Work Text:
The End of the World
by Buffy
Jim Hacker rubbed his forehead, feeling the start of a headache, and it was only ten in the morning on a Monday, to boot. It was one of those days that made him question why he'd ever wanted to become Prime Minister in the first place. When Sir Humphrey came in with another file, he couldn't help giving the man a pleading look, "Can't that wait a bit?"
Jim was a bit surprised at the grin Humpy gave him as he set the file on the desk. There was no other word to describe it but 'puckish', and Humpy was never that light-hearted at work. "I believe, sir, that this file will interest and perhaps even entertain you. It seems that The Weekend World ran a story about the Royal Family without checking its facts."
Jim couldn't help the grin, "I saw the stories about their little misstep concerning the Queen Mum."
Humpy couldn't contain his grin, either. Both men were more than happy to see the paper out of business, especially since some of the more underhanded and persistent reporters had nearly caught them once. "A good friend passed along parts of MI-5's file on the situation, apparently The Weekend World was targeted by a very talented group of con artists. They not only sold the false story to The World and got them to publish it front page, they also sold the details of the false story to the World's greatest competitor in order to do the most damage."
"Give your friend a good bottle of something from me," Jim was already skimming the file, eager to get the details of such a lovely story. He looked to catch Humphrey's eye, "And I'll come up with something to thank you, personally, for passing this along. Annie's going to visit her sister this weekend, shall we say Friday?"
Humphrey was back to his usual smooth expression, except for the lecherous twinkle in his eye, "I look forward to it, Prime Minister."
end