Author's Note: Here's Chapter 2! Hope you enjoy. If you liked it, please leave a review. If you didn't like it, please leave a review. If you had any thoughts at all, please leave a review. :)

Zoey POV

I angrily shoved my phone back into my pocket after a fifth attempt at making a call ended in a message from a robotic female voice followed by silence. My nearest cell towers must have taken some damage from the earthquake, because I always had service all over the city. And since I often used my personal cell phone for business purposes at the boutique, it was important that I had service there as well.

Of all days for a major earthquake to hit LA, that was not a good day for me. I arrived at the boutique early that morning because we were so close to finishing the new collection and I was getting anxious to be done. Before any of my staff were able to join me for the day, I heard a far off rumbling and people yelling in the street. Then I felt it. I snatched up my phone from the table beside my sewing machine and ran to the safest place in the building to wait it out.

A few minutes later, it got quiet for a moment and the dust started to settle. I looked around me and searched for signs of damage and destruction. The back room that I was in seemed to be fine, but it was basically just storage, so I began making my way out to the front of the store. A few mannequins had fallen over and a couple mirrors fell off their shelves, but for the most part, everything else seemed to be safe from damages.

I could hear the voices of some of the neighboring store owners outside, so I walked out to meet them. There weren't that many shops in the area, but there were more than a few of us, so when something like this happens, we have a lot to talk about. After discussing what had just happened, I realized we were all pretty lucky. Most of the buildings appeared to have minimal damage. Some of the building facades had a crack or two, which would be a major repair, but they were all still standing and we hadn't found any building occupants who had been injured. There may have been further damage that I couldn't see, but just looking around, I would have said we all got pretty lucky with the state of our buildings.

We all went our separate ways after that to make various phone calls, to loved ones or to insurance companies. I began trying to call my parents and Dustin, as well as my staff and some of my PCA friends. None of the calls would go through, so I tried from the landline inside the boutique.

"Hey, Mom. It's me," I began when I got her voicemail. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm fine. You've probably seen the news about the earthquake and I don't want you to worry. I was here at the shop when it happened and I was alone, but I'm okay. The shop doesn't seem to have much damage, so I'm going to walk back to my apartment and see how things are over there. I don't have cell service right now so it may be hard to get in touch with me for a little while. Please relay the message to Dad and tell him that I love him. I love you too! I'll try to call again in a day or two. Love y'all. Bye!"

I hit the end button quickly and dialed Dustin's number from memory. He answered on the second ring and sounded very anxious.

"Zoey?! Is that you?!"

"Yes, Dustin," I sighed out. "It's me. I'm fine. Don't freak out."

"Easy for you to say! You're not watching the news from the East coast while almost everyone you care about the most is on the West coast after a major earthquake," he said quickly. "Have you called Mom and Dad?"

"I just called Mom, but had to leave a voicemail, so I asked her to let Dad know. If you talk to him first, you can tell him."

"Ok. As long as they know you're alright. You know how they are."

"You say that like you're not acting exactly the same way right now," I laughed for the first time that day.

"Hey! I was worried about my big sister, that's all!"

"I know. But I'm okay. You can stop pacing and take a breath." I smiled to myself when I heard what sounded like Dustin suddenly running into his desk.

"Ok, ok. I'm calm. I guess I better let you go. I'm sure there's some cleaning up to do and probably more phone calls to make."

"Yeah, I gotta call my staff and make sure they're not worrying about coming to work. And I have to go check on my apartment too. But I'll try to call you in the next couple days. It's been too long since we've had a good, long catch up call."

I could hear the smile in Dustin's voice. "Sounds like a plan! Be careful out there and keep me updated if you can. Love you, Zo!"

"I love you, too, Dustin! Bye."

Being so far away from my baby brother still hasn't gotten any easier, even though he's been studying at MIT for years, but we do our best to talk as often as we can. I've learned not to mother him as much as I used to, but every now and then, the tables turn and he gets to worry about me.

After my call to Dustin, I quickly called my staff and made sure they all knew that the shop was okay, but that they didn't need to worry about work for a couple days at least. When I got off the phone with the last of them, I turned off the lights in the shop and locked the front door, before making my way to my apartment.

I didn't live that far from the shop, about three quarters of a mile, so I almost always walked to work. Despite the shock of the earthquake, it was still a beautiful day. The sun was out, but it wasn't sweltering, and not a cloud in sight. One of the things I loved most about California was how infrequently it rained. Not at all like Louisiana.

The walk took me less than 15 minutes, but it gave me some time to look around at what the earthquake had done. Most buildings looked like they had sustained very little damage. The traffic lights were all out, so intersections were a bit hectic. I was not the only person out walking around, as many people were traveling between buildings to check on neighbors. But based on the snippets of conversations I was catching as I passed by, this area had been lucky in that there was little damage, unlike the majority of the rest of the city. I picked up my pace to get home quicker and start checking on my friends.

When I opened the door to my apartment, I found a similar scene to what had been at my boutique. The lights came on when I flipped the switch by the door, so I still had electricity, but I noticed my bookcase had tipped over, which meant there were several books on the floor, surrounded by the shattered glass of my picture frames. Thankfully, I didn't really keep many "knick knacks" around the apartment and most of my photos were in albums, so the only glass was from the three frames on the bookcase. Those frames contained photos of our group of six at our PCA graduation, Michael and Lisa's wedding, and in the hospital for the birth of Logan and Quinn's first child.

I picked the frames up and let the shards of glass hit the floor as I walked through the rest of my apartment. I would have to buy new frames, but I was okay with that. These were some of my favorite photos ever taken, which is why they got to live on my bookcase, rather than in an album somewhere. These were photos I wanted to look at often, because it made me happy to see how happy we all were on those amazing, special occasions, and we were always so happy to be together.

Walking past my guest bathroom, I flipped the light switch and stuck my head in to assess the damage quickly. The only thing out of place in the small bathroom was the box of tissues that had fallen off the countertop, so I turned the light off without picking it up and continued to my bedroom down the hall.

Upon entering my bedroom, I noticed my current bedtime read on the floor beside the bed and my hairbrush and a few other items that had fallen off my dresser. Fortunately, my dresser hadn't met the same fate as my bookcase. My closet doors had been shaken open to reveal the mess I had thrown in there the night before because I was just too tired to deal with it properly after work. Setting the now-glassless frames down on the table when I bent down to pick up my book, I noticed something I hadn't yet seen.

An old PCA coffee mug that I never used myself, but I recognized quite well was laying on it's side just under the side of the bed where I slept. The handle was now missing, so I figured it had fallen off the table on the other side of the bed during the earthquake and rolled to my side after the handle broke off in the fall. I hadn't thought about that mug in months, even though it sat on that table untouched long after its owner last used it. I tried not to think about the owner of said mug, but the truth was, I thought about him constantly, if I didn't keep myself busy.

He was easier to avoid thinking about when I was wrapped up in my designs at my boutique. That day, however, he had been on my mind almost constantly since the rumbling stopped. I just hadn't let myself dwell on that long enough yet.

After checking on the rest of the apartment, it was time to start making more phone calls. One of the good things about having a PearPhone is that, even if the cell towers are out, you can still make calls and such over WiFi, and judging by the dings I kept hearing from my pocket, my WiFi was still working just fine.

The first call on my list was to Quinn and Logan, who were still in Seattle. Quinn picked up the PearChat call almost immediately.

"Zoey!" She practically shouted when she saw me. Thankfully the baby wasn't trying to sleep in the background. "We've been calling everyone we could think of, but you were the only one who hadn't answered yet! Are you okay?"

"Sorry, Quinn. I'm fine." I spun around so she could see some of the apartment around me. "Got a little bit of a mess, but not too much damage. My boutique is about the same. This area got really lucky."

"That's good. It's good to see that you're safe. We've been worried all day."

"Have you talked to any of the others?" I asked, concern coloring my voice.

"I called Lisa this morning so she could PearChat with the baby. She and Michael are in Georgia with the kids to see his family, so they're safe. I got a text from Lola last night, but haven't actually talked to her today." Quinn seemed to hesitate a moment. "And I haven't heard from Chase," she finished.

"Oh. Ok." That didn't mean that something had happened to him. Just that Quinn hadn't talked to him. He's probably fine. "Ok. Well I guess I'll try to get in touch with Lola next and go from there. I just wanted to make sure that the Reese family was okay. It's good to see your face, Quinn."

"You too, Zoey. We'll make plans when we all get back to LA. You need a night away from your boutique, and we miss you!" She smiled a sort of sad smile. I could hear it in her voice, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Sounds great! Tell Logan I said hi, and give the baby a kiss from Aunt Zo. Talk again soon, okay?" I was getting anxious to move on to my next call, even though I really did miss Quinn.

"I'll hold you to that! Love you, Zoey! Bye!"

"Love you, too," I said quickly, before the call ended.

I tried to call Lola right away, but it went to voicemail after a few rings. Before I could think of what to say, my phone made a sound indicating that I had received a text. It was from Lola.

"About to go into an audition, then heading back to set to get ready for a night shoot. Still in New York for a week or so. Are you safe?!"

Typical, dramatic Lola. But I loved her for it. So I typed out a reply quickly.

"I'm safe. Minimal damage to apartment and boutique. Not much cell service. Just wanted you to know I was okay, and find out if you were. Break a leg, and we'll talk later! Love you!"

Almost immediately, she responded with a thumbs up and a kissy face. I just chuckled a little as I put my phone back into my pocket. Turning back to the mess in my apartment, I decided to see if I could catch the news while I picked up a little. So I grabbed the remote from where it had fallen to the floor and switched the channel to the news.

After watching and listening for a few minutes while I righted my bookcase and began gathering books off the floor, I was beginning to feel very unsettled. The amount of destruction across the city and the surrounding areas was staggering. This wasn't the first earthquake I had experienced since moving to California, but it was certainly the most catastrophic. When the news reporter mentioned how many dead had been found, and how many people were still unaccounted for, possibly trapped in collapsed buildings, I suddenly felt like I couldn't catch my breath.

Before I even realized what I was doing, I had snatched up my keys from the kitchen counter and run out the door. I just needed to get out of my apartment. I needed to get away from the news. I could have just turned the tv off, but it didn't feel like enough. I needed air and some time not trapped inside the confines of my four walls.

Walking around the neighborhood for a little while, I lost all sense of time. I didn't even know what time it had been when I left my apartment. Once or twice, I thought I felt my phone begin to vibrate in my pocket, but when I pulled it out to check, there was only a black screen. Eventually, my mind brought me back to the one person I still had no news of, and I couldn't shake the feeling of dread that had come over me. I finally caved and decided to try calling him, only to be reminded that I didn't have any service without WiFi. As I put my phone back into my pocket, resigned to the fact that I couldn't get in touch with Chase or anyone else for the moment, I looked around to see that my feet had already started taking me to his apartment building.

I paused on the sidewalk, trying to decide if I should continue on the familiar path, or turn around to go home and put the thought from my mind. I hadn't seen those green eyes and that wild head of hair in more than six months, but I had this horrible pit in my stomach that refused to ease up. Not that it made that big of a difference, but I had to know. So, decision made, I picked my head up and resumed walking towards the familiar apartment I hadn't seen in more than half a year.

Soon, I was walking through a neighborhood I had been in and around many, many times before. I even saw a couple of faces I recognized. Reaching the steps of the building, one of those faces I recognized was leaving the building and let me in before the door closed. I gave her a quick smile as thanks and started for the stairs. Chase's apartment was on the fifth floor and the building didn't have an elevator.

When I got to the top of the stairs, I still had to cross the entire hall, as Chase's apartment was the last one on the right. My heart started beating so fast, I thought it would beat right out of my chest. I was having trouble breathing as I raised my knuckles to knock on the door. I waited a minute or two and knocked again. Still no answer. I knocked a third time, and called his name. After a fourth knock and another unanswered shout, I turned around, feeling desperate. That was when I saw Chase's neighbor poking his head out of his own apartment.

"If you're looking for the kid with the bushy hair, I haven't seen him since this morning before the earthquake."

After nonchalantly dropping that bit of information, he disappeared back into his apartment. He hadn't seen Chase since before the earthquake?! This building fared about as well as mine did, so there wasn't really any reason Chase shouldn't be home.

Where was he? Where had he been while the earthquake rumbled through the city? Was he okay?! Or was he hurt somewhere?!