On laptop did (plugged into ge-0/0/2):
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.6 netmask 255.255.255.0 route add default gateway 192.168.1.5
I thought, and this may be the base of my confusion, when you set the inet address for an interface (such as ge-0/0/2), that was what the connected device should utilize. It appears that that is actually the Juniper's IP it can be accessed from. Is that correct?
Regardless, it worked. thanks for the help!