AN: Apologies - the story starts off with a lot of background info, not very exciting stuff but I'm playing with their ages and backgrounds here so I had to get it out of the way.
Moving to National City hadn't been an easy decision. Lena had wanted a fresh start, a chance to get away from the Luthor notoriety in Metropolis, and when she discussed alternative locations with the newly branded L-Corp board they had voted for National City. It wasn't until a few weeks before the move, when she was viewing apartments, that she remembered it was also the home of Supergirl. While she didn't have her brothers hatred for Kryptonians, she wasn't eager to see the Earth's newest superhero. Unlike the rest of the world, she knew Kara Danvers was Supergirl. They had met before, a long time ago. The letter she held in her hand was just one reminder.
Growing up with her mom she'd taken school in her stride, not worrying too much about being top of her class, just enjoying some subjects more than others. Once she was adopted by the Luthors, Lillian insisted on sending her to the best school so that she could reach her full potential, even though it meant sending her away from America and her new family. She finished her education two years early, returning to America when she was 16 unsure which of the university offers to accept.
Lillian persuaded Lionel that she was too young for college, too immature to handle the social side. Wanting her to attend his alma mater, Lionel suggested that she spend some time in an American High School to have the chance to see what their education system was like and to get used to living in the country. The Luthors were too busy to stay in one place for the full two years, so she was sent to live with a distant cousin of Lillian's in a little town called Midvale.
At boarding school there had been many wealthy families, being a Luthor had allowed her to fit in - to an extent. She insisted on using her birth surname at the new school, to avoid standing out. The Luthors agreed. In Midvale, Lena was able to finally relax and enjoy herself taking a step back from her studies though maintaining good grades. Lillian's cousin trusted her to look after herself, provided a nice place to live and didn't try to interfere in her life. Lena eventually met and made friends with Kara Danvers, another outsider at her new school though a year younger than her.
They were close, keeping in contact after Lena's started college, but it wasn't until then that their friendship blossomed into something more. Lena travelled to Midvale every chance she could, the Luthors never asked when her holidays were and she carefully saved the generous allowance Lionel gave her. They were unofficially dating at Christmas-time, her first year of college, when she'd had to attend a Luthor gathering at Lillian's insistence. Lena still hadn't told Kara who she was, just that she came from a wealthy family and she didn't want that to influence their friendship. .
By Spring Break, Eliza and Alex knew about their relationship. Alex was suspicious, while Eliza liked Kara's friend, but they both insisted that Kara keep her alien heritage a secret. For Valentines Day Kara surprised Lena was the most romantic day imaginable - on a budget, in a small town - and before she knew what was happening they were together, alone, in her hotel room.
Lena didn't regret that night. Or the days that followed. She loved Kara, she thought that they would be together forever. Kara had already applied to her college and the ones closest to it. She was prepared to tell Kara about her family.
Then she discovered the truth. She saw Kara talking to Superman in the Danvers backyard one morning, saw Kara floating off the ground and accidentally use her super-strength when the conversation became heated.
Lena ran away. She felt betrayed, angry and a little sad. Ignoring Kara's worried messages, she set about getting as far away from her as possible. When Kara finally visited, after a month of no contact, Lena showed her the letter confirming that her second year would be spent studying in a university abroad. She told Kara that they were over, then to finalise it because she wanted Kara to leave she revealed her Luthor-status. It was the hardest conversation she'd ever had, the cruellest thing she'd ever done and she went off to Europe with a broken heart... and a half-Kryptonian, half-human baby growing inside her.
At university she'd made friends with a medical student, Jack, and with his help monitored the pregnancy, keeping away from any real doctors. By the time the baby arrived, after a long and difficult labour, Lena had already discussed her options with a reputable lawyer whose firm handled a lot of international business. Getting their local representative to call on Eliza wasn't easy, she knew she wanted the Danvers to raise her son because they would be able to handle whatever gifts he had inherited from Kara. She sent a photo of the baby and a letter, just in case the lawyers words weren't enough. Eliza requested time to consider, saying she needed to discuss it with her family, giving Lena three days with her baby Handing him over to the lawyer had been so difficult. The Danvers didn't know he was travelling from outside the country, and Lena paid the lawyers to hire a competent nanny to accompany the baby and lawyer. Saying goodbye had been hard, but getting that first letter from Eliza letting her know he had arrived safe and well lifted her spirits.
It was hard to believe eleven years had passed since then. Her life had gone through so many changes. She wondered whether her little boy would come looking for her when he was eighteen. Perhaps he would wait until after college, or when he had started a family of his own. His letters hinted that he wanted to know more about her now, but eventually he would realise it best to go his own way. She just had to stay strong and not reply.
Jamie Danvers was eleven years old. The adopted son of Eliza Danvers, younger brother to Alex and Kara, he had grown up with a loving family and a happy childhood. He didn't know who his birth parents were. Eliza explained that it was an open adoption but that only meant that they sent a photo once a year with a few notes to a lawyer who passed them on to his birth mother. They knew she had been young when he was born, she had written a letter for him to read when he was old enough to understand and they had finally given it to him after his birthday last year, because he kept asking about them. In the letter his mother explained that she wanted him to have the kind of family she never had, that she knew his new family would love him and take care of him in ways that she couldn't. There were no details of who she was, no photos sent back to him so that he could see what she looked like.
Last year he'd asked Eliza to send a message from him when she posted the annual photo, they'd received a short but polite rely from the lawyer reminding Eliza of the adoption agreement, that there would be no contact from his birth mother.
A few months ago he'd started to notice that he was different. He'd been heading to Swan Beach after school when he noticed a fire a little off the main road. Intending to run for help, he'd instead found himself running out beyond the town limits at a speed he'd only seen superheroes achieve. Scared, he'd wanted to turn to his mom for help, but then he worried that she wouldn't know what to do. The only person who might understand how he'd gotten these powers as his birth mother, so once again when Eliza was preparing to send his annual photo to the lawyer, he'd written a note to her and included a small sticker of Superman's 'S' symbol. Since then he'd discovered that he could float off the ground - he was too scared to try flying in case he got hurt - and that he was a lot stronger than before. He could still get hurt, his blood came out red when the injury was severe enough, and he didn't have the laser vision he'd seen Superman use. He wondered if he was somehow related to Superman. Of course there were other kinds of aliens on Earth, they were in the news a lot more since Supergirl had shown up in National City.
He waited two months for a reply, but nothing came back. Frustrated and a little scared by his new abilities, unsure whether he would gain any other ones, Jamie set out to investigate on his own. He discovered that the law firm which handled the contact between the Danvers' and his birth mother was a well-established and expensive one. That didn't really tie-in with the idea of his birth mother being too poor to take care of him, though her letter had only mentioned being too young. The annual letter was sent to their office in National City, he suspected there would be a file somewhere in their building with his birth mothers address.
It was another month before he could persuade his mom to take him to visit his sisters, but it gave him time to plan. On the first evening in the city, when he was sure his mom was asleep, he used his superspeed he got into the lawyers office and discovered that letters to his birth mother were sent a PO box. The file didn't have her name, but there was a list of old addresses where past letters had been sent - all PO boxes. Clearly his mother had moved around a lot, and was serious about not wanting to be found. There were notes in the file that showed a deposit was made annually, in cash, to the law firm for the correct amount to cover all legal costs quoting the case reference number.
He couldn't stake out the PO box, he wouldn't be in National City past the weekend, so he sent a new letter to the PO box, this time with a small GPS tracker inside.