Mason Thrace let out a slow yawn and cuddled her body in closer to the man lying next to her. It had been another hot and humid night on Caprica that had slowly filtered into a crisp and cool morning. The body heat would help until she finally broke down and got out of bed to put something on over her tank and skivvies.

She shut her eyes again for a moment to concentrate on the prayer she whispered to the gods each morning. "Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer. Keep the children of Galactica in your care while we search for the thirteenth colony. Watch out for those from whom we are far apart. Keep your child, Brody Adama, in your watchful eye, and protect the soul of Leila Zarek, who gave her life so that we might find a better place. And give us the strength to prove to the toasters that you shouldn't frak with the children of Galactica. So say we all."

Opening her eyes, she suddenly realized that her bed companion had awoken and was currently trying his best not to laugh. "What is so funny, Brody?" she demanded, narrowing her eyes.

"I don't think I've ever heard anyone use the word frak in prayer before," he replied, pulling her in close to him again.

"I learned it from my mom," Mason said with a laugh, relaxing under the strength of his arms. "So. Do you think Caprica's going to finally tell us its secret today?"

"Not a chance. We've been here for a whole fraking year, and we aren't one step closer to finding the location of Earth."

"We were close with that Cylon airbase outside Caprica City."

"We almost got blown up. Twice. And we didn't even get within a mile of it."

"But we figured out what a few more of the human Cylon models looked like. That was a plus."

Brody let out a groan and pulled his body out from under Mason's. He grabbed his shirt off the floor and slid it onto his body. "When are you going to grow up and realize that we're just wasting time on this planet?"

"We are not wasting time!" she exclaimed. "The key to finding Helo's daughter is somewhere on Caprica. We just have to figure out where."

"Mason. We don't even know if Helo's daughter is still alive. For all we know, something went wrong and the Cylons killed her. Or hey! Maybe she actually likes being friends with the kitchen appliances. Did you ever think of that?"

Mason sat up in bed and glared at him. "You are such a pessimist."

"I got that from my father."

"Don't I know it. For years, I heard my mom complain about it, and now I guess it's my turn. Like father, like son." Brody stopped in the middle of pulling on his cargo pants just long enough to stick his tongue out at Mason. "Very mature. Reminds me of your comeback when you were five."

"It's still effective at ruffling your feathers."

"Oh, go to hell." Mason threw back the covers and walked over to the small speaker radio sitting on the bedside table. She pressed a button and smiled as the sound of a piano filled the room.

Brody watched her in silence as she swayed slowly to the beat. She loved hearing her grandfather play in the mornings. This particular song was Mason's favorite for obvious reasons. The title was simply "Kara", and it personified her mother to a T. The tempo changed every few measures, and yet there was a strong pulsing beat throughout the whole piece. Its very existence was a contradiction.

Once the song was over and she had begun to move again, Brody flopped back down onto the bed to watch her get ready. He loved watching her. "Seriously, though, Mas. What was up with that little prayer you were saying?"

"I'm just worried, that's all. I mean, I know what we're doing here is right, but it's hard to be away from the rest of our group. We've been gone so long."

"You think the Cylons caught up to them?"

"I think they had to have left by now. We left them on the first planet that had a livable atmosphere and sufficient water. The only promise they could give us was that they would wait as long as they could. The only promise we could give them was full of false hope. It wasn't the best situation."

"We could just fly back to them. Try something else. It would only take us a few hours to steal some fuel for the ships and get up into space."

Mason's eyes fixed on Brody in the mirror as she pulled her long, blonde hair back into a ponytail. "We can't do that. The Cylons might follow us. Going back to them is a risk that I'm only willing to take if we actually had something worthwhile to bring back."

Brody propped himself up on his elbows so that he could look at his best friend. "You're their leader, Mason. You always have been. Bringing you back to them would be enough."

"You think they can't survive on their own?"

"Not for much longer. We have to do something."

Mason stared at him for a second as she thought over what he was saying. After a few minutes, she shook her head. "That doesn't fly with me. They can do it on their own. I know they can."

"Then why do you feel the need to pray for them?"

"Can't hurt." She shrugged as she picked a gun up off the dresser and threw it at Brody. "Suit up, soldier. We need to go." She grabbed her holster off the floor and clicked it into place around her waist. "The Resistance is waiting for those supplies we promised them."

Brody slid the gun into the holster on his thigh as he stood up. "Are you sure they said they could get us the plans to the Delphi Museum?"

"As long as we got them first aid supplies and food, they promised to dig around until they came up with the old blueprints."

"And you trust them?"

Mason rolled her eyes as she stepped into heir small kitchen. "Brody, they've been good to us. They helped us survive our first few months on Caprica. They offered us a place to call home."

"All the same, I'm glad you remembered your mom had this place. I don't want to be in debt to the Resistance. They've become heartless."

"They had to be ruthless to survive, Brody," Mason said, tossing her friend a packet of freeze-dried food. "Eat that and then we need to get a move on. The sooner we get those boxes of food and medicine to the Resistance, the quicker we can get to the Museum."

"You really think that there's some special object in that old building? Something that's going to tell us how to get to Earth?"

"No, I don't," Mason replied softly. She pushed past him to walk out the door but paused without turning around. "But Leila did."

Brody let the words sink in as he silently followed his best friend out the door. Mason had taken Leila Zarek's death hard. The pint-sized girl of only fifteen had worshipped the ground Mason walked as did so many of the children of Galactica. She had begged and begged Mason to teach her how to fly, but it was a surprise to everyone when it turned out that Leila was a natural. Every moment from that day on, she was pleading to take a ship into the sky. It was as if flying became her personal oxygen.

Leila had been shot down by the Cylons when the three of them were scanning for a safe place to land their ships. Brody and Mason had been distracted, arguing about whether they should stagger their ships or just touch down in the same area when the Cylon Raider came out of nowhere. It fired directly at Leila's Viper and then disappeared without even attempting to down the other two ships. They could do nothing but watch as Leila's ship burst into flames and spiralled to the ground.

Brody and Mason both wondered why the Cylons had chosen to shoot Leila down and not them. What was it about her ship that made them so fearful?

At the time, mourning hadn't been an option so they pushed everything aside as they found their way to Delphi and the apartment abandoned by Kara Thrace decades earlier. That first night, Brody had tried to play the part of the gentleman and sleep on the couch, but then Mason woke up screaming from a nightmare, ending their transparent charade. They had spent every night since then clinging to each other to prove that they were still alive.

"What are you thinking about so intensely?" Mason asked as she slid into the front seat of her mother's old jeep-turned-tank.

"I just realized that you haven't had a nightmare in a few weeks."

"Not exactly," she corrected as she turned the ignition. "I just haven't had the kind that involves screaming or crying, that's all."

"I'm not going to rest until you let go of whatever's causing you to have these things."

Mason turned to stare at Brody. It was moments like this when she really understood how much he loved her. "Promise?"

"Promise."

She held his eyes for a few more seconds before shifting the car into drive and pushing down on the accelerator. They had an appointment to keep.