Still, she tried to make herself look and sound happy around them. Jack did the same, a bit more successfully. They were trying their best, she told herself as she walked over to open the window, balancing Alan in one arm to do so. Instantly, he grinned as the cool air hit him, one hand grabbing for the windowsill. The other clutched her shoulder for balance, and she stared at the long, pale fingers. He and Lilith had long hands like Maddie and her father before her. On any other baby it would have been cute.

Something in her ached just looking at him sometimes. Sometimes she wasn't sure if she was really the best person to look after them. When she saw Lilith make kicky feet in her sleep just like Danny always did, she cried the first time, unable to take it. They shouldn't have turned out like this and it was her fault and the worst part, the absolutely unbearable one, was that Danny never blamed her for it. He never glared at her or got short-tempered with her or said a word about the Ghost Portal. She had destroyed his children's health and he still hugged her every time he dropped them off, thanked her for being an awesome grandmother. She wanted to scream that she wasn't, she was terrible, this was all on her, but the words wouldn't come. How was she supposed to apologize for this? She watched Alan shut his eyes against the light and felt a void inside her, a dark pit where tears should have welled up. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't. She'd cried herself out so much when the twins were born that there was nothing left.

In the other room, Lilith cried out, awake and annoyed her twin wasn't with her. What she lacked in size, she made up for in volume. Within seconds, Maddie heard Jack roll off the bed in their room and the thud of his feet hitting the floor. He was out in a flash, robe on and hair tousled. In an equally brief flash, he was out of the bedroom with Lilith in his arms, looking around.

"Where's Al?" he asked reflexively, before spotting the baby boy in Maddie's arms. "Oh. Right. Good catch, sweetie."

Alan tugged at the windowsill, trying to get closer to the cold. Lilith buried her head in Jack's neck, making happy babbling sounds interspersed with the word 'yeah', her own first word. It was also her favorite word, which she used for everything she liked in life. Rubbing her tiny face into the fabric of Jack's robe, she looked like a swath of snow against him, all bleached-out lack of color and uncanny fragility in the arms of her grandfather. Jack grinned at his wife, rubbing his granddaughter's back, but there was an exhaustion behind it, tiredness in his eyes that was hard to conceal. New wrinkles had appeared at his temples and his eyes, along with a permanent worry wrinkle in his forehead. No matter how hard he tried to pretend everything was fine, Lilith's eyes squinting hard at his face made even him falter. Her digestive system was more resilient than her brother's, but her eyes were farther gone from the get-go, a pale green like a piece of sun-bleached pastel paint.

"Boop," she said, poking Jack's nose. She dissolved into giggles immediately. "Yeah, yeah, boop!"

He forced a chuckle. Maddie pulled Alan away from the window as the phone rang, handing the squirming eleven-month old boy to his grandfather. Immediately, he seized Jack's hair in one hand and Lilith's in the other, looking incredibly pleased with himself. Lilith poked his nose, giggling, and no matter how much Maddie's heart broke looking at them, it was good to know they had each other. Too young to realize anything was wrong with themselves or each other, they began poking at each other while Jack gently moderated, rolling his eyes fondly. They got along pretty well so far, he thought, though it might've been due to being too little to argue just yet beyond yelling 'yeah' and 'no' at each other.

Snorting as they began yelling their favorite words at each other, he gently set them on the floor. Lilith flopped down dramatically and got louder, as always, while Alan grabbed her shirt collar. He wanted all the clothes for himself, Jack had discovered, which often translated to holding onto fabric and mumbling 'no' repeatedly like he was trying to claim it for his own. Laughing at their usual antics, he missed his wife going very still after she answered the phone and only looked up when she slammed the receiver down, shaking slightly.

"What is it?" he asked, tone as level as possible to keep from upsetting the twins.

She took one deep, stabilizing breath, then another. "It was the Mansons. They're suing us for child endangerment and revoking our partial custody rights unless… unless we can prove we weren't the cause of their health problems."