Between Sanity and Madness

Between Sanity and Madness is a Family Guy fanfiction by The Super Blackwing. It's an episode adaption of one of his episodes written for the Family Guy Fanon Wiki with the same name, "Between Sanity and Madness". The fanfic and episode are both about Francis and Thelma, Peter Griffin's parents, coming to live with Peter when the duo both lose their house due to a bad gambling game and drive Peter off the edge. The fanfic is set in the Family Guy Fanon timeline and follows their events and differences of events from the original.
==Characters Present==
*Peter Griffin
*Francis Griffin
*Thelma Griffin
*Lois Griffin
*Chris Griffin
*Meg Griffin
*Brian Griffin
*Stewie Griffin
*Devil Peter
*Angel Peter
*Devil Francis
*Angel Francis
*The Pope
*Herbert the Pervert
*Jesse
*Glenn Quagmire
*Cleveland Brown
*Joe Swanson
*Bonnie Swanson
*Kevin Swanson
*Tom Tucker
*Connie D'amico
*Horace
*Death
*Neil Goldman
*Mr. Weed
*Johnson
*Sarah Bennett
*Father Bob
* Doug
*Scott
*Vern and Johnny
*Principal Sloan
*Mayor Adam West
*Mr. Berler
*Karen Griffin (Mentioned)
*Josiah Griffin (Alternative Ending)
==Plot==
As Peter clocks out from his job at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory, Peter is told by Mr. Weed that someone left him a voicemail on his message box. When he goes to answer it, it's revealed to be his parents, Francis and Thelma. Who tell Peter they're coming to the house for a surprise visit. Peter, not wanting them to come back seeing how his father made him and his whole family's life a nightmare, rushes home and hurries the family into the car. Unfortunately, while rushing, they accidentally left Stewie home and begrudgingly have to return home and face Francis and Thelma (not that it mattered since Peter left the door unlocked anyways).
Peter tries to immediately get why they've come, and Francis tells Peter he quit his job as the Pope’s special assistant and did some soul searching with Thelma and decided to make amends with Peter. In reality, Francis got fired due to being a nuisance and went with Thelma to gamble in Las Vegas until they lost their money and went to Peter to blackmail him into giving him more money, considering he’d did so in the past. But Peter sees through their crap and tells them he’s not giving them money and fed up with the fact they do this often, he decides to just drive them home-until Thelma reveals that their home is gone as she gambled away their loan to their house in an attempt to win a casino game and asks that they can move into their house for a while. Despite the family - baring Stewie - not wanting anything to do with Peter's parents, Peter still lets them stay mostly out of still wanting affection from his parents (mostly Francis) and slight emotional manipulation.
While Peter holds hope to them, clearly still wanting approval from his parents, it's clear neither are going to make their stay easier on the Griffin family the same way Francis did. And it's also clear Peter's reattempts of bonding are still being brushed off. After a few days, Peter goes to hang with his friends at Cleveland's Deli to escape, due to Francis stalking Peter at the Drunken Clam and getting in a fistfight with the bar owner, and vents about how much he can't stand his parents and how with the two of them being at his house instead of just one, he might lose his sanity faster and might snap worse. Cleveland, decides to give Peter advice at direct him to a retirement home where he can put them called Quahog Acres, as he put his father there years back and hasn't heard back from them. Peter accepts the advice and signs them up to be put in a retirement home by Friday, much to Francis and Thelma’s disgust. Wanting to avoid going, the duo decides to find ways to make their lives a living hell enough for Peter to change his mind. From stealing his bank details to buy a statue of Jesus and dragging the family into community service out of their objections, to nailing a sign saying "Home of the Dumbass" and assaulting the family for laughs.
Amazingly, Peter still maintains to keep his cool, saying that they're misunderstood and if they give them a chance, they might be willing to open up to them. Lois, knowing the denial, tells Peter she knows he's breaking inside and just let it out on them and tell them how he really feels. Peter declines-just as Francis and Thelma drop their car with him and Lois inside into a lake and lie to the kids that they were put in eternal vacation to become their parents and steal their kids. And when Peter and Lois arrive home to this, Peter loses it and snaps on Francis and Thelma, laying into them with all of the anger he held up during the visit and announces that instead of putting them into a retirement home, he's flat out kicking them out of his house and breaks off being their son. And a few days later, Peter has grown to be colder to his family, which Lois can’t believe Peter’s preposterous behavior until Brian explains that Peter has transferred his anger with his parents unto the family. Meaning that a lot of Peter's loving personality was fueled by his love for his parents, and since he doesn't love them anymore, he lost the love personality. And the family admits that even though they love not having them, they'd rather have Peter happy. So the family looks for Francis and Thelma and find them on the streets homeless. While the two try to hide their predicament, it's clear to them they can't make it out, due to lack of money and failure to keep a job on Francis' end and go to try to make up with Peter. But any attempts are ignored with Peter not bothering to listen to them as he burns their pictures and declares that he'll never love them again.
A despondent Francis and Thelma decide to end it all by jumping off the Holy Christ Church roof. Peter manages to see their announcement before death and saves them from death by breaking his fall. When Francis is surprised that Peter bothered to save them despite what he said. To which Peter tells him that just because he doesn’t like them as much anymore, it doesn’t mean he wants them to kill themselves. Touched by Peter, Francis apologizes and asks for a chance to become a true father to him. Peter forgives him and the two reconcile a new relationship together and work out an agreement where Francis and Thelma go to the retirement home and can come visit anytime - after Peter gleefully torments them with constant exercise as payback.
During the credits, Francis' father shows up at the door, similar to the way Thelma did in "Holy Crap", and wishes to live with the family, prompting them to jump into the car, similar to the beginning of the episode and drive off.
==Trivia from the Creator==
* Production of the fanfic began as far back as October of 2022, but took long due to Writer's Block on multiple weeks on end, and large rewritting of the story.
Category:Family Guy
Category:Fanfiction
Category:Redemption
Category:Complete
Category:Alternate Universe
Category:Alternate Timeline
Category:Comedy-Drama
Category:Drama
Category:Comedy
Category:FanFiction
Category:Fanfictions