Home, Bittersweet Home

Piper was cleaning up in the kitchen after dinner, stacking dishes in the sink, when she saw it.

"It's here!  They've come for us!" she shouted. The yellow capsule was over the sink as Piper dashed into the living room and grabbed the Book of Shadows she had prepared on the coffee table.

"My pictures!" Prue shouted as she ran up the stairs to her room to get them, a second yellow capsule following her.

"Stuart!" Phoebe shouted from the living room. "Stuart!  They're here. Hurry down!"

The yellow capsule had followed Piper from the kitchen and as she held The Book of Shadows tightly to her chest it surrounded her in it's yellow light.

A third capsule went after Phoebe. She ducked and ran away from it.

"NO!!" she cried. "Not without Stuart."  She ran towards the kitchen then doubled back to the stairs as it chased her.

Stuart was running down the stairs as the capsule caught Phoebe on her left shoulder. The yellow light quickly spread over her body but she stuck out her right hand as far away from the light as she could.

"Stuart!!"

He stuck his hand out to Phoebe. She grabbed it and held it as tightly as she could. The light went down her right arm to her wrist and stopped. They could both feel it trying to go around Phoebe's hand but she held on with every bit of strength she had. Finally the light went onto Phoebe's wrist and continued over Stuart's body.

All they could see now was the yellow light around them but they were both being shaken. Stuart could feel their grip slipping until it was finally broken.

Piper found herself in bed, The Book of Shadows still clenched in her arms. It felt like her bed. The room was dark and she got up and tentatively felt for the light switch, then turned it on. It was her bedroom. Holly was home.

Shannen got up from the bed, turned on the lights and walked into her living room. "I'm back," she said to herself flatly. "It's over."

"Stuart?  Stuart!"  Alyssa shouted, fear gripping her. She turned on the lights and ran all through her house. "Stuart!" she called, as she ran outside looking for him.

Alyssa slowly walked back into the house and sat down on a chair.

"No...no," she kept saying, sobbing gently.

Stuart, lying on the ground, looked up at the clouds covering the moon, making the night seem even darker. What happened? he thought. Where's Phoebe?  He got to his feet and looked around. He was standing on the side of a road. He didn't have any idea where he was.

"Phoebe!" he shouted. "Alyssa!"  Stuart walked back and forth shouting her name, not knowing where to go, where to look for her. She's not here, he decided after five minutes. I'm out in the middle of nowhere by myself.

He turned to his right and started walking down the road, not knowing in which direction he should be going. He walked for fifteen minutes without seeing so much as a single house. Maybe they're set back from the road, he thought, but he knew that in the darkness he would get lost even more if he tried looking for them.

Suddenly, he thought he heard a noise behind him. He turned and saw two small lights off in the distance. He watched them as they started getting bigger. Something's coming, he thought. Now, if he could only flag it down before it went by. He pulled out his handkerchief and started to wave it, hoping that it would get caught in the high beam's light.

It was close now and Stuart could hear the brakes being applied. They saw me, he thought, they're stopping.

The truck pulled to a halt about thirty feet in front of him. Slowly, he walked towards the cab, the engine still running. Two men were seated in it and Stuart could see them looking at him suspiciously.

"Hi," he said to the driver. "I'm lost. Uh, where am I?"

"A couple of miles south of Sisquoc," the driver replied.

"Sisquoc?" Stuart asked. He had no idea where that was.

"About seventy miles north of Santa Barbara," the driver added. "How'd you get out here?"

"I'm...not sure myself," Stuart said. "Uh...where are you headed?"

"Thousand Oaks."

I have to find Alyssa, Stuart thought. Thousand Oaks isn't that far from where she is
in the San Fernando Valley.

"Could I hitch a ride with you?" Stuart asked. "I have no way of getting back."  The driver turned to his companion. Stuart could see that he had no interest in picking up a stranger in the middle of the night.

"Look, I'll ride in the back," Stuart said. "You won't have to worry about me. Just please, don't leave me out here."

"We've been haulin' asphalt," the driver said. "It ain't too clean back there and it sure ain't comfortable."

"I don't care," Stuart said. "Whatever it is. I...just need to get to The Valley."

The driver looked back at his companion who shrugged and motioned with his head towards the trailer. The driver opened the door and jumped down from the cab. "Come on," he said. "Let you know when we get there."

 

Stuart was sure he felt every bump there was on the road. He tried to sleep but the constant jarring didn't let him. That he was locked in the pitch black trailer from the outside didn't help him relax, either.

Stuart felt the truck make a sharp turn and come to a stop. Soon the tailgate opened. The sudden sun light hurt his eyes. "It ain't exactly legal to have you ridin' in the back," the driver's companion told him, "so you got to get out here."  Stuart got up and the companion helped him down.

"Go back there to the road, then left for about two miles."

"Thanks a lot," Stuart said. He took out his wallet to give him something and saw that he had only a few dollars in it.

"Don't bother," he said to Stuart. "You'll likely need whatever you got left."  He slammed down the tailgate, climbed back into the cab and the truck took off.

Tired and hungry, his clothes dirty from the asphalt, Stuart looked and felt like a mess. But all he could think about was finding Alyssa.

 

Shannen sat dejected, staring at the table in her trailer at Ray-Art Studios, her jaw resting in her left hand. Every once in a while she would futilely flick her right hand towards the can of soda in front of her. But the can didn't move.

I'm back where I wanted to be, she thought. I have my home, my friends, my career. She gave a sigh.

I miss it, she thought. I miss not being a Charmed witch.

There was a knock on the door and Holly walked in. She looked at Shannen and sat down opposite her.

"Me, too," Holly said glumly. "Withdrawal blues."  She was silent for a few seconds. "The Book of Shadows is empty. Every page has been erased."

"My pictures, too," Shannen said. "Every one is blank.”

"On Charmed, Piper would give up her powers if she could to be able to have a normal life," Holly said. "And when I was Piper...I felt the same way. At least, most of the time I did."  She paused. "Until we vanquished Argyris. And then...everything felt different.

"These past six weeks," she continued, "I changed...the world. I made a difference. I was never looking to change the world. But having done it, I felt something I never felt before."

"Useful?" Shannen asked.

"Useful...in making a real difference. A difference that really mattered," Holly said and sighed. "I'd never done that before. And this morning, I can't make that difference anymore. And..." she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Two weeks ago, I wouldn't haven't believed that I would say this.

"I miss it. I miss having my powers.  I miss being Piper Halliwell."

"Important," Shannen said. "Having the powers...felt important. No, I don't mean that I was important. But what I could do...what I was doing, was important.

"And it was making a difference," Shannen continued. "I never thought about making a difference - except in my life, in my career. But having the powers was important. Important that...that I had the responsibility and the ability to...to save people. And to make things...make people's lives, come out better.

"I felt things being Prue that I never felt - never even thought about - acting as Prue."  She paused and looked at Holly. "And I miss it, too."

"How do you think Alyssa feels?" Holly asked.

"Probably the same but I'm not sure," Shannen answered. "She's been very quiet all day. She's pretty upset about Stuart's disappearance."

 

"Alyssa," Derry, one of the production assistants called. "Do you have a few minutes-" He stopped when he saw the look on her face. "What happened? he asked.

"It's...uh...it's...nothing you can help with," she said. "But thanks." Derry shook his head.

"Do you have a couple of minutes?" he asked. "Brad's cousin and her family are here. Brad asked me to show them around and they want to meet you."

"Uh...sure," Alyssa said. Derry led her around the corner where a man, a woman and two small girls were standing. Alyssa stopped in her tracks and stared at them in disbelief.

"This is Alyssa Milano, the star of Charmed," Derry said. "Alyssa, this is Brad's cousin Lorna Palmer, her husband Neil and their daughters Nicole and...uh..."

"Marion," Lorna said.

"Marion...sorry," Derry said. "They're visiting from San Francisco."

From San Francisco, Alyssa thought. I knew Lorna in San Francisco. Three weeks ago, we saved the girls from that ghost in their house. And two weeks ago, the girls came over to The Manor. And I told them a pirate witch story.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Milano," Neil said.

"Uh...uh...it's, uh...Alyssa," she said, trying to recover from her shock.

"Nicole and Marion are great fans of yours," Neil said. "They watch Charmed every week. Even more, because they tape the shows and watch them again in between.

"Frankly, and forgive me for saying it, but they watch it too much," Neil continued. "It's made them think that witches and demons are around them everywhere. And it's let their imagination go too far. They told us that two weeks ago, while Lorna was in Portland and I was at work, a ghost tried to harm them right in our house."

"Daddy," Nicole said, "I told you, we were...just joking."

"You didn't sound like you were joking when you spoke about it," Neil said, "and neither did your sister."

And she didn't sound like she was joking now either, Alyssa thought.

"Lorna called Brad and asked if we could bring the girls to the studio," Neil continued, "so that they would see that's it's all make-believe. Brad said it was OK so here we are.

"Alyssa," Neil asked, "would you please speak to Nicole and Marion and explain to them that everything they see you do on Charmed is just you acting? That you're Alyssa Milano and that Phoebe doesn't really exist?"

"Uh...sure," Alyssa said. "Uh...Derry, why don't you show the Palmers around the rest of the studio. I'll talk to the girls privately."

"Thank you," Lorna said. "we really appreciate this." Derry led the Palmers towards another part of the soundstage and Alyssa kneeled down next to the girls so no one would hear them. She looked at Marion and then at Nicole, faces she had come to know very well in San Francisco.

Alyssa exhaled. She had to know. She had to know.

"Did this ghost have a name?" she asked them.

"I said...I was only...joking," Nicole said, defensively.

"No. This was not a joke," Alyssa said seriously, shaking her head slightly. "What was the ghost's name?  I won't tell your parents."

Silence.

"You watch Charmed," Alyssa said, "so you know that Phoebe wouldn't lie. You know I can be trusted."

There was silence for a few more seconds.

"Fiona," Marion slowly said.

Fiona, Alyssa thought. That was the name of the ghost in the Palmers' house.

"How were you saved?" Alyssa asked. Nicole looked at Marion who nodded to her.

"We can't remember," Nicole said. "It's all fuzzy...like in a dream."

The Elders altering minds to match the restored reality, Phoebe thought.

"But we know that a witch saved us," Marion said.

"A witch," Alyssa repeated. "Nicole, Marion, your parents love you very much. But they can't understand these things about witches and ghosts. So you can't tell them about it. I understand these things so you can tell me." Alyssa hesitated, then decided to chance it and took a deep breath. "And you can tell Harmony, too."

"Harmony is the one who told us that a witch saved us," Marion said.

Alyssa exhaled. Harmony is real, she thought. We were right. We weren't in some different, Charmed-fantasy world. Everything that we lived through was in the real world. A changed reality, yes; it was a Charmed modified world. But it was still the real world; just as we thought it was. Those demons who planned major destruction really existed - and had to be vanquished by real-life Charmed Ones - in the real world. This real world. The real world that I'm in now; with Brad and the studio and the show, all just as it was before - and with Marion and Nicole. Had we not succeeded as witches, the real world - the world we knew - would really have been destroyed.

"How do you know about Harmony?" Nicole asked, surprised. She looked at Phoebe for a few seconds,  seemingly confused.

"Ohh!" Nicole gasped, her hand going to her mouth. "I...I remember it...it was you! You're the witch who saved us."

"Shhh!" Alyssa said, placing her finger on her lips. The Elders' power to alter minds isn't so perfect after all, she thought. I’ve connected the Charmed-modified reality with the restored reality and beaten The Elders at their own game, despite their efforts to prevent it. And after everything The Elders had put the three actresses through, that gave Alyssa a lot of satisfaction.

"And Prue and Piper, too," Nicole said, in a lower voice but no less excited. "You were all there in our house. You are real witches. And you saved us from Fiona."

"You're right," Alyssa said, "we were there with you. But this has to be our secret. You can't tell anyone about us."

"Except Harmony?" Marion asked.

"Except Harmony," Alyssa agreed.

The small smile on Nicole's face combined with a look of relief and vindication.

"Don't worry," Nicole said. "Your secret, Phoebe, will always be safe with us."

Shannen was walking through one of the sound locks that connected the studios' sound stages, her mind's replaying of her life of the past two months increasing her sadness, when she passed Shawn Papazian, the studios' General Manager.

"Hey, welcome back," Shawn said . Shannen barely grunted a 'hello' in return.

"Hey, it's not so bad being back here. At least on the set you get to work your spells, again," he joked. "You couldn't do that during the break."

"But...I could," Shannen said, a faraway look in her eyes. "I did."

Shawn gave her a perplexed look as she continued on past him.

It was later that day when Alyssa was on the sound stage talking to Jennifer, one of the production crew.

"Good luck with the college course," Alyssa said. "I'm sure you'll do well.”

"Thanks," Jennifer said.

"And thanks again for caring to ask," Alyssa added. She's a nice person to ask what was wrong and wanting to help, Alyssa thought, as she clasped Jennifer's hand. But no one can help me with-

"Oh!!!"  Alyssa stood motionless for a few seconds.

"Are you OK?"  Jennifer asked.

"Uhh...uhh...excuse me," Alyssa replied and quickly walked away.

"Todd," she called to one of the assistants who was standing nearby. "Get Shannen and Holly. Hurry. Tell them it's urgent!"

Todd looked at Alyssa with a puzzled expression but went quickly to call them. In a minute they came running.

"What is it?" Shannen asked.

"I just had a premonition," Alyssa said.

"That's impossible," Shannen replied. "We're back in our real lives. We don't have our powers anymore."

"After almost two months of having my powers I know a premonition when I have one," Alyssa said.. “And  I definitely had one. I was talking to Jennifer and when I took her hand I had a premonition. I saw a klieg light fall down right over her." 

Alyssa turned back to Jennifer. She had walked away from where she and Alyssa had been talking and was now standing alone directly under the overhead klieg light.

"She moved!" Alyssa said. “She’s right underneath -“

As Alyssa said that, there was a loud, snapping noise. They looked up and saw the klieg light come loose and start to fall directly over Jennifer.

"Ohh!!"  Holly said. Reacting instinctively as Piper, she raised her hand towards Jennifer and the klieg light.

And then the three actresses stood there staring, unable to believe what they were seeing. Everything...was frozen.

"What is happening here?" asked Holly in bewilderment.

"You...you froze them," Alyssa said.

"That can't be," Holly said. "I tried all morning, hoping that I could freeze someone, anyone, but I couldn't."

"You did?" asked Alyssa, surprised that Holly wanted to still have her power.

"What...do we now?"  Shannen asked.

"Shannen...try moving the klieg light away from Jennifer," Holly said.

"No," Alyssa said, "not Shannen. Prue. You're Prue."

Shannen looked at the klieg light suspended in mid-air. I'm Prue again, she thought, and easily slipped back into the real-life role she'd lived for six weeks. She raised her hand and slowly flicked it towards the klieg light, which began to move away. When it was well clear of Jennifer - and everyone else - Prue put her hand down.

"Someone will be coming in here any minute and see everyone frozen," said Alyssa. "You'd better un-freeze them."

Holly stared at her hand for a second and then gave it a wave towards the frozen scene in front of them.

CRASH!! 

The klieg light hit the floor with a thunderous impact.

"What...what happened?"  someone shouted.

"The klieg light fell," another said. "I saw it hurtling straight down."

"How did it get over there-" the first person asked.

"It was falling right on Jennifer," a makeup woman said. "She would have been killed. It was falling straight down on her. And then suddenly it landed way over there.”

"How can that be?" one of the grips asked.

Everyone rushed over to Jennifer and then gathered around what was left of the klieg light, countless pieces strewn all over the floor. Everyone, that is, except for the three women who were now standing all by themselves.

"What...was all of that?" Holly asked.

"I don't know," Shannen answered. "Try freezing them now."  Holly raised her hand but nothing happened. She tried a second and a third time but no one froze.

"One minute I'm back to being Holly, the next minute I'm Piper again, then the next minute I'm Holly."

"Let's go someplace where we can think this over," Shannen said.

 

Alyssa closed the door behind her as the others grabbed chairs in Holly's trailer.

"Alyssa," Shannen began, "you had a premonition. Because of it you called us so that Holly could be there to freeze everything and I could be there to move the klieg light. We each had to have, and use, our powers to save Jennifer.

"Maybe we're not quite through being the Halliwells."

"Maybe The Elders feel that we still can - or still want to - do some good," said Alyssa. "Maybe they saw that we were willing to take risks to protect the innocent, to save the world, to do what was right. And that maybe...we still...wanted to protect the innocent, and save lives," she added tentatively. “And they gave us the chance to save Jennifer...to find out.”

Shannen and Holly glanced at each other, then looked at Alyssa and nodded their heads in agreement.

"We just saved someone's life," Alyssa went on. "It feels...I can't describe it. It's what I felt for the past six weeks when I was Phoebe. It's something I never knew I was missing. Until this morning...when I didn't have my powers...and I couldn't help anyone. And I felt so empty...so helpless."

"Having and using my powers feels like what I do really matters," Holly said. "Saving Jennifer's life just now...it's...it's..."

"It's giving a special, new meaning to your life, to my life," Shannen said. "The press, with their bias and outdated impression of me as I used to be, would never believe this, would they."  She smiled and paused.

"But there are responsibilities and risks that come with the powers."

"I want to have a normal life," said Alyssa. "I plan to be a successful actress, both in television and movies. But if saving someone - and feeling the way I do afterwards - means having a power when the situation needs it, and the risks and responsibilities that go with it, then I accept."

Holly looked off to one side and took a deep breath. "Me too," she said turning back to them, "as unbelievable as it may seem to you - and maybe even to me - that I feel this way."

They both looked at Shannen.

"I looked in the mirror this morning and saw my old self," Shannen said, "back in my own surroundings, able to once again be the 'wild Shannen Doherty', as the press likes to call me, that I had been before all of this happened.

"And you know...it no longer felt so good. I felt I was taking a step backwards in my life. I've changed a lot these past six weeks being Prue Halliwell. I'm not the same person I was before.” She paused for a few seconds, then took a deep breath.

“I don’t want to be the same person I was before,” she said.

"Maybe this is what these six weeks were all about," Shannen continued. "It was more than only saving the world from demons. Maybe it was a lesson for us, to find out what we could really be, what we could really do. For others, for innocents...and for ourselves. And then it would be our choice if we wanted to do it."

Shannen took another deep breath and looked at Alyssa and Holly.

"Well then, I guess it's unanimous," Shannen said. "They clasped each other's hands tightly and smiled.

"But let's not count on it yet," Shannen said. "Alyssa may be wrong. This may have been a one-time thing."

"She's not wrong," Holly said. She had opened the Book of Shadows and was looking at a page in it. It wasn't blank. Alyssa and Shannen looked on as she turned page after page, each one bearing the hand-written text. "It's back, Holly said. “They put it all back."

Shannen ran out to her trailer and in a moment returned with a large envelope in her hand.

"My pictures are back," she said as she spread a few on the table for them to see.

"Maybe we're not real witches the way we were," Holly said, "and we don't have powers all the time. But when an innocent is in danger, we're given our powers back to save that person. That's why The Book of Shadows is back.

"I brought it back with me from The Manor and they saw that we’re willing to use our powers to save people. Now they put it back so that we can have it to use whenever they give us our powers back."

"And I brought these pictures," Shannen said, "and now they’re back as a sign that we will have the powers when someone needs our help."

Alyssa thought of Stuart. I wish they would give me a sign and give me back what I brought with me, she thought.

"Remember the rules," Shannen said. "No personal gain, no punishing anyone. Just-"

"Be ourselves with them," Holly cut in, "the same way we've been the last six weeks."

"Well, it looks like you're still our big sister," Alyssa said.

"And it looks like we still really are The Charmed Ones," Shannen said, smiling.

 

It was early afternoon when Stuart found himself outside the gates of Ray-Art Studios in Canoga Park in The Valley. After coming back from 1998, when they saved Connie Burge from Dalios and stayed at Alyssa’s house, he had written down Alyssa's address. Not that he imagined he would ever forget it. But in the suddenness of their being taken from The Manor he had left the paper with the address behind. And indeed, somehow he had forgotten where she lived. Was it something the yellow light did to him that made him forget it?

At least he remembered where Charmed was shot. He had no idea if Alyssa would be there, or even if their shooting had resumed, though he remembered Holly talking about what would happen if they weren't back soon for the third season's shooting. So this was the only straw he could grasp to try to find her.

 

"I told you half an hour ago you can't come in," the lobby guard said.

"But you don't understand," Stuart said to her, “I have to see Phoebe. I mean, Alyssa."

"All of her fans want to see her," the guard replied. "Go watch Charmed on TV."

"No, but she's waiting for me-"

"Sure," the guard said sarcastically. "Just like she's waiting for the other kooks who show up here from time to time."

"At least just tell me if she's here today," Stuart said. "I'll wait outside-"

"You'll do nothing of the kind," she said, coming around from behind her desk. "This is private property. And there's shooting going on outside. If I see you lurking around I'll call the Sheriff's deputy who's parked in front of the studio.”

Stuart slowly walked out the studio's front door and down the steps. He walked left towards the corner, past the crews setting up their equipment on Variel Avenue, crossed Kittridge Street and, feeling dejected, kept walking away from the studio.

 

The wigwag was turned off and after a few minutes Alyssa came out through the sound stage’s opened elephant door. She walked out to her trailer behind the sound stages and was about to go in but then changed her mind and stood outside. She closed her eyes but she wasn't thinking about her next scene. Her thoughts were on Stuart as Holly and Shannen caught up with her.

They stood talking to her, trying to get her mind off of Stuart and back onto the day's shooting. After a few minutes, a white van pulled up along side them and they hopped in for the thirty second ride to the location setup on the corner of Variel Avenue near the studio’s entrance.

From Stuart's angle a block away on Variel, he could see the Assistant Director checking some things with the crew as they prepared for the shoot, but not much else. The white van pulled up at the corner of the studio but it held no interest for him. Some people got out and as the van pulled away he watched one of them sit down in a chair placed on the grass at the curb. He stared at what he saw, almost not believing that it was true.

"Phoebe!!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Phoebe!!  Alyssa!!"  He started to run up the block towards her.

Alyssa turned at the sound of her name and looked down the street. "Stuart?"  She stood up and started towards him, afraid to believe that it really was him. She took a few steps more and now she could see him clearly.

"Stuart!" she shouted. He was ten feet from the cameras when the Sheriff's deputy, who had jumped out of his patrol car, and a studio guard grabbed him and tackled him to the ground.

"Stop it!  Let him go!" Alyssa shouted as she ran towards him. "I said let him go!!!"

The deputy and the guard looked up at her, then reluctantly let go of Stuart. Alyssa reached him as he stood up and they threw their arms around each other and hugged each other tightly, tears streaming down both their faces. 

Shannen and Holly had run over to them and now the others who were preparing for the shoot came over to see what was happening. "I thought you were lost and gone forever," Alyssa said through her tears, releasing her hug just enough to be able to look at him and kiss him.

"What is going on in this place?"  Dorian asked Brian as they stood watching. "She comes in this morning like her life is all over. But not just her - all three of them were going around as if the world was about to end.

"Then the klieg light falls and almost kills one of the crew, only it doesn't because it suddenly swerves in mid-air and misses her.

"Then the Sheriff's deputy tries to stop a scruffy-looking, dirty guy from crashing the shoot, only it turns out that he's - what?  Alyssa's long lost love?  Only I've never seen him before or heard of him. And he sure doesn't look like Alyssa's type. This has been one un-believably weird day."

"And this is only our first day back," Brian said. "I'm afraid to think what it's going to be like the rest of the season if this continues."

"I haven't slept or eaten since yesterday," Stuart said to Alyssa. "I've been walking and hitchhiking to get here and I didn't know if you were even here."  He stopped, trying to calm down enough to continue. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again, Phoebe. Uh...I mean Alyssa."

"After what happened this morning it looks like I'm still Phoebe," she said. "Let's go into my trailer and we can talk all about it. 

"Bring back the van," she said to one of the crew.

"I'm sorry," the guard who had stopped Stuart said, "but he's going to have to get a pass. I'll call the office and see if they'll authorize one."

"Maybe," Stuart said, looking down at how dirty and dis-shelved he was, "it's better if you not be seen inside with me. It's not good for your image, not to mention what the press might do to you. I'll wait a few blocks away until you're done."

Alyssa took his hand in hers. "I thought I had lost you forever but I got you back. I'm not taking a chance on losing you again. Now it's my turn to say that I'm not letting you out of my sight."

The van returned and pulled up next to them. Alyssa motioned for Stuart to get in.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Milano," the guard interrupted, "but he has to have a pass and I have to-"

"We are his pass," Holly said cutting him off, her steely look and tone of voice making it clear that anything further the guard had to say was irrelevant. She slid open the van door,  helped Stuart get in and then got in beside him. Alyssa and Shannen jumped in after her and four very happy people drove onto the studio lot.