It's my own fault, Sheppard admitted to himself as a third behemoth of a man stood before him. Three men, all over seven feet tall and built out of bone and solid muscle glared at him with slightly feral smiles on their faces. They had full intentions on kicking the crap out of him and he was hard pressed to figure out a way to stop it.

How could he have known the flirtatious, dainty little redhead from figurative heaven had three large, powerful and very protective older brothers?

He should have listened to Rodney, or at the very least he should have gone with him.

'She's trouble,' his friend had said of the enticing lady before going off to try to determine if the power reading the MALP had picked up in the town square was worth the effort. John had simply laughed it off and Rodney had stalked off saying over his shoulder, 'Just remember, Teyla and Ronon are on the other side of town and you're on your own. I won't be coming to your rescue.'

He'd believed with all of his heart that he wouldn't need any rescuing. The redhead had been very generous with her affection, and somewhere along the way she'd managed to surreptitiously relieve him of his weapons. It hadn't been until the first brother appeared that the situation had turned sour.

The redhead pulled the welcome mat out from underneath his feet faster than he could say, 'Crap he's a big boy!' There'd been some threats from the brother, he'd tried to apologize, then there were some more threats made by both the brother and then him, and he'd been feeling pretty good about the situation. That was when brothers two and three appeared.

He looked between brothers one and two and felt a stab of anger when he saw the sister with a blatantly smug look upon her previously angelic face. He didn't have time to dwell on it though as brother one took a step towards him that was so heavy the floor seemed to shake.

That was when everything came to a standstill at the sound of a gunshot followed immediately by a bottle breaking on one of the tables.

Everyone turned to the door to find Rodney holding his side arm in his hand, a wisp of smoke still surrounding the barrel.

"Back off," he said to the brothers, and just to dissuade them from trying anything he pointed his weapon squarely at the chest of the closest one.

When Rodney's eyes darted to him and he nodded, John moved swiftly to the table to retrieve his weapons- and to give the redhead a smug glare- and joined Rodney at the door, his own P-90 raised just in case.

"Let's go," he said to Rodney, and after Rodney vacated the premises he quickly followed suit.

They moved quickly through the village, and only when he thought they were safe did Sheppard break the silence. "Thanks."

Rodney shrugged. "It's what we do, isn't it? You have my back and I have yours."

John smiled and was about to respond when Rodney's next sentence killed the warm mood that had developed.

"Besides I knew you were going to get into trouble. I warned you, but did you listen? Nooooo! You just had to…"

A/N: "The Code" part one: "If Your Buddy's in Trouble, You've Got his Back."