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House would have a field day with this place.

Chase still found himself wondering if maybe he'd taken too many pain meds and now he was seeing people who were on TV and people who looked like Cameron out of the corner of his eye. Eventually, though, he'd figured out that this was his reality whenever he went through his bathroom door. Always the same door. Apparently, he couldn't go to the washroom without finding himself in a posh hotel.

It was a shame that he hadn't started planning for it because this time, he wandered into the breakfast buffet with his toothbrush in his mouth, wearing nothing but his boxers and a thin t-shirt and wishing that people would stop staring at him. He cleared his throat and waved awkwardly, trying to side-step until he was somewhat out of the spotlight. Eventually, he managed to find a seat at an empty table with his toothbrush set alongside his knife and fork like another utensil.

It was probably morning here like it was night, but he could really use a drink. Maybe he should bring House to his house and show him the door, but knowing his luck, it would stop working and he'd be forever known as the doctor who brought House into his bedroom. The hospital would never let him live that down, never mind House.

"Coffee?" he asked pleadingly to a passing waiter, wiggling his toes before he remembered that maybe he should find some money if he was planning on having a nice little inter-dimensional breakfast. He started to look around for someone who could help, but he was a barefoot guy in pajamas ordering coffee.

Yeah. His life was definitely getting stranger by the day.

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Nick stopped on his way past with a bagel in one hand and coffee in the other when he spotted the guy, and the toothbrush. He paused, shrugged, and thought this was definitely an occasion he couldn't let pass uncommented on.

"So," he said as he approached. "Has your dentist scared you that much about brushing after meals?"

"He was always on me for taking too much sugar in my coffee," Chase wryly replies, trying to keep the embarrassment from overwhelming him too much, but it's a little late given the fact that's leaning into it. "The trouble with a bathroom portal to luxury is forgetting it exists when you're wandering around in the morning before work."

"Yeah, that would probably suck on several levels," Nick laughed. "You're one of the ones that come and go from their lives, I'm guessing?"

He knew a few here did and he still wasn't sure if he was envious of it or thrilled that he'd been spared that. Truth told, he wasn't sure what would happen if we went back home.

"Not much of a life back home right now, but yeah," he agrees, seeing as there's only really been one door. "I try and swing by here once in a while to see this girl I've been helping out, but, otherwise, my bathroom tends to control when I drop by. This morning, it apparently took offense to dental hygiene," he says wryly.

"That's a lot of power for a simple bathroom to carry," Nick nodded sagely. "For me, it's my closet. And so far, it's only let me into a shadow of my world. It looks like my house, and my city, but no one I know is there. None of the things I fight, none of my former friends. Which is probably a good thing," he added, almost absently.

"So I take it you don't get dressed much without looking for a rabbit hole," Chase scoffs, wondering how many times he'd get tricked into wandering into another dimension when he just wanted a shower. It'll teach him to be cautious about always carrying a towel. "Wait," he says. "Sorry. You don't get to go back to everything? That's possible?"

All this time, Chase had figured he could just slide between the two, but that sounds eerily like a consequence he hadn't considered and he'd taken mild pride in weighing all the possibilities of a place like this.

Nick shrugged. "I haven't been back to my own world for over three years. I spent the first two on an island sort of like this hotel, but I was completely human there. Then I walked into what I thought was the island Compound, but ended up in the lobby of this place instead. I was back to who, and what, I used to be, but no closer to home."

The fact that he still wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad one didn't help.

"Weird," Chase says, even though it's not entirely too weird considering where he is, how he's stuck, and the fact that he'd opened the door the other day and stared into the abyss of a world that looked scarily like Jurassic Park. So maybe he should keep quiet about 'weird' for a while. "The island compound?" he echoes. "So, what, it was a prison?"

Nick snorted out a laugh. "Felt like that sometimes. I'd say it felt like hell, but there wasn't nearly enough screaming for that," Nick said easily, then looked around the room. "It was a lot like this, people from all over the place, different worlds and realms, all congregated in one place. There, though, we didn't have doors that lead to other places. The island itself would just...shift into something else for awhile."

If it hadn't been for the fact that Chase is experiencing all of this, he might have felt inclined to bundle them all up and take them to a psych ward. It had that kind of feeling to it. "So, did you come up with any potential ways of coping? I'm leaning towards my usual willful denial, but that can only hold up for so long."

"Hey, don't knock denial. It's not just a river in Egypt, you know," Nick fired back on a wide grin that left one fang visible for a second. "For a long time, I beat things up. Trees, a heavy bag, sparring with others on the island. Since I can't drink much, it seemed the best way. After a while, the rage sort of burned out of me and I became the easy-going, take-it-as-it-comes guy you see before you."

"Well, you didn't blink at a guy in his boxers ordering coffee with a toothbrush beside him," Chase says, which is a pretty easygoing way to live. "I'll take it." He wipes his hand on the napkin, extending it out to the man. "I'm Rob Chase," he introduces himself. "Normally, in New Jersey, but my bathroom door is helping me make new friends."

"Takes a lot to make me blink," Nick commented back with a shrug. Giving the sorts he met, both here, at the island, and even back home, he was pretty hard to shock.

"Nick Gautier. N'awlins," He took Rob's hand and shook as let all the Cajun into his usually unaccented speech.

"I was there once," he says. "Mardi Gras. I indulged until I couldn't, then spent the next day suitably guilty in about three of your churches," he says dryly, faintly amused at the memory (well, what he could remember about it). "That was years ago, now, when I first came to the US."