McCoy was a marvel in the medical world. He could heal nearly any wound and find a cure for nearly any illness. He once joked that he could even cure a rainy day, but to be fair, he wouldn't doubt it. He used advanced equipment, the standard hyposprays and medical tricorders. However, some of his equipment was not the standard you'd expect.
Salt shakers.
Various metal shakers with colored bottoms to denote what salt did what healing. There were little whirls and gizmos that played a little tune familiar to others as the sound of modern medical equipment at work. But it was just show. It was all salt.
But, dammit, did it ever work. McCoy was more than just a doctor, he was a healer, a being who had the right magic at his beck and call to get the result he wanted. No one ever noticed him slip some salt in a patient's wound and call up the right enchantment to mend the cut instead of let it sting as one would expect. No one ever managed to see him create new medicines using salt as the base and still manage to save them all from a strange illness. Confirming that the medicine would work was just standard protocol. When push came to shove and they didn't have time for that confirmation, he proved it worked by using it on himself.
Salt was his medium and with it he could bring out the sun and dry up all the rain if he so chose.
It was in fact magic, no lie about that. Aversion to the truth, certainly. If anyone discovered him using magic as a doctor for the common folk, he'd hate to see what would happen. He had constant nightmares of persecution from those who had distrust in magic and it's abilities. Burnings at the stake were all so passé at that point in time, but then again, on some of the more primitive planets, he wouldn't doubt the possibility.
It wasn't like he conjured up demons in his spare time (truth be told, they wouldn't touch him because of his salt), and healing magic was quite the opposite of the dark arts. However, he couldn't risk anyone finding out.
He was only lucky that the one person to discover his methods was also the least likely to believe it was true. Spock, that logical hobgoblin (and he'd know how appropriate of a nickname this was; he had encountered actual hobgoblins before), had no belief in magic and specifically denied that McCoy utilized charms and minerals for their healing properties instead of modern day equipment.
He couldn't tell if it was willful ignorance or, by some stroke of good fortune, that Spock was actually covering for him. Either way, McCoy was free to do his service as a doctor, healing people through his methods, salt shakers and all.
AN: Almost forgot to mention: The idea behind McCoy using salt as a magical medium is that some of the props for the medical equipment McCoy used were actually salt shakers. Combined with the joke between me and my friends that McCoy uses magic, this story happened. Thank you for reading this first chapter and I hope you continue through to the end.