This is 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.

**********

Stanley wandered around the mall, just killing time, not that it really mattered, he'd been a latch-key kid for nearly five years now since the death of his mother just three days after his thirteenth birthday and only two days after Christmas. Christmas just wasn't the same since then.

His dad Robert was a lawyer, the loss of his wife Alicia due to the rapid onset and metastasis of the breast cancer had hit him quite hard. He didn't know how to deal with it on an emotional level, so he threw himself into his work and had been raised to partner two years ago. He was usually out the door by 8 AM six days a week and wouldn't return home until midnight or later, except for the weekends. He only took Sundays off, and that wasn't any better as he usually would sit in front of the TV drinking his way through a dozen or more bottles of beer.

Stanley was now less than three months shy of his eighteenth birthday, he was a smart young man, he'd actually skipped grade three on the recommendation of several teachers and the principal of St. James Elementary here in town, so he had actually graduated from high school in June, a year ahead of pretty much everyone else in the class, well, other than Rachel Perrin, who had skipped two years herself.

Stanley and Rachel talked with each other now and then, it was almost expected with them both being the brainiacs of Westhill High School. Today, however, Stanley was alone, wandering around the bigger of the two malls in Westhill, Riverside Shopping Centre. He wasn't paying attention to the shops or people around him, it was obvious to many that he was lost in thought about something or other, especially when he bounced off a lamp post in the area next to the small food court and ended up on his butt on the floor.

**********

Three boys who had been eating at a table nearby saw him fall down and grinned, here was the prefect target. Bradley Alberts led the way, followed by his cousin Tommy Ferrill and the third boy, John Carthis. As Stanley grabbed the post to stand, Bradley shoved him back down.

The three boys spent the next several minutes knocking Stanley down every time he tried to stand up, this was made easier for them by the fact that they were much bigger, ranging from 5'9" to 6'2" and 170 pounds to 210 pounds. All three played football for Westhill High School. Stanley was tiny in comparison, 5'2" and maybe 105 pounds soaking wet, even with his thick, well-kept shoulder length light auburn hair.

A male who had been sitting on the other side of the food court's seating area called 911 and reported the assault, and at least two of the people running food stalls there flipped buttons that would set off alarms in the security office and bring mall security to the food court.

**********

Tessa Salveris was also wandering around the mall that day, she was a nurse and had just finished a shift at the small Westhill Hospital across town. She had decided to go to the mall, do a little shopping, maybe have something to eat there before going home for the day.

Tessa was a slender woman of about thirty years of age with almost waist length midnight black hair, 5'9" tall and about 130 pounds. Nursing wasn't her only skill set, she had trained in several different martial arts over the years, attaining brown belts in judo, jujitsu and taekwando, plus black belts in the four earliest styles of karate (Shotokan, Wado-ryu, Shito-ryu, and Goju-ryu) and extensive training in bo fighting.

She had moved to Westhill from NYC two years ago, after the death of her last girlfriend Shana due to a drunk driver who had also died in the crash. Her nursing diploma had been instrumental in her being hired by the hospital, as they needed a new head nurse for the pediatrics wing. She loved working with the kids there, but hated to see some of the things that had happened to the children who ended up on the unit such as the eleven children that had been rescued the year before from a cult group that had been based a few miles outside of Westhill.

The cult had been formed by a male who believed in flogging or whipping as a punishment for anyone who did anything wrong, child or adult. Some of the children that had been rescued would carry the scars of the various whippings they had received for the rest of their lives.

Tessa shook her head, bringing herself back to the present. As far as she knew, those eleven children would be okay, they had been placed in foster homes after they were released from the hospital and the three youngest of the eleven had actually been adopted in the last six months. She checked in about once a month with the other eight to ensure that they were all in good health; she had made her last round the weekend before, all eight children were doing well, and five of the seven sets of parents were considering adopting the children in their care.

She had just left one part of the mall and was about to cut through the small food court when she saw Stanley being shoved down. By the time she was within ten feet, she could see at least three bruises on the child's face and knew there likely would be several more elsewhere.

With cold, calculated precision, she knocked Bradley out with a roundhouse kick to the side of the head, then swept John's feet out from under him. She watched John fall down, then straight kicked Tommy in the stomach, knocking him over a table at the edge of the food court. Tommy hit the floor head first on the other side of the table, he looked up at the angry woman for a second or two before his lights went out.

She stood over John, glaring at him as she quickly checked to see if the child was okay. John started to stand, but Tessa growled at him, "You'd be wise to stay where you are, boy, or I might have to knock you out like I did the other two. Got it?" John nodded and backed away a bit.

**********

Tessa heard people running nearby, turned and saw three mall security guards entering the food court area. Two of the three seemed to be following the third, an older female who looked to be about forty or so with a short bob style hair cut.

The older female stopped by one of the stalls that had set off the alarms, told the stall staff to turn the alarm off, then asked what had happened. Jacob Vanakil, the owner of that stall, quickly brought her up to date and pointed to Stanley leaning against the lamp pole. Becky Colbert, the female security guard, listened intently, then looked where Jacob pointed and saw Stanley rubbing at one of the bruises.

Becky stopped by the other booth, listened to Pieter Danakos as he pretty much repeated what Jacob had said, then turned and slowly walked to the lamp post before squatting in front of Stanley. She gave him a quick scan and asked him if he was all right.

Stanley shrugged, told her it was nothing new, these three had tormented him all through high school. Nobody ever did anything because they were all on the football team and were considered important to the school, causing trouble for them always rebounded on the informant.

"Well, kid," she stopped as Stanley told her his name, "Stanley, sorry, they're not going to get away with it this time."

Stanley laughed while rubbing the beginnings of what would be a fair sized goose egg, "I'll believe it when I see it, Miss."

Becky called to her two security staff, brothers named Arnie and Barney Bellings, both about 6'1" tall and 200 pounds, "I want each of you to stand over one of the boys that are out cold until the police get here, I need to talk with this woman before the police arrive. Hop to it, boys!" The only major difference between the two men was that Arnie's crew cut was a sandy blonde while Barney's was a light brown in colour.

Arnie immediately walked over to where Bradley was sprawled on the floor, arriving there just as Bradley groaned and tried to get up. Arnie quickly placed his foot on the boy's stomach, pulling out what looked like a night stick; Bradley wisely decided to stay put.

Barney meanwhile had to walk around the tables at the edge of the seating area before he could stand by Tommy, whose left leg was hanging over the edge of a seat. The boy was still out cold, so Barney just stood over him watching to make sure he stayed that way.

Becky stood up, then waved to Tessa as she walked over to a nearby table and sat down. Tessa had watched as the female security guard had talked to people, then the child, and followed her when the woman made it clear that she wished to speak with her.

Tessa sat down across from Becky and spent the next several minutes answering questions. She asked Tessa why she had responded as she had, to which Tessa growled, "I didn't know whether the child was a male or female, I saw what they were doing and stopped it! I would bet that, if you had gotten here before I did, you would have used your sticks on the boys, I used my fighting skills, what's the difference?"

Becky sighed, shaking her head, "You may be right, you're damn lucky that several people saw you intervene, let alone the cameras here."

"What do you mean by that, damn you? I'M LUCKY?" Tessa snarled, she was getting pissed at how she was being treated. "Would you prefer that I just walked by and let those bullies keep beating him, to the point where he might have been badly injured, perhaps killed? Did you even notice the lump on the child's head, the black eye or the other bruises on the child's face? I'm damn sure there's more bruises, too."

"Lump? No, I didn't see a lump, there's no way to miss the black eye and the facial bruises."

"Look, they were bouncing the child off that lamp post, I'm betting it's at least a steel shell, probably hollow, but still hard enough to cause damage when one is being slammed against it repeatedly like they were doing to him. I felt I had no choice but to intervene, dammit."

Becky looked up, then shrugged as two police officers and a deputy sheriff walked into the food court area. "Well, it's out of my hands now. You're wrong about the lamp posts here, they're solid steel, they used to be on some of the streets here in town a long time ago."

Tessa just sat there, waiting to see what would happen as Becky got up and walked toward the two officers and the deputy sheriff.

**********

"Hiya, Becky, what's up?" asked Chuck Barnett, the sheriff's deputy, as he and the two officers entered the food court area.

"Hi, Chuck, three boys were repeatedly shoving another child against one of the lamp posts here, that woman," Becky pointed to Tessa, "Stepped in, knocked out two of the three boys and put the third one on the floor all by herself. I need to pull the tapes from the cameras."

Bob Jasper, one of the two officers from the town's police force, asked, "All these people saw what happened?" as he and his partner Rosa Trafford looked around at the dozen or so people at the tables plus the people working the seven food stalls.

"Yup, lots of witnesses, I've spoken to the owners of the stalls that used their internal alarms, plus the child that was being attacked and the woman there who defended him. I haven't had a chance to talk to anyone else yet, I'll let you guys handle it."

"Okay, Becky, because part of the mall crosses the town limits, I'm involved with this case on the county's behalf," stated Chuck as he walked over to a couple seated at one of the tables, sat down and began asking them questions. Bob followed him, heading to a different table where he sat down and began to talk to the three girls seated there. Rosa headed to the food stalls to speak to the staff people.

**********

Tommy finally crawled back into the land of the living, he moaned loudly as he lifted his head from the floor, grabbing at the spot where his head had hit it. He could feel a bit of blood as he touched it, then slowly lowered his head back down to the floor. "What happened?"

Barney looked down and growled at him, "You were beating on the boy until Tessa there stepped in and kicked your ass. Consider yourself damn lucky that she only hit you once, boy, I've seen her fight in the dojo here in town, only Sensai beats her and that's not often."

Tommy put one hand flat on the floor, then slowly lifted himself up, grabbing onto the seat as he pulled his leg off of it before he managed to fully stand up. He winced, grabbing briefly at his side as he sat down on the hard seat, grunting in pain at the impact.

Barney stared at him, then spoke, "I suggest you just stay right there, you don't want to give me any reason to use my stick, boy."

Arnie noticed Barney allowing Tommy to sit at one of the tables, so he pointed to another one and told Bradley to sit down. Bradley stood up, shook his head at the pain caused by the sudden movement, then sat down at the table and waited, he wanted no part of Arnie's stick.

Becky grabbed John and hauled him to a third table, pushing him toward one of the seats, "Sit down and don't move." She waited a few minutes, noticed Chuck had finished getting a statement and suggested he call in for back-up while she continued to watch John.

**********

Ten minutes later, four officers from the town force arrived along with two more deputies. After they had been brought up to date, officers walked over to each of the boys, Mirandized them, then cuffed them. An officer stood by each boy, the rest helped with getting statements.

Once the new group of officers was present, Arnie and Barney returned to the security office as they were no longer needed.

It took another 90 minutes before all the statements had been taken. Becky had also produced the tapes from the five cameras covering the food stalls, the seating area and the walkway past that section of the mall. She handed them to Bob Jasper, then walked away.

Bob used a video player plugged into a socket in one of the food stalls to check the tapes from the various cameras.

He made notes for camera locations, which tape was being examined, the times on each tape that showed anything of what happened relevant to the investigation, then outlined what occurred on each of the tapes within the relevant time span.

It was quite obvious that Tessa's intervention had saved Stanley from further harm at the hands of the three boys.

Paramedics had been called in, Stanley had been examined, that examination revealed several more bruises and three possible hairline fractures, one on the left side of his mouth, one to the ulna in the right arm and the third to a rib on the right side of Stanley's torso.

Once he had finished with the tapes, Bob walked over to Tessa, "You're free to go, that boy is damn lucky you were here."

**********

Rosa and two of the four new officers hauled the three boys out to separate cars, then drove to the jail shared by the county and town. Each of the eight cells had stone walls except for the front of the cells, each one was about six feet by eight with a bed, toilet and foldaway bunk.

The boys were shoved into cells, separated from any possible direct contact with the others, given a basic meal, then locked in and left alone. They were all informed that they likely wouldn't be able to see a lawyer until the next day, not that it would help any of them at all.

When Bradley tried to get the other two boys to talk to him, the officer at the desk ordered them to shut up and stay quiet.

**********

Tessa, once she had been informed that she wasn't being arrested, walked over to Stanley and invited him to eat with her. While walking over to the food stalls, she asked, "I heard one of the paramedics say that you had three hairline fractures, are you going to be okay?"

Stanley nodded, "Yeah, the female paramedic said they should heal on their own, I just need to avoid hitting them on things."

Both decided to order from the Chinese food stall, Tessa asked for two meats and a vegetable with rice, Stanley for one meat and a vegetable with chow mein noodles. They took their food, utensils and napkins to a table, then sat down to eat their meals.

Tessa had been surprised earlier to find out that Stanley was male, his small size and long hair had led her to believe he was a girl.

They spent the next forty-five minutes chatting while they ate. As the meal continued, Stanley realized that he felt safe with Tessa. This was a bit of a surprise to him, he'd seen just how quickly she had taken down the three boys, yet he knew she would never harm him.

Sure, he'd been around lots of boys, girls, men and women over the last five years, but none had ever given him this sense of being safe.

He knew that he could trust this woman with his life. That level of trust was something he hadn't experienced for a long, long time.

**********

Brandon Alberts, Bradley's father and the head coach for the Westhill High football team, walked into the jail as if he owned it. Brandon was a fairly big man, standing 6'3" in his stocking feet and weighing in at about 215 pounds, his boy was almost his size now.

"Officer Denton, you need to let my son, his cousin and his friend go, they done nothing wrong, they were just being boys."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Mr. Alberts, with all the witnesses and with it not being on school grounds, those boys are staying here."

"I wasn't asking you, Denton, I was telling you, now let them the hell out of those cells."

"I already told you I can't do that, sir, I suggest you leave before I charge you with obstruction of justice and interfering with an investigation."

"Last time, Denton, let them out now," Brandon snarled as he reached across the desk and hauled Officer Denton over the desktop.

Officer Denton yelled out, "Larry, get your butt out here, we have a problem!" just as a huge man stepped out of the washroom.

Lawrence Barton, aka Larry, the 7'5", 310 pound man mountain, saw Brandon yanking Denton over the desk, strode around the desk and clamped one hand around Brandon's neck, slowly squeezing it until Brandon let go of Denton and dropped to his knees on the floor.

Officer Denton sat down again, then whispered, "Larry, put him in the back cell, he'll be going before the judge in the morning on charges of obstruction of justice, interfering with an investigation and assaulting a peace officer. I can see where his son got his bad boy attitude."

Officer Barton let go of Brandon's neck, picked him up and carried him to the last cell, Mirandized him, then locked him in for the night.

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.