As he went about changing into mostly clean clothes, A-Rab contemplated how best to keep Angie away from both Action and Riff without rousing either of their suspicions. The feat seemed impossible given the close proximity the gang kept to each other at all times, even more so now that they had to watch out even more for the Sharks. He settled into one of the kitchen chairs as he thought, making sure he had a clear view of both the front door and Angie.

After a while, he settled on a decision he normally wouldn't have. Today, he and Angie were just going to stay in Ice's apartment, provided that was alright with Ice, of course. He didn't want to deal with whatever Action was up to right now, and he didn't want to make Angie deal with Riff if he was still in the mood he'd been in last night. Riff was prone to yelling and shouting when he was angry, especially if he was drunk or hungover, and he'd rather spare Angie from experiencing anymore men yelling if he could. Hell, he himself preferred to avoid it when possible. That was one of the consequences of how he and Angie had grown up. He still got a little uneasy hearing men yell, even if it was just Riff or one of the guys. Familiar didn't lessen the fear. After all, he'd never known any man better than he knew his father and him yelling always meant a lot of pain was coming to A-Rab very soon.

Not only that, but at least Ice's apartment had things being out on the streets didn't. He had a small kitchen that always had a few essentials in it, plus he had a bathroom and a safe place to rest. A-Rab didn't much care for luxuries like these for himself, but Angie deserved to have access to them. Plus with her injury, it was probably best to keep her out of the filth and grime that the hideout offered anyway. On top of that, her lungs were probably better off without all the dust from that place too. It was a good plan, he thought, as he could avoid both boys he was trying to and Angie would be safer for the decision. No Riff, no Action, and most importantly, no Sharks were in this apartment. Nor were they likely to be. It would be easy enough to have Ice make an excuse for him, seeing as how everyone knew his one job and priority right now was looking after his little sister and keeping her safe. That wasn't even an excuse, it was the true point of them staying in today.

Resolve firmly in place, A-Rab waited until Ice wandered out of his bedroom an hour later. Upon the other boy's questioning look at Angie's still sleeping form, he quietly informed him of his decision. Ice didn't protest and assured him that he would pass along the message to Riff and commended him for actually listening to the fact that he'd been taken off of active gang duty for the foreseeable future before heading out the door. As he heard the door click, A-Rab mulled that last bit over and decided it was just a bonus to his credibility that it had ended up working in his favor. He didn't know when his sister would wake up, only that he would let her sleep as long as she needed to, and he'd figure out how to entertain her then. Until that point though, he was content just to keep watch over her, something he wished he'd been doing her whole life. Maybe this could begin to make up for it.

Across town, in another apartment, Bernardo was no closer to solving his dilemma. He had learned Angie's full name and the general gist of why the Jets protected her, but neither of those things really explained how they could look past their racism for her but not for anyone else that looked like her. He understood the inherent love for family, and how that love could be extended to involve others you considered family. If he had a white sister and brought her into the Sharks, his boys would protect her the same way they do Maria, no questions asked. But the difference between them and the Jets was that they didn't hate the Jets for their whiteness, they hated them for how they had attacked them the first time they laid eyes on each other. The Jets hated them for the color of their skin, for their homeland, for the fact that they'd come over on a boat and not just been born in America. Yes, he and the Sharks hurled insults at the various Jets that attacked their ethnicities, but truthfully if they Italian or Polish or whatever else didn't matter, it was just an easy attack and happened to mirror the Jets' favorite tactic of calling them racial slurs. Every other sentences uttered by them ended with "spic". Bernardo remembered that he'd been trying to end the hostilities between them when this whole mess with Angie started, and he still wanted that, but it was seeming more improbable the longer he thought about this. Were the Jets inherently racist, or was it just a choice? Was it because they came from somewhere else, not just because they were brown, that the Jets hated them? But then again, as the words the Sharks hurled at them pointed out, they themselves had family that had also come over from somewhere else. The Jets surely had either parents or maybe grandparents that had taken a boat from their own homeland to America in search of a better life. Logically, that would mean they didn't hate him and his family for being immigrants, they hated them for being brown. But then again there was the dilemma of Angie, who was brown but seemingly not an immigrant, completely opposing his previous conclusion.

Perhaps Angie wasn't even Puerto Rican, in which case it would seem the Jets didn't hate all brown people, just Puerto Ricans. Which in itself offered up a whole new host of questions, but would solve the question of why Angie deserves basic human respect from them while he and the Sharks do not. Bernardo sighed in defeat and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. This internal speculating was doing nothing but further frustrate him. On top of all of these theories, he still had the nagging suspicion that Riff had beaten on Angie, giving her the black eye and bruises before ever bringing her to their hideout. This only served to complicate things as he couldn't imagine why an entire gang of boys would bother protecting a girl so fiercely when their leader was the one who was hurting her. But then, would the others even know about it?

Bernardo desperately wanted to find answers but could only come up with one solution: asking Angie what was going on. But that wasn't going to happen. Even if the Jets didn't huddle around her like watchdogs, there was no way she would want to speak to him, especially not alone. He had stabbed her, never mind that it had been an accident. He wouldn't want to talk to him either if he was in her shoes. The other options he could think of mostly included attempting to speak to other Jets, which would most likely end badly for him. Best case scenario, they told him what he wanted to know. Worst case scenario: they didn't tell him anything and started a fight, which was the more likely scenario.

He had even thought of who to talk to, ruling out Riff and some of the more bloodthirsty Jets Immediately. Ice, who he assumed acted as Riff's lieutenant nowadays, seemed pretty levelheaded, but he would be just as untrusting as Riff and therefore probably wouldn't tell him anything. He wasn't sure if the youngest of the gang would even be helpful, considering Baby John seemed to be more on the fringes of the hierarchy than the older boys, so he was out. He'd already talked to Anybodys, who he considered the safest of them all to speak with. He hadn't seen much in the way of people actually interacting with or talking to Angie so he couldn't be sure who, if anyone, was close enough with her to know the answers he was seeking. Perhaps he would have to send one of his guys to watch and see if anyone was closer to her than anyone else?

He didn't like the concept of spying, it seemed like taking advantage of someone's private life without their knowledge, but it was the only thing he could come up with which would help him to at least figure out who he should try to talk to for answers. The first step would be figuring out who would know information, the second step would be trying to make the Jets (or at least whoever he needed to speak to) actually trust that he didn't have malicious intent every single time they encountered him, and the third would be to find the time to speak to that person alone. It would be a difficult plan to execute, but if he wanted to settle his mind and his heart, he would need to go through with it.

This was about, first of all, making sure Angie was actually safe with the Jets and not secretly being hurt by their leader. His other burning curiosity, solving the question of why their racist treatment of the Sharks didn't extend to Angie, was secondary. Who knew, perhaps he could piece together the answer to that one without directly asking?

Plan cemented in his mind, Bernardo left his apartment to go down to the more communal area to decide which of his men would be best for the job. He didn't know who would be chosen yet, but he knew for sure It absolutely couldn't be his second in command. Chino, while normally trustworthy, had already once suggested (not to mention was in the process of acting upon) actually murdering a total stranger for just knowing the Jets. He wasn't about to send him out alone to be in any kind of proximity to her or them.