Aww...so touching. Beautiful and so them!
That beating is still one of my biggest pet peeves, along with how easily it gets dismissed/excused by the show (and many people) because an act of violence against a soulless vampire is considered okay since it's pretty much their language. Buffy’s behavior was abusive too on their early relationship and while it doesn’t excuse Spike’s part in it, it should be addressed more often. They’ve both been toxic to each other, but as you've put it perfectly with your fic here, they've fought hard and long to rise above it, heal, and find in each other what they'd been really looking for but had failed to find due to a lot of reasons.

On other notes, I always headcanon that Buffy has recurring nightmares about everything she's been through and I love seeing that in other fics too. Notable mention to your use of "living corpse" because I don’t think I've ever read such a short but accurate description of S6 Buffy before. I'm blown away.
Also, as much as I will always despise the stupid cookie speech, I loved the references about Buffy being finally done baking and pulling her head out of her behind at last 😄

Great fic!