departure from the series at the end of the fourth season, the relationship takes some new turns, with Donna attempting to broaden her horizons past Josh and pursue her own social life outside of the White House. In season 5, when Donna is badly injured in a terrorist attack in Gaza, Josh rushes to keep vigil at her bedside at a military hospital in Germany. In the sixth-season episode "Impact Winter," Donna quits her job as assistant to Josh, seeing no chance of career advancement. She begins working for Vice President Bob Russell's presidential campaign. About the same time, Josh leaves his job to work on Matt Santos' campaign. This puts Donna and Josh in direct confrontation as their candidates battle each other for the Democratic nomination. Santos beats Russell for the nomination in the season 6 finale "2162 Votes." Donna applies for a job in the Santos for President campaign in the Season 7 premiere "The Ticket," but Josh finds himself forced to reject her as she is on record trashing his candidate while she was working for the other team. During their conversation he reveals that he misses her "every day." Later, Lou Thornton hires Donna to work on the Santos campaign with Lou corralling the two into a meeting room for a quick reconciliation. In the Season 7 episode "The Cold," Josh and Donna kiss passionately as she brings him the good news that Congressman Santos has caught up to Vinick and that they are tied in the national tracking polls. Josh later apologizes, saying the kiss was "inappropriate," but Donna says, "It was bound to happen sometime." Donna talks to Will, who says pursuing a relationship with Josh wouldn't be inappropriate. Later in the episode, Donna discreetly leaves the key to her hotel room on the table for Josh, but Edith Ortega notices the key before Josh can retrieve it and returns the key to Donna. In "Election Day," Josh and Donna consummate their relationship, sleeping together twice, both times at her initiative. Donna gives Josh four weeks to figure out "what they want from each other." She insists that if this cannot happen within four weeks, their relationship will remain in a constant state of ambiguity, which is not what Donna wants. After talking to Lou as well as his deputy-of-choice Sam Seaborn, Josh realizes that he desperately needs to take a break from work.