Daisy – Innocence; romance; beauty

There are so many things Chuck remembers about the day he first met Sarah. It was the day he started his 26th lap around the sun. It was the day he had his first flash, even though he didn't know what it meant. It was day he saw a real live ninja spy for the first time (okay, so that was also Sarah, but he didn't know that at the time).

But when he looks back on the day his life left normal, what sticks out the most is a little ballerina whose father forgot to load a tape in his camcorder.

--

Chuck looked back and forth between the crushed expression on the little girl's face and the amazingly beautiful woman who watched him with questioning eyes.

It is the easiest decision he has ever had to make.

"Morgan," he announced, "I need the wall."

Chuck felt Sarah's eyes on him as he led the man and his daughter over to the entertainment area and called Anna over.

"Okay, so here's the plan, Mr…"

"Gardner. Mark Gardner. And this is Daisy."

"Hi Daisy. I'm Chuck." Daisy gave Chuck a shy wave. "Mr. Gardner, Morgan here is going to help hook up your video camera to these TV screens. Daisy, do you remember the name of song you danced to?"

Daisy nodded. Chuck smiled and gestured to Anna's approaching form. "Good, you are going to go with my friend Anna to find a copy of the song. Meanwhile, your dad and I are going to clear these chairs out of the way so you can dance here and we can tape it for real this time."

Anna took Daisy's hand and led the smiling ballerina to the music section.

"Thank you SO much for doing this. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it," Mr. Gardner said as he pushed one of the chairs to the edge of the carpet.

"It's not a problem, Mr. Gardner. All part of the Buy More service."

"Yeah, but this is above and beyond." He glanced to the side and smiled. "Although I suppose an added bonus to helping me out is that you get to impress that girl over there."

Chuck turned in the direction he was gesturing to see that Sarah was still lingering at the Nerd Herd desk, casting a curious look in their direction.

"Oh," Chuck stammered. "Well-"

"Hey Chuckles," Anna interrupted. "we're all set."

"Great. Lester, if you could get ready with the music and Anna, if you could man the camera."

Chuck led Daisy out in front of the video wall and positioned her in the center of the entertainment area. "You ready?" he asked.

Daisy looked nervously at Chuck. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm usually in the back row."

"Why?"

"I'm too tall. I block the other ballerinas."

"Can I tell you a secret? But you can't tell the other girls."

Daisy nodded.

"Real ballerinas? Are tall."

Daisy smiled and nodded her head. Then she took a deep breath, adjusted her pink tutu, and fixed a determined look on her face.

Chuck stepped back and nodded to Lester to hit play. As the little girl performed her heart out, Chuck snuck a look at Sarah's smiling face. Perhaps Mr. Gardner was right, he thought to himself.

When Daisy finished, Chuck clapped in applause with a proud grin on his face. "Thank you," she mouthed. Chuck just nodded in return and turned back to talk to Sarah.

--

Before Sarah, the most he had ever played the part of the hero was to save a father and daughter from a lecture on how to load a video camera. He had never landed a helicopter, defused a bomb, or tangoed with a terrorist. Ex-best friends had never risen from the dead, and no one had ever kissed him, thoroughly and passionately, in a life and death situation.

But the thing that changed the most about life before Sarah was that he used to never question what he saw with his own eyes.

Customers who came into the Buy More weren't secret agents sent to protect or exterminate him. Delivery people didn't turn out to be Chinese rogue spies. A ballerina was just a ballerina, and he was just a regular guy trying to do the decent thing and impress a girl at the same time.

He wonders sometimes, if Daisy were to meet Chuck now, if he would help her without a second thought the way he did before. Daisy was the last person he met without the lens of paranoia and hesitation that is now fused over his mind, and for that reason, she has left an indelible mark in Chuck's memory.