Jack paused outside of Dawn's bedroom. He could hear faint mumbling from inside.

"...omnipotent...stupid geometry...."

He couldn't really blame the poor lass. Even he hadn't expected Buffy to send the girl back to her room with the stern instruction to study her math. Nor had he expected Buffy to send him to his room, too. He knocked lightly on Dawn's door.

"Go away!"

"It's Captain Jack, darling."

"I said go away!"

Jack knocked again. "Don't make me break the door down."

The door opened and she scowled at up him. "What?!"

He took a step back. "I came to chat, love, not have my head bitten off."

"What? Buffy sent you to your room, too?"

"Does she do that to everyone?"

"Just me and Andrew." Dawn sighed and let Jack into her room. "Well, since I'm stuck doing my homework, maybe you can help me. You know anything about geometry?"

"It just so happens that I got A-levels in geometry when I was a lad."

"That was the Knightsbridge Academy, wasn't it?"

"What?!" Jack blinked in surprise. "How –"

"I just knew it. Just this second. I don't know how." She looked up at him. "You were.....more....somehow."

"You're losing me."

"Your father was somebody important." Her eyes narrowed and then she emitted a small squeak of frustration. "Dammit. It was right there. I had it. The name and everything. I could almost see you, too, little Jack, but not Sparrow. Sparrow's the name you gave yourself."

"Aye, that I did." He looked past her, taking in the clutter of her room. Purple seemed to be the dominant color and there were strange images of young men on the walls.

She followed his gaze. "Yeah, I know, it's a mess."

"It's very--"

"Why Sparrow?"

"What?"

"Why not a bird of prey, like an eagle or a hawk or a falcon?"

"Because God watches over the sparrows."

Dawn looked at him for a long moment and then grinned. "I love it."

"I had a feeling ye might."

"But you didn't come here to talk about that or geometry." She dropped onto her bed, moved her schoolbooks aside and gestured for him to sit, too. "You want to talk about going back and stopping Glory."

"Ye saw that, too?"

"No, I kind of guessed." Her eyes met his and suddenly she grinned again.

"What?"

"I'm not supposed to have boys in my room. Buffy would have a cow. Not that you're a boy or anything, because you're kind of old and there's like totally nothing going on between us. God, you wouldn't believe what happened the first time I kissed a boy."

"No?" Old? Kind of old? Old?!

"He turned out to be a vampire."

"Old?"

"Huh?"

"I am not old."

"You could be my dad."

"But I'm not."

"Okay, like, ick." She narrowed her eyes at him. "I mean, you're really cool and all, but, Captain Jack, come on. I'm fifteen and you're like fifty or something."

"I'm what?!"

"Forty?"

"Thirty-eight."

"See? Total ick."

"Well, then..." He cleared his throat. Ick. No lass had ever looked at him and said ick. "About Glory –"

"We're almost ready to go back."

"Almost ready? What do we need?"

"Me." Buffy stood in the doorway, arms folded over her chest, giving him a stern look. "Dawn, what did I tell you about boys in your room?"