Bloody Maggie Carter's arrival on Daniel's ship was announced by the dull thump of boot heels on wood. The cutlass against his throat and the gun against his head made it impossible for Daniel to turn and track her progress, so it wasn't until she was standing right in front of him that he got his first real look at her. She wore a wide brimmed felt hat that shadowed her eyes, from under which dark brown hair fell in a cascade of loose curls. The red plume stuck in the hat's band bobbed gaily in time with even the slightest movement of her head. The bottom half of her long sleeved white shirt appeared to have been cut or torn off at some point in the past, and its tattered remnants were tied in a knot just below her ribs, leaving her midriff exposed. The shirt also had off the shoulder sleeves, which bared far more of her chest than could ever be considered proper. Her boots-calf length, laced up the front, and made of black leather with a low, square heel-looked more like a soldier's boots than anything a woman might wear. Her pants, which were made of tawny colored calfskin, appeared to be the of the sort one would wear for riding, and they fairly clung to her, emphasizing her hips and the curves of her long, lean legs. Between them and her shirt, there was far less of the woman standing before him left to the imagination than Daniel would have liked.
"Bloody Maggie Carter," he all but spat, glaring fiercely at her. She dropped into a mocking curtsy.
"At your service," she said. "And you are?"
"Daniel Sousa," Daniel growled. "Captain Daniel Sousa."
"Well met, Captain Sousa," Maggie said, her tone just as mocking as her earlier curtsy.
"You know, the stories about you never mentioned you're a harlot," Daniel said, more bravely than he felt. Maggie laughed.
"Oh, I'm a harlot,am I?" she asked.
"I've seen streetwalkers dressed more modestly than you," Daniel retorted. This was, of course, hyperbolic, but no one present bothered to call attention to that fact.
"Careful Captain," Maggie warned. "The only reason you're alive right now is because Rogers thought I was in danger from you, the poor misguided fool. Keep up with that attitude and you might end up dead after all." Behind Daniel, his captor, whose name was apparently Rogers, made a noise of protest, likely in response to Maggie calling him out, since why would he care about whether Daniel lived or died?
"Oh please Rogers," Maggie said scornfully in response to the sound. "You're as transparent as a spyglass lense. You obviously still refuse to relinquish your belief that I need protecting. Why else would you keep this man alive?"
"Take the cargo, not the crew," Rogers muttered. He spoke with a rhythmic Irish lilt, gentle, pleasing to the ear, and completely at odds with his blatant aggression and his apparent propensity for violence.
"Exactly," Maggie said. "I've said that a thousand times, but apparently I need to say it a thousand and one before it gets through that misguided sense of chivalry of yours." She tsked like a governess scolding her charge and added, "Now take that cutlass away from his throat. We're not savages." Daniel huffed disbelievingly at that, but Maggie ignored him. There was a long pause, as if Rogers was considering his options, and then the cutlass was pulled away from Daniel's throat. The sudden release of the pressure against his windpipe made him gasp.
"Take the gun away from his head as well, you numpty," Maggie said in a bored tone.
"Are you sure you don't want me to kill him, Captain?" Rogers asked. Daniel heard the click of the gun's hammer being pulled back and swallowed nervously. "'Take no prisoners', and all that?"
"Quite sure," Maggie replied. "Normally I would have you kill him, but"- she gestured to the dead pirates lying near Pinkerton's body,where they'd fallen- "we appear to be short a few crew members. Since you saw fit not to kill this man, we may as well put him to good use. We'll still be a man short, but you can do the work of two, and besides, extra work will serve you right for-" She was interrupted by two pirates emerging from below decks, dragging a beaten and bloody James Montgomery Falsworth between them.
"We found this one sneaking around in the hold," one of them said, shoving Falsworth down at Maggie's feet.
"Excellent," she said, though not loudly enough for Falsworth's captors to hear. "It seems we won't be a man short after all."
"What should we do with him, Captain?" the other pirate, the one who hadn't spoken before, asked.
"Bind his hands and take him to the Blood Shrike," Maggie commanded. "I'll find some use for him once we're finished here."
"Yes Captain," the two pirates said in unison, though they looked confused at her apparently sudden decision to go against her "take no prisoners" policy. They hauled Falsworth unwillingly to his feet, tied his wrists together with a piece of broken rigging, and forced him ahead of them, shoving and kicking and otherwise bullying him across the gangplank onto their ship.
"Rogers," Maggie said when they had gone. "Take Captain Sousa to the Blood Shrike as well, and keep him under guard. Make sure he doesn't get a chance to incite our other prisoner to rebellion."
"Yes, Captain," Rogers said. He seized Daniel roughly by the upper arm and yanked him to his feet, then bound his hands as the other pirates had bound Falsworth's. That done, he dragged him across the gangplank and onto the Blood Shrike, heedless of the fact that the breakneck pace he'd set was making his prisoner stumble as he struggled to keep up.
Once they were on the Blood Shrike Rogers kept Daniel well away from Falsworth and the pirates that held him prisoner, and he refused to relinquish his grip on his arm, so there was nothing for Daniel to do but watch as the rest of the Blood Shrike's crew offloaded the cargo from his ship and onto their own.
As this was going on, a tall, lean man with dark brown hair and blue-grey eyes climbed down from the Blood Shrike's crow's nest. He had a musket slung across his back- he must have been the man who'd killed Jonathan. Daniel felt his blood boil with rage at the sight of him. Jonathan had only been sixteen. He'd had his whole life ahead of him, only for it to be snuffed out in an instant by this man.
The object of Daniel's rage raised a hand to Rogers in greeting and raised a quizzical eyebrow at Daniel, but said nothing. Apparently deciding that he was needed elsewhere, he went to help bring the pirates' stolen cargo into the hold. As soon as he was out of Daniel's view he felt his shoulders relax, and he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"Careful," Rogers said sternly, as if he'd sensed Daniel's hatred toward the man who'd just left. "That man is a very dear friend of mine. If you make so much as a single hostile move toward him, I will kill you." Daniel shrugged, oddly unmoved by the threat. He had received so many death threats since the attack on his ship that they were beginning to cease to have any affect on him.
With the last of the stolen cargo cam Maggie Carter, back on her own ship at last. However, Rogers and Daniel saw very little of her over the next several minutes, as she spent most of that time in the hold, directing her crew in the placement of the last of the cargo. When she finally emerged from the hold, she fixed Rogers and Daniel with a piercing stare and shouted "Rogers! Bring the captain here!" Rogers obliged, dragging Daniel by his arm. He shoved him roughly toward Maggie, making him stumble.
"One thing I forgot to tell you, Captain," Maggie said, walking around behind him. She untied the rope around his wrists and yanked his topcoat off of him by the sleeves, leaving him in his white waistcoat and shirt. Retying the rope, she leaned close to him and hissed, "There's only room for one captain on this ship."
If Daniel was grateful for anything in that moment, it was that when Maggie came back into his view his coat covered enough of her that he no longer felt like he was engaging in lechery every time he looked at her. Maggie studied him for a moment, then said, "Keep your hat. It suits you," and it was with that that Captain Daniel Sousa became a captain in name only.