In the ramshackle ghost town they'd holed up in, Daryl's swept most of the place by the time the sun is peaking in the sky. He'd slept for a few hours, but then woken up so energized that he'd relieved all the others of watch until just an hour ago, spending the time trying to fashion some more arrows for the crossbow. He'd nudged awake Michonne with gentle knuckles on her shoulder. After he kills the cashier of a gas station, mostly rotted and slow from starvation, he finds some maps that had fallen mostly under the counter. Mostly bus schedules, but he takes one anyway, because it shows the streets and points to surrounding towns.
What used to be there before Terminus, a bus terminal, like a hub. He took a Georgia map, too, and one of the US, thinking of all they'd lost in the prison. The maps. The manuals. The stores of food. It's getting colder.
He thinks of another winter on the road. He thinks of Beth, shivering.
He's about to slump onto his ass on the floor, a moment of weakness, of being so goddamned tired, but before he can, there's a tiny tapping on the window. Maggie's outside, staring in at him with a serious face, tinged with desolation, even with Glenn hovering behind her.
He stands, she steps inside.
She doesn't bother checking around corners, doesn't even bring her hand to her knife. She knows. If Daryl's in here, kneeling over trash and debris, staring into space, it's safe and clear. She leans against the counter. Her fingers dig into each other. Finally, she says, "Sasha didn't think I'd find Glenn. Thought it was... But it was something my daddy'd said. Well," she smiles sadly, "there's a lot of things my daddy said that I think about now. Glenn said it was the same thing that pushed him on. Gotta have faith."
He chews on his lip, warring with grief and guilt and the aura of Beth that he still feels. He tries to meet her eyes, she's waiting patiently for him. After a moment, he mumbles, "'M sorry. About your dad. I..." He's not sure if he wants to say the same he'd said before, Maybe I could have done something, that's on me, but instead, other words come out, "I already told Beth. But I'm... real sorry."
She nods. "Me too. But you gotta understand, Daddy made his peace. I'm not sure when. He was still lost after... after the barn. Maybe it was when Beth tried to, almost killed herself." Her breath is shaky just mentioning it, and he's not sure if it's because it's hard to speak Beth's name for him, too, or because the thought of Beth gone takes her breath from her, too. "When everyone was sick, and you guys went to the vet school. Daddy said you're gonna die anyway. All you got now is the why, the how."
She's quiet for a long while, and he doesn't know what to say, just chews the inside of his lips and cheeks raw. She starts again, surprising him this time. "I never knew my grampa. Daddy said he was a mean old drunk. Said some men never earn the love of their children. I'd heard him talking to Beth's mama once. Talking about razor straps. I think that's why Daddy didn't mind Merle so much, and loved you. I wonder sometimes if he'd seen himself in you."
He clears his throat. He shoves the maps he'd forgotten in his hands into the pocket of his jacket.
He has to strain to hear the confession when she says, "I thought if I found Glenn everything would just... be okay. I should have-"
"No." He's shocked at the vehemence in his own voice. He's shocked that he finds himself walking closer to her, to Beth's big sister. He leans enough to catch her eyes- pointed to the ground- and forces eye contact. "We'll find her."
Maggie swallows, he can see her throat working past the emotion in her throat. She nods again. "I just. You should know. Even if- if we don't find her, you're a part of our family. Not just... the prison family. The Greene family, too."
When she turns, and goes to Glenn, slipping into his arms like he was her anchor, Daryl is glad. He wouldn't be able to talk anymore anyway.