Santa, with a crutch under each arm, grinned reassuringly and gestured for the kids to follow him inside. He clomped his way to Daniel's desk and lowered himself into the chair with a wince. Carter and Nicky hurried over to help him lift his broken leg, but once they had it elevated, the two boys realized that there was nothing nearby to prop it on.
"Manda!" Carter called urgently. "Grab the trash can or something!"
The elder Jackson sibling was still standing in the doorway, her fists on her hips. She tilted her head slightly, but didn't move. "Dad is going to have a fit when he hears you guys were in here messing around."
"Shut up, Manda, Santa said!" Nicky retorted. "Get the trash can before his leg slips. You wanna be the one to tell why we had to take Santa back to the hospital tonight?"
Manda sighed in disgust, but dutifully walked over to pick up the waste basket that Daniel kept by the door. She paused as she picked it up, though, and peered curiously inside. "Um, Santa, there's a bunch of broken junk in here."
"Ah, good! That's just what we're looking for," Santa nodded. "Bring it all here, Manda. Take out the pieces and spread them on the desk here for me."
"Uh…okay…" she said dubiously.
The desk, of course, was already cluttered with books and artifacts. With a wave of his hand, Santa sent the debris into motion, and in a few moments, everything was neatly stacked. Wide eyed, Manda emptied the contents of the waste basket onto the empty surface, and then frowned as she recognized pieces of the vase that Vala had wanted for Christmas and a necklace that Daniel had often told her belonged to his friend, Catherine Langford.
Once the basket was empty, she helped the boys prop Santa's cast on it, then took his crutches for him and leaned them on the wall. Turning back to the desk again, she raised an eyebrow at the sight of Santa carefully sorting the bits of necklace and separating them from the broken shards of the vase.
"What are you gonna do with all that?" Nicky wanted to know.
"A little Christmas magic," replied Santa. He snapped his fingers, and the broken pieces came alive, rising off the desk to quiver and shake, as if waiting for direction. Santa waved his hand, and each bit began move, jostling for position as the valuable objects reassembled themselves.
"Wow!" Carter exclaimed.
"You can say that again!" Nicky nodded emphatically.
"Okay," added Manda. "I take back what I said about Dad having a fit."
"Ho, ho, ho!" replied Santa happily. "Well, we're not through yet!"
"What else do we have to do?" Nicky frowned.
"These are your mother's Christmas presents," Santa explained. "Now we need to take them out to the living room and wrap them up so they'll be waiting under the tree tomorrow morning."
"Oh, so I guess it's a bit of present for Dad too, then, huh?" Manda grinned.
"You could say that," Santa winked.
He slowly got to his feet again, gesturing for Carter and Nicky to take the presents while he hopped over to get his crutches. Then he led the way back out to the hall, but Manda paused in the doorway. She looked back toward the desk, frowned, and shook her head.
"Something wrong, Manda?" Santa asked.
"He'll never be able to find anything now," she sighed.
"Oh. You know, you might be right," Santa agreed with a nod. He turned to look back at the desk himself, and as he did, the neatly stacked artifacts and reference material all clattered back into their original disarray.