Magic wasn't enough. Lena knew that if she was going to help Kara and the others fight the bad guys she needed to be able to defend herself and them. So she took a leaf from Kelly's book and asked Alex to train her. They practiced at the Tower. Alex would sometimes get Kelly to be her sparring partner as they were both still new to fighting.

Lena was determined, she pushed herself to keep going when DEO agents would have asked for a rest. Alex had to be the one to tell her when to stop and take a break, had to limit their training times so Lena wouldn't tire herself out. She'd tried talking to her about it, had even asked Kelly to have a word with her, but Lena just told them how much she wanted to help and that she was fine.

One afternoon, Kara returned to the Tower bringing lunch for everyone. They all rushed forward, hungry, except for Lena who was busy working at her Witches Workbench - as Nia had named her desk.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Kara asked, carrying Lena's lunch over with her own.

"No, I could use a break too."

Lena removed her gloves and turned off her Bunsen burner, setting her latest project aside to cool. She kept her goggles on as she unwrapped her sandwich and smiled at Kara.

"Thanks for lunch."

"You're welcome. What are you working on?"

"I want to see what different temperatures do to different spell ingredients. Sometimes they'll call for hot liquids, or burning herbs, but I want to know if it's more effective to control the heat used."

"Like overcooking foods and losing the flavours?"

Lena smiled, "something like that, yes."

They ate their lunches and when they were finished, instead of leaving again, Kara stayed with Lena.

"Do you mind if I watch?" she asked.

"If you want to. It's pretty boring, I'm just making notes on how long I keep things over the flame and adding them to a simple plant growth spell which I'll test on a couple of seedlings over there."

"Back on Krypton I loved science, it's not boring to me. If you want we could use my heat vision to really cook them?"

Lena shook her head, "maybe another time, I've planned it all out including the ingredients I'll need."

Kara felt a little disappointed, but after removing the wrappers from their lunches returned to her chair to watch as Lena went back to work.

As Lena labelled the last of her growth potions and spoke the words to charge them with magic, Kara stretched out her arms. She'd been sitting still for nearly an hour while Lena worked, fascinated by how carefully Lena weighed out ingredients and made so many notes about it all.

"Would you like to go for a walk, get some fresh air?" Kara asked as Lena finally began tidying her desk.

"I should stay, I want to water the seedlings at the same time each day and there's another half hour before it's time."

"I can wait if you want?"

"Don't you have to get back to work?"

"No, I've written something for today and I can type up any Supergirl emergencies that come in later."

"Alright. Give me half an hour and we can go."

"Great."

Kara wandered around the Tower, tidying up some things in the kitchen area and looking through J'onn's telescope at the stars. When the time was up and she saw Lena watering the plants, she went over to watch.

"So where are we going for this walk?" Lena asked, finally removing her goggles and turning to look at Kara.

"Lena! Oh goodness, what happened?" Kara reached towards Lena's face, her hand not touching the other woman.

Lena frowned, "what...? Oh, my eye."

"Yes your eye, who..."

"It's fine, I put some ice on it and..."

"Ice? Lena it looks..."

Lena pulled back, "it's nothing."

To Kara's mind a black eye was not nothing. Especially when it was on the face of her best friend.

"What happened?"

"I was sparring with Alex and I lost focus so she got in a lucky blow. She apologised, but it was my fault."

"Why were you sparring with Alex?"

"I know some basic self-defence, hand-to-hand stuff, and I know how to use a gun but that won't be enough, I need to be able to fight with weapons."

"Since when?"

"Since I became part of this team."

"How long has this been going on?"

"A few months."

"Months?"

"It's not the first bruise I've come away with, just the first on my face. How bad does it look?" Lena reached into her bag and took out a compact mirror to check, "I'm sure the press will have a field day speculating if they spot it."

"You should put some more ice on it," Kara advised.

"I re-filled the ice cube tray earlier, when I used the last lot of ice. They should be ready when we get back from our walk."

"I can freeze them and we'll apply them now. Where else are you hurt?"

"Nowhere. The walk will do me good, let me stretch my legs for a bit."

But Kara was already collecting the ice cubes tray and breathing over them, muttering to herself about how she would be having a word with Alex when she next saw her.

"Here," Kara held out the ice cubes wrapped in a clean towel.

"Thanks," Lena took them and held them up to her eye.

"Do you need any painkillers?"

"No, it's really not that bad."

Kara shook her head, "Alex should have been more careful."

"Well maybe next time you could spar with me," Lena suggested.

"I couldn't, I wouldn't want to hurt you."

"I trust you," Lena told her, lowering the towel.

"Maybe I should watch and stop this from happening again."

"The bruises remind me not to make silly mistakes, and diving into a fight to protect me from your sister is not a good idea. If you want to help you could come and spot me in the gym sometime. I really want to move on from the lighter weights to build up my strength."

"You do?"

Lena laughed, "of course. How else am I going to be able to use the weapons effectively?"

Kara looked a little surprised, as if she hadn't considered the idea of Lena fighting before. She couldn't imagine Lena wanting to have muscles and get into physical fights.

Lena smiled and shook her head, "I don't want to be a damsel in distress that you have to keep rescuing."

"But I don't mind. Really."

Lena placed a hand on Kara's shoulder, "one day I want to be strong enough to really help you."

"You already do."

"No, you don't usually need my magic, you'd win without it, but one day you might need more than that from me and I want to be ready. I'll always have your back, Kara."

Kara looked into Lena's eyes, "I know."

With her superior eyesight, Kara saw Lena lean forward slightly, she heard her heartbeat quicken and knew what Lena intended. In the split-seconds she had to react, she had already made her decision. She leaned in to meet Lena's lips and kissed her.