Continuing the intro to a story that will be about various facets of BDSM. If BDSM is not something that interests you, feel free to ignore it.

If you are not of legal age, whether that is 18 or 21 depending on your location, you should not be reading this. This is because, as stated above, the story will deal with various facets of BDSM and such activities are for adults, not minors.

**********

Raven Annette Templeton heard her father William enter the house, she had been chilling in the living room watching TV without really paying attention to it ever since she returned home from school an hour ago. It was mid-October, leaves were changing or falling from the trees.

Will shucked off his boots, he'd only worn them because of the heavy rain and not wanting to ruin a pair of high quality Italian loafers. Will was the second partner in the firm of Jentzen, Templeton, Barnes and Whitney. Whitney had been raised to partner about two years ago, as the firm felt it needed a new partner, especially one with a knowledge of business and industrial law, which were Whitney's specializations. Jentzen and Templeton were criminal lawyers, Barnes dealt with international law, so Whitney added a new line of clients to the firm.

Will wasn't pleased to see Raven sitting on the couch. He didn't even bother to say hello; he snarled at her as he reached over the back of the couch to grab her, "Why the hell are you sitting there? You know damn well you should be making dinner, you stupid bitch, now move your ass into the kitchen before I throw you in there!" The last was said as Raven twisted forward onto the floor to avoid him.

Raven shook her head, she was no little girl, no, sir, she was 6'2" tall and roughly 170 pounds of long, lean muscle thanks to her running. She'd taken bronze or better at every single track meet for the last three years, now she was in her senior year of high school at Westhill High.

Raven was pissed, she'd put up with it long enough, "I'm not your fucking slave, dad, ever since mom died serving in Afghanistan three years ago, you seem to think that's all I'm fucking good for, cooking, cleaning, laundry. When the fuck did you last do anything for yourself?"

Will stalked into the small kitchen, opened the fridge and grabbed a tall boy, cracked it open and took a long drink from the can. "I'm no girl, bitch, that's women's work, you're female, so you're going to goddamn do it, or I'll damn well beat the shit out of you!" he yelled.

"Like hell you will, you misogynistic bastard! I may look female, dad, but I'm not, I should have been a boy and I will be one, damn you!"

Will stood there stunned as Raven stomped up the stairs to his room.

Just before Raven entered his room, he turned and screamed out, "Make your own fucking dinner, dad!"

Will didn't know what to think, he grabbed a second can and walked to the couch and dropped onto it, then took a long hard drink.

**********

After the incident at the mall in early October, Tessa called Stanley each Friday afternoon after her shift had ended. They would spend the next thirty minutes to an hour chatting with each other, Stanley's attempts to find work, general chatter about her shifts, that sort of thing.

This particular Friday afternoon, not quite four weeks before Thanksgiving, Stanley took a chance and threw it all out there.

"Tessa, I've had feelings for a long time that something wasn't right. I remember looking at girls way back when I was in first grade, seeing them wearing dresses and wishing I could do that. I had no idea what I wanted at that point, if I'd had the chance to dress, I might have known a lot sooner, but my mom was a lot bigger. I've been 5'2" tall since I was twelve, and my mom was just under 5'10, her clothes just wouldn't fit.

"I remember sneaking into her room about two months before she died and trying on a pair of her pantyhose, I looked totally silly. The only way I could wear her blouses was to tie them at the waist, I never tried her skirts or pants because to wear them, I would have had to cut a hole way down any of the belts she owned, and she would have seen that immediately. I had no idea at that point that the cancer was killing her. After she died, dad sent all of her clothing to the second hand store in town and that took away any chance of dressing again."

"So how have you been dealing with this, with no opportunity to do that over the last several years? And what's your femme name?"

"My femme name? Oh, I've always liked Stacy. It hasn't been easy, Tessa, I'm just existing most of the time, I can't handle it any more!" was the response as the teen started bawling. Tessa tried to calm the child down, but it was a slow process, interrupted now and then by the repeated comments of "I'm a girl" or "I should have been a girl" from Stanley, no Stacy, this was definitely a girl crying over the phone line.

The call lasted almost ninety minutes, Tessa did eventually manage to get Stacy to stop crying as they discussed possible options.

"Tessa, I've held on this long, I can last another eight weeks or so until my birthday, I'll be eighteen, which gives me lots of options."

"Okay, Stacy but if you really need to talk to someone, you call me, you hear, girl?"

"I sure will, Tessa, thanks for all of your help!"

**********

Alana relaxed in her recliner, watching a movie. Life had changed a great deal since she finally admitted that she needed to BE Alana, not just spend her time idly dreaming about becoming her. Eleven months earlier, she had finally taken the first step and had talked to a psych about her need to transition. She saw Dr. Claire Prentice every two weeks for about three months before she was given her first prescription.

About three months after that first prescription, the doctor decided that one visit every four weeks was sufficient. The only additional visit that would be needed would be a blood test every three months to make sure her liver function was normal and there were no other issues.

Her body was slowly changing, partly due to the hormones, partly due to the aerobic exercises she did at the start of each day. She was 5'8" tall, with her widening hips, narrowing waist and not quite full B cup breasts, she now weighed in at 135 pounds, down from just over 160.

She worked as a paramedic for the Westhill Hospital, there were only a dozen or so paramedics in the whole town, so it wasn't unusual to have to work twelve hour shifts and sometimes double shifts when someone was ill or had an emergency come up. She didn't mind, she'd been doing the work here for almost twenty years now, since shortly after she graduated from university in May of '98.

She had initially studied law, she had actually been about three months short of her bachelor's degree when she realized that law wasn't what she wanted to do with her life. She finished the law degree, then returned to school the next semester for a paramedics degree.

She loved the work, as it gave her the chance to save lives when people were injured or sick. There had been some nasty talk from one or two of her co-workers when she first transitioned, but after they had been firmly warned that any discrimination could result in their dismissal, it stopped. That wasn't the only reason it stopped, the other workers knew damn well that she threw her all into the work, no matter what.

She lost herself in the movie for a while, which was nice, being able to relax after the stress of work was a good thing in her mind. Just before the movie ended, she chuckled to herself as she realized that the next day, November 2nd, would be her 42nd birthday.

She suddenly had a flashback, reliving the events of her sixth birthday when he had told his parents that he was a girl, mistakenly believing that they would help him. His father had hit him several times, even knocked him out, and his mother had just stood there watching it all.

He never mentioned it again and left for university in Boston three days after he graduated from high school.

She wasn't sure whether she would even celebrate it or not, she had very few friends in the town of 11,587 people. Well, that wasn't completely true, there were a few nurses at the hospital that she considered to be friends, maybe she could invite them over to help her celebrate.

She spent the next 45 minutes on the phone chatting with her three nurse friends, they would go out for dinner tomorrow evening.

**********

On November 10th, Raven entered the house just before 5 PM and decided to make dinner, she actually felt like cooking tonight. After checking the fridge, she pulled out two medium potatoes, some frozen lean ground beef and a bag of frozen mixed vegetables.

She cut off enough of the meat to make four burgers, sprinkled a bit of lemon pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, black pepper and a tiny bit of salt on the meat as she formed the patties, then grabbed a large frying pan, turned one of the front burners on the stove on and dropped the meat into the pan. Grabbing a pot from one of the cupboards under the counter, she added water and dropped the potatoes in after washing them. She turned the other front burner on, set it halfway between medium and high and continued to watch the meat as it browned.

She pulled another pot from the cupboard under the counter, measured out some of the frozen vegetables, added water and set it on a back burner, turned that one on, checked the frying pan and flipped the burgers before sprinkling the new side with spices as she'd done before.

She then spent a few minutes washing and chopping tomatoes, washing lettuce and peeling, rinsing and slicing a Spanish onion. She could smell the meat as it continued to cook, returning to the stove briefly to flip the burgers again and stir the potatoes and vegetables.

She turned on the oven, setting it to 250°F to preheat, she'd put the burgers on a plate covered in tinfoil to stay warm once they were done.

There was a bag of hamburger buns on a shelf in the pantry next to the fridge, she grabbed four and set them on a plate.

She flipped the burgers one last time, noticing they were almost fully cooked, then put a slice of cheese on each patty. Turning to the two pots, she stirred them again, used a fork to check the potatoes, they needed about ten more minutes, the veggies maybe five.

When the burgers were done, she turned off the burner the frying pan had been on, set the burgers on a plate, covered it with tinfoil and placed it on the lower rack in the oven. When she closed the oven, she pulled the vegetables off the stove, turning off that burner, then grabbed a colander and dumped the veggies in to drain them. She could leave the vegetables there for a few minutes.

The potatoes only needed a few more minutes, she reached into a cupboard and grabbed two plates, then a glass from another one. She was turning back to the stove to check the potatoes again when her father entered the house. Like usual, he was in a foul mood.

"It's about time that you got off your ass and did things in here, bitch, now put the food on the table!" he snapped as he dropped his briefcase on the hall table and haphazardly tossed his jacket onto a hanger in the hall closet before heading into the kitchen.

Raven lost it, she screamed back, "I'm not your fucking bitch, asshole! I've told you once, I'm a boy, not a fucking girl!" She hated the way her father acted toward her, she was truly furious as she pulled the burgers from the oven and the potatoes from the stove. She could have given into the anger at that point, but the food wasn't the problem, it was her asshole of a father and his idiotic outdated beliefs.

"Wrong, you stupid bitch, you were born female, you'll fucking die female, dammit. You obey my rules or I'll beat them into you!"

That was just too much, Raven had just picked up a burger after transferring the potatoes into a bowl, she threw both of them at him. He barely saw her hands moving before the burger whacked him in the left eye and the potatoes and bowl slammed into his throat.

Will screamed in pain as he tried to cover his eye, he didn't even notice Raven as she stomped up to her room and slammed the door. The potatoes and bowl hitting his throat were painful, too, but nowhere near as bad as the pain from the burger hitting him in the eye. He staggered to the fridge, grabbed several ice cubes from the tray in the freezer, wrapped them in a wash cloth, then in a bag and placed it on his eye.

Will heard her radio as she turned it on, then cranked the sound. As much as he wanted to go up there and force her to turn it down, it could wait, right now, his eye was far more important. He growled as he continued to hold the bag of wrapped ice against his burned eyelid and cheek. He'd been damned lucky that he'd been in mid-blink, eyes closed, when the burger hit him, it would have been much worse otherwise.

**********

Once Raven was in her room, she turned on her radio to her favourite station and cranked it to full volume.

She sat on the edge of her bed, listening to the music while thinking about recent events between herself and her father. She'd turned eighteen on October 3rd, so she could leave if she wanted to, the problem was that she didn't know where she could go if she did leave.

She had no idea what to do and eventually lost herself in the music.

**********

About an hour after he'd been hit by the burger and other items, Will checked the eye again, the pain was now bearable and he could see fairly well with that eye. He was not impressed with Raven at all, it was time to teach her a lesson that she would definitely remember. He headed over to the hall closet, pulled out the old Louisville Slugger baseball bat and walked up the stairs, then kicked her door open.

When the door came crashing open, punching a hole in the wall behind the now open door, Raven looked up, just in time to see his dad come stalking into the room, raising the baseball bat as if he were about to hit him, then she realized that he really would do it.

He rolled out of the bed, ending up by his closet on the other side of the room, before he turned around to face him.

He kept moving forward, shifted the grip so the bat was in both hands and started to swing it at her head. He was snarling at her as he swung the bat, "It's lesson time, girlie, when I fucking tell you to do something, you will goddamn do it from now on, bitch!"

Raven was startled, but instinctively raised his left hand, then felt the smack of the bat as it hit his palm. It hurt like hell, but he held on for all he was worth, using all the strength of his younger, fitter body to keep him from hitting him with it. "Not fucking likely, daddy asshole!"

Will pushed forward as hard as he could, he could feel it as her arm was forced back, "Damn right I will, bitch, I make the rules here!"

Raven hissed back, straining to keep the bat away, "Rules are only worthwhile if they are fair to everyone, your rules only benefit you."

Will shoved again, Raven stepped on something on the floor and lost his balance, falling against the wall. Will pulled back the bat, and swung again, figuring he'd get a clean shot, then Raven dropped to the floor, kicked up with all his strength and caught him square in the nuts. He quickly stood up, grabbed the bat from the floor by his father's hand and moved around him to his backpack at the side of the bed.

Will dropped to the floor, dropping the bat as he fell, then grabbed at his crotch, whining and moaning as he rolled around.

He pulled out his cell phone, called the local police department and requested a unit, "My father has been threatening for two weeks to beat me into line if I didn't do what he wanted, he started threatening me again an hour or so ago, I threw half of the food I'd cooked at him, then came upstairs. A few minutes ago, he kicked my door in and tried to hit me with a baseball bat, I had to kick him in the nuts to stop him."

"Okay, Miss, we'll send a car, the address is 37 Maple Lane, Westhill, correct? Your phone number is 555-1993?"

"Both of those are correct, I need to make sure he doesn't try something else before they get here."

Raven turned back toward his father, who was still clutching at his crotch, moaning wordlessly as he rolled back and forth on the floor. He stepped past him, then went down the stairs to the front door, unlocked it and waited for the police car to arrive.

**********

Raven saw the police car pull to a stop in front of the house and used his right hand to open the door, allowing the officers to enter. Once the officers were inside, he quickly showed them his left palm, which was quite red and very sore. "This is the bat he was using," as he held up the bat in her right hand. "You saw this is a duplex, right? Well, I'm pretty sure the Martins next door heard it all, the walls are very thin."

"Thanks, Miss, I'm Officer Bob Jasper, this is Officer Alan Parnell, he'll go and talk to the Martins while I talk to you."

The second officer nodded, exited the house, then turned and knocked on the door to the other unit, entering it a moment later.

Officer Jasper listened to Raven for nearly fifteen minutes as he described recent events in the house, including the desire to be a male. "It's quite clear that you won't be safe if you stay here, so you're going to need to grab some clothes to take with you. I'm going to call Judge Paulter and have her write up a restraining order against your dad, I'm not sure if it will help at all, but if you don't charge him, that's all we can do."

Raven was still talking to Officer Jasper when his dad came staggering down the stairs, screaming to have Raven charged with assault.

"Stop right there, Mr. Templeton, if I charge Raven, then I'll have to charge you, which will be a whole lot of fun, considering I can charge you with threatening to assault, attempted assault with a weapon/dangerous weapon and possibly attempted murder, with her, just assault."

"What the fuck are you talking about, she's flat out disobeyed my rules and just kicked me in the balls, you half-baked piece of shit."

Officer Parnell knocked, then entered the house. "Like the girl here says, he's been threatening her constantly for more than two weeks."

"Officers, I know I look like a girl to both of you, but in here and here," pointing to her head and heart, "I'm a boy, a young man, not a girl."

"Parnell, take him into the living room and keep an eye on him," requested Officer Jasper, "I'm calling Judge Paulter."

Bob Jasper pulled out his own cell phone, hit one of the speed dials on it and was soon connected to Judge Paulter's office. "Hi, Tanya, is the Judge still there?... She is?... Good, have her call me back, please, my number is 555-4685, thanks."

He ended the call, "So what do I call you, and what do I tell the Judge?"

Raven replied, "Raven Andrew Templeton, and tell the Judge that I intend to transition from female to male as soon as possible."

"Hello, Judge, I need to have a restraining order written against one William James Templeton, address 37 Maple Lane, Westhill. The order is to prevent him for interacting in any way with his 18 year old daughter, Raven Annette Templeton. Raven has informed me she intends to seek treatment for gender dysphoria, and also informed me that she wishes to be addressed as Raven Andrew, her chosen male name."

He listened for a minute or two, then passed the phone to Raven who answered questions from the Judge and handed the phone back.

Officer Jasper and the Judge talked for a minute or two longer, then the Judge hung up and the officer ended the call.

"You're lucky, there's been tons of work the last few weeks, so the Judge was still in the office, we'll have three copies of the restraining order within 45 minutes. She's in the process of writing them up now and will have an officer bring them here when they're ready."

"Thanks, Officer, now all I have to worry about is where I'll end up tonight."

"That might not be an issue, Raven, I heard a nurse in the hospital mention the other day that she had a room available. We'd just brought in some jerk who'd smashed a brand new Ferrari 488 Spider into an oak tree," he chuckled as he opened the phone and placed another call.

"Hi, Tessa, I've got a girl who needs a room pretty urgently, a restraining order is being issued against her father, she's not safe at home.... Well, she was born female, but it seems she identifies as a male, so I'm assuming she'd prefer to be able to live as male while there." He listened for a minute or two, then replied, "Okay, I'll have her pack some clothes and I'll drop her off at your place in about 45 minutes."

He continued to talk and listen for another minute or two, then ended the call. "You have somewhere to go, Tessa's a great person."

Raven breathed out a sigh of relief at the news. When asked if he wanted to press charges, he said no. Officer Jasper walked into the living room and spent the next fifteen minutes restraining his anger at the jackass who was still telling him to charge Raven.

"Look, Mr. Templeton, if I charge her, then I HAVE to charge you, and you'll be in a lot WORSE shape than she will at that point. She would likely get out on her own recognizance, as she was either responding to your threats or defending herself from YOU. You, however, would most likely end up without bail as you're far too likely to attack her if you thought you could get away with it, hence the restraining order."

"What the fuck are you talking about? Restraining order? That ignorant irresponsible little bitch!"

"Yes, a restraining order, you won't be able to be any closer than 500 feet to any place your daughter would regularly go."

Will started to get up from the couch, growling about how he was going to straighten out the little bitch before he was rudely shoved back into the chair by Officer Parnell. Officer Jasper leaned down and hissed, "One more comment like that, buster, and I'll arrest you right now, at which point I'd be willing to throw in all the threatening to assault charges, attempted assault with a weapon, attempted assault with a deadly weapon and maybe even attempted murder. I'd bet the Judge that ends up with you would just love to see all that on the docket."

Will cowered in the chair, this was the second time he'd said it, he obviously meant it.

Twenty minutes later, another officer arrived, handed Bob three pieces of paper and then left the premises.

Bob handed one copy to Will, saying, "I hope you're smart enough to obey this order, if you don't, well, let's say you'd be in deep shit." Bob then turned to Raven, handing a second copy to her, "I'll keep the third as the head officer on the scene, that way we'll have it on record. Parnell, take Raven upstairs to pack a suitcase, don't take too long, I want to get out of here before I lose any interest in getting food somewhere."

Officer Parnell and Raven headed up to her room, returning about ten minutes later with two tightly packed suitcases and a large teddy bear.

**********

Tessa was waiting when Officers Jasper and Parnell brought Raven to her house.

"Thanks, guys. Hi, you're Raven? Here, give me one of those, I'll show you to your bedroom," she said as she led Raven up the stairs.

Raven dropped the suitcase he was carrying on the double bed and looked around the room. It was a bit smaller than the room he had lived in ever since he was a young girl, the double bed, dresser and wardrobe were fine, he could do without the vanity.

"Ummm, is there somewhere you could put that?" as he pointed at the vanity, "I won't be needing it, I don't wear make-up."

Tessa giggled, then walked over and picked it up, "Yeah, I'll put it in the third bedroom which is being used as a storage space." Tessa walked out of the room, returning a couple of minutes later without the vanity. "So are you going to unpack? I can order takeout somewhere."

"Yes, ma'am, it shouldn't take too long, I'll likely be downstairs in about fifteen minutes."

Just under twenty minutes later, Raven was downstairs again; after a brief discussion, Thai was the choice and Tessa made the call.

Thirty minutes after that, the food arrived, Tessa paid for it and the two of them enjoyed their first meal together.

**********

Tessa continued to call Stanley, no, she needed to remember it was Stacy, every Friday evening. The day after Raven moved in with her, she informed Stacy that she now had a housemate and Stacy spent a few minutes talking with Raven before the call ended.

Tessa actually enjoyed having someone else in the house, even with the slight oddity of Raven presenting as a male all the time now.

**********

Thanksgiving Day arrived, the town would be holding a big event that afternoon in and around the community center on the northeast side of The Commons. The main building on the square that surrounded The Commons was the impressive three story Victorian style town hall, built in 1884. Next to the town hall on the same side were a branch of the Bank of America and a branch of another bank, Citigroup.

On the east side of the square was the town's community center, which had been built to celebrate the town's 100th anniversary in 1983. Next to the community center was the town library, originally built in 1905 and upgraded and redesigned in 1983. Next to the library was one of the four churches that served the town, this one was a Methodist church built in 1924 and upgraded and rebuilt in 1997.

On the south side of the square, the building by the southeast corner was another church belonging to a fundamentalist Christian group. They had been in town for the last seventy years, but had never managed to have more than a hundred parishioners at any time. At this time, the congregation was quite a bit smaller, numbering less than sixty souls, but the reverend was working on drawing new folks to them.

The next building on the south side was the train station, which wasn't particularly active, maybe half a dozen trains stopped here each day. The last building on that side of the square was the only actual store, a modestly sized one where various sweets and treats were sold.

The last side of the square was home to the other two churches in the town, one of those being a Baptist church built in 1917. This church was similar to the Christian one except they were not so hard core about how people should look and behave. The fourth church was an Anglican one, built in 1931, sitting up at the other corner of the square. Between the two churches was a small but fairly active bus station.

There were a few fair sized hills around the town, not including the one the town was named for just behind the west side of the square. The biggest hill in the area was the one known as Masters' Rise, it was supposed to have been the home of the original owner of the land the town was on; he had been killed in one of the last battles of the American Civil War in early 1865, eighteen years before the town became official. Two of his three sons also died in the Civil War; only his eldest Jonathan Masters III survived, he founded the town on September 9, 1883.

**********

Town staff people swarmed through the community center and around The Commons getting everything ready for the event.

At 4 PM Thanksgiving Day, the even was opened with a flourish of trumpets and a prayer spoken by the Baptist priest. There were many tables scattered across the commons, as the weather was pretty nice for late November, mostly sunny and 53°F with a very slight wind.

Tessa had been there since 2:30 PM, she'd been helping with set-up, as had Bob Jasper and Rosa Trafford.

Raven had arrived just before 3:45 PM and was having fun dancing with a few girls in an open area of The Commons. He'd had a bit of food and a drink once the event opened, but had spent almost two hours dancing in the square, only stopping for a drink now and then.

Stacy showed up just before 5 PM, wearing a pretty wrap skirt and a solid blue V-neck top. She ate and then started dancing near Raven. Raven was presenting as a male, and the tall, lean yet obviously well muscled body was a stark contrast to her own.

Raven looked over at the pretty yet tiny girl and felt something he'd never felt before, an attraction to another person.

Alana showed up just after 5:30, she'd eaten before she left home as she would be on duty later. She also joined the dancers in the square.

Just as the sun was about to go below the horizon, Alan Parnell spotted a brief flash coming from the top of the northern end of the hill known as Masters' Rise just over 3700 feet to the south. A second or two later, the barely audible sound of a rifle firing was followed by the sight of Raven dropping to the ground, blood dripping from her shoulder. Alana hit a small voice mic and yelled for medical equipment.

Both Alan and Bob were on their mics, saying that the shot had come from Masters' Rise, officers needed to get there immediately. Within a minute, three of the town's twelve active police cars were racing toward the hill in the distance.

**********

Almost everyone who lived in the area knew that there was only one decent road down from the top of Masters' Rise, at the southern end. The road descended along the south side of the hill for a fair ways before turning north and continuing down to the bottom.

The three cars arrived at the bottom of the road leading down from the hill, just in time to block a van from leaving the area. One officer stayed in his car, the other two stepped out, guns drawn and aimed at the van. "Step out of the van now, or we'll shoot," one of the officers stated.

The driver gunned the engine and started to reverse, both officers responded by shooting at a wheel; with two tires blown, the van shuddered to a stop, and the person bailed out from the driver's door, then tried to run off; he made it about fifty feet before an officer tackled him.

The word had been put out all around the station that this guy was under a restraining order issued by Judge Paulter.

"William James Templeton, you're under arrest for attempted murder," the officer then Mirandized him and hauled him to one of the cars. The other officer that had been out opened the back door to the car and watched as Templeton was shoved inside, then slammed the door.

A quick search of the van found a rifle, a Barrett MRAD loaded with nine .338 shells remaining in a ten round detachable magazine.

**********

Perhaps thirty seconds after Raven fell down, someone handed a medical kit to Alana. She did a quick visual exam of Raven, noticing that Raven seemed to be responsive, then pulled out a set of needle nose pliers. "I won't lie to you, kid, this is going to hurt, I have to push the wound wider so I can get the bullet out. It didn't go all the way through, by the looks of it, your shoulder blade stopped it."

With quick, yet precise movements, she opened the wound, looked in, spotted the bullet, then used the pliers to slowly pull it out. Alana wrapped the bullet in a bit of gauze, then taped it closed and told Stacy to take it over to Bob Jasper. Stacy scampered off in his direction. Now that the bullet was out, Alana used an irrigation syringe to clean the wound, then covered it with an appropriately sized wound closure strip.

"That will do until we can get you in the hospital, they'll give you a thorough exam there, okay?" Raven nodded, taking deep breaths.

Alana pressed her mic again and requested an ambulance at the northeast corner of the square.

Two minutes later, an ambulance was there, they brought the stretcher over, helped Raven up, secured her, then loaded her in the vehicle. Once she was in and the tech was in the back with her, the driver started moving, calling in to the hospital that they were on the way.