The Tooth Comes Out

Summary: Missing scene from SC2. An incredulous Carol allows herself to believe in Santa Claus again as she and Charlie figure out how to get to the North Pole.

A/N: I've wanted to write this scene forever and just never got around to it. It follows Carol and Charlie from when he gives her the snowglobe until they arrive at the workshop. For some reason, I always wanted to see more of Carol's reaction...and how exactly they knocked Charlie's tooth out.

Also, sorry for the horribly corny pun in the title. Really just couldn't help myself.

Happy Holidays!

Her laughter childlike, Carol found herself mesmerized by the snowglobe in her hand. She couldn't believe it...but there was no way to explain the light show she'd just seen.

Then it all started to fall into place, all the incidents that Scott had told her to remember. How he knew that little girl's name at the park...the horse-drawn carriage and the snow...the presents at the faculty party...the baby doll... the mistletoe. It actually had all been magic. Real Christmas magic.

Finally, she let out a deep breath, and looked up at Charlie. That was another aspect of this she couldn't believe. Charlie Calvin, the rebel student who often vandalized school property, was Santa Claus's son. Well, she supposed that explained all the pro-Christmas messages in his "artwork." About to question him about this, she then paused when she recalled his words. "'You haven't seen anything yet,'" she repeated, then raised an eyebrow. "We're going to the North Pole, aren't we?"

"Yeah, we need to get there, now," Charlie said, then much to her surprise, grabbed her wrist and started to pull her down the block. "Come on, we'll go to my house and figure out something. Mom and Neil said Dad had to get a ride from the Tooth Fairy last night because a toy Santa was taking over, and he doesn't have any magic left. We have to get there on our own."

The overload of seemingly impossible phrases in that sentence made her resist Charlie's pull to stop in the middle of the street. "Wait, wait...toy Santa...magic...Tooth Fairy?"

"Right, although he prefers to be called the Molarnator," Charlie answered, a smirk on his face. He clearly knew how much this was shock, and enjoying the rare occurrance of seeing his usually calm, collected principal totally overwhelmed. He took her wrist and began to drag her forward again. "Sorry, Principal Newman, but we really need to hurry - something tells me Dad needs all the help he can get."

Despite the situation, Carol smiled as she ran alongside him. "Charlie, I'm about to go to the North Pole with you to help save Santa Claus, your father, and the man I'm currently dating," she said. "You can call me Carol."

As it turned out, Charlie lived only a few short blocks from her, which didn't give her much more time to process exactly what was going on. She was still wrapping her mind around the fact that her sort-of boyfriend was really Santa Claus, never mind all the other complications Charlie had just explained to her. The effort too much, she just decided to go with it, and deal with the possible loss of her sanity when it was all over.

They reached Charlie's front lawn...and Carol froze when she thought she heard a loud moan of pain. An odd moan of pain. "Charlie, wait!" Carol called before he could get to the front door. "Did you hear that noise?"

Charlie listened, then as another similar sound followed, he frowned in disappointment. "Aw, man."

Before Carol could question what he meant, he ran to the side of the house, and she followed. She stopped short when a large, furry animal came into view. "Oh my God," she exclaimed. "Is that...that can't be..."

"Yup, it's Comet," Charlie informed her as he looked down at the ill reindeer, which was sitting on the ground with a bulging belly.

In disbelief, Carol replied, "As in, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen..."

Charlie nodded. "That's him. Unfortunately, he had one too many chocolate bars. I was hoping maybe he was feeling well enough that he could be our ride." Tentatively, Charlie squatted down to the reindeer's level. "How about it, Comet? Do you think you can make it?"

Much to Carol's surprise, the reindeer attempted to push itself up, but quickly fell back on the grass. The animal then shook its head and made some unintelligible babbling noises...not quite speech, but still more than a typical reindeer should be able to say.

But Charlie only rubbed the animal's neck in reassurance. "Oh well, you tried. Don't worry, we'll figure something out. In the future though, lay off the chocolate will ya?"

Carol would've sworn that the animal gave Charlie an annoyed glance. Instead of asking Charlie about it, she simply shook her head and asked, "So what do we do now?"

"I don't know. Dad caught the Tooth Fairy because Lucy lost another tooth, so unless we knock out one of our own teeth..." Charlie trailed off as his eyes widened, then sprinted for the house.

Nervous, Carol reluctantly ran after him, sure she didn't want to know what he had in mind. They ran into the house, and Carol wondered just how much Laura and Neil knew about her and Scott's relationship. Was Scott even staying with them while he was in town? How surprised would they be to see Charlie's principal there, ready to help save Christmas?

"Principal Newman!" Laura exclaimed once she and Neil emerged from the kitchen. "Are you here to talk to Scott? Because he's...uh..."

Carol shook her head. "At the North Pole fighting Toy Santa. I know, Charlie told me."

"So you believe that Scott is Santa Claus?" Neil asked, concerned for her mental well-being.

Honestly, she wasn't so sure about her mental state at the moment either. "Yes, I do," she assured him. "Charlie showed me the snowglobe. I'm just...trying to take it all in."

"It's okay, it took us a while to get used to the idea too," Laura replied, a sympathetic smile on her face. She then led her guest into the kitchen. "Well, um, I guess my next question is...why are you here if you know Scott went to the North Pole? Did you want to talk to us about it?"

Neil nodded. "If you want, I could help you work through the shock."

Even though Laura and Neil indicated for her to take a seat and make herself comfortable, Carol remained standing, her coat still on. "Thanks, Neil, but I don't need therapy...right now, anyway. Charlie and I just, um..."

"Need to knock one of my teeth out," Charlie supplied, which caused his mother and stepfather to whirl around to face him, startled. "What?" Charlie replied, aggravated. "Comet's still sick, and we need to get the Tooth Fairy!"

But Laura was shaking her head. "No. You are not knocking one of your teeth out! That's crazy! There has to be some other way!"

"Why not?" Charlie angrily argued. "Dad tried to knock his tooth out at first, and you didn't try to stop him!" Charlie then pointed an accusing finger at Neil. "You even tried to help him do it!"

Before Neil could defend himself, Laura waved a dismissive hand. "That's different. Scott was out of options and needed to get to the North Pole. Besides, Charlie, it's the middle of the day! Doesn't the Tooth Fairy only come at night?"

Carol raised an eyebrow at that, and briefly wondered just how many odd situations like this the family had gone through over the years. From Laura's calm integration of the North Pole and Tooth Fairy into her argument, Carol suspected incidents like this happened often enough.

"No," Charlie replied. "Dad told me once that the Tooth Fairy comes any time someone puts a tooth under a pillow and goes to sleep. It doesn't have to be at night." Then he paused, and with a quick glance at Carol, added, "Besides, Mom, if Carol and I don't get there before midnight tonight, Dad won't be able to become Santa again anyway. Remember?"

"Oh right, I forgot about that," she replied, also with a side glance at Carol. Laura sighed. "Alright, fine. Maybe your father or the Tooth Fairy can magically put your tooth back in once this is all over."

It was obvious by the tone of Charlie's voice, and Laura's reaction, that there was yet another element of this she wasn't aware of...and wasn't allowed to know. Rather than waste time demanding an explanation, she decided that she would know eventually, and it was more important to get to the North Pole to help Scott. "So, Charlie, how are you going to knock your tooth out?'

"I'll get the toaster," Neil offered, and grabbed the appliance from the counter.

Confused, Carol asked, "For what?" Instead of giving her an answer, the other three only led her to the back stairway.

A half hour later, Carol sat at the dining room table with Laura and Neil while they waited for the Tooth Fairy. From their seats, they could see into the living room, where Charlie was fast asleep on the couch, a newly fallen-out tooth under the decorative pillow he was using for a cushion.

Getting a tooth out of her student hadn't been easy. To prevent Charlie from going over the banister, both Neil and Laura held the teenager down while Carol dropped the toaster. That had been the only successful attempt, which had come after Charlie almost fell twice since just holding onto the banister with all his might wasn't enough of a counter-weight.

The pain from having his tooth yanked out so roughly had caused Charlie to pass out, which solved their problem of getting the teenager to take a nap during the day. Neil had needed to carry Charlie to the living room couch so they could place the tooth and pillow in position.

"So let me get this straight..." Carol said. "The Tooth Fairy is actually a grown man?" Not only had she had to get used to the existence of Santa Claus, she'd also been told about the Tooth Fairy, formerly thought to be a pixie-sized female.

Neil nodded. "Yeah, that disturbs me too."

"Although I'm not surprised there is one," Laura remarked. "Scott told us there was a whole Council of Legendary Figures, remember Neil? That was when Mother Nature stopped by last year to talk to Scott about some official business."

"Mother Nature?" Carol asked.

"Yeah. Lovely woman," Laura answered.

Carol chuckled and leaned back on her chair, her arms crossed. "I'm just...amazed. What you must have gone though...has Scott always been Santa?"

"No, he became Santa about eight years ago," Laura explained. "We had only been divorced for a couple years, actually...things were still pretty strained between us, I hadn't been with Neil for that long. Then one year, Charlie spent Christmas Eve with Scott...and that's when it all began."

Bewildered, Carol just stared at her. This was fascinating, actually. Learning that Scott hadn't always been Santa added yet another layer to the man. And if she was going to be dating Santa Claus, she should at least try to find out everything she could about him. "I don't get it," Carol admitted. "How exactly do you become Santa Claus?"

"Well, from the way Scott told us, the old Santa fell off the roof, and Scott put on the red coat," Neil answered. "That was that first Christmas. He then started developing Santa characteristics during the year, and took over the job the Christmas after. We actually thought he was crazy."

About to reply, Carol gasped as a brief memory popped in her head. "Oh my God! I know that story!" Carol exclaimed. "I knew the name Scott Calvin sounded familiar - it was in the papers eight years ago! You two were pressing charges because you thought Scott kidnapped Charlie!"

"Yes, well, it's not our proudest moment," Neil admitted. "But like I said, we thought Scott was insane for thinking he was Santa Claus. He couldn't prove it to us until that Christmas Eve, when he officially took the job."

Laura sighed and shook her head. "Thankfully, once Scott flew away in a sleigh pulled by eight flying reindeer, the matter was closed."

"Amazing," Carol whispered in awe. That Santa Claus was a divorced father made the idea of his existence just a little more real, a little easier to swallow. She was about to ask her hosts more questions when there was the squeak of the window in the living room. "What was that?"

The trio crept into the living room so as not to startle the legendary figure, who was just flying through the window that had been opened. Carol had to take a minute to stare. It certainly was an average, if a little strange, looking man... but with small wings that came out of his back through his jacket.

"Huh? What's going on?" Tooth Fairy asked once he spotted the three adults next to the still-sleeping teenager. "You two...Laura and Neil, right? Do you need me for something?"

"Well, this is Carol," Laura introduced as she pulled Carol over for introductions. "She's Santa's girlfriend, and she needs to speak to him right away."

Tooth Fairy's eyes widened. "Santa's girlfriend? Really, he did it?" When Laura nodded, he clapped his hands and smiled. "That's great! Such a relief, too. All of us in the Council were worried." His smile wide on his face, he firmly shook Carol's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Carol."

"Y-you too," Carol stuttered. First the exchange earlier...and now the Council of Legendary Figures is worried about Scott finding a girlfriend? she thought. That was it. She had to know. "Okay, Laura, Neil, what are you not telling me?"

The other three only stared at her, totally at a loss for words. Finally, the sounds of Charlie's yawning broke the awkward silence. "What's going on?" he asked, sleepy. Then he winced in pain and put a hand to his mouth. "Ow!"

"Oh, honey, here's an aspirin and some water," Laura offered, quick to be distracted by grabbing said items from the side table. "Tooth Fairy got here a few minutes ago. Take this before you leave, hopefully it will kick in during the flight."

But Tooth Fairy shook his head and instead pulled out a stick of gum from his coat pocket. "No, here Charlie, magical chewing gum. Guaranteed to relieve all tooth pain. Trust me, I'm the expert."

"Thanks, Tooth Fairy," Charlie replied as he popped the gum in his mouth. "Dad's in trouble," he explained. "You know from when you dropped him off earlier. I want to go help...and Carol, well, they need to talk. Please, can you take us?"

Tooth Fairy gave him a salute. "The Molarnator is at your service! Are you both ready to leave?"

Charlie, Laura and Neil looked at her, doubt on their faces, clearly worried that she would change her mind after all that happened. And it did occur to her that if she went to the North Pole, there would be no going back. It was one thing to go along with the plan so far, but agreeing to this trip would be jumping head first into fantasy without any chance of ever returning to her old, normal life. Denial wouldn't be an option.

But her "old, normal life" had been that of a strict, reserved principal who intimidated those she came across. And it was time for a change, a leap of faith.

Carol nodded. "Let's go," she said firmly. "And we better hurry. Who knows what kind of trouble Scott is in now."