Chapter 18

While Bernardo weighed the pros and cons of each of his men, across town, Riff was still waiting for his own to show up. The brutal headache wouldn't let him get any rest, so he'd given up on trying to get back to sleep soon after he'd closed his eyes again. He'd lain on the couch for another good hour and it seemed to have helped settle his stomach as he didn't feel like he was gonna puke his guts up anytime soon anymore. Now he was sitting up, carefully trying to keep as still as possible just in case the nausea would come back, and had been staring towards the entrance of their building. The boys should start showing up any minute now, he hoped. He wanted to know what he'd said to be left alone out here all night like this, without so much as one person for protection.

The first person to show up that morning couldn't provide him with the answer he was looking for, but he did have a lot of questions for Riff, who instantly felt guilty upon seeing his face, which was shining with a mixture of concern and relief.

"Hey, Tony," Riff started, feeling an awfulness that had nothing really to do with his hangover as his best friend came to sit beside him, eyes scanning him up and down as he approached. It took Riff a moment to realize he was looking for injuries.

"Riff! I'm so glad you're okay, when you didn't come home the past couple nights, I thought..." Tony trailed off, the ghost of remembered grief flashing in his eyes for a moment before he shook his head. "It doesn't matter now, I'm just glad you're here and nothing's happened."

If Riff wasn't entirely sober before, the earnestness in his friend's voice sure helped him sober up now. He knew that look on his face, the tightness around his eyes before he'd finished speaking. He'd been thinking about the last rumble, about how the last time Riff hadn't come home it was because he'd been nearly killed by Bernardo and left for dead underneath the highway. In the chaos of the last few days, Riff had forgotten the new rule they'd established after that: come home every night or at least every day. He hadn't. The old rule of coming home every couple of days had been in place so long that he'd automatically fallen back on it lately.

He'd been so caught up in all the stuff with the Sharks and Angie that he'd completely forgotten about Tony. The night Angie had been stabbed, he'd come back to the hideout after talking to Anybodys instead of going home like he'd planned, too preoccupied with figuring out how to replace A-Rab's patrol routes and other duties now that Anybodys had to fill in for him. Then last night he'd spent passed out here, by himself. As he thought about it, the night before he'd even met Angie he'd gone home with Diesel because they'd been discussing something or another when everyone wandered off for the night. To Tony, he'd been MIA for three nights now. How could he be so stupid?

"I'm sorry I forgot to come home the last couple of days, Tony. You know what it's like doing gang business," He apologized, not wanting to get into the whole mess they had to deal with now.

"Yeah, I do." Tony said quietly. He did know how gang business went, that's why he'd been terrified this morning to discover Riff still wasn't at the apartment. That's why he'd been searching the city since before the sun came up trying to find him. He absolutely hated gang business, he hated the risks everyone took every single day by being involved with it, that's why he'd been trying to leave the Jets back before he'd met Maria. He wished Riff would understand sense and break the gang up, but he knew he wouldn't. All he could do is worry about his best friend and hope nothing else happened to him because of being a Jet.

"What are you up to now that's kept you out for three nights?" He asked. Now that the panic had passed, he had time to be suspicious. He hadn't seen Maria in the last few days so he didn't know if the Sharks were mixed up with the Jets again or if Riff had gotten everyone into some new problem. Either way, it couldn't be anything good.

Riff sighed, knowing he should've expected this question. He didn't want to involve Tony with anything having to do with the Jets or their conflicts anymore, wanting to respect him for his choice to get out of this life. He'd been angry at him for awhile but after the rumble, he started to see why Tony would want to leave. So he tried to keep his best friend out of Jet things as a general rule now, but it's not like he could just refuse to answer a question about it. Tony's choice to ask about it, after all.

"A couple of days ago, I ran into this girl," Riff began the whole tale and Tony listened intently, brows creased in concern by the end of it.

Just as Tony opened his mouth to ask the first of many questions he had concerning the recent events, the door to the hideout slammed open. In walked Action, clearly fuming about something, but the sight of Tony seemed to only make him angrier.

"What's he doin' here!" He yelled, stalking up to the two of them as Riff flinched. The loud volume of voice made his headache renew with a vengeance and he grit his teeth before replying in a biting tone.

"Last time I checked, he's got the right to be here same as anybody else."

"Yeah, anybody like the Puerto Ricans?" Action retorted, getting to the root of his reasoning for storming in. Riff narrowed his eyes at him while Tony just looked confused.

"The Sharks aren't welcome here?" Tony questioned, a voice hitching with disbelief, wanting to make sure that at least hadn't changed in his absence. He wouldn't think so, especially given what had transpired just days beforehand. Riff shook his head in the negative.

"Yeah, they are if they're a poor broad Riff finds on the street! He brought that girl in and gave her our protection when she's probably just a spy!" Action accused. Riff felt his own anger burn hotter at the insinuation that he'd betray the gang by letting in an enemy but he tried to keep it in check.

"She is not a spy, she needed our help! Plus she's A-Rab's family, any protection we'd give him, we give her. Now drop it." He ordered, fighting to keep his voice level. Action would listen to him if he knew what was good for him, especially since he was the leader and what he says, goes. They had enough problems without in-fighting happening. Action had always been quick to fight about anything, but usually not against him or one of the other Jets. This was a lot to deal with and it wasn't even properly 9 am yet.

"Angie's Puerto Rican?" Tony breathed out beside him, too quiet for Action to hear over the blood rushing in his ears.

"How can a spic like her even be related to somebody like A-Rab, huh? They look nothin' alike, plus he's clearly one of us. Just like she's clearly one of them. She was probably sent to us by the Sharks to gather information about our patrols and such so they can jump us unawares." Action continued his rant, venom still clear in his tone though he had realized yelling wasn't the right move. He didn't know what Riff was implying as a punishment, but he'd be damned if he lost his place in the gang because of this fucking PR stray. If his anger was gonna get him kicked out, it was going to be over something that was actually worth it.

"Don't call her that! I told you, she's A-Rab's baby sister, he loves her, that's all we care about. The details about it don't matter." Riff didn't even know the details himself, but still they didn't matter to him. Like sure, Angie looked different but she had the same New York accent the rest of them did. She wasn't a PR, she wasn't a Shark, she was just Angie.

"Action, why don't you go find Diesel and you two head out on patrol early?" Tony cut in before Action could take the argument further.

"I don't take no orders from a traitor!" Action spat and Riff had to stop himself from jumping up. He wanted to slug him, but it would just make things more complicated. Instead, he mustered up all the authoritativeness he had and pushed it into his voice for his next words.

"Go find Diesel. I don't want you here until tonight when everyone's off duty."

With could see the fire flare in Action's eyes but the other boy bit his tongue, wisely choosing to stalk out of the building instead of egging it on. All of his own fight seemed to leave with him.

"Sorry about that, Tony. He didn't mean it." Riff offered, seeing how Tony's face had fallen at Action's last insult. All of the guys kind of treated him more distantly since he decided to get out of it, mostly because it felt to them like abandonment. Nobody had been so bold as to call him a traitor to his face like that, though. Most of them still respected him enough to not do things like that, especially after he'd stabbed Bernardo in retaliation for what Riff's near murder at the last rumble. But Action held his leaving against him more than anyone else did, it was clear from the expression on his face anytime Tony's name was brought up. He probably had meant the insult, but Riff wanted to make his best friend feel better, not worse.

Tony didn't say anything in reply, just sighed as he looked towards the door. He wanted to stay with Riff for the day, if only just to bring him back home at the end of it, so that meant being around everyone. He hoped the other Jets weren't as riled up today as Action had been. The two sat in silence as they waited for the rest of the gang to show up.

Ice was the next person to come through the front door and if he was surprised to see Tony, it didn't show on his face. Riff, however, seemed surprised that he was walking in alone.

"Ice, didn't A-Rab and Angie go back with you last night?" Riff asked, trying his best to recall what happened after he'd yelled at the boys. He kind of remembered everyone leaving and he thought for sure that the two siblings had gone with Ice. But asking was the only real way to be sure. Ice nodded.

"They did. Ice asked me to tell you they're not coming out today, he wants to make sure Angie rests up and thought it would be better if she just stayed in the apartment to do that," He explained and Riff nodded. "I'm really surprised he's actually following your no gang duty orders, honestly."

"So am I, but these aren't normal circumstances. Any other time A-Rab would just keep on anyways but since it concerns Angela, he wouldn't do anything that would distract him from watching out for her. It's what you do for family, right?"

Both Tony and Ice answered in the affirmative and the latter sat down on the other side of Riff so they could begin discussing the plan for today. Tony was glad Ice wasn't causing a scene, but then he hadn't expected him to. Ice was one of the calmest members of the Jets and if he'd thought anyone was gonna act like Action had earlier, it certainly wouldn't be Ice he'd suspect.

By the time everyone else started coming in, Riff and Ice has decided they were going to double down on patrolling around the parts of their territory that paralleled the Sharks' territory. Even having their enemies step foot on their side was something to be avoided right now as they'd proven that they weren't above attempted murder. Sure, the last rumble when Riff had been stabbed was attempted murder, but Bernardo had also been stabbed. That was an entirely different situation as they'd been in combat and each side had taken the same hits, not at all like the way Sharks had ambushed Angie alone for no reason. As far as Riff was concerned, that had been an act of war and they needed to change their defense tactics as such.

Their normal patrol routes were meant to guard Jet territory, and that was still important, but now safety was their primary concern. They'd always hated and distrusted the Sharks, but never because they thought they would murder any of them. Maybe beat them up or something petty like that, but not actual murder. That was no longer the case, so it was only logical to alter their patrol routes to focus on ensuring none of them snuck over into their part of the city to get close to them.

Riff explained the new plan and assigned the boys into pairs and gave them their routes without any protest. Baby John looked nervous at the thought of keeping so close to Shark territory, but he was nervous by nature and Riff knew he'd be fine as long as someone else was with him. He'd usually put him with A-Rab but since he was off duty, Riff decided to assign Ice with him. He knew he'd be able enough to defend both of them.

By the time everyone was paired off and heading to their assigned routes, Mouthpiece reluctantly as he'd been paired with Anybodys, the only one left was Diesel.

"You're with Action, as usual, but you're gonna have to find him first. He's in a tizzy and blew up at me earlier, so I sent him off to find you. When you find him, tell him the new patrol arrangements and head to your route, got it?" Riff explained to him, who'd seemed slightly confused at the lack of his hotheaded best friend from the minute he'd arrived. Riff watched as understanding dawned on him and Diesel took off out the door without replying, knowing just the place that Action would be looking for him.

Since Tony was sticking around today, Riff had taken him as his own partner. As they headed out towards their route, Tony thought of how thankful he was that he hadn't been assigned to one of the other guys. This way he could reassure himself of Riff's wellbeing and do his part to show his loyalty to both Riff and the Jets. He wasn't sure that toeing the boundary between Shark and Jet territory was the best move, but he couldn't think of one that the guys wouldn't shoot down so he'd kept his mouth shut. Even though he didn't quite believe Bernardo had actively wanted to hurt this mythical teenage girl he'd just met, especially given what Riff had told him about running into him at Docs last night, it did seem like the Sharks were upping the danger ante all the same. He just hoped they could work it all out once and for all soon, preferably with a better outcome than the last time they'd tried to have "one last fight" to settle things.