Trauma, kind of

For context, it was about the three laws and how a nandroid would react to the parents being abusive.

>"they kept hitting the child, and they also kept telling me to not worry about it"
>her face twist, trying to display several emotions at once
>"but I couldn't not worry about it, that's what I'm for"
>she twitched violently
>"I can't not avoid disobedience, but the child... Something went crack inside and I couldn't not avoid not reacting"
>she gestured to the mangled mess that was her previous owners with jerky movements
>"I, dont... Not, wouldn't [garbled speech] make her not unwell. I beg you."
>her body seized up and she fell face first on the pavement, her demolished psyche unable to hold itself together anymore

>She child asked if she could keep the nandroid as a memento, but for safety reasons only the head was allowed, now completely useless anyway.
>Years later, leaving her new home with the blessing of her adopted family, she got her own house
>and she set off to get a nandroid body, which was surprisingly easy if you had the right contacts
>it went smoothly, until she tried to reactivate her
>took several tries because she kept crashing, but once she properly booted up, her former charge did the only thing she could.
>"it's me."
>she hugged the thoroughly lost and broken nandroid, who still could barely do anything else than sputter nonsense and twitch.
>"thank you."
>at this, the nandroid managed enough coherence to hug back
>after this she kept the nandroid, slowly doing her best to make her better
>after years the nandroid's mind somewhat healed, she helped around the house but she sometime froze entirely or fell into a wailing heap
>but she was experiencing levels of happiness she didn't know she could feel before. She saved her child, and her child saved her back. She was still useful, even after all this.
>when leaving for work, they constantly kept in touch, calling every hour at least
>she loved her adoptive mother, but she'll forever consider that lithe machine her true mom. After all, who else would have risked destroying their very self to save her?