By this point, Buffy could never question a person's ship-loyalties. Mostly because she's learned that they're tricky little things to question and her own loyalty comes more with sentiment than seamanship. And a consuming admiration for the fact that Sparrow had built her himself in the depths of a terrible winter. For her, the boat was a sign of Jack's independence -- a trait few people considered and even fewer seemed to ascribe to the pirate. But Buffy happily painted him with the whole brushstroke. For as black as Jack claimed his guts to be and as conniving as he posed, the man did a great deal for himself.

So delighted was she in her own thoughts that she didn't even see the lewdness on Masaomi's face. Good thing, too. The Slayer had something of a temper problem.

"The weather'll warm up. Soon. And then we'll see the whole little rag-tag fleet on parade. I'm excited."