Ellie and Zoey arrived a few hours later. After briefly seeing their father, they came out as upset as everyone else.
"Mom, will Dad make it?"
Abbey took Zoey into her arms. "I don't know sweetie. He was submerged for so long. I just don't know."
The family tried to get some sleep but Abbey stayed awake, anxious for the least little bit of good news.
Time continued to drag. Leo had come out for a couple of hours, but returned to the White House when he realized there was nothing he could do.
Dr. Howard, and his partner, Dr. Taylor, spent the night making hourly assessments. But until they reversed the coma, there was little new information.
By morning some progress had been made. The doctors removed the ventilator when he started to trigger the machine himself. Later in the night, the President was transferred to the Presidential suite after he stabilized medically during the night.
Abbey knew the transfer was a good sign. A sign that he was recovering.
By the next morning, Jed's core body temperature had risen to ninety-eight degrees. The doctors decided that they would reverse the coma so they could begin the assessment of any damage.
By noon, he was responding to painful stimuli, which meant he was out of the coma, but not yet completely awake. He could be given medicine to speed the process, but the doctors wanted to see if he could bring himself out of it.
They asked Abbey and her daughters to stimulate him with familiar words and sounds. But the girls decided that their mother needed to try alone first. They knew if he didn't respond to her, he wouldn't respond to anybody.
Abbey walked over to his bedside and started brushing his arm with her hand. Back and forth. Back and forth.
"Jed, it's time to wake up. You've been asleep too long. Wake up, pumpkin."
No response.
"I'll pull you out myself if you don't get up." Still no response.
Abbey leaned over the bed and gave him a typical wake-up kiss.
If that didn't do it, nothing would.
Abbey stepped back, her hand still resting on his arm.
His eyelids fluttered, then opened gradually. They focused on the ceiling before traveling to his side in an attempt to find the source of that kiss.
"Wake-up, my prince charming. You've been asleep for a while." Abbey smiled. "How are you?"
Jed returned the smile. Then his mouth moved. But there was no sound. No response.
His face grimaced as he tried to form the words, but no sound was forthcoming.
There was no sound coming from his mouth.