Matthew Williams never felt that anyone ever really saw him. He was often over looked in meetings, even ones with only a few other nations present, like the G8. He actually had just come from a G8 meeting and was wondering the Mall in DC. It was late but the Canadian wasn't really worried about anyone noticing him enough to do him any harm. He clutched his briefcase to his chest in place of the bear he usually held. He had left Kumajirou at his home in Canada for the duration of his meetings in the American capitol. Just then he hears a snap off to the side and turns to look before being grabbed by the scruff of his collar. The next few moments are a blur as whoever had grabbed him tried to wrestle his briefcase away from him. Then there was a bang and Matthew felt like fire was racing up and down his spine before his vision went black and he collapsed to the cold ground. He had never imagined he would die in a mugging after all the wars he had been through.
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A couple of weeks later a young man is biking on an out of the way path through the woods near the Mall. He loved coming out on these trails as they were one of the few green spaces left in the city. He slowed down seeing some large sticks across the path ahead and not wanting to simply run over them due to their size. When he came to a stop he hoped off his bike to lift it over the sticks but then stopped as he noted they weren't sticks but bones. Human bones. Hurriedly he sets down his bike and dials the police.
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Doctor Temperance Brennan made her way down the bike trail to the crime scene where human remains had been found. Arriving on the scene she noticed the police tape already up and one of the agents talking to a young man standing next to a bike. She concluded he must have been the one to find the remains. Turning to where several agents were working on documenting the scene she steps over and examines the remains scattered across the trail.
"The rest of the remains are over that way hidden in some bushes. Looks like some of the local wild life dragged these out into the trail."
Brennan nods at her partner's information before standing up and heading over to the rest of the remains to examine them. The remains in the bushes seemed rather intact save for the few missing bones that had been dragged out into the path. She could tell whoever it was had been wearing a suit though they had no shoes and there was a briefcase laying open and empty next to the body.
"It looks like a mugging, but there's no ID on the remains. It was probably swiped with whatever valuables the murderer took."
Brennan kneels next to the remains, examining them. "He's male, probably in his late teens, early twenties. Probably just out of university given his suit." Brennan looks over the tattered suit and remains. "Have the remains brought back to the Jeffersonian. We'll have Angela do a reconstruction and get us a face to match with recent missing persons. He's only been out here a few weeks given the rate of decomposition."
"Can do."
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Back at the Jeffersonian Brennan has the bones cleaned and hands over the victim's clothes and effects to Hodgins for analysis. She also gives him a pair of glasses that were found near the body and the briefcase, in hopes they will shed some light on the victim's identity. Once the bones were clean Brennan began placing markers on the man's skull.
"This is odd." She looked over the skull and markers for a few moments before finishing her task and taking the skull to Angela for a reconstruction.
"Angela. I want you to be careful about the reconstruction of the facial features. I was fairly certain he was Caucasian but I'm seeing hints that he may have some Native American in his heritage."
"Will do Brennan."
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A little later Angela has finished the reconstruction and was running what she had against the missing person's database but was coming up with nothing.
"That's odd, surely someone has to be missing this guy." And she really was surprised to not be finding anything. The young man who's face she had come up with was rather good looking. She'd given him his glasses in her sketch and light colored hair to match what they had found near his body. She'd also given him blue eyes.
"Not having any luck?"
"No. Its as if no one cared he went missing. Or like he never even existed."
"Well perhaps you're just not in the right database. Try searching the Canadian one."
"Why Canada?"
Hodgins smiles. "Because his briefcase had 'Canada' embossed onto it. It was a pretty high end quality one as well. The kind politicians use. He may have been an intern for a Canadian representative that was here a few weeks ago for that G8 meeting."
"All right then. I'll let you know how it goes."
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Brennan was examining the bones to find cause of death. It was rather obvious by the bullet wedged into his spine, but she wanted to be sure. Examining the bones however had her furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as Dr. Saroyan walks in with Booth.
"Have you determined the cause of death yet?"
"Hmm, yes. He was shot." She puts down the bone she was studying and points to the bullet lodged in the spine. "It would have been quick. The bullet enter on his left side and pierced his heart before lodging in the spinal column."
"Damn, at least it was quick. We should probably get the bullet to Ange to see if she can match it to a weapon and we can catch this guy."
"Mmm." Brennan had picked the bone that she had been examining earlier back up.
"Hey Bones, everything okay. You seem a bit out of it."
"Its just this man. He has some of the most unusual marking and scars on his bones."
"Oh, such as."
Brennan puts the bone back down and pick us another one, it was the shoulder blade. She turns it over and points to a spot near the middle of the broad flat section.
"You see here. This wound was made by a stone tipped weapon. I examined it an found some of the stone tip was still in there. i sent a piece to Hodgins to see if he could identify anything from it. And here." She sets the shoulder blade down and picks up the femur. "He's been shot before, the remodeling shows the wound had healed over completely years ago. The odd thing was the bullet lodged in the bone. It wasn't a modern bullet, it was round like what was fired from a musket." She set down the femur and picks up the hip bone. "He also has another bullet that lodged here." She points at some remodeling on the bone. "It was a World War One era bullet. I sent samples from both bullets to Hodgins for analysis so we could determine when they were shot."
Saroyan and Booth booth follow her as she shows them the wounds.
"That doesn't make any sense. How would he have gotten wounds from weapons like that?"
Before Brennan can respond Angela walks in with Hodgins following close behind.
"Any luck on IDing our victim?"
"No. I swear its like he doesn't even exist. Or I hate to say it, no one cared when he went missing."
"Which could mean this was more than just a mugging?"
Angela nods.
"Well I have some more strange news to add to things. The fragment and bullets Brennan pulled from our victim were dated to the various eras that they should have been from."
"That doesn't make any sense Hodgins. They were from three distinct periods in history. There should be no way for one person to have weapons from the Stone Age, the turn of the 19th century and World War One."
"I know it sounds impossible but I did some checking and you will not believe what I found."
"What is it Dr. Hodgins?"
"Ok so there is this theory that there are these strange people that work in the governments of the world. Some people have found pictures of these ageless young men standing next to world leaders dating back to well into the middle ages." Hodgins smirks and pulls out an old black and white photo of six young men and shows it to the rest of the group. "This photo is from World War Two."
Angela looks over the photo and point to two of the young men. "Either one of them could be related to our victim. It looks like they might be twins." Brennan takes the photo and examines it.
"Oh, that isn't the only picture I got of those six. This one is from the newspaper article of the recent G8 meeting that took place around the time our victim died." He holds out the picture of ten young men and everyone looks between it and the first picture.
"They're the same."
"That is impossible. Did you date the first photo?"
Hodgins nods. "The original photo is actually property of the museum and list off who was in it. And this gets stranger. The six in that first photo are Ivan Braginski of the Russian military, Arthur Kirkland of the British armed forces, Francis Bonnefoy of the French legion, Alfred F. Jones of the United States armed forces, Wang Yao of the Chinese Military, and last is Matthew Williams of the Canadian armed forces."
"And that should be strange because?"
"Well Booth, those also happen to be the names of the delegates from the same nations that attended the G8. And my money is on our victim being this Matthew Williams guy."
"Why do you say that?"
"The briefcase. Aside from having 'Canada' written on it, you an see it here in the news picture being held by him. That and the resemblance."
"It could still be this other man though."
"You mean Alfred F. Jones? Could be, we'd have to check though."
"This is rather absurd. Someone would have noticed either of these men going missing."
"Just telling you what I got."
"Okay, I'm going to look into this Jones guy and see if I can track him down. Maybe he can help me get a hold of this Williams guy while I'm at it. Then we'll go from there."
"This still doesn't make any sense."
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A few hours later and Booth had Alfred Jones in the interrogation room with Sweets and Brennan watching from behind the one way mirror. He seemed a bit agitated to be in the room and as Booth entered he tensed up slightly.
"Dude why am I in here? I haven't done anything."
"You're not being accused of anything Mr. Jones. We simply are trying to ID a victim in a recent case and we think you may know him."
Jones seemed to blink, but calmed down slightly. "Oh, well okay then. Though I don't know anyone whose gone missing lately. What have you got so far?"
Booth pulls out the photo from the paper on the G8 meeting and the artist's rendition of the victim. He points to the rendition first. "This is our victim. Does he look familiar at all?"
Jones takes the image and studies it for a moment. "This could be me..."
"We noticed the similarity as well. We think the victim may be Matthew Williams, the Canadian representative."
Jones looks confused for a moment. "Who?" Then he furrows his brow in thought. "Wait, you mean Mattie? He isn't missing I just..." He trails off and looks back at the rendition of the victim, then seems to start getting more agitated. "No, no way. How..."
"When was the last time you saw or spoke to Matthew Williams?"
Jones works his mouth like a fish and looks very upset by something. "I I don't really remember. I had to have talked to him at the meeting but... Mattie has a way of of being invisible and getting overlooked. He he can't really be dead, he can't."
Sweets leans into the comm device in the room he and Brennan are watching from. "Booth, he's telling the truth. Which I have to admit is odd given what he's just claimed."
"Do you have contact information for Mr. Williams so we can check to see if he is at home?"
Jones nods and pulls out his phone, handing it to Booth. He seems rather upset at the knowledge Matthew Williams may be dead. "I can call him and check. His boss may have noticed he wasn't showing up for work..." Jones fidgets in his seat. "When did he die? How..."
"Around the time of the G8 meeting, we think it may have been a mugging but given the lack of missing person's reports that match the profile it may have been something else."
"How could we not have noticed he was missing for so long, the meeting was weeks ago. Harper at least should have..."
Booth hands back Jones' phone after copying down the information he needed. "It may be a good idea if you tried to call him. We could be wrong about who it is, that's why we're asking you."
Jones nods and quickly dials the number. It rings for a while before Jones looks a bit more grieved. "Hey Mattie, its Al. You're never going to believe this bro, but the FBI thinks they found your body. I'm just calling to show it isn't you. So yeah, give me a call when you get this bro." He hangs up and quickly pulls up another number to dial. "Put me through to Harper. Don't care if he's in a meeting. What do you mean he's in a meeting in England! Damn it, just, just tell me has Mattie been in since the G8 meeting a couple weeks ago? He hasn't? What do you mean no ones seen him since he left he's... No I will not calm down Mary. No one's seen him since the damn G8 meeting and I got the FBI, fucking FBI, telling me they found a body that matches Mattie's description. Yeah, you do that. Goodbye." Jones hangs up his phone and looks rather angry but also somewhat lost.
"Booth, maybe if we showed him the briefcase and glasses he would be able to identify them as Mr. Williams' or not." Brennan was leaning in and speaking into the comm.
"Mr. Jones..."
"Alfred, call me Alfred I hate being 'Mr. Jones', makes me feel old."
"Alright then Alfred. We have some of the victim's things that were found with the body. Do you think you'd be able to tell if they were Mr. Williams'"
Jones nods but seems rather subdued as Booth leaves the room and comes into the side room with Brennan and Sweets.
"He seems rather upset about it possibly being Mr. Williams. I think they may be related beyond their jobs. Mr. Jones referred to Mr. Williams very casually."
"Their facial features and bone structures are also very similar."
Booth grabs up the briefcase and glasses. "Well then I'll ask him about it when I get back in there."
Booth goes back into the interrogation room with the items and sets them on the table in front of Jones. Jones looks over the briefcase and then the glasses. His eyes seem to harden even as tears well in them.
"Who did it?" His voice is low and sends shivers down the spines of everyone that hears it. "Who killed him? Who killed my brother damnit!" One of his hands slams down onto the steel table and the table buckles under the force sending the briefcase flying, though his other hand held the glasses rather gently.
"We don't know yet."
"What do you mean you don't know yet?"
"Look calm down, we've been working this case none stop for the past few days since we found the remains." Booth eyes the table warily. That thing had been solid and should not have been so easily smashed, because that's what had happened, it was smashed. "We have the bullet and are running it through forensics for a match. We'll find who killed him and he'll be locked away."
"No, he'll be dead." Jones' eyes were hooded and his declaration was not doubted by the others nearby. They knew he would kill the man that killed Williams.
"You can't just..."
"I fucking can and will. When you brought me in here I knew they hadn't told you just who I was but I'm telling you now. I am the United fucking States of America and whoever this bastard was that killed my brother is going to pay with his life. He is going to regret killing Canada, my brother." Booth and those in the side room seemed to gawk at the claim.
"He has to be lying. He's claiming to be a nation."
"He's telling the truth though. And It doesn't look like he is insane, well other than how angry he is at learning about Mr. Williams' passing."
Jones left the interrogation room not long after that, taking the glasses with him. Booth had been called to the office of the head of the FBI after that and was told that Jones wasn't lying or crazy. He then made his way with Sweets and Brennan to the lab where they shared the information with the team.
"Wait so they're personifications of the countries?"
"That's insane."
"Brennan, he has the evidence in his bones doesn't he?"
"Yes, but..."
"So our victim was Matthew Williams, Canada?"
"Someone should have noticed he was missing."
"According to Jones he was easily overlooked and it looked like even the Canadian government didn't really notice him very easily."
"So how is this going to effect things in Canada? I mean having their personification being dead, that can't be good, right?"
"No clue, we need to find who killed him though so he can be dealt with by the proper authorities."
They all nod and hurriedly spread out to complete their tasks in finding the murderer.
It only takes a few more days to track down the killer. It was a man with a history of armed robbery. On his person was found Matthew Williams' cell phone and wallet, he had been trying to pawn them when he was caught. Once he was arrested he was convicted and sent to prison before mysteriously vanishing and reappearing in the morgue of the prison. The death was not investigated, but the Jeffersonian team knew what had happened.
Matthew's remains were turned over to the Canadian government and buried somewhere near the capitol.
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Alfred made his way into his late brother's home. They had just buried Matthew and he was going to his house to check on his pet bear. It had taken him a few days to remember the ball of fluff, but eventually he had. using his spare key he let himself in and called for the bear. No answer. He searched the house, noticing how dusty it all seemed, even the floors were covered in a fine layer of dust. Alfred eventually came to the kitchen and noticed the doggie door sized for the bear in the back door. He must have left after no one came home to feed him. Alfred sighs and settles into one of the kitchen chairs. He lets his head fall forward into his hands and chokes back a sob. It wasn't fair. He should have been there, he should have saved him. Now it was too late and he felt even worse because he knew he hadn't even noticed that Matthew was missing until the FBI came to him to ID the remains. Another sob and Alfred felt tears falling onto his palms.
After a long while he heard the pet door moving and looked up. He saw Kumajirou with his head peaking through looking at him curiously.
"Who are you?"
"I'm America. I thought you were long gone Kumajirou."
The bear tilts his head a bit in response. "Had to find someone."
"Huh?"
Just then the bear pushes through the pet door and turns back to it. He reaches his head back out and seems to be grabbing something which he pulls through the door flap. It is a small child, just smaller than Kumajirou and wearing a simple white gown with a single red ribbon around the neck. The child seems to be sleeping but Alfred is already up from his chair and moving toward the two.
"Mattie?"
The small blonde child slowly flutters open its eyes and looks up at Alfred with eyes wide and the most mesmerizing shade of violet.
"Who are you?"
Alfred blinks at the soft voice of the child and it takes him a moment to be able to translate what was asked.
"I am America. I am your brother."
The child seems to nod in acceptance of this. "Then who am I?"
"You are Canada."
The child looks around. "Food?"
Alfred nods and picks the child up to get him something to eat. He glances at the fridge but thinks better of it. Anything that would have been in there was sure to have spoiled by now. He manages to find some dried meat and gave it to the child who was happy to eat just about anything. Alfred watched as his new little brother ate happily and promised he would not let this brother be lost or overlooked like Matthew had been.
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So, love it, hate it, want it to continue?
So I was inspired by a video on Youtube called Missing Mattie. It was a good song, by Evanesence I think, and some of the images and the words made me think about what would happen if Matthew were to die. Not by killing himself though but just a random death. Then of course I was like, so how would anyone find out that Matthew was dead weeks later and well the show Bones popped into my mind.
The italicized words at the end are meant to be a universal Native American language. I was planning to use a Native Canadian language but I couldn't find a translator... So I had to improvise.
I hope you all enjoyed this, please leave a review.