Chapter Text
She didn’t look the same. Maggie thought as she watched Dixie. Beth she corrected herself. The new woman at the resort was the little girl they lost when the prison fell. She couldn’t see hear baby sister in this woman at all. Dixie was strong. She carried herself with a confidence that Beth never had.
Beth was sweet and shy with an occasional spark in her eye. Beth was soft and beautiful. Maggie watched the woman across the room talking quietly with Daryl. They no longer had the same nose. Beth’s was just a little bit crooked. However, it got broken it hadn’t healed right. Her hair was a shade or two darker so was her skin.
Beth always burned in the sun but it seemed that she finally managed to get a tan. It only made the scars on her face stand out more. The scars on her face weren’t the only ones. From what they had seen her entire body was covered in them. Some were jagged like she had been cut by a rock or tree branch others were clean strait lines from knives. She never told any of them where her scars came from. She couldn’t remember. Maggie thought maybe she just didn’t want to remember.
The woman looked like she had been to hell and back. Beth had been sweet and kind. She was fragile. Maggie remembered her mama saying when she was young “When you throw someone to the wolves they only have two options. They either let themselves be torn apart or they come back leading the pack.” Her mama had a lot of ideas about wolves and storms. Maggie had loved them growing up. Why wouldn’t she? She was the strong one she could whether any storm and run with any pack. Maggie never would have dreamed it but it looked like Beth had survived the wolves and the storm. She didn’t come out unscathed but she did come out.
The woman in front of her was nothing like the Beth that she knew but it was still her sister. Maggie had cried when Daryl had recognized Beth. She felt so guilty about not knowing it was her baby sister that had been with them for days. For being one of the people to think it was for the best to turn her out on her own.
Beth didn’t seem to trust anyone at the resort. She took orders and gave suggestions on runs and hunts but she didn’t speak much. She kept to herself with the exception of Daryl. She didn’t sleep much and usually had her back to a wall and an eye on the exit. She spent as little time inside as possible.
Maggie hadn’t noticed until Carl pointed it out but she was a lot like Daryl had been when they met him. “when you’re on your own for too long you forget how to trust people.” Her daddy had said that when they had first left the farm and Maggie had complained about the redneck. “he may not be the most civil but maybe there isn’t room for civil in the world now sweetheart.” They had been thankful for Daryl when they left the safety of the farm just like everyone had been thankful when Dixie had come with the same skills that they needed to survive.
Maggie had never truly believed that Beth was alive. She hadn’t prayed since her daddy died but she had hoped that Beth didn’t die painfully. She had picture her sweet little sister being shot by the governor’s men or even trying to take her own like again. She refused to believe that Beth could have been taken by the governor’s men or eaten alive. Maggie knew that that was probably the most likely outcome.
When Daryl said that Beth got out with him Maggie felt like she was being stabbed. She had excepted the inevitable. Beth was dead. When Daryl said that she was just gone Maggie could breathe again but it wasn’t any different her sister was dead. It pissed Maggie off that Daryl wouldn’t except that fact. the bastard had never been an optimist.
He was right though. she wasn’t dead just gone. The girl Maggie knew and loved was gone and in her place was a stranger who occasionally resembled Maggie’s Beth.