The Raider-Viper hybrid and Galactica's Child hung in the air over Caprica. Mason and Brody had been lucky enough to find a small belt of asteroids to hide in while they waited for Isabel. They had cut back their power output to basic life support so that they wouldn't be picked up by the Cylon scanners. The Cylons were patrolling the skies like crazy now that their communications were down.

"Hey, Brody," Mason said, looking out her side window to where the hybrid hovered next to her.

"Yeah?"

"Can you believe that we might have actually done this?"

"No. I thought you were crazy when you suggested it that day. I thought you might have sun poisoning or something."

"The sun had only been up for a few minutes."

"Well, something was wrong in your head."

"It's been well established that I'm insane," Mason laughed. They lapsed into another few moments of silence. Conversation had been sporadic between them. There was just too much to think about to let words distract you.

"So what do you think the thirteenth colony will be like?" Brody finally asked.

"I don't know. It has to be better than the other twelve."

"It could just be an empty planet. We have no proof that the thirteenth tribe actually thrived on Earth."

"Even if it's empty, it's still a planet that the Cylons won't be able to find. That's all we need, a sustainable place to live without threat of discovery. Oh gods. The rest of the children are going to be so excited."

"You are such a mother. Gods know where you picked that up from. It certainly wasn't from our parents!" Brody laughed. "They were more like five-year-olds than parents most of the time, which makes me think that maybe this whole mothering instinct you have is a sign that you're actually a toaster."

Mason turned to glare at him but smiled instead when she saw him struggling for breath between fits of laughter. It was nice to see him laugh. "You're excited about this, too," she said over the comms.

"Damn right! I've been waiting for this for just as long as everyone else."

"I've been thinking, when we get to Earth, we're going to be free, Brody. No running for our lives. No worrying about where we're going to get food. Chances are, there will be other people on that planet. We can have conversations with other people! Ones we've never met before, and for the first time, we can be whoever and whatever we want."

"What are you getting at, Mason?"

"Nothing. Everything. You and I grew up around the best case there has ever been for soulmates. I've always wondered what that felt like. There were so few of us that escaped from Galactica with our lives. If that feeling were to come around, how am I supposed to know what it's like? Don't you ever feel that way?"

"No," Brody replied, his voice serious.

"Guess it's just a girl thing."

"No, that's not it either."

The comm link between the two ships fell silent again.

Mason didn't know what to say in response to that, so she just pulled back. She wasn't even sure what she had been trying to get at. All she knew was that the thought of finally being around what could possibly be hundreds of thousands of strangers terrified her. She could lie to herself and chalk it up to living with the same handful of people all her life, but when she was brave enough to admit the truth, Mason was scared to death that she would lose her best friend to someone else.

Brody was an attractive guy. Girls would notice him, and he would notice them. Before long, she would be by herself, trying to adjust to a planet where everything was foreign. At first he would probably try to make sure she was fine, but Brody tended to focus on one thing and let everything else sort of fade to the periphery. Mason didn't think she could compete with an entire planet for his undivided attention.

Pushing her fears aside, she cleared her throat. "So, Brody, what's the first thing you want to do when the last colony is found?"

His gentle chuckle filtered softly through the comm. "You don't know? Years of hinting and you still don't know what I'd want to do?"

"Don't frak with me, Brody. I'm not a mind reader," she snapped.

"Well, there's a certain young women who dragged me to this shithole of a planet. Somehow I convinced her to spend every night in my bed. Can you imagine that? The funny thing is, it turned out that I kind of liked having her so close to me all the time. It made me start to think about things. Weird, right?"

Mason caught her breath. Was he implying what she thought he was implying? She bit her lip as she replayed his words in her head. He couldn't mean what she thought he meant. That would be ridiculous! And, frankly, a hell of a lot scarier than the thought of losing him to some Earth girl because if there was one thing she had inherited from her mom, it was the ability to frak up a good thing when it came along.

If she wanted to keep him in her life, she had to put an end to whatever crazy thoughts he might be entertaining. And that was something she had learned by watching her mother talk to Lee for twelve years.

"Listen, Brody, there's something I wanted to talk about."

"That kiss on Caprica?"

Her eyes widened. She had actually forgotten about that completely in all the excitement. Oh gods. The memory of that was going to make this so much harder. "No. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about everything that went on with us this year. It really confused me."

"Me, too. I wasn't expecting it."

"I finally figured it out. We've been through a lot the past year. We lost almost everything we ever loved, and that? Well, that makes it hard to keep on living."

"What are you getting at here?" Brody asked.

Mason could feel his suspicion which meant that he was catching on to what she was trying to do. Time for the knockout blow. "We've been desperately trying to prove to ourselves that we're still alive, Brody, that no matter what we've lost, we are still here. I've had those nightmares and you've been there for me. I'm grateful..."

"But?"

Mason felt Brody's eyes burning through the canopy at her, but she couldn't force herself to meet his gaze. "But whatever went on with us on Caprica, that's where it's should stay. We don't need to prove that we're still alive anymore, now that we have a future, so the logical thing is to just move whatever happened into the past."

"Are you saying…?"

His voice faded off, and Mason knew that she had gotten through to him. She had to be sure, though. "It didn't mean a thing to me, Brody. Not even that kiss." Gods forgive her for her lies. "You're my best friend. You always will be, but I don't love you as anything more than that."

Brody would have argued with her and called her a liar if Isabel's voice hadn't broken into their comm channel. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting so long. It took me a little while to get back to the Delphi Museum."

"No problem," Brody replied. Mason flinched at the harshness that laced in his voice. "Mason was just making a few things clear to me, but I think we have everything resolved now, don't we, Mas?"

Mason bit back her tears and focused on the Raider Isabel was flying. "Why did you go back to the Museum, Isabel?"

"I needed to pick up an artifact… The Bow of Artemis. I think it's the key to finding your thirteenth colony. I'm sorry I can't give you a more concrete explanation than that."

"Well, you are the chosen one so I'll go with your instincts," Brody said. "Now let's get the frak out of here. Transmitting co-ordinates to reach the rest of our family."

"Got it," Isabel said. "Are you two ready for this?"

"Oh yeah," Brody hissed through his teeth. "I've had enough of this planet! It seems to ruin everything you thought you could count on."

"Okay," Isabel said. "I have no idea what that means, but I'll just assume it meant you're ready to leave."

"Let's stop chatting and get this done," Mason snapped, powering up the FTL drive on Galactica's Child. "Jumping in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."