A/N Sorry this is a short one, I've been trying to write a chapter a night, but I closed tonight and open tomorrow at work. I might rework this later. Right now though, is bed time...
"It is," Brennan sighed. Would she ever get a vacation that didn't involve anthropology? She stepped closer to the skull. It definitely looked like it was the only bone in the wood pile."It almost looks like someone placed it there to be found."
She carefully removed the bone to take a closer look. "Well, this looks like some type of blunt force trauma." She said as she pointed out the crack in the back of the skull. Taking a closer look however, she retracted that statement. "No, that occurred post mortem. I don't know, it looks like a very old bone. Were there any cemeteries around here that some kid could have found this in and hidden it amongst the wood to be found?"
Everyone looked to Sweets for the answer. Daisy emerged from the cabin and joined the group.
"Well, not on record but that doesn't mean there weren't." He answered. "This is a popular place for college kids to come to over winter break and in the summer. I could see one of them finding that and putting it in the wood pile to scare his buddies."
"Ironic that he didn't get a scream from his friends and it stayed until the best forensic anthropologist in the world came to find it," Hodgins smirked.
"I can't know without the rest of the body, but honestly there is no sign of foul play on the skull." Bones stated. "Perhaps I will look for the rest of this person after we unpack. Maybe Angela can reconstruct the face and we can search to see if it's a missing person or if there is a record of their death."
"Should we actually use this wood, though?" Sweets asked.
"We probably shouldn't until some of the questions have been answered." Booth said, "Let's go find some more and leave the skull with the professionals."
The men began to head off into the woods and the two anthropologists took the skull inside to the only one of them who might be able to shed some light on this mystery.
"I know we're on vacation, but can you possibly put a face on this, Ange?" Brennan asked.
"Oh, eh, was that what all the yelling was about?" she frowned.
"Yes," Brennan said unpacking her computer and setting up the satellite link. "I'm going to google search for missing people in the area.
"Did you know," Daisy started, "That the number of missing people in the US alone has been steadily on the rise since the 80's? It's mostly due to the social acceptance of certain groups and the socialist movements for equality of all human life. Just because you're homeless or crazy or a prostitute doesn't mean it doesn't matter when you go missing anymore."
"Sometimes," Angela smirked sadly, "You remind me of Vincent with your trivia, Daisy."