A.N. I love this book, really, I do. I could do oh so much FF for it too, but I have no idea how many people will read them, so this will be a test run, I suppose.
Crazy as it seems, I like Isabel. Sure, she was a bitch, but she was a nice bitch. And she noticed how much Grace and Sam loved each other (although, who didn't notice it?) Sooooo, I have a written a fic about the time that Isabel found Sam in the shed. What was she thinking? Why did she care if Sam turned into a wolf or not?
Disclaimer: I just don't care enough to own Shiver. (ha ha, get it? Care...)
Care
She shouldn't care as much as she did. All those insults she made, all those threats, she meant them. She didn't have to look for him. She could care less if he turned into a wolf, she could care less if he died in that shed, she could care less. He didn't mean shiznitts to her.
But he meant the world to Grace.
So she ran outside, thinking about how she shouldn't be doing this, shouldn't be looking for Sam, the Wolf-boy, and how she should be helping her brother, Jack, the Jackass.
She heard Grace's distress as she begged someone to call Sam. She sounded so sad, it made Isabel run faster. No one should sound that sad.
Every time she opened one of those doors, she would be praying to find Sam, and yet not at the same time. If she found him, would he be a wolf? Would he really tear her face off? Maybe it isn't worth it to look for Sam...
But Grace's voice was still in her ear, asking, panicking, fearing. And it made Isabel forget about her pain and concentrate on making Grace's go away.
It was so frustrating. Grace, would you just shut the hell up? I got this, I'll tell you when I find him, just stop asking me every freakin five seconds! Ugh!
She didn't really care that her shoes were getting ruined. She just wanted to be mad a Grace for making her do this.
For making her care so much for something that she didn't want to care about at all.
And then she found him. It was putrid and disgusting, a moment she never wanted to relive, but she was going to anyways.
Because she cared.
She couldn't describe how happy she was when she found Sam in human form. Not just out of relief for her face, but for Grace, too.
But it was too cold out. She could see him start to change, see the black claws.
See the coarse fur. She could see it all.
"Don't you dare do this to her," she growled at him, because if he turned into a wolf right then, right when Grace needed him most, Isabel would never forgive him.
Never forgive herself.
It would mean that she didn't find him fast enough, didn't try hard enough.
Didn't care enough.
But Isabel cared.
She cared, and she hated how much she did.