Chell stared numbly down at the unmoving android on the floor, propped up only by the wall she leaned against. What the hell had just happened? Her opened mouth threatened to trickle another sticky layer of drool down her chin before she snapped it shut when GLaDOS gave a small twitch amongst the hiss of static. Frankly, she didn't know whether to stay where she was or slide down on the floor to help her. She didn't particular want to run the risk of being accidently struck by her if she lashed out before knowing what she was striking at. But Chell found the decision taken away from her when GLaDOS moved of her own free will.

The static still came in awkward bursts along with a stream of disjointed chatter as she tried to get to her feet. Unfortunately she was like a baby giraffe with all her components muddled and sending signals off in every direction; she was all legs and no balance. It seemed all fours was the way to go as she shakily crawled out from between the bed and the wall and tried to stick one leg out to help push herself up. But even that simple movement was hindered when Chell leapt upon her and wrapped her arms around her head and shoulders.

"Don't!"

The test subject cried, looking fearfully up at Mrs Keegan, who had raised the heavy metal lamp again in preparation to give the android another walloping for still being alive.

"Get outta the way, sweet cheeks. That brute's still twitchin'. She ain't gunna hurt you no more if I have any say in it. Just look at you! Protectin' her after all she's done to you! You need to let her go and let someone give her what's comin' to her!"

"She didn't do anything!" Chell shrieked; her wide blue eyes rapidly flipping back and forth between the lamp and the older woman's eyes imploringly. "She didn't do it. She didn't do anything."

Her grip upon the android tightened when GLaDOS let out another stream of jumbled splutters and once again tried to push herself up to stand. But even her own body had designs against her, and coupled with the test subject's weight, she came crashing to the floor when her arm spasmed and went jerking out to the side against her own free will.

"Shhh. Just stay still. It's okay. It's going to be okay."

"Babababa. K-k-k fssshh. Wa wa...fff-f-f...I'm ma...mamama. Ma!" GLaDOS replied as the test subject rolled her twitching body over and cradled her head close to her chest as she sat there with her.

She didn't even appear to register the horrified and worried look on Chell's face until the girl started stroking her hair over the spot where a large dent had caved in part of her cranium. Even then, her own distressed expression came more from the fact she could feel something warm leaking from her one nostril and from her lips. The sticky black fluid was viscous enough that its flow was not excessive, and allowed Chell time to find something to wipe it away. It reminded her of oil. In fact, it probably was, which meant that it wasn't a good thing that it was happening.

"Ch-ch-ch...M-mm." GLaDOS almost whimpered, her eyes wide and unfocused as she managed to tangle one hand in the test subject's singlet and keep it there. Nothing else seemed to want to work.

"It's okay. It's okay. You'll be fine. I'll fix this. I'll fix it. Just-...um...Just try to relax." Chell babbled worriedly, while another loud hiss of static gave her a fright.

The android continued to tug at her shirt, her violent jolts stretching the fabric until it threatened to rip. But she hardly gave it a thought as she used the hem of it to rub more of the oily fluid from the supercomputer's face. Leaning down, the girl pressed a warm and hopefully comforting kiss to GLaDOS's forehead and only held her tighter.

Lowering the lamp and dropping it onto the bed, Mrs Keegan looked down at the two of them with no small amount of concern for the mental state of the girl she'd come to consider as her own daughter.

"Chell-"

"Don't you Chell me!" the dark-haired female growled. "You hurt her for no reason! She wasn't attacking me. She was just trying to leave and I wouldn't let her. It was my fault. Not hers." She nuzzled her nose into the synthetic fibres of her white hair.

"T-the...it's..ffff. I'm fine fine ffff-f-f-fine. Base. Ten. Four." GLaDOS stuttered again.

"No you're not."

"I'mmmmm not?"

"Just...shush." Chell begged, more to keep herself calm than anything else.

"B-bbbb-uht I like-...d-p-pu-ppp pa. -parfait." Her admission that she supposedly enjoyed dessert did nothing to assuage the test subject of her worries. Nor did the way she managed to get the other hand up to gently run her fingertips along Chell's cheek like she'd never seen such a thing before.

"Ohhh. Wow." She let her hand fall back into her lap, and just continued staring at the girl as a strange little smile crossed her face. "I'm okay now!"

It wasn't particularly convincing, but she did manage to get to her feet without falling back on her head, so that was something; even if it was a little shaky. Chell supported her in her endeavours, though gravity now had more of an advantage in making more of the oil leak out of the android's nose. The trickle from her lips had seemed to stop, and it looked like the nano-bots were doing their job in patching up the cracks that had caused the problem in the first place. But wiping it away for herself soon proved to be a problem, as she only ended up holding her hand in front of her face.

"Why...Why is that not doing right?" GLaDOS sluggishly muttered, her hand waving about but not going any closer to her face.

"Here. Come here." Chell took her gently by the back of her head and stood upon her toes to get high enough to wipe the oil away once again with her shirt, which she had raised. "You should be sitting down."

"I'll not be doing sitting today, thank you ma'am! I'm good to go. Rocket science. Fzzzzt! Like a laser beam!" GLaDOS punched the air in front of her to illustrate her point of being a laser beam.

"Okay, why don't we just have a bit of a rest over here on the bed?"

"Ohhhh...That...is the BEST idea EVER! Has anyone told you how amazing you are? You could be a doctor with ideas like that!" GLaDOS promptly wrapped Chell up in the biggest hug she could manage and didn't let her go. Instead, she just stood there with her face buried in her shoulder.

Both the test subject and Mrs Keegan exchanged an increasingly worried set of looks the longer the android spent talking.

"Hey. Hey guesssssss what?"

"Uh, what?"

"Hohhhh. Ummm. I forgot. Hey, do you um. Uh. I think it was made from ice cream." The once powerful AI now stared up at the roof with her mouth open, placing herself at risk of tumbling backwards into the wall again from how far she had tipped herself back to do so.

"Oh god. What did you do?" Chell moaned, tugging at her hair. "She's gone stupid."

"Hey, I rest my case." GLaDOS glared, pointing at her. "No. No I don't. I resent it. I resent um...I resennnnnnt...so many things." She managed to startle the two women by the burst of laughter that could only come from either a stoner or a simpleton as she flopped back into the chair she used to sit in to recharge herself near the power outlet.

"Well, that was certainly unexpected. Maybe this is a good thing? She might be nicer to you now." Mrs Keegan hesitantly suggested as the android stared at them with an open-mouthed grin like she was comedian waiting for them to comprehend a joke.

"It's...possible." Chell wasn't so sure that she wanted that.

"Ohhh. Yes. I'll be really gohhh. I'll be really good. See? Do you...do you want a hug? I'll give them really good ones." She promptly stood up again and lunged towards Chell to entrap her in a crushing bear hug. "Hm. You smell nice." She cooed, before ensuring her nose was thoroughly tickled by the soft strands that she buried it in. "Like hair."

"This must be the equivalent of robots gettin' drunk."

"No, it's the equivalent of robot brain damage, no thanks to y- STOP EATING MY HAIR!" Chell tugged it out of the supercomputer's mouth.

"But it tastes like-..oh, wait. I don't have taste buds, do I?"

"Hey, you know what would be a really good idea, GLaDOS?"

"What?"

"We're going to do a little activity together. You're going to lie down on the bed and close your eyes and sleep until I tell you to wake up, and I'll try to figure out how to fix all of this. Do it for science."

"I like science!"

"I know you do. Just lay down now." Chell tried with all the patience of an exhausted parent trying to convince a child to do something. When GLaDOS finally did as she asked, she was able to smash her fists into her eyes and grind them into her face in frustration and exhaustion as the adrenaline started wearing off and left her more tired than what she had started out as.

"Sweet cheeks?"

"What."

"Look, I'm sorry for ruinin' your honey, but I only did it to protect you. You know that, right?" Mrs Keegan soothed, rubbing the girl's arm.

"I know." She sighed.

As it turned out, GLaDOS's little sleep had done her some good. The downtime had allowed the nano-bots to do their work, repairing as much as they were able. While they were able to mend the oil leak and reorganise some of her programming, they weren't able to do anything about the dent and some of the other physical injuries that ailed her. Most importantly, she seemed to have regained most of her wits about her. While her speech pattern had been fixed and she was no longer stuttering and spluttering, her personality remained completely re-wired. Instead of the biting insults and fat jokes, GLaDOS happily buzzed about with a smile, helping out where she could.

Even Chell had to admit that she was reluctant to take her back to Aperture and get her fixed when the android quite sweetly presented her with a small flower that she'd picked from the garden. And frankly, the compliments that she was getting had the test subject blushing like a schoolgirl.

Nice GLaDOS was, well, nice.

It was such a drastic change and although she knew that the right thing to do was restore the AI to normality, she decided to milk it for all it was worth while she could. Chell voiced absolutely no complaints whenever a back rub or a foot massage was offered, nor did they appear when the android was quite willing to snuggle up with her and give her a kiss or two without expecting anything more of her. The only thing that she COULD find to complain about was the way she followed her around the place like a lost puppy, always with a smile on her face like she was some kind of...robot. It had irked her to the point of snapping at her to leave her alone for a bit, but what was more worrisome than potentially igniting the android's ire was that GLaDOS did as she instructed without any hint of malcontent. All she did was wander off with a bubbly "Okay!" and went to stand in another room or find something to do.

Even Mrs Keegan was enjoying having her around with the attitude readjustment.

But Chell knew that she had to take GLaDOS back to Aperture the moment the android wished her good luck in making up with Billy.