Days passed and Molly was still very depressed, she rarely ever came out of her room and on Christmas Eve nothing changed, she wouldn't come out of her room or talk or eat or anything.

"I feel like an idiot, Roxy," Trevor whined pulling on a Santa suit. "She's going to know it's me, she's a smart little thing."

"No she won't," Roxy laughed.

"If this makes it worse, I'm telling the colonel whose idea this was," he said picking up his pack. Meanwhile Michael and Pamela were doing the same thing.

They all went over to Frank's at the same time and all froze when they saw one another.

They were arguing among themselves when Frank opened the door with little Molly in his arms, "Molly, look who came..." He stopped when he saw the mismatched array of Santas.

Molly's eyes widened "Santa!" she said. "What, there are one, two, three of you?"

"Well," Michael said with a laugh. "I brought two of my helpers for this delivery. You have been a very good little lady. I have some very special presents for you."

Now Molly was smiling. "Yay!"

They brought her to the sofa and she opened books and dolls and a kitchen set even Army men but the more she opened the more her little face fell.

"What's wrong Molly?" Denise asked.

She shrugged and slid off the couch. Frank let her go, "Good try guys. Excuse me." He quickly retreated outside before his soldier, soldier's wife, and commanding officer saw him cry.

Denise knew something was wrong and went outside to her husband "Frank?"

She found him by the garage, on his knees, sobbing his heart out, he was praying, and Frank typically didn't turn to prayer.

"Frank, honey, come here," she said gently.

He got up and turned to his wife, his best friend and cried, he didn't know what else to do, he missed his son, he missed his baby, he was not going to be here next year...and it hurt.

Inside Molly felt bad and went back to the living room, like a little lady she said, "Thank you Santa and helpers for my nice presents. But please take them back to the North Pole and give them to another little girl so I can have my bubby and my daddy's cancer gone. I'll be extra good and I won't say you aren't real ever again I promise."

That killed all three "Santas", all Molly wanted was her brother to be home and her daddy to be well.

She gave kissed to all of them, and cookies. "I'm going to be early so you have extra time."

Molly then went back to her room and went to sleep.

Frank and Denise came back after a while, Pamela was crying, so was Trevor, Michael was barely holding it back, "She'll be heartbroken."

Pamela suggested, "What if Frank just lies to her and says he's better?"

"I can't do that, she'll know something's up when I start getting sicker," he said.

"Say it came back again?" Michael offered. "We've got to do something."

Denise nodded, "Yes, tell her the honest truth about Santa Claus, now thank you but Frank is tired, and he needs his strength. We'll see you all tomorrow at Claudia Joy's. Merry Christmas and thank you all for trying."

They all nodded and left Frank to rest.

Denise tucked her baby in, Frank read her stories and she went back to sleep, "You'll be better tomorrow Daddy."

He smiled "I know baby," he said and kissed her cheek.

He got into bed, "I'm gonna lie to her Dee, I can't break her heart on Christmas."

"Okay," she said, she didn't want to lie but she wanted Molly to have a good Christmas.

He pulled Denise close but neither slept, they made love, cuddled, and were all smiles when Molly got up at 5 am excited to open her gifts.

Denise made breakfast and they all ate then Molly ran full speed to the Christmas tree to open presents.

She was excited about new books, new toys, a new bear from her Daddy, but something was still missing. After all the gifts were opened, she crawled on her Daddy's lap and laid her head on his chest before she started crying harder than he'd ever seen.

"Molly, baby what is it?" he asked rocking her in his arms.

"I have a lot of nice presents," she sobbed. "But not what I wanted. Even General Ludwig couldn't get him the messages I sent."

Denise sighed in defeat and sat down on the couch with her head in her hands.

Denise was about to start crying and Frank was about to start lying when there was a very loud knock on the door.

Denise got up and opened the door.

"Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas," General Ludwig said dressed in a Santa suit. "Is there a Miss Molly here?"

Molly looked up to see a man at the door dressed in the same suite as the others were. Only this one was older and fatter and didn't have a pile of gifts. "I bet that's you, I forgot to leave some of your gifts; I think my elves should join the Army, what about you, Little Lady?"

She nodded.

"Then this is for you little lady," he replied. "Daddy can read it to you."

Frank looked at it with wide eyes "It looks like daddy doesn't have cancer after all baby, seems they mixed up the papers of me and another person," he told her.

"So you aren't going to go up to Heaven like Bubby?" she asked wide eyed.

He shook his head "I'm staying right here," he said smiling.

Denise and Molly both threw their arms around him crying for joy when from the door they heard, "Room for anymore?"

Denise heard the familiar voice and looked at the doorway to see her son standing there; she thought for sure she had lost her mind.

He was thin, bruised, and looked somewhat the worse for wear but he was there sure as it was Christmas day. Denise rant to him and held him. "My baby, my baby..."

He smiled and hugged her tight "Hey mom, you miss me?" he asked jokingly.

She was crying and crying, Frank had tears running down his cheeks as he hugged his son, but Molly had a more important hug to give, she ran at Santa's leg, "Thank you thank you thank you! I love you, Santa Claus! I'm gonna tell TJ you're really really real!"

And she did that night at Claudia Joy's Molly once again stood toe to toe with TJ, "He is too real, he got my dad better and made my bubby not dead, and you can't say he didn't cause Bubby Jeremy is downstairs so there." And with that she pushed him on his bottom and this time all smiled, ran out to her favorite person in the entire world, her Daddy.