Disclaimer: Sonny With a Chance belongs to Disney.

Author's Note: Yeah, I'm late again. Work has been really crazy and has carried over into my personal time. I know it's been done, but I decided to work an earthquake into this story.

The Earth Moves

The taping went extremely well. Sonny was feeling very good about herself, and that translated to an impressive performance. The crowd felt her energy and reflected it back, allowing the rest of the cast to share in her excellent mood. Marshall was almost beside himself with elation when they left the set.

"That was possibly the best So Random episode ever!" he enthused. "Keep this up, and I smell an Emmy!"

"What would an Emmy smell like?" asked Tawni, wrinkling her nose. Everyone ignored her as they went to change into their regular clothing.

"You're not missing Pizza Night again, are you?" Grady demanded of Sonny when they gathered in the Prop House to celebrate their success.

"Of course not!" she answered enthusiastically. She really wished that she'd remembered the night of her first date with Chad was Pizza Night. If she'd requested a different night, they might have avoided a lot of trouble. "This is definitely a night worth celebrating. Order me the usual."

"Wait – where are you going?" said Nico suspiciously.

"Off to see her boyfriend, of course," Zora responded carelessly, flopping onto the couch. "Not that much of a mystery."

"You should invite him," said Tawni suddenly. After a brief pause, during which all eyes turned toward her, the other four occupants of the room said "What?" in succession. Sitting down and checking the color on her nails, the blonde shrugged.

"Invite him to Pizza Night," she clarified. "Why not? If we're going to have to get used to him hanging around, we might as well start now."

"Well, okay then," said Sonny, deciding to leave before there were any further objections. There was a definite spring in her step as she tracked down Chad, eventually finding him at the Commissary.

"Hey there," she greeted him. "Hope you're hungry."

"Hey, Sonny. Why?"

"It's Pizza Night."

"Tscha, I know that. How did taping go?"

"It was fabulous!" she enthused. "And I'm inviting you!"

"Inviting me to what?"

"Pizza Night!"

"Yeah, can you believe it? Tawni suggested I invite you."

"That is amazing," Chad conceded. "But you know I—"

"You eat what we eat," Sonny interrupted decisively. "No special orders. Half an hour, in the Prop House." With that, she turned on her high heel and left, casting a glance and smile over her shoulder to soften the words.


Much to Chad's surprise, Pizza Night wasn't too bad. He didn't talk much, preferring to listen and get a handle on the group dynamic. He'd never paid much attention to the Randoms (well, maybe one Random in particular over the past year), and it seemed prudent to know what he was getting into here. As much as Chad Dylan Cooper liked to talk about himself and have the focus of any audience upon him, he'd always made a point of coming into any new situation with his eyes and ears open. Whenever he'd walked onto a new set since he was about 8 years old, he'd paid attention to how the cast and crew related to each other. He'd learned early on that knowing things like the pecking order, personal differences, and romantic entanglements could help him to avoid trouble and forward his career.

Unlike a lot of other self-absorbed stars, Chad was always careful to treat the crew well. He was acutely aware that they were the ones he had to rely on to make him look good. The last thing he would ever do was offend his make-up artist, hair stylist, or costume designer, and it paid to stay on the good sides of the lighting, sound, and camera technicians as well. He was not only unfailingly polite to these people, he went out of his way to do extra favors when he could and slipped them tips now and then.

Thus it was that Chad sat on a barstool in the Prop House, surreptitiously picking pepperoni off of his pizza as he listened to the conversation swirling around him. As long as he didn't watch Zora or Grady eat, he found the experience tolerable, and he was able to gather a lot of potentially useful information.

Sonny, being the incredibly nice person she was (sometimes too nice, in Chad's opinion), volunteered to stay behind and clean up. Chad decided to stay and help her, not wanting to leave her alone. He was sure she'd done this sort of thing many times before, but he appeared to have no control over the protectiveness he felt for her. The only thing he could do was try not to be too obvious about it.

When they were done, he offered to drive her home, again while realizing that she was perfectly capable of taking public transportation and had done so many times in the past year.

"Oh, that's not necessary," she tried to decline. "You've done enough already, and you live in the totally opposite direction."

"It's no trouble," he insisted. "In fact, I'd really like to extend our evening together, even if it's just to drive you home."

She looked like she was about to voice another objection when the room began to shake. Chad immediately recognized the onset of an earthquake. Sonny turned to him with panic in her eyes, and he knew instantly that he'd have to take charge of the situation.

"The doorway!" he exclaimed, taking his girlfriend by the elbow and practically pulling her in the proper direction. Fortunately, they'd been on their way out, so they were only a couple of steps away from the door. Gently but firmly, Chad pushed Sonny into a sitting position in the doorframe and interlocked her hands above her head. He then took a mirroring position opposite her. It was a little bit cramped because his legs were longer than hers, but that was okay. They were together and in the safest place possible.

The pair sat there in silence while things fell off the walls (including, Chad noted with some satisfaction, the framed picture of him vomiting water onto Sonny – maybe he could manage to make that disappear permanently) and furniture shifted. The power flickered and went out, eliciting a tiny shriek from Sonny, but the studio had a generator, so it was only a few seconds before the emergency lighting came on.

When the shaking stopped, Sonny began to move, but Chad reached over and prevented her.

"There's usually aftershocks," he said by way of explanation. She nodded and bent her head down again. No sooner had she done so than another series of shock waves rocked the studio. To keep his mind occupied, Chad rehearsed his lines for next week's episode.

They held their positions until the aftershocks were just small tremors. Chad carefully unfolded himself, stood up, and reached a hand down to Sonny.

"Is it over?" she squeaked, looking fearfully up at him.

"Yeah, it's over," he assured her, pulling her to her feet. She moved almost immediately toward him, putting her arms around him. He responded instinctively, folding her into an embrace and holding her close. The ground had stopped shaking, but she was continuing to tremble. He found himself oddly divided about that. On the one hand, he felt awful that she was so scared. On the other hand, it was very nice to have her so close, to feel that she relied on him for something.

"It's okay. You're fine," he murmured into her hair. Gradually, she calmed, her breathing returning to normal. She pulled back a little and heaved a deep sigh.

"Well, I'm glad those don't happen very often," she remarked, now looking a little sheepish about her fright. In Chad's opinion, it was nothing to be ashamed of. Earthquakes were really scary things, especially if you'd never been through one before.

"Mom!" Sonny exclaimed before he could come up with something reassuring to say. "I've got to call my mom and make sure she's okay." She slid out of Chad's grasp, and he reluctantly let her go. While she dug out her phone, he called his parents as well. He was pretty sure they were fine, but Sonny had a way of reminding him of things like familial responsibility.

When she was assured that her mother had made it through the earthquake all right, Sonny then had to call her cast, so Chad decided to clean up the Prop House. His first target was the worst photograph ever taken of him. He knew he couldn't just abscond with it now, at least not without Sonny's approval.

Narrowing his eyes, Chad looked speculatively at his girlfriend. He gingerly picked up the frame and saw that the glass was broken – not enough to leave sharp pieces all over, but enough to distort the picture and make it almost acceptable to look at. Maybe, he thought, this would give him an adequate excuse to throw the darn thing away, and he thought it was just possible that Sonny would support him in that. Setting the distasteful object aside for now, he moved to the mini-fridge, out of which several bottles and cans had tipped. Replacing them was the work of a few moments, and he moved on to adjusting wall decorations and righting props that had fallen over.

Finally, Sonny finished her check-up phone calls and helped with the reorganization. Their dressing rooms were probably disasters as well, but neither of them felt much like tackling that project at this point. However, Chad did decide it was time to broach the subject that had been on his mind since the cleanup started. He picked up the framed photo and showed her the damage.

"Would it break your heart if this just sort of disappeared in the aftermath of the earthquake?" he asked plaintively, giving her his most pleading look. A slow smile spread across her face, with a conspiratorial edge to it.

"Not at all," she answered emphatically. "Did you have something special in mind?"

"I was thinking it had a date with a fireplace."

"Ooh, cozy," Sonny said, and there was something in her voice and expression that gave Chad pause. He'd never thought about it that way.

"Would you like to help me burn it?" he offered, suddenly really liking the idea of curling up beside her in front of a fire and watching the sad reminder of their botched first date go up in flames. In Southern California, fireplaces tended to be mostly decorative, but he happened to have one at his home that he thought would do the job.

"Absolutely," she confirmed.

"Great!" Chad responded, strangely happy that he wouldn't have to take care of this solemn duty alone. "But we'll have to set a date soon. I can't stand to have it around for long."

"This weekend's good for me."

"Good. Now, let's get you home before anything else happens."

"Good idea." With that, they were on their way at last.


Author's Note: From what we've seen of Chad's eating habits, I reached the conclusion that he must be a picky eater and careful about his diet. Therefore, I couldn't imagine him willingly eating processed meats.

Review responses:

Sweetheart446: No, that wasn't it, although it might seem like it because of the month that elapsed between updates. I think I will wrap this up in the next chapter.

WolfLover314: I'm glad you liked my idea of having Mr. Munroe in the picture somewhere, and if you are still reading this, thank you for your patience!

Chloeand McKenzie: I think you're right about Sonny's relationship with her mom. Glad you enjoyed the kiss and aftermath. I hope you're still with me.