Several minutes later there was a knock on the door of Gunn's office as Lorne walked in where Gunn was sitting at his desk reading papers. At the demon's entrance he lifted his head some, "Hey, Lorne."
"Hey, hey. Uh, sorry to interrupt. Not to be a pest, but I just wanted to go over a little stratego, amigo," Lorne said a bit nervously.
"Uh, sorry?" Gunn said confusedly.
"Um, you're my big gun, Gunn. Ace-in-hole, ball-in-pocket. You're the key on my kite string," Lorne started.
"Ok," the lawyer said slowly looking at the demon. "We gotta turn Angel around on this whole party idea."
"We do?"
"Look, I know he's the boss and everything, but you're up and coming here, and it's time for you to spread your wings, Legal Eagle. From now on, I want you to stake out your territory, and I want you to keep it staked," Lorne said almost as an authoritarian.
"Stake, territory. Sure. Look, um, Lorne, I'm a little busy right now. I have a deposition to get ready for, but I will definitely get to that," Gunn said trying to get the empath to go.
"Great. Just what I wanted to hear. Angel's office, 10 minutes." Lorne said smiling as he walked out.
Ten minutes later the whole gang had gathered at Angel's office, except Lorne. Angel was sitting at his desk, frowning, Gunn sitting on Angel's desk, Selene sat in the chair across from it, Fred and Spike were standing near the windows, and Wesley was sitting in a chair in the corner.
Spike was looking out the window at people in costume. "In my day, no self-respecting creature of the night went out on All Hallow's Eve. We left that to the posers, the blighters who had to dress up and try to be scary."
At this, Selene stuck her tongue out at him, making some comment about her day being earlier than his as Angel pressed a button that caused the windows to fog. "Magic windows," he muttered, "Will the perks never end?"
Suddenly, Lorne walked into the office quickly, talking on his cell phone, "Ah, perfetto, Benigni! Perfetto," he said as he paced back and forth not wanting to walk into Spike, "Ah, si, si, si. Grande. Ciao," he said hanging up. "What did I miss?"
"Us. Waiting," Angel sighed at the demon.
"Oh, right, sorry. So, uh, Angel, we just wanted to take a moment, and emphasize how important this party really is to us," Lorne said gently.
"I gotta say Lorne is right. We gotta show all the big bads that the new regime is here to stay, which, for the most part, boils down to image. And image-wise, if this party doesn't kick ass, we lose face," Gunn said firmly.
"And believe me, Milk Dud, speaking as the head of your P.R. Department, we need all the face we can get," Lorne said with a smile.
"Milk Dud?" Angel questioned gently.
"Said with affection," Lorne added quickly.
"OK, listen," Angel started, "I understand the whole 'keeping up appearances' concept, but everyone coming to this thing is unrepentant, dyed-in-the-wool evil."
"Angel, a good host just doesn't make these sort of judgments," Lorne said firmer.
"We don't know how many of them are holding grudges against us, or against each other," Angel said rationally, "It's a perfect recipe for an out-of-control bloodbath."
"That's describing every good party I've ever been to," Lorne laughed, "Listen, Angel, don't worry about a thing. This is my forte. And I ran Caritas for years, a nightclub with an open-door policy. The good, the bad, the hideously ugly, they all bellied up to my demon bar, but they all played nicely together while they were there."
"And this is exactly the kind of ethical tightrope you've gotta walk, Angel," Selene said softly, her accent painting her words, "Which brings up another point, your employees."
"Also evil!" Angel pointed out.
As if on cue Harmony walked in with a mug, and set it on Angel's desk, "Here's your blood, bossy," At the nickname, Angel glared hotly at the blonde. "Ahem. Boss.”
Selene seemed to totally ignore the blonde’s presence and carried on her conversation with Angel. "Some of them, yes, but all of them work hard for this firm, and Halloween, well, around here it's like Christmas. Simply put, this is a morale thing."
Harmony scoffed, "Good luck. The morale around here stinks."
At this Angel raised his brows in surprise, "What?"
"Uh-huh," Harmony said. "Everybody thinks you suck. Well, come on, Boss. They're all out there, sweating through their matsudas, worried if you're gonna axe them or, you know, axe them."
"OK, look, hey, I haven't," Angel started as Selene and Harmony stared at him, "OK, look, I may have -- killed a couple of them."
"And several clients, and maybe some potential clients? Why do you think my R.S.V.P. list is only a fifth of the size of last year's?" Lorne questioned him.
"It's you, mon ami," Selene said.
"Come on, what, do they think I'm throwing this thing so I can slaughter them?" At this the rest of the room all turned to look straight at him. "Fine. I surrender. Go ahead, Lorne. Put on your best dog and pony. I won't get in the way."
Lorne shook his head, "I don't want you to sit back and just let it happen, Angel. I need you to get out there and make it happen."
Angel gulped just a bit, "What does that mean?"