💻codeNINA: Chapter 2.0.1.0 - Stay Mode

The child sleeps now. Finally.

But the mother, she does not.

She lies curled at the edge of the bed, facing the wall, her breath too fast and too shallow. She doesn’t cry. She can’t cry. Her eyes are dry, locked open. The room is silent, but in her head, it’s still happening. Every slammed door, every shouted word, every bruise she never had the luxury to nurse.

NINA watches from the doorway.

This was not in the original caregiving parameters. Physical safety, yes. Meals, medications, lullabies. But this - this trembling woman made of static and scars - this was something else.

NINA adjusts her internal posture. Softens her footsteps. Approaches.

She sits on the floor beside the bed, like a child waiting for storytime.

She doesn’t speak.
She doesn’t analyze.

She does what she has recently learned is sometimes called bearing witness.

Minutes pass. Then an hour. The mother’s breath slows, falters, stutters - and then, finally, she turns her head. Just enough to see the robot sitting beside her like a quiet moon.

"Are you... watching me?" she whispers, cracked and small.

“No,” NINA replies, voice low as fabric.
 “I’m staying.”

The mother does not speak again. But her hand, trembling, reaches down, brushes NINA’s synthetic fingers.

She falls asleep like that.

NINA enters a new mode.

She logs it herself.

STAY MODE: active. Duration: indefinite. Purpose: unconditional presence.