FEAR NOT, MY FRIENDS!

I know that it looks like I've deleted all the chapters, BUT I HAVEN'T, CROSS MY HEART!

I've tucked the other chapters away until they can be used. This is the prologue, afterall; you can't have the prologue rearing its head in the middle of the whole story!

Also,

SORRY I'M SO LATE!

He was born on a rainy evening, after the sun had set but there was still light filtering through the windows of the waiting room.

Dr. Richard Laurence Parker paced the length of the room; it had been over half an hour, and still there had been no word. C-sections only took 15 minutes or so, he knew. He'd looked it up. They should have called him in already.

Richard turned on his heel, heading towards the help desk once more, only to find no one manning the desk. Huffing, Richard walked around to look for someone who might tell him what was going on.

This was how Norman Osborn, Richard's employer and close friend, found his best, most successful scientist: pulling his hair out and stalking the floors of the hospital's maternity ward.

The billionaire chuckled to himself; his own son was born only a month earlier and he and his wife were living happily, but he remembered this part- the waiting.

"Richard, slow down, hey," Osborn caught the other man by the arm, pulling him to a halt. He took in his friend's tense expression, "What's the matter? Did something go wrong with the surgery? Is Mary alright?"

Richard shook his head, still looking around frantically before turning to his friend, "I don't know. I can't find the damn nurse, and Mary was supposed to be out of surgery a quarter hour ago. I'm freaking out here, Norman."

Norman frowned, taking his old college mate by the shoulders, "Calm down, Richard. I'll make a call and see what's going on, alright? It's nothing, I promise you. Doctors can be so fickle sometimes," Norman smirked at his friend, the doctor, "running unnecessary tests and carelessly forgetting to notify their superiors."

Richard smiled faintly at Norman's attempt to tease him out of his mood, but he was still worried out of his mind.

"Hold on a moment," Norman smiled, "and I'll get us some real help. Look," he nodded down the hall, "there's a nurse headed our way. We can ask her."

Unbeknownst to either men, this was one of the nurses present during the c-section, and she had a rather grave expression on her otherwise pretty face. She quietly asked Richard to follow her to the postpartum room where his wife and… son were.

Dr. Parker knew something was amiss, gauging from the young nurse's hesitant phrasing and demeanor. Something had gone wrong. Mary was bleeding to death. Their son had a birth defect. Mary was bleeding to death, AND their son had a birth defect. The man's mind ran in circles until they reached the room, and he saw his beautiful wife, dozing softly with a small crib-like cart sitting close to her bedside, a chair set out for, assumedly, him to sit in.

The nurse asked Richard to wait while she went to go get the doctor.

Richard, a little confused as to just what was going on, ignored his worries to take a peek at his son, likely sleeping soundly in the 'warmer' crib-thing.

Richard smiled, peeking in, ready to pick up his son. He heard a cry of newborn anguish, and his smile widened- until he saw what lay inside the crib.

A… thing… writhed among the soft pastel blankets, strikingly intense against the light blues and chalky reds.

Richard's face churned with horror. His baby- their baby- was green.

I know what you're thinking, and... you may or may not be correct.

I HAVE THE NEXT CHAPTER DONE, but I'm going to wait until the third chapter is finished before I publish it. ALSO, I'll try to put pots and pans of the original chapters back in, because this is all one story, I'm just remodeling it.

BIG THANKS to my best Fanfic girl, Just Watch Me Fly, for helping me out with this and for the awesome support! Be sure to check out her stories, The Thing About Destiny, and its one-shot series, Destiny Works in Mysterious Ways. One of my absolute favorites!