The President was discharged late the next afternoon and returned to the Residence.
Jed was writing down his questions, but Abbey could tell the frustration was building.
As Abbey looked at him, Jed slammed the paper down and threw the pen across the room.
She quickly went to his side. "It's okay to be frustrated. You have to remember that this is temporary, it won't last forever."
"Are you sure?" Jed wrote.
"Yes, I'm sure. We have to have faith."
All he could do was to pull her closer and give her a kiss.
"I love you too, Jed. We'll get past this."
The next day, Abbey was in the bathroom while Jed was getting dressed. He felt well enough to at least go to the Oval Office and read through the paperwork at his desk.
Leo had already told the staff what to expect and how to converse with him. Treat the President as normal as possible and don't expect lengthy responses. The best questions were those that could be answered with as few as words as possible.
As he turned towards the closet, he stumped his foot on the bed.
"Damn! That hurts!"
Abbey flew from the bathroom. "What did you just say?"
"I said…wait a minute. I just said damn. And you heard me. You heard me."
They hugged and shouted for joy.
"Abbey, my voice is back."
"Sounds like that to me." Abbey had never seen such a broad smile on her husband's face.
He pulled back and looked directly into his wife's eyes. "I love you, Abbey. Always have. Always will."
Tears fell from her eyes.
"Shh, Abbey. It'll be okay. I'm fine. But you know, I was so afraid that I would never be able to say those words again."
"And I was so afraid that I would never hear those words again."
They sat on the bed for a few minutes with Jed over and over again telling Abbey how much he loved her. Although it had only been a couple of days, he realized how much he missed telling her those three little words.
He made a vow then and there to always remind her how much she meant to him.
To say those three precious words over and over again 'I love you'.
THE END