The breeze off the Pacific Ocean was cool and pleasant, but the Doctor didn't notice it. He stood there in front of the TARDIS, watching the blonde girl walking in the wet sand on the beach below, the gentle tide rolling and momentarily swallowing her bare feet before it quickly receded.
There was something about this girl that made him want to descend the wooden steps, cross the sand, and speak to her.
It was just a little after 6:00 AM California time, the morning sun having just completed its slow rise over the flat, distant line of the horizon. Save the golden-haired woman casually strolling along the water's edge, the beach was deserted for as far as the eye could see in either direction. He knew it wouldn't stay that way for long, so he had to get the TARDIS out of the parking lot before it caught the attention of some curious beachcomber or passing policeman.
The girl didn't seem to notice the odd blue box standing there where it had no business being. Indeed, her gaze never left the rolling ocean, as though she were scanning its breadth and depth for someone or something long missing.
The Doctor didn't know why he couldn't look away from her. It wasn't that she reminded him of anyone, though certainly there were aspects of Polly and Rose in her slender frame and flaxen hair. It wasn't that he was physically attracted to her, though he could see how a human male of her approximate age might find her swimsuit-clad figure and youthful features quite fetching. And it certainly wasn't that he saw in her some sign of impending danger. He'd come to the western coast of the United States in the early 21st century to investigate what appeared to be extraterrestrial activities along the San Andreas fault line, but it had turned out to be little more than an odd bit of moderately radioactive space debris brought down here quite by chance. Nothing sinister or dangerous was afoot, as near as he could determine.
"Question," he muttered softly, to himself. "What makes a 2000-year-old Time Lord pause in his travels through the whole of time and space to notice a single, mostly unremarkable 20-year-old human girl?"
Then he saw it. Sadness.
It was in her eyes, her stride, the tilt of her head as she padded absently across the compressed sand, staring out at the boundless, endless deep. Not the silly, superficial sadness of a failed romance or a missed career opportunity, but something much deeper and more profound. The sadness of a soul searching for something more.
He wondered who she was, and what could make someone so young so melancholy. Whatever the answers to those questions, it seemed clear she was a young woman of notable strength and maturity, someone who could look beyond the surface and see what lies beneath. He wondered if he should go down those steps and approach her. He was, after all, alone now, and something about this wistful blonde-haired girl suggested she might take quite well to the challenge of exploring the unknown.
Then he thought of Clara and Danny, and what had happened to them both, and his lips pressed into a tight frown, his arch eyebrows knitting closer together. Exhaling sharply through his nose, he abruptly turned and entered the TARDIS.
A moment later, the blue box groaned and wheezed and faded from view. Down on the beach, the girl looked up at the unusual sound which broke the stillness of the early morning. But by the time her gaze reached the parking lot where the Doctor and his ship had stood, both were gone forever.