The Doctor, Elaine and someome who won't join the TARDIS team for a while yet, on the beach in Sopot. This was supposed to be a serious discussion about esthetics, honest ;)

Grey waves were breaking on the grey shore, underneath the sky that resembled dirty grey felt. Tomasz rubbed his hands before shoving them into his pockets.

"What are you staring at, huh?" he asked a seagull. It spared him another lofty glance before hopping away to a topped rubbish bin, which currently was being rummaged in by several of her sisters. Not much further, behind a low grey wall built of stones, shadows of some tree's branches like cracks in her cobalt-blue shell, stood the TARDIS.

Tomasz spat out a wisp of hair that the wind seemed keen on pushing into his mouth. On his right hand, in the mist, he could barely discern the port and the towers of the city.

"Why didn't we land there?" he said out loud, but even if the Doctor heard him, it didn't show. He was standing there, eyes on the horizon, brown coat flapping in the wind, like a portrait of windblown lord Byron.

"If that makes you feel better" Elaine stammered "I'd like to go, too."

The heels of his shoes squeaked against the sand as he turned to look at her. Elaine was huddled under a coat – one not only much too large for her, but probably made from the sweepings from a tailor's shop. She was wearing colourful gloves and a rainbow-coloured beret pulled over her ears - she looked as if she'd stolen all the colour from the entire place, but it hadn't made her happy.

"I'm freezing" she said.

"Mhm. Hey, Mickiewicz!" Tomasz yelled. "Contemplation nearing the end?"

The Doctor, deep in thought, was silent. Tomasz shook his head.

"Summer must be beautiful here." There was an audible tremble to Elaine's voice.

"I'm sure" Tomasz spotted some dirty snow on the top of the wall. The seagulls started with an almighty squeak, angry for their sacking of the bin being disturbed.

"But we're unlikely to come here in the summer."

The snow was burning cold, and still wet. It scratched his hands, tried to escape between the fingers, unwilling to be kneaded into a proper ball.

But the Doctor's strangled shriek was well worth it.

"He-ey! Why?"

Elaine laughed out loud, Tomasz grinned.

"Now we're all cold. Mission accomplished! Can we go?"

"You're cold? Why didn't you two say anything?" The Doctor's companions exchanged meaningful glances, while he was brushing the snow out from his collar.

"Brr!"

"Really, couldn't we have landed in the city? Where there are hot things to drink?"

"Chocolate!" Elaine agreed enthusiastically.

The Doctor rubbed his neck with an embarrassed smile. "Sorry. It's so beautiful here, I sort of forgot."

"Beautiful?"

Elaine drew the patchwork coat closer. "It's winter. Everything grey and dead."

"Come 'ere." The Doctor put his arm around her, pushed her gently towards the waves.

"Look. Really look."

"It's really all grey. And menacing, like it's growling at you to stay away."

"You think so?"

Tomasz snorted "Romantic. Can't convince him, kid."

Elaine stuck her tongue at him over the Doctor's shoulder.

"I'll tell you what I can see, looking at these waves" the Doctor said.

"I see something that has been before me, and will be here long after I'm gone. I'm a child next to it. So much to learn!"

"Romantic" Tomasz muttered, walking up them, hands in his pockets.

"And it's constantly changing. Reflecting the clouds. See there? Sunbeam makes this wave look like amber. Seagulls and swans wrinkle this surface, and every one of them has their own story. I could spend my entire life looking at this tiny bit of Atlantic, and even though I'll live longer than you two, I'd never run out of things to see."

"It's a bit... scary" Elaine whispered, moving closer to him.

"You know, the... size of it."

"Mhm."

"Nonsense" Tomasz shook his head. "Why stare at the water?"

The Doctor turned his head to look Tomasz solemnly in the eye "You wouldn't travel with us, if you really didn't understand."

"Maybe not."

"And yet, there's so many things I'll never see" the Time Lord continued. "No matter how fast I run. So, and this is the nicest part, I've no need to hurry. I can take as much time as I want."

"Romantic."

"Well, come on then" the Doctor said. "The sea's not going anywhere, and someone here wanted chocolate, am I wrong?"

Hand by hand with Elaine, we went towards the grey wall that separated the beach from nearby buildings. Tomasz glanced once more at the grey sky, before following them. The sand squeaked underneath his shoes.