Taggart set his paintball gun down and rubbed his hands together. Right-o then. He gripped the wheel and strained mightily for a moment. The hatch reminded sealed up tight.

"Superior species, huh?" Jo couldn't help but say.

"There!" Tag's voice was tight with effort as he tried even harder. "I got it, I got it, I got it!" he insisted, as if saying it would make it happen.

"You don't. Move." Jo set down her weapon and stepped in to show Tag how it is done… again.

She spread her feet to ground her stance, gripped the wheel to push with one arm and pull with the other. After bracing herself, she hauled as hard as she could. But despite her best efforts she couldn't get it turn more than the scantest millimeter. Jo threw herself at it again, bracing against the floor and throwing her body weight into it. Her boots threatened to slip out from under her, sending her crashing face first to the floor, so she stepped back to reassess.

"Paint might lube it up." she suggested, snatching her gun up from the floor.

"Pfft!" Tag snorted and couldn't suppress a chuckle. That was a stretch but Lupo always felt like she should have a solution. And that solution usually involved a weapon. But they couldn't muscle their way through this one.

"You've got a better idea?" Jo wasn't sure why her pride was stung. After all, Tag hadn't been able to open it either. At least she was brainstorming.

"I do actually. Yeah." Tag looked her up and down, assessing.

The problem here wasn't the amount of force. Jo was the most forceful person he knew. The problem was proper application of said force. Now, with a lever… Tag grabbed his fun from the floor. He wedged the barrel into the hatch wheel and grabbed the handle. This was also much easier to grip than the smooth metal circle of the hatch.

"It's going to take the strength of three men. I figure you're good for two." Taggart smiled at Jo.

She returned the smile and bent to set her weapon down.

"Grab my butt, Jo." he beckoned.

Jo straightened and fixed him with A Look.

"Sorry." It has sounded funny in his head, he thought as Jo positioned herself and found a grip. He counted to three and they heaved simultaneously on the makeshift lever. "Come on Jo, give it some welly!"

With a jerk, the hatch wheel gave, turning suddenly. They both gave a grunt of surprised as the butt of the gun swiveled up sharply, sending them stumbling back a step. Jo fell back against Taggart and found herself pressed against the side of the tall man. Hurriedly she stepped away, gaining distance both from the man and the now-released hatch. Taggart smiled at her, but that was probably just a response to their success, she thought.

"Get ready for stinky." Taggart warned before opening the hatch door.

Jo wanted to roll her eyes but she braced herself instead. Just in case. Taggart cringed slightly for dramatic effect as he cracked the door open. Nothing. Naturally. He knew what he was about, after all.

"After you." He swung the door open far enough for Jo to step through.

"No, no. Go ahead." she responded.

"No, you first." He was a gentleman after all and the threat of a tide of sewage, if there ever actually was on to begin with, was past.

"No, really, I insist," Jo nodded. "Go."

All-righty then. Taggart brought his weapon to ready and scoped out the passageway before him. Off we go. "Beauty before brawn." he joked over his shoulder as he entered the hatch. Jo followed right on his heels.

They made their way to a ladder of metal rungs mounted into a tube leading upward. Jo realized then she hadn't seen any other ways back to the surface. Tag had been right about their entrance point being the nearest access.

"I reckon we're right under the bunker." He looked up the ladder.

Jo slipped by him and fired a paintball up the shaft.

"I didn't even see a camera." Taggart assured her. He'd crouched to enter the shaft and how found himself down at Jo's height leaning close over her shoulder. He had an irreverent moment of noticing how the yellow paint spattered across her face seemed to highlight the structure of her face. A beauty even in warpaint and camo.

"Yeah, well,' she turned to look at him and the breath froze in his lungs at how near she was. "if you wait 'til you can see them, that means they've seen you."

Jo turned back to scanning the shaft above. Tag smiled.

"Beauty before beast." he offered.

She grinned back and accepted the lead this time. Truly, it was impressive watching her scale the ladder one-handed, her weapon still ready for action. Especially impressive given the view he got by bringing up the rear.

"And a beauty she is." he murmured to himself as he gazed up after her, admiring a different sort of rear for a moment before he followed.

They were directly underneath the bunker, crouching in the service tunnel, when they ran into a need for intel. Jo didn't want to proceed without knowing more about the bunker defense systems. And it would take too long to find access to the bunker. She tried her PDA but comms had been down since they had entered the perimeter. No doubt a jamming signal causing interference. With no other ideas she decided to try the most obvious idea first.

She knocked. On the ceiling above her, or the floor of the bunker, depending how you looked at it. She waited, half expecting to be attacked by the defensive systems again. After several long moments of listening they heard a tapping from above echoing down the pipes around them. The pattern repeated. An SOS

"It's Morse code." Taggart recognized.

Jo reached up and tapped out the tune to "shave and a haircut", relieved when the "two bits" echoed down to her. That was definitely Carter they were talking to. That would make it a little easier, she figured. Carter was a lot easier to figured out than the other brainiacs she suspected were inside with him.

She didn't waste time trying to Morse a coherent question. Carter would know exactly what information she needed to formulate a strategy. Jo may resent him for usurping the Sheriff's badge from her, but she had to admit the man could really pull together a plan.

That plan wasn't long in coming. Jo and Taggart interpreted the internet taps they could faintly here. Lupo had aced Morse in Basic, naturally, but may she heard wrong this time because she was seriously confused. She looked at Taggart but the fact that his face was only inches from hers didn't help confusion any. She glanced away.

"'Crack pipe'. What's..." Taggart's voice was colored with befuddlement for a moment before everything clicked. "Oh! 'Crack PIPE'!" he said, gesturing to the conduits running above them. He jumped up and shined his flashlight along the pipes and tubes that lined the low-hung ceiling above them.

"Okay" Jo said as she twisted to look about her. "Uh, which pipe?"

"Well, pick one." was all the suggestion Taggart had to offer.

Without hesitation, Jo raised her weapon and drove the butt of the gun hard into a pipe. She hit it again and again until it gave. a froth of vapor released, signalling the vacuum seal on the bunker was broken. Tag lowered himself to the floor and waited, listening for further signals hard over the faint hissing of ventilation. Jo sat beside him.

Within a few moments the expected signals came. Carter signaled the all clear. They had done it. The danger was past.

"A-ha! We did it!"

"Good on ya, mate!"

They both crowed with triumph, celebrating with a comradely sock on the shoulder.

The touch made them freeze. They stared at each other for a moment. Taggart didn't realize he was unconsciously leaning towards her, drawn in by the genuine smile of delight on her lips. Jo noticed though, noticed too how close they were once again. She felt the return of a desire she'd felt once before, when they had danced together. The hell with it, she decided. She wanted to know, so she was going to find out what it felt like to kiss Jim Taggart.

She swallowed, licking her lips and grabbing his collar to pull him in. She planted a solid one on his lips. It wasn't a long kiss but it was enough to leave an impact. When she released him, Jo had to take a deep breath.

Taggart was wide-eyed. He'd been too stunned to process what was happening. Too blown away to believe it was even happening. Helpless to react, to participate, to reciprocate.

Well that wouldn't do at all.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and drew her back to him. Clumsily, almost hungrily. They toppled over as he kissed her fiercely, so she wouldn't mistake his initial lack of reaction as indifference. It wasn't graceful or particularly erotic but oh this was much better. Now his legs were tangled with hers and they were as close as their tactical vests would allow. They kissed sloppily, chasing each others lips when one had to pull back to take a breath. His fingers found her ponytail and wound themselves through the strands

Tag's lips had just found her neck when she heard it, a different sound this time. There was a hum and a clank as some mechanism of the bunker engaged. What sounded like hydraulics and the scrape of metal against metal. Jo froze. No way would Carter mess around with anything knowing she and Tag were down here. That meant the bunker's system still wasn't under control. And it had more defense capabilities than they had encountered so far. The danger wasn't over after all.

"Tag." she whispered.

He stilled in her arms, aghast for a moment with the worry he might have gone to far, been much too forward. But as he drew back, he caught what she had heard. Jo's eyes met his and he nodded in understanding.

"We need to go."

And that could have been the end of it. Maybe should have. They had hightailed it out of the bunker's range before Jo whipped out her PDA to make contact with the surface. She called in the cavalry to Carter's place and arranged their own extraction from the tunnels. By the time they had made it to the bunker topside, the crisis was truly past. S.A.R.A.H. had released her 'reluctant guests' and Stark was detailing to Fargo exactly how to disabled the bunker defense system that if done incorrectly could lead to Fargo losing his job. They had parted ways when Jo had to return to the station to file the paperwork on the vaporization of one pizza delivery dude only to run into each other again when she stopped in to Cafe Diem for a late dinner.

The rest of the day had been rough. Not that the whole bunker fiasco has been easy exactly, but with Taggart it had been almost… fun. An adventure. Now she was coming down from the adrenaline and conflicted about those kisses. What they meant, how she felt about them, what she wanted to do about them. She had managed to put that all aside to deal with the hardest part of her job: informing the friends and family of a deceased citizen.

Jo was wiped out as she settled in at the counter. It was not a night to grab a booth and enjoy her meal in Vincent's ambiance. The chef caught her eye from where he stood chatting with a table of patrons. He raised a finger to ask for a moment before he hustled off into the kitchen without speaking to her. She tossed a wave his way as he went. She trusted Vincent to know her tastes and moods. He took pride in being able to guess cravings or produce the perfect comfort food for any situation.

She was grabbing the bag of takeout when Taggart appeared beside her with a welcoming smile.

"G'day Jo. Everything sorted with the smart house?" he asked.

She responded with a nod, too weary to get into the details. Her silence made him frown.

"Everything all right?"

Jo nodded again but made an effort to look more normal, attempting a weak smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a long day, you know? Looking forward to putting my feet up, having a beer."

Taggart nodded. He badly wanted to address the kisses they had shared. He'd been thinking about them all day, unsure of what his response should be. He swung back and forth between feeling like a lecherous old man who had best keep his grubby mitts to himself, and wondering what saintly act in his youth or childhood had made him worthy of such a miracle as her attraction. He wanted to know but now wasn't the time when she was so knackered. And he strongly suspected he wouldn't have the courage to bring it up if left too long.

"Right-o. May I see you home?" Sure, he wasn't going to bring the subject up. But it couldn't hurt to put himself in a position for a goodnight kiss at her doorstep, if she chose to do something like that.

"Don't think a woman should walk the mean streets of Eureka alone at night?" Jo's tiny smile was more genuine this time.

"Well," Taggart began dramatically as he took her bag from her and offered instead his elbow to gallantly lead her out onto Main Street. "It is a dangerous place. Why, even the houses are deadly around here."

They riffed and bantered lightly the short distance to Jo's home. Her food went cold as they lingered on the porch to finish their conversation. After several more subjects were introduced and exhausted, talking turned into a comfortable silence. They had gazed at each other a few moments before Taggart, though reluctant to leave, made his farewells. It had felt like a natural urge to bend to give her a kiss on the cheek as he said goodnight. Given the uncertainty between them at the moment, he knew it was a brave and risky move.

"Tag." her voice stopped him just as he turned away.

Her eyes were fixed on his lips and his heart thumped with hope that she might kiss him again. But she only swallowed and dropped her eyes.

"Good night." she said simply and opened the door to disappear inside.