Title: Ordinary Day

Author: Settiai

Disclaimer: "Angel," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Firefly," and other related characters are all properties of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and other related corporations. No infringement is intended. This story, such as it is, was written as a sign of respect and love for the characters, the show, and their creator. I claim no ownership of the aforementioned show and characters.

Rating: PG-13

Summary: It was pretty much an ordinary day.

Feedback: Comments and helpful criticisms are always appreciated.

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Faith shook her head as she peered through the window of the bank. "'Don't worry, nothing can possibly go wrong,'" she muttered, obviously repeating someone else's words verbatim. "I'm going to kill him if he gets out of this alive."

Her hand unconsciously went down to the gun hanging at her side, but she pulled it away as soon as her skin touched the cool metal. She knew that she needed to wear one as long as she was trapped wherever, or whenever, she was, but she didn't like using it unless she had no other choice.

And she wasn't quite at that point yet.

Faith smiled as three more men left the bank, dropping the number left inside down to a mere four. Making certain to keep her hands away from her gun, she straightened up and headed toward the door. Without even pausing, she walked straight in … and froze when four armed men turned their guns on her.

"I guess I'm interrupting something," she said, feigning surprise as she surreptitiously glanced around the room.

The men relaxed and lowered their guns as one of them took a step forward. "Afraid so," he said, nodding his head toward the three people tied up in the corner of the room. "You just missed an attempted robbery."

Faith whistled. "Damn, I always miss the excitement," she said lightly. "How'd you manage to catch them?"

Although she didn't miss the way the prisoners perked up at her words, the others did. Their leader shook his head and shot her a wry grin. "It was a set-up," he explained, warming up to the subject when he saw the interested look on Faith's face. "We knew they were coming, so we had ten of us waiting for them."

Faith smiled and took a step closer. "What tipped you off?" she asked, her voice dropping a few octaves. "I mean, I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that a man as obviously smart, and handsome, as you saw right through them … but still."

The man looked her over and grinned when he apparently liked what he saw. "Like you said, it was easy to see through them," he said. "I'll admit we had some help, though; it was a double-cross from the beginning. Looks like our would-be robbers here made an enemy of the wrong man."

"That's interesting," Faith said, still smiling. Then she clenched her hand into a fist and shot it forward, sending the man sprawling to the ground in an unconscious heap within seconds.

Before the other three men had a chance to react, Faith jumped at them. A few punches and one bent gun later, all three of them had joined the first. Shaking her head in amusement, she made her way over to where the three prisoners were and quickly untied the ropes.

Jayne glanced at the four men laying unconscious on the floor before giving her an appreciative look. Faith just rolled her eyes. "I'm still not sleeping with you," she said, cutting him off just as he started to speak.

As something that looked a lot like a pout appeared on Jayne's face, Zoe just nodded at her. "Good timing."

"I try," Faith said, smiling a bit. Then she turned toward Mal. "Think Badger really double-crossed you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Looks like," he replied, a dark look on his face.

Faith just grinned. "You could let me loose in a room with him for five minutes," she suggested. "That's all I'd need."

Mal stared at her for a moment before the expression on his face lightened. "Afraid not, Faith," he finally replied. "We can get more out of him if he's still alive."

She gave him an innocent look, causing Jayne to snort and Mal to raise an eyebrow. Zoe just shook her head. "We still haven't got the money," the older woman pointed out.

"Not a problem," Faith said lightly, walking over to the safe. All it took as one well-planned hit for the door to pop open.

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"How'd it go?" Kaylee asked as soon as they stepped inside Serenity.

Mal sighed, and Jayne let out a grunt. Zoe just shrugged. "Same as usual."

"Who got shot this time then?" Simon asked, studying them with some scrutiny. "Stabbed? Poisoned?"

Faith smirked. "You might want to check the three of them out for rope burns," she said teasingly, gesturing toward Mal, Jayne, and Zoe. "They got a little … tied up."

"Tied up?" Wash asked as he stepped off of the stairs. "What do you mean by tied up? I'm the only one allowed to tie up my wife."

Simon glanced over at him. "Too much information," he said lightly.

Wash just waved him off. "What have you been getting my wife into?" he asked Mal.

"I haven't been getting your wife into anything," Mal shot back exasperatedly.

"Of course not," Wash agreed, turning away from Mal and instead focusing on Faith. "What's he been getting my wife into?"

At that, Mal rolled his eyes. "One of these days you're going to start acting like I'm in charge here."

Faith laughed as she walked over and gave Mal a quick peck on the cheek. "Whatever you say," she said with a wink.

Still smiling, she turned her attention toward Wash. "It really wasn't much," she replied, reaching out to give him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. She just grinned as both Mal and Zoe tensed just a bit. "Badger double-crossed us, the three of them walked into an ambush, I got the chance to kick some ass, and now Mal's going to let me kill the little weasel who started everything."

"You're not going to kill him," Mal said immediately. "Remember what I said about him not being able to get us more jobs if he's dead?"

"Details, details," Faith said, shrugging. Then she did a quick glance around the room. "'Nara not back yet?"

"Not yet," Kaylee said. "She's supposed to be back in less than an hour though. And the Shepherd's already called in to say he's on his way back from town." She paused for a moment and grinned. "Apparently the law's trying to keep it quiet about the bank getting robbed. Something about four men getting beat up by a woman."

"If you already knew that, why'd you ask how it went?" Jayne grumbled.

Mal just nodded, ignoring Jayne's mutterings. "Good," he said. "As soon as she gets here, we need to leave. I don't want to risk staying here any longer than we have to."

"Risk is the Slayer's lover."

None of them even blinked as River seemed to appear out of nowhere. Faith just smirked. "Sometimes," she said, winking at the younger girl. "At the moment, this Slayer's lover happens to be your captain."

River stared at her for a few seconds before her mouth twisted into a smile. "Still trapped where she doesn't belong," she said lightly. "But it doesn't matter as much now."

Faith rolled her eyes as she walked over and ruffled River's hair. "Whatever you say, psychic girl," she said.

River suddenly grinned. "You're always on top."

For just a second, no one made a sound. Then Wash burst out laughing, followed close behind by Kaylee and Jayne. When the others joined in, Faith watched in amusement as Mal's face turned an interesting shade of red.

Yep. It was pretty much an ordinary day in her new life.