A/N: I'm baaack! And this time I'm a college student! I may not find much time to write, so please bear with me. And if you start to notice that I include a lot of details about Disneyworld, that may be because I had just got back when I started writing this :) Excited to write again for you guys!
Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck. Or Disney. If I did, do you think I would be in college right now?
They got to the large warehouse-looking building housing the roller coaster, and looked at the screen showing the wait time: 60 minutes. It was already 8:00, so that meant that if they waited in the line for the ride, they would miss the nightly fireworks.
"Do you want to do this now? I mean, the wait will probably go down after the fireworks. That's when all the families with small children usually leave, so it'll be less crowded. At least, that's what the guide says." Chuck asked.
"C'mon, you want to watch the fireworks, so let's go do that. We can ride later. Let's go." Sarah said. She took her husband by the hand and led him back towards Main Street. As they were on their way, a voice came over the loudspeakers:
"The family memories made here will live on in the pictures taken today. Walt Disney World is proud to present The Magic, The Memories, And You!"
Sarah looked up and saw Cinderella Castle bathed in light. She saw vines crawling up the side of it.
"Look, Chuck, the castle!" Sarah said, pointing. Chuck looked up as well and saw the castle practically shape shift before his eyes as Disney worked their magic. Projectors positioned just right all throughout the park projected pictures right up onto the castle. It became a canvas for all sorts of videos and pictures, and it was transformed into all sort of different things in a spectacular sort of light show. Chuck and Sarah stood there mesmerized by it. Chuck, during the course of the show, looked over at Sarah, who was looking up at the castle with wide eyes. He had never seen this side of her before. She was in total awe, and ever since they got to Disney, she had been acting more like a normal girl, and perhaps even more like a kid than ever. Chuck understood. She had never had a real childhood, and now that they were here, she was beginning to realize what she missed out on. It made sense that she would want to try to live it to the fullest while she was here. It was only natural, and she deserved it. They stood there until the spectacle was over, and then proceeded to the Main Street area to get spots for the fireworks. A while later, the loudspeaker announced again:
"Walt Disney World is proud to present our nightly fireworks spectactular, Wishes."
Music started playing, and the whole crowd (several hundred strong) turned their eyes to the sky above the Cinderella Castle. A woman's voice was heard above the music:
"When stars are born, they possess a gift or two, one of them this: they have the power to make dreams come true."
And a single firework shot over the castle in an arc, an homage to the image that shows before every Disney movie. Then the words to the music started, with a little girl singing:
Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Grant the wish I wish tonight,
Make a wish and do as dreamers do,
And all your wishes will come true.
By the time the first verse was over, the fireworks were in full swing. The crowd, including our favorite couple, oohed and ahhed as a woman, dressed as Tinkerbell, with light all over her dress, wig, and magic wand, flew on a wire over Main Street. The music continued underneath the fireworks, switching to the well-known Disney anthem:
When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who your are,
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you
And near the middle, voices of Disney characters were heard making their wishes: "I wish I could go to the ball!" "I wish I could be part of that world!" "I wish I were a real boy!" "I wish I never had to grow up! Off to Neverland!" and the fireworks continued. It was another marvelous sight, and Chuck again looked over at Sarah and wondered at the wonder in her eyes. She was exactly like a kid who was seeing it for the first time. Chuck thought it was funny, you could tell exactly which people in the crowd were Disney first-timers. It was always the people whose necks were bent at pretty much a straight 90-degree angle, watching the skies. The people that had been here before, and who were usually accompanying at least one first-timer, were looking at them, hoping they liked it. Chuck hadn't been here since his mom left him and his sister as children, but he still fancied himself an expert. He never let on that he was experiencing all these new things just the same as Sarah was. Not much changed at Disney World in the past 20-odd years since he had been there last, but seeing it all with Sarah was magic in itself.
Sarah herself was feeling a very odd mix of emotions. Love for Chuck for showing her this awesome place, anger at her father for not being a good enough dad to think about taking her to a place like this, and complete and total awe of her surroundings. As a spy, she had been all over the world, including a short stint in Orlando, actually, but she never experienced anything like this. As a grown-up woman, and a spy, she always thought of things like fireworks and theme parks as either beneath her, or for children only. But now that she was a captive audience to the magic, she couldn't tear her eyes away. When she first saw the castle, she wanted to cry. She had heard of it, and seen it on TV when there was nothing else to watch except those sometimes cheesy travel guides. But seeing it in person was something no one could be prepared for. And then seeing all this; the lightshow, the fireworks, and the children around her in total awe…it was almost too much. But it was a good too much.
"Thanks, Chuck." She said.
"We have plenty of time to ride Space Mountain anyway. This was more important, right?"
"No, no, I'm not thanking you for being willing to skip Space Mountain! I want to thank you for taking me here. I know that you know that I didn't have much of a real childhood. Most of it was spending a day in a town with my dad, conning it, and then moving on to the next one before people could figure out what we were doing. I begged him and begged him to let me come here, but we never did. He didn't have time to deal with a kid. He didn't really think of me as his daughter, he preferred me as a partner. I guess I want to thank you for giving me a little bit of my childhood back." Sarah told Chuck. Chuck looked at her, then took hold of Sarah's hand and gripped it tight. They both tilted their heads back and watched the rest of the fireworks light the night sky.
