A/N: Filter chapter

"Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection." – Marilyn Monroe

Ch. 10: Rejection

Do it now or you are going to pass out.

She stomped onto his foot causing a scream to echo in her ear. She cringed in pain but continued to fight out of her restraint. She elbowed him, turned her body then twisted his arm hard enough for everyone in the lobby to hear a loud crack causing him to drop to the ground. He screamed in pain while everyone charged toward Baptist while Maura rushed over to Devyn who leaned against the door.

That was about two hours ago with Jane, with the other, running into the squad room to see Devyn sitting at her desk, leaning back with her eyes closed. "Dev," Jane called, prompting the professor to look up tiredly and stand up from her chair. Suddenly, Devyn was engulfed in a tight hug.

"I'm fine. Clean bill of health from Maura," Devyn assured her cousin.

Jane pulled back and asked, "You sure?"

"Yeah, minor bruise but right now, I'm just very pissed."

Jane stepped back with a confused expression. Devyn looked pretty calm to Jane but she also knew that there's a temper that her cousin and her shared. "You don't show it…" Jane commented slowly.

"Do I need to," Devyn retorted, finally hearing the irritation in her cousin's voice.

"Nope," Jane answered.

Devyn sighed and moved to the chair that sat by Jane's desk. She resumed sitting and took in a deep breath then let it out. "I'm sorry," Devyn apologized after a couple minutes of breathing. "I'm just a bit tense about everything."

Jane nodded in agreement, "I didn't expect Baptist to find you."

"Nor did I but anyways, what did you find?"

"Baptist had contact with the Bard. Boosted his ego enough to believe that the Bard knows so much more than you and how you lack appreciation."

"Lack appreciation?"

"I know I'm confused as well and now since we got him here, let's see what he means."

"You do that and I'll watch because I might give him a black eye for what he did."

Jane smirked and replied, "I get you." The detective then left the squad room and began to walk down to the interrogation room when she heard the familiar high heels, stepping out of the viewing room.

"Jane," Maura smiled softly then pulled Jane into a tight hug.

The brunette returned the hug then gave Maura a quick kiss on the side of her head. "I'm glad you're okay," Jane expressed against Maura's ear. The M. E. pulled back and looked at her girlfriend with a soft smile then Jane added, "I also appreciate for you looking out for Dev."

"Of course."

Jane then pulled Maura back into the observation room to see William Baptist sitting in the interrogation room with Frankie watching him. His arm was in a sling and there was bruising on his face that was starting to change into a purplish color. "Oh Devyn got him good," Jane hummed.

"Flipped him over her shoulder. I've never seen anyone do that before especially the comparison of sizes."

"Let's see how his ego is taking it." With those words, Jane gave Maura a quick kiss then opened the door and entered interrogation. She closed the door shut with a hard slam causing both her brother and the suspect to jump. "And we meet again," Jane stated to William Baptist.

Baptist remained silent and looked down at his hands, refusing to make eye contact with Jane. Noticing this, she approached the table and took a seat across from him as she commented, "Professor D'Angelo gave you one nasty bruise." There was no retort, prompting Jane to continue, "You know I can say truly that you are an idiot."

"I'm smarter than you," Baptist muttered back.

Bingo, Jane recognized. She leaned in and continued, "For being smarter than me, I think it was stupid for running from the police then you ended up at the BPD Headquarters and tried to take a person hostage. Someone who literally kicked your ass."

"She got lucky! I could have taken her down! She's not better than me or the Bard!"

"So the Bard boosted your ego enough to go and take action," Jane pushed.

Baptist shook his head, "I didn't need the push."

"Oh," Jane raised an eyebrow, "then explain the note from the Bard?" Realizing his mistake, he gritted his teeth and looked up at Jane in displeasure. This prompted Jane to give a light smirk and continued, "Yeah, the Bard's little boost. Only he could understand how you feel. So…how many times did he contact you?"

"I'm not going to tell you."

"Come on, William, is he worth all of this?"

"He understands feeling rejected."

Rejection, Jane wondered. "What do you mean by that?"

"He understands how you try to open to others and then your hopes are dashed away so quickly. People never gave me a chance like he did!"

"Oh really?"

Realizing he slipped again, Baptist shouted, "I'm done talking to you! I want my lawyer now!"

"Okay, that's no problem," Jane retorted then gestured for Frankie to follow her out.

As they stepped out of the interrogation room, Frankie closed the door behind him and gave a curious expression at his sister. "Janie, where was that interrogation going," her brother inquired in confusion.

"He slipped a couple of times if you haven't noticed," Jane pointed out.

Frankie took a moment to think back on the interrogation then his eyes widened. "You made him mad enough to have him slip," he realized.

"Yeah and we got a lead about what the Bard was going for. He's been rejected but we need to look through Baptist's stuff to figure out what else he knows."

"I'll go see what Kent has," Frankie retorted, leaving the hallway.

Jane glanced over her shoulder to see Maura waiting outside. "Is this really all driven by rejection," Maura asked. "So much death because of being rejected."

"It's ridiculous but…I don't know." She ran her hand through her hair then looked back at the squad room to see that Devyn wasn't there anymore. "She's been wondering for years on why he did it. Now we got something."

R&I

"He's a…a…"

"Packrat," Nina commented to Kent at the sight of all the papers spread out on the autopsy tables.

Kent looked up from the table he was at and retorted, "I was going to say a hoarder but a packrat is okay term." He then returned his attention toward the trash covered autopsy table and continued, "He has whole bunch of essays here, notes, notecards…"

"His clothing smells," Nina added with a scrunch of his nose. "How can a person live like this for so long?"

Kent shrugged, "There could be hundreds of reasons."

"But I just want one," they turned around to see Devyn entering the morgue. She let her eyes wander to the multiple morgue tables then continued, "I just need one reason. I need to know why he did it."

"I can't give you much on the why. However, I can articulate on more of the 'how I brainwashed a young adult mind'," Kent stated as he turned toward Devyn.

" 'This cold night will turns us all to fools and madmen'," Devyn commented.

Nina looked up and asked, "Shakespeare?"

Before Devyn could even answer, everyone heard the distinct shoes that were approaching the morgue. When Jane entered with Maura, jaws dropped at the sight immediately. "Holy mother of God," the detective stated aloud.

Maura walked further in and asked Kent, "Is this all from Baptist's apartment?"

"Yes and we can say that he has many things."

"Many is not the word that I would use," Jane commented as she approached one of the tables. As she got closer, she stepped back immediately as the strong odor hit her nose, prompting her to cover her nose and state, "Jesus, that…"

"Smells," Devyn completed simply.

Jane glared at her cousin for a brief moment. She then noticed that Devyn wasn't covering nose at all. "How the fuck can you handle the smell," Jane muffled.

"I've smelled worse." Nina raised an eyebrow as well as Maura and Devyn continued, "A body that had decayed severally. After that day, nothing fazes me when it comes to smell."

"Ok…" Jane looked over at Drake, Nina and Susie and asked, "What do we got?"

"So far," Susie started, looking down at her list, "I've noted that he has multiple copies of newspaper articles about the Bard, copies of different thesis on Shakespeare's works."

"Lots of smelly clothes in this pile…and rotting food," Nina gestured toward the other pile on her medical table.

"Finally," Drake gestured toward his table, "more clothes as well as the letter that you discovered at the crime scene."

"Basically, same old stuff," Jane sighed.

"Well, what did Mr. Baptist tell you and maybe we can find something that relates to it."

Jane leaned against the wall and replied, "He said that the Bard did this out of rejection."

At those words, Maura noticed Devyn's attention toward the autopsy tables switched to Jane. "Are you positive on that," Devyn questioned.

"That's what he told Jane," Maura reassured. "The reason Baptist connected with the Bard on some level was that understanding and the fact that they saw their intelligence as equals." The medical examiner gazed at the professor who was looking very confused as well as surprised. "Are you okay," she asked softly.

"Yeah…"

Maura looked over at Jane who was gazing at her cousin also. Their eyes locked briefly until Jane said to the other three people in the room, "Try to find something about the rejection." The three nodded then returned to their examinations. While they were doing this, Jane approached her cousin and asked again, "Are you sure you're okay?"

Devyn nodded then replied softly, "I always wanted to know why."

"Do you think that's the reason?"

"I'm not sure…he never told me."

"Ah ha," they turned at the sound to see Susie holding up a small book in her hands.

Maura approached, grabbing crime scene gloves as she walked over with Susie handing the book to her. She examined the book carefully; noticing that it was very clean and seemed to be of great importance for it was not an ordinary notebook but a journal like book. She opened the book slowly and immediately, she noticed that the first page had a date.

" 'January 5th, 2016'," she began. " 'I met her recently. She was in my math class and I found her to be the most beautiful of all of the women I ever dated. Maybe we can be friends'."

"Maura," Jane started.

But the medical examiner was ahead of her and stated to her girlfriend, "I'll be reading this and see if I can identify names because they might be victims for the Bard."

Jane smiled at this and mouthed, "Thank you."

They shared a smile then their moment ended with the sound of Jane's phone breaking through the silence. "Rizzoli," she answered.

"I see you've been busy, Jane."

"When there's a monster like you around? Definitely," Jane retorted while she snapped her fingers, prompting Nina to look up and see that Jane was gazing at her. She then mouthed, 'Trace the call.'

Nina nodded and began to work on the trace while the Bard spoke, "You know, Jane, I'm quite impressed."

"You are?"

"Oh yes…I found my true adversary."

"I'm not your fuckin' adversary, you piece of shit."

Suddenly, Jane's phone was out of Jane's hand and was in Devyn's. "Stop messing with them," Devyn hissed in a low tone.

"Now why would I do that, Devi," the Bard questioned.

Devyn gripped the phone tightly. "Don't call me that…"

"Always pissy when I'm ahead."

"Actually," Devyn leaned in, "I think I got something on you."

"Do tell."

Devyn placed Jane's phone on speaker then retorted, "Tell me if you heard this before: 'Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection'." With those words, there was a moment of complete silence and for once, in her whole career, she had the upper hand over the Bard.

"Those aren't Shakespeare's words."

Devyn smirked and looked at Jane. 'Got him,' Devyn mouthed.

"She knows something that you don't," Jane commented back.

There was a growl and a harsh retort, "She doesn't know anything."

"You always said you had a reason for everything. You left no pieces for us but you gave enough to Baptist to make him fell…appreciated."

"Like what?"

"You want to be appreciated and you told Baptist that you were rejected like him."

"Shut up…"

"How does it feel to know that I know the one thing that causes you so much pain, Bard," Devyn hummed.

"SHUT UP!" There was a loud slam over the phone, prompting everyone to jump. "You can never understand the pain I feel," the Bard said in a low growl.

"All of this because of rejection. You are pathetic."

Jane looked at her cousin with a surprised expression, as did Maura. "What are you doing," Jane hissed.

"Wait for it," Devyn mumbled.

"How dare you! I was intelligent! I was everything that people wanted! I was charming and all because I wasn't perfect in her eyes."

"Whose eyes?"

"Rachel…my Rachel…"

"Gotcha," Devyn whispered. Jane looked up at Nina who raised her hand with a thumb up, she then looked at Devyn who said softly, "Go."

Jane bolted quickly while the Bard continued, "You will never understand the pain."

"Just surrender…end this."

"Never."

The line went dead.

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