The story I am looking for has Spike having a home somewhere in North California. It's in a very secluded area, not too far from a little town, and completely camoflauged. I'm not sure if he takes Buffy there for a vacation or she ends up in the town on her own and stumbles across him. But he goes on to tell her Dru, nor Angel knew he had the house. It was his way of escaping when they went to parties that he didn't want to go to.
They go out on a date to a little restuarant, which is also a historical house. And Buffy is surprised that the owners know Spike and call him William. But to her knowledge they don't know he is a vamp. He explains that every so often he changes his appearance and pretends to be a descendant of the man their ancestors knew. He ends up buying her a necklace and earring set, which he doesn't give to her until later in the story.
Buffy heads back to Sunnydale, and eventually makes her way back to the town to visit Spike. And over a course of a few months finds herself falling in love with him. He tells her that if anything happens to him, the house and everything he owns would become hers and Dawns.
Spike ends up dying. I forget who, but I think it was either Angel or Dru, locks him up in the sunroom (attic) of his house and waits until the sun rises. Buffy doesn't find out until she gets back, and then she sinks into a depression. She moves her stuff into the house, leaving Dawn in Sunnydale and starts taking long walks around the property, stops eating, sleeps in the room where he died. Eventually Clem brings her out of it by bringing her food and getting her to eat. And that's where my memory of it ends.
The story was a WIP, last time I read it, but that was years ago. So it could be finished by now.
TIA | 
