Daryl's eyes shifted from the man and back to James. He met his eyes dead on as he took a deep breath. He let it out, pressed his fingers harder, looked almost like he was getting ready to threaten James for a brief second. But instead of doing that, he asked very quietly, with a nervous anger that covered for his fear (though not well), "Is he one of us?"

That one question held a lot of other questions and statements within the short span of words. It wasn't just asking if Steve was part of the group. It was saying Daryl had decided James was one of his people. Someone he would defend as his own. It was saying Daryl was trusting James with his life. He was trusting James with the lives of anyone else that became a part of his 'us'.

He was also asking if Steve could be trusted to protect the group. To choose the needs of the group first. If he was someone Daryl could trust his life to. The group's lives to. If he was theirs in a world where Us and Them was the deciding factor on who was a threat and who wasn't. It was how the world was for Daryl anymore. He knew he needed people to survive, but he wasn't at a point where he couldn't pick and choose anymore.

He'd chosen James. He was trusting James to make the call for Steve.