DISCLAIMER: Mass Effect video game is the property of its respective owners and the author has no financial gain from it. Original Characters and story concept are mine though.

A/N: Here is the second part of Chapter 3 for your enjoyment. 5,5k words, but every one of them counts. Have a good one! :)

WARNING: This part of the narrative contains a mature content and viewer discretion is strongly advised, hence the M rating of the fanfic. Please also bear in mind that if I put such content in the story it is for a reason, not merely for my own amusement. ;)

It is betaed by the one and the only Redentor

Chapter 3, part 2

Some time had passed and I bravely kept up with the conversation, but the lack of alcohol in my veins started to bother me rather quickly. I was never the one to stay dry, especially not when I was sitting in a pub. I remembered when I was in college and my best friend was too lazy to take a bus to meet us, so he came by a car. For the rest of the evening he had to drink green tea, while we all had beers. We teased him about it mercilessly. Those were good times.

But this time the tables have turned and I found myself in his shoes. I noticed that staying sober when other people are tipsy is no fun at all. The glass that contained my weak cocktail was empty already and I didn't feel comfortable with ordering another one, since I refused the drinks that female officers proposed before.

To my silent relief we were approached soon after by the Captain Galtieri. I was happy to see that he had two beers with him. He came up and greeted the ladies with a warm smile. I had to admit that Galtieri looked pretty dashing in his black dress uniform, as he wore it with the casual elegance that characterized aristocracy back in the day. It was obvious that he knew all the female officers here. He passed me one of his beers. I refused to take it on principle – we barely knew each other after all – but he just winked and said quietly.

"I've got your six, cadet. This one's on me."

With my CO's permission I took the offered beer. To my surprise the beer turned out to be a very good American-style Indian Pale Ale, which was one of my personal favorites back on my Earth. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the rich and bitter taste. I was so lost in the sensation, that I didn't notice at first that everyone was staring at me. Only when Galtieri started to laugh did I opened my eyes and notice the amused looks.

"See that, ladies? That's a man who enjoys his beer, right there."

I was more amused than embarrassed at my own behavior so I laughed as well. Meanwhile, Captain Catherine Miles scolded me jokingly.

"Can you believe it, Lucas?" She addressed smiling Galtieri. "We've been sitting here for the last half hour hanging to his every word and nothing. Yet you bring him one glass of beer and he's all yours. Do you fancy you're CO, Peter?" the redhead teased me mercilessly. We decided to use our first names when off duty, to separate a person from the rank he or she held.

I snorted at that. Well, I walked into this one all by myself.

"No Catherine, I do not. No offence Lucas, but you're simply not my type." To our mirth, Galtieri played an animation of a breaking heart on his wrist-comp. "Nevertheless, you had the right idea. Where I come from we have a saying – the quickest way to man's heart is through his stomach."

"Really?" Patricia van Koolwijk seemed unconvinced "I would rather say it's through the chest."

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Well yes, if you plan on killing him." I admitted. "But what it really means is that if you wish to win a man's heart then give him the food he loves."

The female officers smiled at that, while Galtieri nodded sagely.

"It seems like your people have figured it out. What do you need to do to win a woman's heart, then?" he inquired

"Numerous philosophers, poets and artists asked the same question, but the female heart appears to be beyond our comprehension." I said solemnly, trying and failing to stifle my laughter.

Galtieri guffawed, while the ladies exchanged exasperated looks.

"Men. Why do we even bother with you?" said Captain Shi-Lee, but her eyes betrayed her own amusement.

From then on, the conversation was much more relaxed. I occasionally responded to subtle flirtation attempts from the female officers, but I made a conscious decision that certain lines could not be crossed – off-duty or not, they were my superiors. I also noticed from the way the officers talked that this flirtation was sort of a verbal game. I learned only later that it was really the case – verbal exchanges with other agents taught you to keep a level head in any circumstances, made you pay attention to the conversation at hand and helped you with finding subtle hints from the way people talked. All of those were very helpful in our work as field agents. It was pretty funny, because ordinarily I would have never expected to learn new things that way. But what was important was that it was actually working for me. It was a double-edged sword though, as you could never know how genuine people's reactions were. A double-edged edged sword, sharpened with an overabundance of double entendres.

Despite all that I had to admit that it was a very pleasant evening and by the end of it I didn't regret coming here. I've learned that Lucas Galtieri was divorced in addition to being a veteran of many combat operations. His ex-wife was unable to cope with the pressure of being married to a Special Forces operator, even after he transferred to Security Branch just for her. Patricia van Koolwijk was a highly-respected specialist in her field, who wrote the Army manual on demolitions handling and explosive ordinance disposal. She was also single and willing – her words, not mine. Catherine Miles was happily married to an artist of all people, who apparently enjoyed painting her nude. She got a little tipsy on cocktails and wanted to share with us his paintings, but Lucy managed to talk her out of this. Still, Catherine promised to send me some paintings to my holo-tablet and I happily agreed – I'm an agent not a priest, so give me a break. Lucy Shi-Lee could talk your ears off with her anecdotes on life in the External Affairs Bureau. Some of her stories were so outlandish that they had to be real – you couldn't make something like that up. She was in an on-and-off relationship with a woman from the Interactive Dislocation Department, but she indicated that she could be available if Galtieri wanted some benefits in their friendship – she apparently took pity on him, when his wife left him. After the last bit I simply couldn't keep quiet anymore and asked.

"Look guys, I can't ignore the elephant in the room anymore. How does Security Branch look upon such…" I stammered a little, looking for a correct word. "…liaisons? I may not have been in the military for too long, but I know that anti-fraternization policies are there for a reason. And yet it seems like it doesn't really apply to you? What's the catch?"

As if by magic wand, their faces turned serious as if I committed some sort of faux-pas. To be honest, I didn't care in the slightest. This had to be addressed immediately, before I said or did something wrong. I doubted that a commanding officer like General Anjou would tolerate such behavior among his senior staff anyway.

"Patricia, you have mentioned yourself that Bureau takes great pains to treat you as an officer first, and a woman second." I continued, looking at van Koolwijk.

"Are you implying that we are not professional enough regarding our work, Peter?" asked Lucy coldly. She looked very serious, but the tone of her voice indicated that she was trying to get a rise out of me.

"That was not what I asked, and you know it," I responded evenly, not willing to take the bait and turn it into a pissing contest.

"Now, now there is no need to be rude about it. Peter asked a legitimate question and deserves an honest answer," said Galtieri in a placating manner.

"Indeed," agreed Patricia. "As for your question: Security Branch is not part of the Confederate Armed Forces and anti-fraternization rules do not apply. We train with weapons, wear uniforms and have a chain of command, but we are not the Army. You are more likely to listen in on a wiretap for two days, rather than lead a fireteam through the city. In an ideal situation you wouldn't have to fire your gun at all, because your most important weapon will be your mind. Because of that Security Branch agents are allowed much more leeway, since formally we are just Public Safety clerks. That is why you see that we have a rather… loose approach to things like fraternization in workplace."

She narrowed her eyes at me and her tone changed to one of warning.

"All that said, make no mistake, Peter. Whatever is happening off-duty mustn't have any influence on your work. On this rule we will not budge, do we understand each other?"

"Yes, ma'am." I still wasn't 100 percent sure about that, but if Security Branch was convinced that it worked better that way, I wasn't going to be the one to rock the boat.

She smiled at me, her tone playful again.

"What did I tell you about calling me that when we're off-duty?" she teased.

And just like that, everything went back to normal. We talked some more and I learned further about the workings of Security Branch and their approach to their employees private lives. Basically it was a 'don't ask, don't tell' up to eleven – as far as the Bureau was concerned, when agents were on the clock they had no relationships, no sexual orientation and no political opinions. When they were done with their assignment, they were free to do as they pleased.

Soon after, I decided to take my leave so I got up and said my goodbyes to everyone. I came to an agreement with Galtieri that we will start tomorrow at 08:30 so I had a good night sleep guaranteed. Apart from a weak cocktail and two beers – I had another one of these wonderful ales – I didn't drink much, so I felt pretty good overall. Patricia on the other hand looked rather under the weather. She had a few shots of what might have been the local equivalent of vodka in addition to her cocktails, and her cheeks were rosy. She stumbled a little and loudly declared that she was also going home, to avoid getting utterly drunk. Lucas asked me to take her to the shuttle that was commuting with the base and I agreed – I wouldn't leave her alone in this state anyway. She was a trained operative, but she was still in no shape to be travelling alone.

We walked back toward the landing pad and boarded one of the shuttles. This time I had no chance to talk to the pilots as the door to their cabin was closed. I took a seat next to Patricia and watched her cautiously. She was rocking back and forth a little bit and I was afraid for a moment that she might get sick, but then she leaned on me and started snoring. I couldn't help but smile at that as I said.

"Good night, ma'am."

She opened one of her eyes and murmured sleepily.

"Don' be callin' me ma'am when off-duty… makes me feel old…"

She didn't wait for my answer and went back to sleep on my shoulder.

It took us about forty five minutes to get back to Camp Bravo Two, and in the meantime Colonel van Koolwijk woke up twice and played on her wrist-comp for a moment just to fall asleep again. I laid her down on one of the medevac benches and put my uniform coat under her head – it would get wrinkled, but Lox told me that washing here is done automatically, unless assigned as a punishment to recruit details. It seemed like the good old military punishments never change, even if you are in the future. When we finally reached the base I tried to wake her up, but she wouldn't budge. I tried to call the shuttle pilots, but they left through the other door, ignoring me completely. When I waved at them, both pilots laughed at my misfortune, but they did not offer to help. As both of them were flight officers I couldn't well order them around, so it was up to me to take Patricia back to her barracks.

At first I thought I'd take her in a fireman's carry, but she was a woman and I considered myself somewhat of a gentleman. So I threw my uniform jacket back on, picked her up bridal-style and carried her to one of the prefabs. She was still sleeping soundly when I entered the female barrack – it was mostly empty as many female officers were staying in the city. I followed my trusty Pathfinder app to her room and stood in front of the door. I laid van Koolwijk down at the corridor and tried to access her room. To my surprise they were completely sealed off and any manipulations done with my wrist-comp ended with the holographic display stubbornly saying 'Access Refused'. I had half of mind to take out my holo-tablet and hack the door, as it was either that or leave her on the floor, but then I noticed Patricia's wrist comp which was still partially active.

I picked her hand up gently from her sitting position on the floor and accessed her wrist-comp. As expected, it was placed in a hibernation mode and I didn't even require a password to use it. I immediately noticed that her front display was much messier than mine. Patricia had various icons scattered around the desktop and it took me sometime to access her door lock, which was hidden in her picture folder. I clicked on the door lock app and a password query appeared. I used one of my simple wrist-comp apps to access the password and open the door. Quite happy with my ingenuity I picked up the sleeping woman and carried her to the bed. I laid her down and took of her shoes. I found a rolled up blanket under her bunk, so I picked it up and covered her prone form.

I was not sure whether I wanted to share this part of my story, but I decided that narrative just wouldn't be complete without it. In addition – what occurred there, on that night had a profound effect on the choices I made later on.

I was ready to leave her apartment room, but when I turned toward the exit her hand shot out and grabbed my arm, pulling me down. I had no chance to react and my body lost its balance, so I fell across her bed rather ungainly. Her other hand grabbed my necktie and pulled my face toward hers. We kissed sloppily, like a pair of teenagers, while she grabbed my crotch and squeezed it, sending a jolt of pleasure through my body. I pulled out from the kiss and could only say one word:

"Fuck!" I gasped for air while she eyed me hungrily.

"What's the matter?" she looked me in the eye. Through the haze of my desire I managed to notice that her slurring was gone and her movements were well coordinated. I ceased that train of thought immediately, when she gave my crotch another squeeze. Results of her ministrations were instantly noticeable and I moaned quietly.

"You know, if you can't get it up after two beers I'll be glad to help you out, tiger" Her words were teasing, but the tone of her voice carried a promise. It sounded husky with lust and I'm sure I would have sounded similar if I were able to talk. Before my instincts completely took over I had my last lucid thought.

In my mind I saw Erica. She was the girl I loved and with who I'd spent the last few years of my life. I remembered all the good times we'd had. I was no saint, but it still felt awful to fool around with the woman I'd just met this morning. Was that really who I was? Perhaps the IDD people were right after all – I would gladly backstab and sneak around to achieve my goals or cater to my selfish desires. Or perhaps I was just a wild animal? All she had to do was to show me her breasts and legs and I was all over her in an instant. It was pathetic.

Of course, Patricia's lips didn't help my thought process at all. She kissed my neck, while slowly removing her clothes. She moved away for a moment to kneel on her bunk and I barely restrained a whimper of protest. She used her wrist-comp to turn on one of the smaller lights and she stretched her body, letting me see her silhouette in all of her naked glory.

God, she was gorgeous! She was athletic and yet curvaceous. There was no blemish on her skin, apart from few old combat scars, which only emphasized the dangerous edge in her natural beauty. She looked perfect to me and my body reacted to her instantaneously. She was glistening with sweat and I could smell the musky fragrance of her arousal. I would later on rationalize that as there was no going back to Earth anyway, and that it wouldn't hurt anyone to have a little fun. But deep down I knew that the moment she dragged me into her bed, all rational thoughts were gone and all that was left was pure, unadulterated lust. I was simply too weak-minded to deny my new body its release.

I got up from the bed and grabbed a handful of her hair, kissing her passionately, while my other hand explored her nude body. My fingers entered her warm and wet opening, while I used my thumb to massage her on the outside. Patricia moaned into my mouth and her body moved closer to mine, while her hands made short work of my black breeches. Other parts of my uniform were long gone, but I didn't care about it in the slightest, only paying attention to the moaning woman in front of me. She allowed me to do anything with her and if I found it strange at the time I didn't stop to think it through. I pushed her onto her bunk and climbed on top of her. The smile on her face was inviting and challenging, which only fueled my lust further. I entered her roughly and deeply, biting her shoulder blade as I did so. What we did later on was not lovemaking by any stretch but carnal fucking fueled by lust and desire, pure and simple. My new body reacted to endorphins released by my brain like felines to catnip and I wanted even more. Patricia reacted to my ministration just like I wanted her to and we both reached climax at the same time, a rare occurrence. I collapsed on top of her, physically and emotionally exhausted, but she just smiled sweetly at me and pecked me on the lips.

"The night's still young, tiger. I want to see how you work under me now."

She flipped me on my back with the strength I didn't know she possessed, which surprised me – after all she was so meek and obedient so far. But now she straddled my body with her strong thighs and I was reacting to her once again. I wasn't passive or inattentive in bed, but I've never considered myself a sexual record-holder either. But right now, to my great surprise Patricia was invigorating me in a way I'd never thought possible and my body was responding to her – I was filled with wanting again, my strength was returning as if someone turned on the switch in my brain.

This time we took it slower and I savored every moment of it. My hands were all over her body, taking time with their exploration. Our second climax, so unlike our previous wild and uncontrolled experience came with soft waves of pleasure going through our joined bodies. Patricia whimpered softly and then arched her back, while I simply bit my bottom lip and rode on as I felt my limbs shudder. She collapsed on top of me, and I couldn't find the strength to move her. Fortunately, she was lucid enough to gently move to the side and lie down next to me. She wrapped her arm around my chest and bit my shoulder slightly. She looked at me with a lazy smile and said.

"So, how did you like it, tiger? Was it everything you expected when we met in the morning?"

I looked at her with a frown.

"When we met in the morning I had no expectations whatsoever."

"Liar," she giggled at my flustered face.

"You have clearly mixed up sexual fantasies with honest expectations. Those two are not the same, Patricia." I explained snidely, but my weak joke fell short as she laughed quietly at me.

"Heavens, you are something else Peter! I love it when you start talking all proper just to show your uncompromising side. You know it would have worked much better if we haven't just fucked."

That was true, but did it really matter? 'Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit' as Saint Paul wrote to Corinthians. But it wasn't even my real body, because I was just a clone. And I was going to be cloned again, really soon. What did it matter if I kept it clean and pure? Times they were a'changing, indeed. Bob Dylan, you bastard! You just had to jinx it, didn't you?

I snorted to myself, which caused Patricia to perk up again. Her electric blue eyes were beautiful, I concluded.

"What's so funny now?"

Caressing her soft cheek I pecked her on the lips.

"I was just considering the existential side to having sex." I said jokingly

"And what is your conclusion?" she was smiling now

"That it doesn't matter at all. Are you ready for another round?" I teased

To my surprise she smiled and straddled me again. Once again, I smelled the musky fragrance and felt the wetness below.

"Do you even have to ask?" she bit my lower lip and used her hand to guide my hardening member to her warm and inviting sheath. We both moaned when I entered her once again and soon we settled into comfortable rhythm.

We took it slow once again, using our mouths and hands to explore and tease our bodies. When we reached our climax it was comfortable and pleasant. This time we just kissed and no words were spoken as we both drifted off to sleep.

Soft beeping of the alarm on my wrist comp woke me up. I noticed the sleeping form of Patricia van Koolwijk. She was snuggled close to me and looked innocent and sweet, which I now knew to be a very misleading impression. I could tell that both of us needed a shower though as we smelled of sweat and other bodily fluids. After moving her gently to the other half of her narrow bunk, I got up and started collecting pieces of my uniform. My dress blacks were wrinkled, but the white button up shirt was surprisingly fresh looking. I had trouble locating my undershirt and my boxers, which for some unfathomable reason ended up under Patricia's desk. I noticed a large, full-length mirror on one of the walls and admired my nude body in it. It was still difficult to comprehend for me how different and yet so similar it was to my original one. I tapped my crotch lightly with my hand and a shit-eating grin.

"Good job, my lad." I said smugly.

"Heavens! Don't fall in love with yourself, Dubois." I heard a voice from the bed and turned around.

Patricia was lying on her side and watching me with an amused expression.

"I'm afraid it's too late for that, Miss van Koolwijk. I've been in love with myself since day one." I joked.

I sat back on the bed and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. By all means it should have been an awkward morning for us, but for one reason or another I didn't feel any embarrassment about the night before. When I shared my observation with Patricia she only said:

"Good. It means that you're learning faster than I anticipated."

Comprehension dawned on me, when I recalled the details from the previous night. Emotions were running high yesterday evening, but when I got it out of my system I noticed that I could analyze the events from the night before with remarkable clarity.

"You weren't drunk at all, were you?" I asked quietly.

She shook her head and sat next to me, caressing my bicep slightly.

"No, I wasn't. When we were on the shuttle, I used my wrist-comp to purge alcohol from my body. I also ordered the pilots to leave you alone when we landed, to see how you would react."

"And what did you learn? That I was gentlemanly enough to take a drunken girl back home, but opportunistic enough to take advantage of her?" I said self-deprecatingly.

"Don't be an idiot, Dubois." She scolded me lightly. "You were ready to leave me there, but I dragged you back. I may or may not have used some aphrodisiac on you, tiger" she explained, to my growing horror.

"Jesus…" I whispered astonished and appalled at the same time. "You drugged me? I didn't feel anything."

"Not really." Patricia was in her lecture-mode right now, never mind that she was sitting on her own bunk, stark-naked. "I spread a pheromone enhancer on my lips when you were tucking me into my bed – which was really sweet, by the way – and when I kissed you it was transferred to your mouth where you ingested it."

I wanted to interrupt her, but she ignored me and continued with her explanation.

"Before you ask, it was a completely legal enhancement product, the likes of which you will encounter during your deployment in Mass Effect Universe. It increases your libido and provides an in-depth sexual experience for your touch receptors. It was a weapon I used against you."

That actually made sense. I got to know these people and had some great laughs yesterday evening, but I tended to forget that they were spies first and foremost and they were training me to be one of them.

"I see. Then why did you go through this entire charade, pretending to be drunk?"

"I wanted to see how you react to obstacles on your way. You had to go through my door, but I didn't give you the password. You proved resourceful enough to use my own wrist-comp to access the door," she explained patiently.

"I know it might sound wrong, Peter, but sometimes you will have to use yourself against some female assets to gain access to information that might be otherwise unavailable. Your body, just like your mind is your weapon in the service of Confederacy. You may find yourself in a position where it will be the only way to get what you need."

That was cold. Very cold. I could easily imagine myself drugging women (or men) to access their omni-tools and steal their data and it wasn't a pretty picture. But I had one more question.

"Why did you have sex with me? What does it prove?"

She actually smiled at that.

"What would happen if I sent you back to your bunk with blue balls, after teasing you all evening? You would probably find another way to find your release." Her tone was still serious, but I could see glitter of amusement in her eyes.

I snickered at the idea, but I couldn't deny that it was the truth. I'm an agent not a monk, for heaven's sake.

"Imagine now, that we deploy you to Sub-verse F-Out number 524 frustrated and horny. It would take one Asari stripper or a female Naval Intelligence agent to get you into bed. In no time you would be falling in love and spilling all your secrets, compromising our whole operation."

I shook my head at that.

"That's a very far-fetched theory."

"Yes it is." Patricia agreed readily. "But no matter how far-fetched or improbable, we must take precautions. We want you to use your body as a weapon, not to have it used against you. There are some crafty and devious people in number 524 who are willing and able to use any tactics available to get the information they need."

Well, no argument here. I thought with a shudder about Shadow Broker, The Illusive Man or even Aria T'Loak – they were just funny Bond villains when I played Mass Effect, but now they seemed all too real. That is not to mention the leaders of Batarian Hegemony or some more determined Terminus warlords. You always expect them to come at you in force and send someone like Kai Leng with his ridiculous swords, but how many secrets were discovered through simple misdirection? A helpful junk retailer on Omega or some cute Asari clerk on Citadel that you took out for a dinner could be working for Cerberus or even Shadow Broker himself. As a spy I was expected to lay low and do my job, but I had no illusions that sooner or later less than savory elements of Mass Effect universe will take interest in me – the Shadow Broker or The Illusive Man may not be aware of the existence of Multiverse, but the former's job was information brokering while the latter was egomaniac, not incompetent.

Well, back to the situation at hand. I looked at Patricia and sighed. I guess I should have expected that I would be tested all the time. Part of being a field agent is learning how to deal with disappointment as I remembered from one of my data transfers.

"Okay, I understand why you did what you did. So it was business as usual, huh?" I tried and failed to sound unaffected by this whole ordeal.

She smiled and kissed me on the lips.

"As far as orders go, this was one of the most pleasant ones." She leaned in and whispered in my ear. "I volunteered for that, tiger. And I would do it again. In fact, I'm willing to do it again." She bit my earlobe and dragged me back to the bed with her. She breathed in my ear.

"If you want I can be yours until the deployment, tiger."

If she thought it was going to be that easy, she was going to be very disappointed too. I answered with my best smug grin.

"We will see."

This caused her to laugh.

"Cheeky. I love it."

This time we did not have the pheromone enhancer to increase our reception or libido. Still, we did not leave Patricia's bed for the next half hour. Afterwards we really had to hurry up with the shower and I was nearly late for my meeting with Galtieri.

END OF CHAPTER 3

A/N: That's it for the sex scenes in this story! The hero had some, so he can now go and be celibate for the rest of his life. I'm joking of course - Dubois is a grown-up and he has a grown-up approach to sexual intercourse. And believe me, he won't always be a nice guy about these things - remember that for a Security Branch operative a body is a tool just like any other.

Have a good one!

RosoMC