SONDER: The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.
So many things had happened to Maggie in rapid succession. Her father died in front of her, sister whisked off is she even alive, and Glenn, Glenn. She pushed forward, but it was only after she'd found him, long after, when the blood was drying on their skin, and the sound of a crying baby drew her eyes, that she realized she'd been selfish.
She'd dragged Sasha along, through hell, practically to her death, when she was suffering from the loss of her brother just as true. And Rick, Rick, she hadn't even spared a thought for Judith, not until the group had been thrust in the train car alongside them, and no mention of the baby was even made.
Tara, she found out, had lost her sister, her niece, and her girlfriend. They'd been on the wrong side, but Maggie knew too well how easy it was for people to follow the Governor, how pretty he could make his words seem even when his actions were sharp as knives. Maggie didn't blame her, not a lick. After all they'd lost, all they'd done, how could she?
She had learned about each of her companions in fits and starts. Daryl had always been quiet, unless he was screaming, late at night or after having dragged his brother's desecrated corpse back from Woodbury. But he was kind, gentle, only lashed out when things got to be too much. He reminded her, back in the days where she still had a home, a sister, a father, of the animals Hershel would bring in while their owners were taken away in handcuffs. And yet, he went after her sister. He went after Glenn. She didn't know what had happened when Rick, Michonne, he, and Carl were on the road alone, but Daryl had been in much worse shape than they had when the group had reunited. He was terrified, it was easily apparent, but he still did everything for the people around him. She hadn't paid him great attention, before. But he was a good man.
And the people at Alexandria… Maggie didn't know what to make of it. They'd been so sheltered, so self-absorbed, and maybe they reminded her a tad too much of what she and her family had been like before their eyes had been so wickedly opened by fate and fire. But she had people to defend, and their ignorance couldn't cost her them, not like they'd lost Beth, Bob, Lori, Tyreese, Andrea, and so many others before.
When Noah didn't come back, it was one strike too many. Her people couldn't wait for these strangers to learn what they'd had to along the way. If it came to it, she knew where her priorities lied.