"He's sweet," Daryl says, and as he says it he realizes it's what he's trying to articulate all along. Conversations wind around him sometimes; he was never good with people. That was another skill of Merle's, one Daryl never tried to touch. He'll have something to say, but unless it's crystal clear in his mind, he doesn't know how to get it out.

He's got it now, though. Maggie has a strangely clarifying effect on him.

"I wasn't sweet, at his age, and I had it easier'n him."