Things at Wolfram & Hart carried on as normal once Selene had settled into her new life. She found a spot helping Lorne out around the firm, and in no time at all a year had passed and Halloween was drawing upon them rapidly.
Swiftly, Lorne moved down the hall, dressed in a blue suit, shades, and silver alligator boots, with his cell phone attached to his ear. His assistant and Selene, who also had another cell phone and note pad in hand, followed him.
"It'll be fabulous. Believe me, Jerry. Yes. It's Grapes of Wrath in outer space. Uh-huh. Oh, it's got heart. Yes, it's got laser battles," he said into the cell, whipping off his shades. "It's got a timely message of interstellar poverty. Uh-huh. Listen, have your assistant call my assistant. We'll set something up. Good enough."
He chuckled, hanging up the phone, tossing it to his assistant and taking the other phone he held up, "J.C., Listen, just got off the Nextel with big ‘B.’ Yeah, intrigued, but wants to know who's playin' Tom Joad. Uh-huh. Well, I'm pretty sure that Henry Fonda's dead, sweetie. Yeah. Bring him back to life? Let me talk to my science people. OK, no promises." At this he hung up, turning to his assistant chuckling, "Directors."
He smiled as he entered the lobby heading to Harmony's desk, "Harmonica!"
The blond clasped his hands grinning, "Lorney-tunes!"
Surprisingly, she seemed rather over dressed for a receptionist in a pink sequined sleeveless dress, heels and her hair done up elaborately, causing Lorne's smile to grow. "Ohh, the eyes, the hair, the dress. It's no wonder the fourth floor has a crush on you. Hey, tell me, priceless, where do I find Angel?"
At this the blond frowned, "Just called. He's on his way back in from a field mission, though I wouldn't, if I were you. He sounds like he's in a mood."
At this the green demon chuckled, "Oh, don't worry, darlin'. I've pulled the big boy out of many a brood-fest. It shouldn't be that--" he paused as he turned to see Angel come into the lobby covered in slime, "Eww."
Quickly, Wesley came up to the goo covered vampire, "Angel, how did the new neural-intercept grenade work?"
"It didn't," Angel sighed handing the grenade back to Wes.
"Right. I'll take it down to Fred and have her look at it."
"Hey, Angel-heart," Lorne started, before turning to call after Wesley who was walking away, "Hey, Wes, if you see Fred, can you have her pencil me in for later? I gotta talk to her about Henry Fonda's big comeback."
"All right." Wes called back heading to the elevator.
Lorne, in turn, began to follow Angel who was heading into his office. "Angel, Angel. We've gotta have a confab. Es muy importante."
"Uh, or wha--" Angel grunted.
"Uh, it's about the party? I've done all I can do for the big to-do, but we've still got a few bugs to comb out of the cootie garage." At this Angel frowned deeply, starting to close his door on the empath demon. "A bridge too far? Uh, let me try it again. Uh--"
"Look, Lorne," Angel interrupted, "I've been out all night, OK? I'm beat up, I'm exhausted, I'm covered head to toe in Thraxis blood, which actually kind of burns, so this is all gonna have to wait until I take a shower." Again he attempted to close the door.
"You killed the Thraxis?" Lorne asked raising a brow.
"Shower." With that Angel shut the door firmly in the demons face.
Frowning the demon turned to face his assistants, "Hey, Hell Kitten, look, why don't we, uh, scratch the Thraxis off the invite list, and, uh -- oh, hey, you got a copy of that print ad we're gonna run this week?"
"Yes. Right," the vampiress nodded fishing out a piece of paper from her files for the demon to read.
"What is this? 'Wolfram & Hart wants to be up your alley'? Sounds like a bus station pick-up line. Change it. Second thought, burn it. Grab yourself a drink or something, too. You look a little waxy," Lorne then stepped into his office, shutting the door behind him, breathing deeply, and collapsed into the chair at his mirrored vanity make-up table. Resting his elbow on the vanity, he began to rub his temples, moaning.
Suddenly, his reflection in the mirror turned to look at him, concerned, and began to speak. "Ooh, ouch. That's an adult-sized bang-a-roo. Hello?"
At this the real Lorne groaned, "Oh, Mr. Smiles." Another groan.
"Oh, come on, you can't ignore me forever. Oh, well, fine. Looks like you're gonna have to slap a band-aid on that melon, draw a grin on that bewitching green mug, and go right back out there. On the count of 9, sunshine. 1--2--3--" At this Lorne glared harshly at his reflection, "The show stops for no demon, Lorne. 4--5," this only got a wince from the demon. "They're all waiting for you. 6--7-- They're counting on you. 8-- comin' up on 9. They're gonna eat you up with a spoon, because you're so scrumptious!"
"Shut up!" Lorne screamed throwing a wine bottle at the mirror splintering it before groaning, and rising to the door.
Slowly and softly the reflection began to sing at him, "Don't, don't leave me this way. I can't exist, I'll surely miss, your tender kiss, so don't leave me this way, ohhhh--"
At this a very stressed Lorne left the room.
When Lorne appeared in the hallway, he seemed to be all smiles and energy again, talking on his cell phone, transitioning his reflection's song into an upbeat pop song. "Ohhh, baby! Oh, my heart is full of love and desire for you!" He sang on perfect key.
Elsewhere in Angel's apartment, the CEO showered contently, the door less shower providing a direct view into the bedroom, and as Angel turned off the shower and grabbed a towel, he quickly and suddenly took notice of Selene sitting on his bed watching him.
"Bonjour. Uh, the door was open, well, unlocked," she said as the naked vampire frowned, causing her to smile, seemingly unbothered by his current state of undress. "Well, Spike gave me a key."
At this Angel held out his hand causing Selene to give him the key, which he threw on the table.
"So, uh, wow. You take a long shower for a straight guy," she noted as he wrapped a towel around his waist.
"Were we having some gentlemen's time?" She asked with that insanely calm tone of hers.
"Gentlemen's?" Angel questioned, almost smirking at the way her upbringing could so easily be revealed.
"I mean, I understand. You're running this whole circus, a lot of pressure, especially with your hands-on policy. No pun intended. I'm sure you could use a release," she said with a smirk again.
"No releasing, just bathing," he said eying her carefully, "That's what one does after bashing open a demonic piñata full of rancid Tabasco. What do you need, Selene?"
"You stood them up. You had a 7:30, Angel, a meeting. Lorne sent me up to find you," she said with a slight smile letting her frozen gold eyes sweep over his form once again.
"Oh. Right. Uh, I'll get my pants." he said reaching for a pair of dress pants that were flung across a chair.
Ten minutes later the pair could be found in the elevator on their way down to the lobby, Angel standing rigid, Selene relaxed with her arms crossed behind her head, leaning against the back of the elevator slightly. "So, how's it going, Angel?" She questioned gently.
"Oh," he exhaled, "I don't know how to answer that question. I--I don't know. Good. Bad." He sighed gently turning to glance at her, "Look, I spent years doing everything I could to bring this company down. Now I'm the CEO, and I have to question every move I make because any one of them could be exactly what the Senior Partners want, so, no, I have no idea how it's going," he said in frustration with his arms crossed across his chest.
"Hey, at least you can still get your nocturnal jollies saving the downtrodden from things that go bump in the night, I'm being starved and bored to death," Selene protested slightly.
"Well, you said it yourself. Everyone needs a release," Angel said softly to her, his face softening a little.
"No," Selene said slowly, "I said you need a release. Not everyone bottles all this stuff up like you."
"I don't bottle," The brunette countered sharply.
"You bottle," Selene retorted almost giggling, "I know a bottler when I see one, Angel."
At this the brunette got into the older woman's face, "I. Don't. Bottle." he punctured each word carefully.
When the elevator door opened, a huge skull was there in the doorway. Angel reflexively punched it, causing the man holding the foam skull to fall down to the floor, groaning. At this Angel looked around to see there were many people with similar costumes busily working to decorate the lobby. "OK, why does it look like we're having a party in here?" he asked as Lorne approached the duo.
"Well, maybe 'cause we're having a party in here. The Wolfram & Hart Halloween Bash? Ring a bell? The biggest event on the company calendar? I sent you a small forest's worth of memos on it."
Angel arched his brow, "We're havin' it here?" He began to slightly scowl.
Lorne turned to face Selene, "You see what I'm up against, Hell Kitten?" Selene offered a soft sympathetic smile to the empath before turning to Angel again, "That's what your 7:30 was about, Angel. Your party."
"My party?" he repeated in a tone of slight disbelief.
"Yeah, listen. Here's the snafu in a nutshell, Top Cat. Uh, nobody's comin'. Well, some people are coming, but the right people, the A-list people, they seem to be giving it a miss, and if they don't show up, this shindig is gonna be a bust," Lorne said.
"Good," Angel replied which only seemed to incense Lorne.
"Good?!"
"I wasn't too crazy about this thing to begin with. I mean, we are talking about our clients, right? Our evil clients," Angel said casually as Lorne began to rub his head, "Not the sort of folks I really like to show a good time. I'd be a lot happier if the whole thing just kind of fell through. Then we could get back to--" he continued, freezing when Lorne broke out in laughter.
"Ha ha ha! OK! OK! You're killin' me. Can't you just feel up the big picture, Mr. Magoo? It's not about good and evil. It's about party. Party! Capital 'P'! Rhymes with 'me'?" By now the empath had taken to yelling, "About to have a stroke here 'cause you're killin' me!" Slowly Lorne drew a breath calming himself, "Listen. I can see that you're in a--a state, a--a mood, a--a snit even," he started, plucking a large black paper flower from a passing employee stuffing it into Angel's hand, "so what say we talk about this once you've, calmed down a bit?"
"Yeah, sure. That's fine," Angel started.
"Great. Your office. Twenty-five minutes." Lorne said over his shoulder as he walked away.