A/N: I thought I'd try something different. While Lights That Lead Us There Are Blinding is a lighter version of Roads, it still has a lot of angst sprinkled in. This one is going to have some angst, but it's pretty minimal. I hope you enjoy reading this!

Before mxpw used his crazy wizard powers and helped make this chapter readable, it was a pretty big mess. So he's going to need some praising, I think. Everything that reads well is due to his crazy wizard powers, so thanks for that!

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck. NBC does. But if I did own Chuck, Shaw would still be a little sapling in a lush evergreen forest.

Boulder, CO
June 2009

It was quiet here. He liked that about this place. For the most part, people seemed to mind their own. Occasionally, people would come up to him and ask if he was Chuck Bartowski. When he would halfheartedly reply, "Yes," the person would bombard him with questions about what happened with him and Jill.

It would have been easier for him to get over Jill had that documentary not been released.

A year ago, one of his college friends released a documentary entitled Legends Are Average. It had all started as a joke back in 1998 when Chuck began to write his own code for a new operating system. His buddy, an aspiring film maker named Bryan Wilco, had asked him if he could film his progress. It was never meant to be serious, or at least that's what Chuck had thought. The documentary was supposed to be nothing but practice for Bryan, and his software was supposed to nothing more than something he would spend his free time working on.

Little did either of them know that what had started as a joke would make them rich and famous.

The operating system, called LEOS (it used to be called Mad Panda before it started getting recognition), was finished in 2001, and was published right before Chuck graduated in 2002. Within a year, his software had garnered rave reviews, and instead of selling the program to a larger company, which everyone had speculated he'd do, he had created his own. Thanks to Bryce's knowledge of the market, and Chuck's knowledge of everything computer, they began to distribute the software, and had even hired engineers to build other products. By 2008, nearly everyone had a Legend Enterprise produced product in their home.

It could have been an interesting story. Perhaps a little boring (it was, after all, about software development), but still an intriguing look into an oft ignored world. Unfortunately, his friend's documentary had been less about how a young genius had changed the electronics industry in the span of a few short years, and became more a documentary about his personal life.

For eight years, Bryan had followed him. Chuck had become so used to having cameras around him for sixty percent of his day that he no longer paid them any attention. There were many moments, private moments, that the cameras had captured.

When Bryan asked if he could show the finished documentary at a festival, Chuck had trusted his friend. He was sure that Bryan would not include the humiliating moments of his life, because they were friends. So without a viewing beforehand, Chuck had said yes, and signed an agreement.

There were 400 people present at the premiere, thanks to Chuck's public recognition as the youngest software prodigy in the world. He remembered feeling bad, thinking that people might fall asleep. His expectation for the film was that it was just going to be a running commentary on his progress, showing mostly him at his old desk at Stanford, writing the program. But he was wrong.

Eight years of his life was compressed to two hours and seventeen minutes. Over an hour and half of the film was devoted to Chuck's personal life; moments he wasn't particularly proud of, and made him seem like a huge jerk. But the footage of him and Jill Roberts was what hurt him the most.

He couldn't imagine how Jill felt when she saw the documentary. She was portrayed as the villain while he was the victim. Although she had hurt him in more ways than he could count, he knew that she had been treated unfairly in the film. It was their story that was at the center of it, and the audience didn't get the happy ending that they were expecting. Because of the open-ended conclusion, Chuck was constantly being bombarded with questions from people he'd never met.

That was why he had stepped down as CEO, handing the position to Bryce, while he remained the majority shareholder. He could no longer deal with helming an emerging Fortune 500 giant, and could no longer handle living in Los Angeles for that matter either. Despite all he had done for the city, despite all the money he had pumped into the local economy, all anybody seemed to care about was the same damn question: "Why did Jill just leave you like that? I mean, you're Chuck Bartowski!"

In short, he couldn't deal with the constant questions, the focus and obsession with his one failure despite all his successes, the way nobody seemed to care about who he really was and only who they thought he was. Coming to the conclusion that what he needed was a fresh start, he had moved to Boulder, Colorado. It was supposedly one of the happiest places to live in the United States, after all.

With the decision to make a fresh start firm in his mind, he had also concluded that he was going to need some new hobbies, even though he knew that he would soon go back to playing video games.

All of which explained why Chuck currently found himself standing inside of a large sporting goods store (a place the old Chuck probably would have never even considered stepping inside of) at the Flat Irons Mall looking at bicycles. Remembering the size of the hills and mountains surrounding Boulder, he couldn't help pondering whether he should really take up mountain biking or try something safer, like Frisbee golf.

"Excuse me?" The soft voice belonged to a woman, and he tensed in a way that he never thought he could at the sound of a female voice asking for his attention.

He turned, readying himself for a hail of, "Oh my God, why did Jill say no to you?" questions. Or maybe it could have just been an employee offering to help him. It wasn't his fault that he was so paranoid, after all.

But he wasn't prepared to see her.

The woman he turned to wasn't some overzealous, overly fake baked, bleached blonde haired groupie. Instead, he turned to see a naturally tanned and naturally blonde woman around his age. Her eyes were greenish-blue, and her smile was timid, but it was more apologetic than anything else. And she was, there was no other way of putting it, extremely beautiful to the point where he had to clench his jaw to keep it from dropping.

"I'm really sorry to bother you, but, um, do you mind me asking, uh, how tall are you?"

Chuck tilted his head. Well, that was a new one, he thought. Thanks to the Internet fangirls, his statistics were posted all over his fan pages as well as Wikipedia. How they had gotten that information, and his weight, was beyond him. In fact, he tried not to think about it too much for it caused him to have nightmares.

"I…uh, I'm about six foot three?" he replied, not sure why he had to make it sound like a question.

The woman nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I thought that." She pursed her lips together for a quick moment. "Random question, but do you fly fish?"

That was really random, and he couldn't help but think that if that was a pickup line, it was certainly the most random one he had ever received. "No."

Her face fell. "Oh. Uh, can you do me a huge favor?" She gestured over to the fishing and hunting section of the store. "My brother-in-law is a pretty avid fisher, and he's about your height."

"Okay?"

"I was wondering, if you don't mind, could you…oh, gosh, this is so awkward." She let out a shy chuckle. "Could you maybe try on a couple of waders? I found a few that I know he would like, but I just don't know his size."

Chuck couldn't help but smile. She didn't know who he was and he felt a wave of relief. "Sure, I guess I could do that."

"Thank you so much!" She grinned widely. He let her lead them over to the fishing and hunting section when she turned. "Really, I appreciate it…" she broke off, waiting for him to tell her his name.

"Chuck." She bit her bottom lip, obviously trying to contain a laugh. "Yeah, my parents gave me the great honor of naming me one of those names that sounds like it either belongs to an old man, Charles, or making me sound like I'm a little kid, Chuck or Charlie."

She laughed. "I was just thinking, who still names their kids Chuck?"

"Obviously, my parents were sadists."

"Obviously." She held out her hand and he took it. "I'm Sarah."

"Sarah," he repeated with a smile.

She stopped in front of a large rack of waders. "Okay, I'm not going to embarrass you by making you try on the one I want to get him." She pulled a wader off the rack and held it in front of Chuck. "I just want to see which size would fit him, and I'll go from there."

"Which one do you want to get him?"

"Um," she said, pausing for a moment. There was a hint of a blush on her cheeks. "That one." She pointed to a red wader with beer logos all over it. It was quite, well, it wasn't something that he would have worn if he fly fished. Maybe that could be one of the hobbies he'd try out, fly fishing.

"Yikes. Is your brother-in-law an alcoholic?" he asked.

Again, she laughed, and he felt pleased with himself for some reason. "Actually, he doesn't drink. He just likes to collect things with beer labels for some reason. It's a weird hobby, I know."

"Hey, some people like to collect stamps, other people like to collect beer logos. Who are we to judge?"

"A valid point," she said, gently shaking a wader. "I think this one should fit you."

He took the wader, pulled off his shoes, and tried not to tip over as he put himself into it.

"I really appreciate this," she said.

"It's not a problem." When he finished, Sarah grinned at him, and he felt his face warming.

"Does it fit?"

"Um, I think so, but I don't know anything about these or fly fishing." He lifted a leg in front of him and shrugged.

"I don't either." She frowned, studying him. "I think that size will fit him just fine."

"You think?"

"Well, he's a bit wider than you."

"Oh, how much wider? Because, depending on his, uh, girth, I think you might want to go with something a little bigger."

"His girth is fairly substantial. That's what she said," she blurted. Chuck grinned in amusement while Sarah quickly put her hand to her mouth and blushed. "I really didn't mean to say that. It just slipped out."

"Rumor has it that she said that one too," he said.

Sarah laughed. "It's good to know someone else shares my enthusiasm for double entendre jokes."

"It's a dirty world we live in."

"Indeed it is." She stared at him for a moment as they fell into a comfortable lull. "You could take that off. The wader."

"Oh, right." He unhooked the straps over his shoulders, slightly embarrassed.

As he hung the wader back on the rack, they were smiling at each other. An unfamiliar feeling crept up on his spine and down his throat. It wasn't fear, but it was interest; actual interest in someone who was not Jill, and obviously, attraction.

Sarah smiled warmly. "Thanks again. I don't know if you noticed, but there were quite a few people staring at you. I don't know why, though. I mean, you didn't look that silly."

He knew why they were staring, but he shrugged. He just wanted to enjoy being around someone that had no idea who he was. It was such a relief and a luxury. She looked down at her feet for just a second, giving him the impression that she wasn't quite ready to leave yet. He didn't want her to, either. It had been so long since he'd even met another woman, especially someone like Sarah. In less than five minutes, she had gone from being someone who was worth a double take to someone who made him laugh easily to someone who he truly wanted to get to know.

She looked up. "You just moved into town, didn't you?"

"How would you know that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because I've been stalking you." She must have seen the look on his face because she laughed. "Just kidding! No, it's just that everyone that moves to Boulder thinks it's a good idea to mountain bike, and I noticed that you were looking at mountain bikes earlier, and… I do sound like a stalker, now, don't I?"

Chuck laughed. "Just a little bit, but not enough to scare me away." She turned just the slightest shade of pink, and before he could make things anymore awkward for her, he nodded. "But yeah, I moved into town about a week ago. I figured I should look for some new hobbies, you know?"

"Yeah, new town, new hobbies," she said, nodding. "It must be nice."

"Maybe. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to fall back on video games after I break my legs from trying to pedal up a mountain."

She laughed, and again, her eyes scanned him. "I don't know. You've got a pretty athletic build. You know what? If you've never biked before, there's a pretty easy trail right at the base of the Flat Irons. If you decide that you want a bike, you should check it out."

He nodded.

"Yeah, just head up west on Baseline for about twenty miles and you're there."

"Thanks. I might try that. It might be nice to actually explore a bit. I'm sort of getting tired of jogging around the trails at Mapleton Park, which isn't saying much, considering it's pretty much right across the street from my place."

She had a thoughtful look on her face. "Crazy."

"Yeah, I've been called that a lot of times."

"No, I wasn't calling you crazy," she said with a laugh and placing her hand on his elbow in a reassuring way. When she removed her hand, his elbow was still warm. "I live like seven or eight blocks away from Mapleton Park. Who knows? Maybe we'll run into each other one day. I love those trails."

He had to admit, that prospect wasn't unappealing.

Her phone rang. With a flustered look, she dug through her purse, pulled it out, and looked at him apologetically. "I need to take this. It's my sister."

"Okay, um. It was really great meeting you, Sarah."

She grinned. "Likewise, Chuck. We're practically neighbors, so maybe I'll see you around?"

The unfamiliar, yet pleasant, feeling crept up on him again. He nodded with a grin, while Sarah winked in acknowledgement. Waving awkwardly as she put her phone to her ear, he strode away, not noticing the extra bounce in his step.

"Yeah, Emily, can you hold on one sec?" he heard Sarah asking before she called, "Chuck?" Turning quickly, too anxiously, he knew, he saw her grinning at him. "If you decide that you want a bike, I'd go with a Kona."

"I'll remember that," he said. "Thanks!"

July 2009

A month had gone by since she'd last seen Chuck, and she would frequently wonder about him from time to time. When she had first met him, he had looked so familiar, as though she had seen him before. She just couldn't place her finger on it.

She took a sip of her coffee and continued reading through a stack of persuasive papers, smiling at the carefully written cursive of her students. So immersed was she in reading about what her kids thought was a better pet, a cat or a dog, she didn't notice when Chuck walked in.

She only looked up when the barista called his name. "I've got a tall drip for Chuck?"

She smiled to herself. For some reason, it was a relief to her that he hadn't ordered one of those overly complicated, fattening drinks like a double espresso with soy and four pumps of vanilla and a pump of mocha. Although she didn't really know him, she also liked that his order fit him. It was a simple order, and he was tall.

Chuck smiled at the barista, and stirred in some cream at the counter. He looked better than she remembered, in his dark blue baseball cap, and light stubble covering his face. His jeans were a bit faded, most likely his most comfortable pair. He was wearing a plain, grey shirt, and his black pair of Chuck Taylors also showed signs of wear. He didn't appear to be a slob, though, just comfortable in his weekend outfit.

She was tempted to call after him, but what was she going to say? "Hi, I'm Sarah. We met at the Sports Authority by the Flat Irons Mall?" No, she was just going to wait and see if he would notice her. If not, maybe she'd run after him, but she seriously doubted that.

He walked by her, giving her a neutral, polite smile. He stopped and cocked his head to the side. "Sarah?"

"Chuck," she said, realizing too late that she didn't seem surprised to see him. God, after that stalker joke she had made, Chuck was going to think she really was a stalker. She wondered if he knew that she had been watching him, waiting to see if he would remember her.

"Hey!" He stepped up closer to the table. "I figured we would run into each other eventually."

"The odds were in our favor," she said, trying to play it cool by shrugging.

"Well, it's great to see you!"

"You too. So have you settled into your new place?"

"Yeah, just about," he replied. "How'd that wader work out for your brother-in-law?"

"He loved it." It was pleasing to know that he remembered.

"That's good." He glanced at the stack of papers with a frown. "Oh, I'm sorry. Are you busy?"

She waved a hand. "No, I'm just grading some papers. Sit."

"You're sure?"

She nodded, and set aside the stack of papers as he sat down and placed his phone on the table.

"So you're a teacher."

"That is correct."

"What do you teach?"

"Kids, mostly."

He rolled his eyes as he chuckled. There was something different about the way he smiled today. It was more clear, relaxed. The first time they had met, well, his smile was like the sun hidden behind a haze. It was there, but it wasn't as bright and warm.

"Third grade."

"Mrs. Irwin was my third grade teacher. She was always my favorite." He sipped his coffee.

Sarah had once dated a guy who couldn't remember the names of any of his teachers, and it used to bother her, the idea that she could one day be so forgettable to her students. So when Chuck was able to remember his teacher with ease, well, it gave her hope.

"So what are the kids learning these days?" he asked. "Nuclear fusion? Telepathy?"

Sarah giggled. "Not quite. It's still the standard cursive and multiplication tables, I'm afraid. For practice, I had the kids try to persuade me which pet is better, a dog or a cat."

"A dog, duh."

"My sentiments exactly." She held up a paper. "But Arlene says that cats are better because they can scratch your mosquito bites with their sandpapery tongues."

"Ooh, one point for the cat column."

"Yeah, but Malcolm says that dogs are better because you can feed them your vegetables and blame your farts on them."

"Whoa! Clearly we have a winner." One of Chuck's legs accidentally brushed against hers. He pulled away quickly, looking embarrassed. "Oh, here's a question. Why are you grading papers in the middle of July?"

"Summer school," she replied, tearing off a piece of Danish. "Kids like Arlene and Malcolm need a little practice before fourth grade, so…"

"Ah."

They sat in a comfortable silence, sipping from their cups. She would sneak glances at him. Boy, he was cute.

"You know," he began, smiling at her, "I wish that I had gotten your number at the sports store."

"Really?" She hoped that she didn't sound too excited upon hearing that.

He nodded. "I could use someone to give me the scoop on all the restaurants around here. I'm pretty picky about Chinese food, for example."

This time, she tried not to look too disappointed. "What? That's cheating!"

"How is that cheating?" he asked with a chuckle.

"I had to endure many months of terrible Chinese food when I moved here. Just telling you what's good would be like giving you my homework to copy."

"Typical teacher," he teased, shaking his head. "I mean, you let a girl put you in a wader, and you think she would give you a leg up."

She scowled playfully at him.

"Okay, how about I invite you out for dinner sometime?" he asked, and she felt heat rising in her chest. "Let's say…Chinese?"

"Wow, you're pretty slick, aren't you?" she asked with a smile. "You know that I'll pick a good restaurant because I'll be eating."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, grinning.

She had to admit, Chuck was pretty smooth. He had managed to ask her out without putting himself on the line. But at least he'd asked her out, so that was something.

Unable to keep the grin off her face, she reached for his phone, ready to program her number in. Unfortunately for her, she was not tech savvy, and couldn't even figure out how to unlock the touch screen. She looked at him in defeat and sighed. "I wanted to match your slickness and program my number into your phone, and walk away, saying 'I'm free on Wednesday.' But that's not happening."

The warmth of his smile reached her chest. "There's a button on the top left corner. Push it, and a bar will show up on the screen, and you just slide your finger across."

She did so, but she still didn't know where to go from there. "Now what?"

"Blue icon with the phone on it," he said. "Then you're going to push on the icon with the grids. All you need to do after that is type in your number."

"You want to make a run for it, don't you?" she asked, grinning up from the phone.

He shook his head. "Not really, no. It's amusing watching you struggle with my phone."

"There's a 'That's what she said' joke in there somewhere," she said.

"If I said, 'It's amusing watching you struggle with my device,' then yeah."

She laughed. "You're too funny. Oh, crap. The screen died."

He rolled his eyes. "All you need to do is unlock the phone, and the last screen should come up. This technology has existed for a couple of years, you know."

"Do not insult me because I choose to stay away from these things, sir! I'm just afraid of the inevitable Robot Apocalypse, is all." She began to type in her number. "Plus, a phone is a phone, man. I don't know why it needs to be all fancied up with this touch screen, MP3, GPS, 1-2-3 stuff, anyway. You know what my phone can do?"

He laughed. "What?"

"It makes and receives calls. Sometimes, when I'm feeling really crazy, I'll send a text message."

"Whoa! Rebel without a cause over here!"

"That's right." She finally programmed her number. Sliding the phone back to Chuck, she gathered the stack of papers, grabbed her purse, and her empty cup. "There you go. I'm free on Wednesday."

He chuckled. "Then I'll call you on Tuesday."

"I'll be looking forward to it."

And she really was.

A/N: You may be wondering, "If Chuck's famous, then how come Sarah doesn't know about him?" That question and others that I'm sure you have will be answered in upcoming chapters. And no, there will be no spy stuff. I apologize if that's your cup of tea. However, I can promise that this will be filled with ooey gooey fluffiness!

Thank you for reading! And if you choose to review, SUPER THANKS for that!

Since I'm feeling giving today, here's an excerpt from the next chapter of Lights!

On the ground was Sarah, her hands clutching at her face. Yards away was a stray soccer ball, rolling down the field. Without acknowledging Jill, Chuck ran down the bleachers, toward Sarah. Apart from a few scraped knees and elbows, Chuck had never seen her injured before. It scared him to see her on the ground, clutching her face—oh, God, she was bleeding!

He stopped, about a yard away from Sarah, to take a moment to compose himself. The sight of blood always made him woozy; even when it was in the movies. Taking a couple, hurried breaths, he kneeled down next her.

"Sarah? Are you okay?"

"Her mouth is the Sarlacc," she mumbled weakly. "Watch out!"

Chuck raised an eyebrow as Sarah stirred. In all the years he'd known her, he always thought that she was only pretending to pay attention to Star Wars, but he was wrong. She paid enough attention to know what a Sarlacc was.

Slowly bringing her hands up in front of her face, she made a disgusted face. "Is this my blood?"

"Yeah."

"Why does my face hurt?"

"You got hit in the face with a soccer ball."

"Oh. Was I knocked out?"

"That only happens in movies," he replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Maybe."

"Where did the blood come from?"

"Your nose." Chuck looked around him to try to find something to clean the blood off her with. When he couldn't find anything, he pulled off his Mario sweatband from his wrist, and gently wiped the blood off Sarah's face. Some of the girls from Sarah's team sighed longingly, "Aww!"