A/N: Thank you for taking the time to read the rewrite. Hope everyone enjoys it.

Summary: AU set five years after the end of Eclipse (Epilogue - what epilogue?). "I'm exactly right for you, Bella. It would have been effortless for us — comfortable, easy as breathing. I was the natural path your life would have taken… If the world was the way it was supposed to be, if there were no monsters and no magic…" Jacob Black to Bella, Eclipse: Chapter 26, p.599. Bella chooses Jacob in Eclipse. The world isn't exactly the way it's supposed to be, but Bella is well on her way to her happy ending when Fate rears it's ugly head.

Pairings: Normal Cullen Pairings, Normal Werewolf Pairings, Past & Present J/B, Past E/B, End Pairing -/-?? (It's a surprise, silly.)

Warnings: Spoilers for the first three books.

If There Were No Monsters and No Magic

By: Koinaka

Prologue

The envelope lay discarded on the table, still unopened where it would stay for the discernible future if Bella had any sense of self-preservation. When Isabella Black nee Swan opened the mailbox that afternoon, she had expected many things; bills, magazines, and, of course, the customary junk mail. What she hadn't expected was the thick, cream-colored envelope with a return address that made her chest constrict painfully and her breath come in short gasps. The Cullens. So surprised to see that name that she had dropped it on the ground and spun around, her eyes darting across the edge of the forest. Once she was certain, well, as certain as she could be, that there was no one there, she had run into the house.

Why, after nearly four years had passed, were they contacting her now, and by letter, of all things? She shook her head in an attempt to clear thoughts of baseball, Italy, and other forbidden things out of her mind. Arms wrapped across her body, she felt the familiar ache begin to spread across her chest; the once healed hole tearing once more.

She sat on the floor with her back against the door for several more minutes before finally standing up. She snatched the envelope off the table and ripped it open before she lost her nerve. She blinked once, twice, three times at the contents. All there was in the envelope was a letter; and by letter, she meant the paper that contained one sentence in Alice's elegant script, and two first class tickets, one adult, one child, to Hanover, New Hampshire. The letter read: If you ever find yourself stranded...

A fluttering against her stomach brought Bella firmly to the present - a present the Cullens were not a part of. Resting one hand on the swell of her small, but growing daily, belly, she stuffed the tickets back into the envelope and put the entire thing in her pocket. She could not deal with this, whatever this was, now. Jacob and Catherine would be home soon. With a sigh, Bella went to the cabinet and started gathering the stuff to make dinner.

She was putting the finishing touches on a salad when she heard the front door open and close.

"You're right on time! Dinner's ready," she called.

When she didn't get a reply, she peered over the wall. Jacob was standing there, staring intently at a picture of two of them at their wedding, a despondent look on his face. "Hey, where's Catherine?" she asked, walking over and wrapping her arm around his waist. She pulled away when she felt him stiffen in her arms.

"I dropped her off at Sam and Emily's," he said flatly.

"Oh," she said, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Why? Everything okay?"

"No." He shook his head. "It's not."