By the morning of their second day in Virginia, Beth knows she can't avoid Maggie any longer. No one argues when she states she's making the trek to Hilltop, and it's time for Jesus to go back to fill Gregory in, anyway. Leaving Judith irks her, but until they've located and settled the issue of any remaining Saviors, there's no way in hell Beth would take Judith outside the walls unless it was straight to a boat to sail home.
She knows Shane wants the kids headed home as soon as possible, even if duty requires he stay behind to help with the exodus plans. That shortens her time to come to some sort of truce with Maggie, because that nervous worry is like an itching under her skin, too.
Shane parks the SUV where the Hilltop guards indicate and pauses to take her hand. They aren't alone in the vehicle since Daryl and Jesus rode with them, while another SUV followed them with a pair of Luuk's Marines and two Alexandrians Carol sent along. But Jesus's presence doesn't seem to bother Shane when he brushes a kiss across her knuckles.
"I know you're probably lecturing yourself about forgiveness and family, but don't forget that there's nothing wrong with putting yourself first when it comes to Maggie. She's a grown woman, and she's not alone in this world if you two aren't best of friends on top of being sisters."
Beth nods, and when she catches Daryl's eye in the rearview mirror, she catches him nodding, too. She supposes that both Shane and Daryl both understand the concept of loving their sibling while not liking them very much.
As they exit the SUV, Jesus confirms with fellow Hilltopper to see if the doctor's patients are all still in the infirmary before bidding them farewell to go deliver his report to Gregory. Beth reaches for Shane's hand, gripping it firmly. He falls in step behind her, not needing the request to be vocalized that she wants him beside her for this second meeting with Maggie.
Inside the infirmary, Abraham is sitting up in bed, looking far too relaxed for a man who nearly died in a very horrific fashion two days ago. His eyes are closed in contentment. Sasha is reading to him from her chair next to the bed, but she pauses when she sees Beth and nudges Abraham. He opens his eyes and gives Beth a lazy smile that chases away some of her nerves just for the sheer joy to see her once patient doing so well.
"Well, I didn't think you could be a prettier sight than before, Miss Beth, but you look shiny and well-rested today. Time with Judy makes a mama's heart glad, doesn't it? She's an amazing little gal."
The compliment to Judith makes Beth grin, as obviously Sasha filled Abraham in. She was given her own update on the people Carol considers hers, and knowing Abraham lost both his children makes his open fondness even sweeter. "It makes her mama feel almost drunk with happiness, I think," she admits.
That makes Abraham laugh loudly before wincing a bit, but he waves off Beth's concern. "It'll knit back together given enough time. The beauty of a rock hard skull, for sure. Your sister slipped off to use the facilities while Glenn ran across to fetch our lunches. Doc says he's willing to spring the both of us today, too."
He waves a hand toward the closed door at the far end of the room beyond Maggie's empty bed. Squaring her shoulders, Beth finally lets go of Shane's hand and ventures over to perch primly on the end of the bed, waiting patiently for her sister to emerge from the bathroom. The IV is empty of the bags of fluid and antibiotics that were there last time, so Beth assumes Dr. Carson switched Maggie over to an oral medication once they got the fever down.
When Maggie emerges, she looks considerably better than she did when Beth saw her last. Being safe, getting medical treatment, and knowing her baby was safe combines for a good cure, that's for certain. Beth smiles at her hesitantly and opens her arms for a hug, praying she's not setting herself up for a rejection
"It really is you," Maggie says, stumbling to a halt in front of Beth, one hand reaching out to brush the tip of Beth's braid against her shoulder before hugging her as if Beth will break if Maggie squeezes very hard. "Glenn swore he'd even hugged you, and Sasha remembered you, too."
Beth sits down once Maggie lets her go and pats the bed next to her. There's still a bit of a fragile quality about Maggie, and Beth can afford to be magnanimous. "Sit and tell me about the baby."
Maggie does sit as requested, but only after retrieving a little slip of paper that she passes to Beth. The little blob on screen is familiar enough from Beth's own ultrasound done just a few weeks ago, and Beth smiles at both the memory and the proof that her little niece or nephew is safe and sound.
"Dr. Carson says I'm six weeks along. I wasn't sure exactly how far myself, even though we were trying. Alexandria felt like it might be stable enough, before…" Maggie waves her hand tiredly, but Beth understands what she isn't voicing. "This place you came from? It's truly safe?"
"As safe as an island can be. Nothing's ever guaranteed, but it would be a lot harder to attack Montserrat than anywhere here, and there's no possibility of walker herds." Beth glances over her shoulder at Shane and smiles. "Hurricanes, maybe. We outran a tropical storm ourselves back around Christmas."
"Beth outran a tropical storm sailing solo for the first time." Shane speaking draws Maggie's attention to him just as Glenn enters carrying containers of food. "I'd gotten stung by a man-o-war earlier, and it knocked me flat on my ass."
"Why does that not surprise me? Anyone with the brass to put an arrow through that raving asshole's eye wouldn't see a storm as anything hard to tackle," Abraham quips, which earns him a bright smile from Beth.
"You seriously outran a storm?" Glenn asks, handing out the food before offering Beth his own.
"We ate before we came," she explains, coaxing him to sit and eat. "And yes. It wasn't as hard as it sounds, just tiring because you can't stop to sleep. All you do is keep ahead of the wind, but we're lucky that our boat has engines, too. Gave me some extra speed. We ended up off the coast of Haiti by the time it was done."
That leads Beth to share the full tale of her journey from Atlanta to Montserrat to Virginia, and she's grateful that no one interrupts. Shane ventures closer during her tale, and Maggie definitely eyes his left hand on Beth's shoulder critically, but she lets Beth keep talking. Hopefully it's the last time she tells the full story, since all the important people will know now.
The only news she keeps for herself is the baby, because the part of her that remembers those damned signs on the railroad tracks doesn't trust Maggie with her most precious news yet.
Maggie doesn't seem to have anything to say right away, so after a concerned look at his wife, Glenn sets his food aside to lean in and take both of Beth's hands. He runs his thumb across her wedding band and smiles, but doesn't comment. "Thank you both for thinking of burying Hershel. I'm ashamed I never thought to try to do it, and I left the prison after everyone else, I think."
It's something that ought to come from Maggie, but she'll settle for it coming from Glenn. He's never been particularly close to her, too absorbed in his early fascination with Maggie and later his duties at the prison, but Beth's okay with that.
"I don't think I would have, if we hadn't been looking for clues, and Shane did all the work," Beth admits, squeezing Glenn's hands lightly. "If Daryl and I hadn't gotten separated, I don't think going back to the prison would have been an option I thought of."
"I'm just glad you weren't at Grady after all." Glenn shudders and lets Beth's hands go. "We only saw the aftermath thanks to Carol, but that was a godawful place."
Considering what Beth's heard about Grady, she's glad, too. Running into Shane had been a miracle in more ways than one. Maybe she never expected to fall in love with the man, but she knows he would have protected her with all that he had regardless of their relationship. That reminds her that Maggie still hasn't said a damn thing, and Beth turns to study her sister.
Her heart sinks as she realizes Maggie is going from quietly shocked to pissed off, and she steels herself as she sees her older sister's temper ignite like it has so often over the years. Shane's hand squeezes lightly in response, but there's a tension in his touch that tells Beth he wants to tug her away from the oncoming emotional storm. But she knows he won't, because he trusts her to handle her own shit.
"How could you marry the man who murdered Otis, Bethie?" Maggie hisses, voice pitching low as her mouth twists in distaste. "He killed Otis in cold blood, the man who used to take us trick or treating when Daddy had to work! Daddy wanted him off the farm after the barn, and he would be so ashamed of you."
Beth can't help herself from scoffing and rolling her eyes, especially when Maggie uses the childlike version of her name that Beth always loved coming from Hershel, but disliked from her siblings, because it generally implied she was too young and naive for them to be bothered with.
"Like you've given two thoughts to Otis since before we ever left the farm, Maggie. And if you're using that logic, there's a whole hell of a lot of our people with way dirtier hands than Shane's. Carl shot a kid who was surrendering. Rick tortured Michonne and Daddy didn't stop him. He watched it happen. Then there's all the deaths that came because he wouldn't leave that fucking prison. Don't you dare, Maggie, don't you dare point any fingers."
Just thinking of it reminds Beth how badly she wanted Rick to suffer after the prison fell, and she's trying so hard to forgive like Hershel would want her to and therapy says is good for her, but the wound she carries from watching her father die will probably never heal. As vicious as Maggie's tone had been, Beth's is ten times worse, and she isn't surprised when Shane's touch shifts.
"Beth," he says softly. "She's your sister. Maybe…"
That brings Beth to her feet as she shrugs off his hand, and Shane backs up a couple of steps and looks chastened before Beth starts speaking again.
"It's because she's my sister I've got the right to call her on her bullshit." Beth spins on her heel, glaring back at Maggie, who seems at a loss for words. It's been years since Beth raised her voice to Maggie, so she guesses Maggie is just shocked.
"My husband killed one person to save a dying boy's life, and that doesn't make it right, but it at least makes it understandable. You and me? We followed a madman's lead for years, and all it got us was good people kiled, so don't you fucking start throwing stones. I won't stand for it, and it's you that Daddy would be ashamed of. You abandoned me long before that hospital. I saw those signs."
"Maybe we should talk about it later," Glenn suggests, reaching for Maggie when she bursts into tears, sobbing harder than Beth's ever seen her cry. His eyes are wide and frightened as he holds Maggie close. "Please?"
Beth might not have backed down just for Maggie's sake, but Glenn's soft plea reminds Beth that as pissed off as she is at Maggie, her sister is pregnant and just survived an ordeal in hell at the hands of a psychopath that makes Rick's mental health look stable. She jerks her head in a nod, and ignoring the uncomfortable looks Sasha and Abraham wear at seeing the sisters' fight, she marches right out of the infirmary without waiting for Shane.
There's nothing Shane can really say to make the situation better, so he leaves Glenn to comfort the distraught Maggie. Beth hasn't gone far, standing outside the infirmary and taking those hiccupping little breaths that tell him she's about to break down, too. Reaching out to place his hand gently at the small of her back, he's relieved when she whirls and hugs him tightly.
Her tears don't last long, and he presses a gentle kiss on her forehead. "It doesn't hurt my feelings that Maggie remembers what I did to Otis. I can justify it was to save Carl, but the reality is that I should have died at the high school, not him."
Injured as Shane had been, if Otis had just listened and ran, Shane would have sacrificed himself to get the big man away from the pack of walkers pursuing them. The end goal was to save Carl, but Otis had been too damn good to leave Shane behind. It was a horrible decision Shane made, and he tries to see it as unforgivable, but it's hard If there's an afterlife, he supposes it means he'll pay his price then, but for now? Carl is alive and well, and Shane's never been such a good person that he could be anything other than selfishly happy about that.
"I don't care. Ain't right that she acts like she hasn't done bad stuff, too. Maybe not killing, but none of us stopped Rick that day he was questioning Michonne, or any of the other stuff he did, like when he went all crazy and threw Sasha's family out of the prison." Beth tilts her head to look up at him, face still damp from tears. "I was doing good about forgiving Rick until today."
"Pretty sure your therapist said that's an ongoing process, day by day." Shane's gotten the same advice about his own issues with anger and resentment, and part of him hates how much of Judith's life he missed and will never quite forgive Rick. But at the same time, he can at least take responsibility for his own faults in how that came about.
"Guess it's a good day if I don't shoot him like I told you I wanted to do back in that treehouse, huh?"
Shane is glad to see Beth returning to her usual poise, so he laughs softly. "Not shooting him is a good day, but if you have a bad one, try for something not vital. He's made his share of mistakes, but he does have people who'll miss him."
"Pretty sure he could survive a bullet in the ass," Beth mumbles. "But he's your brother, so I guess I can just not shoot him at all."
"I didn't mean to make you angry in there by bringing up that Maggie is your sister. It's just…" He sighs, running a hand through his hair anxiously. "We thought we lost everyone, and I was afraid you both might cross a line you couldn't come back from."
"I was just drawing my line. She doesn't have to forgive you, Shane, but she damn well has to accept that you're as much my family as she is. Daddy would have accepted you, just like he did Glenn."
As godly a man as Hershel Greene is in the stories Beth shares about her father, Shane thinks she's right, but he also thinks that it might have been akin to the labors of Hercules to win Hershel's respect enough for him to see Shane as worthy of Beth. It's a thought Shane doesn't mind, because it reminds him every day to not forget how damned lucky he is that Beth saw something in him worthy of her bright and breathtaking capacity to love.
But Beth drew her line in the sand, so only time will tell if Hershel's legacy will be one big family - or two separate ones. Shane sure hopes for the former.