Can a wireless laptop channel it's bandwidth through its NIC card to a desktop?

Windows (not sure about Mac OS) does have internet sharing and it is possible to setup your laptop to share the wireless connection through it's NIC. I can't tell you specifics on how to do it, but it will be under your network setting. For more specifics your best bet is likely to do a search on microsoft's (or apple's) website for internet connection sharing and you will likely find a detailed article on how to configure it.