" What's with the hide-and-go-peek?" " He's still staring at me." " Who?" " That guy at the end of the bar." "Oh, no, honey, that's not staring." "That's flirting." " You say tomato..." " No, I say relax-o." "He seems pretty harmless." "I mean, he's clean-cut, innocent." "The kind of guy that a girl could teach a few things to." "Hello, kind of girl who's in a serious relationship." "Besides, it's always the innocent-Iooking ones you have to watch out for." "Hi." "Hey, all right, I need some professional help." " No arguments here." " Cute." "Where is your DJ?" "He's on break." "Why?" "What's going on?" "You know when you get a song stuck in your head, and you can't get it out?" "Yeah, I couldn't get the Facts of Life song out of my head for three years." "All right." "I have absolutely no idea what this one is, and it's driving me crazy." "I thought maybe your DJ" " would recognise it or something." " How's it go?" " I'm not gonna sing it for you." " Why not?" "Maybe we'll recognize it." "Okay." " Anything?" " Nada." "I'm thinking if you tried it again with a little more oomph, maybe some choreography, and Piper could back you up with some old-school beatbox." "Why did I know I would get absolutely no help out of you crazy people?" "Oh, come on, wait a minute." "Wait." "We can't let you leave completely empty-handed." "What is this?" "You really reconnected with our friend Justin." "He's inviting us to his big annual family barbecue." "Sounds like fun." "For who?" "I mean, you know, Justin and I are still in the flirtatious banter stage of the relationship." "I think hanging out with the folks might put a damper on it." " Is that all?" " Yeah, what do you mean?" "I mean, are you sure it's not because it's a big family gathering?" "If you're gonna go with the "Prue's got parental issues" card, let me save you some time." "Prue, it's not like we blame you." "Seeing complete, connected families is hard on all of us." "We can't spend our lives avoiding what bothers us." "The only thing bothering me right now is that I cannot get this stupid song out of my head." "I really appreciate your concern." "You know what I would appreciate more?" "Five minutes with your DJ." "Would you like some ice cream, little one?" "Yeah." "You didn't say please." "Help me!" "Come on, Cole, talk to me." "Morning, sunshine." "Okay, how about cloudy with chance of showers?" "I'm sorry, did you say something?" "Nothing pressing." "You pull an all-nighter again?" "Yeah." "Subject matter's been elusive." "Caught by the bell." "Who's the instant message from?" "Oh, it's nothing." "All right, well, nothing usually means something, and something usually means a boy, so..." "All right, I don't know what you guys are talking about, but what I've got is better, at least bizarrer." "Bizarrer?" "Is that even a word, Piper?" "Whatever." "Anyway, Cara called last night." "She had a meeting in the Bay Tech Building yesterday, and she swore that she saw Victor walking through the lobby." "As in Dad Victor?" "As in we haven't spoken to him in a year and he's probably in town and he hasn't bothered to call us." "That would be the one." "You see my need to share?" "But Cara hasn't seen him since what?" "Like the first grade, I know." "But she sounded very sure." "Why do you think he's here?" "Should we go and try and find him?" "What if it has nothing to do with us?" "Well, I for one am not gonna go out of my way to find out." "Wait, you're not even curious?" "Come on, Prue." "I mean, he is our father." "Like I said before, I've come to terms with our lack of parental involvement." "Some people weren't meant to have the Rockwellian porch with the house, the two-car garage, the golden retriever and the doting mom and dad." "Okay, so we're not the typical family." "But he is all we have, Prue." "No, Piper, we have each other, okay." "And we have other people that love us, and very full and busy lives." "Speaking of which, I gotta dash." "If you wanna have lunch, I'll be up on Knob Hill in the park for..." " Doing a shoot, okay?" " Okay." "Okay." " Hey, can I walk you out?" " That would be so nice." "Oh, excuse me." "Hi." "I'm..." "You don't really care who I am, do you?" "I mean, everybody else is on lunch break and you're stuck here fielding random questions from people who shouldn't even be asking them in the first place..." "Can I actually help you?" "Yeah." "Right." "I'd like to know which company Victor Bennett is with." " He's not." " Excuse me?" "Bennett comma Victor?" "He's not listed in any office in the building." "I have a picture." "It's about from a decade ago, but have you seen him around?" "Are you sure?" "Because I know that..." "Dad?" "Dad." " What?" " It's..." "It's not you." "I'm sorry, I thought you were..." "I'm sorry." "So they say stick to what you know, so I pitched a piece about growing up in the city." " Hopefully it'll make the cover." " You're dodging." "Artfully, but it's still a dodge." "All right, did you ever consider that maybe I just don't wanna go?" "No, it has nothing to do with the barbecue or the guy that asked you to go with him." "It has to do with Dad." "Why do you insist on pinning everything that I do on my feelings or lack thereof for our father?" "Prue, you say you're over it, but you say it so much that I have this feeling that the person you're trying to convince is yourself." "And believe me, after what I went through with Cole, if anyone understands that, it's me." " It's sort of not the same thing." " Well, maybe it is." "My feelings for our father are in the past, which means they really have no place in the present." "So Justin gets penalized." " There it is." " What?" "That song." "Don't you hear it?" "Somebody's humming it." "Hi." "Hey." "I was wondering if you could tell me what that song is that you're humming." "Okay, riddle solved." "Now you can stop humming that stupid song." "We were in the middle of you trying to make an argument of why you're not gonna go to Justin's barbecue." "Prue, if you keep ignoring me, my feelings might actually implode." " It's cold out." " There's a thing we call winter here." "Why would a child want ice cream when it's this cold out?" "And the truck pulled up and no one budged." "And did you notice there are no parents?" "So connect the dots for me, please?" "Preferably standing still." "What?" "Do you have a hankering for a snow cone?" "Prue, we're in the middle of a conversation, and considering your lunch hour ended, oh, five minutes ago" " we should probably make this fast." " Yeah, well, something's wrong." "I know that." "Why don't you talk to me about it?" "Not with me, Phoebe." "With this, all right?" "I have a total déja vu coming on." "Okay, so first you're humming weird songs, and now you're having flashbacks?" " Hello?" " Would you like some ice cream?" "All right." "I mean, it's just that usually that my instincts..." "No!" "Hold on!" "All right, where's the little girl?" "I don't know." "I was holding on to her and..." "We have to find her." "First, we have to figure out where the hell we are." "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say we're not still in the ice-cream truck." "Or even worse, we are still in the ice-cream truck." "Prue..." "I know, I hear it too." "All right, if there's a way in, there's definitely a way out." "Who are you?" "!" "No powers, no powers." "I'm not surprised, I'm not surprised." "Okay, something tells me he was not running from us." "Okay, let's go." "Help!" "Please help me!" "Help you from what?" " The Nothing." " Was that the man we just saw here?" "It's up there." "It comes for you, for everybody." "And when it gets you, the only thing left where you stood is nothing." "You never know when it's coming." "And you never know who it wants." "We try to hide, but it keeps finding us." "Hurry!" "It's coming!" "In here!" "Come on!" "Here, in here!" "Wait for me!" " Run!" " Help!" "She's not gonna make it." "Prue!" "Come on." "She was right there." "Prue, it's not your fault." "Our powers don't work here, we know that now." "We'll be better prepared next time." "Does that mean you're gonna save us?" " Us?" " There are others just like me." "Hiding." "Captured by the ice-cream man." "If he doesn't want you here, that must mean that you have the power to save us." "We should go." "The Nothing will be coming back." "It always does." "Come on." "Prue, it's me leaving you another message after leaving Phoebe another message." "I tried you at work, but they said you never checked in after your shoot." "So where are you guys?" "Look, so call me." "Or better yet, just show up and save me from having to perform an impending awkward rejection all by myself." "Hi, I'm Caleb." "Piper." "I'm sort of new in town and I'm looking to meet someone." "Someone special?" "Sorry." "I didn't mean to interrupt your phone call to your..." "Fiancé." "Very large, very jealous fiancé." "Really?" "Does...?" "Does he ever come here?" " Yeah, all the time." " So he lives nearby?" "Look, I'm flattered." "And you know, if this was another time or place..." "Maybe you'd like to meet one of my single sisters?" "You've got sisters?" "Really?" "Well, maybe we could all get together some time." "Does...?" "Does your fiancé like to hang out with your sisters too?" "Okay." "You know what?" "I don't know what kind of kinky stuff you're into, but there's a club down the street you might be more comfortable in." "They've got cages and rubber floors, and a three-for-two special on Fridays." " I'm not looking for a club, Piper." " And I'm not interested, Caleb." "At least not in what I think you're interested in." "So if you don't mind, I have lots of stacking and stuff to do." "I think you got the wrong..." "Oh, okay. I..." "You know what, I'm gonna come back later, when you're not stacking." "Prue, where are you guys?" "Are we going in circles?" "This looks like the exact same playground." "In this place, everywhere you go looks the same." "That's how the Nothing gets you." "Only a few of us can find our way." "Why couldn't you get a boy-band song in your head like everybody else?" "All right, just tell us everything you know about the ice-cream man." "Just that he's the one who put us here." "All right, so is he in charge of the Nothing?" "I don't know, I guess." "The others are gonna be so happy to see you." "We've been wishing and hoping that someday, someone would come and save us." "And now you're here." "Well, we're gonna do whatever we can to get you out of here." "So why don't you take us to your friends?" "Through here." "Daddy!" "It's okay." "It's all right." "It's okay." "What is it?" "I saw you, when you were little, in this playground with Dad." "Leo?" "Leo?" " It's about time." " Piper, I was busy." "Well, don't you have orb waiting?" "Look, it's not fair to my other clients if I keep getting calls from you while I'm at work." "Look, I just have one teensy favour." "Prue and Phoebe never came back from lunch and they haven't been returning my phone calls." "And I know I'm probably just being paranoid, but can't you do that check-the- supernatural-radar thing that you do?" "I'm sure it's fine, they're just..." "Leo?" " Not good?" " I can't sense them anywhere." "It's like they just..." "Disappeared." " All right, is that all of you?" " All that's left." "Are you gonna save us?" "We're gonna try." "All right, I think the only way out is to go through the person that..." "Put us here in the first place." "The ice-cream man?" "But how are we supposed to find him?" "Something tells me that's not gonna be hard." " Why not?" " Oh, because he's right over there." "Okay, you kids stay here." "We'll take care of the Good Humor Man." "Let's go." "There he is, by the slide." "Hey wait, look at that." "What does that look like to you?" "The street, from the back of the truck." "That's right, the way out." "Okay, all that we need now are the..." "Hey, we were just coming to get you." "Come on, we're going home." "Come on, come on." "One down." "Here comes another one." " No!" " Hurry, get!" "Okay, I'm going next." " Okay, go." " Keep away from the door!" "Ari, come on." "Hurry up." " Oh, my God." " Actually, quite the opposite." "Okay, we need to keep him away from the other kids." "I don't think they'll listen to you." "You're not the boss of them." "Did you do it?" "Say thank you to the witches." " Thank you." " Thank you." "Why don't we try focusing on the positive?" " They're together." " That's it?" "That's your positive?" "Because I've got a list a mile long in the negative column." "They've been gone all night, Leo." "And not even you can find them." " I'm sure they're fine." " You don't know that." "Any minute they're gonna walk through that door with a good explanation." "Piper?" "See?" "Prue, Phoebe, hi." "Hey." " Okay." " Where were we?" "Oh, I would like to know the same thing." "All that we know is we have to go back." "Wait a minute, is this demon or sibling-related?" "A little bit of both." "We thought the good guys were bad guys, and in trying to vanquish them, we helped the real bad guys, which were dead ringers for good guys." "Was that English?" "How about we fill in the blanks as we climb the stairs" " to that big book in the attic?" " Good idea." "So he's a demonic dogcatcher and he uses ice cream as bait?" "Great news for the lactose-intolerant demons." "Nothing in here on the demon kids who escaped." "That we helped escape." "But there's a whole page dedicated to the Ice Cream Man." "What?" " He is mortal." " What?" "Do you remember when demons looked like demons and innocents looked like innocents?" "Who changed the rules on us?" "Wait." "If he's mortal, how does he do it?" " It's not him." " Bingo, it's a song." "It says, "The Ice Cream Man plays the devil's chord, which is a series of notes that when sounded together specifically attract demon kids like moths to a flame."" "More like moths to nothing." "That's what's inside the truck." "Nothing." "That why he pulls them in there." "The Nothing is the only thing that can vanquish them." "So they might be pint-sized, but they're badasses." "But if they couldn't get out on their own, how did you guys?" "Because he led us out." " He tried to save us." " And that is all she wrote, literally." "The Nothing doesn't discriminate." "Good or evil, tastes the same." "Now the only person who knows anything about the escaped meanies is stuck on the playground and is in serious danger" " of becoming lunch himself." " Right." "And our powers don't play, not in this situation." "Pheebs and I tried everything to get back in, but the door wouldn't budge." "Well, not everything." "Mind sharing with the room?" "Phoebe had a premonition of me..." "And Dad in the playground." "You were there?" " How?" "When?" " Only one way to find out." "Right, but we don't even know where he is." "Never have, not even now, when he might actually come in handy." "He's here." "Dad's in San Francisco." "He's been here for the last three months." "So it was him that your friend Cara saw." "And it was an email from him that I got yesterday that I didn't tell you guys about." "He's here." "An instant message away." " Phoebe, this is..." " Huge." "I know." "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys that I've been keeping in touch with him, but..." "I wanted to." "It just never seemed like the right time." "So I guess now it's the right time." "What do you think?" "Do we have a choice?" " What you doing?" " Killing." " No kidding." "Did anybody see you?" " Thought I was supposed to kill." " Was it fun?" " He screamed a lot." " Cool." " So, what do we do now?" "Well, I guess we waste even more time while we pick up after you." "But you said all we had to do was find the truck..." "Not any truck." "The truck." "I already got rid of the ice-cream man, remember?" "The only people we might have to kill to get to the truck are those witches." " But..." " And if you would've paid attention, you would've known that." "And you also would've known that this isn't the right truck." "Now, I like killing just as much as the next demon." "But right now, we gotta be smart." "And trashing every ice-cream truck that we see is not smart." " But it's fun." " We'll have fun when this is all over." " Promise?" " Yeah." "But first, do you think you can clean up this mess?" "I was waiting for you to say that." "Done." "Welcome to Club Switzerland." "All right, could we sort of cut the sarcasm there?" "I just didn't feel like inviting him to our home for tea and cookies." " He's our father, Prue." "This is family." " This is business." "And don't even think about giving me that look." "If he gives us any useful information about the playground," "I will be the very first one to thank him." "And then send him packing." "These must be the sisters I've heard so much about." " Caleb." " To think I almost didn't swing by." "Okay, you know what, I've tried." "I really have." "And you're not a bad guy." "But obviously the part of your brain meant to take a hint wasn't wired together properly, because you're not taking any." "This is a really bad time." "Oh, okay." "When would be a good time?" "Help me." "You got a phone call." "It's in the office." " Why don't I show you where that is?" " Okay." " Do you mind if I ask you something?" " Thank you." "Hey, you're just lucky nobody got killed, okay?" "You hear what I'm saying?" "Well." "Would it be too much to ask for a hug?" " It's good to see you, Daddy." " Oh, baby, you have no idea." "What a place." "This is yours, Piper?" "It's terrific." "The three of you together." "I hardly know where to begin." "Well, I have a suggestion." "How about we just cut to the chase?" "Prue, he just got here." "Can't that wait, like, five minutes?" "He's a businessman, Piper." "I'd think he would appreciate that." "We can do the family-bonding thing once the work is done, all right?" "How about you just tell us everything you know about the playground?" "What playground?" "Dad, I had a premonition." "I know you were there." "And somebody's hurt, so we need to get back inside." " Let it go." " That may be your motto, but we made a mistake and we'd like to fix it." "So just tell us how you got in, and we can handle it from there." " We're big witches now." " Yeah, but you're still my girls." " Victor..." " Prue." "All right." "Yes, I was there." "I went in after you, and..." "It was the last thing I ever did as your father." "You were home with a cold..." "Must've been about 6." "Your mom had some errands to run, so she took your sisters with her and left me home in charge." "You had asked me to read you a story." "You used to love that." "But the cold was too much for you." "You only lasted a page or two, and I left your room." "You were still sleeping." "Never heard you come downstairs." "You must have been looking for a glass of water or me." "And that must've been when you heard it." " The song." " I mean, I heard a truck drive by and stop a few doors down, but I didn't think anything of it." "It was an ice-cream truck." "How was I to know?" "But somehow you did." "You must've gone into the living room following that song." "And that's when you saw it happen." "A little boy, not much older than yourself." "Yeah." "He was standing by the truck and something pulled him in." "He was so scared." "And you ran out to help him." "Just like yesterday." "When I saw your bed was empty, I lost my mind." "The door was wide open." "There was a truck parked outside." "I mean, I had no idea what I was getting into, but I just had to go." "You saved Prue." "But I lost the three of you." "You said you left because Grams wanted us to use our powers, and you didn't." "That's the truth." "And now you know the whole story." "I mean, when your grandmother found out..." "I had just brought Prue back, but being your father wasn't good enough." "I mean, how could I ever protect you from something like that again when I didn't have the powers?" "Okay, so the book said the Ice Cream Man is mortal." "That's why he can go through the door and we can't, right?" "So, what do you say, Dad?" "We need your help." "You know, if this doesn't work, I can look back and pinpoint the moment where it went wrong." "And that moment's name would be Dad?" "You gotta admit, if he can open the door, then we kind of need him." "It's all about word choice." "We don't need him, we need his utter lack of power, right?" "He opens the door, we save the day, we get on with our lives." "It's a one-time group effort." "Glad to see you have a healthy handle on the situation, Prue." "I think I do." "So yeah, I was surprised to hear from you." "But why did you think I wouldn't let you back?" "Because as far back as you can remember," "I've done very little right by you." "I mean, if a guy, let alone your own dad, walks out on you once, maybe you give him a second chance." "But if he appears to make a habit of it..." "I never thought you left by choice, Dad." "Thank you, Pheeb." "Okay, well, this is it." "But there's nothing here." "Wait, we lost the truck?" "Yeah, but we gained company." "Oh, those kids so need to be grounded." "I don't get it." "Why pick a fight and then run?" "Speaking of running, we should run." "They're getting away." "We can't, because we have to get back in the truck." "Not all of us." "Come on." "Nice work." "All right, lost modes of transport are definitely not my forte, so..." "Prue, sometimes in life, things happen for a reason." "No magic involved." "The truck's been towed." "Right." " Need a hand?" " No, and I don't need anything." "This is where he pulled us in." "But since he's still trapped inside," "I'm guessing the only way in is through the exit." "All right, let's just do this." "You can do it, right?" "Well, let's just say that chasing demons is not exactly my day job." "All right." "It helps if you specifically focus on the task." "Don't think about what's behind the door." "That will only distract you." "Picture yourself opening the door." "See yourself opening the door." "Then just do it." " Thanks for the advice." " Just doing my job." "This would be a lot easier if things stopped moving." "We left him right here." "Unless..." "The Nothing." "Even mortals have memories, Prue." "I saw what it did." "I know what it could've done to him." "And us if we don't act quickly." "Yeah, well, at least we agree upon one thing." "Make that two." "And get out while you still can." "Oh, my God." " I am so sorry." "I didn't know." " No, the mistake was mine." "You're the Charmed Ones." "You were saving innocents." "How could you know they weren't?" "How did you know?" "Let's just say we both have friends in high places." "The moment I mistakenly pulled you and your sister in, I was alerted and sent to save you." "And you get this in return." "It's getting closer." "You got us out of here once." "Now it's my turn." "The children..." "You must get them back inside the playground." "We will, and you're gonna help us do it." "I disabled the truck." "You need to fix it." "Play the song." "Don't you dare." "You stay with us." "Inside..." "It's for the truck." "It's almost here." "You go first, okay?" "No." "I can be replaced." "You can't." "No!" "Prue, it'll be back!" "We gotta get out now!" "You didn't fail." "The only way you fail is if you don't go back and do what he asked." "Come on." "Why don't they ever run into a well-lit room with nowhere to hide?" "Well, we know they're somewhere." "And I know what's gonna give them away." "How could you...?" "How bad did you wanna get off that playground?" "And now we're free." "Don't you wanna stay free?" "Why do I get the feeling they weren't looking to pick a fight?" "They were just looking for the truck, and we crashed their party." "But we're like a mile ahead." "I mean, we know where it is." "It's in the junkyard." "Did I say a mile?" "Okay, so they know." "It's three of us versus three of them." "We're even, and bigger." "I think you need to count again." " When in doubt..." " Bring reinforcements." "All that's left for us to do is destroy the truck." "Yeah." " Prue." " And Dad." "Let's go." " Do you think they're here already?" " Probably." "Do you think they know we're here already?" "Probably." "Okay, do they do that because they think it's funny, or just to freak us out?" "All we have to do is hold off the demons until Dad and Prue get out." "You haven't, by any chance, had a premonition that this is all gonna turn out okay and just neglected to inform your kin?" "Okay, I think they're surrounding us." "Don't say that." "We're not surrounded until they're all around us." "Okay, how bad could the odds be?" "I mean, sure, there's a whole bunch of them, but we're witches, right?" "And you have the power of..." "Piper." "All right, you little brats." "Bring it on!" "Head for the slide up at the top." "That's our way out." " Daddy!" " Hold on, Prue!" "Daddy!" "I need you." "I've got you." "I'm not leaving without you." "Dad!" "I got you!" "All right, any ideas what to do with this?" "Eight years of fixing your mother's car has given me one." "All right, we'll buy you some time." " Hey, need a hand?" " I need about ten." "Oh, you need a little time-out, missy." "Dad, hurry!" "Welcome to our world, Dad." "When I decide I wanna have kids, you remind me of this day." "Leo, what are you doing here?" "Why did you bring him here?" "He's supposed to be here, Piper." "You fixed my wheels." "Thanks." "Caleb's the new Ice Cream Man." "He filled me in back at the club." "Everything's happened the way it was meant to." "He was sent here to take over." "It's his time." "So your interest in me..." "Strictly professional." "I was lost." "But until I was sure who you were, I couldn't just come out and say, "Hey, are you a Charmed One?" "Because I need you to take me to my demon-catching truck."" "Speaking of which, I'm running kind of late as it is, so thank you, all of you." "Good luck." "Something tells me I'm never gonna look at a Creamsicle the same way." "Well, I guess this is goodbye again." "Thanks, Dad." "Keep writing." "You don't have to keep secrets anymore." " I know." " I mean anything." "Hey, what's the story with this Leo character, anyway?" "How much does he know about you?" "Just about everything." " So he's..." " He's a wonderful man, yes." "Still, I think I'll have a little chat with him sometime..." " Dad." " It's a father's prerogative." " I'm not saying goodbye." " Prue." "I'm saying see you soon, Dad." "Thank you." "You know, that's sort of why I came to town." "For this job interview." "And..." "Although it would entail some travel, I'd be based here in San Francisco." "And..." "If you guys think occasionally this town is big enough for us," "I'd like to accept their offer." " Could I accept that as a yes?" " Yes." "That's my cab." "All right." "We've got so much catching up to do." "That's okay." "It's different now." "It is, isn't it?" "See you soon."