Tatum felt numb as they finally left the room, and she felt her heart stop pounding a bit as soon as the door was shut behind them. It drowned out the majority of Kate's sobbing on the other side, as well as Hunter's cooing attempts to calm her down. The redhead didn't think she could have listened to it a moment longer, and she gripped Mackenzie's hand tightly even outside of the room, watching as Kia backed off a bit from them.

She didn't have much time to consider anything furthere really, before Mack was pulling her close, and she was immediately clinging back. Her own face pressed into the blonde's shoulder, and she told herself that it still wasn't time to cry. If she start just wailing as bad as she wanted to, Mack would never leave her side, and she knew that the blonde did need the few moments by herself. She had been in the same situation earlier in the week, deciding to try to run away. Being alone sometimes was all that worked.

Just sniffing lightly, Tatum gave her head a little shake. "N-Not your fault," she whispered back quickly, pressing herself closer to the older girl as she heard Kia approaching them. She knew their time was up and she still didn't know what Kia really wanted to talk to her about. She was feeling panicky all over again, and leaving Mack's arms was the last thing she wanted. She considered holding on, but decided against it. She had to be mature, it was what Sera would tell her.

Letting herself be removed from her best friend's grip, Tatum only pouted a little at the blonde, trying to keep her expression neutral as she could. She wasn't shaking anymore, but she felt like she might as Kia began to lead her off in the opposite direction. She watched Mackenzie wave, and wanted to lift her hand to wave back, but just frowned instead. She watched the tall blonde practically until she was out of sight, before turning to face Kia again as they navigated the hospital and finally reached the service elevator. She had to face her fate now, whatever it was going to be.

Avoiding talking with people in an enclosed space like an elevator was almost impossible. Kia's hand on her own felt sort of reassuring, it made her figure that the older girl didn't have plans to kill her or anything. She seemed content enough, smiling with no detectable signs of malice. Maybe she had been working herself up over nothing. When the doors to the elevator closed and Kia dropped her hand, Tatum actually felt a little sad all over again. Her hand felt like Mack's, just a bit softer and smaller. It had been nice.

She immediately felt her cheeks flushing as Kia spoke. She was glad she had saved this talk for the elevator. "W-What? We're not-- we.. she's c-cute, I mean. I t-think so, anyway but we're not like.. a t-thing.. really. We're just like, uhm, c-chillin.. you know," the redhead managed to stammer out lamely, feeling her face only getting hotter and dropping her head a bit as Kia nudged her. Despite herself, there was a nervous smile on her face. "She just.. d-does whatever, I dunno, she just.. a-always did whatever. She w-was like, sorta pre-tamed. I guess. N-No real discipline necessary."