Friday Five: Fan Fiction – One Shots

This week’s Friday Five comes to us from atcDave, Chuck fanfiction guru and all around nice guy. You can usually find him hanging out at Chuck This Blog. 

One Shots are single chapter short stories.  This is a perfect way to get started on reading fan fiction, and there are many excellent one shots to choose from in this fandom.  For me, choosing only five is a pretty big challenge, but I feel that way about every one of the categories I’ll be presenting here in the weeks ahead.  So without further ado, here are five of my favorite short stories.

1. Sarah vs The Second First Date by Course Jester.  This is set at some undefined point early in Season Two.  Chuck is distracted and run down, and Sarah sets out to cheer him up.  This leads to a good look at the complexities and threats in Chuck’s life.  No doubt this would have led to a very different show afterwards; but it starts very close to canon and seems like a plausible way to head off in a slightly different direction.
2. 2. Sarah’s Tale by ne71. At a gathering of Chuck’s whole extended friends and family, Sarah finds herself getting annoyed at how little respect Chuck gets from those who ought to believe in him.  So she sets out to tell a story of his bravery and sacrifice.  But Sarah isn’t a great story teller and the good parts are classified.  It’s a very amusing short story.
3. Chuck vs The Funeral of Sarah Walker by Mystlynx.  This sounds brutally depressing because it is–at first.  The story is set about two years after Chuck’s handler and cover girl friend was reassigned.  Be patient, things take a very interesting twist towards the end.  Of all the one shots I’ve read, this one may be most in need of a second chapter; because I’m certain that someday Ellie will figure things out.
4. Life In Disguise by Vanillashiz.  This is a very simple sort of “what if?”  So what if Chuck had run off with Sarah in Prague?  This is a story of Hector and Melissa Calderon.  A fun idea that careens off very differently from canon!
5. Sarah’s Mom vs Sarah’s Family by MyNameIsJeffNImLost.  This is a missing scene from Chuck vs The Baby. It starts with Sarah’s mom arriving at Casa Bartowski, and not knowing any of the strange characters she’s confronted with. Even though Emma thinks she knows what Sarah does for a living, she’s unprepared for how much things have changed in five years.